which I had been the victim a few days before. I had not been captured by the pirates who infest the high seas of this region, but some of the "landsharks" of Hong-Kong harbor had gained access to my stateroom, and run off with quite a batch of private property. Just before the steamer sailed, while arranging my trunk and the articles in my room, the Hindoo steward called me away suddenly to dinner. Expecting to return in a few moments, I closed the trunk and merely removed a few articles from within reach of the window. Then I took a seat at the table, near the door of my stateroom. When I returned, everything appeared as I had left it, and not until the steamer was moving down the bay, and I went to find my large field-glass, did I discover the robbery. The thief had not touched the bulky articles, but had helped himself to my field-glass-a very valuable one, a large leather pocketbook, containing letters of introduction and others intrusted to me for delivery in India and London, and a canvas bag containing silver dollars and some gold pieces. He was also shrewd enough to steal the nickel-plated and ready-loaded revolver that reposed snugly on the money-bag!

Nothing vexed me so much as the loss of my letters, which had been intrusted to me by friends.

But, inasmuch as the rascal had evidently mistaken the pocketbook for money, and had kindly discontinued his search just at the moment when his hand was within a few inches of nearly two thousand dollars' worth of English drafts, and my letter of credit, why, I thought I had better forgive him!

However, I reported the case to the first officer, who said nothing about it until the fourth day at sea, when he suddenly caused the whole ship to be searched. The Hindoo servants and Chinese passengers were surprised at the unexpected descent made upon them; but nothing was found. Had the thief been caught on board, it would have fared ill with him; for the mode of punishment, which I saw illustrated once or twice on the voyage, was terrible. It consisted in stripping the culprit to the waist, and tying him up by the wrists to the rigging; then fifty heavy blows were administered with a thick, knotted rope. The poor fellow might cry for mercy, but no mercy was ever shown. The first-mate vowed that if my thief were captured, he would receive one hundred blows, and close confinement for the rest of the voyage.

But I afterwards learned that the fellow had slipped ashore as our ship was leaving Hong-Kong, and was caught by the police the next day as he

was trying the same little game on another British steamer! He was safely lodged in jail, and some of my property was found upon him. Although I lost the letters, etc., the money was returned to me in due time by the chief of detectives at HongKong, who sent me a check for the full amount, which I received the day I arrived in Albany, N. Y., after my trip around the world! I think the honesty and efficiency of the Hong-Kong detectives might profitably be emulated in some other police quarters nearer home!

We passed several large steamers on our way south, but lost sight of the Thales, another opiumsteamer that left Hong-Kong with us, and which raced us all the way to Calcutta. A French vessel crossed our bows, bound evidently for Saigon, a short distance to the west. The Philippine Islands were passed about one hundred miles to the east ; of course we saw nothing of them. The fourth or fifth day out we observed land to the right of us; it was the mountainous border of Anam and Cochin China, which forms a great promontory or shoulder projecting from the Asiatic coast. When it was left behind, no more land was seen until the evening of the sixth day, when one by one the islands of the archipelago began to appear.

Towards midnight we were slowly steaming along the channel leading to the inlet of Singapore. Now and then a solitary Malay fishing-boat floated lazily past, with peculiar-shaped sails and a flickering light at the mast; and at three o'clock the main lighthouse at the entrance of the straits was left behind. For twenty or thirty miles before reaching Singapore, the channel lies broad and well-defined between a long, flat coast on one side, and an endless succession of thickly-wooded islands on the other. As we moved silently along on a calm sea, with morning stealing upon us, and the luxuriant, tropical vegetation coming out by degrees on either side, it was like a dreamy panorama, which became more and more real as the full light of day came on. Our course, which heretofore had been directly southward, was now due west, and the water of the sea was gradually changing from dark blue to murky green. The neighborhood of Singapore had a singular haze and rosy light hanging over it as we approached; but this soon scattered, and the distinct outlines of white, square-built houses, a church with tall spire, and thatched-roof native huts mingled with lofty palms, cocoanut-groves, foliage rich and variegated, and all the softer shades of a tropical clime, came out with great beauty, and seemed

like fairy-land compared with the monotonous views of the sea to which we had been for some days accustomed.

A large number of junks, Malay boats, and smaller craft were anchored off the city, but steamers and vessels of large size pass around a promontory some distance beyond, where long lines of wharves and storehouses were seen.

We were boarded by a pilot, who came in a light shell-boat, native made, manned by black men, wearing turbans around their heads, and with oars shaped just like broad, flat spears. As we approached the wharf, little boats of various sorts dodged in and out about us. The first of these were simply shells of wood, like long troughs, made by hollowing out logs and sharpening their ends. They were propelled by short paddles in the hands of little black urchins, who came around to dive for pennies. Two or three were in each boat, and when pieces of money were thrown at them, over they went like ducks, always returning with a comical look of triumph on their dripping faces, and clutching the pennies in one hand. Sometimes three youngsters would dive at once for a single penny. One plump little fellow, six years old, came so persistently to me for pennies, and scampered around