ASIA 
 
 
 
 
 -^»^»¥iTr^^'f,-; 
 
 

 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 1918 
 
Cornell University Library 
 G 440.C67 
 
 3 1924 023 252 632 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023252632 
 
YosEMiTE Falls. — Page 488. 
 
OUR NEW, WAY ROUND 
 THE WORLD. 
 
 CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " FOUR YEARS OF FIGHTING," " WINNING HI5, WAV," 
 "following the FLA(^" ETd 
 
 There 's freedom at thy g'ates, and rest 
 For Earth's down-trodden and opprest, 
 A shelter for the hunted head, 
 And for the starved laborer toil and bread. 
 
 BRYANT. 
 
 FULL^ ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO. 
 
 SUCCESSORS TO TICKNOR AND FIELDS. 
 1869. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
 FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 University Press : Welch, Bigelow, & Co., 
 Cambridge. 
 
TO MY WIFE, 
 
 WHO MADE WITH ME THE TOUR OF THE WORLD, 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 IS MOST APFECIIONiTELT INSCRIBED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ' I "HE last rail has been laid between the Atlantic 
 -■- and the Pacific, and the locomotive runs from 
 ocean to ocean. 
 
 A few months hence the waters of the Mediterranean 
 and Eed Seas will mingle together through the Suez 
 Canal, and a new way for trade and travel will thus 
 be completed round the world. 
 
 This volume contains notes of observation along the 
 route in Egypt, India, Malacca, Chiaa, Japan, and Cali- 
 fornia. So much has been written in regard to Europe, 
 that the lines of travel only have been indicated be- 
 tween London and Alexandria. 
 
 Obseiv-ation in so large a field, embracing so many 
 objects, has compelled us to abridge the material at our 
 command in the preparation of this volume. 
 
 "We have barely alluded to matters of great moment. 
 Our aim has been to bring before the reader such facts, 
 scenes, and incidents as will enable him to obtain a 
 comprehensive idea of the countries with wliich we 
 are to have intimate relations in the future, and to 
 point out routes of travel to those who contemplate a 
 
 voyage around the world. 
 
 C. C. C. 
 Boston, May 10, 1869. 
 
TABLE OF CONTEN-TS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 KEW TORK TO MAESEIUiES. 
 
 Leaving New York. — Steamer Persia. — War in Europe. — Important 
 Events. — Eeform Movement in England. — Riot at Hyde Park. — Meet- 
 ing at Guildhall. — People in Earnest. — Affairs on the Continent. — 
 Visit to Paris. — Victor Emanuel at Vem"ce. — Evacuation of Some by- 
 French Troops. — Coronation at Festh. — Routes of Travel through 
 Europe. — Rural Scenes in France. — From Paris to Marseilles. — Val- 
 ley of the Rhone. — Marseilles at Christmas. — Scenes in the Harbor. . 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. 
 
 The Great Steamship Companies. — Peninsular and Oriental. — Message- 
 ries Imp^riales. — Austrian Lloyds. — Routes across the Mediterranean. 
 — Italian Line. — Greek Line. — Tide of Travel. — Departure fixim Mar- 
 seilles. — The Euphrates. — Her Cargo. — Straits of Bonifacio. — Strom- 
 boli. — SoyUa and Charybdis. — Across the Adriatic. — Morea. — Na- 
 varino. — Gulf of Goran. — Ancient Spartans. — A Hermit. — A Dream 
 of the Past — Arrival at Piraeus. — SaJamis. — Getting Ashore. — Noble 
 Greeks. — Athens. — Cretan Refugees. — To Constantinople. — Syrian 
 Coast. 10 
 
 .CHAPTER m. 
 
 MODERN EGYPT. 
 
 Approach to' Alexandria. — The Harbor. — The Orient. — Scenes in the 
 City. — The Old and the New. — The Viceroy. — Cotton Culture.- 
 Railroads. — Sons of the Pasha. — Over the Delta. — Irrigation. — The 
 Nile 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Hotel du Nil. — Houses in the City. — Women of Egypt. — Tradesmen. 
 — Waiters. — Donkeys. — Ploughing. — Ramazan. — Advancement. — 
 Missions. — Persecutions of Christians — Future Prospect. . . .32 
 
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DELTA OF THE NILE. 
 
 The View from the Bluffs. — Heliopolis. — The Citadel. — Mamelukes. — 
 Mehemit Ali. — Pyramids. — Arab Sheik. — Bedouins. — Yankee Doodle. 41 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SUEZ CANAL. 
 
 The Project. — M. Lesseps. — Charter of the Company. — The Isthmus. — 
 Old Canals. — Pharaoh Necho. — Bonaparte. — Commercial Enterprise. 
 
 — Opposition of England. — The Country. — Commencement of the Work. 
 ^- Size of the Canal. — Bay of Pelusium. — Manufactured Stone. — Port 
 Said. — Excavators. — Difficulties encountered. — Lake Menzalah. — 
 Lake Ballah. — Lake Timseh. — Ismalia. — Salt Basin. — Children of 
 Israel. — Suez. — Capital of the Company. — Lottery. — Expenditures. 47 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FROM EGyPT TO INDIA. 
 
 Easter Sunday. — A Gala-Day. — Scenes in the City. — Decay of Moham- 
 medan Faith. — Overland Passengers. — Steamer Baroda. — Starting 
 for India. — Gulf of Suez. — Sinai and Red Sea. — Pilgrims to Mecca. 
 
 — Mocha. — Dangerous Navigation. — Light-houses. — Island of Perim; 
 
 — How the English obtained it. — The Gate of Tears. — Sons of Cush. 
 
 — Aden. — Natives. — Scenes in the Harbor. — Hot Weather. — The 
 Punka. — The Orchestra of the Steamer. 62 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 BOMBAY. 
 
 View of Harbor. — Byculla Hotel. — Population of City. — European Sec- 
 tion. — Native Quarters. — Shigrams. — Native Oxen. — Suburbs of the 
 City. — Parsees. — Street Scenes. — Washing up. — Children. — Jewelry. 
 — Population of India. — Policemen. — Gods in the Wall. — Toddy- 
 Seller. — Cm-renoy. — Elephants. — Old Temples. — The Census. — 
 Origin of the Parsees. — Their Towers of Silence. ■ .... 80 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BKITISH INDIA. 
 
 John Bull's Farm. — Mountains. — Rivers. — Cities of India. — Popula- 
 tion. — Governor-General. — East India Company. — Opium. . . 93 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE RAILWAYS OP INDIA. 
 
 Facilities for Travel. — Great Indian Peninsular Railway. — Labor of 
 Building. — Class Cars. — Effect of Railways on Caste and Idolatry. . 99 
 
 CHAPTER XT. 
 
 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION OP THE HINDOOS. 
 
 Hindoos. — Aborigines of India. — The Vedas. — Origin of the Hindoo 
 Nation. — The Aryans. — Caste. — Brahmans. — Philosophical Age. . 108 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 THROUGH THE DECCAN. 
 
 The Ghats. — Nassick. — Hindoo Water-Carrier. — Jungles. — General 
 Features of Central India. — Gorgeous Apparel. — Silver Ornaments. 
 
 — Heat. — Nagpore. — Residency Hotel 116 
 
 CHAPTER xm. 
 
 BIDISa IS A DAK. 
 
 The Dak. — Romantic Ride. — Kamptel. — Micawber Philosophy. 
 
 Karyea. — Thrilling Story of the Mutiny. — Treatment of the Natives. 
 
 — The Ryots. — Tigers.. — Seonee. — Tarboots. — Obstinate Driver. — 
 
 Moonshee. — Chaputies. — Mail Carts. — Effect of the Moon. Ner- 
 
 budda River. I24 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 IN THE HEART OF INDIA. 
 
 Jnbbnlpore. — Valley of the Nerbudda. — Religion of the Hindoos. — 
 Junction of Jubbulpore and Peninsular Railroad. — 'AUahabad. — Great 
 Eastern Hotel 140 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SCENES IN ALLAHABAD. 
 
 Shaving. — Junction of the Jumna and Ganges. — Situation of Allahabad. 
 — Ancient Pillar. — Market-Place. — Deep Well. — Chusora Bagh. — 
 The Future of Allahabad. — Population. — Boston Ice 147 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 KATIVE SCHOOLS. 
 
 Missionary Operations. — Praying by Machinery. — Desire for Education. 
 
 — Rev. Jlr. Walsh. — School. — Proficiency of Mr. Walsh's Pupils. — 
 Hindoo Cosmogony. — Getting at the Truth 154 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 FROM ALLAHABAD TO BENARES. 
 
 Country North of Allahabad. — Its Fertility. — Density of Population. — 
 Mirzapoor. — Rev. Mr. Lambert. — British Goods. — Temple of Kali. — 
 Tyranny of Caste. — Servants. — Mogul Serai. — Benares Station. — 
 Antiquity of Benares. — Temples and Mosques. — Victoria Hotel. . .163 
 
 CHAPTER XVni. 
 
 THE CITY DF BENARES. 
 
 A Morning Ride through the City. — Care for Birds. — Monkey Pagoda. 
 
 — Pranks of the Monkeys. — Benares a Holy City. — Bathing in the 
 Ganges. — Burning the Dead. — Ghats. — Pagodas. — Palaces. — Power 
 of the Brahmans waning. — Charming View. — A Glance at the Past 
 
 — Golden Pagoda. — Sacred Well. — Shiva. — Ttmple of Una Pooreua. 170 
 
X ^ TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XES. 
 
 THE BABOOS. 
 
 Man Mundil. — Beautiful Silk Goods. — The Dealings of England with 
 the Hindoos. — Snake-Charmers. — Samath. — Gautama. — Buddha. . 181 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DOWN THE VALLEY OF THE GANGES. 
 
 The Bengalese. — The Santhals. — Moorshedabad. — Suraja Dowla. — 
 Patna. — Bankapore. — Plassey. — Lord Clive. — Turning-Point in His- 
 tory 190 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 OUR FIRST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 
 
 Arrival. — Scene in the Harbor. — A Bath. — A Wedding Procession. — 
 
 The Mission Home. — Miss Brittan's School. — Moral Battle-field 
 
 Native Society. — Hindoo Newspapers. — Domestic Life. — Educated 
 Natives. — Moral Leverage 195 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 MISSIOSAKT OPERATIONS. 
 
 Dr. MoLeod's Visit. — Translation of the Bible. — Obstacles. — Native 
 Converts. — Boman Catholic Church. — Exorcising of Devils. . . 205 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 The Season. — Hot Period. — Eainy Months. — Monsoons. — Swarming 
 of Insects. — White Ants. — Cool Season. — Cyclones. — Famines of 
 
 1770 and 1866; — Burning of the Dead. — Government Buildings. 
 
 Style of Living. — Kide in a Shigram 209 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 ACROSS THE BAT OF BENGAL. 
 
 The Clan Alpine. — Leaving Calcutta. — Down the Hoogly. — Scenes on 
 the River. — Explosion. — Terrible Scene Burial at Sea. . . .217 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE SPICE ISLANDS. 
 
 Andaman Islands. — Coast of Burmah. — Cocoa Islands. — Malay Penin- 
 sula. — Insect Life — Province of Wellesely. — Population. . . 221 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 PENANG. 
 
 Phosphorescence of the Sea. — The Town. — In a Sampan. — Duck Ped- 
 
 ler. — Prince of Wales Hotel. — Spice Trade Chinese at Penang. — 
 
 Down the Coast. — The Dorian 226 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIL 
 
 SINGAPORE. 
 
 To-mi of Malacca. — Arrival at Singapore. — Steamers. — Harbor. — 
 Climate. — Fruits. — Population. — Sceaes in the City. — Whampoa's 
 Garden. — Victoria Eegias. — Fan-Palm 233 
 
 CHAPTER XXVin. 
 
 LIF£ IN MALACCA. 
 
 Fire-Flies. — The Natives.. — Ride to Selita. — Kank Vegetation. — Tigers. 
 — Gutta-Percha. — Pepper Culture. — Climate. — White Ants. . . 242 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 FROM SINGAPORE TO HOXO KONG. 
 
 Chinese Passengers. — Their Customs and Habits. — Curiosity. — Gam- 
 bling. — Pride. — Expressing an Opinion. — Approaching Hong Kong. . 247 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF CHINA. 
 
 China compared with the United States. — The Flowery Kingdom. — 
 
 Early History Chronology. — Dynasties. — Credible History. — Em-o- 
 
 peans in China 253 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 HONG KONG. 
 
 The Town from the Harbor. — The Island. — Shipping. — Our Admiral. — 
 Hong Kong Hotel. — Sunday Morning. — Church Services. — Ride in'a 
 Sedan. 260 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 OPIUM. 
 
 The Saloons. — Preparation of the Drug. — Smokers. — Beginning and 
 Growth of tlie Traffic. — War with England. — Opinion of Englishmen 
 concerning the Traffic 267 
 
 CHAPTER XXXni. 
 
 FROM HONG KONG TO CANTON. 
 
 American Steamers. — Finger Nails. — P.issengers. — Bogue Forts. — 
 Whampoa Junks. — First Sight of Canton. — Scene in Harbor. — Family 
 Boats. — White Cloud Hills. — Foreigners 273 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CONFUCIUS. 
 
 His Birth. — Early Life. — Elevation to Office. — Woman's Charms. — 
 His Poetry. — Annotation of the Classics. — Foundation of Political 
 System ,279 
 
XU TABLE OF CONTENTS. ^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 SOUTHEEN CHINA. 
 
 The Eighteen Provinoes. — Canton Eiver. — The Country. — Cities 
 
 Exports. — Manufactures. — Silk Culture Maoao. — Cooly Trade. . 283 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 A KAMBLE IS CASTON. 
 
 Streets. — Houses. — Goods. — Provisions. — What the People eat. — For- 
 eign Devils. — Old Hairy. — Musicians. — Apothecaiy. — Small Feet. . 290 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF THE OCEAN BANNER. 
 
 Island of Honam. — Approach to the Temple. — The Holy Umbrella. 
 
 The Three Precious Ones. — Buddhist Worship. — Tauist Eeligion.— 
 Old Boy. -.- Transmigration. — Luck-Blocks 297 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVin. 
 
 SIOBAL FORCES. 
 
 Presbyterian Mission. — Medical Mission. — Dr. Preston. — Dr. Keer 
 
 Scene in the Hospital. — Visit to the Chapel. — Thfe Congi-egation. — 
 French Catholics. — their Cathedral 304 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 ON THE CANTON EIVEB. 
 
 In a Sampan. — Pigeon English. — Fishing with Cormorants. — Flower- 
 Boat§. — Dinner-Party. — Duck-Boats. — Benevolent Societies. — Mu- 
 tual-Aid Companies 309 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 VP THE COAST OF CHINA. 
 
 The Erl-King. — Swatow. — River Han. — Fishmg-Boats. — Emigration. 
 — Amoy. — Foochow. — Black Tea. — Fu-kien. — Timbeir. — Junks. . 316 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 APPROACH TO SHANGHAE. 
 
 The Wusung.— Meadows. — The Country. — Steamers and Ships 
 
 Shanghae. — The Hen Fever — Gardens of China. — Admiral Parker. 
 — Growth of Shanghae. — Landing. — Astor House 822 
 
 CHAPTER XLn. 
 
 IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 
 
 View from the Hotel. — Scenes in the Harbor. — Transportation. — Delta 
 of the Yangtse. — Health. — Missionaries. — Tea-Houses and Shops. — 
 Flowery Names. — Inscriptions. — The Faith and Charity Shop. — Wor- 
 ship of Ancestors. — Offerings to the Dead. 328 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XUl 
 
 CHAPTER XLin. 
 
 FUNG SHUEY. 
 
 A Land of Superstitions. — Foggy Weather. — Meaning of Fung Shuey. 
 
 — Sien Sangs. — Stroll through the City. — Disturbance of Fung Shuey. 
 
 — Opposition to Innovation. — Objection to Railroads. — Governor-Gen- 
 eral Tseng. — Gold-Mines. — Strength and Weakness of Government. . 338 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 FESTIVALS. 
 
 Native Watchmen. — Musquitoes. — Five Emperors. — Demons of Dark- 
 ness. — Climate. — Display on the River. — Bookstores. — The Poet 
 Lin. — Close of Festival 348 
 
 CHAPTER XLT. 
 
 KOMASISM IN CHINA. 
 
 The Soochow Road. — Chow Chow. — Graves. — Children's Tomb 
 
 Foimdling Hospital. — Jesuits. — What they ai-e doing. — Restoration 
 of Property. — Ceremonial. — Number of Catholic Priests. — Protes- 
 tant Religion. — Progress. 354 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 UP THE T^VNGTSE. 
 
 Size of the River. — Inundation. — Avenues for Trade. — Steamers. — 
 Kiang Loon. — Kiang Yang. — The Country. — Chin Eiang. — Grapd 
 Canal. — Salt Port — Silver Coin. — Timber Rafts. — Nankin. — Late 
 Rebellion.— Little Orphan Island. — Poyang Lake. — Merchants of 
 China. "363 
 
 CHAPTER XLVn. 
 
 CENTRAL CHINA. 
 
 Whang^:hoo. — Military Encampment. — Soldiers. — Military Tactics. — 
 Hankow. — The three Cities. — Contrast between Old and New Civiliza- 
 tions. — Foreigners. — Wu-chung. — Bishop Williams. — Yamun of the 
 Governor-General. — School. — Women of China. — Their Degraded 
 Condition. 374 
 
 CHAPTER XLVm. 
 
 C05IPETITIVE EX.\MINATION. 
 
 When Established. — Theory of the System. — University Buildings. — 
 Temple of Perfect Justice. — Degrees. — Students. — Jury. — Ovations. 
 
 — Successful Competitors. — Democratic Principle. — Reverence paid 
 to the Classics. — Students' on a Lark. — Chop-Sticks. — Visit to the 
 Governor. 383 
 
XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE XLIX. 
 
