N THE BAST INDIES. _—__165 
Paquebvot, le Touraine. 
China Sea, April 29, 1907. 
My dear Family : 
We are now within eight hours of Hong Kong 
and as this ship is going on to Japan I| will send a 
few lines just to let you know that we are thinking of 
you and what a wonderful trip we have had since 
leaving Singapore as to weather at sea. We spent 
several days in Saigon, Annam, and enjoyed it very 
much. The heat, both day and night, was fearful and 
the mosquitoes quite indescribable. On deck the day 
we arrived it was 42C., which is about 108F., and it 
was very little cooler at night, if any. The city is very 
nice and well laid out, quite new and clean, with a 
very splendid public building, a fine zoo, botanical 
gardens, ete. For a couple of hours in the early fore- 
noon and for a short time in the afternoon it was 
possible to move about, as a breeze blew. The people 
are Annamese, a sort of race like the Chinese, Burmese 
and Siamese mixed. They are industrious and pleas- 
ant and all speak some French because their own 
language is so difficult that it is almost impossible to 
learn it. We have on board a very interesting gentle- 
man and his wife from Londonderry, one of the in- 
spectors in the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs. 
He was in Pekin for twenty-two years, was made a 
mandarin, etc. He has translated several books on 
astronomy into Chinese and is a great scholar. 
He was professor of mathematics in the Imperial 
University at Pekin. His wife is rather nervous as 
she was through the siege with him. They are going 
to Woo Chow, a very dangerous place. He has ad- 
vised us to see Pekin by all means and says that Sir 
