Wanderings in the Orient

Bamboo floors, a clay cooking hearth and animals sheltered beneath a house bring village life into focus in A. M. Reese's travel sketches. At Mariveles, he rents two rooms and observes nearby shops, a school and the daily work of residents. His foreword explains that he travelled as a representative of the Smithsonian Institution, using Manila as a base for collecting trips. From there, his route leads through Zamboanga and Borneo to Singapore, Hongkong and Canton.

Written largely during passages between ports, these accounts combine a traveller's practical concerns with descriptions of buildings and social routines. In Singapore, Reese considers rickisha fares, crowded commercial streets, merchants' villas and evening entertainments. He also notices the Raffles Museum and Library and the city's churches. The book offers readers of historical travel writing a detailed view of transport and domestic arrangements, expressed through the judgments and assumptions of its visiting observer.