 CUI/TIVATION OF TEA. 
 
 Export from Hankow. — Qualities of Tea. — Its Use in China. —Early 
 
 Trade. — Its Consumption in the United States. — Green Tea The 
 
 Shrub. — Gathering the Leaves. — Preparation for Market. — Packing. 
 -— Tasting. — Tea-Saloons. — Value of Exports. — Commercial Relations. 393 
 
 • CHAPTEE L. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 
 
 Opinion of Mr. Burlingame. — University of Pekin — Official Position of 
 Foreigners. — Eeaotionaiy Party. — Ancient Policy of the Govern- 
 ment — What Foreigners ask. — Physical Force of England. — Position 
 of the Chinese. — Introduction of Steamers. — Attitude of California 
 and Oregon toward Cliinese 402 
 
 CHAPTEE LI. 
 
 NORTHERN CHINA. 
 
 When to visit Pekin. — Cheefoo. — Tientsin. — Chinese Carts. — Pass- 
 ports. — Description of Pekin. — The Great Wall. — Passage to Japan. 
 ^ In a Typhoon 413 
 
 CHAPTEE Lit 
 
 APPROACH TO NAGASAKI. 
 
 The Harbor. — Fortifications. — Island of Pappenberg. — Intercourse of 
 Foreign Nations with the Japanese. — Xavier. — The Jesuits. — The 
 Islands 418 
 
 CHAPTEE LHI. 
 
 WESTERN JAPAN. 
 
 Nagasaki. — A Shopkeeper. — Japanese Ladies. — Batlis. — Tea-Honses. 
 
 — Education. — Minstrels. — Japanese Art. — Yokohama. — Conserva^ 
 tive Japanese. — Mysteries of Crinoline 424 
 
 CHAPTER LIV. 
 
 THROUGH THE INLAND SEA. 
 
 Lovely Morning. — Natural Arch. — Persecution of Christians by Bud- 
 dhist Priests. — Coast of Kuisiu. — Town of Kokura. — Japanese 
 Graves. — A Funeral Procession. — Sinto Belief — Spiritual Festival. 
 
 — The Tokaido. — Town of Chofu. — Japanese Mode of Travelling. — 
 
 A Charming Panorama. . . 43X 
 
 CHAPTEE LV. 
 
 HIOGO. 
 
 Countless Sails. — Eice-Fields. — Hiogo, the Port of Osaka. — Manufac- 
 tures and Trade. — Country around Osaka. — Climate. — Harbor. 
 
 Gouig Ashore — Looking at Curiosities. — Tea-House and Gardens 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Temple of the Sun. — Worshippers. — Japanese Honor. — Social Hab- 
 its. — Hats. — Picnic. — Coolies. — Population Fusiyama. — Bay of 
 
 Yedo. — Villages 440 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 YOKOHAMA. 
 
 Situation of Yokohama. — Harbor. — Hotel d'Eui-ope. — Curio Street 
 
 Houses and Shops. — Shopman. — Bronzes. — Photographs. — Foreign 
 Trade of Yokohama. — Govenmient of Japan. — The Tycoon. — Civil 
 War in Japan.— The Damios. — The Flora of Japan. — Kamakm-a, its 
 Location, Temples, and Shrines. — Temple of Hachiman, — Dia-boots. 448 
 
 CHAPTER LVIL 
 
 YEDO. 
 
 The Capital of Japan. — How to visit it. — Yakonins. — Situation of Yedo. 
 
 — The Castle. — Soto-Siro.— Bridges and Streets. — Population of 
 Yedo. — Description of City. 458 
 
 CHAPTER LVIII. 
 
 FROM JAPAN TO OALIFOKXIA. 
 
 Pacific Mail Company. — Freight. — Chinese Passengers. — Magnificent 
 Steamers. — Leaving Yokohama. — Search for Deserters. — Passen- 
 gers. — The Voyage. — Our Native Land 464 
 
 CHAPTER LIX. 
 
 CAUFOKSIA. 
 
 Aladdin's Lamp. — Discovery of Gold. — Size of California. — Develop- 
 ment of the State. — Culture of the Grape. ^ — Silk Culture. — Educa- 
 tion. — Lincoln School. — Churches. — Fertility of the Country. — Its 
 Fruits. — A Paradise 468 
 
 CHAPTER LX . 
 
 YOSEMITE. 
 
 The Big Trees and Yosemite Valley. — Ride to Mariposa. — Hatch's. — 
 In the Saddle. — Arrival at Clark's. — Digger Indians. — Big Trees. 
 
 — On Horseback in a Tree. — Calaveras Grove. — A Description of the 
 Big Trees. — A Ride through the Woods. — Nature's Cathedral. — 
 Situation of Yosemite. — View of the Valley. — Distances and Eleva- 
 tions. — Mr. Hutchins's Hotel. — El Capitan. — Bridal Veil. — Yosemite 
 Falls. — Indian Names. — North and South Domes 476 
 
 CHAPTER LXI. 
 
 SALT LAKE. 
 
 Approaching the City. — Early Settlement. — Forbidding Prospect. — 
 Covenant at Nauvoo. — Emigration to Salt Lake. — Church Police.— 
 Mormon Law. — Tabernacle Square. — Inside and Outside. — The 
 
 Harem. — Brigham's Wife and Concubines 491 
 
 6 
 
XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER LXII. 
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 Central and Union Pacific Bailroad Companies. — Work commenced. — 
 Hard Work for Engineers. — Difficulties encountered 601 
 
 CHAPTER LXIU. ^ 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Completion of tie Pacific Bailroad. — America tlie Teacher of the Na- 
 tions 506 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 The Best Route. — Time for Starting. — Distance across the Continent 
 
 Trunks. — Baggage. — Money. — Pacific Mail Steamers. — Secret of 
 Travelling. — Books to be read. — Distance from Yokohama to Shang- 
 hae. — Up to Yangtse. — to Pekin. — Down the Coast. — Steamship 
 Lines to India. — Burmah. — Ceylon. — In India. — To Suez. — Pales- 
 tme. — Cost of Joiu-ney. ... 509 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 
 A Modern Rebecca 
 
 Page 26 
 
 Mother and Child . 
 
 . 27 
 
 Ismail Pasha 
 
 29 
 
 Irrigation .... 
 
 . 31 
 
 A Ready Writer . 
 
 35 
 
 Easter Sunday . 
 
 . 63 
 
 Going Home . 
 
 65 
 
 Bound for Mecca 
 
 . 70 
 
 Natives of Aden . 
 
 75 
 
 Rather Warm . 
 
 . 78 
 
 The Jolly Mariners . 
 
 79 
 
 At full Speed . 
 
 . 83 
 
 Washing up . 
 
 86 
 
 Jewels and Ornaments . 
 
 . 87 
 
 Toddy and Qevotion . 
 
 89 
 
 Head Work 
 
 .104 
 
 House in India 
 
 . Ill 
 
 Taking a Drink 
 
 .117 
 
 Interesting Discovery 
 
 . 119 
 
 A Nagpoke Coach . 
 
 .121 
 
 Our Quarters 
 
 . 122 
 
 Getting under Wat 
 
 . 125 
 
 A Steady Team . 
 
 . 128 
 
 Dead Set .... 
 
 .129 
 
 The Master Race 
 
 . 131 
 
 A Man-Eater . 
 
 . 133 
 
 Midnight Festival 
 
 . 134 
 
 Stirring up a Hindoo 
 
 . 135 
 
 Protection against Sun- 
 
 
 stroke .... 
 
 . 139 
 
 Raising the Wind . 
 
 .146 
 
 Mothers of India. 
 
 . 151 
 
 Praying by Hand . 
 
 .155 
 
 Praying by Water 
 
 . 156 
 
 On the Sly 
 
 .172 
 
 Disputed Territory . 
 
 . 173 
 
 The Sacred Stream 
 
 .174 
 
 Wedding Procession . 
 
 196 
 
 Casting out Devils . 
 
 .208 
 
 " No have Eyes, ho can see ' 
 
 227 
 
 Poultry Boy 
 
 .228 
 
 Malay House .... 
 
 230 
 
 Fruits of Malacca . 
 
 .236 
 
 Avenue at Singapore . 
 
 239 
 
 Fan-Palm .... 
 
 .241 
 
 Malayan Lady 
 
 243 
 
 Chop-Sticks 
 
 .248 
 
 Expressing an Opinion 
 
 250 
 
 Chinese Servant 
 
 .255 
 
 "Thereby hangs a Tail" 
 
 264 
 
 How we go to Church . 
 
 .266 
 
 Opium-Smokers 
 
 272 
 
 Natural Ornaments 
 
 .273 
 
 A COOLY 
 
 288 
 
 An Open Countenance . 
 
 .291 
 
 Going to Market . 
 
 292 
 
 The Old Hairy. 
 
 .294 
 
 The Orchestra 
 
 295 
 
 Sole of a Chinese Shoe 
 
 .296 
 
 Transmigration . 
 
 302 
 
 The Grinders . 
 
 .303 
 
 Flower-Boat .... 
 
 312 
 
 Duck-BoAT .... 
 
 .814 
 
 Fast Friends. 
 
 318 
 
 Battle of Shanghae 
 
 .327 
 
 Chinese Coach 
 
 329 
 
 Remembering Departed 
 
 
 Friends .... 
 
 337 
 
 FuNO Shuey 
 
 .341 
 
 "Black Spirits and White" 
 
 349 
 
 Little Orphan Island 
 
 .370 
 
 One of the Upper Class . 
 
 381 
 
 Chin Chin .... 
 
 .391 
 
XVIU 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 The Governor 
 The Young Plant . 
 Transplanting 
 Firing Tea. 
 
 Packing 
 
 Preparing for a Smoke . 
 Japanese Ladies . 
 Minstrels .... 
 The Mystery of Crinoline 
 Scenery on the Western 
 
 Coast 
 
 The Cango .... 
 
 392 
 
 .425 
 427 
 
 .428 
 430 
 
 432 
 ,437 
 
 Pleased to see us . • 443 
 Temple to the Sun Goddess 444 
 Well Protected . . 445 
 
 Porter 446 
 
 The Pannier .... 451 
 
 Stotsbashi 453 
 
 Watee-Ccee .... 467 
 One op the Big Trees . . 479 
 South Dome .... 483 
 Equipped for Yosemitb . . 485 
 El Capitan .... 487 
 The Tabernacle . . . 495 
 
 MAPS. 
 
 Routes on the Mediterranean 13 
 
 The Delta op the Nile 49 
 
 Elevation op the Suez Canai. 53 
 
 Overland Route East 67 
 
 India 100 
 
 From India to China 225 
 
 Southern China 261 
 
 Canton and Adjacent Islands 275 
 
 Northern China 362 
 
 Western Japan 419 
 
 The Inland Sea 439 
 
 The Eastern Shore 459 
 
 YosEMiTE Valley 486 
 
 Pacific Railroad 503 
 
OUR NEW WAT WMT) THE WORLD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FEOM NEW YOEK TO MAESEILLES. 
 
 IT was a hot, sweltering day, the 25th of July, 1866, 
 when, accompanied by my wife, we sailed down the 
 harbor of New York on the steamer Persia of the Cunard 
 line, bound for Europe, not then anticipating that our 
 journey would extend around the globe. 
 
 The war between Austria, on the one side, and Prussia 
 allied with Italy, on the other, had come on almost aa 
 suddenly as a cyclone of the Indian Ocean. The battle 
 of Sadowa had been fought, and it was feared that, instead 
 of its leading to a cessation of hostilities, it was but the 
 beginning of a struggle which might involve all Europe. 
 
 It was apparent, however, when we arrived at Liver- 
 pool, that the strife was at an end ; but there were other 
 important events transpiring abroad interesting to an 
 American journalist. 
 
 In England the reform movement, which has since re- 
 sulted in the extension of the franchise throughout the 
 United Kingdom, was just beginning. Mr. Gladstone, in 
 Parliament, had brought forward a bill that had been 
 defeated, and which defeat had swept Earl Eussell's min- 
 istry out of office. Lord Derby was appointed Premier, 
 and Disraeli Chancellor of the Exchequer. The people 
 were greatly excited over the arbitrary act of the govern- 
 
2 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 ment in preventing them by an armed force from holding 
 a public meeting in Hyde Park. 
 
 Blood had been shed. The temper of the people was 
 rising. Eeform clubs were parading the streets of Lon- 
 don at night with lanterns and torches. Placards and 
 handbills, distributed to the crowd, called upon them to 
 remeihber that they were Britons, that the time had come 
 when they must assert their rights or lose the liberties 
 then enjoyed. 
 
 The night after our arrival in London a great meeting 
 was held in the G-uild Hall, presided over by the Lord 
 Mayor. There was a dense crowd in the dusty old hall, 
 at one end of which were two huge wooden figures of 
 Gog and Magog, more hideous than the Hindoo Jugger- 
 naut, There was a mightier crowd outside the doors, — 
 workmen from Southwark and Clerkenwell, fishwomen 
 from Billingsgate and St. GiLes, — shouting for Glad- 
 stone and Bright, and joining in the chorus of " John 
 ^rown " and " Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are march- 
 ing." 
 
 The people were in earnest for an enlargement of the 
 franchise, but they were in thraldom to rank, title, and 
 privilege. The moneyed power of the realm was against 
 them, as ateo Church and State and the precedents of 
 English history. Westminster Abbey, with its tattered 
 banners of the Order of the Bath hanging from the lofty 
 roof, covered with the dust of centuries ; -the tombs of 
 the kings in the Confessor's Chapel; the buff breeches 
 of the West End footmen ; the Lord Chancellor's wio- • 
 the golden J)awbles in the jewel-room of the Tower; 
 Oxford ; the mighty enginery of an Established Church, 
 — all were drags and blocks retarding and impeding the 
 movement. It was an interesting moment in the life 
 of a great nation, big with results as yet unmeasured. 
 But from that hour the march has been towards democ- 
 
FROM NEW YORK TO MARSEILLES. 3 
 
 racy. Carlyle sees in the distance only the plunge of 
 Niagara, while the friends of the measure believe that 
 it will he a crown of glory to the nation. 
 
 Upon the Continent Prussia was commencing the 
 consolidation of the German Empire, while Austria, al- 
 though she had won Custoza, was preparing to accept the 
 situation into which she had been forced by her defeat 
 at Sadowa, yielding her former supremacy in German 
 affairs on the one hand, and on the other retiring from 
 Venetia. 
 
 After visiting Paris, and spending a few weeks m 
 Switzerland, we reach Venice in season to witness its 
 evacuation by the Austrians, — to see their last parade 
 on the Grand Piazza, and hear the parting salute resound- 
 ing along the water-ways of that wonderful old city. 
 Then upon the heel of their departure we behold the 
 entrance of the troops of Italy, received with exultant 
 shouts and the wildest demonstrations of gladness, — 
 with clanging bells, booming cannon, the decoration of 
 old palaces by day and their Dlumination by night, — 
 avenues and arches blooming with banners, while the 
 people, crazy with joy, embrace each other, dance, shout, 
 weep, and bless the Holy Virgin for hearing their sup- 
 plications and granting deliverance from their oppres- 
 sors ! 
 
 Victor Emanuel comes, and there is a revival of the 
 gorgeous pageantry of former days, when Venice was 
 mistress of the seas, when to her bazaars came the mer- 
 chandise of all climes, and her merchants were princely 
 senators. 
 
 But it is not our intention to dwell upon events trans- 
 piring in Europe during the years 1866 - 67. The ob- 
 ject of this volume is rather to note what is to be seen 
 along the new highway of the world. We pass over the 
 
4 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 evacuation of Eome by the French troops, and the feverish 
 excitement lq Italy during that winter. We cannot linger 
 in the aisles and courts of the Great Exposition, nor speak 
 of the pageantries which attended the visit of the Czar, 
 the Kin g of Prussia, the Emperor of Austria, and the 
 Sultan to the exhibition of the products of all countries, 
 the arts and industries of all lands. We cannot speak 
 in detail of the advance of the reform movement in 
 England, the speeches of Disraeli, Bright, Gladstone, and " 
 Lowe — the four great debaters of Parliament — on that 
 eventfid night in March when the heir of England's > 
 throne, and the nobility of the reahn, sat in the gal- 
 leries, and listened with profound attention to the de- 
 bate. Nor can we go down to Hungary again to witness 
 the gorgeous ceremonies at Buda-Pesth, when Count An- 
 drassy placed the iron crown of Charlemagne upon the 
 brow of Erancis Joseph, and completed the reconciliation 
 between Austria and Hungary. 
 
 These were the memorable events of the year, demand- 
 fcg the attention and presence of a journalist. Scenes so 
 remote required hasty journeys from London to Venice, 
 from Paris to Pesth, from Eome to Berlin. 
 
 It was in November, 1867, that we took our departure 
 from England for a tour round the world by the new way, 
 in advance of its opening, across the American continent. 
 Paris, however, may be considered as our starting-point. 
 There are three main routes eastward from that city, ^- 
 one by way of Marseilles, another over the Alps and 
 through Italy, and the third through Bavaria, Austria, 
 and down the Danube to Constantinople. Egypt may 
 be reached by either of these. 
 
 The traveller who goes by Munich and Vienna will pass 
 north of the Alps, through Central Europe. The railway 
 is completed to the western boundary of the Turkish 
 Empire, and is under construction from Belgrade to Con- 
 
FROM NEW YORK TO MARSEILLES. 5 
 
 stantinople. The work is in the hands of a Belgian 
 company, and the time is not far distant when the city 
 of the Sultan will be in unbroken railway communication 
 with Paris. The present route is from Belgrade by steamer 
 down the Danube to Eustchuk, and then by rail to Varna 
 on the Black Sea, and from thence to Constantinople by 
 steamer. 
 
