Coming from the fierce summer heat of Mauritius, and the Southern Indian Ocean, some of our company were much debilitated, and to such the more moderate temperature of Singapore was gently, but delightfully bracing. We hoped, on getting into port, to find letters and news from home; but having travelled at so rapid a rate as to outstrip the overland mail, we found that no news had been received from the United States, excepting a vague rumor, by telegraph, of a threatened war with England, on account of the Mason-Slidell difficulty,--which report both the American and English residents at Singapore feared would be confirmed on the arrival of the mail-steamer, then hourly expected. This explained the purport of the news designed to be communicated to us by the steamer which we passed on leaving Mauritius, and which caused us at the time some little anxiety, not only on behalf of our country, but also on our own account. Had the report proved true, we should have been obliged to surrender our vessel into the hands of the English, on our arrival at Singapore; any attempt to escape to sea from under the guns of the fortifications being an act of folly, if not downright madness. But having faced unscathed the yellow-fever at St. Paul de Loando, the small-pox at Cape Town, and the cholera at the Mauritius, besides passing safely through the hurricane latitudes without even meeting with a severe squall, we were inclined to hope that the ominous cloud just rising in the western horizon would also disperse, and that no such thing as a serious collision would occur between the two countries. Trusting, therefore, that Providence would permit us to finish the remainder of our voyage unmolested, we decided to enjoy our stay at Singapore, and look after the “lions” as usual.