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 LIBRARY 
 
 ANNEX 
 
 2 
 
 REVE. BART, 
 
(Qatttell JlnioeraUH ffiibrarg 
 
 3ltl;aia, ^tto Inctt 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 
 1918 
 
Cornell University Library 
 G 440.B29 
 
 Wanderings, west and east / 
 
 3 1924 023 252 418 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023252418 
 
WANDERINGS, 
 WEST AND EAST 
 
 REV. E. BARTRUM, D.D., F.R.H.S., 
 
 RECTOR OF WAKES COLNE, ESSEX ; 
 TWENTY-FOUR YEARS HEADMASTER BERKHAMSTEO SCHOOL, HERTS. 
 
 LONDON : 
 S. W. PARTRIDGE & CO. 
 
 8 & 9, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 

 fiinted by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 T COMMIT this account of my wanderings to 
 -*- public criticism with considerable hesitation, con- 
 scious that almost the same route has been previously 
 traversed and described by others. Yet some details 
 may possibly be useful to a few, and not improbably 
 interesting to friends and former pupils. 
 
 Complete deafness necessarily cuts me off (especi- 
 ally on board ship) from much pleasant intercourse. 
 The preparation of this volume has been a solace 
 both on sea and land in hours which otherwise 
 would have been weary. 
 
 I have to thank a Professor long resident in Japan 
 for revising chapters iv. and v. ; an experienced 
 official in Hong-Kong for improving chapter vi. ; 
 a former resident in the Straits Settlements for look- 
 ing over chapter viii. ; and also other friends. 
 
 E. B. 
 
 Wakes Colne Rectory, Essex. 
 April 1899. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. THE ATLANTIC AND CANADA .... I 
 
 II. CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCHES . . . l8 
 
 III. THE NORTH PACIFIC . . . . -38 
 
 IV. JAPAN ........ 47 
 
 V. JAPANESE LIFE : WORK, WAGES, AND FOOD . 63 
 
 VI. WANDERINGS EASTWARD : HONG-KO\G . . "J"] 
 
 VII. JOHN CHINAMAN AND THE CHINESE . . 95 
 
 VIII. SINGAPORE — PENANG A STRAITS PRISON . lOQ 
 
 IX. CEYLON COLOMBO . . . . . 1 24 
 
 X. KANDY AND THE HIGHER COUNTRY. . -137 
 
 XI. THE BOTANICAL GARDENS . . ,152 
 
 XII. FOREST CONSERVANCY IN CEYLON . . . 166 
 
 XIII. CEYLON PRISONS . . ■ • • 1 79 
 
 XVI. INDIAN OCEAN, RED SEA, AND EGYPT . . I92 
 
 XV. EGYPTIAN PRISONS ...... 208 
 
WANDERINGS, WEST 
 AND EAST 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE ATLANTIC AND CANADA 
 
 IT is not often that a man, who for some time 
 has passed the meridian of his life, is able to 
 wander away from house and home and to seek 
 " fresh fields and pastures new " in far-distant lands. 
 It became, however, my duty to take a relative to 
 Canada, and to visit her home in British Columbia ; 
 then, having relatives in Hong Kong and Japan, it 
 seemed best to go on from Vancouver and return 
 to old England by the Pacific, Ceylon, Aden, Egypt, 
 and Italy. 
 
 But before a clergyman can leave his parish for 
 a period exceeding three months, he must obtain 
 special permission ; and in my case the consent of 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury was needed, as well 
 as that of my own bishop. This was readily 
 
 I 
 
2 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 accorded, a good substitute provided, and I was 
 free for nine months. 
 
 The steamer that took us from Liverpool was 
 as full of all sorts and conditions of men as it could 
 well be. Two bishops, two or three Irish or French 
 priests, a Presbyterian minister or two, boating men 
 from Henley, Mounted Police (as they are called) of 
 the North-West (Canadian) Territories, professors 
 and scientific men going to the gathering of the 
 British Association at Toronto, riflemen returning 
 from the Jubilee, Swedes, Japanese, and Jews, more 
 than a hundred " Barnardo " boys and girls, made up 
 a motley throng, yet one in which a friendly feeling 
 seemed universal. The weather was so fine that 
 games of all kinds were played : to pick up a potato 
 in a spoon and carry it safely to a certain point 
 was not regarded as beneath the dignity of any 
 one ; and a conscientious Scotchman, from whom 
 I had carried off the prize kindly inquired, 
 " How do you and I stand ? " He evidently 
 thought that the contest involved a certain sum of 
 money ! 
 
 Our course to Quebec lay north of the route 
 usually followed by the steamers for New York. We 
 saw (in August) numerous icebergs, one 173 feet 
 high ; and as we lay at anchor in a fog in the 
 gulf of the St. Lawrence, an iceberg bore down 
 upon us in the night. The captain was on the 
 bridge, saw the danger, ordered the anchor up, and 
 
THE ATLANTIC AND CANADA 3 
 
 the. ship to be moved ; otherwise we might have 
 been in serious trouble. 
 
 Religious services were held, not only on Sunday, 
 but also other days. On one occasion the subject 
 selected by the preacher was the Miracle at Cana 
 in Galilee. An abstainer himself (as he told his 
 hearers), he could not honestly say that he thought 
 it wrong to use the gifts of God in moderation ; he 
 advised all who could not, to abstain altogether. 
 This sentiment excited one temperance man in the 
 audience to such a degree that he marked his Bible 
 at the passage, " Wine is a mocker ; strong drink 
 is raging," and showed it to the preacher. Others 
 interposed, and one man, quoting St. Paul's advice 
 to Timothy " no longer to drink water, but to 
 take a little wine for his stomach's sake," added 
 that the wine was probably intended for outward 
 application ! 
 
 It is well for every one who goes, if only once in 
 his life, to sea, at some time or other to be enveloped 
 in a fog ; otherwise he cannot realise how serious is 
 the danger, and what the anxiety of the responsible 
 officers must be. The scream of the steam-whistle, 
 repeated at frequent intervals, has been said to 
 suggest the lamentation of lost souls in Sheol. 
 Then at length the engines, which have been 
 reduced to half speed, are stopped ; the anchor is 
 dropped ; the ding-dong of bells begins and goes on 
 until the fog clears. Happily, in our case, although 
 
4 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 an iceberg nearly swamped us in the night, we had 
 not long to wait, nor was our patience sorely tried. 
 
 The St. Lawrence is a noble river, thirty miles 
 wide at its mouth. Here, almost for the first time, 
 we met some ships. The loneliness of the ocean 
 in some parts is well-nigh appalling. A few main 
 tracks may be frequented, but the bye-paths are 
 solitudes rarely visited— a waste of waters seldom 
 scanned by the eye of man. As we ascended the 
 river, numerous villages fringed the southern bank. 
 The French Canadians, unlike their relatives in 
 Europe, increase rapidly, and thrive beneath the 
 rule of the British crown. Allowed the free exercise 
 of their religion (they are chiefly Roman Catholics), 
 they are loyal to their adopted country. The Roman 
 Church in France is in constant conflict with the 
 civil power ; in Canada, beneath British rule, there 
 is usually peace instead of war. 
 
 As we neared Quebec, on a glorious day, the 
 scene was simply superb. Another river, the .St. 
 Charles, adds its waters not far away to the 
 majestic St. Lawrence ; the Falls of Montmorency, 
 some miles off, glisten in the sunshine. On all 
 sides are seen numerous buildings, amid which the 
 noble pile erected for the provincial parliament 
 stands conspicuous. The citadel towers over the 
 stream and shows itself ready to protect the city that 
 nestles around it. 
 
 Quebec is almost a French city ; its streets have 
 
THE ATLANTIC AND CANADA 5 
 
 French names, and French is evidently the language 
 of its people. It is, too, chiefly Roman Catholic. 
 We saw a procession of priests passing through the 
 streets, and nunneries and nuns are quite features of 
 the place. 
 
 But Quebec must always be associated with Wolfe 
 and Montcalm. 
 
 On the Plains of Abraham is a monument to 
 Wolfe, with the words, " Here died Wolfe victorious," 
 and not far off is another memorial to both Wolfe 
 and Montcalm, with a lovely Latin inscription, just 
 to the merit and memory of two noble men, both 
 of whom gave their lives for their countries' cause. 
 
 Our steamer took us on from Quebec to Montreal, 
 where we arrived about midday on Sunday. What 
 a crowd encountered us ! The chief feature of this 
 well-dressed crowd — a feature common from Quebec 
 to Vancouver and Victoria — was the long, thin, 
 narrow, pointed, brown, leather shoe, adapted, one 
 would think, for Regent Street, but not for an 
 agricultural country, as Canada is supposed to be ! 
 Go where you will in Canada, hundreds of miles 
 away from the main line of rail, there are the long, 
 narrow, pointed brown shoes or boots ! Watch the 
 men at an agricultural station ; you may expect to 
 see clod-hoppers and hobnailed boots, but you won't. 
 They are not the fashion. You are no Canadian if 
 you have no brown, long, narrow, pointed shoes. 
 Montreal is a large and thriving manufacturing town. 
 
6 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 more French than English, with wide streets, the 
 huge telegraph-poles found in all Canadian cities, 
 and the electric cars common to them, and (I believe) 
 to most American cities. As Canadian streets are 
 usually much wider than our own, the cars are run 
 often at a great pace — a pace which in England 
 would be impossible, and even in Canada is often 
 dangerous. Accidents are constantly happening from 
 collisions, and as the population increases these will 
 be more frequent. 
 
 Toronto is a splendid city, full of fine buildings, 
 with asphalted streets and suburbs denoting a 
 prosperous population. Here the Scotch and English 
 element comes into full play, and one might well 
 suppose (were it not for the hideous poles and wires 
 which disfigure the finest streets of all Canadian 
 towns) that the city is in Britain. 
 
 Ottawa, wisely chosen by the Home Government 
 as the seat of the Dominion Legislature, has as noble 
 an array of buildings, I should think, as the world 
 has seen. They are said to be the finest in America, 
 and will certainly compare with not a few in Europe. 
 
 Winnipeg, the centre of the Western wheat trade, 
 has a population of forty-three thousand people, and, 
 if the price of wheat should rise, has probably a great 
 future before it. The hard Manitoban wheat No. i 
 is said to be the best in the world ; inspectors mark 
 it, and, if it passes their examination, the price may 
 be seventy-five cents a bushel, say twenty-three 
 
THE ATLANTIC AND CANADA. 7 
 
 shillings per quarter. Few producers are likely to 
 get more at present prices.-" Vancouver, the terminus 
 of the Canadian Pacific Railway, is near the mouth 
 of the Fraser River, with Mount Baker, thirteen 
 thousand feet high, usually covered with snow, not 
 far away, other mountains rising at no great distance. 
 The depth of water is such that the large and 
 splendid " Empress " steamers of the Canadian Pacific 
 Railway, vessels that cross the Pacific to Japan, and 
 Hong Kong, come close to the wharf and receive 
 and discharge cargoes without difficulty. It has 
 some fine churches and the buildings nearly ready 
 for the Provincial Parliament are a triumph of archi- 
 tectural art. Its natural history museum will well 
 repay a visit. 
 
 Of the smaller towns I saw most of Fort William, 
 Revelstoke, and Ashcroft. Fort William is famous 
 for its elevators built by the Canadian Pacific 
 Railway. These are enormous wooden buildings 
 into which the freight-trams (as they are called) 
 convey the grain from Manitoba and elsewhere : it 
 is allowed to fall from the trucks, then raised by 
 steam power, tested, weighed, and finally passed down 
 into the hold, probably, of a vessel which will take 
 it through the lakes to Montreal, whence it will be 
 conveyed to Liverpool or elsewhere. Some of these 
 elevators hold as much as 1,500,000 bushels each. 
 
 Revelstoke and Ashcroft are mining centres. Both 
 ' Written in October 1897. 
 
8 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 are in British Columbia, and both have Chinese 
 settlements. The Chinese are no favourites with 
 the miners. They are too industrious, and work at 
 too cheap a rate. It is a common opinion (among 
 the many charges made against them) that they 
 mix silver filings with the gold dust which they 
 offer for sale. Their gold therefore does not fetch so 
 high a price. It is said that there is great difficulty 
 in separating silver filings from gold. 
 
 Chinese are laundrymen and gardeners everywhere. 
 At Victoria they raise and sell vegetables at so cheap 
 a rate as to prevent it being worth while for others 
 to attempt to grow them ; labour is too dear. At 
 Revelstoke I saw a sad case of an opium-eater 
 wizened and deformed by excessive use of the drug. 
 Man)' Chinese, houexcr, if fed at their masters' and 
 not their own expense, are as healthy and hearty 
 men as one could wish to see. In this Empress 
 of India (I am writing on the Pacific Ocean) there 
 are more than fifty Chinamen — cooks, waiters, and 
 general servants, as obliging and capable as could 
 be desired. 
 
 Ashcroft, so named by Messrs. Cornwall, from 
 Ashcroft in Gloucestershire (one of these brothers, by 
 the bye, is now an " honourable " and a judge) is 
 full of "teamsters" as well as Chinese; there is an 
 Indian Reserve also not far away. These " teamsters " 
 take freight waggons, drawn by five to ten horses 
 or mules, two hundred miles or more to the mining 
 
THE ATLANTIC AND CANADA 9 
 
 districts of the Cariboo country. Two waggons are 
 usually connected and drawn by one team ; in very 
 steep places (and the district is mountainous) the 
 second waggon is left behind, the first taken forward 
 and the second fetched by the returning team. The 
 mountains around Ashcroft seem made of little else 
 but sand or dust, and the temperature in summer 
 sometimes exceeds a hundred degrees. Many people 
 sleep at night in verandahs or in the open air. 
 Yet, below the surface, the soil is good ; the river 
 Thompson flows in full stream through the district, 
 and the Chinese (as usual) raise good crops and prove 
 that the soil has capacities for producing treasures 
 as good in their way as gold or silver. 
 
 The flourishing condition of the working classes 
 in such towns as these may be learnt by watching 
 the saloons and those who visit them. At the 
 chief hotel at Revelstoke a stream of men from the 
 railway and elsewhere were flocking all day to the 
 barbers' shop and the adjacent spot where " cordials " 
 can be had ; miners sat for hours outside the smaller 
 inns or in the saloons; at Ashcroft the "bars," as 
 we call them, of the two hotels, were crowded 
 until a very late hour. Even between two and three 
 in the morning I have seen a number of men drinking 
 and I am told that the police do not interfere unless 
 a special complaint is made. Canada in truth at 
 the present time is the paradise of the working man. 
 The ordinary wage, even in Toronto, for a working 
 
10 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 man is a dollar and a half a day {6s. ^d.) ; the miner 
 earns two and a half to three dollars a day. The 
 Indian in the hay or potato field expects a dollar, 
 or a dollar and a half, besides three good meals of 
 meat and potatoes, to say nothing of pastry and 
 tea. 
 
 Coins of small value, like our pence, seem scarcely 
 in use, except at the " Post Offices." The charge for 
 the electric cars is twopence halfpenny per journey, 
 reduced, it is true, if a number of tickets are taken. 
 1 have been from one end of Canada to the other, 
 have wandered some hundred miles away from the 
 great main road, the Canadian Pacific Railway, and 
 have hardly received or used a coin of less value than 
 five cents or 2^d. 
 
 Most of the houses in Canada are made of wood. 
 At first, when well painted, they are by no means 
 devoid of beauty, and it is said that with double 
 windows and heated by .stoves (as they almost all 
 are) they are comfortable, even in very cold weather. 
 But the danger from fire, to say nothing of dilapida- 
 tions, is often very serious. Frequent reports appear 
 in the papers of three or four in one family being 
 burnt to death. The heat of the summer is often 
 very great, and the dried and heated wood is soon 
 in a blaze. This autumn, even in October (1897) 
 the thermometer has been very high, and terrible 
 prairie-fires are reported from the neighbourhood 
 of Ottawa, Manitoba, and several districts of the 
 
THE ATLANTIC AND CANADA II 
 
 States. A match thrown down amid dry moss will 
 start a fire, and even near " beautiful Banff " (where 
 a large area has been reserved for a National Park) 
 the forest trees are burnt for many miles. Almost 
 every house of two or more storeys has a ladder 
 on the roof or at the wall side, to assist those 
 escaping from the flames below. Even large hotels, 
 built of brick, have iron ladders on the walls as 
 a means of escape from devouring flames. 
 
 The connecting link of Montreal with Vancouver 
 and Victoria is the Canadian Pacific or Transcon- 
 tinental Railway. Trams run right across the 
 Continent in five days, and sleeping cars (for which 
 an extra charge is made) are provided for the night. 
 The scenery, as the route runs amid the Rockies 
 and the Selkirk Range, is open and grand, and 
 beautiful beyond all description. Snow-sheds of 
 the most elaborate and costly kind in some places 
 protect the track from avalanches ; in many parts 
 the railway winds its way along the edge of precipices 
 and cliifs, circles round and round a valley until it 
 vanishes out of sight ; then perhaps it runs between 
 mountains clinging so clo.se to each other that exit 
 seems impossible ; at one place a glacier, said to 
 be larger than any in Europe, is within two miles of 
 the train ; and for the last few hundred miles the 
 track follows the Thompson and Eraser Rivers. 
 
 These streams force their way with fury through 
 opposing rocks, and at one spot where the train 
 
12 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 stops, the rocks seem to have almost won the battle. 
 You look down, and sixty feet below you see that 
 the river with waters accumulated from contributions 
 added in the course of many hundred miles, has 
 forced a passage, and will continue its career. 
 
 It is satisfactory to know that this well-managed 
 railway, this splendid monument of British and 
 Canadian enterprise, is paying its way and promises 
 well for the future. It is now the great high road 
 from England to Japan and China ; the excessive 
 heat of the Red Sea is avoided ; time too, and 
 expense, are saved. A new and better route has 
 been opened to the East by the Canadian Pacific 
 Railway, and the steamers run in connection with 
 their trains to Japan, China, and also to Australia. 
 
 Canadian fruit is very fine. I never saw finer 
 apples than in a garden attached to a ranche fourteen 
 hundred feet above the sea. But the ov/ner had come 
 from Gloucestershire, one of our best apple counties ! 
 A Chinaman too was in charge : the garden was 
 easily irrigated ; the results in any case were good. 
 In each province there are experimental farms, 
 and a valuable Blue Book is published each year 
 by the Dominion Government, giving the results 
 of experiments and trials. I ha\e just had occasion 
 to stock a garden at a ranche eighteen hundred feet 
 above the sea : by consulting this Blue Book I got 
 a list without difficulty of the most hardy and reliable 
 trees. The expert is sent round in many districts 
 
THE ATLANTIC AND CANADA 1 3 
 
 to the farmers, and shows them how to prune their 
 trees. He says that in five minutes they learn what 
 an hour's study of a book fails to teach them. Is 
 there not here a lesson for our County Councils ? No 
 doubt the bright summer sun gives colour and sweet- 
 ness to the Canadian apple, and in many places to 
 the peach ; but the severe winter and late frosts 
 must be put in the other scale. The farmers are 
 taught that they must grow hard fruit if it is to 
 travel ; and they are also taught to pack their fruit 
 in suitable barrels and boxes, so that it shall travel 
 uninjured. I was fortunate enough to see an exhibi- 
 tion of British Columbian fruit at New Westminster. 
 The apples were very fine, highly coloured, and 
 firm ; the pears were by no means up to the same 
 average. But the season may have been unfavour- 
 able. Pears too are rather a luxury of the rich 
 than a necessary article of food, like the apple. 
 
 Any notice of Canada would be incomplete without 
 some reference to a special insect. A literary lady, 
 learning that I was likely to visit the Dominion, 
 wrote urging me to take special precautions against 
 the " L. B." Keating's Insect Powder would not be 
 sufficient — I must take some other preparation, the 
 name of which I fear I have forgotten ! The letters 
 puzzled me, and so did the mystic phrase of another 
 good lady when she warned me to guard against the 
 " B flat." When I urged a rancheman that swallows 
 should be encouraged, in order that the mosquitos 
 
14 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 should be eaten off in good time, he told me that 
 swallows' nests were not allowed on houses, as they 
 encouraged the presence of the " North American 
 insect." The wooden houses and the wooden beds are 
 a favourite habitation of this loathsome creature ; yet 
 is he not a favourite rather than otherwise in the 
 States ? A " gold man," or " monometallist," is often 
 called a " gold bug," and a well-known physician of 
 San Francisco, born in England but naturalised in 
 the States, wrote me word that he had been a 
 " gold bug " for seventy years, but that he had now 
 become a bimetallist ! The very trying times ex- 
 perienced in the United States (twenty-five thousand 
 men were said to be out of work in San Francisco 
 during the winter of '96 and '97) had changed his 
 views, and he had ceased to be a " gold bug." I 
 should add that this " North American insect " 
 appears to have been imported from our own 
 country ; the letters " L. B." are simply an abbre- 
 viation of London Bug ! 
 
 An insect outside does much more serious mischief. 
 At one ranche I learnt that half the crop of oats 
 had been destroyed by "grasshoppers." These are 
 really locusts, but the latter term is probably avoided, 
 as more alarming than " grasshoppers " or " hoppers." 
 Their attacks at present are confined chiefly to 
 British Columbia. When I suggested that the fowls 
 should be fed on the fields where the " hoppers " had 
 been, so that any eggs might be got rid of in this 
 
THE ATLANTIC AND CANADA 1$ 
 
 way, I was told that the fowls' eggs in that case 
 would often be uneatable, and that the coyote (or 
 prairie-wolf) would make short work of the fowls. 
 Dr. Fletcher, in a report to the Department of 
 Agriculture, remarks : " The large amount of damage 
 done by ' locusts ' is seldom realised. They frequent 
 grass lands, and pass most of their lives low down 
 among the stems of grasses. They don't develop 
 wings until July. It is only after grass is cut, or in 
 seasons of unusual drought, that the injuries they 
 do are much noticed. ' Hopper-dozers ' — pieces of 
 sheet iron eight and a half feet long and two feet 
 wide, coated on the upper side with tar — are drawn 
 over the ground in May, when the insects are small, 
 and cling readily to the tar. This is a favourite 
 remedy in the States. If, too, the ground is ploughed 
 up in the autumn, and the eggs buried or exposed 
 to frost, the attacks of these ' hoppers ' are weakened." 
 
 The Canadian, like his neighbour across the border, 
 loves the man who has risen from the ranks. A 
 highly respected clergyman, a Canon of the Epis- 
 copal Church, told me that his son had just become 
 a " sailor before the mast, ' adding, " That is how we 
 all begin here." He expects to be a captain in five 
 years. The present Finance Minister and Premier of 
 Victoria was a labourer at the docks at one time ! But 
 the history of an Englishman, told me by himself, 
 seems very interesting. 
 
 " I was born at Doncaster, and attended the 
 
l6 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 grammar school there, when the numbers were about 
 two hundred and fifty, and Doncaster Church when 
 (Dean) Vaughan was rector. I went into a lawyer's 
 office, expecting to be a soHcitor. My father died, 
 and I was thrown on my beam ends. So I came 
 to Canada and wori'ced as a teacher, and in other 
 ways, until I handled pick and shovel as a workman 
 on the Canadian Pacific " track " ! 
 
 " I rose to be a foreman, and now (at thirty-two 
 years of age) have the charge of about a hundred 
 and ten miles of road and more than a hundred 
 men under me." 
 
 This good man arranged for a service in a small 
 station where he lived, played the harmonium and 
 led the singing ; he also took me to the house of 
 a Swede, where he asked me to baptize his child. 
 The name given to the child was Enoch ; did not 
 Enoch walk with God, and is not that a better name 
 than many which are often given to our children ? 
 
 There is one sad sore in Canada from which we 
 in Britain are happily free. When one party has 
 ousted another party from office, the winners eject 
 the holders of most, if not all, public offices, and put 
 in friends of their own. I was told that the harbour 
 master of a well-known port, advanced in years, 
 with a family dependent on him, had been compelled 
 to resign, from no fault, but simply to make room 
 for some minion of the other side. In this autumn 
 ('97) the Canadian papers had constant references 
 
THE ATLANTIC AND CANADA 1 7 
 
 to " the axe " falling on some unhappy wight turned 
 out of a public office because he happened to belong 
 to the losing side. The result is an amount of bitter 
 feeling most baneful to the public weal and to all 
 concerned. The most \iolent personal attacks are 
 made on the ministers of state, and they are often 
 accused, possibly with justice, of thinking more of 
 their own relations and friends than of the interests 
 of the people at large. Such a concentration of 
 bitter feeling as may sometimes be seen in the 
 columns even of leading Canadian papers, is almost 
 unknown in our own land. It is to be hoped that 
 Canada, after a time, will not hesitate to follow the 
 example of the mother country in respect to all 
 public appointments, as the colony has already in 
 so many other ways. Then, in any case, the horrible 
 animosity of party feeling will be assuaged, and the 
 public interest, instead of a desire for party gains, 
 will perhaps be paramount and supreme. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCHES 
 
 '""T^HE " ranche " question must always be a 
 1 subject of interest to Englishmen — at all events, 
 to those of the upper classes who have sons. So 
 many young men compete unsuccessfully for the 
 army and other public appointments, that emigra- 
 tion is often the only resource left. A lady friend 
 told me, at a ranche where I was staying, that she 
 could mention five ranchemen who had failed in 
 army exam.inations. Two or three had been pupils of 
 her late husband or her brother-in-law, and appeared 
 to be doing fairly well. At another ranche the owner 
 told me that he had cleared the fences round Oxford 
 far better than the examinations. On leaving 
 Brasenose, he had gone to a horse-ranche at Idaho 
 (U.S.A.) and after a time took up a ranche in 
 British Columbia. It was my good fortune to visit 
 him, and a nicer house, though built only of wood, 
 or a lovelier spot, I have rarely seen. True, he 
 apparently is not a rich man, but he is a J. P. and 
 leads a life that many men might envy. 
 
 It became my duty about two years ago to look 
 
 i8 
 
CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCHES 1 9 
 
 into this " ranche " question, and the difficulty I 
 experienced in obtaining accurate details has led 
 me to write as I am doing, giving chiefly my own 
 observations. 
 
 Among other articles which I read in the course 
 of my inquiries I may mention two in Longmans 
 Magazine, entitled " The Rancheman," and " The 
 Ranchewoman," each giving a most depressing 
 account of English ranche life in the States, and 
 no doubt with good reason.* 
 
 If the truth is to be told, I fear that, both in 
 Canada and the States, the British farmer is regarded 
 as a " tender-foot," a fool who is soon beguiled out 
 of the little that he has ; fair prey for the land-sharks 
 that abound in both countries. The young upper- 
 class Englishman in the States, with no practical 
 training, is not likely to be a match in any way for 
 the 'cute Yankee. An amusing game which I saw 
 two young Canadians playing illustrates, I am afraid, 
 the experience of not a few of our countrymen. 
 
 It is called " Innocence abroad." The players leave 
 their homes with money-bags full ; they shake the 
 dice, and spend their dollars on various tempting 
 objects named on the board ; soon both are almost 
 
 * See also an article in The North American Review for June 
 1896 and in Scribner's Magazine for September 1897, "At the 
 Foot of the Rockies." These articles deal more -with Canada, 
 and the former (which I have not read) is said to put both sides 
 of the question very fairly. 
 
20 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 beggared, but he who has a httle left at last is 
 winner. 
 
 My experience, however, is confined to Cana 
 where I had occasion to visit a ranche in Bril 
 Columbia. What a business to get there ! The c 
 of a ticket (first-class) from East Anglia to our R 
 way Station, Ashcroft, was about £2'j, and part 
 the way food had also to be bought. The emigr 
 landing at Quebec or Montreal must sleep at hot 
 or in the train, for four or five days ; and hotel 
 in Canada is not cheap. Some saving, howe^ 
 may be effected by taking a second- or third-cl 
 passage on the steamer and using the colonist 
 on the Canadian Pacific Railway, special throi 
 rates being allo\\ed to immigrants. I doubt, howe' 
 whether the cost can be reduced below £20 
 £2^. From our station we had to go "up counti 
 for two hundred and fifty miles ! Here was anot 
 and no slight expense. The "stage" (as the n 
 coach is called) runs once or twice a week, tak 
 three days to " do " about two hundred miles. " 
 cost of this journey, one way only, was over 
 and to this amount must be added hotel bills en ro 
 When the " stage " left us we had to cross the Fre 
 river in a canoe two and a half feet wide, and i 
 drive by mail cart forty miles more at a cost 
 five dollars each (;^i os. \od^. 
 
 A journey through the more remote district 
 by no means uninteresting. In the Cariboo coun 
 
CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCHES 21 
 
 through which we travelled, all manner of men 
 and women may be met with in the stage and 
 at the halting places. A builder from Toronto 
 hammered away for half an hour on the currency, 
 urging the issue of paper money, on a system similar 
 to the French assignats ; a wire-worker from San 
 Francisco showed us what a gentleman a working 
 man can be ; a splendid Yorkshireman gave us 
 his experiences as a miner, and in his bright fancies 
 wandered once more with us amid the mountains 
 of Westmoreland ; a Chinese lady, married (we 
 were told), and with a family, was our companion 
 for some distance ; an editor of a mining paper 
 added to the general amusement ; but an Irishman 
 with a Scotch name, an Orangeman from Derry, 
 now an alderman of a well-known city in British 
 Columbia, surpassed us all, when, in speaking of 
 the Scotch, he remarked that they keep the Sabbath 
 and everything else they can lay their hands on ! 
 
 At one place we noticed, just before a very steep 
 ascent, twelve oxen yoked together and drawing a 
 heavy ^\'aggon : one of these, of course, was lying 
 down. Numerous " teamsters " (as they are called) 
 were driving six or seven horses with one or two 
 freight waggons behind them. They were taking 
 their loads to the mining districts some hundred miles 
 beyond. We in the " stage " always had four and 
 sometimes six horses. One morning we started at 
 4 a.m. ; always at a very early hour. One night we 
 
22 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 did not reach our destination until nearly 1 1 p.m. At 
 length we left the " stage " ; yet there were nearly fifty 
 miles still before us. The usual flat-bottomed boat 
 or " scow," for crossing the Fraser, could not be had ; 
 a " dug-out " canoe was our only resource. The 
 stream is always strong ; we were ordered to lie in 
 the bottom of the boat and hz quite still. Who, with 
 a lady in his charge, and a heavy coat containing 
 tickets and cash, would not be a little nervous ? In 
 the middle of the stream a restless dog ran against 
 me and nearly knocked my solar topee into the water ! 
 However, we were safely landed, and our luggage 
 was at length securely lashed on the " rig " by the 
 mail-man.' 
 
 We drove near the banks of the Fraser river 
 along heights from which it made one dizzy to look 
 down, through forests at first, until we halted at 
 the house of a half-breed for our midday meal. 
 We had seen one person only, an Indian squaw, 
 during our first twenty miles ; now we met three 
 half-breeds, a pure-bred Indian and his squaw, and 
 a Mongolian with jet-dark hair on his olive face 
 and a huge black pigtail behind. He was acting 
 as cook and house servant. Later on we came to a 
 more open country and saw herds of fine cattle, 
 feeding on the "bunch" grass so highly valued for 
 
 ' The luggage of all travellers in such districts should be 
 reduced to a minimum, as the difficulties of transport are 
 enormous. 
 
CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCtiES 
 
 its fattening 
 qualities. These 
 animals belong 
 to d i ff e r e n t 
 owners, but run 
 together on the 
 
 unenclosed 
 prairie or Govern- 
 ment land during 
 certain periods of 
 the year. At 
 
 length, late 
 in the after- 
 noon, we saw 
 our host 
 standing near 
 
 SCENES AT DEER- 
 PARK RANCH, 
 BRITISH COLUMBIA, 
 
24 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 his letter- or mail-box on the prairie, five miles from 
 his home, awaiting our arrival. The luggage was 
 shifted, then, after a drive amid boulders innumerable 
 for two miles, and past three lakes, we descended 
 a very steep hill, and at twilight arrived at our 
 destination. 
 
 This ranche is situated in a deep valley near the 
 Fraser river, with mountains rising abruptly on the 
 other side of the stream, and high cliffs behind 
 the house. The river-banks are so steep that cattle 
 cannot use the water. This necessity is supplied 
 by a stream which is fed throughout the year from 
 the lakes above ; and after the melting of the snows 
 on the mountain, the floods are carried off by a 
 torrent-bed which, however, was dry when I saw it. 
 
