with Siam, and that your young men will visit our country and attend our colleges as they now go to colleges in Germany and England. I can assure them all a kind reception, and I feel that the visits would be interesting and advantageous. I again thank Your Majesty for the splendid hospitality which has been shown to myself and my party, and I trust that your reign will be happy and prosperous, and that Siam will continue to advance in the arts of civilization."

General Grant, after a pause, then said:

"I hope you will allow me to ask you to drink the health of His Majesty the King of Siam. I am honored. by the opportunity of proposing that toast in his own capital and his own palace, and of saying how much I have been impressed with his enlightened rule. I now ask you to drink the health of His Majesty the King, and prosperity and peace to the people of Siam."

After a round of receptions, entertainments and excursions, the General bade adieu to Siam, having passed delightful week.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

GENERAL GRANT IN CHINA.

On April 25, General Grant arrived at Saigon in the French mail steamship Irawaddy. He and his party were invited by Rear-Admiral La Fond, Governor of French Cochin China, to sojourn at the Government House. They passed the night there, and next day visited public buildings and places of interest. A public levee was given on the evening of the 26th. The guests returned to the ship about midnight, and the voyage was resumed on the 27th. They reached Hong Kong on the evening of April 30. The ship was immediately boarded by United States Consuls Mosby, of Hong Kong; Lincoln, of Canton; Charge d'Affaires Holcombe, and deputations of citizens of various countries, including Japan. The same evening the visitors proceeded to the United States ship Ashuelot, where they were received with a salute of twenty-one guns.

After partaking of refreshments, they went ashore in the Colonial government launch. Salutes were fired by batteries all along the river.

General Grant arrived at Canton on the evening of May 6, and was received by the Consular officials, and conducted to the Viceroy's yaman, three miles from the point of debarkation. Canton is situated on the Pearl River, thirty miles from the coast. The Viceroy sent a gunboat out as escort up the river. This vessel, bearing the Ameri

can flag at the fore out of compliment to the General, followed all the way.

At various points in the river-wherever, indeed, there were forts salutes were fired and troops paraded. These lines of troops, with their flags-and nearly every other man in a Chinese army carries a flag-looked picturesque and theatrical as seen from our deck.

It was nine o'clock in the evening before the lights of Canton were seen. The Chinese gunboats, as the General and party came to anchorage, burned blue lights and fired rockets. The landing was decorated with Chinese lanterns, and many of the junks in the river burned lights and displayed the American flag. The whole city had been waiting all the afternoon, and had now gone home to dinner. Next morning salutes were exchanged between the Ashuelot and the Chinese gunboats. The General remained at home during the morning to receive calls. The coming of General Grant had created a flutter in the Chinese mind. No foreign barbarian of so high a rank had ever visited the Celestial Kingdom. As soon as the Viceroy learned of the visit, he sent word to the American Consul that he would receive General Grant with special honors. The Viceroy ordered all the houses closed, streets cleared and the troops paraded. A placard issued, that a foreigner was coming to do the Viceroy honor, and that the people must do him honor. We give a translation of one of these extra bulletins: .

"We have just heard that the King of America, being on friendly terms with China, will leave America early in the third month, bringing with him a suite of officers, etc., all complete on board the ship. It is said that he is bringing a large number of rare presents with him, and that he will be here in Canton about the 6th or 9th of May. He will land at the Tintsy ferry, and will proceed to the Viceroy's palace by way of the South gate, the Fantai's Nga

mun and the Waning Street. Viceroy Lan has arranged that all the mandarins shall be there to meet him, and a full Court will be held After a little friendly conversation he will leave the Viceroy's palace, and visit the various objects of interest within and without the walls. He will then proceed to the Roman Catholic Cathedral, to converse and pass the night. It is not stated what will then take place, but notice will be given."

As the hour approached for the General to enter Canton, the crowd on the street grew larger and larger. A Tartar officer arrived with a detachment of soldiers, who formed, and kept the crowd back. Then came the chairs and the chair bearers, for in Canton you must ride in chairs and be borne on the shoulders of men. Rank is shown by the color of the chair and the number of attendants. The General's chair was a stately affair. On the top was a silver globe. The color was green, a color highly esteemed in China, and next in rank to yellow, which is sacred and consecrated to the Emperor, who alone can ride in a yellow chair. The chair is borne by eight men, and swings on long bamboo poles. In addition to the chair bearers, there was a small guard of unarmed soldiers, some ahead and others behind the chair, whose presence gave dignity to the chair and its occupant. The principal business of this guard seemed to be to shout and to make all the noise possible.

At last they were under way for their visit to the Viceroy. First rode the single Tartar officer, then came the shouting guard, then General Grant in his chair of state. The General wore evening dress. The crowd and enthusiasm manifested all along the route was an extraordinary sight wherever the street was intersected with other streets. The crowd became so dense that additional troops were required to hold them in place, and at various points the Chinese salute of three guns was fired.

The road to the viceregal palace was three miles, and as the pace of the coolie who carries the chair is a slow one, and especially on days of multitudes and pageantry, they were over an hour on their journey, and for this hour they journeyed through a sea of faces, a hushed and silent sea, that swept around them, covering windows, doors, streets, roof tops, wherever there was room for a pair of feet or hands.

Some of the party estimated that there were two hundred thousand people to witness General Grant's progress through Canton. Two hundred thousand men, women and children may be taken, therefore, as an estimate by one who saw and took part in the ceremony. But no massing together of figures, although you ascend into the hundreds of thousands, will give an idea of the multitude. The march was a slow one. There were frequent pauses. Arrived at the palace of the Viceroy, the visitors descend from their chairs, and enter the open reception room or audience chamber. But the booming guns, which boom in a quick, angry fashion; the increasing crowds, the renewed. lines of soldiery, now standing in double line, their guns at a present; the sons of mandarins, the Viceroy's guard, under trees, and the open, shaded enclosure into which we are borne by our staggering, panting chair-bearers, tell us that we are at our journey's end, and at the palace of the Viceroy. We descend from our chairs, and enter the open reception room or audience chamber. The Viceroy nimself, surrounded by all the great officers of his court, is waiting at the door. As General Grant advances, accompanied by the Consul, the Viceroy steps forward and meets him with a gesture of welcome, which to our barbarian eyes looks like a gesture of adoration. He wears the mandarin's hat, and the pink button and flowing robes of silk, the breast and back embroidered a good deal like the sacrificial robes of an archbishop at high mass. The Viceroy