 The middle route, through Italy, enables .the traveller 
 to see the Alps, the cathedral of Milan, the picture-gal- 
 leries of Florence, the ruins of ancient Rome, and to study 
 the ecclesiastical government of the States of the Church, 
 to visit Venice, the city of princely palaces, and to reach 
 Alexandria by the Italian line of steamers, sailing from 
 Brindisi. 
 
 Having spent the winter of 1866 - 67 in Italy, and hav- 
 ing visited Central Europe, Austria, and Hungary in the 
 following summer, and wishing to see Southern France, 
 we proceeded from Paris to Marseilles. 
 
 To an American, a journey anywhere in Europe is full 
 of interest. New scenes are ever coming into view. 
 Rural life here presents strong contrasts to what he has 
 been accustomed to see at home. In France we ride 
 over wide plains ^\•hich remind us of the prairies of the 
 West, but seldom do we see a farm-house. In ancient 
 times the people lived in villages for defence against 
 marauding bands ; but now the peasantry congregate in 
 towns that they may visit the wine-shop after their work 
 for the day is over, hear the gossip of the hour, and join 
 in a dance upon the green. 
 
 The railway from Paris to Marseilles is a great thor- 
 oughfare, being the most direct route, not only to that 
 chief seaport of the empire, "but also to Italy. The line 
 passes up the south branch of the Seine, called the Yonne. 
 The river winds lovingly through a wide valley, where 
 the low lands are overflowed by winter freshets. Upon 
 
6 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 the hillsides we see numerous flocks of sheep, tended by 
 shepherd-boys and their ever-watchful dogs. The peasant- 
 wometi are at work with their husbands in the fields, 
 wielding the hoe or the spade, or carrying liquid manure 
 in firkihs lashed to their backs. 
 
 Agricultural implements are far inferior to those of the 
 United States. Wooden hay-forks, ploughs scarcely im- 
 proved since the days of Hugh Capet, and short, heavy 
 scythes are in common use. Eeapers, mowers, cast-steel 
 ploughs, and polished forks of the temper of watch- 
 springs have not yet made their appearance to any great 
 extent in the empire ruled by Louis Napoleon. 
 
 Soldiers are to be seen ia every country town. Police- 
 men abound at all the railway stations, dressed iu the 
 uniform of the First Empire, — cocked hat, blue coat, 
 buff breeches, high-topped boots, — and armed with a 
 sword. The idea forces itself upon a traveller that the 
 government is very watchful of the people. 
 
 We whirl through the ancient town of Dijon. Were 
 we to stop there we should find accommodation in the 
 old hotel where Dickens pictured the meeting of Carker 
 and Edith, in his story of Dombey and Son. 
 
 By this route we pass through Lyons, the great silk- 
 manufacturing city of France. When we reach the far 
 East we shall find men from this city at Canton, Shang- 
 hae, and Yokohama purchasing raw silk, which is shipped 
 by steamer to Egypt, brought from thence to MarseiQes, 
 to be wrought into fabrics by the weavers of this old 
 province of Burgundy. Lyons is the centre of the silk 
 trade, just as Boston is of the boot and shoe trade of 
 the United States, though the manufacture is largely 
 carried on in surrounding towns. 
 
 From Lyons we pass down the valley of the Rhone, 
 looking out upon the limestone rocks of the Jura range 
 of mountains, occupying such an important place in the 
 
FEOM NEW YOEK TO MARSEILLES. 7 
 
 geological system that one of the grand divisions is 
 called the Jurassic formation. 
 
 We behold the distant Alps, their summits gleaming 
 with snow, the vine and olive adorning the hillsides, and 
 villages nestled in sunny nooks. 
 
 It is sixteen hours by fast express-train from Paris 
 to Marseilles, — a city of two hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand inhabitants; with a harbor deep, capacious, large 
 enough to afford shelter for thousands of vessels ; cliffs of . 
 white limestone, houses of the same material ; streets 
 alive with people, carts, drays, donkeys ; men of aU 
 nations ; a clean, neat, attractive town. 
 
 Six hundred years before the time of Christ, soon after 
 the founding of Eome, the Phoenicians, coasting along the 
 shore, discovered the natural advantages of this harbor, 
 and established a maritime colony. From that time to 
 the present it has been one of the chief ports of the 
 coast. The country behind it, for nearly one hundred 
 miles, is unproductive, except in the valley of the Ehone. 
 Go out of the valley, and we are upon the Jura range, 
 which reaches across the continent to the marshes of 
 Holland. The coimtry north of Marseilles, all al6ng the 
 coast to Nice, is nearly as forbidding as the hardest 
 regions of New Hampshire, except that the climate is 
 not so rigorous. 
 
 Yet this is the land of the orange, oUve, and grape. 
 The winters are not so severe as in the Northern States 
 of America, but the people suffer more from cold than 
 most of those who may chance to read these notes of 
 travel. Wood is scarce. Coal must be brought from 
 distant lands ; corn-stalks are used for fuel ; roots are 
 grubbed from the mountain-sides : everything that can 
 give warmth is prized. Houses are of stone, chilly 
 and comfortless. From November to March the people 
 shiver with cold. 
 
8 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Yet under the shelter of the cliffs there is a delightful 
 winter climate, so agreeable that a crowd of invalids, like 
 sparrows in a hedgerow, gather along the coast, some to 
 spend the winter, others to tarry a few days, then move 
 on to Ita,ly. 
 
 Vessels are packed so closely in the docks that the 
 masts and spars remind us of a dense forest of spruce- 
 trees among the wilds of the White Mountains after an 
 autumnal fire has swept away the foliage. 
 
 Just now the harbor is iilled with ships, brigs, and 
 craft of every description, loaded with wheat. France 
 is short of food. Eussia, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, and 
 California are sending supplies. People in Prance are 
 slow to adopt labor-saving machines. There are no grain- 
 elevators, like those of Chicago. Tlie wheat is taken from 
 the ship's hold in baskets, and emptied into lighters, the 
 lighters are pushed to the shore, the grain shovelled once 
 more into baskets, lifted upon the .quay, and emptied 
 upon canvas. We behold thousands of men, in groups 
 of five or six, sifting the grain in parchment screens 
 four or five feet in diameter, which hang by a single 
 cord from three upright poles set as an Indian would 
 place the frame of a wigwam. One man keeps the 
 screen in motion, while three others shovel in the grain. 
 A steam fanning-mill or an elevator would be an incom- 
 prehensible novelty to these men. A soldier keeps guard 
 over every gToup, for the wheat belongs to the govern- 
 ment. There are thousands of sacks marked " Service 
 MUitaire," — food for eight hundred thousand men who 
 do nothing but maintain the honor and dignity of Prance 
 with muskets on their shoulders in time of peace ! Where 
 is the honor ? where the dignity ? 
 
 The Christmas holidays wiU not begin for two weeks, 
 yet the people are preparing for the festival. Booths 
 are put up for the sale of knick-knacks. There are 
 
FKOM NEW YORK TO MAESEILLES. 9 
 
 thousands of little cork cottages representing the 
 scene of Bethlehem ; Josephs and Marys by the ten 
 thousand, — little plaster images, painted red, yellow, 
 green, and blue; also oxen and asses, wise men and 
 angels, cattle-stalls and bundles of hay. Catholicism 
 educates by the eye. Images and pictures are represen- 
 tations of the sjpiritual. The intellectual has but little 
 place in the system of Eome. The Christmas toys of 
 Catholic Europe, in a great degree, are the representa- 
 tives of something religious. A Bethlehem cottage, Jo- 
 seph, Mary, the infant Jesus, oxen and wise men, with 
 angels looking down from paper clouds, make a delight- 
 ful baby-house ; and children, as well as men and women, 
 by the thousand are crowding the streets and admiring 
 the grand show. 
 
 Marseilles is rapidly becoming a modem city. Old 
 buildings are swept away, new streets and boulevards laid 
 out, — the same march of improvement here as in Paris. 
 The Emperor is the prime mover. The new street Im- 
 periale, cut through the heart of the old town, wide, 
 flanked by magnificent edifices, is to cost 18,000,000 
 francs, of which the Emperor has pledged 7,000,000 from 
 the Imperial treasury ; and the city, to show its gratitude 
 and loyalty, is erecting a palace as a winter residence for 
 his Majesty. There are few public buildings in the 
 world surpassing in beauty the Exchange built last 
 year. 
 
 Not many cities in Europe are so neat, clean, lively, 
 and attractive. It has an abundant supply of water, 
 brought sixty miles from the Jura Mountains. Its 
 squares are planted with shade-trees ; there are public 
 gardens, walks, drives, delightful sea views, and extensive 
 mountain scenery. 
 
 New docks on an extensive scale are contemplated. 
 Far-reaching views animate the merchants of this city. 
 1* 
 
10 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 They intend to lay their hands on the East, when the 
 Suez- Canal is completed, and to bring the products of 
 India; China, and Japan to this port. The imperial policy 
 is iu accord with their enterprise, and contributes to make 
 Marseilles one of the most progressive cities in Europe. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. 
 
 THE three great steamship companies oi the East 
 are the Peninsular and Oriental, the Messageries 
 Imp&iales, and the Austrian Lloyds. Travellers speak 
 of them as the " P. and 0.," the " M. I.," and the " A. L." 
 
 The Peninsular and Oriental send a steamer every week 
 from Southampton to Gibraltar and Alexandria. Women 
 and children, and other passengers for India who have 
 time to make the voyage, take this, route. The company 
 also has a weekly line from Marseilles to Alexandria. 
 Business men, who have little time to spare, may leave 
 London on Priday evening for Dover, cross the Chan- 
 nel by fast steamer, take an express-train to Paris, and 
 from there to Marseilles ; leava the latter port on Sunday 
 evening, have a three days' run to Malta, and a four days' 
 trip from that island to Alexandria, and reach the latter 
 city in season to join their friends arriving about the 
 same hour from Soutliampton. 
 
 The Peninsular and Oriental steamers are crowded 
 with outward-bound passengers in the fall, and with those 
 homeward-bound in the spring. The company has twelve 
 steamships on the Mediterranean, of from twelve hun- 
 dred to two thousand tons, stanchly built, well of&cered 
 
ON THE MEDITERKANEAN. 11 
 
 and manned. The operations of the company are wholly 
 between England and the East, — India, China, Japan, 
 Geylon, and Australia. 
 
 The Messageries Imperiales has steamers on the Atlan- 
 tic, running to South American ports; other lines to 
 Algiers, Spain, Tunis, and all the ports eastward on the 
 /Mediterranean and Black Seas ; and on the Indian Ocean, 
 a monthly line to Mauritius, Cochin China, China proper, 
 and Japan. On the 9th and 19th of every month a 
 steamer leaves Marseilles for Alexandria, touching at 
 Messina, making the trip to Alexandria in six days. The 
 company has a weekly coast-liae touching at Mce, Genoa, 
 Leghorn, Civita Vecchia, Naples, and Palermo, and another 
 weekly line running to Messiaa, Athens, Constantinople, 
 and up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea ; and a line from 
 Constantinople to Smyrna and the Asiatic coast, touching 
 at all the principal ports between Constantinople and Al- 
 exandria. 
 
 The Austrian Lloyds has its head-quarters at Trieste. 
 It has lines of steamers touching at all ports on the Adri- 
 atic, — at Ancona, Brindisi, Corfu, Athens, the island of 
 Syra, Constantinople, and all the Black • Sea ports. The 
 steamers of this company running from Constantinople to 
 Alexandria touch a,t Smyrna, but on their return trip go 
 up the Syrian coast, touching at Jaffa, Acre, Beyrout, 
 Ehodes, Smyrna, thenc& to Constantinople. Tlais com- 
 pany has about thirty steamers on the Mediterranean ; the 
 Messageries Imperiales, forty. 
 
 In addition to these lines there is an Italian company, 
 which has steamers plying every week between Brindisi 
 and Alexandria, making the passage in seventy-two hours. 
 There are also Italian steamers plying between Marseilles 
 and all Italian ports ; also running to Constantinople 
 and Smyrna. The Greeks also have a steamer plying 
 between Athens and Syra, and there is an Egyptian 
 
12 OXJE NEW WAY ROUND THK WORLD. 
 
 line between Constantinople and Alexandria, touching at 
 Syrian ports. 
 
 All ports on the Mediterranean may he reached hy these 
 lines, with but little detention at any point. The great 
 tide of travel sets toward Egypt in the winter, flows 
 through Palestine in the spring, reaches the Bosphorus 
 or the Adriatic in May, and spreads over Europe in the 
 summer. It is as regular as the mackerel and shad flood 
 along the Atlantic coast, or the run of herring around 
 Great Britain. The hotels of Egypt are crowded. in Jan- 
 uary, those of Jerusalem and Beyrout in March and April, 
 those of Constantinople and Athens in the early part of 
 May. 
 
 It is blowing " great guns," as the sailors say, on Sat- 
 urday evening, the 14th of December, 1867, when the 
 Euphrates, of the Messageries Imp^riales Company, 
 steams out of the port of Marseilles. It is six, p. m., an 
 hour behind starting-time, but the mails and a despatch 
 agent of the French government are late, and so we wait, 
 amid a great fleet of steamers, the wind whistling and 
 howling through the rigging, and the heavy swells rolling 
 imder our keel, as if the elements had combined to give 
 us a premonition of what they will do for us when we 
 once cut loose from the shore. 
 
 The steward is in league with Boreas and Neptune. 
 Instead of ringing the dinner-bell at five, the regular 
 hour, he waits till the last warp is cast off, knowing that 
 he win save some of his soup and roast-beef. A few of 
 the passengers suddenly leave the table without begging 
 to be excused, for it is seesawing at a tremendous rate, 
 and some dexterity is required to carry a spoon to one's 
 mouth. Going on deck in the evening, we find the 
 sea white with foam, and heavy waves sweeping past us. 
 For three days the wind has been blowing from the north- 
 west. Fortunately our course is southeast, and we go 
 before it gloriously. 
 
ON THE MEDITEKKANEAN- 
 
 13 
 
14 bUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 The Euphrates is a stanch iron ship of English build, 
 freighted to its utmost capacity with French goods for 
 * Athens and Constantinople. Upon the deck axe eight 
 carriages, boxed in water-proof cases, ordered by wealthy 
 Turks who have been to Paris to see the Exposition. No 
 longer wUl they ride in cars drawn by oxen. They have 
 been at a snail's pace long enough ; henceforth they are to 
 trot. It is a sign of the times, — one of the fruits of the 
 world's fair. Western civilization is making progress on 
 the banks of the Bosphorus. The head of the Mussulman 
 religion broke away from all restraint when he went to 
 Paris. Prayers without number were offered in St. Sophia 
 for his safe return, — for the preservation of his morals 
 from contamination with the Franlis. He has gone back 
 to Stamboul with new ideas. He wants a railroad from 
 Constantinople to Widdin on the Danube, and has given 
 a charter to a rich Belgian company. He has already 
 built a road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, to enable the 
 Franks to reach the Holy City. He is ready to give 
 extra privileges to anybody who will aid in developing 
 the resources of the Ottoman Empire. His subjects have 
 caught some of the spirit of the West. Henceforth they 
 intend to keep their coaches, to have footmen in livery, to 
 drive spanking teams. Looldng at all this from the stand- 
 point of an orthodox Mussulman, we might stroke our 
 beards and exclaim, " What is the world coming to ? " 
 
 The steamer on which we have taken passage belongs 
 to the Marseilles and Algiers line, but has been put on 
 the Constantinople route for this ojie trip. The cabin is 
 « dirty, and it is only by persistent effort that we can get 
 our state-room swept. The captain is a small man with 
 long black hair and twinkling eyes, who passes most of 
 his time in his office on the upper deck working embroid- 
 ery ! The discipline among the crew is lax : they do 
 pretty much as they please. Everything is at loose ends ; 
 
ON THE MEDITEEKANEAN. 15 
 
 the table poor, and the waiters careless. If the other 
 steamers of this line were like the Euphrates, it would be 
 well for travellers to avoid them ; but usually they are 
 kept in good trim, and are commanded by men who do 
 not give their time to fancy needlework. We make the 
 best of the disagreeable. The man who travels only to 
 grumble will do well never to leave his own fireside. 
 The secret of travelling with comfort and pleasure is to 
 take things as they are, make the best of everything, 
 and, like Mark Tapley, come out strong. 
 
 It is a twenty-four hours' run across the Gulf of Lyons 
 from Marseilles to the Straits of Bonafacio, between the 
 islands of Corsica and Sardinia. Tlirough the day the 
 wind has been blowing a gale, and the whole northern 
 coast of Sardinia is white with foam. A more rugged 
 coast we never beheld, ^ — -rocks sharp as loiife-blades, 
 pointed as needles, jagged like, saws ; against which the 
 white-capped waves are dashing and thundering. While 
 in the Straits, for a half-hour, we are compelled to run 
 in the trough of the sea. One wave, mightier than the 
 others, breaks amidship, pouring in torrents down the 
 cabin stairs. The iron huH trembles from stem to 
 stem, but the flood finds its way through the bulwark- 
 nettings and scuppers, and we are aU right again. 
 
 Once through the Straits, we have clear sea-room all 
 the way to Sicily. 
 
 Twenty-four hours later we pass Stromboli, which rises 
 high, rugged, sharp, bleak, desolate, and dismal from the 
 sea, directly in the track of all vessels sailing southeast 
 from Marseilles to the Straits of Messina. It would be 
 very dangerous were it not that it is a natural light-house; 
 We can see the red-hot lava dimly glowing on the top 
 of the mountain. The island is not inhabited. It is a 
 solid mass of igneous rock, which has been pushed up 
 from the bottom of the sea. 
 