 A good supply of water is essential, not only for 
 the cattle and the horses, but also for irrigation. 
 The soil in many parts is almost useless unless it 
 can be irrigated. I saw splendid crops of onions, 
 Indian corn, tomatoes, beans, and potatoes, all due 
 in some degree to irrigation. At another ranche 
 there were good crops of alfalfa, timothy, and clover ; 
 at another three crops had been cut in one year, 
 the result of irrigation ! One rancheman told me 
 that he could irrigate two hundred acres ; but the 
 cattle do better on the " bunch " grass than even 
 on such crops as are raised in this way. Cattle- 
 raising is supposed to be the chief source of income. 
 All cattle are branded and then allowed to run 
 
CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCHES 25 
 
 during the summer months with cattle belonging 
 to other owners on the prairie ; late in the season 
 the ranchemen and cowboys assemble, drive the 
 cattle into corrals, separate their own property for 
 sale, or else to feed and keep alive during the winter 
 months. 
 
 The preparations for this winter feeding are a 
 very serious matter. The winter is often most 
 severe and, if it is prolonged, the results may be 
 disastrous. It seems impossible, with the high price 
 of labour and materials, to erect shelters sufficient 
 for any number of cattle ; they therefore shelter in 
 the woods or as best they can. But all ranchemen 
 make as much hay as is possible. At one ranche 
 one of the partners was seven weeks at the meadows 
 attached to the ranche, twelve miles away, engaged 
 all the time in harvesting the hay. He was assisted 
 by one Englishman, three Chinese, two Indians. 
 All these required to be fed and lodged, and their pay 
 was at least one dollar per day. In the dry climate 
 of Canada the hay is often cut and carried on the 
 same day. Cut in the morning, it is turned over 
 once and then carried. No attempt is made to 
 thatch the stack, but it is sloped at the most 
 acute angle possible. Labour is so scarce and dear 
 that all extra expenses must be avoided ; at one 
 ranche the three sons of a rancheman, occupying 
 a high official position, and held in the highest 
 esteem, spent their holiday this year (1897), while 
 
26 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 their tutor was away, in raking the hay together 
 after it had been cut. Imagine boys returning from 
 Eton or Harrow being required at once to assist 
 all day in the hay- or wheat-field ! Yet why should 
 they not ? At one of the houses where I spent the 
 night on our way up and down, the host was an 
 old Eton boy ; his store was apparently a thriving 
 concern, and he is a gentleman in appearance as well 
 as, apparently, in character. I had the pleasure of 
 thanking him at three o'clock in the morning for 
 his kindness to me when unwell, and curiously 
 enough at the same place and about the same hour 
 a stranger thanked me for a sermon which I had 
 preached three weeks before one hundred and fifty 
 miles away ! 
 
 The question whether these ranches pay, depends 
 of course upon a combination of circumstances. 
 They have their " ups and downs " (as a Scotch- 
 man said to me) just as much as the Australian 
 farmer has his — droughts, involving, it may be, large 
 losses. In 1896 there was a long drought in one 
 district, followed by a winter of unusual length ; the 
 mortality among the cattle was very great. They 
 had become so weak that they could scarcely eat 
 the hay that was offered them, and many ranche- 
 men had not enough hay to carry their cattle 
 through the winter. On the other hand, it is said 
 that a good season or two will soon set them 
 up again. But the rates of interest on land in 
 
CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCHES 27 
 
 Canada are so high as to forbid much profit (as 
 it seems to me) in almost any case. Most ranche- 
 men, I suspect, begin on borrowed money, and in 
 British Columbia often pay, I am assured, nine to 
 ten per cent. Winnipeg, the chief city of Manitoba, 
 is full of loan societies, and these secure six to eight 
 per cent, from the settler who needs (as almost all 
 new settlers are sure to need) " accommodation." 
 
 The hard Manitoban wheat (No. i), said to be the 
 best in the world, sells usually off the land at a 
 price varying from sixty-five to seventy-five cents 
 per bushel, i.e. about twenty-five shillings per quarter. 
 Will this price recoup interest on money borrowed 
 at seven or eight per cent. ? Money is, I am informed, 
 still more dear in British Columbia, and ten per 
 cent, interest is enough to knock off all profit. 
 
 Some ranchemen are fond of having a large 
 ' band " of horses. These are very interesting to 
 watch, but by universal consent unprofitable (in 
 British Columbia) to breed in large numbers. A 
 few horses are a necessity, and a good rancheman 
 knows how to lasso a horse as well as a cow, and how 
 to drive him into a corral. But there is no demand 
 for the small horses bred on the prairie. Even 
 those bred in special districts do not fetch high 
 prices. A considerable number are now sent to 
 Liverpool and London from the horse-breeding 
 districts, and fetch remunerative prices. Even the 
 horses used in the waggon or "rig," are generally 
 
28 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 turned out loose. Good stable accommodation is 
 expensive and rare : grooms and stablemen are out 
 of the question. 
 
 When the rancheman wants a horse, he must usually 
 get most of the horses in. Perhaps they are some 
 miles away. He must go after them, drive them 
 into the corral, then select the one he wants. A 
 dog is often serviceable in bringing the horses in, 
 and it is amusing to watch how a horse, whose heels 
 have been bitten, runs backwards and tries to return 
 the bite with interest. One wilful or cunning horse 
 will often ruin a " band," and had better be fetlocked, 
 or got rid of in some fashion. These horses have 
 usually been bred on the ranche. I was shown one 
 \\hich had swum two rivers in returning of its own 
 accord to its " native " air. They are sometimes 
 turned loose at a distance from home, in the hope 
 that they will return in due course. 
 
 At one ranche where I was staying, a fortnight 
 had elapsed since a horse had been turned loose, 
 fifteen miles away ; and it had not returned. The 
 " band " was numbered day after day, yet one was 
 still missing. An Indian was offered a dollar if 
 he would find and bring him home. This work of 
 tracking is just what the Indian loves : he galloped 
 ofif on his own horse, yet did not win the dollar. 
 The rancheman then set out himself, and at length 
 discovered his horse, duly branded, running with the 
 horse of a half-breed. Driving him into the corral, 
 
CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCHES 29 
 
 he secured, saddled, and rode him home. But he 
 and his first horse had done forty miles before he 
 returned, and a long day had been spent in recovering 
 a horse at a period when time was very precious. 
 
 These Indians are quite a feature of ranche life. 
 There are certain Reserves assigned to them, and 
 they are cared for more b}' others than apparently 
 they care for themselves. An Indian village was 
 close to a ranche where I was privileged to be a 
 guest, and I heard many details respecting them 
 in all parts of British Columbia. 
 
 Drink appears to be the curse v/hich is steadily 
 destroying them. In the summer they hunt and 
 fish, and earn money by work of all kinds ; in ^\•inter 
 they exist on what they have earned : yet they are 
 said to be most improvident. The men and women 
 sometimes earn as much as a dollar a day (4s. 2d.), or 
 more, and in addition get good meals, at hay-making 
 or potato-lifting ; but the money is soon gone. 
 
 It is said that where they can be kept from 
 contact with the whites, their numbers increase ; 
 otherwise they dwindle away. Efforts for their 
 welfare have been made for many years by various 
 bodies of Christians. 
 
 I met two Roman Catholic priests one evening 
 at a small inn in a remote country district. Curiously 
 enough, I mistook them for Methodist ministers ! 
 Afterwards I learnt that one was a bishop, and that 
 they were paying a special visit to the Indians of 
 
30 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 the Reserve not far away. I was assured that they 
 exercise great influence (often for good) over these 
 people. Trinkets blessed by the Pope were sold 
 for high prices, and brought in a good round sum. 
 Cards ensuring a certain admission to a better 
 world if death should come within a certain time, 
 were five dollars each ; after the expiration of the 
 time, five dollars more vi'ere needed. These state- 
 ments were made to me as " proven facts " : but 
 Protestant spite is sometimes as bad as Catholic 
 credulity. In any case the Indian problem is a 
 very sad one, and a disgrace to our so-called 
 civilisation. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the rancheman's 
 life is all toil. If he is to have any chance of success 
 he must be an early riser, an industrious and an 
 all-round man. But if he is a good shot, he will 
 have his opportunities for sport. I saw numerous 
 flocks of wild ducks again and again, once a flock 
 of wild geese, and grouse on more than one occasion. 
 A rancheman told me that he had shot two hundred 
 and fifty brace of grouse in 1895. No wonder that 
 the numbers are diminishing, and that in one district 
 a close season has been decreed ! 
 
 Wild sheep were seen on the mountains close to 
 one ranche where I was staying, and deer were said 
 to be numerous ; but in summer they hide in the 
 woods. On one occasion, when waiting for the 
 mail-cart, our rancheman went into a wood and at 
 
CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCHES 3 1 
 
 once brought down an owl. An eagle-owl, he called 
 it ; a splendid bird, finer than any specimens in 
 the Natural History Museum at Victoria, British 
 Columbia. 
 
 The coyotes, or prairie-wolves, are very destructive, 
 and play havoc with fowls if they wander far from 
 house and home. At one ranche which I visited, a 
 packs of hounds had been kept for the purpose of 
 hunting them ; but the low price of all agricultural 
 produce forbids the prudent rancheman from in- 
 dulging in such pleasures at the present time. 
 
 In some parts, when the harvest is over, there 
 are races, very simple and friendly in character. 
 At those to which my friends were going, there 
 were usually about forty whites and a hundred 
 Indians ; the subscription was five dollars (;^i os. lOrt'.), 
 the entrance fee for each race two dollars (Ss. ^d.). 
 Some races are reserved exclusively for Indians. 
 It ,was amusing to learn that an archdeacon, held 
 in universal respect, was hoping to attend, if only 
 he could " get a lift." A good horseman himself, 
 beloved by all alike, why should he not be present ? 
 Would not his cheerful presence and acknowledged 
 high character put some check upon practices which 
 often disgrace our British races ? 
 
 There is one feature of Canadian ranche life that 
 must not in any way be overlooked. I am not 
 referring to the isolation, to an elderly man almost 
 appalling, if not so to the young and vigorous, nor 
 
32 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 to the difficulty of obtaining assistance in the case 
 of iUness or accident. The beauty of the Canadian 
 sky and the dryness of the air give an elasticity 
 to the spirits which enable men to hope on under 
 almost hopeless circumstances. But the high price 
 of labour is the crowning obstacle to all agricultural 
 profit. Canada just now is the paradise of the work- 
 ing man, certainly not of the farmers or ranch^men. 
 A " locomotive engineer " (our " engine driver ") 
 can earn nearly ;^300 per annum. We travellers 
 worked out the wages of our stage drivers, and we 
 agreed that, with allowances, they amount to over 
 ^^400 per annum for each man. A woman, for a 
 day's ordinary work at Winnipeg, expects a dollar 
 and a half {6s. 3^/.), besides her food ; and such 
 women cannot be secured in remote districts at any 
 price. 
 
 Labourers who are wanted to assist in the 
 Manitoban wheat harvest require three or three and 
 a half dollars per day, besides board and lodging — 
 say fifteen shillings per day ; an Essex labourer 
 would be content with five shillings ! 
 
 Miners earn three dollars or more per day. I 
 watched a large field of potatoes being " lifted " and 
 carted away. The foreman, an intelligent Irishman, 
 received about £120 per annum (not a whit too much 
 for his merits), the Chinaman employed as outdoor 
 labourer earned twenty (or twenty-five) dollars per 
 month, besides food and lodging (at least £60 per 
 
CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCHES 33 
 
 annum) ; six Indians, men and women, were to have 
 a dollar per day, besides three good meals. They 
 are not content with bread, cheese, and beer; they 
 must have meat, potatoes, tea, and perhaps pastry 
 besides. The ground had been heavily manured, 
 cleaned and irrigated ; the crop was excellent, and 
 the selling price was £^ 2s. 6d. per ton. Would 
 that price pay? 
 
 The result of these high prices of labour is that 
 the Chinese have been flocking into British Columbia, 
 and now the Japs are following suit. The China- 
 man is so versatile that he can do, or is prepared 
 to learn, almost anything: as a rancheman said to 
 me, " A Chinaman will do anything when he is hard 
 up ! " He is the universal cook in .British Columbia. 
 At the wayside resting place in remote country 
 districts, or in the best houses of Vancouver or 
 Victoria, the Chinaman is cook, often earning from 
 twenty to forty dollars per month, besides receiving 
 board, lodgings, and waste. He is, too, the gardener 
 of the Province ; wherever you see a good kitchen 
 garden, be assured that " John " is not far away. 
 He milks the cows, washes and irons the clothes, 
 keeps the inside of j/our house (not his own) tolerably 
 clean — in fact, will and can do almost anything as 
 long as he is paid. The Japs too are coming in, 
 and these gentlemanly little men are now often 
 found in hotels and houses ; but they are not as 
 versatile as their Oriental neighbours. 
 
34 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 This influx of Orientals has alarmed the labouring 
 class, and a tax of fifty dollars has already been 
 placed on every Chinaman when he lands. This tax 
 is said to be usually paid by one of his countrymen 
 already resident, to whom the new-comer works 
 out the debt before he seeks employment elsewhere. 
 Charges of all kinds are brought against the Chinese, 
 and there is an evident intention on the part of not 
 a iew to raise the tax from fifty to five hundred 
 dollars, if only they can carry their point ; and they 
 think they can. The chief charges are that they 
 don't assimilate with their neighbours, and, moreover, 
 send their savings away. But the real objection 
 to their presence is, that by their industry and skill 
 they reduce the price of labour. The working man 
 does not like their competition. The Japs, too, 
 are to be excluded because they are " foreign labour." 
 Why not, then, exclude the " darkies " who do the 
 work so well in the Pullman cars ? 
 
 If, however, these alien exclusion laws are carried 
 further, and labour becomes still more expensive, 
 what are ranchemen and Western farmers to do ? 
 Most of them employ a Chinaman now. If these 
 Orientals are henceforth refused admission, labour 
 will be dearer than ever. This is a point which no 
 man with any capital to lose should overlook. 
 
 Yet fathers must find some employment for their 
 sons. Not a few lads pine for open-air employment, 
 and long for the freedom of a Canadian ranche. 
 
CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCHES 35 
 
 What, then, should a parent do when no opening 
 elsewhere presents itself? The lad (in my opinion) 
 should be sent to some such place as the Colonial 
 College at HoUesley Bay, in Suffolk, where he may 
 learn all the crafts essential to success as a colonist. 
 He must learn to ride, shoot, plough, dig, to use an 
 axe, a plane, a hammer and saw ; to milk a cow ; to kill 
 and flay an ox ; to shoe a horse ; to plant potatoes ; 
 in short, he must learn the thousand and one things 
 needed when a man stands almost, if not quite, alone. 
 He must learn, too, to keep (like the Scotchman) 
 what little siller he has in his pocket, and to shun 
 fifteen-cent cigars and all the seductions of saloons. 
 Some knowledge of gardening and of pruning trees 
 may also prove very useful, and should certainly 
 be acquired if opportunity offers. After a year or 
 two at Hollesley Bay, the lad might be sent to 
 Canada. 
 
 But to whom should he be sent ? He must go 
 of course as a pupil at first. Archdeacon Small of 
 Lytton, British Columbia, knows a very large area 
 of country, and almost every person in it ; so does 
 the Hon. C. F. Cornwall (Judge Cornwall) of Ash- 
 croft, British Columbia ; and both would give sound 
 and careful advice. Both are English born, yet have 
 lived m any years in Canada. 
 
 For a steady, industrious lad, more fond of garden- 
 ing than farm work, the western coast is perhaps 
 more suitable. The climate is milder and more 
 
36 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 humid. Canon Padden, of Victoria, British Columbia, 
 is constantly sailing among the islands of the western 
 coast, and visiting the various settlements, and he 
 will gladly answer any inquiries. But no one should 
 think of coming, he says, whose character is shady, 
 or who is not industrious. Archdeacon Scriven, of 
 Victoria, British Columbia, is thoroughly acquainted 
 with Vancouver Island, riding throughout the island 
 at frequent intervals, and is well able to give useful 
 hints. 
 
 Let me add a word of warning to the ladies. In 
 one of the official reports issued by the Canadian 
 Agricultural Department, complaint is made that 
 half the men who take the ranches are bachelors, 
 and that they are absent far too often from work. 
 Without a question, ladies of the useful sort are very 
 much needed in Canada. But if they go, preparation 
 is necessary in their case as much as with the men. 
 Canadians have remarked to me that no British girl 
 knows how to bake bread ; and yet no knowledge is 
 more necessary. 
 
 Chinese servants are already so costly that many 
 people cannot employ them, and so do all the house- 
 work themselves. Yet, in spite of all the rough work 
 which must be done by both men and women in 
 remote districts, not a few retain all the charms of 
 gentle birth and good breeding. Let ladies, then, 
 who are likely to go to Canada, avail themselves of 
 the opportunities offered by our splendid Technical 
 
CANADA AND CANADIAN RANCHES 37 
 
 Schools. Let them learn to milk, make butter, bake 
 cook, and to master the mysteries of laundry work. 
 
 Such practical knowledge they will find not only 
 to be power, but also happiness. They will soon 
 see the truth of the good old saying, " Where there's 
 no sin, there's no shame." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE NORTH PACIFIC 
 
 WHAT a sight lor a stranger when one of the 
 Empress steamers is about to leave Vancouver 
 harbour for the Far East ! The Chinese population 
 of the city is said to be nearly three thousand, and 
 no small proportion of them is on the wharf an hour 
 or two before the departure ot the steamer. It is 
 a common complaint against the Chinese that they 
 never settle in Canada, that they send their savings 
 away, and go away themselves after a time. Many 
 Chinese, indeed, return to China after three years' 
 absence ; some come back for another three years 
 or more. Thus, every Empress, when bound for the 
 " Celestial " country, carries a goodly number,' and 
 their friends (as well as many Japanese) are on the 
 wharf, bidding the retreating ones farewell. Their 
 appearance is certainly not prepossessing. 
 
 John Chinaman, when he pays for his own food, 
 is a veij careful man ; when he can feast at the 
 expense of some one else, his appearance soon 
 changes for the better. 
 
 ' The captain informed me that Chinese from all parts oi 
 Canada and the United States travel by the Empress steamers. 
 
 38 
 
THE NORTH PACIFIC 39 
 
 Among those who came to bid us good-bye, I 
 noticed one Chinaman with " mutton chop " whiskers, 
 and a European pair of pantaloons. He evidently 
 was an "old hand." The respect with which he 
 was treated seemed to indicate that he held a high 
 position among his countrymen. He probably had 
 advanced money in many cases, and been that friend 
 in need who is the friend indeed ! 
 
 The Blue Peter is flying, but we do not cast off 
 our moorings until the mails and all the luggage from 
 the Transcontinental train are on board. We turn 
 a " longing, lingering look " towards Mount Baker, 
 thirteen thousand feet high, crowned at all seasons 
 with eternal snow. Opposite, on the other side of the 
 river, is the Indian Reserve ; behind the Reserve, a 
 mountain wall rises like a natural bulwark ; in the 
 salt water around us large, brightly coloured jelly- 
 fish, and other marine treasures, are floating, and the 
 lovers of marine life (it is said) are well rewarded by 
 searching the shores at low tide. 
 
 We are off ! Our vessel is soon in the " Narrows." 
 Yet the water is so deep that in one part we pass 
 within a stone's throw of the land. We make our 
 way amid a sea of islands, and in the Gulf of Georgia, 
 until, after six hours' steaming, we stop to take up 
 passengers from Victoria^, the chief town of Van- 
 couver Island. Then, after an hour's delay, we start 
 in real earnest for the Pacific. 
 
 As soon as we are off, we are summoned to a 
 
40 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 meal ! The attention to creature-comforts in these 
 steamers is quite a feature of the times, and com- 
 peting companies contend with each other in this 
 respect as well as in size and speed of their vessels. 
 Nothing can surpass the skill and attention devoted 
 to all the convenience and enjoyment of the 
 passengers in these " Empress " steamers. The cooks, 
 I believe, are Chinese ; the waiters and cabin-men 
 are Chinese, and they do their work (if kept up 
 to the mark) as well as men can do. The dress of 
 the waiters is a long butcher-blue smock or over-all, 
 with white cuffs reaching nearly up to the elbow. 
 Each one wears a small cap, that looks as if it 
 were made of horsehair, with a red knob in the 
 centre ; white socks, and black Chinese shoes. 
 Their movements are quick and noiseless : they 
 seem to vie with each other as to who shall be most 
 active. But we must not forget that there are 
 British officers behind them, that they are well paid, 
 and no doubt fully conscious that any neglect of 
 duty would involve dismissal. 
 
 Wc are soon, however, in mid-ocean, running west- 
 ward towards the Aleutian Isles. The gloomy- 
 looking waters remind one of Disraeli's " melancholy 
 ocean " ; and the first part of our passage is not very 
 exhilarating. Winter time is at hand — not a sail 
 is to be seen ; the sun rarely shows his face ; the 
 stars are not those of the South Pacific. Most of 
 the passengers are out of sorts. But time works 
 
THE NORTH PACIFIC 4 1 
 
 wonders ; there will be a change for the better before 
 we have traversed half our course. We have four 
 thousand three hundred miles to cover befoi-e we 
 reach our goal. 
 
 Vancouver is on the 49th parallel of latitude ; 
 Yokohama lies at 35° 20' north. By taking a 
 northern course, where the lines of longitude con- 
 verge, the distance across the ocean is lessened, and 
 time is saved. After seven days' sailing, we suddenly 
 discover sea-weed ; a green plover, exhausted, falls 
 on our deck ; land is evidently not far off. We 
 are nearing the Aleutian Isles : from the bridge the 
 cliffs of Atkha Island, nineteen hundred feet high, are 
 sometimes seen, and some of the keener-sighted ones 
 on the deck think that they also see land. These 
 islands look on the map as if they were useful 
 in protecting travellers on the Pacific from the ice- 
 bergs which often make the Atlantic voyage on the 
 most northern route dangerous. They are said to 
 be almost uninhabited, except by the blue foxes, 
 whose pelts have a certain commercial value. To- 
 day (October 22nd) we are south of Kamskatka.' 
 Soon we go on to the Kurile Islands, and when we 
 reach the 150th degree from Greenwich, within two 
 days of Japan, the influence of the warm current 
 will be felt, and wraps and rugs will be discarded. 
 These Kurile Islands formerly belonged to Russia, 
 
 1 In the chart of the Nortli Pacific issued by the Navy Depart- 
 ment, United States, the spelling is Kamchatka. 
 
42 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 but are now attached to Japan, having been ex- 
 changed for Saghalien ^ in 1875. 
 
 Efforts have been made by the Japanese to colonise 
 the islands, but with indifferent success. A Russian 
 captain who is on board (a martyr to rheumatism ; 
 and no wonder, for he spent two years on one of 
 the Aleutian Islands I) tells us that the Russians are 
 making a success of Saghalien ; the reason we divined 
 to be that convict labour is employed. 
 
 The various names given by the sailors to the 
 " seas " and waves are quite a curiosity. It is 
 agreed that there are four kinds of sea waves : ^ 
 (i) Wind-waves, when the wind drives the waters 
 down in one direction, so that there is a corresponding 
 elevation in another. Billows raised in this way in 
 open ocean are sometimes forty feet, or even more, 
 from trough to crest. (2) A storm-wave is the wave 
 connected with a cyclone ; it accompanies the hurri- 
 cane as it travels onward, oval in form, or like a 
 soup-plate turned upside down. These storm-waves 
 sometimes inundate low-lying districts (the mouth 
 of the Hoogley, for example), and destroy thousands 
 of lives at one fell swoop. (3) Earthquake-waves 
 are caused by volcanic action. The awful injury 
 occasioned by the great wave at the eruption of 
 Thrakatau in the narrow Sunda Strait in August 
 
 ' The name is Sakhalien in the United States chart of the 
 North Pacific Ocean. 
 * See Lecky, " Wrinkles on Navigation." 
 
THE NORTH PACIFIC 43 
 
 1883 is a terrible illustration. (4) Tidal-waves are 
 caused by the joint attraction of both sun and moon. 
 But sailors also speak of a chopping,' i.e. a short 
 or cross sea. One of our officers ascribed the tossing 
 of our vessel to a " following sea," — that is, a sea 
 following the direction of our ship. If the ship were 
 turned round and faced such a sea, it would become 
 a " head sea." There are also a broken or irregular 
 sea, or ground swell ; a long, rolling sea, or rough ; a 
 smooth and heavy sea, and so on. 
 
 As we hasten westward, sometimes at sixteen or 
 seventeen knots an hour, our watches require altera- 
 tion day after day. The sun is the time-keeper for 
 all the world, and we must follow his lead. His 
 arrival at each meridian on the earth's surface is the 
 hour of noon for every place on that meridian. The 
 sailor especially reckons his time in this way. He 
 considers it noon as soon as the sun is " up," i.e. 
 on his meridian. When he is going westward, the 
 sun follows and overtakes him, and some time must 
 be dropped out. On our arrival at the meridian of 
 180° west, the i8th day of the month disappeared. 
 Monday died on Sunday night. 
 
 By this device, instead of being twelve hours 
 behind Greenwich, we became twelve hours ahead. 
 
 ' Some prefer "choppy," from the "chops," of the English 
 Channel and the "choppy" waves there. I have written the 
 word as in the Weather Report issued by the Navy Department 
 Bureau of Navigation, U.S.A. 
 
44 WANDERINGS,- WEST AND EAST 
 
 We have already used twelve hours in the lengthened 
 days, and now borrow twelve more to expend on 
 our way back to the starting point. If, however, 
 we were returning by the same route, on arriving 
 at the meridian 1 80° travelling eastward, "we should 
 count one day twice over ! As the sailor goes eastward 
 he shortens his day ; as he goes westward, he 
 lengthens it, in exact proportion to the difiference 
 of longitude made good, the constant rate in all 
 latitudes being one hour for every fifteen degrees 
 of his advance." ^ 
 
 Fire drill on one of these steamers is a pleasant 
 relief to the tedium of our routine life. The bell 
 is rung, and in a moment, from all quarters, rush 
 Chinamen, officers, seamen, and boys. The cooks 
 of the steerage, with a yellow band round their blue 
 dress, are required to attend, as well as every man 
 that can be spared. The fire-buckets are brought 
 out ; every one takes his appointed place ; the boats, 
 twelve in number (a few as large as the ships of 
 earlier ages) are let down some little distance, and 
 the tackle is carefully examined. John Chinaman, 
 away from his beloved fire, shivers in the cold wind, 
 and is right glad when his buckets are put back, 
 and he can go again under cover, and about his 
 ordinary work. 
 
 Another day, when the weather was fine, but 
 something like a gale was blowing, the sails were 
 ' Lecky, "Wrinkles on Navigation." 
 
THE NORTH PACIFIC 45 
 
 unfurled, and we were driven on by wind and steam. 
 Even if the sails are of no service while the engines 
 are at worl<, it is necessary to unfurl and hoist them, 
 otherwise they become damp and mouldy. The 
 tackle, too, might be out of order. Landsmen may 
 well watch this process of making and shortening 
 sail, if only to gain some idea of the dangers to 
 which seamen are exposed. If the task in a fresh 
 breeze seems perilous, what must it be in a gale? 
 One of the great liners conveying my daughter to 
 Hong Kong encountered a tempest last March (1897) 
 in the Bay of Biscay ; the captain, afraid of being 
 driven on shore, steamed straight against the storm 
 towards the Atlantic ; the ship was saved, but seven 
 seamen had legs, arms, or collar-bones broken. 
 
 The Sunday service is quite a feature of our ship 
 {Empress of India). The hymns and chants are 
 practised beforehand, so that nothing is left to chance. 
 At the appointed hour most of the sailors march 
 in : the passengers, too, almost all attend. Then the 
 captain enters and reads the service reverently and 
 well. If a clergyman is on board, he is asked to 
 take part and to give an address ; but the address 
 must not exceed ten minutes. The men are wanted 
 elsewhere ; the saloon too is wanted. Happy is the 
 man who can use his ten minutes well ! We have, 
 too, had a lecture on " Bees and Bee Keeping " ; a 
 concert, which brought about ;^io to the Naval 
 Charities ; Tableaux vivants ; and to-day (October 
 
46 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 23rd), as the weather is fine, and we are in the warm 
 " Japan current," deck sports, with the usual spoon- 
 and-potato contest, have been held. 
 
 But we are nearing Japan. The weather is warmer, 
 the sun is out, and every one is brisk and well. 
 We shall soon be in the " Tuscarora Deeps," where 
 the water is said to be as deep as in any part of 
 the world. "^ The name is taken from the United 
 States survey steamer Titscarora, so says an American 
 friend ; but a British officer of the Empress adds 
 that a still deeper part has been discovered by our 
 navy near the South Sea Islands, about 20° south of 
 the Equator, and 176 west of Greenwich. 
 
 We expect to-morrow morning to sight land, the 
 holy island of Kinkwa-zan, off the coast of Niphon ° 
 Island, and on the following morning to arrive at 
 Yokohama. Our arrival there will bring a not 
 unpleasant voyage to an end. 
 
 ' The depth marked on the chart is close on 4,700 fathoms, 
 but a depth of 5,200 fathoms, the mean of three soundings, has 
 recently been reached by the officers and men of the Royal 
 Navy at 20° south of the equator, and 176° west of Greenwich. 
 The point is not what is the greatest depth of the ocean, but 
 the greatest depth sounded. 
 
 ' Sometimes spelt Nipon ; called also the island of Bondo, 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 WHO that has spent twelve days on the dull 
 North Pacific does not feel a thrill of joy 
 when he enters the harbour of Yokohama? We 
 arrived about 5.30 a.m. ; and a more perfect morning 
 could not be imagined. The air was crisp, but not 
 cold ; the sun was bright, but not dazzling. Fuji, 
 the sacred mountain, formerly forbidden ground to 
 any but the baser sex, smiled serenely upon us, 
 welcoming all weary ones alike. The waters around, 
 far and wide, were alive with fishing-boats, some 
 just appearing on the waters, others gliding grace- 
 fully under sail ; while ships of all sizes, some men- 
 of-war, some large ocean steamers, reposed peacefully 
 not far away. We were soon surrounded by craft 
 of all kinds ; the sampans, impelled with marvellous 
 skill by dark-haired, sun-tanned, half-naked natives, 
 were a very lively feature of a charming scene. 
 
 What were my first impressions ? If I am to tell 
 the truth, I am bound to say that my first thought 
 was that the Japanese are a race of pigmies ! The 
 
 47 
 
48 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 average height of the men is probably about five 
 feet four and a half inches, and the contrast, at first, 
 between the tall, Mell-fed, and often coarse European 
 and the Jap, is very striking. In some parts of the 
 country, however, many tall men may be noticed, 
 aud in their favourite wooden clogs they appear 
 very tall. This first impression of their small size 
 wears off after a time, and old residents are said to 
 sympathise with. the opinion which the Japanese enter- 
 tain of Europeans, that they are decidedly coarse ! 
 The people generally regard us as a set of huge, 
 hairy, red-haired barbarians with green eyes.^ At 
 the famous Chrysanthemum Show held at Dango- 
 Zaka, not far from Tokyo, I noticed that Commodore 
 Perry, the American admiral who in 1853 compelled 
 Japan to open some of her ports, was represented as 
 a very hairy man, and his hair in tint a decided red. 
 The sailor who supported him was a Rufus also ; both 
 had green eyes, and Miss Bacon, in her "Japanese 
 Girls and Women," remarks that " foreigners who 
 have resided long in the country, see, to their own 
 surprise, that their own countrywomen look ungainly, 
 fierce, aggressive and awkward, among the small, 
 mild, shrinking and graceful Japanese ladies." I 
 dare not endorse such a statement ; but is it not well 
 
 ' " Green-eyed monsters with red hair like Shojo (apish 
 mythological beings, delighting in drunkenness) and with noses 
 like Tengu (long-nosed mythological beings) wearing clothes of 
 absurd forms and colours." — Hearn's " Kokoro,'' p. 179. 
 
JAPAN 51 
 
 that we should somtimees see ourselves as others 
 see us ? 
 
 Another early impression, that has not yet faded, 
 was occasioned by a meeting which I happened to 
 witness (on the first day of my arrival) of two elderly 
 Japanese ladies in a private house. As a matter of 
 course they had removed clogs or straw sandals. 
 One lady arrived in a jinrikisha (a light carriage on 
 two wheels, drawn by a runner) and was met on 
 the raised floor of the house by her friend. Both 
 sat in Japanese fashion on their legs and feet ; they 
 then proceeded to bow three or four times to each 
 other imtil their heads touched the ground and each 
 other. This process no doubt represented great 
 regard, corresponding to our shaking of hands. But 
 what would our ladies say about the pain in their 
 legs and back ? One needs an early training to 
 become accomplished in Japanese politeness. 
 
