MARSEILLES TO SINGAPORE 17 



all naked save for a loin-cloth or a brilliant sarong 

 thrown about them, a kaleidoscope of life and color 

 of surpassing interest and fascination. Java is called 

 the Garden of the East ; but has not Ceylon an equal 

 right to claim the title ? 



Three times during the year in the East my 

 wanderings brought me back to Ceylon ; and though 

 my stays were short, generally while waiting for a 

 ship to some other part of the world, I invariably 

 looked forward with the greatest enjoyment to 

 every voyage which was to end in that delightful 

 country. Later I was able to visit Kandy and 

 Nuwara Eliya, that splendid mountain resort in the 

 interior, where, after a long siege of fever, the brac- 

 ing air was worth to me its weight in gold. But for 

 the present we had but a few hours ashore, and 

 after lunching at the famous Grand Oriental Hotel 

 a dozen of us were obliged to bid farewell to our 

 fellow passengers of the India, now bound for 

 Australia, and board the little Chusan for still 

 farther eastern ports. 



At four in the afternoon we sailed from Colombo 

 harbor, and, heading out into the Bay of Bengal, 

 turned toward Penang, the Malacca Straits, and 

 Singapore. The voyage requires little description. 

 Five days of quiet steaming brought us to Penang, 

 days when the surface of the sea was actually, 