16 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 It is but one of a series of vent-holes in this region of 
 the globe, and it is probable that there is internal com- 
 munication, between this volcano and Etna, which is 
 due south from it, on the southern shore of Sicily, and 
 Vesuvius, which is one hundred and twenty miles north ; 
 for when either is in action, the others are quiet. Vesu- 
 vius just now is in eruption, while Stromboli, which 
 usually is one of the most active volcanoes on the face of 
 the earth, has suddenly become quiet. 
 
 Beyond Stromboli we come to the locality described in 
 the Odyssey, — the Scylla and Charybdis, navigated by 
 Ulysses ; but it is night, and we have no opportunity of 
 seeing the terrible dangers of the Straits. If there is any 
 monster on the Sicilian shore waiting to seize us, we escape 
 him in the darkness, and run safely into Messina at mid- 
 night, take on a few tons of coal, several hundred boxes 
 of oranges, and are rounding the southern point of Italy at 
 sunrise. The point is a bold headland of solid limestone, 
 gray and hoary, high and cloud-capped, on this December 
 morning. A dozen ships and small vessels are in sight, 
 some standing northward up the Adriatic, others shaping 
 their course southwest toward Malta, and stiU others, like 
 the Euphrates, with their prows pointing east toward the 
 classic land of Greece. 
 
 The air is as balmy as in April. The deep, heavy swell 
 of the northern Mediterranean is left far behind, and 
 though the Adriatic is usually storm-tossed, this morn- 
 ing it is calm and peaceful. One Englishman and five 
 Americans come on board at Messina. The English 
 gentleman opens his eyes very wide, and holds up his 
 hands in amazement, when informed that we are on our 
 way to San Francisco eastward. " There was a time," 
 he says, " when we Englishmen had the routes of travel 
 pretty much all to ourselves ; but I '11 be hanged if you 
 Americans have n't crowded us completely off the side- 
 walk ! We can't tie your shoe-strings ! " 
 
ON THE MEDITERRANEAN. 17 
 
 It is a twenty-four hours' run from Messina across the 
 Adriatic Gulf to Morea, the ancient Arcadia. Going 
 on deck at sunrise on the morning of the fourth day 
 from Marseilles, we behold the western coast of Greece, 
 — the bay of N"avarino, where the great naval ■fight took 
 place in 1828, when the combined fleets of England, 
 France, and Eussia annihilated that of Turkey. The 
 result of the conflict was the independence of Greece, 
 the establishment of a new kingdom. Fashion kept the 
 victory in remembrance for a time by bringing out Nava- 
 rino bonnets, — as, after the Crimean campaign, we had 
 Alma cloaks for ladies, and Eaglans for gentlemen. The 
 style and proportions of those coverings for the head were 
 so overwhehning and immense, that, were they to-day in 
 existence, they would present an astonishing contrast to 
 the microscopic affairs now in fashion. 
 
 We steam past the Dorian peninsula, and enter the 
 Gulf of Coran, and behold a clear, sharp outline of 
 mountains, dark at the base, gray ribs of limestone run- 
 ning up the sides, sharp peaks, white with snow, gleaming 
 like buxnished silver in the sunlight, a mellow haze, a 
 blending of bright tints, a golden and purple glow, such 
 as no painter can put on canvas. ' 
 
 Gazing steadily, we can see black specks on the 
 sides of the mountain, — the openings to those caverns 
 where the puny Spartan children, decreed not worth rear- 
 ing by the barbarous ruler's, were left to be devoured by 
 wolves. 
 
 Can it be that behind those mountains which rise so 
 grandly from the sea, along this western coast of Greece, 
 there are quiet nooks where nymphs had their ancient 
 haunts ? It is not easy to bring home to the mind the 
 thought that this is the fabled land of peace and content- 
 ment, and pleasures without end ; for the nymphs have 
 had their day, and it is sheer nonsense to undertake to 
 
18 OTJB NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 go into ecstasies about them with a steam-engine be- 
 neath our feet, and the screw of the steamer churning 
 the ocean to a foam ! 
 
 At the southern extremity of the mountain range, — 
 two hundred feet above the breaking waves, — a hermit 
 has built a hut, with a cave for his parlor. He stands 
 by the door, in a rusty gown, looking down upon us. 
 His nearest neighbor must be miles away. It is all 
 mountain behind liim, — precipices with, only here and 
 there a speck of verdure in the clefts. It is a grand 
 place for reiiection on the mutations of history ; but 
 man cannot live on history alone. Beans and potatoes 
 are desirable, and so this philosopher in a hair shirt digs 
 and delves in the crevices of the rocks, and has one gar- 
 den spot as large as a common dining-table. Years ago a 
 band of wreckers and sea-robbers lived here, who lured 
 vessels ashore by false lights — sharing their spoils Avith 
 a priest, who absolved them from all sin, in considera- 
 tion of a fifteenth part of their ill-gotten plunder ; but 
 priest and pirate came to grief, and commerce now pur- 
 sues its peaceful way. The poet Falconer has made 
 this headland the scene of his poem entitled the " Ship- 
 "wreck." 
 
 "We sit upon the deck and dream ; going in imagination 
 to the far-distant years, to the days of the Phoenicians, 
 the first navigators coming westward with the seed-corn 
 of civihzation, planting it among these mountains ; Athe- 
 nian fleets sweep past ; Persians come down from the 
 iEgean ; Egyptians sail in from the south ; Eomans and 
 Carthaginians from the west : a thousand years roll 
 away, and blind old Dandolo of Venice coasts along these 
 shores ; Pagan, Christian, Crusader, — the worshipper of 
 fire from the East, men fighting for the supremacy of 
 the Crescent ; Homer, admirals of ancient Greece, the 
 Caesars, the Solymans ; Paul, and other apostles ; great 
 
ON THE MEDITEREANEAN. 19 
 
 men without number; navies, fleets, armies, — aR have 
 movedr along this roadway. The keels of vessels for four 
 thousand yeai-s have parted the waters off tliis sharp 
 headland of the peninsula of Sparta. We might sit 
 down on yonder jutting cliff and unroll almost the whole 
 panorama of ancient and modern civiUzation. 
 
 It is two o'clock in the morning ; a clear sky, the 
 moon in its last quarter; war-ships around us, a steam 
 frigate bearing the Prussian flag, another the tricolor of 
 France, a third the cross of St. George, the fom-th the 
 red, white, and green of Italy ; bells on shipboard strik- 
 ing the hour ; sailors of four nations in theii' respective 
 languages crying, " All is well " ; — such are the circum- 
 stances when we descend the ladder of the steamer, enter 
 a small boat, and are rowed to the custom-house of the 
 Pirreus. A Greek, with an enormous black beard, is our 
 ferryman. He can speak English ; will get us through 
 the custom-house, himt up a carriage, and send us to 
 Athens at. once. 
 
 Trusting in good promises, we wrap our shawls around 
 us, and indulge in meditation while listening to the dip 
 of the oars. 
 
 From this port sailed the fleet of Themistocles 2347 
 years ago, bound for Salamis. We think of Athens de- 
 serted, — the inhabitants accepting the advice of the 
 great admiral to go on shipboard and acliieve a victory 
 behind wooden walls over the Persian fleet. Upon the 
 hill west of us Xerxes sat upon liis golden throne, 
 wearing royal robes, with courtiers around him, and 
 secretaries -ndth tablets in their hands to record the names 
 of those who distinguish themselves in the fight, that 
 they m*ay be engraved in the marble haUs of Babylon. 
 His mighty army was encamped on the hillside which 
 we dimly discern in the pale moonlight. 
 
 We thiak of Aristides on the little island down the 
 
20 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 harbor, of ^schylus, who was in the fight, whose heroic 
 verse recounting the deeds of his countrymen wili ever 
 stand a monument more enduring than the Parthenon. 
 We can almost see the hattle, — the three hundred and 
 ten ships, — the combined navies of Athens, Sparta, and 
 .^gina on the one side, and the thousand vessels of Xerxes 
 on the other, — gathered from all along the coast of Asia 
 Minor, from -Byzantium down to old Tyre, Joppa, and 
 Egypt. We behold the advance of the Athenian fleet, — 
 see the dip of thousands of oars, — hear the joyous war- 
 song of the rowers, — then the clash of swords, the 
 rattle of spears, the shout, clamor, and uproar of bat- 
 tle ; and when the sun goes down, the conflict over, we 
 see the Persian fleet annihilated, the bay filled with sink- 
 ing wrecks ; dead bodies floating with the. tide, wounded 
 men struggling in the waves. We hear the psean of vic- 
 tory rising on the evening air from the triumphant 
 Athenians. There is commotion on yonder hill. The 
 vast multitude is moving away, the king taking the 
 lead, mortified, enraged, returning to Babylon, to the 
 palace of the beautiful queen, — the Esther of the Bible, 
 — to the city where Mordecai was prime minister, — 
 prime in the fullest ^ense of the term ! 
 
 But our revery has a sudden termination. A feUow 
 on shore in a blue jacket, brass buttons, and gold-band- 
 ed cap, with a sword flashing in the moonlight, gives 
 a loud halloo, and makes threatening gestures. We do 
 not comprehend a syllable of his language, but under- 
 stand every flash of the sword. It says : "You can't come 
 to land. Stay' where you are." 
 
 It is not to be supposed that a custom-house official, 
 anywhere in the world, wiU be influenced by a piece -of 
 money ! But as we have no contraband goods, and as we 
 cannot see how the Greek government will gain or lose 
 anything by keeping us shivering in a boat on a chiUy 
 
ON THE MEDITEREANEAN. 21 
 
 December morning four or five hours, we hold up a franc. 
 Wonderful the effect ! The gentleman puts up his sword, 
 wiU not even look into our carpet-bag, courteously shows 
 us the way to a caf6, where we can warm ourselves. 
 What magic in a piece of silver worth twenty cents ! 
 
 By all the laws of association we ought to experience 
 an ecstatic thriQ, an elevation of soul, such as we can 
 have nowhere else ; but the circumstances of the moment 
 are not favorable for firing our enthusiasm. A dozen 
 fellows are shouting the merits of the different hotels of 
 Athens ; commissionnaires, who are always on the lookout' 
 for strangers, are ready to show us the ruins of Attica. 
 Near by is a restaurant, where thirty or forty descend- 
 ants of noble Greeks — a great ways descended — are 
 singing the songs of Bacchus, guzzling wine, smoking 
 abominable tobacco in Turkish pipes, shufSing dominos 
 and cards. Some are stretched at full length on the 
 tables, sound asleep, adding a chorus of snores to the 
 songs ; others are talking incoherently, gesticulating 
 fiercely to their boozy companions. Call with loudest 
 voice for the mighty Past amid such associations, and 
 it will not come. It is far better to get into a carriage 
 and ride to a good hotel in Athens, five miles distant, 
 than to endeavor to work ourselves into a fine frenzy 
 by thinking of Demosthenes, Socrates, and Plato. 
 
 Greece is filling up with refugees from Crete. There 
 are twelve thousand in Athens alone, about sixty thou- 
 sand in the whole country, and there are fresh arrivals 
 every day. American charity has been bestowed through 
 Dr. S. G. Howe of Boston ; and there are thousands of 
 men, women, and children, who have been driven from 
 comfortable homes, who are supported by contributions 
 from America. 
 
 But the limits of this volume will not admit of a re- 
 production of the scenes witnessed here, — in huts, 
 
22 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 hovels, out-buildings, nor in the schools where mis- 
 sionaries, sustained by societies in the United States, are 
 giving secular and religious instruction to the Cretan 
 cliildren. We cannot dwell upon the political aspects 
 of the' Cretan question, neither on the present condition 
 or future prospects of modern Greece. 
 
 It is our privilege while in Athens to behold the play 
 of Antigone, which was written by Sophocles nearly four 
 centuries before the Christian era. It is performed in 
 the theatre of Herod Atticus, which has been fitted up 
 for the occasion, — a tribute in honor of Queen Olga, just 
 married to King George. But our space will not admit of 
 a reproduction of that scene, nor an account of our wan- 
 derings amid the ruins of ancient Athens, — the Parthenon, 
 the Temple of Theseus, of Jupiter Olympus, nor of our lin- 
 gering in- the old market-place where the Apostle Paul 
 held disputations with the philosophers and logicians ; 
 nor of the hours spent on Mars Hill, where he stood be- 
 fore the high court of Athens and made his masterly ad- 
 dress upon the Christian religion; neither of our ram- 
 blings by the banks of the Ihssus, or our climbing of Pen- 
 telicus, and feasting upon the honey of Hymettus. From 
 the summit of Pentelicus we look down through the 
 rolling clouds and catch a glimpse of Marathon, and look 
 over the mountains to Thermopylae, — names which stir 
 the blood, when we think what was gained and what 
 might have been lost on those turmng.-points of human 
 destiny. 
 
 From Athens our course is to Constantinople, and 
 thence to Smyrna and Alexandria, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bey- 
 rout, Damascus, and again to Egypt, occupying four 
 months of our time. We cannot reproduce in this 
 volume the scenes witnessed in the city of the Sultan, 
 and along the Bosphorus, nor the progress of the Turkish 
 nation, and its future prospects; the street scenes of 
 
• MODERN EGYPT. 23 
 
 Stamboiil ; wheat the missionariea are doing ; nor the 
 dying out of bigotry and fanaticism, the decay of old 
 and the coming in of new ideas. Nor can we linger 
 at Smyrna to behold the commingling of Eastern and 
 "Western life; to see the cars start for Ephesus, while 
 caravans of camels are slowly entering the city, after 
 their long journey from Bagdad. 
 
 "We pass abruptly by Syria and Palestine, and all that 
 we saw in Western Asia of historic scenes and sacred 
 places. Egypt is our starting-point for the far East. The 
 direct lines of travel, whether by Marseilles, Brindisi, or 
 Constantinople, all centre there, and we leave all this 
 side of that point for another volume. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 MODEEX EGYPT. 
 
 A COAST without a mountain, a line of low sand- 
 hills, a light-house, palm-trees waving their green 
 plumes, are the first objects which meet the eye as we 
 approach the entrance to the harbor of Alexandria ; and 
 then windmills on the beach, fortifications, seaside houses 
 with stone walls and flat roofs, and windows like the 
 embrasures of a fort, beacons and buoys to mark the 
 channel, a forest of masts, the minarets of mosques, and 
 Pompe/s Pillar. The steamer drops anchor in a harbor 
 crowded with shipping. 
 
 A dozen frigates, — English, French, Italian, and Turk- 
 ish, — fifty steamers, and hundreds of ships, are lying in 
 port. 
 
 Alexandria, since the opening of the line of travel to 
 
24 OUK NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 India hj the English, -and the construction of the railroad 
 to Suez, has become one of the great steamship ports of the 
 world. We have heard of the difficulties incident to get- 
 ting on shore, from porters, dragomans, and custom-house 
 officials, but meet with no trouble. An Arab, in a white 
 gown, with a dozen yards or more of cloth wound round 
 his head for a turban, ascends the ladder, makes a polite 
 bow, offers to take us on shore for twenty francs, and 
 finally reduces his price to three. A fellow in baggy 
 breeches, at the custom-house, takes a look at the Ameri- 
 can eagle on our passports, pronounces it all right ; 
 another fell6w peeps into our trunk ; another runs his 
 hand to the bottom of the carpet-bag, and both follow 
 us to the street, calling Bakshish ! but, being of an ex- 
 ceedingly virtuous turn of mind just then, and not wish- 
 ing to do anything to corrupt the officials of the Pasha, 
 we thank them for what they have done, enter an omni- 
 bus, and go rattling up the street towards the Peninsular 
 and Oriental Hotel, leaving them in the street shaking 
 their fists at us. 
 
 Prom childhood we have read of the Orient. The word 
 implies something gorgeous, dazzling, beautiful, — bright 
 colors, crimson and gold, fragrant flowers, otto of roses, 
 silks, satins, cashmeres, minstrels, gazelles, palm-groves, 
 bubbling , fountains, — luxury, ease, comfort, — things 
 delightful to the eye, the ear, and all the five senses. 
 Fairy-tales of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, and 
 Tom Moore's poetry, have built up, in many a brain, a 
 beautiful dreamland ; but a day on shore, one half-hour 
 even, wiU dispel all such illusions. 
 
 Our omnibus was built in London. Our driver is an 
 Arab ; the conductor, a German linguist, able not only to 
 speak his own mother tongue, but also EngHsh, Prench, 
 Italian, Spanish, Arabic, and Greek. He sets us down at 
 the hotel fronting on the grand square. In our chamber, 
 
MODERN EGYPT. 25 
 
 instead of divans and *bubBling fountaias, we find chairs, 
 sofa, straw-matting, iron bedsteads, clean sheets, mosquito- 
 curtains, and on the dinner-table joints of beef, and turkeys, 
 chickens, and John Bull sauce. But in the streets there 
 is a mixture of the East and West, — the East the more 
 numerous, the West the mightier. ■ The Occident has 
 invaded the Orient, and the two civilizations are so inter- 
 mingled that it is impossible to say where the one begins 
 or the other ends. Some of the features of the Orient 
 are camels, donkeys, fleas, lifce, dirt, and odors not wafted 
 from " Axaby the blest." 
 
 The architecture of the business portion of the city 
 is like that of Paris, — stately edifices of hewn stone, 
 brought down the Nile ; but in the suburbs we find 
 primitive Oriental architecture, — mud hovels, a hole in 
 the roof for a chimney, another in the wall for a win- 
 dow, the ground the floor. Eaising the rush matting, 
 which serves for a door, we see men, women, naked chil- 
 dren, dogs, goats, pigs, chickens, occupying the premises. 
 The men wear camel's-hair shirts, which serve for coat, 
 cloak, and nightgown all in one ; the women wear long cot- 
 ton sacks, dyed with indigo, without crinoline, with veils 
 covering all the face except the eyes. They have thim- 
 ble-shaped ornaments of gold resting on the forehead, at- 
 tached to a band encircling the head. 
 