 Another impression made on my first day that 
 is still abiding, is the sight of a patient bull drawing 
 (dragging, perhaps I should say) a load of stones 
 up a steep hill. Our farmers evidently have some- 
 thing to learn about the use of their cattle ; I have 
 seen any number of bulls in different parts of the 
 country drawing light waggons or carrying loads ; 
 I have not noticed one cow ! The laws of Buddha, 
 be it remembered, forbid the taking of life in 
 any form : The strict Buddhist priest will not touch 
 even fish. Cows are not killed or milked (as a 
 
52 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 general rule). Milk, indeed, is almost unknown to 
 the Japanese as a people.' 
 
 But the gentlemen — I mean of course the bulls — are 
 expected to work, and, being of a mild disposition, 
 are found to be very useful in carrying or drawing 
 heavy loads. They are usually shod with rice-straw 
 sandals, to protect their feet. What was my last 
 impression ? As we left the harbour of Nagasaki on 
 our way to China, I exclaimed, " Japan is the most 
 beautiful country in the world ! " What can be 
 compared to it ? Switzerland has its Lake Lucerne 
 and its mountains covered with eternal snows. 
 British Columbia has its swift rivers, its deep valleys 
 and mountain heights, its wild canons and fiords, 
 its stately trees and ruddy fruits ; but where is there 
 anything to equal the exquisite verdure of the 
 mountain side at Nikko, Miyanoshita, and a hundred 
 other places? Where else does the maple, or any 
 other tree, display such bright-red leaves just as the 
 \\ inter is beginning ? Where is another Inland Sea 
 or a harbour surrounded by such mountains of 
 exquisite beauty as Nagasaki ? Even as you leave, 
 fresh beauties break upon the almost sated mind : 
 boats with lighted lanterns dance upon the waters 
 and defy the darkness of the night. " Don't use 
 the word kekko" (beautiful, magnificent, superb) 
 " before you have seen Nikko ! " says a well- 
 
 ' The Japanese doctors in the cities are now prescribing so 
 many " go " (lialf a pint) per day to their patients. 
 
JAPAN 53 
 
 known Japanese proverb, and Nikko, combining 
 natural beauties, mountain, river, lake, waterfalls, and 
 trees, with art in its most perfect form, is undoubtedly 
 one of the most glorious regions in the world. The 
 name " Nikko " does not represent a place so much 
 as a district. Here are Shinto and Buddhist shrines, 
 utterly different from all our Western ideas, yet 
 resplendent with beauty and the exercise of the 
 highest art. Here are avenues of cryptomerias equal 
 to anything in Canada or the States. In this district 
 too is Lake Chuzenji, four thousand three hundred 
 and seventy-five feet above the sea, surrounded by 
 waving woods, and so deep that it is said not to have 
 been fathomed in some parts. Above it rises the 
 Xantaizan Mountain, eight thousand one hundred and 
 fifty feet high, like a pyramid in shape, the resort 
 of countless pilgrims in autumn time. 
 
 No one can say that he has seen earth's best 
 beauties unless he has visited Japan. November is 
 probably the best of all months for a visit. The 
 weather, as a rule, is settled ; the chrysanthemum 
 and maple are in their brightest form, and the cold 
 of winter has not come. 
 
 But if Japan is beautiful, it is also volcanic, and 
 earthquakes are unfortunately far too frequent. 
 There are fifty-one active volcanoes in Japan, and 
 it is calculated that five hundred shocks are felt 
 every year. All ships making for Yokohama look 
 for Mihara, a volcano on Vries Island, two thousand 
 
54 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 five hundred feet high, from whose summit smoke 
 perpetually issues. 
 
 The Kurile Islands, which ships pass on the 
 voyage from Vancouver, receive their name from a 
 Russian word, signifying " to smoke." Many smoking 
 volcanoes exist on them. The legends connected 
 with those in Japan are very numerous. One asserts 
 that in the year 286 B.C. the earth opened, and Lake 
 Biwa, thirty-six miles long, and in some parts twelve 
 miles broad ' (the largest lake in Japan), was formed, 
 and at the same time Fuji arose. The torrents of 
 lava that have flowed down from Fuji on different 
 occasions (say the editors of Murray's famous hand- 
 book) must have been enormous ; one of these 
 streams extends fifteen miles in a direct line from 
 the summit. But most of the lava has long since 
 been covered up by the deep deposits of ashes 
 and scoriae. 
 
 Japan has the volcano Aso-San in the southern 
 Island, with the largest crater in the world ; 
 the diameter is from ten to fourteen miles. The 
 damage often done by these volcanoes, and by 
 earthquakes, is incalculable. So late as 1891 an 
 earthquake occurred which was felt over an area 
 as large as England. A line of houses along 
 a distance of nineteen miles from Nagoya to Gifu 
 was levelled. Large brick buildings in Nagoya 
 and Osaka, seventy-five miles from the seat of 
 ' The area is about the same as that of the Lake of Geneva. 
 
JAPAN 57 
 
 viaxiimmt disturbance, became a heap of ruins. 
 Travellers to Kj-oto will probably have the place 
 pointed out where the bridge over the Narara-gawa 
 gave way, the embankments having sunk so that 
 the rails were left suspended in mid air. Ten miles 
 north of Gifu, mud geysers appeared, and many 
 houses sank out of sight.' It is said that altogether 
 ten thousand persons lost their lives, twenty thou- 
 sand were injured, and a hundred and twenty-eight 
 thousand houses were destroyed. 
 
 Persons who have lived any time in Japan dread 
 these shocks for more reasons than one. Lamps 
 are thrown down, fire is scattered where everything 
 burns rapidly, and most disastrous consequences 
 often follow. 
 
 Floods and tidal waves are also at times very 
 destructive. Even after two or three days' heavy 
 rain, a large part of the country seems to be under 
 water. During the floods of 1885 a hundred and 
 forty-six bridges were cai-ried away in Osaka. 
 This city, containing (according to Murray) more 
 than four hundred thousand inhabitants, reminds 
 one of Rotterdam, or (as some think) of Venice. 
 But the comparison is no compliment to either city ! 
 The floods of 1889 in the Valley of the Totsu-gawa, 
 lower down called Kumano-gawa, are said to have 
 
 ' See Murray, under Gifu, and Professor Milne, F.R.S., " Earth- 
 quakes," in the International Scientific Series, and " Transactions 
 of the Seismological Society of Japan," vol. ix., Part II. 
 
58 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 been almost as destructive as the great Gifu 
 earthquake. 
 
 Tidal waves often do immense damage. Com- 
 modore Perry, in the treaty with Japan, arranged 
 that Shimoda should be an open port for American 
 shipping, and here the American minister resided 
 for a time. But in 1859 an earthquake and a huge 
 tidal wave injured the harbour to such a degree 
 that large ships cannot enter ; it also overwhelmed 
 the town. A lady resident tells me that the last 
 terrible event, the tidal wave on the east coast above 
 Sendai, in June 1896, has left memories of horror 
 not soon to be forgotten. 
 
 Japan is also the land of contrasts, or, as Mr. 
 Chamberlain in " Things Japanese," expresses the 
 matter, of " topsy-turvydom." It is strange to meet 
 three Japanese almost at one time, the first dressed 
 like an ordinary European ; the second wearing a 
 " billy-cock '' hat, Japanese clothes, but European 
 boots or shoes ; the third with no cover to his head 
 save straight black hair, with Japanese clothes, and 
 clogs three inches high, or rice-straw sandals. But 
 stranger still are the blackened mouths of the 
 married women. No nation probably has better 
 teeth than the Japanese. Their diet of rice and fish, 
 their abstinence too, from meat and sweets (compared 
 with Europeans), tend to lessen that wear and tear 
 which employ, yet perplex, our very best dentists. 
 We cleanse and whiten what teeth we have to the 
 
JAPAN 59 
 
 best of our ability. In Japan most women, as soon 
 as they are married, blacken them, for some mys- 
 terious reason. The effect (for these women almost 
 always have their mouths open) is often ludicrous. 
 We keep what hair we can on our heads as long 
 as possible ; the shaven heads of their old men (and 
 also of the babies) are enough to excite compassion. 
 Our non-abstainers drink wine after, rather than 
 before, dinner. The Japanese take their sak^ (rice- 
 brandy, looking like weak sherry) before they begin 
 to eat. Their books begin at the end, and end at 
 our beginning. The " foot notes " are printed at the 
 top of the page, not at the bottom. An old cat 
 with us is an unpleasant epithet ; but the singing 
 girls of Japan, when very attractive, are as a com- 
 pliment called cats ! There is a superstition that 
 cats (especially those with long tails) have the power 
 of bewitching men, and so these singing girls, be- 
 witching their admirers by their artful, magic ways, 
 are often called "cats." Babies are carried on the 
 backs of their mothers, sisters, and even brothers ; 
 not like ours, in the arms. As they look upward 
 they seem very happy, bright little creatures ; but 
 some trace the weak sight, so common in Japan, 
 to this exposure to the sun in their earliest infancy.^ 
 
 ' The miserable European caps, with their narrow brims, so 
 popular in Japan, are no protection for the eyes against the 
 blazing sun ; the bad oil in their lamps may be another cause 
 of weak sight. 
 
60 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 A horse in the stable is placed in just the reverse 
 way to ours. His head is where we think his 
 tail should be ! He is fed from a tub near the 
 entrance. The mane is made to hang on the left 
 side, not the right side, as with us ; but a Japanese 
 mounts his horse on the right side, and all parts of 
 the harness are fastened on the right side. The 
 women never cover their heads, and the sight of my 
 wife's white straw hat seemed to astonish and amuse 
 the men, women, and children, in many parts of 
 Japan, much more than my own solar topee. We 
 like a soft or substantial pillow. The Japanese use a 
 pillow of singular shape — a stuffed cushion of wood ! 
 Great care is bestowed by the younger women on 
 their hair ; the barber's aid is frequently invoked, 
 and the elaborate headgear would be disarranged 
 by the use of such a pillow as ours ! Boats are 
 hauled on the beach just in the opposite way to ours, 
 stern first, not last. Mourning is a matter of much 
 account, as it is among other nations who derive their 
 religion even indirectly from the Chinese. Special 
 mourning garments must be worn, and animal food 
 must not be taken. Visits must be paid at appointed 
 times to the grave of the deceased ; but white 
 mourning garments are used when we should use 
 black. 
 
 Let me add one or two more contrasts : they never 
 shake hands, but bow profoundly and gracefully ; 
 one bow rarely suffices ! And in entering a house 
 
JAl'AN 6 1 
 
 they don't remove their hats as we do, but their 
 clogs or sandals. A Japanese floor is rubbed so 
 carefully that in course of time it becomes like 
 polished oak, and deserves the respect paid to it by 
 all Japanese, as well as by all who desire their esteem. 
 All woodwork, as a rule, is wiped once or twice daily 
 with the water which has been used in the bath, no 
 longer hot, but warm. No soap is used, but the 
 water (they say) is rather greasy ! As any number 
 of persons often use the same water, their idea that 
 the water is rather greasy may be accepted as 
 correct ! 
 
 We regard foxes as " vermin," an enemy of game 
 birds and fowls, fair objects of the chase ; but in 
 Japan the fox possesses (as not a few believe) 
 supernatural powers. A lovely maiden who had 
 bewitched the Mikado, the Emperor of Japan (de- 
 scendant of the Sun Goddess, as the mass of the 
 people believe), was driven by the influence of 
 the court magician from the imperial presence, where- 
 upon she flew away to the moor of Nasu, and there 
 resumed her natural shape, that of a fox,' so says 
 a famous Japanese legend. These demon foxes are 
 supposed to enter into human beings like the evil 
 spirits of Scripture. Doves with us typify all that 
 is engaging, loving, charming, and peaceful, but in 
 Japan they fly about the temples dedicated to 
 Hachiman, the God of War ! They are supposed 
 ' " Murray's Guide,' p. 196. 
 
62 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 to carry his messages — " strange messengers frofn 
 the God of War." ' 
 
 We use knives and forks at our meals ; the 
 Japanese are content with chopsticks. Let any one 
 who thinks himself clever with his fingers try to lift 
 an egg with chopsticks, and to keep it up ! 
 
 Decent people among us use soap and water, 
 when necessary : bran-bags are used in Japan. A 
 handful of bran, sewn into a small linen bag, is said 
 to make a good substitute for soap, and to be a cure 
 for chapped hands. 
 
 ' " Murray's Guide." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 JAPANESE LIFE : WORK, WAGES AND FOOD 
 
 T 
 
 HE strikes and combination for higher wages 
 in Great Britain and elsewhere make the 
 question of work and wages in the Far East of no 
 slight importance. The sight of the cotton and other 
 factories at Tokyo, Osaka, and ether localities in the 
 East, is a visible warning to the English-speaking 
 tourist that Eastern nations are entering into com- 
 petition with the mill-owners of Manchester. In 
 going up the Yang-tse-Kiang river from Woosung 
 to Shanghai, the first large building v\ hich attracted 
 our notice was said to be a cotton-mill ; and Messrs. 
 Jardine & Matheson, one of the first British firms 
 in the East, have established a cotton-mill at Hong- 
 Kong. 
 
 Fortunately it is not difficult to obtain accurate 
 information as to wages in Japan. The Japan Times, 
 published at Tokyo, the capital (formerly called 
 Yedo), sent a comm.issioner in 1897 to visit the 
 chief factorie.s, and made his reports public. A 
 Japanese gentleman, who writes excellent English, 
 Mr. Takane Fusatoro, has also given us the results 
 
 63 
 
64 WANDERINGS, ^YE.ST AND EAST 
 
 of his careful investigations in the Far East — an 
 English edition of a Japanese magazine ; and Miss 
 Scidmore, a foreign resident, furnishes many details 
 in her " Jinrikisha Days." 
 
 Wandering one Sunday morning in Kyoto in 
 search of the American Episcopal Church, under the 
 charge of a guide who professed to know the way, 
 but did not, the rattle of the shuttle, or of some 
 machinery, was heard as we passed a large mill. 
 All hands were hard at work on Sunday morning. 
 It is true that the British Sabbath ' has been 
 introduced into the Government offices, which are 
 now closed, just as ours are. But there is no doubt 
 about the fact that workers in many mills are 
 expected to work as a rule seven days a week 
 and eleven hour.i a day. 
 
 The district of Tokyo comprises a population 
 of one million eight hundred thousand. This figure 
 is rather in excess of the usual number given, but 
 in any case the capital city and the area around 
 are densely populated. As may be imagined, count- 
 less factory chimneys rise on all sides. Within a 
 district of twenty-six square miles more than three 
 thousand factories ^ of different kinds are in opera- 
 tion. These include cotton-spinning, paper, printing, 
 
 ' This .Sabbath is a mere holiday of convenience, and has 
 no religious significance. The Officials finding most foreign 
 offices closed on Sunday, gladly followed suit. 
 
 ' These are the figures of Mr. Fusatoro ; they seem large. 
 
JAPANESE LIFE : WORK, WAGES AND FOOD 65 
 
 tobacco, and other mills, equipped with modern 
 machinery and employing over twenty thousand 
 hands. A return to the Mill Owners' Association 
 from three of the largest mills, using an aggregate 
 number of seventy thousand spindles, and having 
 a capacity for turning out two hundred and forty 
 thousand pounds of yarn per month, is given by 
 Mr. Fusatoro. It is for November 1896, and runs 
 thus : — 
 
 
 No. of 
 spindles 
 
 A 
 
 40,578 
 
 B 
 
 23,686 
 
 C 
 
 4,925 
 
 No. of Hours of 
 days at work in 
 work. a day.* 
 
 28i 
 
 26 
 25 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 No. of 
 
 
 Average 
 
 Ave rage 
 
 male 
 
 No. of 
 
 daily 
 
 daily 
 
 Work- 
 
 females. 
 
 wage of 
 
 wag:e of 
 
 men, 
 
 
 men. 
 
 women. 
 
 
 
 d. 
 
 (i. 
 
 568 
 
 1,763 
 
 6-1 
 
 4 
 
 357 
 
 1,204 
 
 5f 
 
 3i 
 
 56 
 
 240 
 
 6i 
 
 3| 
 
 The figures, it should be observed, are given by 
 the mill owners themselves. Of the thirty days in 
 November, two are public holidays : November 3rd, 
 the Mikado's (or Emperor's) birthday, universally 
 observed ; and November 23rd, the second harvest 
 festival. But there are numerous local as well as 
 general festivals, and these perhaps give the mill 
 hands more respite from their work than we might 
 at first suppose. 
 
 The commissioner of the Japan Times and Mr. 
 
 * N.B. — By two relays of mill-hands— a double shift, as we say in 
 England. 
 
 5 
 
66 WANDERINGS, \YEST AND EAST 
 
 Fusatoro agree in stating that the mills in Japan 
 run as a rule at least twenty-two hours per day, 
 the operatives being required to work ten and a 
 half or eleven hours per day, taking up the night 
 work by weekl}' turns, yet receiving no more for 
 work at night than for that done in the day. 
 Imagine our English workpeople toiling all night, 
 yet receiving no more than if the work were done 
 by day ! Let us hope that a better state of things 
 will soon dawn in the " Land of the Rising Sun." 
 
 The Earl of Shaftesbury has rendered his name 
 immortal by his successful efforts on behalf of our 
 English mill hands. Let us trust that with the 
 introduction of Christianity into Japan, another 
 Shaftesbury ma}- arise and do equally good work 
 in the Far East. 
 
 If all the truth is to be told, the condition of 
 affairs in many Japanese mills is simply revolting. 
 Those working in the mills are usually under a 
 contract to ser\c for three or five years, and are not 
 allowed to leave the service. The greatest care is 
 taken to prevent desertion. " Most of the spinning 
 mills and other factories of Osaka (a town of nearly 
 five hundred thousand inhabitants)," says the Japan 
 Times, " have ' black holes.' They are subterranean 
 rooms, looking just like ordinary rooms, j'et totally 
 destitute of light. What are the holes for ? They 
 are the rooms where operatives, decoyed from other 
 factories, are secretly kept, so that they may not 
 
JAPANESE LIFE : WORK, WAGES AND FOOD 6"] 
 
 be noticed when detectives from those factories 
 arrive to search for them. Not unfrequently they 
 quite lose their senses for a time, from bad ventila- 
 tion and horror of the rooms." The same correspon- 
 dent states that the farther he goes from Tokyo, 
 the worse do the condition and treatment of the 
 mill hands become. He describes the methods of 
 kidnapping girls, the way in which their correspon- 
 dence is intercepted, the " bully system " on which 
 the spinning factories at Osaka are conducted, and, 
 indeed, uses language which could not well be 
 repeated. 
 
 " The ages of the operatives," says Mr. Fusatoro, 
 " range from eleven to forty, those betwpen seventeen 
 and twenty-five forming the majority. The women 
 are brought chiefly from the country, female children 
 above ten years of age being taken as apprentices. 
 They are boarded and lodged, receiving at first 
 thirty or forty sen {y\d. or lO^.) per month as 
 pocket-money. All are required, irrespective of 
 age, to work full time, whether by day or night. 
 After some months they earn eight to ten sen {2d. 
 or 2\d^ a day, yet are not able to earn as much 
 as twenty-five or thirty sen {6\d. or j\d.) until after 
 four or five years." 
 
 Such is the condition and such are the work and 
 wages of mill hands in the most lovely country in 
 the world ! At the time when we landed in Japan 
 a strike of the Samyo Railway mechanics had just 
 
68 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 occurred. Three hundred hands are usually employed. 
 These receive 8^d., ii^d., and is. S|^. per day, 
 according to grade. The rise in the price of rice 
 was assigned as a cause of the strike. There are 
 large engineering works in Japan, also technical 
 schools and competent engineers. I myself met a 
 Japanese engineer employed on one of the railways, 
 who had spent seven or eight years in England at 
 large engineering works in Newcastle and Glasgow 
 What do our Amalgamated Engineers say to the 
 wages earned in Japan by the skilled mechanics? 
 
 Silk is the most valuable of the exports ; and planta- 
 tions (plots, perhaps I should say) of young mulberry- 
 trees arc in evidence almost everywhere. Silk is 
 sent away mostly in the raw state, reeled as filatures, 
 re-reels, and hanks, as cocoons and waste silks. 
 Manufactured goods are exported chiefly in the 
 shape of handkerchiefs.' This export trade grows 
 steadily, and is worth at least ;£'3,ooo,ooo per annum. 
 
 These mulberry-trees, by the bye, are useful not 
 only for the leaves and fruit, but also for the wood. 
 The paper makers purchase the stem for the sake of 
 the inside bark. What are the hours and wages 
 of those engaged in this industry ? The worms are 
 reared in the homes of the people. " Each house 
 becomes a nursery for worms, and a home factory." ^ 
 Every member of the family engages in the work. 
 
 ' Chamberlain's " Things Japanese,'' p. 438. 
 ' " Jinrikisha Days," p. 256. 
 
JAPANESE LIFE : WORK, WAGES AND FOOD 69 
 
 Wages in silk districts, says Miss Scidmore, range 
 from eight to twenty cents. (4^. to 10^.) for a day's 
 work of eighteen hours, the higher price being paid 
 only to the most expert and experienced ; yet she 
 describes the silk districts and villages as always 
 thriving, prosperous, and tidily kept, forming peaceful 
 and contented communities. Land is usually attached 
 to the houses, and assists to maintain the family. 
 The description given of this industry is interesting. 
 The houses are all spacious, exquisitely clean, ven- 
 tilated, and kept at an even temperature. Sheets of 
 paper coated with eggs, and looking like so much 
 sandpaper, will in a few days fill the waiting trays 
 with tiny white worms. The mulberry leaves have 
 to be chopped as fine as dust for these new-comers, 
 which are daily lifted to fresh trays by means of 
 chopsticks, the fingers being too rough and strong 
 for such delicate handlings. For a week at a time 
 the tiny gluttons crawl and eat, then take a day 
 and night of sleep, maintaining this routine for five 
 weeks, when, having grown large enough, they begin 
 to wind themselves up in cocoons. Then the cauldron 
 of boiling water and the whirhng reel change the 
 yellow balls into great skeins of shining silk, ready 
 to be twisted, tied, and woven, either at home or 
 across the seas. 
 
 Tea comes next after silk among the exports of 
 Japan. The shrubs (not unlike our box used in 
 some gardens for edging, or our privet) may be 
 
70 WANRERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 noticed in all the southern parts, both in the lower 
 grounds and on terraces, rising tier above tier on 
 the hill- or mountain-sides. Green tea is a favourite 
 drink, taken without sugar or milk, in small cups. 
 At the railway stations one may purchase a tiny tea- 
 pot filled with hot water poured on one or two 
 leaves, and a tiny cup, for a very trifling sum. This 
 green tea goes chiefly to the United States ; in 
 Europe teas from India and China are preferred : 
 yet the amount exported is said to exceed forty 
 million pounds annually. The leaf of all teas in- 
 tended for exportation must be subjected to "firing"' ; 
 even if despatched to the ports, it must be " fired " 
 before the journey, and undergo again a similar process 
 before it is sent over the seas. The tea-leaves are 
 placed in a large iron pan beneath which is a slow 
 charcoal fire. The " coolies " (as they are called by 
 most English-speaking people) stand over the pans 
 and stir the leaves continually with their hands. 
 Indigo, Prussian blue, and other colouring matter, 
 are added, according to the fancy of the market. 
 The second firing of tea intended for distant exporta- 
 tion, and for special orders, is a more elaborate affair 
 than the first ; it is sometimes called " polishing." 
 The tea season lasts for four months, and the " firers " 
 (according to Miss Scidmore)^ receive about 6a^. per 
 
 ' A resident remarks that "Jinrikisha Days" was published 
 several years ago, and wages in some districts have certainly 
 risen. 
 
JAPANESE GIRLS AND CHILDREN. 
 
JAPANESE LIFE : WORK, WAGES AND FOOD "J I 
 
 day for thirteen hours' work, less expert hands about 
 '^d. for the same time. Those who sort and finally 
 pack the tea (after it has been sifted and picked 
 over) earn 'j\d. 
 
 The coolies who come in crowds on boats as soon 
 as it is light, to coal a ship, or to discharge fi cargo, 
 are quite a feature of the country. The air at dawn 
 in November is often cold, and almost every one, 
 men, women, and lads, have on their heads a white, 
 blue, or coloured cotton covering, looking, indeed, so 
 bright and clean that it seems unfitted for such dirty 
 work. But the cleanliness and tidy habits of these 
 people generally cannot be too highly praised. Then 
 they proceed to arrange the apparatus, — a series of 
 steps from the barges to the coal-bunk. As soon as 
 it is ready, the work of passing up the coal from hand 
 to hand in small rattan baskets is begun and con- 
 tinued most merrily for hours. 
 
 Fond as the people are of water (the bath and 
 bathing are a national passion), rain alarms them : in 
 wet weather they won't come coaling ! As soon as 
 the dirty work is done you may notice them cleaning 
 their hands in the water. If cleanliness is next to 
 godliness, the Japanese are on the right path ! For 
 a day's toil in coaling a ship they receive (I am 
 told) thirty sen, i.e. about ^\d. The 'riksha men or 
 runners who draw the two-wheeled carriages, both 
 in the cities and the country (where the roads permit), 
 number about sixty thousand, according to Mr. 
 
74 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 Fusatoro. This statement is quite credible, for they 
 are to be seen in all parts of the empire, and the 
 wonder is ho\\' so many can find employment. Some 
 few men own their 'riksha (the cost ranges from 
 ten yen (£i) to fifteen (30^-.); the others hire the 
 vehicles at a cost of three to five sen (^d. to i^d.) 
 per day. The average earnings are said to be about 
 thirty sen (/W.) each. 
 
 The married men live usually in an alley or street 
 inhabited by poor people and built in a row ten 
 by fifty feet ; this row is partitioned off into four 
 houses, giving a space of ten feet by twelve to each. 
 There are no dining- or bed-rooms in these houses ; 
 the front room of each is used for all purposes, and 
 a little space in the rear constitutes the kitchen. 
 
 The mother and children assist in finding food and 
 paying the rent. The latter ranges from sixty sen 
 (is. 3^.) to one yen (2s.) per month. This class is 
 said to be typical of the common labourer. The 
 pawn-shop is described to be even more popular 
 in Japan than in England, and instead of the public- 
 house and dram-shop (as in English-speaking 
 countries), the eating-house (according to a Japanese 
 proverb) is the place where the working man empties 
 his pocket. 
 
 The small province of .Shima, to the south of Owari 
 Bay has long been famous for its female divers, who 
 evidently earn more than the common Japanese 
 workman. Bare to the waist, with a red nether 
 
JAPANESE LIFE : WORK, WAGES AND FOOD 75 
 
 garment, they fish up sea-ears and a kind of sea- 
 weed, said to make a dehcious jelly. Not only do 
 they dive, but they do most of the field-work, which 
 elsewhere men and women share alike. They support 
 their fathers, brothers, and husbands ; these loll about, 
 smoke, play chess, and are (in a word) the weaker 
 vessels ! Few girls find husbands unless they are 
 good divers ! Even the wife of a man in easy cir- 
 cumstances is forced by public opinion to gain her 
 living aquatically.^ 
 
 It is often said that wages and prices are rising 
 in Japan, and the guides, who have raised their 
 charge from one to two yen (2j. to 4s.) per day, 
 are fond of impressing this statement upon innocent 
 travellers. No doubt rice and charcoal are dearer ; 
 higher wages, therefore, are needed. But wages and 
 prices fluctuate in Japan, just as elsewhere. Where- 
 ever the European appears in the East, prices are 
 sure to rise. He wants more, needs more, will have 
 more than the simple Asiatic. But are there no facts 
 the other way? In the //afisei Zass/ii, " a. monthly 
 magazine in English edited by Japanese," for Sep- 
 tember, 1897, I read that owing to the astonishing 
 fall in silver, nearly all the silver mines -in Japan 
 have stopped work of late : five thousand miners, for 
 instance, have been discharged at the Innai mine. 
 The Japanese papers are full of the commercial 
 failures at Osaka, the second city of the Empire. 
 ' See an interesting account in Murray's Guide Book, p. 256. 
 
^6 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 These failures will tend to reduce rather than raise 
 the prices of labour. 
 
 What food do these people eat ? The answer is 
 very simple, for there is little variety. There are 
 usually three meals a day, one, the lightest, when 
 they rise, another at noon, the last about sunset. No 
 animal food, except fish, is eaten ; Buddha enjoins 
 that not even an ant should be killed. The country 
 people who raise rice often cannot afford to eat it, 
 but live on millet, barley, fish, and vegetables. The 
 " daikon," a large, strong-smelling radish, like an 
 elongated turnip, is grown everywhere. Small boxes 
 of rice and pickled fish may often be noticed in the 
 trains ; chopsticks are produced, and the contents 
 soon disappear. The poor in the cities usually have 
 rice, bean-soup, and pickled vegetables for breakfast ; 
 rice, pickled vegetables, and fish for their later meals. 
 Tea, without sugar and milk, is the chief beverage. 
 
 Mr. Fusatoro says that the 'riksha men, on earn- 
 ing a good wage, go off to a restaurant and spend ten or 
 fifteen seneach(2|(f.or3i<^.). For this sum they procure 
 three bowls of boiled rice, a dish of fish (boiled, baked, 
 broiled, or raw) and pickled vegetables,' together 
 with a pint or two of sak6 (rice-brandy : compared, 
 however, to weak sherry kept in a beer-bottle !). 
 Surely in this world there is no accounting for tastes. 
 
 ' Besides the daikon there are the sweet potato, and beans 
 (very common), turnips, the ordinary European potato (in some 
 few places), the egg-plant, cabbages, etc. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 WANDERINGS EASTWARD: HONG-KONt; 
 
 HONG-KONG, the "isle of fragrant streams," 
 as the name signifies in the language of the 
 Chinese, is now undoubtedly one of the most mar- 
 vellous islands in the world. Eleven miles only at 
 its greatest length, with a breadth of only two in 
 some parts, and little more than four in others, it 
 forms a centre of commerce which, already vast, con- 
 tinues to increase from year to year. The harbour 
 lies between the mainland of China and the island, 
 having narrow entrances at either end ; vessels use 
 each of these as occasion may require, according to 
 the quarter from which they are coming. Thirty 
 miles away to the south there is a lighthouse on 
 Gap Rock, and a cable has been laid from the Rock 
 to the city of Victoria, to give notice of the approach 
 of vessels from the south. 
 
 The harbour has an area of ten square miles, and 
 is one of the finest and best in the world ; it may 
 also claim to be amongst the most beautiful. Vessels 
 of all nationalities resort to it. It is a centre from 
 
 77 
 
78 \YANDKRINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 which there is direct steam communication to all the 
 chief ports of every country. Hong-Kong is a free 
 port, and no complete official return of the imports 
 and exports appears to be taken. The value of its 
 trade, however, is roughly estimated to amount to 
 about ;^so,ooo,ooo per annum.' In 1895 the vessels 
 that entered the port numbered 19,374 (about 50 
 a day), of 6,367,702 tons, and 22,798 vessels of 
 6,746,734 tons cleared with cargoes. Besides these, 
 there entered in ballast 11,726 vessels of 1,249,301 
 tons, and there cleared 8,2r8 vessels of 845,549 tons. 
 The British vessels that entered were 3,308 of 
 4,297,342 tons, and the British vessels that cleared 
 were 3,318 of 4,292,295 tons. The German vessels 
 came next: 638 of 744,811 tons that entered, and 
 631 of 737,841 tons that cleared. But the Chinese 
 junks that entered numbered 26,554 of 1,848,705 tons, 
 and a rather smaller number cleared. P'rom these 
 figures it is e\ident that Hong-Kong is one of the 
 chief commercial ports in existence : indeed, it is 
 said to have a sea-trade inferior only to London and 
 Liverpool. 
 
 As might be expected, there are extensive docks 
 and dockyards at Kowloon, a dock at Aberdeen, as 
 well as a Government dockyard in the city of Victoria. 
 The former are owned by a private company. Occa- 
 sionally there are a large number of vessels belonging 
 
 ' Hong-Kong Directory. Whitaker gives ;^2d,ooo,ooo — a 
 considerable discrepancy. 
 
M'ANDERINGS EASTWARD: HONG-KONG 8 1 
 
 to the British or other navies in the harbour, and 
 war-ships of Germany, Russia, and other nations, are 
 repaired in these docks. But our Government reserves 
 the right to use the largest docks at short notice, 
 whenever occasion may require, and it is evident that, 
 while every courtesy and reasonable assistance are 
 accorded to others, British interests are not neglected. 
 A large contribution was made by Government to 
 the original cost. The dock at Aberdeen is used 
 only for clearing the bottoms of ships, as the district 
 is malarious. 
 
