seems to render the task
less irksome.

Singapore was purchased by the British. It is the greatest tin producing
country in the world. Sago is grown in quantities and shipped to every
port; it is the pith of the tree trunk. Here the gum of the rubber tree
is gathered and dried in chunks, placed in gunny bags and sent to all
quarters of the globe in the crude state. The rattan, which is
elaborately woven by the natives into chairs and other useful pieces of
furniture, is light in weight and capable of great endurance. The tree
grows like a palm to a great height, throwing above ground long tendrils
extending a half mile. These are cut in lengths of thirty feet, soaked,
scraped and ready for use. The indigo bush is cut and dried, then
boiled, the sediment forming the dry substance exported. Tea is also
cultivated successfully. Mangoes, yellow as pumpkins, in shape of pears,
with disagreeable flavor, but most in favor with the natives, as well as
the children of adoption, are the Dorean fruits, with custard-like
contents, offensive to the smell, but agreeable to the taste. The
business portion of the city is substantially built, but we were told
that the use of opium, like the Upas tree, casts a blight on this fair
country and its inhabitants. We invited a missionary to dine on the
steamer with us. He conducted a boys' school of 600 pupils. The building
cost $20,000, built by local contributions of the English and Chinese.
They practice the Salvation Army methods in gathering audiences for
Bible instruction, and those who accepted Christianity closely adhered
to their vows.

We now enter the straits of Malacca, as smooth as a river, but clouds
and showers render the atmosphere low and depressing. We meet on the
steamer those who have spent years in this climate. A lady from Holland
told me that it was so exhausting that life was almost unendurable. She
spoke of the Queen of Holland, the young "Wilhelmina," and of her
mother, the Dowager Queen Emma, now acting as regent. She was the second
wife of King William of Holland, and had this only daughter. He had
three sons by his first wife, all deceased. This present widow was a
German princess, and at this time (1895) was thirty-four years old and
her daughter fifteen. It was very evident from the conversation of this
Holland lady that Germans were in disrepute with her people--the Holland
Dutch. From the straits we run into the Indian Ocean, "with a wet sheet
and a flowing