68 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



the grotesque calls of the street vendors, and finally seeing and hearing 

 so much that was new and strange that it was a relief to get back to 

 the quiet hotel and turn in on a bed that had neither top sheet nor 

 coverlet, because in that climate, even though the whole side of the room 

 was open- to the night air, no such covering is necessary. In the morn- 

 ing I had a new experience a bath in Eastern fashion, for the bath room 

 is a bit different from what the ordinary dweller in the temperate zone 

 expects. It is cement floored and gullied, with a huge urn in it from 

 which one dips buckets full of water to pour over the body. In other 

 words, one stands outside of the tub to bathe. To get into it is out of 

 the question. 



ORCHARD ROAD., SINGAPORE. 



And now a word about Singapore. It was founded, so the English 

 say, in 1819, by Sir Stamford Raffles. The real date was, however, 1283 

 when it was founded by the Malays and became at once a general rendez- 

 vous for their pirate craft. It is 8,000 miles from England, is the seat 

 of government for the Federated Malay States, and is a great and 

 growing business center. In the census of 1901 the population of the 

 island was 184,554. Of this, 101,908 were Chinese, 35,000 Malays, 

 16,000 natives of India, and 2,769 whites. The island contains two 

 hundred and seven square miles and lies rather low, the land being on an 

 average from twenty to thirty feet above sea level. The average mean 



