The following day much ground was covered, for, by invitation of Cincinnati friends, I took a motor ride of about forty miles amidst undreamed-of beauty, both near the city and in the surrounding country. There were streets lined with villas whose gardens were full of a luxuriant growth of shrubs and flowers; some of them had the quaintest high-arched gateways, with coats of arms and animals carved in stone on each side of the entrance. The Botanical Gardens were very interesting, as was also the park, miles from the city, and laid out around the reservoir, which furnishes all the water supply. We went on and on until we reached the "Gap," where a mountain view awaited us. We visited the shops and bazars before luncheon, and in the afternoon all of us explored the native Malay quarter. The dress of the women was unlike any other seen in the Orient. The Chinese seemed to be the real residents, for everywhere they prevailed in large numbers.
In whatever direction we went, new features revealed themselves, and we commended the wisdom of Sir Stamford Raffles in founding this island city with its wonderful harbor, where shipping from almost all parts of the world congregates, making the active sights at the quay at once novel and business-like. Indians, Sikhs, Malays, and other nationalities are represented, but the Chinese perform all the menial labor required.
The coolie is a character,—patient, hard-working, uncomplaining, supplying a demand throughout the Orient, made necessary, as we have seen, by the indolence of the Burmese and of the Malays, to mention only two examples.
Singapore is very gay in the season, and a centre for the wealth of the Far East; indeed, sultans and nabobs consider it a veritable Paris.
The last morning of our stay, I went around in a jinrikisha, and my man was as fleet as a horse. I had an experience trying to find so simple an article as a paper of pins, visiting shop after shop. Evidently they have not learned the ways of the American department store!
Hong-Kong: We sailed in the late afternoon on the steamer Moltke for a five days' voyage to Hong-Kong, with a feeling that we had experienced no discomfort but much pleasure in the seemingly maligned city of Singapore.
We passed the Strait of Malacca without any untoward excitement, and we steamed along pleasantly with a group of passengers who looked well-bred and agreeable; as time went on, our first impression of them was corroborated. A delightful feature aboard was music every evening in the salon, mostly singing. There was a service on Sunday, both for the first-class and second-class passengers. We soon entered the China Sea, which was to be our sole waterway to Hong-Kong, fifteen hundred miles distant, or rather to the Straits of Formosa, which guard the China Sea on the north, as the Strait of Malacca does on the south. We reached port on the morning of March 20th, and the approach—past many islands, along the fine harbor, with its high rocky shores, towering mountains in the background, and a terraced city in the foreground—gave us a new sensation. We landed at Kowloon and were taken across to Hong-Kong (which, properly and legally speaking, is Victoria).