"The United States," the Doctor replied, "can hardly be included among the lands of the earthquake, though we are not by any means exempt from slight shocks. San Francisco has about a dozen disturbances in a year, but they rarely amount to much. Now and then the walls of some of the houses are cracked, and a few are thrown down; the people are more or less frightened, and many threaten to move away in consequence, but very few do so. East of the Rocky Mountains there have been a few shocks, the most violent being in a period of about fifteen months from December 16th, 1811. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, New York, Washington, and other cities as far south as Savannah, were shaken on several occasions, and the earthquakes extended as far west as the Mississippi. New Madrid, in Missouri, seemed to be the centre of the disturbance. Fissures six or eight feet across were opened in the ground, and the land around New Madrid sunk about twelve feet below its former level. It is said that in some places the channel of the great river was changed, and lakes were formed where none had been before. But no lives were lost, and no great damage resulted from these earthquakes; and since that time we have had only an occasional slight trembling in some of the eastern States." The clock indicated the hour of bedtime, and the talk about earthquakes and their mysteries came to an abrupt end. CHAPTER X. FROM MANILLA TO SINGAPORE, AND UP THE STRAITS OF MALACCA.--A DAY AT PULO PENANG. The next day was passed in closing up letters for the mail, viewing the destruction caused by the earthquake, and making preparations for leaving Manilla. The Doctor found, on visiting his banker's, that there was a steamer ready to start for Singapore on the following morning, and that she had accommodations for a few passengers. As she would suit their purposes exactly, he engaged places for the party, and in due time they were at sea with the prow of their vessel directed toward the Straits of Malacca. [Illustration: ON THE WAY TO SINGAPORE.] The anchor was dropped in the harbor of Singapore, and the steamer was quickly surrounded with the same swarm of boatmen that greeted our friends at the time of their first arrival. Some of the sharp-eyed fellows recognized Doctor Bronson and the youths, and claimed them as old acquaintances; the result was that only a few minutes were required for the negotiations that had taken so long on their first visit, and before the anchor had been down half an hour the trio were at the hotel with their baggage, and safely quartered in their rooms.[3] [3] The description of Singapore will be found in Part II. of "The Boy Travellers in the Far East," Chapters XXI. and XXII. "We are just in time," said the Doctor, "to catch the steamer that leaves here every week for Penang, Rangoon, and Calcutta. We will go in her as far as Rangoon, and have a peep at Burmah, and when we have done with that strange country we can go somewhere else."