 Opposite to Victoria, the capital of the island, 
 lies Kowloon (sometimes spelt Kau-lung, " Nine 
 Dragons"), a small peninsula with an area of four 
 square miles. This stretches out into the harbour, 
 and almost divides it into two parts. Sterile and 
 desolate in its rear in some directions, it is full of 
 life and activity along the shore. A large praya, or 
 esplanade, with a massive granite wall, has been 
 made just opposite Victoria ; there are five wharves, 
 as well as a goodly range of " go-downs," ^ docks, 
 rifle-ranges for soldiers and police, barracks for the 
 Hong-Kong Regiment (chiefly Pathans), a mosque 
 for the Mohammedan soldiers, an observatory, and 
 many fine houses. 
 
 ' This is a favourite term in the East for warehouses and 
 buildings especially constructed to store goods temporarily in 
 course of transit to the interior, or other parts. The word is 
 said to be derived from a Malay word, signifying storehouse. 
 
 6 
 
82 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 But Kowloon is nothing compared with Victoria, 
 the beautiful capital of this once barren and uninvit- 
 ing island. A rugged mountain ridge, running from 
 east to west, rises abruptly in one part to a height 
 of 1,823 feet, the highest point being Victoria Peak, 
 where a flag has been erected to signal the approach 
 of all vessels entering the port. 
 
 At the foot of this range on the north lies the city, 
 stretching along the shore for four miles, with a sea- 
 wall strongly built of large granite blocks, extending 
 the whole way. The solid, permanent character of all 
 the buildings must strike the observation of most ; even 
 those on the east and west, inhabited by the Chinese, 
 are built in a substantial fashion, though often dis- 
 figured by apparitions and objects making a strange 
 medley. Above the city, with its wide esplanade, 
 handsome public buildings, warehouses, and Chinese 
 " hongs," ' rise churches and European residences, tier 
 above tier, all built in the same substantial style ; 
 while bungalows and large houses are visible on 
 the summits of the hills. The city is sometimes said 
 to resemble Naples, but the hills here rise more 
 abruptly than at the latter place. A cable tram 
 draws the traveller many hundred feet up to Victoria 
 Gap, near the Peak, in nine minutes, and the air of 
 the Peak, according to my experience, is far more 
 wholesome than the air a thousand feet below. 
 
 If the visitor desires to see the island at its best, 
 ' A Chinese name for a factory or mercantile house. 
 
WANDERINGS EASTWARD : HONG-KONG 83 
 
 he should visit it in the cool season, — preferably in 
 December or January. There are excursions to 
 various places of great interest. Victoria Peak, the 
 highest point in the island, is easily reached. The 
 view from this point on a clear day is magnificent. 
 Below is the harbour, with its motley array of vessels ; 
 and a considerable part of the city, with its countless 
 activities, is also visible. Around are various islands 
 belonging to the Ladrone and other groups. To the 
 south-east of the island, broken peaks, some barren, 
 others covered with pine-woods, rise at intervals. 
 The alternating valleys possess views of ceaseless 
 interest. Opposite are the mountains which separate 
 Kowloon from China ; one of them, Tai-mo-shan, has 
 an elevation of over three thousand feet. 
 
 The Bowen Road offers a specially attractive walk. 
 This is a level path, four hundred feet above the 
 harbour, running over a conduit which conveys the bulk 
 of the water used in the city from the Tytam Reservoir 
 to the Albany Filter Beds. Following the contour 
 of the hills, it gives a continually varying panorama 
 of the harbour below and the mountains beyond. 
 The pedestrian who follows its winding course for 
 five miles to its termination at the head of the famous 
 " Happy Valley," will be amply rewarded. 
 
 The Happy Valley forms a perfect amphitheatre, 
 the hills on all sides but one enclosing a circular 
 expanse of level turf, devoted to the recreation of 
 the people. This space is girdled by the racecourse. 
 
84 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 Here, in February, the annual race-meeting is held, 
 attracting a vast concourse of people from many 
 parts of China, to witness the races. Even the 
 apathetic natives are enthusiastic over this event. 
 On the western slopes, close to the grand stand, lie 
 the silent dead, whose resting-place, beautified with 
 bright flowers, and shaded by waving palms, over- 
 looks the scenes of activity and pleasure below. In 
 this cemetery graves are dug ready to receive those 
 who may fall in life's contest — for the exigencies of 
 the climate require that there should be very little 
 delay before the dead are laid in their last earthly 
 bed. The sorrowing survivors have hardly realised 
 the loss that came with the sunrise ere the setting rays 
 of the same sun fall on their performance of the last 
 sacred rites. Here Parsee and Protestant, Roman 
 Catholic, Jew, and Moslem, lay their dead. But for 
 each religious body there is a separate ground. 
 The Parsee and Protestant divisions are adorned 
 with palms and flowers, cultivated with so much 
 skill as almost to rival the Botanic Gardens in the 
 centre of the city. The Chinese have their cemeteries 
 on the slopes of Mount Davis on the west, and 
 Mount Caroline on the east, which serve for the city 
 of Victoria ; there is too a Chinese cemetery for 
 every village. 
 
 No one, on first landing in Victoria, can fail to be 
 struck with the variety and mixture of races there. 
 
 Here comes a red-coated, white-helmeted British 
 
WANDERINGS EASTWARD : HONG-KONG 87 
 
 soldier, walking with head erect and a step that 
 seems to indicate his conscious connection with a 
 conquering race ; there goes a swarthy, red-turbaned 
 Pathan soldier, six feet high at least, bearded, un- 
 assuming in gait, yet firm and resolute ; here is a 
 Chinese policeman, who scatters the countless young 
 Chinamen playing in the streets with a mere toss 
 of his hand. Then there are grave, solid-looking 
 Parsees, with hats which rise vertically, yet do not 
 shade the eyes ; Sikh policemen, tall, dark-haired, 
 and not unlike the Pathan soldiers ; a few British 
 " Bobbies," clad as in our own country ; Chinamen 
 without end, some well dressed, others half-naked, 
 carrying burdens of all kinds ; English cricket- and 
 tennis-players ; British, American, German, and other 
 sailors ; Chinese processions ; now and then a Chinese 
 lady walking on her stumps ; one or two companies 
 of soldiers off to Stanley for a twenty-mile march ; 
 Japanese ladies ; business-men or visitors hurrying 
 to and fro, often in 'rikshas ; delicate ladies or 
 well-faring men, carried by three or four bearers 
 in a sedan-chair, — all make up a scene of never- 
 ending interest. 
 
 Who are employed to keep this mixed multitude 
 in order ? The responsibility is great, and the task 
 by no means an easy one. Canton, with its enormous 
 population, is but ninety-five miles distant, while 
 Hong-Kong lies at the mouth of the Canton River. 
 The steamers which ply daily between Victoria and 
 
88 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 Canton often convey six or seven hundred Chinese. 
 The Chinese population of Hong-Kong is about 
 230,000 ; of Canton, it is said to be 2,000,000 ! 
 
 Detectives and British police, in the well-known 
 blue, are usually present at the departure and arrival 
 of all steamers ; and it is well they are. There are 
 many secret societies among Chinamen ; the colony, 
 indeed, would not be safe were not some of these 
 forbidden and nipped in the bud. Chinamen are not 
 unfrequently deported. The great proportion of 
 Chinese live in Victoria, the population of which 
 numbers about 1 80,000 ; Kowloon contains 20,000 in- 
 habitants. Upwards of 20,000 Chinese live in boats. 
 The resident European and American population 
 does not number more than 4,500. Pas.t experience 
 has proved that a strong arm and stern rule are 
 as necessary here as among other Eastern nations. 
 This point the British Government has not over- 
 looked. There is a police force numbering about 
 500 men, under a British superintendent. Of these 
 a fifth part are British or European-born ; there are 
 also a large number of Indians (200), chiefly Sikhs. 
 Their tall figures, made more imposing by the red 
 turban, may be seen almost anywhere ; and it 
 appears to be the general opinion that they are a 
 most efficient body. There are also 200 Chinamen 
 (or Lukongs) wearing a special dress ; Chinese are 
 also employed as detectives. In addition to these 
 there is a strong garrison, engineers, artillery, and a 
 
WANDERINGS EASTWARD : HONG-KONG 89 
 
 regiment of British infantry, besides a Hong-Kong 
 regiment, consisting chiefly of Pathans from North 
 India ; numbering altogether over 3000. There is, 
 moreover, a small squadron for harbour defence, and 
 sometimes as many as ten or more vessels of the 
 British Navy may be seen in the harbour. All these 
 forces are available for the preservation of order, as 
 well as for the security of the colony. 
 
 Hong-Kong appears to be very prosperous. Build- 
 ings and improvements are proceeding in all direc- 
 tions. Chinese men, lads, and women may be seen 
 carrying small loads ot earth in a rattan basket, 
 or bricks bound together, or heavy stones, with 
 surprising skill. Half a dozen or more tie a rope 
 round a stone and carry it to its destination. No 
 horses, mules, or any beasts of burden, are employed. 
 There are scarcely any on the island. Labour is 
 very cheap, and any amount of it can be obtained 
 from the mainland opposite. Wood is almost all 
 sawn by manual labour ; it is a sight to see the half- 
 naked Chinamen sawing a huge piece of timber under 
 a blazing sun. 
 
 The water of the island is obtained by impounding 
 the streams, and is of excellent quality. A reservoir 
 was first constructed at Pokfulum, three miles from 
 the city, five hundred and fifty feet above the 
 sea-level. This reservoir, which still supplies a 
 small portion of the city, will hold 70,000,000 gallons. 
 In 1888 a second reservoir was completed in the 
 
go WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 Tytam valley, the water being brought to the city 
 through a mile of tunnel and four miles of conduit, 
 over which runs the Bowen Road, previously men- 
 tioned. The reservoir was enlarged in 1896, and will 
 now hold 410,000,000 gallons, the highest water level 
 being five hundred and ten feet above the sea. The 
 average daily consumption is about sixteen gallons 
 per head, exclusive of trade supplies, which amount 
 to about three gallons per head more, making a total 
 of nineteen gallons, a by no means excessive con- 
 sumption for a city lying within the tropics. It must 
 be borne in mind, however, that very little water is 
 used for municipal purposes, whilst the harbour is 
 available for bathing. Water can be supplied to all 
 houses in the city and hill district. The city is 
 supplied by gravitation, and water-motors have been 
 erected for pumping into reservoirs built in suitable 
 positions for supplying the higher levels. Water- 
 works ha\e also been constructed for the supply of 
 Kowloon, and of one or two villages in the island 
 of Hong-Kong. 
 
 By the kindness of the chief engineer I was per- 
 mitted to see the Royal Dockyard ; and a grand 
 sight it is, with its numberless machines and appliances 
 for repairing, refitting, and victualling our war-ships. 
 The yard sometimes makes its own engines and 
 boilers. Chinese are chiefly employed, but the fore- 
 man of each department is usually a British subject. 
 The wages of the labourers are about 6d. a day, but 
 
WANDERINGS EASTWARD : HONG-KONG 91 
 
 they are better paid than those in Chinese employ. 
 Women, under Chinese employers, usually earn ^d. 
 to 4(f. ; men a^. to 6d. Chinese mechanics in the 
 yard earn various sums up to 2s. 6d. per day. What 
 would our engineers say to such a wage? But the 
 Asiatic has fewer wants and a warmer clime. The 
 coal used comes chiefly from Cardiff; that from 
 Japan has been tried, but is not strong enough. In 
 fact, the Cardiff coal is, I am assured, the best of 
 its kind in the world. 
 
 Afforestation has worked wonders in Hong-Kong. 
 The barren, burning rock no longer lifts its once 
 uncovered, hideous head ; smiling woods and verdant 
 vales are seen on all sides. The palm-trees in the 
 gardens, in the burial-grounds, and even in the main 
 street, are often splendid specimens of one of Nature's 
 noblest trees. The shade afforded by the " banians " 
 {Ficus retusa) planted along the roads, or wherever 
 shade is needed, is most welcome, even in winter 
 time. They are well pruned and cared for. The 
 bright-green leaf is a grateful contrast to the white 
 and dusty ground around. Bamboo hedges often 
 line the road where protection from the sun or wind 
 is needed, and the colony ere long will be rich in 
 this most useful wood. Bananas are handsome and 
 abundant ; poinsettias glow with crimson blossom 
 in December. The cactus and aloe may be seen in 
 great perfection in the Botanical Gardens ; there, 
 too, may be seen lofty specimens of Araucaria 
 
92 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 excelsa (the Norfolk Island pine) ; the eucalyptus 
 from Australia, the aleurites triloba (candle-nut tree) 
 from the Moluccas, and many others. In 1893, 
 353,663 trees were planted throupjhout the island. 
 In 1896 camphor-trees^ were planted along a road 
 for three and half miles ; and every year a large 
 addition is made to the pines, according to the site 
 and elevation. Care is taken to thin, prune and 
 protect the trees, and the sale of wood for practical 
 purposes is steadily increasing. The superintendent 
 approves of CunningJiamia sinensis, as the best pine, 
 planting twenty thousand trees at a time, and com- 
 mends Bishoffia javanica And Liqiiedajnbar fonnosmia. 
 Finns viassoniana, previously known as Pinus sinensis, 
 is also very largely planted. Ferns of all kinds 
 abound ; and an orchid-house, healed in the coldest 
 months, has recently been added to the Botanical 
 Gardens. But as the best localities for profitable 
 trees have now been filled, the number planted each 
 season diminishes from year to year. 
 
 Hong-Kong has its drawbacks, and some of a 
 serious and alarming character. Of these, not the 
 least is the typhoon. So great is the destructive 
 capacity of this furious wind that trees are uprooted, 
 houses unroofed and sometimes levelled with the 
 ground, junks and sampans that have failed to gain 
 
 ' Camphor-wood is very valuable as a protection against white 
 ants, the special pests of Asiatic countries, and, in colder climes, 
 af;ainst moths. 
 
WANDERINGS EASTWARD : HONG-KONG 93 
 
 shelter dashed against the praya wall, and shivered 
 into matchwood, and even large steamers torn from 
 heavy moorings. Indeed, it is authentically reported 
 that in 1874 big vessels were lifted out of the water 
 and stranded high and dry on the praya frontage. 
 So destructive is the typhoon that in all houses 
 special fastenings are provided for protection against 
 its force. Amongst lesser drawbacks, caterpillars in 
 myriads attack the trees, and an army of pickers 
 must be employed at times to save even a portion 
 of the latter. Great damage is frequently done by 
 fires in grass and jungle. The climate in summer 
 is most oppressive with heat, rain,' and fogs ; the last 
 occasionally continue for two or three weeks, until 
 everything is soaked. Photographs fade, furniture, 
 unless most solidly constructed, falls to pieces ; books 
 and clothes are stained, if not ruined ; boots are 
 greened in a night ; everything, save vegetation, 
 suffers. White ants are most destructive where they 
 gain an entrance, boring countless holes in wood. 
 Mosquitoes torment the unwary ; flying cockroaches 
 require a net to keep them off as much as the mos- 
 quitoes. There is a spider, it is true, which fattens 
 on the cockroach ; but the latter is so lusty that the 
 former needs several days to digest him I Meanwhile 
 
 ' The rainfall at the Botanical Gardens for 1894 was 112-86 
 inches; for 1895, 53-55 inches; for 1896, 77-62 inches; giving 
 an average for three years of about 81 inches. The total mean 
 rainfall in the island is, however, 88 inches. 
 
94 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 others arrive to fill the vacancy caused by the death 
 of their departed friend ! 
 
 So visitors, to enjoy Hong-Kong, should arrive in 
 December, and leave before March or April. We 
 were most fortunate in arriving at the right time ; 
 and excellent weather favoured us during the whole 
 of our stay. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 JOHN CHINAMAN AND THE CHINESE 
 
 " TOHN CHINAMAN" and the Chinese are the 
 I marvel, if not the mystery, of modern times. 
 Individually and collectively, the people are not only 
 interesting, but to the British Empire they are all- 
 important. British Columbia, the most promising 
 Province of Canada, one of the most brilliant gems 
 among the many jewels of the British Crown, could 
 not be " run " (as the Provincials say) without " John's " 
 aid. He had no small part in making the Canadian 
 Pacific Railway. He can do, and is ready to do, any- 
 thing and everything, provided only that he is paid a 
 fair wage. In Hong-Kong he and his people number 
 over ninety per cent, of the population. In the city 
 of Victoria, the capital of Hong-Kong, there are 
 170,000 Chinese. In Singapore the proportion of 
 Chinese to the whole population, Malays and 
 Europeans, is 66 per cent. ; in Penang the proportion 
 is 70 per cent. It cannot be doubted, I think, that 
 the flourishing condition of our colonies in the Far 
 East is in a great degree due to the presence and 
 
 95 
 
96 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 co-operation of this remarkable race. How many- 
 do they number ? What is the gross population of 
 the enormous area commonly called China? The 
 allied armies, on the capture of Nankin in 1842, 
 found returns giving the population as 396,000,000. 
 
 A report from the Russian Minister in Pekin in 
 1858 makes the total to amount to 414,687,000. 
 This number exceeds the Chinese census of 1842, 
 and doubts have been cast on its accuracy. The 
 a\erage population does not equal in density the 
 returns from some parts of Bengal in the Indian 
 Census.' All accounts agree that the population in 
 some parts is exceedingly dense. Tho.se who have 
 seen the streets of Canton, of Shanghai, of Victoria, 
 or the Chinese villages in Hong-Kong, will not 
 wonder at the large numbers in these returns. 
 
 But this vast population does not include those 
 who have wandered away from their native land. 
 Their name is also legion. Wherever the British 
 flag is unfurled, there " John Chinaman " is pretty 
 sure to follow. In Malaysia the Chinese now out- 
 number the native population, and increase in a 
 greater ratio. 
 
 In and around the Straits Settlements there are 
 said to be more than 600,000. Large numbers are 
 in British Borneo, and Labuan. They land as coolies, 
 but their industry and ability often raise them in 
 the social scale. In Further India they are very 
 ' See Professor Rhys Davies on Buddhism, p. 6. 
 
JOHN CHINAMAN AND THE CHINESE 9/ 
 
 numerous. The trade of the great port of Rangoon 
 is largely in their hands. In the commercial cities 
 further up country, such as Mandalay, they continue 
 to increase. In Sir Lepel Grijffin's opinion the future 
 of Burmah belongs to the Chinese.' In the Dutch 
 East Indies they number several hundred thousands. 
 In other parts, such as Siam, where they are said to 
 exceed a million ; in Cochin China ; along the auri- 
 ferous parts of the banks of the Upper Yenesei river 
 in Siberia — there are considerable numbers : so that 
 the Chinese outside China make up a large total. 
 
 In some of our colonies and elsewhere there are 
 signs that many Chinamen possess considerable 
 wealth. Mr Tutokomi, the Japanese editor of the 
 Kokumin-no-tomof in an interesting article on the 
 Chinese, remarks that there are five or six exceedingly 
 rich Europeans in Hong-Kong, while there are 
 twenty or thirty wealthy Chinese. He forgets that 
 Europeans who have made any money run away 
 from an island which may be charming for three 
 months in the year, but certainly is not so for the 
 other nine. The manager of a leading Eastern bank 
 wished recently to retire. The directors were obliged 
 to offer him a salary second only to that of the 
 Viceroy of India, to retain his services. " In Penang 
 many of the Chinese residences surpass those of 
 
 ' See Mr. Dyer Ball's " Things Chinese," an excellent book. 
 ^ This magazine corresponds to the English magazine The 
 Far East. Both are published at Tokyo, the capital of Japan. 
 
 7 
 
98 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 the Europeans in splendour of furniture and archi- 
 tecture." The climate of Penang is hot and damp. 
 Europeans soon " pale " and fade in such a climate. 
 " John,'' however, can make himself at home, consider 
 himself settled for life, and add probably from time 
 to time to the number of his wives.' " Here also," 
 continues the writer, " these people have finer stores 
 and greater possessions than the white race. Though 
 the Chinaman cannot crush his master, still he has 
 the power to rival him." Rivalry is the condition 
 now of all success. Germans as well as Chinese come 
 to the front both at Hong-Kong and the Straits. 
 " I,i\e and let live " is our rule, and is in some degree 
 tlie secret of our success as a colonising race. The 
 Chinese seem to be created to become the ministers 
 of mankind. M)- daughter in British Columbia says 
 they are famous "' copy cats." At present they are 
 utterly unfit to rule, but as subjects they are sub- 
 missive and orderly as long as a firm hand and a 
 sufficient force are over them. 
 
 What is the secret of their success ? 
 
 I. The Chinese, from the crowded condition of 
 
 their countr)', are bound to be industrious, if they 
 
 are to live at all. Rice is the chief food throughout 
 
 ' While at Hong-Kong the Chinese comprador of oui hotel 
 {i.e., the steward who manages a large part of the business of 
 an hotel or house, buying almost everything, engaging and 
 dismissing servants) was reported to have paid a visit to Canton 
 (ninety miles away) and to have bought his sixth wife. These 
 wives nre an outward and visible sign of wealth. 
 
JOHN CHINAMAN AND THE CHINESE 99 
 
 the southern portion of the empire, and rice requires 
 very careful cultivation. The industrious Chinaman 
 knows no Sabbath, scarcely any holiday ; he begins 
 work with the dawn and ends it only when daylight 
 fails him. In British Columbia some employers 
 are humane enough to give their " Chinaman " a 
 rest on Sunday. At Hong-Kong, however, at the 
 time of my visit, men and women were working 
 for a Chinese contractor outside the churches while 
 the Sabbath services were being held. Young 
 " John " at school knows no half-holiday on 
 Wednesday or Saturday, no Christmas or summer 
 \'acations. Work continues from daylight to dark, 
 only enough time for meals being allowed.^ " In 
 England," says Mr. Dyer Ball, " schools are a 
 nuisance to their neighbours at play-time. There 
 is no play-time in Chinese schools. They are a 
 nuisance when they are at their lessons " [from the 
 loud noise they make in repetition]. 
 
 2. But " John " is something more than a mere 
 labourer. He can be a hewer of wood and a drawer 
 of water when occasion requires ; he shrinks from 
 no task, no detail ; his versatility is amazing. 
 No work to him i§ dishonourable or degrading. You 
 find Chinese in the mines of Cariboo, the hay-fields 
 on the Fraser River, the Canadian Pacific steamers, 
 in laundries, shops, hotels ; and as gardeners they 
 drive all others out of the field, wherever they 
 ' " Tilings Chinese," by Mr. Dyer Ball: " Education.'' 
 
lOO WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 may be. At the chief bank at Yokohama " John " 
 stands at the counter, ready with his abacus, or 
 counting-board, to verify every payment about to 
 be made by the pale-faced European clerk. At 
 Hong-Kong, in the shipping and other offices, in 
 the harbour boats and steam launches, John China- 
 man is everywhere. The ladies of Hong-Kong have 
 discovered that the cheapest drapers' shops are in 
 Chinese streets. The chief photographer is a China- 
 man. In washing and laundry work, his only rivals 
 are his own countrymen. 
 
 3. " John " is often crafty as well as versatile. In 
 a colony, which I need not name, a new road was 
 about to be made. The work was a large one. 
 Tenders were invited. The lowest came from John 
 McGregor. On the Board which awarded the tender 
 were several Scotchmen. They, of course, were 
 pleased to award the work to one with so good a 
 name, yet did not seem to know who the individual 
 was. He proved to be a Chinaman ! He had 
 noticed the number of Scotchmen on the Board, 
 and had assumed a new name, as the Chinese often 
 do ! ^ No one would accuse the nation of being 
 sympathetic or kind. They get more work at less 
 pay out of their own countrymen than any European 
 can. So the work was done at a cheap rate and well, 
 by John McGregor, Chinaman, and all were satisfied. 
 
 ' This story was sent to me when in the " Far East " from 
 England, the writer being a vice-chairman of a County Council. 
 
JOHN CHINAMAN AND THE CHINESE IO3 
 
 4. " John," too, can live where others would starve. 
 One of the chief complaints against the Chinese in 
 British Columbia is, that they live on nothing, spend 
 nothing, yet send large sums away. Even the silks 
 that they wear come from China ! But they pay 
 import duty. It is true, " John " can live on very 
 little. He is the best vegetable gardener in the 
 world, and can raise crops on ground where no one 
 else can. See the strange patches of land brought 
 under cultivation wherever he is ! His vegetables 
 are sure to grow ; for he often brings fresh soil as 
 well as water, and, long after dark, is out with a 
 lantern searching for slugs ! He is not particular 
 about his food ; all are good fish that are caught in 
 his net. The contrast between him and the Euro- 
 pean is thus put by Mr. Tutokomi : " The civilised 
 European is so luxurious in his habits, that he must 
 rest on Sundays ' and have a half-holiday on Saturday. 
 He has his friends to entertain, and his wife to please.^ 
 When he has earned a certain amount, he must return 
 to his native land and take a rest. When he makes 
 a trip, he must take two or three trunks to satisfy 
 his enlightened taste, since his taste is so developed." 
 (Mr. Tutokomi might also have referred to the ex- 
 
 ' In Japan the public offices are now closed on Sundays, but 
 ordinary work usually proceeds, as on other days. 
 
 ^ It has been said that one difference between East and West 
 is this : In the East the wife must please the husband, in the 
 West the husband must please the wife. 
 
I04 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 penditure on heavy drinks, often so deadly in the 
 East.) "The European therefore cahnot afford to 
 sell for a lower price than that which he asks in the 
 market." No wonder, then, that " John " is con- 
 tinually gaining ground in Hong-Kong, Singapore, 
 Penang, and elsewhere. Just as European ladies 
 go to Chinese drapers, so the white men go to 
 Chinese tailors. I saw a young Scotchman, six feet 
 three inches tall, clad in a complete summer suit at 
 a Chinese shop in Hong-Kong for six dollars, 
 i.e. twelve shillings. 
 
 5. It is also said that the Chinese have commercial 
 morality. Their morality generally is so doubtful that 
 I personally should hesitate to put this point in their 
 favour. But their neighbour, Mr. T., cited above, 
 commends them in this respect, and the opinion in 
 the East seems to be the same. The contrast, in- 
 deed, between the Chinese and Japanese in regard to 
 commercial morality is very marked. " The Japanese 
 have none," said an old resident at Yokohama ; and 
 in this respect, I believe, there is but one opinion. 
 In Mr. L. Hearn's " Kokoro " ^ it is stated that a 
 European firm, having recovered in the Japanese 
 Courts a large sum due to them, were informed that 
 a Guild ^ had been arranged, and that the members 
 would not henceforth deal with the firm if the 
 
 ' Mr. L. Hearn is now, I believe, a professor at Tokyo Uni- 
 versity. 
 ' I.e., a combination of rogues. 
 
JOHN CHINAMAN AND THE CHINESE I05 
 
 amount recovered in court were exacted without a 
 large deduction. But " John " knows his interest 
 too well to act in such a fashion. Some of his 
 countrymen are prosperous merchants, having wide 
 conaections, good carriages, splendid houses ; and 
 these would scarcely be without commercial confi- 
 dence and some commercial morality. 
 
 6. " John '' dearly loves a bargain, and revels in 
 bartering. I wanted a box. " Go to a Chinaman," 
 said a bank clerk, " and bargain with him for an 
 hour over the price." Time is a cipher to the 
 Oriental ; but tastes, too, differ on this point ! It 
 is said that " John " will even sometimes sell at a 
 loss, rather than lose the enjoyment of a long dis- 
 cussion over a small sum. One morning, at Canton, 
 we noticed a Chinaman, evidently wishing to hire 
 a boat. The offers were numerous. He spent half 
 an hour running from one to another before the 
 bargain was concluded ! But " John," in his bar- 
 gains, does not look for large profits. The Japanese, 
 more courteous, but less wise, get all they can, and 
 are at length found out. " John " contents himself 
 with small " squeezes," as they are called. The 
 comprador of my hotel sent me a large box (iron- 
 bound) of camphor- wood, for six dollars (i2.r.). No 
 doubt he made his profit ; yet I was well content. 
 The general testimony is that " John's " " squeezes " 
 are gentle. There has been a bargain ; but let us 
 hope, not always an unfair one. 
 
Io6 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 7. " John," too, is very fond of gambling. " Gam- 
 bling hells " are the plague of our Settlements. The 
 owners bribe the police, if they can, to keep matters 
 quiet. In the Malacca prison during 1895 there 
 were fifty-two Chinese convicted of gambling, as 
 against thirty-one convicted of theft. To give an 
 account of all their games of chance would require 
 almost a volume. But I have often seen a dozen 
 Chinese or more standing round an orange-stall, and 
 gambling respecting the number of pips inside an 
 orange. A loose-skinned one is selected, and a guess 
 made at the seeds. A sum is staked by those 
 around a stall ; the peel is removed, and the orange 
 opened, by the seller. The man whose number is 
 right receives treble the amount of his stake ; the 
 two next gain double theirs. Children gamble for 
 sweets and fruit ; the passion is universal.^ 
 
 What is to be their future ? " Never prophesy," 
 says the proverb, " unless you know ; " yet one may 
 hazard a few remarks. " John " is a good citizen 
 enough as long as he is kept under strong control 
 and strict discipline. He is the most material being 
 in the world, and though he has not the drinking 
 vice of Europeans, he is often the incarnation of 
 Bacchus. Opium and gambling are his special vices. 
 He is a proud man, serving the foreigner often with 
 special devotion, yet regarding himself as his superior. 
 So he has no sense of shame, no modesty, nor fear 
 ' See " Things Chinese : " " Gaines of Chance." 
 
JOHN CHINAMAN AND THE CHINESE IO7 
 
 of the white man, whom he serves simply to suit 
 his own purposes. He has no religion, unless it be 
 the worship of ancestors, so that he has no principles, 
 no backbone. The way in which he treats the 
 weaker sex is an illustration of his character. Their 
 condition, the result chiefly of the teaching of 
 Confucius, is truly lamentable. Girls are often 
 bought and sold without compunction. Mr. Dyer 
 Ball says that there are thousands in Hong-Kong 
 who are practically slaves. So woman does not 
 elevate man, but is forced to make him more 
 degraded. 
 
 "John," moreover, is not only without religion, 
 but also without patriotism. He loves the land, it 
 is true, where he was born. There are districts in • 
 China where the people are chiefly those who have 
 returned from a willing exile.' Most Chinamen 
 hope and try to return, if only for a time. Yet if 
 he loves the land, he does not love the rulers. They 
 are far too fond of bribes. They have won their 
 way by competition and public examination, but 
 their pay is too small to enable them to live honestly. 
 So these Mandarins squeeze all they can in every 
 direction. 
 
 A country, then, in which there is no patriotism, 
 no bond of cohesion between the rulers and the 
 ruled, no sense of responsibility to a higher power 
 
 1 So I was told by the captain of a British vessel plying on 
 a Chinese river. 
 
I08 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 on the part of the people or their chiefs, cannot 
 last as a political power any great length of time. 
 It is for the good of the Far East, in my opinion, 
 that China should be brought under the complete 
 control of the Christian powers. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SINGAPORE — PENANG — A STRAITS PRISON 
 
 SINGAPORE, five or six days' voyage from 
 Hong-Kong, when the weather is fair and your 
 ship can steam twelve knots an hour, is not so 
 striking a sight from the sea as " the isle of fragrant 
 streams." There are (as at Hong-Kong) two 
 entrances ; for Singapore, like Hong-Kong, is an 
 island, only on a larger scale. The width of the 
 latter, in some places, does not exceed two miles ; 
 its greatest length is not over eleven miles. Singapore 
 is about fifteen miles long and twelve broad. The 
 western entrance is said to be one of the most 
 beautiful in the world, and in picturesqueness ap- 
 proaches very nearly the far-famed one to Sydney 
 harbour. The sea, as seen from near New Harbour, 
 is dotted with emerald-coloured islets, clothed 
 throughout the year in the freshest green. Skirting 
 the coast one sees Malay pile-built huts peeping 
 out here and there from the jungle. The whole 
 forms a picture of unique beauty, full of artistic 
 delight to the stranger. I was disappointed when 
 
 109 
 
no WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 we anchored to see so few ships in what I had heard 
 was one of the chief harbours of the East. But a 
 brief time on land revealed the fact that vessels from 
 Europe enter at the other end. The waters near 
 the town are crowded with shipping, and my 
 daughter, in a voyage from England to Hong-Kong, 
 was more impressed by the vessels in .Singapore 
 harbour than by those in any other port. As a 
 matter of fact, the amount of tonnage which enters 
 and clears is very much the same as at Hong-Kong. 
 Not a few of these are junks or steamers proceeding 
 to or from Hong-Kong. The trade, in truth, of the 
 Settlements and of the protected States is steadily 
 increasing. Mines are being opened, railways are 
 being made, and a loan has recently been sanc- 
 tioned to assist the construction of the latter. 
 Steamers, too, ply to Borneo, an important part of 
 which is British territory, and to the other islands 
 around. 
 
