IN THE EAST INDIES. 175 
Hong Kong Hotel. 
May 1, 1907. 
Dear Mother and Father : 
We arrived here yesterday after a very smooth 
passage from Saigon, not a day rough, and could hard- 
ly wait until ten o’clock when the Hong Kong & 
Shanghai Bank opened to get the mail. We were so 
pleased to hear from you all and thank you for writ- 
ing so much and so often. Hong Kong is a most 
fascinating city, filled with people from all over the 
wor!d who talk and understand English, or at least 
for the most part do. It is such a blessing to be 
understood. The shops, well ! ! ! Tom and I have just 
got in from a shopping bee which lasted several hours. 
There are magnificent things everywhere you turn, 
crepe shawls of all colors (with long silk fringe) most 
beautifully embroidered, silks, carved ivories, parasol 
handles, a mass of the most delicate carving for six 
American dollars, and silver ware. Well, truly, there 
are so many lovely things to see that you do not know 
whether you are on your head or on your heels. To- 
day we took a car up to what is known here as the 
Peak — a hill fourteen hundred feet just back of the 
main city of Hong Kong. I never went up or came 
down anything quite so steep in my life. I should 
think the angle must have been seventy-five degrees, 
although I suppose, as a matter of fact, it was not, 
and we were up to the top in nine minutes. The view 
overlooking the harbor and the city was superb, but 
unfortunately too dark for photographing. We went 
up with two pleasant English people whom we had 
met on the ‘‘Touraine,’’ a Mr. and Mrs. Lister, going 
on their vacation from India to England via China 
