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Continuing our tour of the world, we left Singapore for Point de Galle, Ceylon, where we arrived January 11, 1870. Point de Galle was then used as the calling station for steamers between Suez, India, China, and Australia. We gave three entertainments in the Military Barracks. On the seventeenth we left Galle for Colombo, the capital of Ceylon, seventy-two miles distant, chartering two mail coaches for the purpose. There were relays of horses every six miles, as they were driven at a full run between stations. Our coach was driven by a native, accompanied by a single guard with a brass horn. It was the guard's duty to clear the road of native bullock and buffalo teams so as afford an uninterrupted way.

At Columbo we found a fine hotel kept by an Englishman. The rooms were all that could be desired in appointments. Our surprise at finding a sheet spread on the dining table was equaled only when we found the table cloth doing duty as a sheet on the bed. Things seemed to have evened up. When we interviewed the landlady in relation to exchanging the pillow case, which we found beside our wash bowl, for a towel, she loudly bewailed her inability to make "these people" have any idea of the proper use of things. One of them, having spilled gravy on the floor, and being bidden to wipe it up, she said she found him calmly wiping it up with a table napkin which he the wrung into the teapot.

Another of the Cingalese towns we visited was surrounded by a mud wall. Its location, however, is pleasant and healthy, and doubtless that explains the fact that during the hot weather the Governor and suite leave Columbo and come here, thus giving it the distinction of being practically the capital for part of the year. It has been much improved since the railway was constructed.

We were invited to a "Kenip," and accepted, to find it was what at home is called a raffle. The object raffled, or should I say "ke-nipped," was a watch, which Minnie won.

Leaving Ceylon, we set out on what was destined to be the most adventurous, and in many ways the most interesting, part of our tour, the visit to Australia.

We reached Melbourne on February 16, 1870, and received a warm welcome from the Australians. Melbourne might be called the Chicago of the Orient. Founded in 1837, in seventeen years, its population was one hundred thousand. When we were there, it had reached one hundred and seventy thousand, including its suburbs, Collingwood, Richmond, Kew, etc. We opened at Polytechnic Hall on the twenty-first to a full house, and for a month the hall was packed day and evening with enthusiastic audiences. The streets were thronged daily to see us ride to and from the hall.

The Polytechnic was a fine and convenient hall, and its proprietor, Dr. L. L. Smith, M.P., was a most courteous, genial companion and warm hearted friend. His excellent wife deserved the highest encomiums. When leaving the Colonies, there were no persons from whom we parted with greater regret than Dr. and Mrs. Smith. He poessessed an excellent racing stable, and had been successful upon the turf. Having on the place at that time two fine colts, he named them Lavinia and Minnie. They both won several important races afterward. Dr. Smith, becoming a happy father shortly after our arrival, the new baby was named Minnie Lavinia, and I stood godmother at its christening.

While we were in Melbourne a complimentary benefit was arranged by the leading citizens for Robert Heller, the celebrated prestidigitator, to take place at the Theater Royal, the largest theater in Australia (since destroyed by fire), and he applied to us as old friends to appear on the occasion. The performance was to consist of an exhibition by Mr. Heller, a concert, and our entertainment. One hour before the performance the theater was filled, and there was a mass of people on the street, unable to gain admittance. The same scene was enacted at the Polytechnic, where we were to give our regular performance the first part of the evening, and the overflow from both places filled all the other places of amusement. When we appeared there was a shout of welcome the like of which we had seldom heard. The men cheered, and the women waved their handkerchiefs. There were over three thousand five hundred persons within the walls. They filled the orchestra, sat upon the stage, hung upon the proscenium columns, climbed from the galleries, and sat upon the figures supporting the front of the private boxes. It was indeed a most flattening reception.

There being at that time few railways in Australia, and they running only a short distance from Melbourne, Mr. Bleeker engaged two coaches and eight horses with which to traverse the country. We visited over twenty towns before reaching Ballarat, where we intended to stop. Ballarat was the center of the great Australian gold excitement; and to its teeming population was drawn from all parts of the world.