 There are no high hills at Singapore as there are 
 at Penang.^ The latter place is encircled by forest- 
 clad mountain heights, although the city itself is on 
 level ground. There is no escape therefore at 
 Singapore from the high temperature, which prevails 
 
 ' A friend living at Penang, and of course preferring it to 
 Singapore, remarked that it rains at Singapore every day, but 
 at Penang the rainfall is heavier at certain seasons and not so 
 continuous. My experience of Singapore enables me to say that 
 it does not rain every day there ! 
 
SINGAPORE — PENANG— A STRAITS PRISON III 
 
 with great regularity all the year round. On the few 
 elevated positions, bungalows have been built ; but 
 residents however must expect a temperature averag- 
 ing about seventy-nine degrees at all seasons. The 
 city has no very striking feature, but the cathedral, 
 the Hindoo Temple, with its grotesque wall-paintings 
 and images, the fountain erected to commemorate 
 the munificence of a Chinaman who presented the 
 city with water-works, the Raffles Educational 
 Museum, and the Hong-Kong Bank, are all worthy 
 of notice. The Malay dwellings outside the city 
 are quite a novelty to the new-comer. These are 
 built on piles, so that they are raised above the 
 water, of which there is enough and to spare in 
 all directions ! 
 
 Both at Singapore and Penang the verdure 
 throughout the year is a great contrast to the 
 dust and dryness of Hong-Kong in the winter. 
 The absence of a dry season and the frequent rains 
 in the Malay Peninsula make all trees and shrubs 
 adapted to the climate much more vigorous. The 
 Botanical Gardens in Singapore are almost over- 
 done with the luxuriance due to the constant com- 
 bination of heat and moisture. But in the garden 
 at Penang there is more room for growth. This, 
 placed in a large natural amphitheatre, with a 
 stream stealing amid the woods down the mountain- 
 side, is a sight never to be effaced from memory. 
 It recalls the "Happy Valley" of Hong-Kong, but 
 
112 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 the heights are loftier and the circle of the hills is 
 more complete. The " flame of the forest " {Ponsiana 
 regia), a tree with lovely scarlet blossoms, lights up 
 the Garden even when darkness is descending.' 
 There are also rubber-trees, palms, bananas, orchids, 
 ferns, and flowering shrubs without end. 
 
 The approach to this Garden, four miles from the 
 shore, after the Chinese Quarter has been passed, 
 is like a march through fairyland to the traveller 
 who has not seen Ceylon or India. On each side 
 of the road, besides bungalows and Club Houses, 
 are groves of the cocoa-nut palm, loaded in January 
 with fruit. These noble trees, planted usually thirty 
 feet apart, rise often to a height of seventy feet or 
 more, and bear their fruit near the top. The ripe 
 nuts fall first, but natives manage to mount some- 
 times by cutting foot-holes in the trunk, more 
 frequently by fastening a rope or band round their 
 body and the trunk, and thus carry off fruit which 
 looks so tempting when apparently out of reach. 
 There is a plantation of cocoa-nut palms stretching 
 for some distance along the shore at Penang. Its 
 appearance, owing to the height and regularity of 
 the trees, when viewed from the deck of the in- 
 coming steamer, is very imposing. Similar plan- 
 tations may be seen at Singapore and elsewhere 
 in the Straits. The cocoa-nut palm loves the sea, 
 
 1 In the Bombay Presidency this tree goes by the name of the 
 " Gold Mohr Tree." 
 
SINGAPORE — PENANG— A STRAITS PRISON II 3 
 
 and often bends towards it, so that it is usually 
 planted near the coast. 
 
 The mixture of races is, to my mind, the chief 
 feature of Singapore as a city. There are Chinese 
 in tens of thousands — in fact, many more than the 
 Malays, the police, and the prison-warders like. At 
 times they give considerable trouble. Coming as 
 strangers, yet now forming a very large proportion 
 of the population, they are not loved either by 
 Europeans or natives. Criminals who have escaped 
 from China have settled here, and regarded the 
 place, probably, as a safe refuge. But British patience 
 has at .last been exhausted. Criminals of a bad 
 type are now to be banished, and banishment to 
 China often means death. These men in many 
 cases are murderers or wrong-doers who have escaped 
 vengeance in their own country ; but henceforth they 
 will be compelled to " clear out " of the Straits 
 Settlements and of Hong-Kong. Besides Chinese, 
 there are the mild Malays, often half clad, brown 
 as a berry, not seldom elegant in figure, but some- 
 what indolent in appearance. Some portion of their 
 scanty clothing is usually bright-coloured and made 
 more resplendent by an Eastern sun. Then there 
 are tall East Indians, clad in long white linen 
 garments which form a striking contrast to their 
 dark hair and swarthy complexions. Klings, too 
 are there with raven flowing locks, very black com- 
 plexions, and manly if not haughty bearing. A 
 
 8 
 
114 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 Kling girl, with small gold ornaments in her nostrils, 
 and earrings besides, carrying herself with a grace 
 which would not misbecome a duchess, is a sight worth 
 seeing. Then there are nut-brown Tamils from the 
 south-east coast of India. This industrious race, 
 so useful in Ceylon, competes with the Chinese as 
 labourers, and with their national head dress (a bright- 
 coloured turban), are far more interesting. They 
 often have on their foreheads, just above the nose, 
 (both here and in Ceylon) a circular mark or spot, 
 usually white or red, the symbol of the god at 
 whose shrine they have last worshipped. Sometimes 
 lines or marks are added on each side of the forehead. 
 Soft-faced, dark-c}-ed Sinhalese, Bombay merchants, 
 British soldiers in Kharki, dark-hued Malay police, 
 jack-tars, pale-faced white men in a white dress, 
 Avith white solar topees, make the scene complete. 
 
 In former days, under the old East India Company, 
 Singapore and Japan were penal settlements for 
 natives of India. Malay criminals in their turn were 
 banished by the Company from the Straits Settle- 
 ments to Bombay. Thus the original Indians in 
 the Settlements were convicts. Many of their de- 
 scendants are there now. There is also a constant 
 influx of Indian immigrants, mostly from the Malabar 
 coast. These come either as domestic servants or 
 as coolies, to work on the coffee plantations. 
 
 The management of this mongrel population in- 
 volves great difficulties, one chief difficulty being 
 
SINGAPORE — PENANG — A STRAITS PRISON 11/ 
 
 the various dialects or languages spoken by the 
 Chinese. There are five Chinese dialects commonly- 
 spoken in Singapore. The Chinese there are princi- 
 pally Tec-Chew, Cantonese, Hok-kien, Kheh, and 
 Hailam.' Their dialects differ so much from each 
 other, that a man may speak one well, yet hardly 
 understand a word of any of the others. The lan- 
 guages of China — and there are at least eight chief 
 divisions, besides local dialects without end^ — are so 
 difficult to acquire, that very few Europeans can 
 master even one of them. Thus any dishonest 
 Chinese detective can say anything he likes to his 
 fellow-countryman in the presence of European 
 inspectors, without any fear that the latter will under- 
 stand him. 
 
 The police force for Singapore includes about six 
 hundred Malays and Klings, one hundred and forty 
 Sikhs, and forty Chinese detectives. " Lukons " 
 {i.e., Chinese police) from Hong-Kong were tried 
 but they proved to be so worthless and so unreliable 
 that they were sent back. The employment of 
 Chinese detectives is almost a matter of necessity. 
 Who, however, expects a Chinaman to refuse a bribe 
 or tell all the truth ? 
 
 ' For these details I am indebted to Colonel Pennefather, 
 Superintendent of Police on the Settlements, and to the Official 
 Reports. 
 
 ■^ See Mr. Dyer Ball's " Things Chinese,'' a valuable book, 
 page 22, 
 
il8 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 By the kindness of the Colonial Secretary, I was 
 allowed to visit the prison at Singapore and to see 
 the various inmates at work. The building is an 
 enormous one, containing a prison within a prison. 
 In the inner prison, rigorous imprisonment is en- 
 forced, and I was sorry to see that several Europeans 
 had been " interned." There is a special European 
 and Eurasian quarter where whites associate with 
 whites only. I did not notice any of them in irons, 
 though prisoners as a rule are required to wear irons 
 for some time after admission. The regulation, where 
 the great majority of the malefactors are Chinese, 
 is, no doubt, a necessary one. But the number of 
 whites would probably be less, if they were treated 
 just as their darker brethren are, and compelled to 
 associate with them.' 
 
 The total daily average of prisoners in 1892 was 
 948; in 1893, 884; in 1894, 816; in 1895,797; in 
 1896, 844. The increase in 1896 looks rather 
 alarming ; but Mr. Merewether, the Inspector of 
 Prisons in the Straits Settlements, remarks : 
 
 " The increase is chiefly in the Revenue Grade, 
 i.e. prisoners committed for non-payment of fines, 
 and thus indicates a temporary increase in the least 
 serious forms of crime. There are, however, so many 
 factors in determining the number of criminals at 
 any given time, that it is impossible to trace the 
 fluctuations to any definite cause. A magistrate 
 ' No such distinction is made in the Ceylon prisons. 
 
SINGAPORE — PENANG — A STRAITS PRISON II9 
 
 with a leaning toward convictions, or a zealous 
 police officer, may cause an increase in the gaol 
 population ; so may high prices or an epidemic 
 disease." 
 
 The sight of so many prisoners working the 
 tread-mill, or marching from the prison to lay the 
 granite, broken inside, on the roads outside the prison, 
 is a pathetic and even a mournful one. Guards 
 with loaded muskets precede and surround the 
 latter ; the former find the task of pumping water 
 for the prison by the revolution of the wheel, in 
 such a climate, very far from agreeable. The wheel 
 was stopped when we entered, and the men were 
 directed to sit down. Profuse perspiration proved 
 that a rest was needed. Some of the few white 
 men looked like soldiers ; one at all events seemed 
 to feel his position acutely. We saw large numbers 
 of Chinese and a few Malays working at various 
 trades. Carpenters \yere making water-buckets ; 
 others rattan couches and waste-paper baskets. 
 Some were working up cocoanut fibre, that had 
 been beaten out in another shed, into rope or twine ; 
 others were weaving it into matting. Several were 
 making shoes for the European prisoners, others 
 the prison garments ; another group were black- 
 smiths. The large numbers under the charge of 
 a single warder seemed strange, but doubtful and 
 dangerous " cases " are in irons ; the discipline, 
 moreover, is evidently good. The diligent and 
 
I20 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 well-behaved obtain marks, which lessen the severity 
 and even the duration of the sentence. 
 
 By a recent regulation, prisoners detained for the 
 non-payment of fines have been required to break 
 a certain quantity of stones, just as other prisoners. 
 They objected, but of course were compelled to do 
 the work. We visited a prisoner who had refused 
 to mount the tread-mill. Two days' solitary con- 
 finement, bread and water diet, and a registering 
 crank to work in his cell were allowed him before 
 the " rattan " ' was applied. In Ceylon no such 
 allowance would be made ! The rattan is a powerful 
 argument with old offenders or persons convicted 
 of crimes of violence. It has been said that the 
 Japanese and Chinese know nothing of repentance 
 or of remorse. But the rattan brings repentance, 
 possibly remorse in most cases. Five strokes may 
 become ten, ten may become twenty, so that fear 
 of punishment proves a \ery useful deterrent. 
 
 The total number of prisoners received during 
 the year 1897 was 3,497. Of these 153 were Euro- 
 peans and Eurasians. The Chinese numbered 2,993, 
 Hokkim 1,453, Cantonese 530, Teo Chew 574, 
 Hailam 264, Kheh 172. Malays were 189, Indians 
 147, other nationahties 15. 
 
 ' The rattan is an Eastern cane, made of a vine-like creeper. 
 The flexible wood is used for making light furniture, couches, 
 chairs, baskets, and a thousand other things. It serves very 
 much the purposes of our cord and nail. 
 
SINGAPORE — PENANG— A STRAITS PRISON 121 
 
 The task of managing a gaol with such a mixture 
 seems almost insuperable. But difficulties were 
 made for brave men to conquer. There are thirty- 
 one European warders and about sixty Malay sub- 
 warders. No Chinaman would be employed. Our 
 guide, a warder whom we knew in Britain, had 
 come from Millbank and had served eight years at 
 Singapore. He looked none the worse for his work, 
 or the climate. He described these Malays as useful 
 helpers, and we saw several of them with large 
 numbers under their control. The official reports, 
 however, disclose the usual Asiatic tendency on their 
 part to receive bribes. Tobacco, opium, and other 
 forbidden luxuries, are too often conveyed to the 
 prisoners. These warders are searched before they 
 go on duty, and are severely punished if detected 
 in introducing any forbidden article. 
 
 For the European warders a good house is provided, 
 and the education of their children is not neglected. 
 Time-expired army men from the regiments at Singa- 
 pore fill any vacancies that occur. There is now no diffi- 
 culty in obtaining the services of efficient Europeans. 
 
 One remarkable feature of the prison is the absence 
 of female offenders. The disproportion would be 
 almost incredible were it not for the fact that the 
 Chinese in many parts refuse to rear a large number 
 of their infant girls. Around Hong-Kong many are 
 exposed on the islands close at hand.' Males are 
 
 ' For further details see Mr. Dyer Ball's " Things Chinese.'' 
 
122 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 allowed to live. The men as they grow up often 
 migrate, and have no females to take with them. 
 They hope no doubt to save, go back to their native 
 land, and marry. It is, then, no matter for surprise 
 that the disproportion of females to males in the 
 Settlements is enormous, both inside and outside of 
 the prison walls. The daily average of male prisoners 
 in the Singapore gaol for 1896 was 841. The daily 
 average of females was three. During the greater 
 part of the year there was only one female prisoner. 
 
 About to quit the Straits of Malacca, we entered 
 a " sampan " after dark from the shore of Penang, 
 in order to rejoin the P. & O. steamer. The 
 lightning was flashing vividly around ; the waters 
 looked far from agreeable. A storm seemed im- 
 pending. But the ways of the Malacca Straits arc 
 odd. Storms are not feared ! The lightning, I was 
 assured, would " clear the air " ! Vessels traverse 
 the Straits which would not venture into the 
 Indian Ocean or China Sea. Violent storms and 
 typhoons are unknown. We reached our vessel 
 safely. No storm, happily, troubled us in the 
 Straits. 
 
 The following extracts from letters written at 
 Singapore may be of interest : — • 
 
 August, 1898. — "The great preserving season is still in 
 full swing. We see cartloads of pine-apples passing our 
 doors most of the day, on their way to the factories. The 
 
SINGAPORE — PENANG — A STRAITS PRISON 1 23 
 
 great plantations here are of pine-apples, gambier/ and 
 pepper ; several square miles of country are covered with 
 them. We find the motley crowd here even more curious 
 than in Hong-Kong, as so many different races are congre- 
 gated here — Malay, Japanese, Boyanese,^ Chinese, Klings, 
 with a proportion of Sikhs, all jostle against each other; 
 they all have their own " pidgin," and do their own class 
 of work and no other.'' 
 
 December 1898. — " We were tramping over an estate where 
 three-fourths of the citronella in the world is grown, and 
 after the shoot we went round the distillery. Citronella ' 
 and patchouli * are grown here in large quantities, the latter 
 chiefly by small men (Chinamen) round Johore ; they are 
 distilled and exported to London, and the manager told 
 me (strangely enough) that large quantities are sent to 
 America through London." J. S. Bartrum, \^th ( West 
 Yorkshire) Regiment. 
 
 ' Uncaria gamhier and Uncaria acida are grown extensi\elyi 
 producing an earthy-looking substance of a light brown hue, 
 much used in tanning and dyeing. 
 
 ^ " Boyanese are natives from some of the islands around 
 Java. There is the same difference between them and the 
 Javanese proper, as exists between a Scotchman or an Irisliman, 
 and an Englishman ; but they are of the same racial type, viz. 
 Malaysian." 
 
 ' Citronella-oil-plant ; Andropogon Nardus. 
 
 ^ Patchouli plant ; Coleus aromaticus. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CEYLON — COLOMBO. 
 
 THE traveller who wishes to thoroughly enjoy 
 the " Far East " should approach it from 
 Vancouver by the North Pacific route. The Malay 
 Peninsula, Hong-Kong, and even Japan, might seem 
 tame to him after the luxuriant vegetation and 
 endless charms of Ceylon. By leaving Great Britain 
 late in July, he arrives in Canada when the mosquito 
 season is nearly over, yet before the severe weather 
 has set in. November is an excellent month for 
 Japan, December the best of all months usually for 
 Hong-Kong, January the coolest for Ceylon. As 
 for Singapore and the Malay Peninsula, the tempera- 
 ture there is very much the same all the year round, 
 especially at Singapore. " Eternal summer " (with a 
 considerable amount of moisture) reigns supreme ; 
 the Europeans there would gladly welcome a brief 
 winter ! 
 
 We had left Penang, and were soon out of the 
 Straits. Ere long we bade farewell to the coast of 
 Sumatra, and the lighthouse on the northern shore. 
 
 124 
 
CEYLON — COLOMBO 125 
 
 Land disappeared ; for days we saw chiefly sl<y and 
 sea. The heat in this Indian Ocean is often great, 
 but the early mornings in January are usually cool, 
 and even bracing. The traveller should be up with 
 the light, and be out on deck before the sun is 
 hot. A week at sea on any ocean makes the sight 
 of land acceptable, and we were delighted to catch 
 a glimpse of Ceylon, with its mountains rising at 
 no great distance from the shore. Here and there 
 flying fish, like a number of small birds, might be 
 seen above the waters ; " sea swallows " of the warmer 
 climes. 
 
 The strange canoes, long and narrow, made out 
 of the single trunk of a tree, with the sides raised 
 by twisted fibre from the cocoa-nut tree, were in 
 evidence in all directions. They have on one side 
 a heavy piece of wood, about ten feet away, pointed 
 at both ends as the canoe usually is, and attached 
 to it by two stout bamboo rods, thus securing its 
 stability. This outrigger enables them to live in 
 rough seas. Two oars are used on the other side. 
 A third oar at the end is used to steer the frail craft. 
 Brown sails, triangular in shape, are hoisted when 
 the wind is favourable, and the skill with which these 
 clumsy-looking craft are managed is marvellous; 
 
 We skirted the coast for some time, keeping away 
 from Galle, once an important but treacherous 
 harbour, and steaming towards the western coasts. 
 As we approached Colombo, the sun had left us, yet 
 
126 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 the scene was very charming. The air was clear, 
 the stars shone brightly, and we saw the strong light 
 flashing at frequent intervals from the clock tower 
 in the centre of the city. This light is visible at 
 a distance of seventeen miles. It offers, as it were, 
 a welcome to all weather-beaten travellers, inviting 
 them to a safe and quiet haven. 
 
 At the end of the breakwater is a red light, so 
 that vessels can easily enter in ordinary weather, 
 at any hour. We, however, were delayed ; yet who 
 could complain, with so much of interest around? 
 The " P. & O." pilot was taking the Himalaya 
 out of harbour. We waited outside until he could 
 bring our " P. & O." inside. Soon by star- and 
 moon-light wc saw the Himalaya steaming south- 
 wards into the open ocean, cleaving its way towards 
 Australia. In due course we entered, and were soon 
 secured to one of the twenty-six buoys attached to 
 fixed moorings for vessels drawing more than twenty- 
 five feet of water. 
 
 Colombo harbour is a legitimate source of pride 
 to every Briton. By means of a breakwater, an 
 open roadstead has been converted into one of the 
 safest and most commodious havens in the East.^ 
 Sir John Coodc, the engineer of our Portland break- 
 water, drew the plans, and the Prince of Wales laid 
 the first block in December 1875. The breakwater 
 runs out for almost a mile, and when completed 
 ' "Local Guide " 
 
CEYLON — COLOMKO 1 29 
 
 will shelter an area of six hundred and forty acres. 
 A graving dock of the largest size is also to be 
 added. The work has been done chiefly by the 
 labour of the island convicts. The outlay happily 
 is being quickly recouped by the dues paid for the 
 vessels which enter. 
 
 This harbour is now a necessary half-way house 
 
 to the " Far East." The voyage from Suez to 
 
 Colombo takes almost as much time as the voyage 
 
 from Vancouver to Yokohama, across the North 
 
 Pacific. Steamers, therefore, must stop to renew 
 
 their coal supply. H.M.S. Powerful, one of the 
 
 largest ships in the British Navy, sent recently to 
 
 China, took in two thousand five hundred tons of 
 
 Cardiff coal at Colombo. Huge steamers of the 
 
 " P. & O.," the Orient, the French, German, and 
 
 other lines, British, French, German, and Russian 
 
 cruisers, gun-, and torpedo-boats, arrive and depart 
 
 almost daily. Colombo has become one of the ten 
 
 chief shipping ports of the world. Tea, the chief 
 
 product of the island, goes away in enormous 
 
 quantities. There are, of course, imports of coal, 
 
 rice, and other articles, in a corresponding degree. 
 
 On landing next morning we were surprised to 
 
 find a company of German soldiers drawn up on the 
 
 jetty. A German troopship had arrived from Europe, 
 
 with more than twelve hundred men on board. 
 
 They were unarmed ; yet the sight of so many foreign 
 
 warriors in a British port was a little startling 
 
 9 
 
I30 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 The similarity of type among these men was remark- 
 able. Almost all were light-eyed, fair-haired, rather 
 short and square, solid, not to say stolid-looking. 
 No one who knows China, or the climate of the 
 " Far East," will envy them. Europeans there are 
 exiles. The Fatherland to them will be more dear 
 than ever. 
 
 Colombo is a grand place of its kind, yet different 
 from most important cities. The streets near the 
 harbour in the European quarter are all on a large 
 scale, as is usually the case in the East. The post- 
 office presents a very imposing appearance, recalling 
 in its mixture of styles the public buildings recently 
 erected in Japan. " It is what is known as English 
 classical renaissance, its basement being on Doric 
 lines, its ground floor in the Ionic style, its upper 
 portion in the Corinthian."' But vegetation is so 
 vigorous that most bungalows and buildings which 
 are not close to the road can scarcely be seen. 
 Cocoa-nut palms on all sides lift their fruit-laden 
 heads. The stems of this tree are never straight ; 
 those of the areca-nut palm are always so.^ Close 
 to our hotel at Galle Face (about a mile from the 
 harbour) is a grove of cocoanut palms, some almost 
 touching our walls, others bending towards the waters 
 which at high tide laved their roots. This grove 
 
 ^ " Local Guide." 
 
 - " He who can discover a straight cocoa, or a crooked areca 
 palm, or a white crow, will never die." — Native Proverb. 
 
CEYLON— COLOMBO I3I 
 
 is a favourite resort of crows, so numerous and so 
 tame that they are evidently sacred. The true 
 follower of Buddha never takes life. 
 
 Wide and well-metalled roads are quite a feature 
 of the city, as well as of the island. The district 
 is so level that it would be monotonous were there 
 not a large lagoon-like lake of fresh water in the 
 centre of the area. Barracks built en Echelon for a 
 large force, and with exercisinj grounds at hand, 
 adjoin the lake. 
 
 Pettah is the name given to the native part of 
 Colombo. Here are sights and sounds full of interest 
 and amusement to the new-comer, though the locality 
 is soon shunned by those whose sense of smell is 
 acute. Here are Sinhalese, the chief proportion 
 of the population, dark-brown in colour, with black, 
 glossy hair, usually kept back by a tortoise-shell 
 comb. Some are well clad, wearing usually a white 
 jacket and a " comboy," i.e. a long skirt reaching 
 to the ankles, not unlike a petticoat. Others simply 
 twist their hair into a knot or let it fall loose on 
 their shoulders ; a waist-cloth is all their covering. 
 These Sinhalese are often tall, but feminine in 
 appearance, and indolent to the last degree ; they 
 love to loiter and smile and chatter. 
 
 In Pettah, too, are Tamils from the south-east of 
 India, more sturdy in appearance, and wearing a 
 turban as a rule. These are attracted by the prospect 
 of profitable employment on the tea-plantations. 
 
132 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 Here also are Moormen, copper-coloured descendants 
 of Arabian traders, with shaven crowns and high 
 straw hats, without a brim ; they are comparatively- 
 few, but their energy and love of trade make their 
 presence felt. 
 
 Ceylon has been called " the paradise of palms, 
 pearls, and perfumes." Pearls, gems, and trinkets, 
 are the special stock-in-trade of these Moormen. 
 As soon as a ship arrives they are on board, engaged 
 in the art of beguiling the innocent and simple- 
 minded — an art in which they are adepts. 
 
 The markets in Pettah are crowded with country 
 people who have come in " hackories," i.e. carts 
 drawn by a single bullock, or in " bullock-bandies," 
 i.e. large, palm-thatched carts, drawn by two bullocks 
 of stout build and slower pace. The hair of the 
 women is usually coiled at the back, but pins or 
 gold ornaments are there instead of combs. Some 
 of the latter have gold in their nostrils and around 
 their necks. A dark skin sets off these ornaments 
 better than a white one. 
 
 Both men and women generally chew the betel- 
 leaf, the luxury of the lower orders, and on sale 
 everywhere. It is very like our ivy. In the leaf 
 a piece of areca nut and some lime from burnt shells 
 are enclosed. The red colour of the mouth betrays 
 the universal habit. Not a few "burghers," i.e. 
 descendants of the Portuguese and Dutch colonists, 
 as well as Eurasians, pass to and fro. They are all 
 
CEVLON— COLOMBO 1 33 
 
 dressed in European fashion, very often in white 
 jackets and trousers, with white sun hats lined with 
 green inside. 
 
 In one part of Pettah I noticed a crowd around 
 a booth. Within was a full-sized figure of Abdul 
 Hamid, Sultan of Turkey. The followers of Moham- 
 med in the Island number about 220,000, including 
 some of our Indian soldiers. The recent victories 
 on the Grecian frontier, of the Crescent over the 
 Cross, are awakening energies which we had hoped 
 were dormant or dead. 
 
 While at Colombo I was so fortunate as to be 
 on the jetty when the Ambassador from the Sultan 
 of the Maldives brought his annual tribute of cowries 
 and other gifts to the Governor, representing the 
 Empress of India. A large body of native police, 
 dressed in red and blue, were drawn up in line. 
 Near them was the Lascorian guard (a relic of by- 
 gone days) in red array, very like our beef-eaters at 
 the Tower of London, holding lances of a bye-gone 
 age, and discoursing shrill music by means of strange 
 and ancient instruments. " The Ambassador came 
 on shore " (says the Ceylon Observer) " amid an 
 intermittent salute of guns from his own buggalow,' 
 attended by Mr. Carimjee Jaffergee, Mr. Goodhamusin, 
 and two or three other Maldivian grandees. He 
 was received by Messrs. H. L. Dessanayaka and 
 
 ' A buggalow, or baggala, is a two-masted vessel, trading in 
 the Indian Ocean, from 200 to 250 tons burden. 
 
134 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 D. G. Pieris, Mudaliyar of the Governor's Gate, 
 Mr. P. G. Weerakoon, Mr. D. S. Senanayaka, 
 Mr. S. L. M. Ismail Lebbe, Inspector Dessanayaka, 
 P.C.,'^ Eknelligodda Dessawa, and many Sinhalese 
 gentlemen." "- These quotations are given as an 
 illustration in brief of the length of the names loved 
 by some Sinhalese grandees. 
 
 There arc about twenty Mudaliyars of the 
 Governor's Gate. These are prominent native officials, 
 and are described as native aides-de-camp to the 
 Governor. Their official dresses are so gorgeous 
 that the Ambassador's flowing yellow silk robe was 
 nothing to them. On the head of each was an 
 enormous tortoise-shell comb, resplendent in the 
 sunshine, and said to be of great value. This is 
 placed on the top of the knot, into which the hair 
 is gathered ; whilst, behind, a semi-circular comb just 
 below stretches from ear to ear. A dark blue cloth 
 coat, with gold (or gilt) buttons, a white waistcoat 
 with shining buttons, a large gold chain, a high shirt 
 collar, and silk tie, adorn the upper person. But the 
 silk comboy, falling from the waist to the feet, and 
 of the richest patterns, creates a still more brilliant 
 effect. The feet are in white stockings and patent- 
 
 ■ Police Constable. 
 
 ' Miss Gordon Cummings, in her elaborate " Two Happy 
 Years in Ceylon," gives the sixteen names (taken from the 
 ofBcial list) of one Mudaliyar, some enormously long. I am 
 indebted to her for a partial description of the dress, and other 
 details. 
 
CEYLON — COLOMBO I3S 
 
 leather shoes. The belt or sash round one shoulder, 
 holding a poignard or small sword, produces probably 
 the greatest impression, as it is profusely adorned 
 with gold and gems. A ruby shone very con- 
 spicuously in the centre of the belt worn by the 
 person nearest to me. Their fingers glittered with 
 jewels. Indeed, only an Eastern sun could do justice 
 to such a display. 
 
 This stately procession was at length marshalled. 
 Tom-tom beaters and trumpeters accompanied it 
 to the Governor's house, making the streets re-echo 
 with the noise. Coolies followed, bringing various 
 presents of Maldivian wealth. The Ambassador, 
 on arrival, was received by the Governor in state 
 at the Government House. The tribute of cowries 
 and a letter from H.M. the Sultan were produced 
 and " graciously received " (as is said at Windsor), 
 after which a conversation in Hihdostanee followed.^ 
 
 ' I gathered the following details from the printed particulars 
 given at the Museum, Colombo: — 
 
 The Maldive Islands extend from latitude 7° o' 7" N. to 
 0° 42' S. The group is five hundred miles in length ; some are 
 mere sand-banks. The best are covered with cocoa-nut palms. 
 The capital is Male, four hundred miles from Colombo, with a 
 population of about four thousand. The principal buildings are 
 coral, roofed with plaited cocoa-nut leaves. The houses are of 
 planks, roofed with tiles and corrugated iron. The dead are 
 buried in the towns and gardens near the wells from which 
 water is obtained. The place is said to be very unhealthy in 
 consequence. The fortifications are in ruins. The people are 
 passionately fond of art, and adorn everything. They make mats 
 
136 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 Before leaving Colombo, I witnessed a scene which, 
 I am told, is common enough in India, yet was quite 
 new to me. The Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank 
 at 2.30 p.m. had probably forty or fifty black or 
 nut-brown men close to the counter, and there were 
 as many or more outside. Two Europeans only 
 entered during the half-hour before closing, of whom 
 I was one. A man, naked to the waist, marked with 
 small-pox, his head and face completely shaven, 
 brought a cheque book with no entries on the page 
 which he presented. The Eurasian clerk hurled it 
 back on presentation three or four times to him. 
 At length some friend filled part of the cheque, but 
 no figure was given (the man was close to me). 
 Eventually a correct entry was made, but the clerk 
 was obliged to complete the counterfoil. The man 
 was probably a chattie, a contractor for labour, rather 
 like a Chinese comprador. He probably wished 
 to draw some money from the bank, yet had not 
 learnt the proper method of proceeding. 
 
 of a high quality ; these are exported to Ceylon. They live also 
 by fishing and cloth-weaving. They are, moreover, clever boat- 
 buildprs and sailors. Their favourite amusements are swinging 
 and vyrestling ; their beds are constructed so as to swing. The 
 people are described as timid, yet joyous. They are ruled by 
 a Sultan. Their religion is that of Islam, but the women are 
 neither secluded nor veiled. The islands are (as we have seen) 
 tributary to Great Britain. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 KANDY AND THE HIGHER COUNTRY. 
 
 THE traveller who has only a day or two to 
 spare will probably visit " Mount Lavinia," an 
 elevation seven miles to the south of Colombo, well 
 known lor its large white hotel, a conspicuous object 
 to mariners off the coast. He should drive, not go 
 by train, as the trees, flowering shrubs, the people 
 and their homes, which line the roadway, are full of 
 interest. The road, too, is shaded ! Some miles out 
 are a Buddhist temple and a Dagoba,^ with three large 
 images of Buddha, and demons depicted in bright 
 colours on the walls — demons specially appointed 
 to torture evil-doers ! But the crowds who come 
 from every quarter are a warning. A white face 
 in a Buddhist temple is a magnet sure to attract 
 black and brown skins from all sides. 
 
 Mount Lavinia is remarkable chiefly for its palms, 
 bending towards the sea, its outrigged canoes with 
 their brown sails, and a ridge of rocks at some 
 distance from the shore. These rocks, scarcely 
 
 ' A Dagoba is a circular structure, usually of brick or stone, 
 containing relics of Buddha or some Buddhist saint. 
 
