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HE principal topic of discussion during our leisure hours at Singapore was whether or not we should visit Siam. It was out of the regular route to China,

and the means of communication with Singapore were irregular, and none of us, I am afraid, took any special interest in Siam, our ostensible knowledge of the country being confined to school-day recollections of the once famous Siamese twins. Moreover and this fact I cannot as a conscientious historian suppress-there was a feeling of homesickness among some of the members of the party which found relief in studying the map and drawing the shortest lines between Singapore and San Francisco and Philadelphia. Any suggestion of a departure from these lines was received with. gloom. At the same time, the burden of advice we met in Singapore was that a journey around the world would be in

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complete unless it included Siam. Finally the American Consul at Singapore, Major Struder, who had met General Grant on his landing, came with a letter from the King of Siam, enclosed in an envelope of blue satin, inviting him to his capital. The text of this letter was as follows:

"THE GRAND PALACE, BANGKOK, 4th Feb., 1879.

"MY DEAR SIR: Having heard from my Minister for Foreign Affairs, on the authority of the United States Consul, that you are expected in Singapore on your way to Bangkok, I beg to express the pleasure I shall have in making your acquaintance. Possibly you may arrive in Bangkok during my absence at my country residence, Bang Pa In, in which case a steamer will be placed at your disposal to bring you to me. On arrival I beg you to communicate with His Excellency my Minister of Foreign Affairs, who will arrange for your reception and entertainment. Very truly yours,

"CHULAHLONGKORN, R. S.

To GENERAL GRANT, late President of the United States."

This letter-which the King had taken the trouble to send to Singapore, reinforced by an opinion expressed by the General, that when people really go around the world they might as well see what can be seen-decided the visit to Siam. Furthermore,. a dispatch had been received from Captain Benham, commanding the "Richmond," that he would be at Galle on the 12th of April, and he estimated that he would be able to reach Singapore about the time we would return from Siam. This was a consideration, especially to the homesick members of our party, who felt that even in the tropics there would be compensation in meeting Americans, in being once more among fellow-citizens with whom you could talk intelligently on sensible subjects—Philadelphia butter, the depravity of the Democratic party, terrapin, green corn, saddle-rock oysters, and other themes to which the mind of the home-sick American always reverts in his lonely, moaning hours in far foreign lands.

A heavy tropical rain! How it rained, and rained, and rained, and swept over Singapore as we embarked on the small steamer "Kong-See" about nine in the morning of the 9th of April. Our friends-Colonel Anson, the Governor; Mr. Smith, the Colonial Secretary; Major Struder, the American Consul

(who had been with the General at Shiloh)-accompanied us to the vessel, where they took leave, and at once we went to sea. The rain remained with the Singapore hills as we parted from them, and a smooth sea was at our bidding. The run to Bangkok is set down at four days, and sometimes there are severe storms in the Gulf of Siam; but fortune was with us in this, as it has, indeed, been with us, so far as weather at sea is concerned, ever since we left Marseilles. We sat on the deck at night and looked at the Southern Cross, which is a disappointment as a constellation, and not to be compared, as some of our Philadelphia friends remarked, with our old-fash

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ioned home constellations, which shine down upon you and abash you with their glory, and do not have to be picked out after a careful search and made into a cross by a vivid imagination. The evening of our sailing, some one happened to remember, was the anniversary of the surrender of Lee-fourteen years ago to-day-and the hero of the surrender was sitting on the deck of a small steamer, smoking and looking at the clouds, and gravely arguing Mr. Borie out of a purpose which some one has wickedly charged him with entertaining-the purpose of visiting Australia and New Zealand and New Guinea, and spending the summer and winter in the Pacific Ocean.

The weather in the Gulf of Siam, which I have just been praising, is capricious. The days, as a general thing, were

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