request that you will fill your glasses and drink with all honor to our last toast this evening. The President of the United States of America.' General Grant replied, briefly returning thanks for the honor tendered him. After a continuous round of enjoyment and thorough inspection of all points of interest, the General left Calcutta by steamer for a visit to British Burmah. Arriving at the city of Rangoon, General Grant and party were saluted by two British men-of-war. They had their yards manned in honor of the General. All the vessels in the river were gaily dressed. The landing was covered with scarlet cloth, and the American and British standards were blended. All the town seemed to be out, and the river bank was lined with the muititude, who looked on in their passive Oriental fashion at the pageant. As soon as the boat came to the wharf, Mr. Aitcheson, the Commissioner, came on board, accompanied by Mr. Leishmann, the American ViceConsul, and bade the General welcome to Burmah. On landing, the General was presented to the leading citizens and officials, and officers of the men-of-war. The guard of honor presented arms, and they all drove away to the Government House, a pretty, commodious bungalow in the suburbs, buried among trees. Mr. Aticheson is one of the most distinguished officers in the Indian service. He was for some time Foreign Secretary to Calcutta. Burmah, however, is already one of the most important of the British colonies in Asia, and this importance is not diminished by the critical relations between British Burmah and the court of the King. Consequently, England requires the best service possible in Burmah, and, as a result of her policy of sending her wisest men to the most useful places, Mr. Aitcheson finds himself in Rangoon. The days spent in Rangoon were pleasant; the town is interesting. The streets are wide and rectangular, like those of Philadelphia, and the shade trees are grateful. Over the city, on a height, which you can see from afar, is a pagoda, one of the most famous in Asia. It is covered with gilt, and in the evening, when we first raw it, the sun's rays made it dazzling. This is the land of Buddha and that remarkable religion called Buddhism. Unlike Brahminism, there is no institution of caste, no priestly caste. The priests are taken from any rank in life, never marry, and they deny themselves all the pleasures of the sense, live a monastic life, dress in yellow gowns, shave their heads and beards, and walk barefooted. The priests go in procession. They chant hymns and prayers, and burn incense. They carry strings of beads like the rosary, which they count and fumble as the say their prayers. There is no single, solemn ceremony like the sacrifice of the mass. Priests and people kneel before the images surrounded by blazing wax lights, the air heavy with incense. They pray together, the priests only known by the yellow gowns. They pray kneeling with clasped, uplifted hands. Sometimes they hold in their hands a rose, or a morsel of rice, or a fragment of bread, as an offering. During their prayers, they frequently bend their bodies so that the face touches the ground. There are convents for women. The temples are places of rest and refuge. Hither come the unfortunate, the poor, the needy, the halt and blind, the belated traveler. All are received, and all are given food and alms. Rangoon is not only interesting from a religious sense, but it one of the largest commercial centers of the British colonies, and General Grant found no part of his visit more interesting, or more worthy of his attention, than the development of the commerce of Rangoon with the United States. American merchandise now goes to Burmah in English ships, and has to pay an English tax before it can enter this market. With a little effort on the part of the merchants of the United States, a large market would be found for "Yankee notions," petroleum and ice; for, if proper houses were built for storing ice, it could be made a steady and profitable trade. Ice is now made by machinery, but it is poor, costly and unsatisfactory, and the machinery constantly out of order. A trade based on those articles, established in Rangoon, would supply Burmah, permeate Upper Burmah, Siam and China, and make its way into the islands and settlements. No country in the East is more worthy of the attention of our merchants than Burmah; the harvest is ripe, and whoever comes in will reap a hundred fold. CHAPTER XXXIIL GENERAL GRANT IN SIAM. General Grant, on landing at Singapore, was handed an autograph letter by Major Struder-a letter enclosed in an envelope of blue satin, from the King of Siam; the letter read as follows: THE GRAND PALACE, BANGKOK, 4th February, 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 for Foreign Affairs, who will arrange for your reception and entertainment. Yours very truly, To General Grant, late President of the United States. The letter that the King had taken the trouble to send all the way to Singapore, and the desire of General Grant to see all that was to be seen, decided him in accepting this flattering invitation, and visit Siam. So the General and party prepared at once for Siam. A heavy rain swept over Singapore as they embarked on the small steamer Kang See, on the morning of the 9th of April. 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 them in this, as it had, indeed, been with them, so far as weather at sea is concerned, ever since they left Marseilles. The evening of their 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. On the morning of the 14th of April, the little steamer in putting into Bangkok lost her reckoning and could not pass the inner bar. About ten o'clock the royal yacht anchored within a cable's length a long, stately craft, with the American colors flying at the fore, and the royal colors at the main. A boat put off at once, conveying Mr. Sickles, our Consul, the son of the Foreign Minister, representing the Siamese government, and an aid of the King. Mr. Sickles presented the Siamese officials to the General, and the King's aid handed him the following letter, enclosed in an envelope of yellow satin: THE GRAND PALACE, BANGKOK, Sir: I have very great pleasure in welcoming you to Siam. It is, I am informed, your pleasure that your reception should be a private one; but you must permit me to show, as far as I can, the high esteem in which I hold the most eminent citizen of that great nation which has been so friendly to Siam, and so kind and just in all its intercourse with the nations of the far East. That you may be near me during your stay, I have commanded my brother, His Royal Highness the Celestial Prince Bhanurangsi Swangwongse, to prepare rooms for |