 137 
 
138 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 perceptible, are high enough to keep away the sharks 
 which infest the shore, so that bathers need not be 
 alarmed.' 
 
 If a visitor has time, he should certainly visit 
 Kandy, the mountain capital. This is reached by 
 the railway within a few hours, and for natural 
 beauty, as well as its Buddhist temple and library, is 
 most attractive. The line runs at first through paddy 
 fields. Water buffaloes may be seen here and there 
 trying to obtain food where it seems very scarce. 
 
 After a time we approach " The Valley of the 
 Shadow of Death." This is the name given to the 
 district near Ambepussa Station, about fifty miles 
 from Colombo. The low-lying ground was so full 
 of malaria at the time when the railway was being 
 made that the coolies died by hundreds. Jungle 
 fever laid low the European staff. At length it was 
 found necessary to take all engaged in the work 
 to and from Colombo, a daily journey of a hundred 
 miles. Soon the line rises ; the scenery of hill, dale 
 rock, and forest is charming. Before long we are 
 at an elevation of seventeen hundred feet, running 
 round the Allegalla Mountain, descending at length 
 to Kandy, sixteen hundred feet above the sea. 
 
 ' What these sharks often are may be gathered from some 
 specimens in the museum at Colombo. Two deserters from a 
 United States warship in the harbour tried recently, during our 
 stay in Ceylon, to swim to the breakwater, and were drowned ; 
 their bodies were recovered, but one was horribly mangled by 
 sharks. 
 
KANDY AND THE HIGHER COUNTRY 14I 
 
 The average temperature of Colombo is 81°, and 
 as there is no great elevation, the place is always 
 hot. The thermometer ranges from 72° at night, in 
 January, to 89° in the day-time, during April. The 
 latter is the hottest, the former the coolest month. 
 The mercury in 1885 rose once in February to 95". 
 It has not sunk since 1880 below 65°.' 
 
 It may then be imagined that Europeans long for 
 the hills. Kandy, at a higher elevation, is, of course, 
 cooler. A lake in the centre of a lovely amphitheatre 
 of the hills is a refreshirig feature. It was formed 
 out of paddy fields by the last King of Kandy, who 
 was deposed in 181 5, and banished, with four queens 
 for company, to Vellore, in Madras. 
 
 Sri Wikrema Singha was the last of a line whose 
 combined reigns had covered a period of more than 
 two thousand five hundred years; yet no one lamented 
 his departure. His tyranny had been terrible 
 Round this lake is a drive of about three miles, the 
 favourite resort of pallid Europeans. Here, too, are 
 tennis-courts, and a club close to the lake. Amid 
 the hills around are various drives, offering views of 
 singular beauty. The stranger who is out with the 
 dawn and ascends to the higher grounds will, I 
 should hope, never forget them. 
 
 But to the Buddhist and lover of antiquities the 
 Dalada Maligawa, the " Temple of the Tooth," is 
 perhaps the greatest attraction. This tooth in by- 
 ' " Local Guide.' 
 
142 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 gone days drew multitudes of pilgrims from all 
 parts, though Ceylon before British rule had scarcely 
 any roads. 
 
 The story of this " Tooth " would fill a volume. 
 It is said to have been one of Buddha's four eye- 
 teeth, recovered from the funeral pyre when he 
 was cremated at Kusinaga, a hundred miles to the 
 north of Benares.^ It has had sixteen temples 
 erected in its honour. Kings have ransomed it ; 
 embassies have been sent out to do it homage. In 
 1560 the Portuguese captured this or another tooth 
 at Jaffna, to the north of Ceylon, whither it had 
 been sent for security. They despatched it to Goa, 
 and refused a large sum, offered by the King of 
 Pegu, for its ransom. The Archbishop of Goa then, 
 with his own hands, in the presence of the Portuguese 
 Viceroy and many others, bruised it to powder, 
 burnt the ashes, and hurled the remains into the 
 river. But a new tooth was formed in the heart 
 of a lotus blossom, and, behold, it is in the temple 
 at Kandy ! 
 
 The natives say that whoever holds the tooth 
 has the right to govern. In 1815 this precious 
 relic came into the possession of the British, and 
 they refused offers for it from the King of Burmah. 
 But in the insurrection of 18 18, the priests carried 
 
 ■ See Miss G. Cummings' " Two Happy Years in Ceylon,'' 
 vol. i., p. 309. Her long and carefully-prepared book has 
 furnished me with many details. 
 
KANDY AND THE HIGHER COUNTRY I43 
 
 it off; fortunately for us it was re-captured. The 
 Kandians thereupon gave up the contest. 
 
 The temple, with the library adjoining, is an 
 interesting illustration of Kandian architecture. It 
 is of no great size, but uniform in character. Square 
 pillars support the roof of the octagonal library, 
 which is higher than the temple. There is a 
 passage round between the pillars and the temple, 
 lightening the appearance of an otherwise heavy- 
 looking building. There are figures of elephants 
 and images of Buddha ; his tooth is concealed in 
 a very secret chamber. Flowers arc almost always 
 there, as in every Buddhist temple ; worshippers 
 must not come without a gift. The delicate blossoms 
 of the cocoa and areca palms, the temple flower, or 
 avvaria, the champak, or saliu (as the Sinhalese call 
 it), with its sweet yellow flower, a common temple 
 offering of India, the lovely allemanda, the lotus 
 blossom, and others, are often there. Small flags, too, 
 were flying outside at the time of my visit, recalling 
 the praying flags of Thibet. But I did not notice 
 any praying wheels. The library is famous rather 
 for its precious Pali manuscripts than for the number 
 of its volumes. Pali is the language in which Buddha 
 preached. It is therefore held in special veneration 
 by the many millions supposed to be his followers. 
 These manuscripts are on long, narrow strips of 
 palm-leaf, about two and a half inches wide, twenty 
 inches long. The writing has been done by a style 
 
144 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 of which a specimen is shown by the priest in charge. 
 These leaves (or olas,' as they are called), after the 
 letters had been scratched on them, were smeared 
 with dark oil, coloured with charred gum, so that 
 the letters were darkened, and the leaves preserved 
 from insect life. Books are made up of layers of 
 these leaves. The binding in some cases is hand- 
 somely adorned or painted. There is also a collection 
 of European books on Ceylon. 
 
 Buddhist priests are numerous at Kandy. It is 
 said that Ceylon formerly supported sixty thousand 
 of the saffron, or yellow-clad, order. There are 
 two colleges here of the Siamese sect of Buddha. 
 This sect admits the various Hindoo deities, such 
 as Vishnu and Siva, as associates of Buddha. These 
 priests throw their robe over the left shoulder (as 
 Buddha is sometimes represented), the right arm 
 and neck being left bare. The priests of the stricter 
 (or Amarapoora) sect cover both their shoulders. 
 The priests of both sects have their heads shaven. 
 Thus yellow robes and shaven heads are a frequent 
 feature of life in Kandy. 
 
 Some Hindoo temples likewise deserve notice, 
 though treated with little care or reverence. The 
 English church is a large one, and the religious 
 zeal of various Christian communities is, happily, 
 very manifest. 
 
 ' Olas are usually strips of the palmyra palm, but the leaf of 
 the talipot palm is said to be better. 
 
KANDY AND THE HIGHER COUNTRY I45 
 
 Kandy, however, though higher than Colombo, is 
 a very hot place. My hotel was in the midst of 
 lovely palms, beneath which the carefully tended 
 turf formed a charming feature. Sinhalese were, at 
 intervals, whipping the high grass with stout twigs 
 " to keep it down," as we say ; others were looking 
 on, helping the " workers " to waste their time. Yet 
 when the temperature, soon after 10 a.m., is at 75° 
 or 80°, who does not wish for a cooler clime ? The 
 governor has grand residences at Colombo and 
 Kandy, a " cottage " only at Nuwara Eliya ; he prefers 
 the cool " cottage." The fire-flies at night are very 
 interesting for a time ; the snake-charmers ' and 
 conjurers are most amusing ; yet the European soon 
 longs for a more bracing atmosphere. Tame elephants 
 may be seen about four miles from Kandy, lying down 
 in the river enjoying the coolness of their watery bed, 
 rising at their keeper's command, and readily obeying 
 all his orders ; but after one journey to and fro, under 
 a blazing sun, one longs for a higher altitude ! 
 
 Nuwara Eliya, the Simla of Ceylon, " the city of 
 the open plain " (as the name means), is 6,200 feet 
 above the sea, and easily accessible by rail. The line 
 
 ' Snakes and reptiles are so common in Ceylon that they are 
 found even in bungalows at Colombo. A cobra was in a friend's 
 garden there recently. A tic polonga, said to be the most 
 venomous reptile jn the island, was killed in his stable. A 
 planter told me he had killed two tic polongas on the verandah 
 of his house, 
 
 10 
 
146 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 from Kandy to Nanuoya (four miles from Nuvvara 
 Eliya) has been carried, at great cost, through a 
 district which has been compared to a combination 
 of Swiss and Welsh scenery. The mountains are 
 higher than the Welsh, yet they cannot be compared 
 to the snow-clad summits of Switzerland. 
 
 The chief features of the journey (besides the 
 mountains) are the tea-plantations, with their 
 bungalows and factories. Tea-plants may be seen 
 on hill and dale. The care with which they are 
 cultured, the absence of weeds, the skilfully arranged 
 drains for carrying off storm-water, and at the same 
 time supplying the roots with moisture, are gratifying 
 proofs of British energy and enterprise. Tamils, 
 recently arri\'ed from South India, may be seen 
 at some stations. Their tawny skins, gold ornaments, 
 and bright dresses, are very attractive. Planters, or 
 their managers, with white-brimmed hats and green 
 silk beneath the brim, meet these arrivals, and conduct 
 them to their quarters. Natives offer bananas, cakes, 
 and the cocoa-nut, with its large supply of " milk." 
 One end is split open with the hatchet, so that the 
 thirsty European may drink. But Europeans are 
 not numerous in these trains. Natives swarm around 
 the stations and in the third-class carriages ; there 
 were three Europeans only in one train in which 
 I travelled. Luggage vans are often attached to the 
 trains, and, though there are engines at either end 
 (as the gradient is so steep), the speed is very slow. 
 
KANDY AND THE HIGHER COUNTRY 149 
 
 The longest tunnel in the island (six hundred and 
 fourteen yards in length) is on this part of the line. 
 An iron-girder bridge, with a span of a hundred and 
 forty feet, enables the train to cross the Mahawelli- 
 ganga. On one part of the line there is a "soda- 
 water bottle curve," an appropriate name in a country 
 where soda-water is in such request. In a course 
 of three-quarters of a mile the line is only two 
 hundred feet from the line below, though it has risen 
 two hundred feet in traversing the curve. 
 
 The line is protected in some parts from the 
 incursions of wild animals, stray cattle, and other foes, 
 by aloes, which have often grown to a great size. 
 But this protection is less needed now than formerly. 
 The forests, which once sheltered the wild elephant, 
 the sambur and other deer, leopards, jackals, monkeys, 
 wild pigs, porcupines, and other animals, have almost 
 disappeared. Tea plantations have in many cases 
 been substituted. Wood, moreover, has been in great 
 request for the tea factories, where a great amount 
 is required for fuel. On many estates trees are 
 being largely planted, and are quite a feature of the 
 journey to the high country. 
 
 Nanuoya, where the train is left for Nuwara Eliya, 
 is 5,292 feet above the sea level. A drive of four 
 miles or more on an excellent road takes you a 
 thousand feet higher. This " city of the open plain " 
 is scattered over a wide area, and surrounded by 
 mountains. It has a pretty sheet of water, rightly 
 
ISO WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 called " Gregory's Lake," as Sir W. Gregory, a former 
 governor, transformed a marsh through which a tiny 
 river ran into a lake. By an artificial embankment 
 the depth has been increased ; the water, too, has 
 been stocked with fish. Carp and trout are now 
 abundant, and are said to have sensibly lessened the 
 mosquito plague. 
 
 The open valley reminded me of Grasmere, but 
 it is on a larger scale. There are the usual cricket, 
 tennis, golf, and race grounds. The horses galloping 
 round the course between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., prior to 
 the annual races in February, are a very lively 
 sight. These horses are chiefly " Gulf Arabs " from 
 the Persian Gulf, Arabs from Arabia, or Australians. 
 At Penang I had seen a long string of Australian 
 horses belonging to the Sultan of Jehore, and here 
 met Australians again. Horses, like human beings, 
 " do better " in these higher and cooler regions. 
 They are carefully covered, just as warmer clothes 
 are worn by their masters. 
 
 The sight of ladies warming themselves before 
 a fire is a strange one in Ceylon, yet I was glad 
 to find a fire in our hotel. Frost is not a novelty 
 in these regions ; the thermometer rarely, if ever, 
 rises over 72". The weather in these higher altitudes 
 is, I believe, often wet or misty. Mists were rolling 
 the mountain sides during my visit to Nuwar'alia, 
 as it is usually called. 
 
 Adam's Peak, 7,352 feet high, is the most famous 
 
KANDY AND THE HIGHER COUNTRY 151 
 
 mountain in Ceylon. It is about fifty miles from 
 Colombo, and, in clear weather, may be seen at a great 
 distarice. Its name to all the natives, of whatever 
 faith they are, is Sri Pada, the Holy Foot. Buddhists, 
 Hindoos, Mohammedans, all claim an interest in the 
 " Holy Foot." Pilgrims, year after year, flock from 
 all quarters, and worship on its summit. But Adam's 
 Peak is not the highest mountain of the island. 
 Close to my hotel at Nuwar'alia was a sign-board 
 on a f)ole, with one word only on it, Pedro. Pedro 
 is the form used for Pidurutalaga, the highest 
 mountain, 8,295 feet above the mean sea level. The 
 ascent (I speak from personal experience) is by no 
 means difficult, and can easily be accomplished in 
 less than two hours. The view, no doubt, on a fine 
 day, is very extensive, but a dense mist and a cold 
 wind soon drove me down again. Yet it is some- 
 thing for a sexagenarian to have ascended, on foot, 
 the highest mountain in Ceylon. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 THE BOTANICAL GARDENS. 
 
 ALL who wish to know Ceylon should not fail 
 to devote some time and attention to the 
 Botanical Gardens. They are probably among the 
 best in the world. The chief one is at P^radeniya, 
 about four miles from Kandy. The official name 
 is the Royal Botanic Garden. The greater part 
 of the land was formerly a royal domain, belonging 
 to the kings of Kandy. Remains of stone buildings 
 have been found ; portions of carved stone pillars are 
 still to be seen at different parts of the Garden, as 
 well as an earth mound and ditch along the northern 
 boundary. 
 
 The Garden at P^radeniya is a hundred and fifty 
 acres in area, and is surrounded almost entirely by 
 the river Mahawelli. The land is undulating. In one 
 direction across the river hills covered with forest- 
 trees rise to a considerable height, and add greatly 
 to its beauty. The average elevation above sea level 
 is 1,540 feet. The climate is hot and moist, as is the 
 case so often in Ceylon. But it is also equable. The 
 
 152 
 
THE BOTANICAL GARDENS 153 
 
 mean annual temperature is about Tj", December and 
 January being the coolest months, April and May the 
 hottest. Even in January (according to my experi- 
 ence) the weather may be very hot. The oiificial 
 guide, however, states that the thermometer in 
 January has sometimes been below 60°. 
 
 The rainfall averages about eighty-seven inches. 
 It is heaviest in October and November, and in June, 
 when the north-east and south-west monsoons are in 
 full force. Rain falls on about a hundred and fifty 
 days out of the three hundred and sixty-five. The 
 first three months in the year are the driest, but 
 showers usually fall at intervals, even in those 
 months. 
 
 This Garden dates from 1821, six years after 
 Ceylon had been attached to the British Crown, and 
 the last King of Kandy had been deposed. Some 
 eminent men have, in the course of its history, had 
 charge of it. In 1816 Sir Joseph Banks, President 
 of the Royal Society, selected a Mr. Alexander Moon 
 as curator of the small botanical garden in Slave 
 Island, Colombo. Kew was the name given to this 
 garden, and the place is still called Kew. But it 
 was too contracted for his energy and ambition ; 
 moreover, it was liable to be flooded. So in 1821 
 he induced the Government to adopt the present 
 site. He planned the roads, studied the flora, com- 
 piled, and in 1824 published, a catalogue of Ceylon 
 plants, containing the botanical and native names 
 
154 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 of 1,129 plants native to the island, as well as 
 of 366 introduced and cultivated species. He 
 formed a large herbarium of dried specimens, com- 
 menced a library, and started a series of coloured 
 drawings of Ceylon plants. These drawings have 
 been continued ever since, and are among the 
 treasures of the Garden. Fever, unfortunately, carried 
 off this remarkable man in 1825. Mr. George 
 Gardener, F.L.S. (Director from 1844 to 1849), was 
 eminent as a botanist, and Dr. Thwaites, F.R.S., for 
 thirty years (1849 to 1880), obtained for the Garden 
 a world-wide reputation. He was succeeded by 
 Mr. Henry Trimen, F.R.S., who edited the present 
 Hand Guide.^ The present director is Mr. J. C. 
 Willis, a graduate, I believe, of Cambridge. 
 
 The approach from Kandy is along a road on 
 either side of which are numerous native dwellings 
 
 o 
 
 and many fine specimens of tropical vegetation. 
 But these cannot be compared with the noble trees 
 which stand just at the entrance of the Gardens. 
 On the grass plot is a splendid specimen of the 
 Honduras mahogany, recalling the furniture once 
 so popular, and even now highly valued. The eye 
 is soon arrested by a grove of Assam indiarubber 
 trees, planted in 1833. They are noble trees in 
 appearance ; their roots, too, rise above the ground 
 and wander about in an amazing manner. The 
 rubber forms a large export from Assam and Burmah 
 1 Many details given here are from this handbook. 
 
THE BOTANICAL GARDENS 155 
 
 where the trees are carefully protected by the Indian 
 Forest Department. These, however, are feeling the 
 effect of age, being over sixty years old ; their 
 branches are decaying and dropping off. 
 
 On entering the gates, a grand array of palms 
 attracts attention. Ceylon is not rich in native palms, 
 but the collection in this garden is probably un- 
 rivalled. Here is the slender and upright yet elegant 
 areca nut palm, whose stem has been well compared 
 to an alabaster pillar. I regard it as the loveliest 
 of its tribe. It appears most to advantage when 
 growing close to the bending cooca-nut palm. The 
 seed of this areca nut is placed with some lime, made 
 usually from coral, in the leaf of a pepper {Piper 
 Beth'). Hence comes the name of betel, the luxury 
 of the poorer classes in the East, as tobacco is in 
 the West. Then there is the kitul, or jaggery palm, 
 with leaves rather resembling the maiden-hair fern, 
 bearing fruit only when it has reached a height of 
 fifty feet or more. The effort is such that it is fatal 
 to the tree. A coarse brown sugar, called jaggery, 
 is obtained from the berries. Among these palms, 
 Livistona Australis (Cabbage Palm of Australia) 
 and the royal palm of Cuba {Oreodoxa Regid) 
 particularly struck my fancy. Here, too, is a date 
 palm, which, however, never flowers. Several speci- 
 mens of the wild-date palm, or " Indi," of Ceylon, 
 bear a black fruit which is scarcely edible. Here, 
 too, is Carludovica palmata of Central America, 
 
IjS WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 from which the Panama hats ("celebrated and ex- 
 pensive") are made. In other parts of the Garden 
 are the fan palm from Mauritius, the Doum palm of 
 of Egypt, rattans, i.e. climbing palms, which mount 
 to the top of the tallest trees by long tendrils set 
 with grappling hooks. Their stems are several 
 hundred feet long, and are the stems of commerce. 
 Others worthy of notice are a very tall Macaw palm 
 of Brazil and the West Indies, with a prickly stem, 
 a vegetable ivory palm of Central America, a noble 
 avenue of royal palms planted more than forty years, 
 sago palms from Borneo (sago is the chief food of 
 the people in many Malay islands), and a grand 
 specimen, near the Museum, of the talipot palm. 
 This last is regarded by many as the palm of palms. 
 It is sometimes called the fan palm, as in the earlier 
 years of its life it sends out only fan-shaped leaves. 
 It flowers once only after it has reached its full 
 height, and not before it is forty years old. The 
 leaves, when the tree has attained twenty years, some- 
 times measure twenty-five feet from the base of the 
 leaf to the outer edge of the fan ! ^ The Alexandra 
 palm of Queensland is described in the Hand Guide 
 as "especially graceful, as befits its name." The 
 " Tal " or Palmyra Palm, with its straight and stiff 
 stem, must not be omitted, though it does not flourish 
 
 ' Enthusiasts should read an excellent description of this 
 " palm of palms " in Miss Gordon Cummings' " Two Happy Years 
 in Ceylon," vol. i., chap. vi. 
 
THE BOTANICAL GARDENS 1 57 
 
 at Peradeniya. " Toddy," as well as food, is obtained 
 from this tree. The hard, black wood is invaluable 
 for buildinpf, as white ants, the scourge of Eastern 
 householders, will not usually assail it.^ The coco-de- 
 mer is also in the gardens. This is a double cocoa- 
 nut. The fruit was found floating on the Indian 
 Ocean, or on the shores of Ceylon, centuries before 
 the tree was known.^ It grows only in one or two 
 islands of the Seychelles group, where it is now 
 protected. The growth is so slow that a single leaf 
 only is sent up annually, yet the tree reaches the 
 height of a hundred feet ! The visitor should by no 
 means fail to notice the fruit in the Museum. 
 
 After the palms, the bamboos are to me the most 
 striking feature of this wonderful garden. The chief 
 kinds are the giant bamboo of Burmah, the largest 
 known, and a very hard kind from Java, much used 
 in that island for building. There is also the male 
 or solid bamboo of South India and Malaya, described 
 as a very useful kind. The rapidity of growth of 
 these bamboos is almost beyond belief. A planter 
 assured me that in his hot, steaming district he could 
 see his bamboos grow, and the statement is credible. 
 The culms appear during the rains in June and July, 
 and grow at the rate of one foot in twenty-four 
 hours. Some bamboos attain the height of a hundred 
 
 ' In Hong-Kong dockyard I saw the bowsprit of a war-vessel 
 rendered useless by white ants. 
 ^ So says Mr. Trimen, in the Hand Guide. 
 
158 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 feet and a diameter of nine inches. Planted usually 
 near the water, they take advantage of their oppor- 
 tunities. Each clump usually contains about sixty 
 stems or more, all springing from one root. The pur- 
 poses for which the bamboo is used are so numerous 
 that it is often called the iron of the East ! ' 
 
 There is, of course, a fernery. The ground is 
 shaded by trees, and tiny streams supply the moisture 
 required. There is, too, a fern-house devoted to ferns 
 in pots. Tree ferns abound, and there are many 
 kinds of ferns, native and exotic, on the beds and 
 
 ' In the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, Januarj', 
 1899, is a most interesting, and, as far as its compass allows, 
 exhaustive paper, " On the Economic Uses of Bamboos," by 
 Mr. A. B. Freeman Mitford, C. B. He says : " It is worth the 
 trouble of a voyage to Ceylon to see the beauty of the P^ra- 
 deniya Gardens. But in that paradise, where all the treasures 
 and wonders of the tropical flower world are gathered together 
 in wildest wealth of colour and form, nothing is more striking 
 than this liuge (Burmese) bamboo (Dcndrocalamus giganieics). 
 Picture to yourself great clumps of a hundred or more canes, 
 from twenty to thirty inches round, and a hundred and thirty-five 
 feet high, spurning the earth in their heavenward flight, and 
 bending their graceful heads on all sides, like great showers of 
 sky-rockets hustled into mid-air.'' With regard to the manifold 
 uses to which the bamboo is put, he quotes the saying of a Chinese 
 poet: " How can I exist a single day without this gentleman ?'' 
 There is only one plant which divides with the bamboo "the 
 honour of being the best friend of mankind,'' viz. the cocoa-nut 
 palm. And the writer quoted cites from Percival the case 
 of a ship which, some half-century ago, came from the Maldive 
 Islands to Galle, " entirely built, rigged, provisioned, and laden 
 with tlie produce of the cocoa-nut palm." 
 
BAMBOOS, WITH YOUNG SHOOTS, IN THE PERADENIYA GARDENS, CEYLON. 
 
THE BOTANICAL GARDENS l6l 
 
 borders of the water-courses. The sight would 
 delight an enthusiast. 
 
 There is also a special conservatory for orchids, 
 with a roof of coir netting, so as to admit fain, but 
 not the full sunshine. There are about 350 species 
 of orchids, obtained chiefly from European growers. 
 But those who have seen the orchids in blossom at 
 the London shows will be disappointed with the 
 collection in Ceylon. The climate is not adapted 
 to the cultivation of cool orchids or of such as need 
 a very high temperature. 
 
 Such a feast, however, of good things is provided 
 elsewhere that no one should grumble. For heart 
 complaint there is a climbing plant, Stroplianthus 
 hispidus, from West tropical Africa ; for neuralgia, 
 the fern Epipremnum mirabile, the " Tonga " of Fiji. 
 Indiarubber has become scarce and dear. Here 
 are the three kinds, admitted to be the best for the 
 production of the rubber required : Hevea brasiliensis, 
 giving Para rubber, regarded as the best sort ; Manihot 
 Glaziovii, producing Ceara rubber ; and Castilloa 
 elastica, yielding Central American and Panama 
 rubber. These rubber trees do better in a lower 
 elevation, with more heat. They then produce as 
 good rubber as in their native countries in South 
 America. They require usually about eight years 
 growth before they can be " tapped." There are 
 also nutmeg, pepper, vanilla, fibre plants, and other 
 useful varieties without end. 
 
 U 
 
1 62 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 A " Bo " tree {Ficus religiosd), planted by the Prince 
 of Wales in 1875, must not pass unnoticed. Buddha 
 sat under a " Bo " tree during his meditations, and the 
 tree is held sacred by his followers. A " Bo " tree 
 is always planted near Buddhist temples. A python 
 is said to live in the " Bo " tree at the Temple of the 
 Tooth in Kandy.i The "B6" is the " Peepul" of 
 India. A NA, or iron-wood tree, was planted by the 
 Tsarevitch of Russia in 1891. The wood of the Na 
 is very valuable. Prince Ferdinand of Austria in 
 1893 planted an asoka-tree, famous for its sweet- 
 scented orange flowers, and Prince George of Greece 
 a Brownea graitdiceps in 1891. These are all at no 
 great distance from each other. 
 
 Some other trees must not pass unnoticed. Grevillea 
 robusta from Queensland, and various eucalypti from 
 Australia may be seen. These are planted in 
 hundreds or thousands in the upper country. The 
 former is very quick -growing, and is useful for fire- 
 wood and stakes ; the latter drain moist soil, and are 
 also quick growers in suitable soil. But P^radeniya 
 is too hot and humid for them. The Jak tree, 
 universal in Ceylon, is here. It produces the largest 
 of all edible fruits. Some weigh as much as sixy 
 pounds ; they are found all over the tree. They are 
 often offered for sale outside cottages. The seeds are 
 
 ^ At Amuradhapura, the ancient capital of Ceylon, is a B6 
 tree said to have been planted B.C. 288 ; it is described as the 
 oldest historical tree in the world, 
 
THE BOTANICAL GARDENS 1 63 
 
 used by Europeans in curry, as well as by the natives. 
 Elephants greatly appreciate the fruit in its entirety. 
 The Champak of India' (the Sapu of the Sinhalese, 
 who present its sweet yellow flowers in Buddha's 
 temples), cacao, or chocolate trees, teak and satin- 
 wood, famous for their timber, the damba, with 
 crimson and orange foliage, the candle-tree with fruit 
 just like a tallow candle, Amherstia nobilis, from 
 British Burmah, one of the most beautiful of flower- 
 ing trees, and countless others, repay the visitor a 
 thousandfold. 
 
 Ficus altissima must not be forgotten. The " flying 
 foxes " were reposing on that tree as I passed. They 
 suspend themselves by their claws, sleeping all day, 
 rocked to and fro by the wind. At sunset they 
 awake, and go foraging for fruit. They are really large 
 bats, with a skin like leather, and often measuring 
 four feet from tip to tip of their wings. The red 
 hair on their wings has perhaps given them the 
 sobriquet of flying foxes. 
 
 A visit to the museum should by no means be 
 omitted. There are about three hundred species of 
 the woods of Ceylon, cut into blocks fifteen inches 
 high, with the bark still on. There are also large 
 
 ■ Michelia Champaca. Rather like a small magnolia ; one of 
 the sweetest-scented and most favourite flowers of the East. 
 Shelley refers to it in his " Indian Serenade" — 
 
 " The Champak odours fail, 
 Like sweet thoughts in a dream.'' 
 
1 64 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 blocks of choice timber, such as satin-wood, ebony, 
 teak, na, and the very scarce calamander, highly 
 prized for cabinet work. In other rooms are such pro- 
 ducts as gums, cocoa, vanilla, and fibres. There are 
 also a laboratory for botanical research, a herbarium, 
 and a library, well furnished and complete. 
 
 But the island varies so in altitude, rainfall, and 
 temperature that trees and shrubs which may thrive 
 at one place fail in another. Cinchona and the 
 rubbers, for instance, do not flourish at Peradeniya.' 
 At Hakgala Garden, 5,800 feet above the sea, six 
 miles to the east of Nuwara Eliya, the climate is 
 more moist and more cool. Cedars, araucarias, 
 European fruit-trees, such as peaches, plums, apples, 
 and pears, are grown. This garden was opened in 
 i860 as a cinchona nursery. 
 
 There is another very useful garden at Henaratgoda, 
 
 between Colombo and Kandy. This is a completely 
 
 tropical garden, just above the sea level, and in a hot, 
 
 steaming climate which rarely varies. A planter, 
 
 whose estate is at about the same altitude, with an 
 
 average rainfall (for two years) of two hundred and 
 
 ten inches, and an average temperature of 80°, told 
 
 me that his tea-plants were washed away by the 
 
 1 The rise of the rupee to is. /^d. from is. id. makes a serious 
 difference to the tea-planter. Tea is sold for gold, but wages 
 are paid in silver. The planter receives fifteen rupees only at 
 IS. 4d. for ^i ; when the rupee is worth is. id. only, he receives 
 eighteen. He must then look also to other industries (such as 
 rubber-growing) for a liveliliood. 
 
THE BOTANICAL GARDENS 165 
 
 rains, and he must try something else. Here is the 
 help he and others need. Vegetation is far more 
 luxuriant here than at a higher altitude, and rubbers 
 especially thrive. Pepper, gamba, kola-nut, and Para 
 rubber likewise do well. 
 
 Two other gardens are maintained by the Govern- 
 ment. One is at Anuradhapura, ninety miles north 
 of Kandy. The rainfall is fifty-four inches only, and 
 of this only half is in the last quarter. The short 
 rainy season is like that of the Carnatic and Coro- 
 mandel coast. Here such tropical plants, as dislike 
 continuous or excessive moisture, are more likely 
 to do well. This garden dates from 1883. 
 
 The fifth garden is at Badulla, on the eastern side 
 of the island, 2,200 feet above the sea. The climate 
 here is drier than on the western side. The rainfall 
 is less than eighty inches, and the average tempera- 
 ture is about 73°. 
 
 The lessons to be learnt from the experience of 
 all these gardens, if properly placed before the public, 
 ought to be invaluable to the present and future 
 planters in Ceylon. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FOREST CONSERVANCY IN CEYLON. 
 
 AFFORESTATION and the management of 
 woods are an art on which Englishmen cer- 
 tainly cannot pride themselves. Sir John Lubbock, 
 it is true, has brought the subject before the notice 
 of Parliament on more than one occasion. The 
 Scotch, so often in advance of their fellow-citizens 
 in the South, some years ago held in Edinburgh an 
 exhibition of forestry which attracted considerable 
 notice. It is, I believe, a fact that many woods 
 in England are a loss to their owners, although, in 
 other cases, by skilful management they are a source 
 of profit. What our orchards in England arc may 
 be gathered from Mr. Iggulden's " Wasted Orchards 
 of England." ' He was deputed by the Editor of the 
 Gardener's Magazine to report on English orchards 
 and his report is by no means a flattering one. 
 
 But in " Greater Britain " there is often more 
 
 energy and less "old fogeyism." India has had its 
 
 forestry department now for many )'ears, and Ceylon 
 
 followed suit after no great interval. There is a 
 
 •Priced^. Gardener's Magasine. 148, Aldersgate Street, E.C. 
 