 We meet women -on the street bearing trays, baskets, 
 and water-jugs on their heads. Others carry their chil- 
 dren, which sit astride the shoulder. Boys- beseech us to 
 ride their donkeys ; dragomans dog our steps to show us 
 rotmd the town; old Arabs, sitting cross-legged on the 
 ground, smoke their pipes and hold out their hands for 
 bakshish. The bazaars, or shops, are fiUed with a chat- 
 tering, chaffering crowd, buying yellow shppers, red 
 fezes, pipes, tobacco, cloth from Damascus looms, knick- 
 knacks and jewelry from Paris, and calico from England. 
 
 2 
 
26 
 
 OUK NEW WAY KOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 There is a mixture of races, — representatives from many 
 nations. Believers in all religions are jostling eacli other 
 
 through the streets of 
 tlie city where the Pha- 
 raohs had their seaside 
 summer resorts, where 
 Alexander, Caesar, Cleo- 
 patra, Mark Antony, 
 Pompey, Herodotus, and 
 Euclid have walked. 
 
 The population of Al- 
 exandria is variously 
 estimated, but probably 
 it exceeds one hundred 
 and sixty thousand, and 
 is rapidly increasing. 
 That portion of the city 
 which is inhabited by 
 Europeans is regularly 
 laid out Avith wide 
 streets ; Init the native 
 section is in the Oriental 
 style, — narrow streets 
 and mean houses. Poles 
 are laid across the street 
 from house to house, and rashes spread upon them to 
 protect the people from the heat of the midsummer sun. 
 The signs over the shop doors are in Arabic, Turkish, 
 Greek, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, English, and 
 Russian. They indicate the cosmopolitan character of the 
 place. ]\Iaterial for building is excavated from the ruins 
 of the ancient city, — bricks which were moulded t^vo 
 thousand years ago. The mortar adhering to the ma- 
 sonry, compounded in the time of Alexander and the 
 Ctesars, is as tenacious and strong to-day as it was when 
 they were in all their glory. 
 
 r- 
 
 A MODERN REBECCA. 
 
MODEKN EGYPT. 
 
 27 
 
 Cotton and wheat are the chief exports of Eg^iit. The 
 trade is mostly in the hands of the Greeks. Their mer- 
 cantile connections 
 are mainly withiSIar- 
 seUles. 
 
 The streets bear 
 French names, the 
 houses are after the 
 French style of archi- 
 tecture, and the lan- 
 guage of France is 
 heard in the shops. 
 Pohticall)-, English 
 
 influence is ecpial to 
 
 that of France. The 
 
 Pasha has made great 
 
 concessions to both 
 
 the English and the 
 
 French. England 
 
 sends her passengers 
 
 to India, and her 
 
 troops also, l:>y this 
 
 route. The railroad 
 
 trains are loaded ^vith 
 
 supplies for the 
 
 troops in Abyssinia. 
 
 established at Suez. 
 
 railways of Egj^st. 
 
 jrOTHER ASD CHILD. 
 
 A hospital for her soldiers has been 
 Enc^lish capital has constructed the 
 But France is digging the Suez 
 Canal, and French influence is rapidly gaining ground. ^ 
 
 The Viceroy of Egypt is Ismail Fasha, born in 1S30, 
 the second of 'three .sons of Ilirahim Pasha, ^^d^o compiered 
 Sraa in 1840. He was educated in France, in the school 
 of the Etat :\Iajor, or ^Military Staff, and returned to Egypt 
 in 184'.-i. In 1853 he was accused of being a party to the 
 assassination of one of his uncle's court favorites, but it 
 
28 OUK NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 was not proved against him. In 1855 he visited the 
 Trench Court on diplomatic service, and on his way home 
 called upon the Pope and Cardiaal Antonelli. In 1861 
 he was sent with an army of fourteen thousand men to 
 Upper Egypt,- to punish the rebellious trihes of Soudan, 
 who, presuming upon the good-nature of Said Pasha, then 
 Viceroy, refused to pay their taxes. They were brought 
 to terms by Ismail's vigorous action. Two years later, in 
 1863, he became Viceroy. 
 
 The war in the United States was his golden opportu- 
 nity. The world wanted cotton, and Egypt could afford 
 to raise it at the prices then given. The Delta of the Nile 
 was turned into a vast cotton-field, and for a year or two 
 Egypt, which from the time of Joseph has been one of 
 the world's granaries, was compelled, to go to Odessa for 
 wheat, while she sent her bales of cotton to Manchester, 
 — filling the Pasha's purse with English sovereigns. The 
 American war greatly stimulated Egyptian industry. 
 
 Ismail Pasha has .caught the spirit of modern enter- 
 prise. He is anxious, not only for the completion of the 
 canal, but for the construction of railroads; He is laying 
 a railway along the western bank of the Nile, which wiU 
 be completed to Thebes in 1869. Ultimately it is to be 
 extended to the first cataract, to bring to the sea-coast the 
 productions of the vast region beyond. The VaUey of 
 the Nile is the natural highway to the heart of Africa, 
 by which commerce and Christian civilization are yet to 
 reach Ethiopia. The work which Ismail Pasha is doing 
 will be as far reaching in its results. as time itself. 
 
 Not- only up the Nile, but acJross the Delta, he is con- 
 structing railroads. A new route, more direct than that 
 through Cairo, wiU soort be opened from Alexandria to 
 Suez. Another road will be built from Alexandria east 
 to Port Said, the northern terminus of the canal. The 
 Delta is a network of water-ways, natural and artificial ; 
 
MODERN EGYPT. 
 
 29 
 
 ISMAIL TASIIA. 
 
 but water commnnication is too slow to suit the A'iceroy ; 
 he must ha^-e the kiconiotive. Thus far he has sho^ni 
 quite as mucli enterprise as any ruler in Europe. 
 
 He has one son in Paris olitaining an education, who 
 Lives in princely style, spending money recklessly, keep- 
 ing a dozen horses, — Arab and English thoroughbreds. 
 He has fallen away from the faith of his fathers iu the 
 matter of wine-drinking. ]\Iahomet forbade it, but this 
 son of the Viceroy has the best of champagne and the 
 choicest old ^Madeira in his cellars. Another son is ob- 
 tainin:! an education iu England. 
 
30 OLTt NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 We have heard that it never rains in Egypt, but a cloud 
 comes floating from the sea, which in a few minutes 
 drenches the whole city. It is like the bursting of a 
 water-spout. The streets might almost be navigated by 
 boats. The sun is soon shining as brightly as ever, and 
 not a cloud darkens the sky. Alexandria, being situated 
 on the sea-Shore, is particularly subject to such drench- 
 ings, but farther inland showers are of rare occurrence. 
 It is said, however, that the planting of trees of late years 
 has increased the annual fall of rain. If the Delta was 
 thickly planted, there is no doubt that showers would be ' 
 more frequent, and the productions of the country mate- 
 rially increased. 
 
 We ride to the railway station while the rain is pour- 
 ing, to take the express-train to Cairo, and find an Arab 
 ticket-seller, who speaks French, with a half-dozen bag- 
 gage-men around him, all jabbering in Arabic. One of 
 them weighs our trunk on rude scales ; a clerk, with a 
 reed for a pen, fills up a blank receipt, but demands 
 bakshish before handing it over. The tracks of a spider 
 scrambling over the paper would be as intelligible to 
 us as his hieroglyphics, but the writing answers his pur- 
 pose and ours also, — the safe transit and delivery of 
 our luggage at the other end of the route. 
 
 The rails, chairs, and sleepers of the road are aU of iron, 
 — there being no wood in Egypt to spare for ties. The 
 cars are like those in use on the English railways, with 
 compartments for eight persons, — close, hot, suffocating. 
 Our English ceusins do not appear to have any concep- 
 tion of a long, roomy, well-ventilated car, nor have they 
 changed their construction to adapt them to tropical 
 climates, but have sent to Egypt and India the close, 
 uncomfortable carnages which in the United States 
 would be considered more suitable for the transportation 
 of cattle than human beings. The road passes along the 
 
MODERN EGYPT. 
 
 31 
 
 northern borders of the ancient Lake ilareotis, strikes 
 diagonally across the Delta, crossing both the Damietta 
 and Eosetta branches of the Nile. The distance to Cairo 
 is one hundred and sixty-two miles. 
 
 Filth, sqnalor, poverty, wr-etchedness, are characteris- 
 tics of the Arali \illages, where men, ^yonlen, and chil- 
 dren loimge around the doors of the mud huts, gossiping 
 and exami nin g each other's heads ! 
 
 It is the middle of January, and clover is in bloom. 
 The last year's cotton crop has been picked, and the dried- 
 stalks of the plant are in heaps for burning. A camel and 
 
 liiKIGATION . 
 
 a donkey, yoked together, chag 2iriniiti\-e ploughs, which 
 merely scratch the soil. Birffaloes, harnessed to sweeps, 
 and travelling ahvays in a circle, turn creaking wheels to 
 raise water from the creeks for irrigating the wlieat-fields. 
 Two men, with ropes attached to a basket, giving it a 
 swinging UKjtion, scoop the water Irom the ri^'er to a 
 higher level. Up the Xde the Pasha has steam-engines, 
 which are doing the work of thousands of buffaloes. 
 
32 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Trains of camels; bearing immense bags stuffed with cot- 
 ton, wind along narrow paths, and donkeys as weU, their 
 heads and bodies hid by the bales, and nothing but their 
 legs visible. We pass towns swarming with people, and 
 see women mixing cut straw with mud, and moulding 
 bricks and drying them in the sun, — doing just what the 
 children of Israel did in the days of Moses. Palm-groves 
 dot the landscape, and fields of cane wave along the banks 
 of creelcs. Children without clothing tumble in the dirt 
 -at the stations, roU their eyes at us, and hold out their 
 hands for bakshish. 
 
 We cross the Eosetta branch of the Nile on a magnifi- 
 cent stone bridge eight hundred and seventy feet long, 
 btdlt by Stephenson. 
 
 Numerous boats, with triangular sails, are afloat on the 
 stream or moored at the bank. In the distance we be- 
 hold the pyramids ; and after riding seven hours, reach 
 Cairo, the capital of Egypt. 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 CAIRO. 
 
 A HALF-DOZEN swarthy men are at the railway- 
 station to receive us, — runners from the hotels, 
 shouting the merits of their respective houses. We choose 
 the H6tel du Nil, take an omnibus, see our baggage 
 put upon a little four-wheeled truck drawn by a diminu- 
 tive donkey, and away we go, in a cloud of dust, up 
 a wide street, passing through the donkey and camel 
 market, where large droves of those cheerful and solemn 
 animals are exposed for sale. We pass beneath taU 
 
CAIRO. 33 
 
 palms and wide-spreading sycamores, where a crowd of 
 Arab hucksters are cryiag their wares ; meeting camels 
 laden with stone, timber, bundles of sugar-cane, bales of 
 cotton, and boxes of goods ; donkeys with bunches of 
 green clover on their backs, panniers of oranges, or great 
 stone water-jars, and driven by lively, bare-legged urchins ; 
 stylish carriages, of Parisian manufacture, drawn by 
 spirited horses, with monograms and crests on the panels ; 
 fleet-footed boys running ahead and shoutiag, " Chemul- 
 lac ! chemullac ! " — " Get out of the way ! get out of 
 the way ! " 
 
 Leaving the omnibus and following our conductor, we 
 enter a passage so narrow that with outstretched arms 
 we can almost touch the houses on either hand. They 
 tower above us, story jutting over story. Black-eyed 
 women look out from latticed windows. Dogs with 
 bristling mane and savage teeth snap and snarl from 
 nooks and corners in the street. They know by instinct 
 that we are outlandish characters, and proper objects to 
 be growled at. 
 
 Two or three turns, and we enter a spacious garden, 
 laid out with gravelled walks, and surrounded with build- 
 ings. Here is the hotel, the rooms opening upon the 
 garden. "We are ia the heart of a great city, and can 
 hear the noise and confusion of the streets in the dis- 
 tance, like the roar of a far-off waterfall. The shrill 
 voices of the donkey-boys, shouting to their beasts, echo 
 over the housetops ; but there are no distracting sounds. 
 We may sit beneath the palms, lie at ease under twin- 
 ing vines, breathe the fragrance of heliotropes, roses, 
 verbenas, and Cape jessamines, — myriads of sparrows 
 chirping around us, rooks cawiug upon the roofs, and 
 paroquets chattering in the trees. 
 
 At the entrance to this paradise are the sculptured 
 lids of ancient sarcophagi, brought from old Thebes, — 
 
 2* 
 
34 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 wrought by hands which crumbled to dust three thou- 
 sand years ago. We are never weary of looking upon the 
 calm, peaceful, pleasing countenances, types of a race 
 which twenty centuries ago disappeared from the world. 
 
 The hotel is kept by a German, who spares no pains to 
 make us comfortable. The attendance is excellent, the 
 table bountifully supplied, and the charges moderate. 
 
 Cairo is a city of half a million inhabitants, situated 
 at the southern end of the Nile Delta, on the eastern 
 bank of the stream. Those who grumble because Boston 
 has crooked ways never would open their lips on the 
 subject after once getting lost amid the turnings and 
 windings of this city. The houses are mostly of stone, 
 brought from quarries along the Nile. There is no uni- 
 formity of style, but the second story usually juts over 
 the first, the third over the second, the fourth over 
 the third, tiU at the top there is but a narrow opening. 
 People in the upper story might shake hands with their 
 neighbors across the way. Each window has a lattice- 
 work projection, like a bird-cage. The women of Egypt 
 are as well endowed with curiosity as their sisters in oth- 
 er lands, and the windows are thus constructed that they 
 may see, upon the sly, what is going on in the streets. 
 
 The lower story is divided into cupboards and closets, 
 the largest not more than six feet square, arid filled 
 with goods of every description, — yellow slippers, turned 
 up at the toes ; red fezes for the head ; calico of the gaudi- 
 est colors ; crimson shawls, striped with blue ; green tur- 
 bans for the lineal descendants of the prophet ; yellow 
 satin trousers ; rich cloth for the hangings of the harems. 
 In the tobacco shops are long-stemmed pipes, with am- 
 ber mouth-pieces, and packages of dehcately flavored 
 tobacco, with otto of rose for perfuming the water in the 
 nargilehs. Shoemakers, tailors, and wood-carvers sit in 
 niches along the wall. Blacksmiths carry on extensive 
 
CAreo. 
 
 35 
 
 work in small closets, making nails, rings, rivets, and 
 bolts. A sooty urchin crouclies in one corner, working 
 the bellows, which is a wind-bag ingeniously made from 
 
 the skin of a goat. 
 
 In an adjoining shop is a gray-bearded old Copt, 
 bending over a sheet of paper, "\vriting a letter for a lady 
 who has not yet acquired the rudiments of education. He 
 is a professional letter-writer, ready to serve any customer. 
 
 A KEADY WRITER. 
 
 Upon the other side of the street a true follower of the 
 prophet is saying his prayers. He sits cross-legged, rocks 
 backward and forward, and, suiting word to action, rolls 
 out his devotion in a sing-song tone, unsurpassed by the 
 hardest shelled preacher of our Western frontier, 
 
36 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Taking a stroll before sunrise, we come upon a company 
 of women whose profession is to bewail the dead. They 
 have been abroad all night. We heard their lamentation 
 in the stillness of the midnight hours, and thought it 
 the howling of jackals. The company consists of about 
 twenty. They are walking slowly, wearing black mantles, 
 their faces veiled, only their eyes visible. One older than 
 the others seems to be the chief screamer. Her voice is 
 sharp, shrHl, piercing, tremulous> and pitched on a high 
 key. She leads off with a screech, and the others join in 
 a^ chorus such as can only be equalled by a menagerie of 
 foxes, calves, donkeys, puppies, cats, and hyenas. After a 
 prolonged outburst of grief, they laugh and chat awhile, 
 and then give way to another outburst of uncontrollable 
 sorrow ! ' 
 
 This is no modern custom, but old as the pyramids. 
 When Jacob died, Joseph and his brethren and the Egyp- 
 tians wept for him seventy days, and when they went up 
 to Hebron to lay him in the cave at Machpelah, they 
 mourned at Atad " a very great and sore lamentation,'' — 
 just such mourning, doubtless, as that indulged in by the 
 wallers of the present time. It is contrary to European 
 ideas of grief, but the Oriental is dramatic, and so he 
 mourns with loud howling. 
 
 These hired wailers recite the virtues of the deceased, 
 praising with extravagant eulogy. They praise much or 
 little, howl loud or soft, make demonstration to order, as 
 in Christian lands, where there is show, pomp, and pa- 
 rade of empty carriages at a funeral, in proportion to the 
 amount of money expended for the purpose. 
 
 The ancient Egyptians took the lead of aU other nations 
 in civilization. They accomplished wonders, — reared pyr- 
 amids, temples, statues, and obelisks which to-day excite 
 the admiration of the world. In arts and sciences they 
 were far advanced ; but not much can be said in praise of 
 the inhabitants of the land at the present time. 
 
CAIRO. 37 
 
 Passing from the city to the country, we see the houses 
 built of hricks dried in the sun, which might he made 
 comfortable if the people were more intelligent and less 
 indolent. 
 
 If the home of Miss Betsey Trotwood had been in 
 Egypt, she would not have lived out half her days, 
 but have died of exhaustion shouting, " Donkeys ! 
 Janet, donkeys !" Everybody rides a donkey. The sad- 
 dles are high cushions, so constructed that we sit well 
 back on the hips of the animal. A little Arab, with 
 wonderful powers of endurance, runs behind, whacking, 
 punching, and pounding the creature unmercifully, and 
 screaming " H-a-r-r-r ! h-a-r-r-r ! " It is a long-drawn, 
 nasal cry. "We try it, but the peculiar twang not being 
 given, the donkey only pricks up his ears at the strange 
 sound, without quickening his pace. 
 
 Neariy all the city transportation is by donkeys and 
 camels. The building-stone from the quarries, three miles 
 south of the city, fire-wood, bundles of sugar-cane, sacks 
 of cotton, wheat and other grains, are brought in by these 
 animals. The completion of the railroads now under 
 construction vdll greatly increase the facilities ior trans- 
 portation. 
 
 In the fields we see men ploughing with a camel and 
 a cow unequally yoked together. The yoke is a straight 
 stick, ten feet long, slanting at an angle of forty-five de- 
 grees from the neck of the camel to that of the cow. 
 The plough is only a sharpened stick, or the limb of a tree. 
 Clover for the market is cut by handfuls with a small 
 knife instead of a scythe ! Women trudge ten miles to 
 Cairo with earthen jars on their heads filled with butter, 
 a basket of eggs in one hand and live chickens in the 
 other. They take especial care to cover their f^ces, but are 
 indifierent in regard to exposing their persons. The maia 
 part of their worldly wealth is in the ornaments dang- 
 
38 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 ling from their ears and noses, or displayed on their 
 fingers and ankles. Many of the women tattoo their 
 faces and arms. The men are capable of great endur- 
 ance. They will run all day at a mule's pace, without 
 food or drink. During Eamazan they are not allowed 
 by the Koran to take any nourishment between sunrise 
 and sunset. To draw a whiff from a pipe even would 
 entail the loss of paradise. 
 
 Some minutes before the close of day, during Eamazan, 
 every man fills his pipe, and waits with listening ears to 
 hear the boom of the cannon upon the fortress, which is 
 fired the moment the sun disappears beneath the horizon. 
 Thousands of matches are lighted in an instant, and ten 
 thousands of pipes are brought into use. A cloud of 
 tobacco-smoke suddenly gathers over the great city. 
 Prom sunset till sunrise men, women, and children take 
 frequent pulls at their pipes, and spend the night in 
 smoking and 'feasting, thus fortifying themselves for 
 the fasting of the succeeding day. Eamazan continues 
 forty days, and through this long period a true Moham- 
 medan would suffer martyrdom rather than permit nour- 
 ishment of any Irind to pass his lips during the day. 
 
 Though physically able to labor much, these people 
 accomplish but little. We see old men, sitting cross-leg- 
 ged in groups, smoking their pipes, telling over and over 
 and over again stories of the good old times of the 
 caliphs, of the adventures of the Forty Thieves, and 
 other romantic tales of Arabian life. It is not an un- 
 common thing to see one of the group examining his 
 shirt while .the story is going on, looking for population 
 not put down in the census. 
 
 These men are sharper than any Yankee at a bargain. 
 The keenest Vermonter would be outwitted and ileeced by 
 them. It is easier for them to lie than to teU the truth. 
 If we make a bargain to pay them three ^hillings a day 
 
CAIRO. 39 
 
 and no bakshish, they will not feil to ask for a gratuity 
 when we come to the settlement. They are abusive and 
 cruel, especially toward the brute creation. 
 
 Our' good, kind-hearted travelling companion of the 
 Boston pulpit, Dr. Webb, has his sympathies quite as 
 much enlisted for the donkeys of Egypt as for the Arabs. 
 Donkeys do not lie, nor cheat, nor demand bakshish : 
 Arabs do all three. Donkeys do not promise much, but 
 accomplish a great deal : Arabs promise a great deal, but 
 accomplish little. Their moral sensibility is deadened, 
 yet not wholly extinct. They have been oppressed, 
 down-trodden, taxed by government, forced to labor for 
 the Viceroy without pay in constructing raOroads and 
 disging canals. Little has been done for their moral or 
 mental elevation. But Egypt is advancing iu civilization. 
 Commerce, railroads, steamships, telegraphs, the influx of 
 travellers, contact with European nations, and Christianity 
 will yet work a wonderful change in this old land. 
 
 It is an unpromising missionary field; but there are 
 seK-denjdng men and women laboriog in the Valley of 
 the Nile, — missionaries of the Presbyterian Board, — Mr. 
 and Mrs. Lansing, Mr. and Mrs. Bamet, and several others, 
 whose labors are chiefly among the Copts. The Coptic 
 Church is very old. Christianity early gained a foothold 
 in Egypt, and through all the changes, through all the- 
 fanaticisms of Mussulman rule, it has had a name to live. 
 It is estimated that there are about three hundred thou- 
 sand Copts in Egypt. They have a patriarch and priests, 
 and their form of worship is similar to that of the Greek 
 Church. Their religion is almost wholly one of form. 
 
 Twelve years ago, when Mr. Barnet came here, he 
 had his servant and one Egyptian, who could not un- 
 derstand the language, and two Englishmen, for a con- 
 gregation. The seed has taken root. Now there are 
 six more missionary stations, four native preachers and 
 
40 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WOKLD. 
 
 helpers, one hundred and forty church-members, fifteen 
 schools, "with six hundred pupils. The annual sale of 
 Bibles and religious books is about nine thousand vol- 
 umes. Last year a man of character became converted 
 in one of the villages up the river, and at once devoted 
 himself to preaching. Word came to Cairo that a won- 
 derful change had taken place among the inhabitants of 
 the place, and Mr. Lansing, upon going there, found 
 twenty-five persons who gave evidence that they were 
 suitable candidates for church-membership. 
 
 Such a defection from the ancient faith aroused the 
 wrath of the patriarch. Obtaining a firman from the 
 Viceroy, he had several bastinadoed, others cast into 
 prison, and three exUed to Soudan, — which means that 
 they were to be taken to the Upper Nile, sewed up in 
 sacks, and dropped overboard. The missionaries found 
 out what had been done ; representations were made 
 to the English Consul, who telegraphed to London, and 
 back came a note from Lord Stanley to the Viceroy. 
 The exiles were returned, and those in prison released. 
 The persecutions have ceased, and missionary operations 
 are going on as before. 
 
 The former Viceroy, Said Pasha, was liberal, enlight- 
 ened, and kind to Protestants. He gave the missionaries 
 a valuable lot of land and a house in Cairo, worth at 
 the time of the gift about $ 40,000 ; but the cutting of 
 a new street with other improvements has quadrupled 
 its value. The present Viceroy is of a far different dis- 
 position, — hard, overbearing, avaricious, caring only for 
 his own interest, — and no favors are expected from him. 
 
 Three services are held at the mission chapel on the 
 Sabbath, — one in Turkish, one in Arabic, and one in 
 English. From sixty to eighty persons attend each ser- 
 vice. The missionaries feel greatly encouraged by what 
 has been done, but to an outsider the look is dark enough. 
 
THE DELTA OF THE OTLE. 41 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE DELTA OF THE NILE. 
 
 " T r you woiild have one of the finest views in all 
 
 X Egypt, you must see the Delta from the bluffs," said 
 a gentleman who has long resided at Cairo, and who has 
 been up as far as Nubia. 
 
 Following the direction given, we thread our way 
 through the narrow streets, reach the south gate of the 
 city, walk up a winding path, and stand at length upon the 
 siunmit of the bluffs east of the Nile, and about a imle 
 south of the city. Northward lies the Delta, clothed in 
 greenness, — clover in bloom, young wheat just begin- 
 ning to ripple in the passing breeze, groves of palms, 
 fields of sugar-cane, olive-groves, and orange-orchards ; 
 the Eosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile, with 
 numerous creeks and canals, like threads of silver wind- 
 ing through a green carpet. Thousands of boats, with 
 sails spread to the favoring breeze, are afloat upon the 
 gleaming waters. 
 
 At our feet is the wonderful old city, with the minarets 
 and white domes of its four himdred mosques, its narrow, 
 winding streets, and tottering walls. In the northeast we 
 can see the obelisk of Heliopolis, — the tall granite shaft 
 which stood there thirty-six hundred years ago, as chro- 
 nologists reckon time ; upon which, doubtless, Joseph 
 looked with wondering eyes when he was brought a slave 
 to Egypt. Heliopolis is the ancient On, and there he 
 married his wife, Asenath, daughter of the prince, or 
 priest, of On. 
 
 In the southwest are the pyramids of Sakhara and Old 
 
42 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Memphis, and at their hase is the site of that city which, 
 ia the time of Moses, was the capital of Egypt, the resi- 
 dence of the kings, the most advanced of all the ancient 
 capitals in literature, science, and art. 
 
 Beyond the pyramids westward, as far as the eye can 
 reach, lies the great desert, its white sand-hills glowing in 
 the sun. It extends across Africa to the Atlantic Ocean, 
 with- only here and there an oasis, — a vast, unexplored 
 region, of which we know but little more than we do of 
 the extinct craters and lava-fields of the moon. "We can 
 trace the windings of the Nile far away by the glistening 
 of its waters. Nothing can surpass .the beauty of the 
 valley, brightened by the silver stream. It is beautiful 
 by the contrast of its luxuriant vegetation with the inde- 
 scribable barrenness and desolation of the desert. 
 
 Below us, at the base of the bluff, is the citadel, and 
 near it a mosque with two tall white minarets. The 
 building was erected by Mehemet Ali, the ablest and 
 most enlightened of all the modern rulers of Egypt. 
 Mohammedans usually are not willing that Christian feet 
 should profane the sacred courts of their temples ; but the 
 founder of this edifice, wise in advance of his generation, 
 set the world an example of charity, by decreeing that it 
 should be forever open to visitors from all nations, irre- 
 spective of their religious belief. 
 
 Every one of the four hundred mosques has a minaret, 
 from which the muezzin calls the hour of prayer. Many 
 of the sacred edifices have two, some four, tall white spires, 
 which lend a pleasing feature to the charming view. The 
 
 style of architecture of Cairo is thoroughly Oriental, 
 
 domes, minarets, Saracenic arches, and latticed courts • 
 but the masonry is. rude, and the stones roughly dressed. 
 Though large sums of money are expended in repairs, the 
 edifices seem to be always crumbling to pieces. 
 
 There is not much to charm the eye inside the walls. 
 
THE DELTA OF THE NILE. 43 
 
 Images, statues, and pictures are forbidden by the Koran. 
 There are no altars -with gorgeous surroundings, no clois- 
 ters or chapels superbly furnished and adorned by art, as 
 in the churches of Catholic lands. There is no pomp or 
 display in the ceremonial of the service, but each wor- 
 shipper kneels by himself, bows reverently toward Mecca, 
 and repeats his creed, always saying, " There is no God but 
 God, and Mahomet is his prophet." 
 
 Standing by the citadel, we may unroll the scroll of 
 human history, and read at a glance much of what has 
 transpired in Oriental lands from the time of Genghis 
 Khan, in the thirteenth century, to the present hour. 
 
 Nodjmaddin, the Sultan of Egypt, purchased of that 
 Tartar king twelve thousand Circassians which had been 
 taken in war. The purchaser made them his royal troops. 
 They were slaves, with nothing to do except to fight in 
 time of war, and guard their master in time of peace. 
 They had JTorthern blood in their veins, had breathed the 
 pure air of the mountains of their native land, on the 
 shores of the Caspian Sea. From being slaves they in 
 due time became masters, murdered the Sultan, and placed 
 one of their number upon the throne in 1254. For two 
 hundred and sixty-three years they ruled Egypt, and 
 made their power felt throughout the East. 
 
 The Mameluke dynasty was overthrown in 1517 by 
 Selim, first Sultan of Turkey, who, though he appointed 
 a Turkish pasha as governor, was compelled by force of 
 circumstances to continue in of&ee twenty-four beys as 
 governors of provinces. This state of affairs lasted about 
 two hundred years. The Mamelukes, as a body, main- 
 tained their organization through the long period, always 
 obtaining recruits from Circassia. During the latter por- 
 tion of the last century their power was so consolidated 
 that they dictated orders to the Turkish governors. 
 
 In 1773, three years before the declaration of Amer- 
 
44 OUK NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 ican independence, the chieftains chopped off the head 
 of Ali Bey, and took possession of the government. 
 
 A few years later, in 1793, Napoleon came, and it was 
 out yonder, within sight of the pyramids, when con- 
 fronted by Mnrad Bey, that he made that soul-stirring 
 address to his soldiers, — "Forty centuries look down 
 upon you ! " 
 
 'Never was there a braver cavalry charge than that 
 made by the Mamelukes on those yellow sands. They 
 rode round the hoUow squares of the French, dashed 
 against them like. a thunderbolt, and^ broke through the 
 lines, their sabres dripping with blood, but only to be 
 repulsed by superior discipline. 
 
 Eeading the account of that conflict, we can but ad- 
 mire their braveiy in battle. A touching instance of the 
 tenderness of one of these troopers towards his faithful 
 horse is recorded. He had broken through the outer and 
 inner lines, and was alone inside the square, his sabre 
 crimson with gore, his horse wet with foam, and weak 
 from loss of blood. Finding himself alone, the desperado 
 threw his arms upon the ground, leaped from his horse, 
 patted the animal's neck, kissed him affectionately, and 
 then gave himself up a prisoner. 
 
 Mehemet Ali was Viceroy in 1811, and the chiefs of 
 the Mamelukes, while he was absent at Suez with a por- 
 tion of the army, formed a conspiracy to assassinate him 
 upon his return, and take the government into their 
 own hands. He was informed of the plot, hastened 
 to Cairo, invited the chiefs to the citadel to a feast 
 given upon the occasion of his son's departure for Mecca, 
 on a pilgrimage to the tomb of the prophet. The 
 chiefs came in a body, the iron gate opened to admit 
 them, and quickly turned upon its ponderous hinges 
 as they dashed into the grand square. Mehemet 
 Ali sat on the ten-ace upon a richly embroidered carpet. 
 
THE DELTA OF THE NILE. 45 
 
 and received them graciously. In tlie courts and pas- 
 sages his faithful guards from the Albanian Mountains 
 were stationed, ready to obey commands and carry out 
 instructions. The Viceroy raised his hand, and court, 
 alley, and passage blazed with musketry. Horse and 
 rider rolled in the dust. All but one of the four hundred 
 and fifty were shot upon the spot ; he. Emir Bey, reck- 
 less of life, sprang over the parapet on horseback, fell 
 with his steed down the jagged rocks, and, strange to say, 
 escaped ! Others in the city and country were massa- 
 cred ; and thus by one bold, bloody stroke the Mamelukes 
 were exterminated. 
 
 Cairo, like other Eastern cities, is divided by walls 
 into sections, with gates, which are closed at night. The 
 Copts, Jews, and Franks have their respective quarters. 
 There are no street-lamps, and few persons go abroad 
 after dark. All who go out in the evening must have 
 a lantern, or they will be arrested by the police. 
 
 We do not propose in this volume to give a detailed 
 narrative of our visit to the pyramids ; neither to dwell 
 upon the speculations and theories of learned men in 
 regard to the purpose for which they were erected, — 
 whether as tombs of the ancient kings, triumphal monu- 
 ments conamemorative of victories, or for astronomical 
 observatories. But there they stand, in solemn grandeur, 
 the mystery of the ages, wonderful relics of an extinct 
 and bygone civilization. 
 
 They are twelve miles from Cairo, across the Nile, but 
 easily reached and ascended without danger. 
 
 Each visitor ascending the great pyramid must pay 
 fifty cents to an old Arab sheik, who has the monop- 
 oly from the Pasha. The tribe of rascals who live in 
 a human ant-hiU near by offer their services to help 
 us to the top. They meet us with sardonic grins, while 
 we are upon the road, saying in tortured English, 
 
46 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WOBLD. 
 
 "Me lielp you, master. Me good for Yankee Doodle." 
 They have an idea that all Americans are Yankee 
 Doodles, though we douht whether they have any 
 definite idea what the term means ; neither have we, 
 for that matter. But there is one thing upon which 
 they have clear convictions, — that Americans are green- 
 horns, with pockets full of money. They are impor- 
 tunate in their demands for bakshish. We have heard 
 of their rascalities, — how they sometimes get a timid 
 traveller upon the top of the pyramid, and threaten to 
 leave him there unless he satisfies their demands ; how, 
 even if they do not threaten, they allow one no peace, 
 but beg unceasingly. Only a week before our arrival 
 they fleeced a gentleman out of five dollars. Elnowing 
 this, we are prepared for them. 
 
 Selecting two from the crowd to wait upon us, we make 
 the following speech, which we record for the benefit of 
 those who may have occasion to visit the pyramids : — 
 
 " If you take us to the top, and bring us safely back, 
 without saying bakshish, we will pay you when we 
 borne down ; but if you ask for money, we shall give you 
 nothing. Do you understand ? " 
 
 ". Yes, master." 
 
 So, with their aid, we reach the top, look out upon the 
 landscape at pleasure, and descend without annoyance, 
 satisfying them with twenty cents apifece. 
 
 Travellers are usually severe in their denuncia,tions of 
 the Arabs, who beg unblushingly, and cheat in petty ways 
 at every opportunity, — taking an extra piaster in making 
 change, selling scented water for pure otto of roses, and 
 practising many other deceits ; but for swindling, fraud, 
 and robbery there are no Bedouins of the desert that 
 equal the hackmen and stock-jobbers of New York. 
 
THp SUEZ CANAL. 47 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 THE SUEZ CANAL. 
 
 TEN years ago there was a man in Paris, in the full 
 vigor of manhood, tall, ■well-proportioned, a pleasant 
 gentleman, with undeveloped power beneath a calm ex- 
 terior, — a diplomat in a small way, known at court, in 
 the saloons, on the Bourse, and in bankers' chambers, but 
 whose name had scarcely been mentioned outside of Paris, 
 who became possessed of an idea, — old as the Pharaohs, 
 — that of cutting a canal from the Mediterranean to the 
 Eed Sea. 
 