 I65 
 
FOREST CONSERVANCY IN CEYLON 1 67 
 
 school of forestry at Dehra Dun, in the north of 
 India, to which a few students from Ceylon are 
 sometimes sent. India, indeed, has conferred a special 
 benefit on Ceylon by allowing one of her experienced 
 forest officers, Mr. A. F. Broun, from South India, 
 to accept the responsible and very arduous position 
 of Conservator of the Forests, as the Director of the 
 Department is called. Mr. Broun is the son of an 
 eminent Scotch astronomer, and his mother was 
 one of a nation (the French) far in advance of us 
 in their knowledge of forest management. Yet the 
 task before him was well nigh a hopeless one. 
 
 Ceylon is almost as large as Ireland. The rainfall 
 in some parts averages about ^6 inches, in others 
 it is nearer 360 inches. The altitude ranges from 
 zero to 8,300 feet above the level of the sea. There 
 is, of course, a corresponding variation in the flora 
 of the isle, and accurate knowledge is essential to 
 any success. The means of communication in some 
 parts, although the main roads are excellent, are 
 very scanty. Many districts are malarious ; and one 
 of Mr. Broun's greatest difficulties has been the 
 constant breakdown of his staff, from fever, pneu- 
 monia, and other ailments. The forest officers are 
 particularly liable to fever, as their occupation com- 
 pels them at times to camp out, to expose themselves 
 to all weathers, as well as to visit unhealthy areas. 
 The Government agents, i.e. the collectors of the 
 Revenue, do not always see matters in the same 
 
1.68 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EASt 
 
 light as the forest officers, and for some years the 
 friction between them was considerable. 
 
 But the greatest of all difficulties, by no means 
 overcome as yet, was a strange custom called Chena, 
 or Hen a, by which the forests of the island have, 
 in not a few places, been almost destroyed. By it 
 many thousand acres of forest have been reduced to 
 mere abandoned bush land, and the legal difficulties 
 that have followed in its train have upset all the 
 courts of the country.^ 
 
 The injury that was being inflicted on the forests 
 by this native custom was evidently recognised by 
 the Governor, Sir Henry Ward, as in 1858 he 
 appointed Mr. J. R. Gordon Gumming as Chena 
 Inspector. But a single individual can do little or 
 nothing towards checking an old native custom. 
 Even now, although the foresters and the Forest 
 Department date back for a considerable time, the 
 evil is rampant, and requires constant supervision 
 and frequent prosecutions to keep it under control. 
 
 Chena is the system by which the people of a 
 district cut down the timber over an area of a 
 hundred acres or more of forest, and proceed to burn 
 the land prior to planting it. They then fence it 
 off, apportion various parts to the families of a 
 district, and sow various crops, such as the hill-paddy, 
 
 ' So writes my friend, Mr. F. Lewis, one of the chief assistant 
 conservators— the only one at present who has charge of two 
 provinces. 
 
FOREST CONSERVANCY IN CEYLON 1 69 
 
 millet, and especially plantains. The last exhaust 
 the ground seriously, and after two or three crops 
 have been harvested, other timber is cut down, and 
 a fresh soil cultivated after the native fashion. On 
 the abandoned ground there soon grows up in such 
 a soil and so moist a climate a mass of jungle almost 
 impenetrable, fit only as a lair for wild beasts, or 
 to provide food for birds. Creepers, and especially 
 laittana, cover the places where noble trees, many 
 of great age, once lifted their proud heads. This 
 lantana is said to have been introduced as an orna- 
 mental shrub. It bears an orange- and rose-coloured 
 blossom, and its black berries are beloved by birds, 
 who, of course, carry them elsewhere ; but its intro- 
 duction to Ceylon has been disastrous. It must be 
 rooted out before fresh trees are planted. 
 
 The planters, as well as the natives, are not free 
 from the charge of felling valuable timber too in- 
 discriminately. When the coffee-plants were attacked 
 by a fungus which proved fatal to the industry, tea 
 was quickly substituted. But tea requires a factory 
 and firing. Forests were laid low to meet these 
 wants. .Happily the Government intervened and 
 saved the forests on the higher grounds, that the 
 rainfall might not be affected. Large numbers of 
 gum-trees from Australia and Grevillea from Queens- 
 land may now be seen on most of the tea estates. 
 
 The official reports of the Forest Department for 
 the last few years are cheerful reading, as they prove 
 
I70 \VANDERIN(;S, WEST AND EAST 
 
 that decided progress, in spite of endless difficulties, 
 is being made. " Chena " is being checked, and the 
 villagers are learning better systems of cultivation. 
 The reconstruction of the village tanks, of the Giant's 
 Canal, and of other important works, has proved a 
 boon beyond all price to the Sinhalese. With an 
 ample supply of water in almost every direction, 
 there is now no excuse for the destruction of good 
 timber, nor for converting good land into scrubby 
 jungle. Rice can be grown where millet and other 
 inferior grains were raised. But a custom in the 
 East does not die out easily, especially if it encourages 
 laziness. The Sinhalese are essentially a lazy people, 
 and nothing but the strong arm of the law and 
 frequent prosecutions can stop their love of '" chena." 
 " Large areas," says Mr. Broun, " are still rendered 
 barren by this wasteful process. A sea of thorny 
 scrub stretches right across a very large district. 
 Vast talawas of illuk grass ' take the place of chenas." 
 In outlying districts, small hamlets will destroy 
 square miles of magnificent forest for a crop of 
 kurakkan'' or gingelly.^ 
 
 ' Talawas of illuk grass. Talawa is a Sinhalese name for 
 lands generally all covered with grass. Illuk is a coarse grass to 
 which the natives often set fire, thereby endangering forest-trees. 
 
 ^ Kurakkan is a grain usually grown in chena land by the natives 
 for food. The seed is like clover, out of which a coarse meal is 
 obtained, and some leather-like cakes are made from the meal. 
 
 ' Gingelly is a grain usually grown in chena, producing oil 
 and soon exliausting the soil. 
 
FOREST CONSERVANCY IN CEYLON 171 
 
 On the other hand, he quotes from the Report of 
 the Assistant Conservator of the Western Province 
 (Mr. F. Lewis). " I have had opportunities of visiting 
 the more remote parts of the Provinces where Chena 
 culture once existed, and it is most satisfactory to 
 record that, though this wasteful system has been 
 done away with, the people have not suffered. On 
 the contrary, fields which would have been swamps, 
 had Chenas been allowed, are now cultivated and 
 manured. People who lived on, and poisoned them- 
 selves and their children by eating, kurakkan, now 
 eat rice, and look far more healthy than their sickly 
 neighbours on the Chena lands ; while the solid 
 structure of their dwellings points to permanent 
 residence, instead of the wigwam life that characterises 
 Chena cultivation. The parangi-stricken ' condition 
 of the people in the Chena districts is another evidence 
 in favour of reducing kurakkan cultivation to a 
 minimum." 
 
 The area of forests under the charge of the 
 Department at the end of i8g6 embraced 5,338,497 
 acres, or 8,34r38 square miles. The area at the end 
 of 1883 was 2,162,113 acres, or 3,378'I4 square miles. 
 These are divided into Reserved Forests, finally 
 
 ' Parangi, or karayo, is a loathsome kind of leprosy found 
 in fever- or poverty-stricken districts. Miss Gordon Cummings 
 says that wherever there has been restoration of the ancient 
 tanks and a bountiful supply of water provided, this awful 
 disease disappears. 
 
172 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 proclaimed in the Government Gazette, and Proposed 
 Reserved Forests (first notice given in the Government 
 Gazette), and other Crown Forests. The increase 
 in area, it will be seen, is considerable, but altera- 
 tions and additions necessarily occur, especially as 
 Chena culture disappears, and the country becomes 
 better known. Mr. Broun resolutely objects to small 
 plantations, often at long intervals from each other. 
 They cannot be surpervised properly with the small 
 staff at his command. It is useless to plant orchards 
 in England unless they can be cultivated and pro- 
 tected from attack : it is just as useless to plant 
 trees in Ceylon unless they can be cared for and 
 watched. The Sinhalese are often expert thieves, 
 and probably see no special right of possession on 
 the part of the Crown, so that the prosecutions and 
 compositions, i.e. private arrangements for offetices 
 against the Forest Laws or ordinances (as they are 
 called), are numerous. In 1896 the total number 
 of cases was 3,117 (prosecutions and compositions). 
 Of these 276 were for unatithorised removal, and 
 848 for illicit Chena. 
 
 The formation and up-keep of cart roads; bridle 
 paths, and inspection paths through the forests 
 is no slight matter in such a country as Ceylon. 
 Bridges have sometimes to be made and kept in 
 repair. The roads in December, 1 896, were eighty-one 
 miles in length ; the bridle paths, thirty-eight ; th^ 
 inspection paths, thirty-three — a hundred and fifty- 
 
FOREST CONSERVANCY IN CEYLON 1 73 
 
 two miles in all. The total charges for these during 
 1896 was 2,605 rupees — about ^^173. 
 
 The felling of the timber that still remains, requires 
 close supervision, otherwise the best woods would be 
 soon exhausted. The calamander {Diosfyros gucesita), 
 regarded as the most handsome of Ceylonese woods, 
 a rich brown-yellow, highly valued for cabinet work, 
 is now so scarce that it is difficult to obtain even seeds 
 of it. Milla {Vitex altissima) had the largest sale in 
 1 896 of the principal species ; halmilla {Berrya aimno~ 
 nilld) came next, ordered largely by the Government 
 of India for railway purposes ; then palu and munamal 
 {Mimusops hexandra, and elengi) then na {Mesua 
 ferred) ; the iron-wood tree ; satin-wood, for which 
 there is a great demand in England, next. Of the 
 auxiliary species, there was a great demand for hal 
 {Vateria acuminata), which produces an excellent 
 copal, or white Damnar resin, ' and hora, both natives 
 of Ceylon, the latter peculiar to the lower forests. 
 Firewood has a large sale, and charcoal brings in 
 a considerable return. There is now an improved 
 method of bu-rning it in pits or kilns, and one 
 brewery at Nuwara Eliya takes at times six tons 
 per month. 
 
 How is all the timber and firewood conveyed ? 
 
 The cost of transport is only one of the many 
 
 difficulties of the Department. Wire shoots, some 
 
 as much as a mile long, bring down the timber by 
 
 ' See "Hand Guide to Botanic Gardens," page 17. 
 
174 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 gravitation from the higher ground. They are also 
 in use in the tea estates for the conveyance of the 
 leaves in baskets to the lower ground. The one at 
 Hatton, a well-known railway station in the higher 
 country, is three-quarters of a mile long. It was 
 put up in 1896 at a cost of 533 rupees — about £^^. 
 Bulls and buffaloes in pairs draw timber-carts and 
 sledges ; and an annual report is made respecting 
 " Rajah," the one elephant attached to the Depart- 
 ment. He is employed at one of the timber depots, 
 and is described as about fifteen years old (in 1896), 
 six feet six inches high, in good health, and likely 
 soon to be valuable. Evidently a help-meet for him 
 is desired, but " pannikkans " could not be found 
 to catch one. " Pannikkans '' is the name given to 
 natives who decoy and catch wild elephants. 
 
 What is the chief work connected with the forests ? 
 Reference has been made to the roads and paths. 
 Boundaries must also be clearly marked. A return 
 of boundaries is given every year. Squares are cut 
 in trees, and the latter marked in white on a black 
 ground. Stone pillars are sometimes erected at 
 the corners of Chenas. Thus the plea of ignorance 
 cannot be put in by pilferers and trespassers. Tliere 
 is, however, still more important work. Creepers 
 need to be constantly kept down, if trees are to do 
 well. Dead, " suppressed," and stunted trees must 
 be taken out. Low-crowned, " suppressed " trees, 
 which check the growth of seedlings, must be re- 
 
FOREST CONSERVANCY IN CEYLON 17S 
 
 moved. " Improvement-fellings," as they are called, 
 must be made. These fellings are really clearings : 
 branches out of place or excessive in number must be 
 cut off; inferior trees, which obstruct the growth of 
 useful seedlings, must be cut out ; crooked saplings 
 of valuable species cut back to encourage the growth 
 of \igorous shoots. 
 
 In the earlier days of the Department, considerable 
 labour was spent in clearing the ground entirely of 
 trees, creepers, and weeds, and then replanting. 
 Experience, however, has proved that " improvement- 
 fellings " and creeper-cutting are of more importance. 
 The area of the forests has been enlarged, and it 
 is thought wise now to improve the present planta- 
 tions rather than create new forest-areas. The 
 number of trees, however, which have been planted 
 even recently is very great. The greatest care is 
 taken to provide proper shelter and protection, even 
 before the seeds or the young trees are put in the 
 ground. In the Report of 1896, it is stated that 
 several acres have been planted with Inga saman to 
 serve as nurses for calamander as soon as seed can 
 be obtained. Jak is also planted to shelter other 
 trees, as well as on its own account. Twenty-six 
 acres at one place were planted with the Para rubber. 
 The sides of a stream were planted with a yellow 
 bamboo {Bambusa vulgaris), for which there is a 
 great demand. In another district 23,750 young 
 trees Mere planted, 1,610 in a second, 24,116 in a 
 
176 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 third. In 1893, 185,758 plants were put out at one 
 place. 
 
 Whence come all these young trees ? The forests 
 of Ceylon are not " gregarious," as most are in 
 Europe, India, and Australia. A " gregarious " forest 
 is one in which all the trees are of one species, and 
 there is not more than one such forest in Ceylon. 
 No one kind of tree covers an extensive area. Thus 
 seedlings of different kinds of trees in this moist 
 and fertile soil soon spring up and are utilised. 
 Small nurseries, too are made as occasion may 
 require. Seed, in many cases, is sought and sown. 
 So valuable is the seed of the Para rubber that in 
 1896 three thousand seeds were sold at eight rupees 
 (los. 6d.) per thousand. The Department has been 
 planting this tree for some years, and is now be- 
 ginning to tap the "suppressed," but not the 
 ''dominating" trees, as they are called in the Repoit 
 of 1896. 
 
 Many of the details supplied in the Reports relative 
 to the trees, some learnt only after sharp experience, 
 are very interesting to any one fond of trees. 
 Eucalyptus globulus grows frequently to the height 
 of forty feet ; then, if the roots touch the rock, it 
 dies of canker. Eucalyptus robusta and Acacia 
 decurrens are strong growers, and do well. Teak 
 nurseries have been formed in several places. In 
 Travancore (South India) this tree thrives well up 
 to three thousand feet, and it may also thrive in 
 
FOREST CONSERVANCY IN CEYLON I 77 
 
 Ceylon. The tamarind {Taniarindus indica), abun- 
 dant in Ceylon, was planted in 1893 ; but as the 
 growth of trees is now carefully measured, its slow 
 growth will in future be a fatal objection. 
 
 Grevillea robusta, from Queensland, is very largely 
 planted, but never thrives on a slope where it suffers 
 from a heavy wash. There are many such slopes 
 in Ceylon. Eucalyptus robusta and Grevillea are 
 recommended for altitudes between two and three 
 thousand feet. Jak {Artocarpus integrifolia) does 
 well at two thousand five hundred feet if pigs and 
 hares can be kept away ; del {^Artocarpus nob ills) 
 does splendidly at lower elevations ; and damba 
 {Eugenia species), does well on the higher or lower 
 fields. 
 
 But forest enemies are innumerable. Eucalyptus 
 robusta and Acacia decurrens are browsed down by 
 sambur deer. The deer, too, damage other trees, and 
 bark them. Elephants, in some districts, make their 
 presence known. The red (barking) deer pay too 
 much attention to the rubber-trees. The large-leafed 
 mahogany- and satin-trees are selected by spotted 
 deer for rubbing velvet off their horns. The jak- 
 trees are attacked by porcupines and moose-deer, 
 hares and rats. Buffaloes occasionally take their 
 turn, and goats when they get their chance. 
 " Borers " attack the mahogany-roots ; cattle some- 
 times break in — barbed wire is suggested. Villagers, 
 too, have been known to carry off doors and windows ! 
 
 12 
 
178 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 Fires often do great damage, destroying, for instance, 
 large numbers of teak-trees. Workmen, again, some- 
 times will not enter a forest because it is the 
 abode of devils. The belief in demons is almost 
 universal in Ceylon. 
 
 Yet in spite of innumerable and never-ending 
 difficulties, the Forest Department of Ceylon, under 
 Mr. Broun, is making good progress, and laying a 
 good foundation for the future. A School of Forestry 
 for subordinate officers has been established at 
 Colombo in connection with the School of Agriculture, 
 and there will henceforth be a larger number of 
 competent and trained officials. The deficit of early 
 years is already changed into a surplus. Very many 
 years must elapse before the forests of Ceylon can 
 be what they have been, yet every year will show 
 some progress ; and the good work that Mr. Broun 
 and his colleagues have done and are doing, will, let 
 us hope, never be forgotten. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 CEYLON PRISONS. 
 
 WHAT are the end and object of imprisonment ? 
 Questions connected with punishment are 
 always full of difficulty. A well-known British 
 " weekly " devotes a column or more every issue to 
 a list of cases in which various magistrates have 
 seemingly done too much or too little. Even judges 
 on the bench do not always satisfy the critics. 
 Penology, both as a science and an art, has by no 
 means attained perfection. 
 
 A study of the Ceylon Prison Reports brings out 
 the fact that judges there, as elsewhere, fail sometimes 
 to mete out that measure of punishment which is 
 absolutely necessary if crime is to be kept in check. 
 Mr. F. R. Ellis, late Inspector-General of Prisons, 
 quotes a case in which a man had seriously injured 
 and nearly killed a foreman in a large firm for which 
 both were working, because the latter had reported 
 him for defective work ; yet the punishment inflicted 
 was a fine only.^ 
 
 Mr. Ellis (now promoted, 1 believe, to a high 
 
 • Ceylon Prison Report, 1894. 
 179 
 
I80 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 position in the Ceylon Government) discusses this 
 question of the end and object of punishment with 
 great ability. He urges that judicial officers should 
 lay down in their own minds certain fixed principles 
 with reference to the apportionment of punishment. 
 The systems, he says, on which sentences are passed 
 are much the same in all countries, viz. the haphazard, 
 the expiatory, and the preventive. 
 
 1 he first, the haphazard system, is based on no 
 principle at all, and is especially injurious in a 
 a country like Ceylon. The British public take the 
 greatest interest in their own courts. Public opinion 
 at once notes and reprimands any serious mistake 
 on the part of magistrates or judges. The case is 
 very different in Ceylon. Mistakes there have a 
 serious influence for evil. The judge's temper or 
 digestion makes a vast difference under the hap- 
 hazard system. Any doubt about the justice of the 
 verdict is allowed to affect the sentence. 
 
 The expiatory system is based on the principle " an 
 eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." It works almost 
 entirely with a view to the past. The prisoner's guilt, 
 when sentence is passed, is estimated mainly by the 
 value of the property stolen. The prisoner cannot 
 repay or replace, so must expiate his time in prison. 
 
 The preventive or (to use the more ordinary term) 
 the deterrent, system insists that when suffering is 
 inflicted, it shall be done, not with the view of 
 extinguishing a fictitious debt owed to abstract 
 
CEYLON TRISONS l8r 
 
 justice, but in the reasonable hope that some benefit 
 to the individual or to the community will be the 
 result. The exact nature of the benefit expected 
 should be clearly before the mind of the court, and 
 be the main guide in passing sentence. Is the object 
 of the sentence to deter the prisoner himself, to deter 
 others, or to protect the public ? The true object 
 of punishment is too often overlooked. The true 
 end of punishment is neither expiation, nor retaliation, 
 but (says Mr. Ellis) prevention.^ 
 
 This deterrent punishment is evidently the guiding 
 principle of the responsible Prison Authorities in 
 Ceylon. I was fortunately enabled to visit two of 
 the chief prisons in the island : one at Welikada, close 
 to Colombo, where the daily average of convicted 
 prisoners in 1896 was four hundred and eighty-eight, 
 and where there is, I believe, accommodation for seven 
 hundred ; the other at Kandy, which can now receive 
 four hundred. Mr. H. Lloyd, the Superintendent, took 
 me over the former, and Mr. Phillips, the Superinten- 
 dent, showed me the chief secrets of the Kandy jail. I 
 have to thank these gentlemen for much information 
 and kindness. They are both believers in the 
 principle of deterrent punishment. 
 
 ■ When men are hanged, does not the principle of expiation 
 come in as well as of prevention ? In 1894, 23 men were 
 hanged in Ceylon ; in 1895, 22 ; in 1896, 25. They expiated 
 their crimes, and (let us hope) deterred others from that mur- 
 derous use of the knife, too common in the island. 
 
l82 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 One feature in these prisons is so different from 
 what I had seen at Singapore that the thought 
 occurred at once, Where are the irons ? A very large 
 proportion of the prisoners at Singapore are Chinese. 
 Of 3,334 received in the native prison during 1896, 
 2,993 were Chinese.^ These are very different from 
 the Sinhalese, Tamils, and Burghers of the Ceylon 
 prisons. The Chinese are adepts at forming secret 
 societies, and shrink from nothing if they are likely 
 to succeed. The Sinhalese are a much more manage- 
 able and milder race. The Tamils, though more 
 industrious, are not difficult to control. The irons 
 which the prisoners at Singapore wear when first 
 admitted are so light and well-burnished that they 
 look almost ornamental ! If the prisoner conducts 
 himself well, they are in due course removed. 
 
 The next feature was the extraordinary absence 
 of European warders. There are some Eurasians 
 on the staff, but the great majority of the warders 
 are natives. Major Firminger, the Superintendent of 
 the Convict Establishments for Ceylon, says, in his 
 Report for 1896, that in 1890 the European staff 
 consisted of one superintendent, two assistants, three 
 first-class jailors, and one second-class, whereas now 
 there are only one superintendent, one assistant, and 
 one European jailor. Happily there are barracks 
 
 ' The races and numbers were as follows : Hokkien, 1,453 i 
 Cantonese, 530 ; Teochew, 574 ; Kheh, 172 ; Hailam, 264 ; total, 
 2,993. These five races speak different dialects, 
 
CEYLON PRISONS 1 83 
 
 both at Colombo and Kandy, so that the aid of the 
 military could be invoked, should occasion require. 
 
 At Welikada I was first conducted to the quarter 
 assigned to female prisoners. Here were all the 
 women committed to prison at the time of my visit, 
 from the whole island. A part of one prison out of 
 the twenty-two jails in Ceylon suffices for all the 
 female offenders. The daily average of men in 
 prison in 1896 was i,97S ; of women, 21. The 
 comparison between the East and the West is not 
 flattering to our civilisation. The women were under 
 the charge of two female warders, and were most of 
 them working together making garments. They 
 were expected, perhaps required, not to talk ; a. serious 
 punishment no doubt to the chattering Sinhalese. 
 
 But the chief feature, and one that I was anxious 
 to see, is a new form of punishment, which at present 
 seems so great a success that it is sure to be imitated 
 elsewhere. Its invention is ascribed to Mr. Ellis, 
 but the superintendents have no doubt assisted in 
 making it work so well. It is known as " pingo," 
 the name given to the yokes so universal in the 
 East for carrying burdens. These pingoes are often 
 made of the kitul, or jaggery-palm, as the wood is 
 pliable, light, and strong. But some pingoes that 
 I saw in the prisons are apparently bamboos. The 
 length of the yokes is from six to eight feet. Eqpal 
 weights are hung from either side of the shoulder 
 by cords from each end of the pingo. 
 
1 84 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 There has been the usual difference of opinion in 
 
 Ceylon about the best methods of punishment. A 
 
 scanty diet, solitude, corporal punishment are all 
 
 objectionable in some ways. If a Sinhalese can 
 
 shirk work, he will do so. He prefers idleness on 
 
 twelve ounces of bread per diem to work with a full 
 
 diet of rice and curry. " He must be a clever man," 
 
 said an old resident, " who can make the Sinhalese 
 
 work." But with the pingo a man cannot escape 
 
 or evade work. A long shed of no great width and 
 
 open at the sides has accommodation usually for 
 
 sixty prisoners. Some open woodwork runs down 
 
 the centre of the shed, so that the men can see their 
 
 fellows. Each has to carry forty pounds, twenty 
 
 in each scale, at a distance of five feet from the 
 
 man in front. With one hand he keeps the pingo 
 
 on his shoulder, with the other he holds a short 
 
 string, or trace. This is fastened to a rope. The 
 
 rope runs through two pulleys, which are fixed at 
 
 two ends of the shed. The rope goes round with 
 
 the prisoners, and no man can avoid doing the same 
 
 distance in the same time as the others, unless he 
 
 falls out of the line. Sharp punishment would soon 
 
 teach him better if he did. If he attempts to walk 
 
 at a slower pace, the man behind treads on his heels. 
 
 If he deserves special punishment, the weight is 
 
 increased to fifty pounds. A well-conducted prisoner 
 
 is chosen to act as leader, and make the pace. His 
 
 burden is thirty pounds, and as he completes each 
 
CEYLON PRISONS 185 
 
 round, walking up perhaps fifty yards each way, he 
 moves an indicator, and moves it again when he returns 
 to the starting point. Sand-glasses and other aids 
 enable the officers to test the pace and the distance. 
 
 The prisoners walk and carry these weights for 
 a spell of four hours, then have a rest in their cells. 
 They walk subsequently another eight miles, making 
 sixteen in all each day. Some suffer at first from 
 sore shoulders, but these are soon cured. The 
 exercise in the open air (under cover) keeps them 
 in good health, though the diet is penal, and the 
 lowest given. The sight of their fellow-prisoners 
 probably has a healthy influence, although they 
 cannot talk. This careful exaction of hard, con- 
 tinuous, monotonous labour is described as having 
 an excellent deterrent effect. The men, too, are 
 Inore accustomed to labour when they leave than 
 when they entered the prison. They are thus 
 improved as well as punished. 
 
 Sometimes a prisoner refuses to do the work. 
 What happens ? The man thinks that he can defy 
 the authorities. He lies down and absolutely refuses 
 to work. The guards are forbidden to use force in 
 such cases. They take him back to his cell, and 
 send for the superintendent. The man is urged to 
 carry the pingo, and told that he will be caned in 
 five minutes if he does not. He does not believe 
 in the threat. His reply is almost always the same 
 ~-" Though you were to kill me, I won't do the 
 
1 86 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 work." He is at once put on the " triangle," ' and 
 receives six cuts. He is then informed that if he 
 does not go instantly to work he will have six more 
 next morning. In almost every case the prisoner 
 at once walks to his work, and continues it without 
 further resistance. 
 
 Considerable discussion has occurred among the 
 officials whether it is better to give five or six cuts, 
 or fifteen to twenty. The lighter punishment has 
 proved by far the wiser one. It has the great 
 advantage that it can be repeated almost at once 
 if necessary, whereas the more severe cannot. The 
 Reports are convincing on the point that certainty, 
 not severity, of punishment exercises greater influence, 
 and is more deterrent. 
 
 The tread-mill is so well known that it is needless 
 to describe it as employed in the Ceylon jails. It 
 is regarded as distinctly deterrent. Those who have 
 seen prisoners on it will readily believe so ! At 
 Welikada, of thirty-two men at the " mill," twenty- 
 four are on, and eight off. Those who are on work for 
 fifteen minutes, those who are off rest for five minutes. 
 The men must make fifty-six paces a minute, and be 
 at the mill eight hours a day. In such a climate this 
 is certainly hard, monotonous, and deterrent work ! 
 
 ' So I suppose. This instrument was shown me. A man's 
 hands and feet are fastened to two sides ; his face is turned 
 towards the third side. Thus he cannot see what is coming 
 behind. No doubt his imagination is at work ! 
 
CEYLON PRISONS 1 87 
 
 Husk-beating is another form of punishment. 
 Men are separated in small cubicles, open only to 
 the view of the warder in charge, supplied with a 
 mallet and three and a half pounds of cocoa-nut husk. 
 This must be beaten out, and the prisoner forfeits 
 marks if the proper amount is not completed before 
 night. The solitude of the prisoner makes his punish- 
 ment more severe. 
 
 Every male, on admission, is put to the forty-pound 
 pingo, or on the '' mill " for four days. At the end 
 of that time (unless his sentence is for a month only, 
 or a still shorter time) he can elect to do husk- 
 beating. But he must fulfil his daily task, and beat 
 out three and a half pounds. If he fails to do so, 
 he goes back to " pingo " for seven days, after which 
 he may elect to do husk-beating again. If he fails 
 twice to do this work properly, he is sent back to 
 " pingo," but must now carry fifty pounds ! To carry 
 fifty pounds for eight hours a day under a blazing 
 Ceylon sun is undoubtedly a severe, monotonous, 
 and, I should think, a very deterrent task ! 
 
 No difference is made (as at Singapore) between 
 Europeans and natives. There is no separation, and 
 no separate European prison. At Singapore I was 
 sorry to see several European prisoners ; at Colombo 
 sailors are the chief offenders. If captains were 
 required to pay for the cost of the sailors from their 
 ships sent to prison, the numbers would probably 
 not be so large. 
 
1 88 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 The conflict of opinion between the medical and 
 prison authorities on the question of diet is at times 
 very serious. Great mortahty has occurred in some 
 prisons during the last few years, causing much 
 anxiety to all concerned. Many criminals come from 
 malarial districts, and bring the seeds of disease 
 with them. Confinement soon tells on such men. 
 All, too, have been accustomed to the open air, 
 and suffer as soon as their liberty is curtailed. The 
 admission of more light and air into their cells has 
 done great good, as well as the exercise in pingo- 
 carrying under open sheds. The doctor in one 
 prison, thinking the low diet the chief cause of illness, 
 placed every prisoner in any way ailing, in hospital, 
 where there is no limit upon the food that may 
 be given. The results are summarised by the 
 Superintendent of the Convict Establishment, in the 
 table below. Penal diet, given only to prisoners 
 sentenced to one month or less, continues to give 
 the best results, though condemned by the Medical 
 Officer as " unphysiological diet." 
 
 Admitted Percentage — 
 
 into Died. of of 
 
 Hospital. Sick. Deaths. 
 
 -1500 169 I II'2 0'6 
 
 Total of all Prisoners ' 
 
 admitted into Convict 
 
 Establishments, and 
 
 fed exclusively on 
 
 Penal Diet No. i 
 Total of other Prisoners ^ 
 
 receiving other and (in 
 
 the Medical Officer's [4500 4041 44 89-6 l-o8 
 
 opinion) much better 
 
 diets ' 
 
CEYLON PRISONS 1 89 
 
 The Superintendent thus describes the state of 
 things when the doctor has his way. " A prisoner 
 now admits that he can pass his days comfortably 
 in prison, and no wonder. He is better fed than 
 an honest man ; sent to hospital for the slightest 
 ailment ; sometimes kept there for months, fed upon 
 chickens, mutton, Mellin's food, fresh milk, etc., with 
 the best brands of brandy and whisky procurable 
 for stimulants. In a few cases he does not perform 
 a week's hard labour during his whole sentence. In 
 many others he leaves hospital only to go to an 
 invalid jail, where he receives a diet ; and he will 
 never get outside." 
 
 Happily the Inspector-General of Prisons has all 
 these and other facts before him, and in due course 
 sets matters right. 
 
 The penal " unphysiological " diet is as follows : — 
 
 Morning meal: two ounces of rice in Congee.' 
 Mid-day : eight ounces of bread. Evening : eight 
 ounces of bread. 
 
 Here it will be seen that three meals a day are 
 given ; in the Egyptian prisons there are two only. 
 The Inspector, in his Report, states that 3,966 
 prisoners underwent, in 1896, a sentence of a month 
 or less on this diet, yet only two died. 
 
 The Bertillon system of anthropometrical measure- 
 ment of prisoners is now in force throughout Ceylon. 
 Very few prisoners previously convicted can now 
 ' Described to me as a kind of rice starch. 
 
I90 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 escape identification ; their measure is too well 
 known ! The percentage of habitual criminals re- 
 ceived into prison after conviction in Ceylon is 2061, 
 whereas in England in 1895 the same percentage 
 was 55 '6. 
 
 It is satisfactory to learn that the short and sharp 
 systems of punishment (pingo, tread-mill, and 
 penal diet) are a great success. Punishments, too, 
 for prison offences have lessened since these 
 were introduced, with corporal punishment behind 
 them. " Longer-sentence " men (as they are called) 
 at a certain stage are sent to quarry stones for 
 Colombo harbour, or to enlarge the breakwater 
 there. 
 