 He reflected seriously upon the wants of modem com- 
 merce, its progress, its prospective .developments. Eng- 
 land had a weekly line of steamers to India. Passengers 
 by thousands were crossing the Isthmus of Suez ; all 
 high-priced goods went that way ; why should not heavy 
 merchandise as well? Must vessels forever go creeping 
 down the African coast, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, 
 ploughing their long furrows across the Indian Ocean ? He 
 believed that modern enterprise and modern engineering 
 would make the short cut available. He thought it over ; 
 read about it, talked of it, spent sleepless nights and 
 wearisome days while heating up with the enterprise. 
 He laid his scheme before his friends, interested com- 
 mercial men in it, talked of its glory, its value to the 
 world,, and especially to the French nation. 
 
 The attention of M. Lesseps was drawn to the' project 
 by reading the report of M. le P^re, who was employed 
 by Bonaparte to make a survey in 1798. M. Lesseps's 
 father was attached to the French consulate at Cairo, 
 
48 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 througli whose influence the son ohtained access to Said 
 Pasha, hefore whom he unfolded his plan in 1854. ,, After 
 months of talking and of indefatigable effort, the enter- 
 prise took shape in the formation of La Compagnie TJni- 
 verseUe du Canal Maritime de Suez. 
 
 The charter is to contiaue ninety-nine years, the man- 
 aging directors to be appointed by the Egyptian govern- 
 ment from the largest stockholders, and the work to be 
 done wholly at the expense of the company. The Egyp- 
 tian government is to receive fifteen per cent, annually, of 
 the earnings ; seventy-five per cent is to go to the general 
 stockholders, and ten per cent to the original founders ; 
 the tariff is to be the same for ships of all nations, and 
 the canal is to become the property of the Egyptian gov- 
 ernment at the termination of the ninety-nine years. 
 Other items in the concession provided that four fifths of 
 the laborers were to be Egyptians, who should receive 
 two thirds as much compensation per diem a^ Europeans, 
 and not less than twenty thousand fellahs were to be 
 furnished by the Viceroy. The government also conceded 
 a la^e tract of land on the Delta, — the same territory 
 which was given by Pharaoh to Joseph for his father 
 and brethren, thirty-five hundred and seventy years ago. 
 
 Everybody knows that the Isthmus of Suez is a narrow 
 neck of land connecting Asia with Africa. Geologists 
 inform us that formerly the Eed Sea united with the 
 Mediterranean. An examination of the belt of land 
 shows that it has widened since the commencement of 
 authentic history. The Gulf of Suez, — the upper por- 
 tion of the Eed Sea, — a few centuries ago, extended much 
 farther inland. than now. There has been a literal fulfil- 
 ment of Isaiah's * prophecy in regard to the drying up of 
 the tongue of the Egyptian Sea. 
 
 This enterprise of M. Lesseps is by no means a new one, 
 
 * Isaiah xi. 15. 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL. 
 
 49 
 
50 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 for in the time of Sesostris, thirteen centuries before Christ, 
 when Egypt was in its glory, the whole Delta was irrigated 
 from the Nile by canals, one of which extended to the 
 small lakes, which are seen in the accompanying map, and 
 from them to the Gi^f of Suez. 
 
 When Pharaoh Necho was on the throne, 617 B. C, 
 a canal was commenced to connect the two seas, as He- 
 rodotus informs us ; but Necho stopped the undertaking, 
 having been iaformed by the Theban oracle that the 
 maritime nations of the North would be enabled to invade 
 the land if the enterprise was carried out. The canal was 
 finished, however, in the reign of his successors, and was 
 used for centuries. It was open in the time of Alexander 
 the Great, and it was also open when Cleopatra was mak- 
 ing Mark Antony a slave to her beauty. The Egyptian 
 galleys which escaped the defeat at Actium were taken 
 through it to the Eed Sea. That ancient canal, according 
 to Pliny, was about one hundred feet wide. After the 
 downfall of the Eoman power in the East it was neg- 
 lected, and became filled with sand, though the line is 
 still easily traced. 
 
 When Bonaparte was in Egypt he commissioned M. le 
 P^re to make a survey of the isthmus. He was looking 
 out for some means of circumventing England in the far 
 East. France must control the wealth of the East Indies. 
 A canal would give her a short route. But the whirl of 
 affairs in Europe put an end to the scheme. 
 
 The work which M. Lesseps proposed to accomplish 
 was to construct a canal which should accommodate first- 
 class sea-going steamers. He must not only excavate the 
 canal, but make a harbor on the Mediterranean side, — a 
 herculean task ; but he had full faith that modern science 
 was sufficient to accomplish it, provided he could obtaiu 
 the funds. 
 
 The spirit of commercial enterprise was coming up in 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL. 51. 
 
 France. The Messageries Imp^riales had their steamers on 
 every sea, and were competing successfully with England 
 in the far East. Commercial men were ready to subscribe. 
 Government lent a favorable ear. Prospective power and 
 glory helped the indefatigable projector. But it was an 
 enterprise for the world, not for France alone. England 
 was called upon, but Lombard Street had no funds for 
 such a project. It was ridiculed. Lesseps was insane. 
 The bankers of the Bourse were fools. "What did French- 
 men know of commercial enterprise ? Besides, it was for 
 the glory and honor of France. England could not throw 
 her money into such a ditch. So from first to last the 
 scheme has been ridiculed, scouted, condemned, declared 
 to be an impossibility by the English people and English 
 press. We have talked with many Englishmen about it, 
 and almost without exception they declare that it will be 
 a stupendous failure ; it never will be carried through ; 
 the sand will blow in faster than it can be scooped out ; it 
 never will pay ; the company will fail ; the whole thing 
 will come to grief; another instance of French stupidity 
 and want of common sense in commercial enterprise. 
 Such is English opimou. 
 
 The opposition of England has been more than pas- 
 sive. The Viceroy still acknowledges allegiance to the 
 Sultan; and when the concession was laid before him 
 Lord Palmerston, through the English Ambassador at 
 Constantinople, brought his influence to bear, and per- 
 suaded the Sultan to object to the article in regard to 
 the employment of twenty thousand Egyptian laborers. 
 Work had commenced, but came to a stand-still, and 
 England said the canal never would be finished. 
 
 To fully comprehend this magnificent undertaking, let 
 us see the country as it was before a shovelful of earth 
 had been thrown out. 
 
 It is a little more than ninety miles from the Mediter- 
 
52 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 ranean to the Eed Sea, along the route most feasible for 
 the project. The engineers, sailing along the Mediter- 
 ranean coast, came to the Bay of Pelusium, the great 
 maritime port of Egypt thirty centuries ago, whence the 
 canal of the Pharaohs was excavated to the salt-water 
 lakes, forty miles inland. But the harbor of Pelusium is 
 filled with sand, the bay is shallow, exposed to north 
 winds, and unsuited to modem commerce. Twenty miles 
 west of this ancient harbor they saw a low line of sand, 
 — a mere embankment, three or four hundred feet wide, 
 three feet above the sea, — thrown up by the ever- 
 restless waves, and behind it, reaching twenty miles in- 
 land, a lagoon or lake, half salt and half fresh, connected 
 with the sea by two narrow inlets, and with the Damietta 
 branch of the Nile by numerous creeks. In the lake 
 the average depth of water would not exceed five feet. 
 
 Beyond it they came to a strip of marsh, five miles 
 wide. Crossing that they found a few sand-hills, and 
 then a shallow lake of salt water ten miles long, with 
 sandy marl beneath. Eeaching the centre of the isthmus, 
 they ascended the plateau of El Guisir, four miles wide, — 
 a ridge of sand, marl, and clay, heaped from twenty-five 
 to one hundred feet above the mean level of the Mediter- 
 ranean. Beyond this they found another small lake, then 
 another sand-ridge, — the plateau of Serapeum, — not so 
 higTi as that of El Guisir, but a succession of hiQs, twenty 
 to seventy-five feet higher than the sea. 
 
 Beyond this lies a basin ten miles long, deep enough 
 to serve the purposes of navigation, filled with bitter 
 water. In the time of Moses this undoubtedly was a part 
 of the Eed Sea, — " the tongue of the Egyptian Sea," re- 
 ferred to in prophecy, which was to be dried up. The 
 sand-storms of the desert, through the slowly rolling cen- 
 turies, have done their work. The blinding drifts from 
 the hot and parched wastes have kept creeping in from 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL. 
 
 53 
 
 year to year, till the natiirnl out- 
 let, and the canal of the an- 
 cients, of which we see vestiges 
 here and there, have both been 
 filled. 
 
 ISTotwithstanding the oppo- 
 sition of England, and the with- 
 diawal of the Egyptian work- 
 men, Lesseps persevered ; ob- 
 tained laljorers from Italy, 
 France, Greece, and Wallachia ; 
 and brought in a bill against 
 the Pasha, who finally consent- 
 ed to submit all c|uestions which 
 had arisen to the arbitration of 
 Louis Napoleon. Tlie Emper- 
 or of France decided that the 
 Viceroy should pay a sum 
 amounting to sixteen million 
 eisht hundred thousand dollars 
 to the company, on lal>or ac- 
 co\;nt, and also for the surren- 
 der of certain lands on the 
 Delta, which had been granted 
 to tlie company by the conces- 
 sion. Tliis was in 1864. Up 
 to that time the work had 
 lagged ; but, through the inde- 
 fatigable energy of Lesseps, it 
 never wholly ceased. He had 
 called around him men of gen- 
 ius, who, after repeated trials, 
 inA'ented excavating machines, 
 whicli lia.A'e accomplished the 
 work more f|uickly and with 
 
 
 
54 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 greater economy than it could possibly have been done by 
 the forced labor put on by the Pasha. 
 
 The line selected by Lesseps is just one hundred miles 
 in length. The canal, when completed, will have the fol- 
 lowing dimensions : — 
 
 Width at top 328 feet. 
 
 Width at bottom . . . . 246 " 
 Depth 26 " 
 
 There are no locks nor impediments of any kind ; nor 
 is there any difference of level between the two seas, ex- 
 cept what may be occasioned by the tides. 
 
 Having taken this preliminary outlook, we are prepared 
 to see what has been accomplished. 
 
 "We are in the Bay of Pelusium, on one of the steamers 
 of the Messageries Impdriales Company, with a sailor at 
 the mast-head on the lookout for Port Said. 
 
 Wo high hills greet the sight, but only a low sand-beach, 
 a forest of masts, a city, and two breakwaters extending 
 into the sea. The wind is fresh, and the waves are dash- 
 ing furiously against the newly constructed wall, which 
 extends from the beach straight out into the sea eight 
 thousand one hundred and seventy-eight feet. Passing 
 the end of the wall we are sheltered by it ; and though 
 the breakers are thundering within a few feet of us, — so 
 near that the spray falls upon our deck, — we are in 
 calm water. 
 
 It is not solid masonry, laid up with nicely fitting joints, 
 but composed of blocks of stone weighing twenty-two 
 tons each, which were manufactured on the beach, brought 
 out on lighters, and tumbled into position. They consist 
 of hydraulic lime, brought from Thiel in Prance, and 
 sand shovelled up on the shore, — the proportions being 
 one of lime and three of sand. The composition is mois- 
 tened with salt water, mixed and moulded by machinery. 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL. 55 
 
 and allowed to dry three months before heing used. The 
 eastern wall will be about five thousand feet in length, 
 :not parallel to the western, but converging toward it 
 seaward, giving an area of about five hundred acres. Be- 
 fore us are thousands of the huge stones manufactured 
 by this process drying in the sun, as if this were a brick- 
 yard, and Samson and Goliath, and their brothers the 
 strong men, had been striking them off. Men are at 
 work handling timber, shovelling sand, unlading mules. 
 There are numerous coalers in the port, for all the coal 
 used by the steam-dredges on the canal, by the tugs, and 
 . by the Peninsular and Oriental steamers on the Eed Sea, 
 and by the transport steamers carrying supplies to the 
 Abyssinian Expedition, is discharged here. 
 
 The town contains about ten thousand iahabitants, and 
 is rapidly increasing. The streets bear French names, — 
 one of the main avenues being the Quay Eugenia. Arti- 
 cles of European and Asiatic manufacture may be pur- 
 chased in the shops. Adventurers throng the streets, — 
 army contractors from England, lively Prenchmen over 
 from Paris with knick-knacks. Monsieur Vareau, who 
 has had the honor to appear before his Majesty the Em- 
 peror, will give a stance in " slight of hand," as flaming 
 posters inform us. 
 
 The greater part of the inhabitants are Arabs, and they 
 live in happy indolence. Many are stretched upon the 
 sand, where the sun shines hottest, sound asleep, the flies 
 buzzing around their nostrils like bees around a hive. 
 Jugglers and gamblers are here, ready to transfer the 
 earnings' of the workmen on the canal to their own 
 pockets. 
 
 The harbor and canal are excavated by steam. The 
 excavators are of enormous size. Imagination may pic- 
 ture a machine as taU as a church-steeple, ponderous iron 
 wheels twenty feet in diameter, buckets as big as hogs- 
 
56 OUE HEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 heads, on an endless chain ; an iron conductor, two hun- 
 dred and twenty feet in length, that serves to carry the 
 sand over the bank of the canal, when brought up by the 
 buckets. There are seventy-two of them, each costing 
 from eighty to one hundred thousand dollars. They are 
 worked by powerful engines, and eat their way with great 
 rapidity through the desert. Those who have seen the 
 dredges in use in the harbors of our great cities will 
 be able to form some idea of the magnitude of these 
 machines. 
 
 Standing upon the bank of the canal, and beholding 
 the chain of buckets coming out of the water, discharging . 
 their contents into one end of the long conductor, and a 
 stream of water and sand pouring from the other ; re- 
 membering that every wheel, piaion, bolt, rivet, and nut 
 has been brought from France, and put up here ; that all 
 the coal used for the operation of the excavators has 
 been mined a thousand feet underground in England, 
 and shipped to this place, — we can but admire the 
 genius, energy, and perseverance of the man who be- 
 gan this great enterprise, who has carried it on to the 
 present time, and who will have it completed in October, 
 1869. 
 
 Although the work was commenced seven years ago, lit- 
 tle progress was made till 1865. All the first machiaes 
 failed. There was no fresh water for the workmen, and 
 a canal was dug to the Nile to obtain it, from which 
 pipes were laid across the salt marshes to Port Said ; the 
 place otherwise would have been uninhabitable. All the 
 provisions consumed had to be transported on camels, 
 and often not more than three days' rations were on 
 hand. These difficulties have been overcome. The w;ater 
 of the Mediterranean already flows half-way across the 
 isthmus, while from that point barges, tug-boats, and 
 small steaniers pass over the fresh-water canal to the Ked 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL. 57 
 
 Sea at Suez. The canal is already competing with the 
 railroad from Alexandria to Suez, — contractors deliver- 
 ing coal at the latter port four dollars and fifty cents 
 cheaper than by the railroad. A mail-boat passes daily 
 from port to port. The canal, when completed, will be 
 three hundred feet wide ; but all efforts now are directed 
 towards opening a channel one hundred and eighty feet 
 in width. 
 
 The quantity of earth which will have been excavated 
 when the canal is finished wiU be not far from ninety- 
 seven million cubic yards. A conception of the amount 
 may be obtained by thinking of a line of earth one yard 
 high and one in width, reaching more than fifty-five' 
 thousand miles, or twice around the globe ! 
 
 The full capacity of the dredging-machines employed 
 is about two million seven hundred thousand cubic yards 
 per month ; one machine has taken out one hundred and 
 six thousand per month. The cost of the machinery is 
 about twelve million dollars. 
 
 Going southward from Port Said, we find ourselves at 
 once on the shallow Lake Menzaleh, through which a 
 channel has been excavated for twenty-nine miles. The 
 dredging-machines are still at work widening and deepen- 
 ing a space for the inner harbor. Tugs are towing barges 
 loaded with mud out to sea, where it is dropped into deep 
 water. 
 
 Beyond Lake Menzaleh low sand-hills are' encountered, 
 which continue several miles. Across these hills, running 
 from the southwest to the northeast, is the caravan road 
 from Egypt to Syria. Probably no portion of the earth's 
 surface has' been more tramped over than this narrow 
 strip of sand, between Menzaleh and the smaller body of 
 water south of it, — Lake Ballah. All the armies of the 
 old nations, — Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Grecians, 
 Eomans, — armies of modern times, in the numberless 
 
58 OUE NKW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 wars whicli have been waged in the East, have marched 
 over it. It was one of the great highways of the Old 
 World. In those days the travel was from Egypt to the 
 northeast, but in future it is to be from sea to sea. 
 
 The canal passes through Lake BaUah, eight miles to 
 El Guisir, the highest elevation on the line. The Arabic 
 pronunciation of words is about as puzzling as the Erench. 
 English orthographic rules are of no account in speaking 
 Eastern languages. M Guisir is pronounced Eh Girsh ! 
 
 This ridge, in some places, has an elevation of seventy 
 feet, but being of sand, it is easily excavated. 
 
 Beyond is Lake Timseh, which is seventeen feet lower 
 than the Nile, and which is connected with that stream 
 by a fresh-water canal, forty feet wide, nine deep, ex- 
 tending to the town of Zagazig, fifty miles distant. 
 
 This canal was excavated to bring fresh water to the 
 ship-canal for the supply of the workmen during its con- 
 struction, for ships after the work is accomplished, and 
 to irrigate the surrounding country. Five years ago this 
 whole region was a desert, but now there are fields of 
 barley, young palm-groves, fruit-trees, flowers, vegetation 
 springing up everywhere, — the once barren waste liter- 
 ally blooming with roses. 
 
 It is said that the extended cultivation of this delta 
 already has affected the climate ; that there are heavier 
 dews and. more frequent showers. The opening of fresh- 
 water canals and extensive irrigation will largely increase 
 the area of cultivated land. "Water turned upon the 
 sand, if long continued, will bring forth vegetation and in 
 time make a fertile soil, — so wonderful is the economy 
 of nature. 
 