 The following history, given in one of the Reports, 
 tells a tale of the trials which sometimes attend a 
 superintendent's or a warder's life. Corporal punish- 
 ment, it appears, has greatly diminished from the 
 certainty attending its infliction if prisoners refuse 
 to obey orders. But what could be done in the 
 following case ? A man was sent into one of the 
 jails who had been living on the reputation of being 
 slightly insane. He used to steal openly anything 
 he fancied. The villagers were unwilling to prosecute. 
 At last he took to stealing cattle, was arrested, and 
 convicted. When he came before the prison officials, 
 his insanity was soon found to be feigned. But he 
 refused to work at all. After due warning, he was 
 caned. He still refused to mount the tread-mill, 
 
CEYLON PRISONS IQI 
 
 take the pingo, or lift the mallet for husk-beating. 
 The authorities dared not give in ; other prisoners 
 would have followed suit. After twenty-five iloggings, 
 he gave way, and did his work well ! Perseverance 
 even in punishment is sometimes a duty. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 INDIAN OCEAN, RED SEA, AND EGYPT. 
 
 THE voyage from Ceylon to Suez, even in fair 
 weather, in a steamer running an average of 
 twelve knots an hour, occupies about eleven days. 
 We had not been two days away from the island 
 
 " Where every prospect pleases, 
 And only man is vile " 
 
 when we passed a lighthouse on a rock, standing 
 in mid-ocean, with its friendly flashing light warning 
 us to keep well away. More ships were seen than 
 we had met even in the Atlantic Ocean or China 
 Sea ; in traversing the Pacific from Vancouver to 
 Yokohama we scarcely saw a sail. The cliffs of 
 Socotra, rising perpendicularly, then opening and 
 disclosing a view of low-lying land, then once again 
 rising abruptly, offer a refreshing change from the 
 " waste of waters " which surrounds us day after day. 
 The brown and arid coast of Arabia, with precipitous 
 heights near the shore, soon appears ; on a prominent 
 position is a Turkish fort, with barrack not far off. 
 We keep away from Aden, the Gibraltar of the 
 
 192 
 
13 
 
INDIAN OCEAN, RED SEA, AND EGYPT IQS 
 
 Red Sea, but we see Perim, the island at the 
 entrance of the sea, very plainly. It looks larger 
 than I had imagined it to be, yet lies low and 
 dreary ; we could discover in it neither hill, tree, nor 
 any sign of cultivation. Mocha, bright and white 
 in the sunshine on the Eastern side, was quite visible ; 
 it recalled earlier days, when Mocha coffee was better 
 known than now. After two warm days in the Red 
 Sea, the weather changed, and became so cool, not 
 to say cold, that the officers appeared in their dark 
 cloth coats, and passengers could no longer be out 
 on deck. 
 
 The Red Sea and excessive heat seem inseparable 
 ideas, yet the weather for the last two days of 
 our voyage (February 1898) was cold. The winter 
 in Egypt, we learnt subsequently, had been excep- 
 tionally cold ; a non-commissioned officer accustomed 
 to Egyptian heat described the Soudan as " cold " in 
 February. 
 
 Ere long we were in the Gulf of Suez, and the 
 channel was narrowing. Vessels were more frequent, 
 and the Canal was evidently not far off. We were 
 told that Mount Sinai was in the distance, and before 
 many hours we anchored in the channel which leads 
 to the entrance of the Canal. Vessels must wait 
 their turn to enter. 
 
 Suez lies low, but not far away on the western 
 side are the bold and menacing Ataka mountains, 
 relieving the monotony of land on the Arabian side. 
 
196 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 The white houses of Suez, with their green blinds, 
 are evidently of French construction. To the new- 
 comer they look neat and nice. The channel at the 
 head of the gulf, leading to the Canal, is about three 
 hundred yards across, and is carefully buoyed. Ships 
 are entrusted to French pilots, and must not proceed 
 faster than five miles an hour. The shifting 
 character of the banks renders this regulation most 
 necessary. 
 
 There are docks at Suez, but the vessels in 
 them did not seem numerous. The sides of the 
 Canal are being gradually bricked where occasion 
 requires ; yet in some places the sand at times gives 
 way, and incessant vigilance alone can maintain the 
 Canal in a condition to admit of the transit of large 
 vessels. 
 
 We boast of our progress, and think that the Suez 
 Canal is one of the wonders of the world, yet, as 
 a matter of fact, M. de Lesseps only followed in 
 the footsteps of great men who had preceded him. 
 A little to the north of Ismailia is Kantara, and 
 Kantara signifies " a bridge." The name indicates 
 that in earlier times there existed a bridge or ford 
 at this place. Nekan (B.C. 610) began a canal at 
 Bubastis, in Lower Egypt, between the Nile and the 
 Red Sea. This was continued by Darius, and at a 
 later date Ptolemy Philadelphus added a lock to it. 
 When the present canal was being made, granite 
 blocks and slabs were found with the name of Darius 
 
INDIAN OCEAN, RED SEA, AND EGYPT I97 
 
 inscribed in Persian cuneiform characters and in 
 hieroglyphics. 
 
 As ruins of buildings were also discovered, it is 
 conjectured that a series of buildings was erected 
 along the line of the old canal, which was restored, 
 and probably completed, by Darius.' 
 
 The fresh-water canal from Bulak (part of Cairo) 
 to Suez, with an aqueduct to Port Said, is a very 
 noticeable feature of the desert. Near the northern 
 part of the canal, trees, at present of no great size, 
 are growing on the banks. These may in time tend 
 to mitigate the rainless character of the desert ; and, 
 curiously enough, the carriage windows were wet 
 with rain on our journey by rail from Ismailia to 
 Cairo. 
 
 Travellers from the East land in Egypt either at 
 Suez, Ismailia, or Port Said. Before reaching Ismailia, 
 about half-way on the Canal, ships traverse the 
 Bitter Lakes, fifteen miles long. The Canal is a 
 hundred miles long, including the passage through 
 the Lakes. The water in these lakes was formerly 
 fresh, but sea-water from the Mediterranean was 
 admitted in March, 1869, and the Canal opened for 
 traffic in November of the same year. The Lake 
 of Timsah (or the Crocodile Lake) is soon reached. 
 Here a launch meets the vessel and conveys 
 
 ' See Dr. Bridge's interesting " Notes on the Nile." A 
 monument was erected on a rock by Darius to tell passers-by 
 that the canal of early ages was made by his command. 
 
198 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 passengers to Ismailia, the head-quarters of the staff 
 employed in keeping the Canal in good working 
 order. 
 
 The weather at midnight in February was very 
 cold, and the wind during the daytime reminded 
 me of the Ri\'iera and the biting winds that often 
 blow there towards nightfall. The natives, even at 
 midday, were glad to find a sheltered, sunny spot, 
 and to protect their faces and heads with their loose- 
 flowing robes. 
 
 Ismailia is a very sandy place, yet it deserves 
 notice for one special reason. Here are avenues of 
 trees planted by the French, and reflecting the 
 greatest credit on them. These, I believe, were first 
 planted at the time when the fresh-water canal 
 (which passes through Ismailia) and the Suez Canal 
 were constructed, and appear to be about thirty years 
 old. They afford a shade which must be most 
 welcome in the burning heat ; they also form a 
 contrast to the glaring sands around them, thus 
 relie\'ing the eye as well as the body. 
 
 The trees in these avenues are commonly called 
 the acacia of the Nile, or su^it-tree, but are properly 
 (according to Baedeker) the "lebbek" {Albizsia 
 lebbek). 
 
 In 1869 the Khedive Ismail induced M. Barillet 
 to migrate from Paris to Egypt, where he has left 
 an enduring monument to himself in some of the 
 noblest and most useful avenues that exist anywhere. 
 
INDIAN OCEAN, RED SEA, AND EGYPT 201 
 
 He selected this tree chiefly for the avenue that lines 
 the western side of the Nile opposite to Cairo, and 
 the long road leading thence to the Pyramids. This 
 tree grows very rapidly in height and bulk, soon 
 forming the leafy canopy which forest-men love, 
 affording, too, a grateful shade where otherwise the 
 heat and dust combined would be stifling. One 
 valuable characteristic of the tree is that large 
 branches may be planted, and will strike root and 
 thrive. It is worthy of note that at Ismailia and 
 elsewhere these trees are carefully thinned and kept 
 in good order. 
 
 The journey from Ismailia to Cairo is a revelation 
 to the new-comer. Desert and sand surround him 
 on all sides at first. Ere long Tel-el-Kebir, so famous 
 for the defeat of Arabi Pasha in 1882, is reached, and 
 the country is still a desert. Soon, however, after the 
 scene of the great fight has been passed, the appear- 
 ance of the country changes. Cultivated, well-watered 
 fields may be noticed in every direction. The land 
 of Goshen lay to the east of the Delta, extending 
 as far as Lake Timsah ; and this district is still a 
 land of Goshen. The fresh-water canal from Cairo 
 to Suez flows through the district, and irrigation is 
 seen everywhere. 
 
 Large crops of cotton are raised. Zagazig, near the 
 once famous city of Bubastis, is the centre of the 
 cotton trade, and contains about 40,000 inhabitants. 
 Numerous trucks full of coal were standing near 
 
202 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 the station as we passed, ready to be unloaded. 
 From Zagazig to Cairo there is evidence on all sides 
 of industry ; but the flat-topped houses, or rather hovels 
 of the " fellaheen," do not generally give a stranger an 
 exalted idea of home comforts amongst the Egyptians. 
 
 Yet the people generally seem to me to contrast 
 favourably with the Sinhalese, Malays, and even 
 the Chinese in their own countries. They are often 
 fine men, well nurtured and sufficiently well clothed. 
 No half-clad, nearly nude natives are to be seen 
 in the markets around Cairo ; well-to-do and well- 
 dressed Egyptians, Levantines, Copts, as well as 
 Italians and other European immigrants, with the 
 favourite fez, are there in hundreds and thousands. 
 The lentils, broad beans, and onions, which form a 
 chief element in the food of the people, may in some 
 degree account for their condition ; the milk, too, of 
 goats, sheep, or buffaloes is taken, though usually 
 when turned sour. The British rule, too, has made 
 Egypt so prosperous that signs of progress and 
 increasing comfort are visible in all parts. 
 
 The costumes, however, are not so picturesque. 
 Large numbers are clad wholly in black, and some, 
 especially Indians, wholly in white. The peasants 
 at market often have a black woollen cloak, com- 
 fortable, but not artistically striking. Women, too, 
 are usually in black, with a covering over the faces 
 in most cases, the eyes only being exposed. There 
 are, however, many bright dresses. 
 
INDIAN OCEAN, RED SEA, AND EGYPT 203 
 
 The dragomans and guides often wear rich silk 
 garments, rather like a long waistcoat, in front. 
 The consul's servants wear brightly embroidered 
 dresses, very resplendent behind, and the men on 
 the carriages, and the runners, often have gorgeous 
 turbans and scarfs. The donkey-boys are usually 
 dressed in long, blue, loose garments, and even the 
 boatmen on the Nile are encumbered in the same 
 way. The turban, duly wound seven times around, 
 is the headdress of almost all the peasants. 
 
 Cairo, with its striking combination of East and 
 West, its countless minarets, bazaars, and narrow 
 streets, its Coptic churches and more modern 
 mosques, has been so often described that I will 
 not attempt the task of portraying it. The Coptic 
 churches of Old Cairo are among the most ancient 
 links between the present and the past, and quite 
 a study in themselves. But the University of El- 
 Azhar, and the prisons, interested me chiefly. The 
 latter will require a special notice. 
 
 The University of El Azhar is at the mosque of 
 that name in the centre of Cairo. It has six gates, 
 and there is no difficulty now in obtaining admission. 
 Tickets are obtained by the guide beforehand, and 
 the gate-keeper accompanies the visitors and expects 
 his " baksheesh," according to universal custom. The 
 minarets of the mosque are striking objects, both 
 from the street and inner court. The receptacles 
 for books, shown on entrance, are by no means 
 
204 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 attractive, but the open court in the centre, with 
 students lying in groups or stretched out asleep, 
 gives a very Oriental tone to the place. There are 
 no chairs or other modern luxuries, such as sofas 
 or easy-chairs. Imagine Oxford or Cambridge men 
 lying on the ground eating thin cakes, like the 
 Jewish unleavened bread, and drinking water at a 
 tap, as is done at El Azhar ! 
 
 Some sects among the Mohammedans, e.g. the 
 Wahabees, forbid tobacco, regarding it as intoxi- 
 cating ; and some of the Indian soldiers in the British 
 army who are Mohammedans will not touch it. I 
 saw some of these at Hong Kong, and was assured 
 by the commanding officer that they were forbidden 
 by their religion to use tobacco. None of the students 
 — we saw them in their leisure time, during the 
 feast of Bairam ' — were indulging either in alcohol 
 or tobacco ! 
 
 The number of students who attend was given 
 b>' our guide as 20,000. He probably knew nothing 
 beyond common report. " The number varies," says 
 Dr. Bridge, "from 10,000 to 13,000." In Baedeker 
 (1885 edition) precise details are supplied, and the 
 number sinks to 7,700, taught by 231 sheiks, or 
 professors. I was taken round a considerable part 
 
 ' There are two feasts of Bairam or Beiram (Turkish and 
 Persian words), one at the close of the fast Ramadan, corres- 
 ponding to our Easter, the other, the lesser Bairam, seventy 
 days after. 
 
INDIAN OCEAN, RED SEA, AND EGYPT 205 
 
 of the building, and did not see 500 in all ; but a 
 large proportion were no doubt absent, as high 
 holiday was being observed. 
 
 Besides the central court, there is a large enclosed 
 colonnade (the Liwan ' of the mosque). Here are 
 three hundred and eighty pillars of various kinds and 
 stones, to which the guide points with great pride. 
 The prayer-niches and the pulpit are prominent 
 features. The absence of images in this and other 
 mosques should not pass unnoticed. The Moslem 
 religion forbids the representation of any human 
 form. 
 
 On three sides of the central court there are com- 
 partments set apart for the students from different 
 districts of the Moslem world. Into several of these 
 I was admitted. The students were sitting on the 
 ground cross-legged, or lying at length. There are 
 twenty or more divisions, but the largest numbers 
 come from Upper Egypt. Students from Arabia, 
 Syria, West Africa, the northern provinces of the 
 Turkish Empire, and other parts, are usually there. 
 
 The customary period of study is three years, but 
 some students remain in the mosque nearly, if not 
 quite, double that time. No fees are required. The 
 endowments of the mosque meet the expenses of 
 
 1 The Lilian is the part conlaining the sacred vessels: the 
 kibla, or prayer-niche, turned towards Mecca ; the mambar, or 
 pulpit, whence the faithful are addressed ; the kursi, or reading- 
 desk ; lamps, etc. It is usually covered with carpets or mats. 
 
206 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 the students. The professors are supported by 
 donations from their pupils, by private teaching, or 
 filling some office to which a payment is attached, 
 or in some other way. Their salaries are evidently 
 not excessive ! 
 
 The teacher sits cross-legged on a straw mat and 
 reads from a book, or directs a student to read 
 whilst he explains. The others sit around, listen, 
 and take notes. The student is expected in time 
 to know by heart the whole of the book which is 
 being studied. When he can repeat all the contents, 
 an entry is made in his own copy to that effect by 
 his teacher, and he is henceforth entitled to lecture 
 on it. 
 
 This University, founded in 975 A.D., now nearly a 
 thousand years old, has had and still has such a wide 
 influence over the Eastern world that it is important 
 to know what subjects are chiefly taught. 
 
 The first subject in a country where Arabic is 
 the universal language is naturally the Arabic 
 grammar. Next follows what is called religious 
 science. The introduction to this consists of a series 
 of lectures on the attributes of God and of the 
 Prophet, i.e. of the unity of God. The chief attri- 
 butes of God are said to number twelve — existence, 
 source of all being, eternity, independence, unity, 
 omnipotence, omniscience, will, life, vision, hearing, 
 speech. When " religious science " has been mastered, 
 " law " follows. This is based on the study of the 
 
INDIAN OCEAN, RED SEA, AND EGYPT 207 
 
 Koran and of tradition. The former embraces such 
 questions as fasting during the month of Ramadan, 
 the pilgrimage to Mecca ; the latter the law of the 
 Koran, the decisions of judges in special and difficult 
 cases. Other subjects are also taught, such as the 
 proper pronunciation of letters, the proper manner 
 of reciting the Koran, logic, rhetoric, and the art of 
 poetry. 
 
 Who can wonder that the Mohammedan world 
 makes no progress and refuses to receive fresh ideas ? 
 Algebra, geometry, and astronomy, for which the 
 Arabs of old were famous, have been laid aside ; 
 the Koran, one of the strangest compounds of 
 Judaism and Christianity that man ever devised, 
 has become imbedded in the hearts of millions. The 
 memory, rather than the mind, is exercised. The 
 teaching is based entirely on the Koran, and com- 
 mentaries on it. El-Azhar as a university exercises 
 perhaps more influence than any other in existence, 
 yet one may rightly hope that a better and more 
 enlightened day will arise. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 EGYPTIAN PRISONS. 
 
 THE defeat of Arabi Pasha at Tel-el-Kebir in 
 1882 has proved to be one of the decisive 
 battles of the latter part of the nineteenth century. 
 Since that event Egypt has been passing more and 
 more under British control ; and, by the testimony 
 even of enemies, the improvement in the condition 
 of the people has been simply marvellous. Not only 
 has order been evolved out of chaos in financial 
 matters, but the social condition of the people has 
 advanced in an equally gratifying degree. 
 
 The management of the prisons has happily kept 
 pace with the general progress of the country. When 
 the British Government undertook the charge of 
 Egypt, they sent out the energetic Mr. Clifford Lloyd 
 to put everything right as soon as possible.' He 
 found the prisons in a shocking condition ; and Major 
 Chermside, who reported upon them in 1889, de- 
 scribed them as bad almost beyond belief. Their 
 management was so barbarous, so senseless, that the 
 
 ■ See Sir Alfred Milner's " England in Egypt." 
 208 
 
EGYPTIAN PRISONS 20g 
 
 introduction of modern principles and methods could 
 not fail to do enormous good. Mr. Clifford Lloyd 
 created a new Department for Prisons, and put an 
 Englishman at its head. The work of this Depart- 
 ment has gone on for fifteen years almost without 
 interruption. Although the provincial prisons are 
 still wanting in many important details, being ^•er}• 
 deficient with regard to construction and special 
 appliances, they are at all events clean, decent, and 
 properly supervised, and exhibit the greatest contrast 
 to the hells they were in former times. ^ 
 
 By the kind permission of Coles Pasha, I was 
 permitted to visit two of the largest ; one at Tura, 
 the other at Gizeh. These are described by Sir 
 Alfred Milner as " in every way model establish- 
 ments." This expression is rather in excess of the 
 view which persons conversant with modern systems, 
 would take of them, yet they reflect the greatest 
 credit on the Department and the responsible 
 authorities. I have also to thank Coles Pasha for 
 furnishing me with valuable details. 
 
 There are upwards of eleven thousand prisoners 
 in Egypt, and the budget of the Egyptian prisons 
 is under ;£^3,8c)0 ! Coles Pasha thus has eleven 
 thousand persons on his hands, and an allowance of 
 less than seven shillings per head made for them. 
 Here is a task that appears impossible. But difficulties 
 are made for brave men to conquer. There are 
 ' Milner's " England in Egypt." 
 
 14 
 
2IO WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 moral and social as well as military and naval 
 victories. Coles Pasha must justly be regarded as 
 a victorious general on a field of great usefulness. 
 
 Egyptian prisoners have been expected to feed 
 and clothe themselves. This state of things con- 
 tinues in most prisons, but not at Tura or at 
 Gizeh. I was told indeed that I should find five 
 hundred short-sentence prisoners at Tura "not 
 clothed." I had anticipated a sight such as any 
 traveller in the " Far East " often witnesses. But the 
 meaning was clear when I learnt that the five hundred 
 had their own clothes, as their sentences were short. 
 They are not clothed by the Government, as other 
 prisoners are at these two prisons. 
 
 Tura, as the name of the place is spelt in the 
 official reports, or Torah, as on the railway tickets 
 issued by a French company, is at no great distance 
 south of Cairo. The citadel of Cairo can be plainly 
 seen from the quarries where the men work. These 
 limestone quarries have been worked for some 
 thousands of years. From them a great part of the 
 material used in the construction of the Pyramids 
 so close at hand was drawn. Stone is still there in 
 abundance. The sale of the large quantities quarried 
 by the convicts is one secret of Coles Pasha's success 
 in feeding and clothing so many inmates as there 
 are at Tura and Gizeh, and also in meeting other 
 claims. The stone goes to Cairo for houses and 
 streets, to Helouan, the fashionable and rising water- 
 
EGYPTIAN PRISONS 211 
 
 ing-place^ in the desert, to the Barrage below Cairo, 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 I was welcomed at Tura by the Governor, Mr. 
 Carton de Viert, a Belgian (wearing as usual the 
 fashionable fez), and have to thank him for a most 
 cordial reception. He pointed to the ruins of a fort 
 rising not far away and overlooking the Nile (the 
 prison is on the bank of the river), and told me 
 that Napoleon I. had selected the spot when in 
 Egypt, as commanding the Nile. A Belgian would 
 take an interest in one whose fate was finally 
 decided on a Belgian battle-field. 
 
 The Governor has charge of fifteen hundred men. 
 Of these a thousand are convicts sentenced to penal 
 servitude. We mounted an engine used in drawing 
 trucks, and were whirled away to the quarries. A 
 large number of men were there engaged under the 
 charge of warders. Outside, in the desert, was a 
 guard of Soudanese soldiers stationed at intervals to 
 prevent desertion. But escape is difficult as well as 
 dangerous. The heavy irons and chains worn by the 
 men attract immediate attention. They are probably 
 relics of the old state of things. Those used in Singa- 
 pore prison, chiefly for the Chinese, are quite elegant 
 compared with these. These Soudanese guards are 
 part of a military detachment of the Egyptian army, 
 
 ' There are valuable sulphur and other mineral waters at 
 Helouan ; the air, too, is dry and bracing during the winter 
 months. The German hotel there is cheap and clean. 
 
212 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 and are two hundred strong. They were described 
 to me as excellent and efficient. The colour of their 
 skin is black as night, and forms a remarkable con- 
 trast to that of many of the prisoners. The jealousy 
 existing between these .Soudanese and the native 
 Egyptians may render the former more vigilant in 
 watching over their neighbours when in trouble. 
 
 After visiting the quarries we were taken to the 
 part where a new prison on modern principles is being 
 built by the prisoners. On the way we passed a 
 grave-yard in the desert, where those who die in 
 confinement are buried. The sight is a touching 
 one. In the new wing there will be a large number 
 of cells for solitaiy confinement. At present the 
 prisoners are unavoidably thrown together, to the 
 detriment of discipline. We noticed a large number 
 of short-sentence prisoners breaking stones. Others 
 were making bricks from the soil just outside the 
 prison, reminding one of the Israelites and their 
 tasks when slaves in Egypt. Most of them wore 
 their own clothes, but police soldiers, as they are 
 called, sentenced by court-martial, had a special 
 cap, and worked in a separate gang. 
 
 Both here and at Gizeh soHtary confinement in 
 a darkened cell is the chief punishment. This is 
 said to be very effectual. New arrivals are, as far 
 as possible, tamed in this way. Bread and water is 
 the only food allowed them while under correction. 
 There is no tread-mill, and no Ceylonese " pingo," but 
 
EGYPTIAN PRISONS 2l3 
 
 the triangle and the cat-o'-nine-tails are in reserve, 
 should necessity arise. The " rattan " (or cane) does 
 not appear to be used. 
 
 I paid a long visit to Gizeh. It lies on the 
 western side of the hill opposite to Cairo, near the 
 Gizeh Palace, now famous for its Egyptian anti- 
 quities. It has accommodation for six hundred men 
 and a hundred and forty women. It is the only 
 prison for women in Egypt. 
 
 Here I was welcomed by Mr. Renfee, the Governor. 
 He is an Englishman, and a native of East Cambridge- 
 shire. He has served for fifteen years under Coles 
 Pasha, and saw Arabi Pasha leave Egypt for exile 
 in Ceylon. His fifteen years of hard work do not 
 appear to have told severely upon him : responsibility 
 sits lightly upon some few favourites of fortune. 
 The work at Tura is extra-mural ; at Gizeh it is 
 intra-mural and industrial. 
 
 There are, of course, rules common to both prisons. 
 Thus there are three classes (as in many other 
 prisons) into which the prisoners are divided. The 
 well behaved and industrious gain marks, by which 
 they rise to a higher class, obtain privileges and 
 partial remission of sentence. This remission does 
 not usually exceed one-quarter of the entire 
 sentence. 
 
 At both prisons there are two meals only a day. 
 The first is at lo a.m., the second at 5 p.m. The 
 food in the morning is rice and lentil soup, eaten 
 
214 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 with bread, and washed down with water. The 
 second meal consists of bread and water ; but every 
 other day buffalo gravy soup and spinach, or some 
 other vegetable, are added. 
 
 I was present at Gizeh when the prisoners had their 
 breakfast. The round loaves of bread made at Tura 
 prison had a plentiful allowance of bran, yet no doubt 
 were appreciated. The men had had half an hour's 
 exercise and three hours' work. The lentil soup and 
 rice were in large tin pans, and placed at regular 
 intervals in a spacious, open yard before the men 
 arrived. The loaves were handed by an orderly (a 
 prisoner is appointed as orderly in every ward). He 
 " draws " the bread for those in his ward (knowing 
 each man in it), and as they march up in double 
 file, hand-in-hand, he distributes the bread to them. 
 They then march as before, one man still holding 
 his fellow's hand, until they are in the yard, when 
 sections of eight or ten sit round the pans. On a 
 given signal they dip their bread in the rice and 
 lentil soup until a clearance has been made. When 
 a man has finished, he rises and goes to the wall, 
 and stands with his face towards it. This method 
 of making them face the wall prevents them from 
 seeing what is going on, or making jests of any 
 kind. The warders, too, are able, unobserved, to 
 watch them, and anticipate any violence or mis- 
 conduct. 
 
 There were five hundred and thirty prisoners in the 
 
EGYPTIAN PRISONS 215 
 
 yard under the charge of ten warders only. These 
 warders are generally Egyptians. The Governor is 
 the only European in the Gizeh prison, and Mr. 
 Viert the only one at Tura. 
 
 There are no European prisoners in this or any 
 other Egyptian prison. British soldiers (there are 
 now* nearly ten thousand in Egypt, most of them 
 splendid fellows and looking very healthy) are sent 
 for offences to a military prison. Special prisons are 
 attached to each consulate. The consul of each 
 foreign Government tries them, and usually sends 
 them back to their own land. Coles Pasha is thus 
 happily freed from the worry of keeping these unruly 
 ones. 
 
 The industries at Gizeh form an important feature 
 of the prison regime, and materially assist Coles 
 Pasha's budget. In company with the Governor I 
 visited the various workshops. The sight of so many 
 men, sometimes twenty or more in one room or 
 covered yard, using knives and other tools which 
 might be put to deadly purpose rather alarmed mc 
 at first. But the Governor assured me that they 
 were well behaved. There had been no corporal 
 punishment for over two months. They appeared 
 cowed and quiet. The Egyptians, he thinks, would 
 be a splendid race, were it not for their Mohammedan 
 religion and belief in fatalism. 
 
 A large number were engaged in basket-making 
 ' February i8g8. 
 
2l6 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 in its various details. These baskets are used for 
 carrying soil on camels or donkeys. They are slung 
 one on each side of the animals, conveying their 
 burdens from and to the fields after the crops have 
 been gathered and before the annual inundation 
 begins. These carrier-camels may often be seen 
 marching to their destination in a string of six or 
 seven, led by a young lad. The baskets are made 
 of the leaf of the palm. The date-palm is found 
 everywhere, but especially near the Nile. Some cut 
 the leaf into strips of the right length, others 
 twist them into shape, and others again sew and 
 finish them. For these baskets there is a great 
 demand. 
 
 Rope-making is another industry. Some of the 
 prisoners were cleaning flax, others spinning and 
 weaving, and a third section making canvas garments 
 from it. Brushes, too, are made, chiefly out of 
 Mexican fibre. These are made specially for Govern^ 
 ment contracts, and are sent chiefly to the barracks 
 and police. A special brush for cleaning a new filter, 
 for use by the troops going up the Nile, was being 
 manufactured. Wool is also spun and made into 
 blankets. The flour for the two prisons is ground 
 and baked at Tura, and reappears here in part as 
 bread. A few men were busy at saddlery ; others 
 again at the sewing machine, making clothes for the 
 prisoners. Of course the shoemaker was there ; how 
 would the world do without him ? The Egyptians are 
 
EGYPTIAN PRISONS 219 
 
 fond of a large red and yellow slipper, used often 
 without sock or stocking, and itself without any 
 pretence to shape or elegance. These are largely 
 made, and sold usually for seven piastres (about 
 IS. 6d.) the pair. Carpenters, too, are at work, but 
 I did not notice many. Mats are made from cocoa- 
 nut fibre, but I did not see any " husk-beating," as 
 it is called in Ceylon. In the latter country this 
 husk-beating is solitary work, each man having a 
 separate shed ; but in Egypt the men work up the 
 fibre in companies. 
 
 The dormitories at Gizeh are large and airy, as 
 well as clean, as they well need be in such a climate. 
 Sickness is frequently the scourge of prisons, and 
 in Ceylon the; death-rate has at times been alarming. 
 But at the time of my visit there was scarcely any 
 illness at Gizeh. There had been only one death 
 for three months. At Tura a kind of " relapsing 
 fever " (said Mr. Viert) was prevalent, and the deaths 
 averaged about ten a month, the usual average being 
 six to eight. 
 
 The female side of the prison at Gizeh contains 
 over a hundred prisoners usually, and is under the 
 charge of Mrs. Renfee, assisted by a French lady 
 as her vicegerent. This department is the weak 
 point of the prison, as the accommodation is not 
 sufficient for proper discipline. Corporal punish- 
 ment is not permitted, and there are very few 
 solitary cells. The women are described as in every 
 
220 WANDERINGS, WEST AND EAST 
 
 respect very ignorant. Herded together, without 
 sufficient employment, they are also very troublesome. 
 Among the men, prisoners are found skilled in most 
 practical arts, and capable of acting as instructors, 
 obtaining marks and privileges accordingly. But 
 Egypt has not hitherto cared for its females. They 
 do, however, sewing, weaving, and laundry-work, and 
 other industries are to be introduced. Orre great 
 drawback is the absence of proper hospital accom- 
 modation. There is no infectious ward, and great 
 difficulties arise in consequence. Coles Pasha, how- 
 ever, is acquainted with all these facts. Wh^t can 
 he do with a budget limited to ^^3,800 per annuHl, 
 and eleven thousand prisoners on his hands ? The 
 civil Departments in Egypt are not permitted to 
 enter on any fresh expenditure, as the Soudan 
 war swallows up the surplus there would other- 
 wise be. 
 
 In all the prisons Friday is observed (as usual in 
 the Mohammedan world) as the Sabbath. Work 
 goes on, however, after 10 a.m. " Idleness," says our 
 proverb, " is the parent of vice " ; and employment 
 for the prisoners is essential to keep them out of 
 mischief. 
 
 Warders are searched here, as in other prisons. 
 Special " searchers " have this delicate task entrusted 
 to them. Dismissal and sometimes sharp punish- 
 ment follow any attempt to convey forbidden articles 
 into prison 
 
EGYPTIAN PRISONS 221 
 
 My chief feeling on leaving these prisons is 
 admiration for the men who manage such shipwrecks 
 of humanity with so much skill and so much kind- 
 ness ; admiration, too, for the chief who, with such 
 scanty and insufficient funds, produces such remark- 
 able results 
 
 Frinted by Hazel], Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
HELPFUL HINTS FOR HARD TIMES. 
 
 Edited by the Rev. E. Bartrum, D.D., F.R.H.S., twenty-four years 
 Head Master, Berkhamsted School, Herts; Rector of Wakes 
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 Our First Allotment ; how we made the most of it, by 
 D. T. Fish, F.R.H.S., author of " Cassell's Cyclopsedia of Horti- 
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 APPLES— 
 
 For Garden and Orchard, for Home and for Market, 
 by the Rev. E. Bartrum, D.D., F.R.H.S. (Prize Winner, Crystal 
 Palace and other Shows.) 
 
 BEES— 
 
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 Examiner B. Bee K. A.), and the Rev. R. McClelland, Minister 
 of Inchinnan, Renfrew, N.B. 
 
 CULTIVATION OF HEAVY CLAYS (especially in Essex). 
 Rearing of Stock and Dairy Cattle, by Gilbert Murray. 
 
 cherries- 
 How and Where to Plant and Sell, by George Bunyard, 
 F.R.H.S., Vice-President Fruit Committee, R.H.S. 
 
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 of Dairy Classes, Essex C.C, and the Editor. 
 
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 For Farm and Cottage, by Henry Digby. 
 
 fowls— 
 
 For Farm and Cottage, by the Rev. E. Bartrum, D.D. 
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