 Upon the northern shore of this interior lake are the 
 offices of the company, at the town of Ismalia. A line 
 of railway has been opened from this port to Alexandria, 
 and Ismalia has become a large town. 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL. 59 
 
 From Lake Timseh to the Eed Sea the canaT passes 
 through a region of bitter lakes and sand-ridges, where 
 more or less dredging is required. 
 
 M. Lesseps has. given much attention to the sand-drifts 
 ■which are ever encroaching upon the delta. No diffi- 
 culty is apprehended from that source. There are only 
 a few points where sand will drift into the canal, and 
 these can be kept clear with the dredges. The estimate 
 of the engineers is that two machines will keep the chan- 
 nel free. 
 
 Between Lake Timseh and the Eed Sea we find a 
 basin, which, though dry now, evidently was once a por- 
 tion of the Gulf of Suez. The depression is about seven 
 miles long and five in width, with salt incrustations. The 
 land between this basin and the Eed Sea is quite low ; 
 and those who have studied the formation assure us that 
 the Gulf of Suez, at a comparatively recent period, ex- 
 tended to this basin. Some biblical scholars are of the 
 opinion that the water of the Eed Sea filled it when the 
 children of Israel fled from Egypt, and that this present 
 low reach of sand, where marine shells crunch beneath our 
 feet, was a wide sand-bar at the time. A north or east 
 wind, blowing for any considerable length of *time, com- 
 bined with a low tide, would have made it completely 
 bare. 
 
 Eesidents along the shores of Champlain could tell us 
 of the effects sometimes produced on that lake by long- 
 prevailing northern winds. Shipmasters in the harbor 
 of Buffalo sometimes see the water becoming shaEow 
 beneath the keels of their vessels, by the continuance of 
 northeast storms. It was but last year that the flow 
 of water over Niagara was greatly diminished by the 
 northeast wind blowing for several days up Lake Erie. 
 
 The account in Exodus of the passage of the Israelites 
 through the Eed Sea acijuires new force when read on 
 
60 , OUR NEW WAY BOUND THK WORLD. 
 
 this sj5ot. The event becomes not only possible, but 
 probable. Instead of being ia the domaia of the miracu- 
 lous, it is under natural law. The description is plain : — 
 
 "And the Lord caused the sea to go. back by a strong 
 east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and 
 the waters were divided, and the children of Israel went 
 into the midst of the sea upon dry ground." 
 
 While the favoring wind continued, the sand-bar was 
 dry ; but a sudden change of the wind to the south, and 
 an incoming tide, six feet and a half high, — the height 
 to which it rises now, — would quickly change the scene. 
 It was on the shore of this same Gulf of Suez that Napo- 
 leon, while riding along the beach at low tide, came near 
 ''being overwhelmed by the sudden returning of the waters. 
 
 The distance from this basin to the Eed Sea is twelve 
 mUes, and the whole of the sandy plain is only a foot or 
 two above the sea. Even now a high tide and a strong 
 southerly wind, sweeping up the gulf, between the high 
 mountain walls wliich .border its eastern and western 
 shore, sometimes overflows a large portion of this ancient 
 sand-bar. 
 
 The opening of the railway and the overland travel be- 
 tween Europe and the East has abeady built up a town 
 of twenty-five thousand inhabitants at the upper end of 
 the Ked Sea. AU around is desert, but the water of the 
 Nile has been brought there, and the great transformation 
 has commenced. We see a large railway-station, three or 
 four hotels, offices of the Peninsular and Oriental Com- 
 pany, one hotel owned by that company, where we sit 
 down to substantial beef and pudding. The town is 
 Egyptian, with narrow streets, houses built from dried 
 brick and stone from the cliffs along the Eed Sea, bazaars 
 like those of Cairo, a swarthy crowd of Arabs, negroes, 
 Nubians, Hindoos, Italians, Spaniards, Germans, French- 
 men, Englishmen, Eussians, and, Turks. 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL. 6l 
 
 The canal company has constructed a breakwater half 
 a mile long, which extends westward from the eastern 
 side of the upper end of the gulf, to protect shipping from 
 the strong southerly gales which sometimes blow with 
 almost the force of a hurricane. The day before our arri- 
 val great damage was done to the small Egyptian craft 
 in the harbor, by a gale which came on suddenly, and 
 blew furiously throughout the day. 
 
 The original capital of the Suez Canal Company was 
 forty million dollars ; but it became evident some time ago 
 that it would not suffice to complete the work, and bonds 
 were issued of the value of sixty dollars, bearing five dol- 
 lars annual interest, and payable in fifty years at one 
 hundred doUars. The holders would thus receive more 
 than eight per cent per annum on the investment, be- 
 sides the increase of forty dollars on each share at the 
 time of payment. But the French public were not confi- 
 dent that the enterprise would pay, and only about six 
 million dollars were taken. 
 
 But the enterprise had proceeded so far, and was so 
 dear to the Emperor, that permission was given to estab- 
 lish a lottery, in which there were prizes varying from 
 four hundred dollars to thirty thousand, to be drawn 
 quarterly, and the total amount was to be two hundred 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 The lottery bonds were to draw three per cent, and 
 there was to be no loss of subscription. But the in- 
 vestment was sure to return three per cent, with a chance 
 for one of the magnificent prizes. 
 
 The French people, ever on the alert for anything ex- 
 citing, rushed to secure the bonds, and in a few days the 
 company had between fourteen and fifteen million dollars 
 additional capital. The receipts from all sources thus far 
 amount to about seventy million dollars, which, at the 
 present rate of expenditure, will open the canal. Steamers, 
 
62 OUR NEW WAY KOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 whether screw or side-wheel, will make the transit from 
 sea to sea in twenty-four hours. 
 
 M. Lesseps is sanguine in his expectation that the canal 
 wiU become the great maritime ' highway of the world. 
 He anticipated at the outset that three million tons of 
 merchandise per annum would take this route. The time 
 saved between England and India would be about twenty 
 days. But to offset this, there is the tariff, which will be 
 two dollars per ton, and the insurance of four per cent 
 by the Eed Sea route, against two per cent by the Cape 
 of Good Hope. Whether it accomplishes aU that its 
 projector anticipates or not, it wiU secure for him a 
 place in history as one of the most indefatigable, ener- 
 getic, and persevering of men. 
 
 We saw him in the Hall of Industry in Paris, at the 
 distribution of prizes, receive the gold medal from the 
 hands of the Emperor. He alone of aU the favored 
 redpiehts was greeted with applause by the vast as- 
 sembly. 
 
 His work will remain forever a monument to his 
 genius and energy in attempting to serve the interests 
 of the whole human race. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 FEOM* EGYPT TO INDIA. 
 
 IT was Easter Sunday, and a gala-day at Suez. There 
 was firing of guns and pistols, blowing of trumpets, 
 beating of drums, and jingling of donkey-beUs. All 
 the ilags in town were displayed. Ordinarily the Chris- 
 tians of the Latin Church in Eastern countries work on 
 the Sabbath, but on this occasion, in commemoration of 
 
FKOJI EGYPT TO INDU. 
 
 63 
 
 the resurrection of the Saviour, they had a jolly time/ 
 It ^vas a day for feasting, dancing, and general revelry. 
 On Friday and Saturday the flags were at half-mast, lie- 
 cause on those days Christ lay in the tomb ; hut on the 
 da^\■n of Easter Sunday they were run up to mast-head, 
 to signify that he had risen. 
 
 EASTER SUNDAT. 
 
 The resident popidation of Suez are mainly Arabs, and 
 of course ^Mohammedans. Last week tliey had one of 
 the yearly fasts commanded by the Koran. Xo food — 
 not a cruinb cif liread nor a drop of water, not a whiff 
 of smoke even — could ])ass their lips between sunrise and 
 sunset. The tongue might be parched, fe\"er might rage in 
 
64 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 the blood, they might fall by the roadside from sheer ex- 
 haustion, but nothing could be taken. Fasting with the 
 Mussulman is no sham; not a closing of the shop, in 
 accordance with the proclamation of the governor, and 
 then having a good dinner and attending the theatre in 
 the evening. Abdallah and Yusef believe that fasting 
 means salvation. They believe and obey their Bible, -7- 
 the Koran. They are consistent. 
 
 But evidences are not wanting to show that a change 
 is taking place in the Mohammedan faith. Abdallah and 
 Yusef take it into their heads to visit Paris, — that para- 
 dise of the West, of which they have heard so much. 
 Here they put on full flowing trousers of yeUow satin, a 
 pink sash of fiaest sOk, and a green robe fringed with 
 ermine. Morning, noon, and night they bow toward 
 Mecca, and ask the protection of the prophet. But in 
 Paris they appear in pantaloons. When noon comes 
 they find no place upon the crowded boulevard where 
 they can spread their carpet for prayer ; and when they 
 enter the Jardin Mabille they forget all about Mecca. 
 AVhen they get back to Constantinople or Cairo they 
 observe the sacred fasts with roast-turkey and cham- 
 pagne, just as the governor's fast is observed in Boston. 
 The world is moving in more senses than one ; but where 
 is it going to ? 
 
 Suez is one of the half-way houses of the world. 
 Every Sunday the town is kept in a bustle by the ar- 
 rival and departure of steamers. In the morning we 
 witness a rush of English passengers from Calcutta, 
 which are sent off at nine o'clock to Alexandria. At 
 noon another crowd arrives by the Bombay steamer, 
 which are sent off to Alexandria in the evening ; and 
 following these, two regiments of troops on their way 
 home, after ten years' service in the East, accompanied 
 by wives, sweethearts, and a young regiment of infantry. 
 
FR05I EGYPT TO IJiDIA. 
 
 65 
 
 two hundred and eighty strong, born in India ; and 
 then, just before sunset, a train witli passengers outward 
 bound for the Bombay steamer. 
 
 It is hot weather, and the birds are flying' north ; and 
 not more surely does summer bring the swallow from tlie 
 south back to the shores of Old England than it calls 
 home flocks of her people from India. A large proi)or- 
 tion of those returuiug are women and children. ]\Iany 
 
 
 Gi^INn T70:mE. 
 
 of the children pale and sickly, reminding us of beans 
 just pieering abo^■e groimd, as colorless as potato-sprouts 
 in a cellar. They would be weak and jmny were they 
 to remain in the East, but the fresh air, roast-beef, and 
 ale of England ^vill make a wonderful transformation in 
 a few months. 
 
 Suez is an excellent place for studying national charac- 
 
66 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 teristics. Yankees who come to see the canal lose none 
 of their curiosity, rrenchmen none of their politeness, 
 Britons none of their angles. Contact with Hindoos and 
 Chinese does not affect the pronunciation of Englishmen. 
 They are, if anything, more intensely English than they 
 were before leaving home. 
 
 " Shall we find it very hot in India at this season of 
 the year ? " we ask of a gentleman at the dinner-table. 
 " Hit depends very much were you hare, and 'ow you 
 do hit. Hif you 'eat your blood in Hindia, you will feel 
 the 'eat. Has far has heating is concerned, don't 'ave 
 hany care ; heat wat you please." 
 
 " You wiU find it very 'ot, sir," says a lady ; " you will 
 wish you was hin han hice-'ouse." She, perhaps, would 
 be sorely puzzled to understand what we were driving 
 at if we were to inform her that there were extra h's in 
 her speech. • 
 
 " Nonsense ! " exclaims a gentleman, in such English 
 as an American is accustomed to hear, without aii extra 
 h or 0. " I have been in India ten years, and have never 
 been troubled with the heat. I eat anything and every- 
 thing, snap my fingers in the faces of the doctors, and am 
 just as good as new." 
 
 With such comforting and assuring words, we step on 
 board the steam-tug, and just at sunset reach the deck 
 of the steamship Baroda, of the Peninsular and Oriental 
 line, bound for Bombay, under the command of Captain 
 Hazlewood. Several other steamers are in the harbor, 
 some belonging to the Messageries Imp^riales Company, 
 which is competing with the Peninsular and Oriental line 
 for China trade and travel. 
 
 On Monday morning we are ploughing a long furrow 
 down the Gulf of Suez over calm waters. We behold the 
 mountains of l^he Sinai and Horeb range eastward, and 
 anothcB range quite as lofty westward. There are ragged 
 
FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 
 
 67 
 
68 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 rocks and sharp peaks; perpendicular cliffs, without a 
 sign, of vegetation. There is no grass, no flower, no shrub 
 or tree, nothing but the everlasting rock to cast a shadow 
 in the weary land. The mountains are as bare as in the 
 primeval years. In the hollows and gorges there are 
 drifts of white sand, whirled up by the hot winds of the 
 desert, gleaming in the blazing sun like the glaciers of 
 the Alps. Over all the range there falls a purple light, 
 which changes to reddish hues as the sun sinks . into the 
 west. Its crimson colors, reflected in the sea, give a name 
 to this arm of the Indian Ocean, reaching one thousand 
 three hundred and forty miles inland. 
 
 Mount Sinai is not visible from the steamer, a range of 
 hills rising abruptly from the water hiding it from our 
 view. One can hardly realize that just over those bleak 
 and barren hiUs, — so forbidding, so incapable of support- 
 ing human life, — that the children of Israel lived forty 
 years ; that there the world received that short and sim-^ 
 pie code of laws which Jesus Christ summed up in one 
 sentence, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself" ; upon which hang 
 not only all the law and the prophets, but all that is 
 good, just, and right in all other codes. Sometimes a per- 
 son is almost tempted; in these days when materialism is 
 asserting its mighty powers, to doubt that wonderful his- 
 tory of the past; to say that no multitude ever marched 
 down the desolate coast, amid those burning sands, with 
 the mountain wall glowing like a heated furnace about 
 them, lived among these mountains year after year, and 
 finally reached the land of Canaan ; but as the pyramids 
 in their solemn grandeur attest that Egypt four thousand 
 years ago was peopled by a mighty race, so there are in- 
 disputable witnesses to the truth of the Bible history 
 of the children of Israel. 
 
 A little way up ^rom the sea-shore are fountains sur- 
 
FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 69 
 
 roTinded by a patch of green. They are known as the 
 wells of Moses, — the hitter water of Marah once, but 
 sweet and refreshing now. It was at .this season of the 
 year — in April — that the Israelites marched over these 
 sands, gleaming then, as now, in the hot sun, and drank 
 of the fountaias. It is a place where we might profitably 
 sit down and muse upon the past, — trace the history of 
 that wonderful people, peculiar then, peculiar now, who 
 have preserved their national characteristics from that 
 day to the present. The Egyptians and the Assyrians 
 have disappeared; Greece, Eome, — all the old nations, 
 have passed away ; the new nations are changing, — some 
 going out like a candle's flickering flame, others just 
 beginning to shed their light; but the Jews, though 
 having no national organization, though scattered to every 
 land and clime, are Jews still. How happens it ? 
 
 Two days' steaming brings us opposite Mecca, which 
 lies one hundred and twenty miles inland. Djiddah is 
 the port, the landing-place for all pilgrims who go from 
 the West to the holy shrine of the prophet. The days of 
 great caravans from Egypt have passed, never to return. 
 Occasionally one comes from the East or the North over 
 the deserts, but by far the largest number of pilgrims land 
 at Djiddah. They are brought down the Eed Sea by the 
 Pasha's steamers. It is the easiest and cheapest route, and 
 Ismail Pasha makes a good thing of it. In January, Feb- 
 ruary, and March the Eussian, Austrian, and Egyptian 
 steamers from Constantinople and Smyrna to Alexandria 
 are loaded with pilgrims, who, if they can reach Mecca, care 
 little whether they live or die, for they are sure of an en- 
 trance into paradise. The number of pilgrims this year is 
 said to be much smaller than in previous years. We have 
 heard no reason assigned ; possibly there are hard times 
 in the desert. It is not in Boston, New York, and Chi- 
 cago alone that men talk of hard times, of high prices of 
 
70 
 
 OCR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 living ; but we hear it at Constantinople, Cairo, Jerusalem, 
 and Damascus. It costs the Bedouin more to hve now 
 than it did before the gold-fields of California and Aus- 
 tralia were discovered, — before the slaveholders of the 
 United States quadrupled the price of cotton by the 
 Eebellion, and threw the whole world into a fever of 
 speculation. It probably is not from any waning of faith 
 in Mohammedanism that there are fewer pilgrims, but 
 
 
 BOUND FOn SIECCA. 
 
 from want of means to reach Mecca. Yet there are some 
 indications tliat infidelity is creeping into Islam. Fanati- 
 cism is disappearing, other religions are tolerated, and the 
 injunctions of the Koran not so implicitly obeyed as in 
 forurer years. 
 
 Below Mecca is Mocha, the great coffee port of Arabia. 
 We pass it at night, but its minarets are visible in the 
 daytime from the deck of the steamer. Tlie coffee 
 
FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 71 
 
 is raised ia the interior, in Arabia Felix, and brought 
 down on camels. The flavor of the Mocha coffee is very- 
 mild and agreeable ; but we wOl not dwell upon the sub- 
 ject, for painful it must be, in these days of burnt beans, 
 roasted corn, chiccory, and carrots, to think of those good 
 old times when everybody knew that breakfast was ready 
 by the delicious aroma which exhaled from the coffee-pot 
 in the kitcheiL 
 
 Probably there is no body of water in the world which 
 is more dangerous to navigate than the Eed Sea. In 
 the northern portion the wind, almost throughout the 
 year, blows from the north ; at the southern end it blows 
 as uniformly from the south ; while in the middle, near 
 the tropical line, it frequently does not blow at all. ThesS 
 counter breezes produce currents which set in various 
 directions, occasionally strong enough to sweep steamers 
 out of their course. They are irregular, sometimes scarcely 
 perceptible; at others almost as powerful as the Gulf 
 Stream of the Atlantic, or that other ocean river which 
 flows along the coast of Japan. 
 
 " We' have to steer to a degree in this sea ; we can- 
 not run by the points of the compass," says Captain 
 Hazlewood, who never relaxes his vigilance, but keeps a 
 sharp lookout day and night. 
 
 Notwithstanding the care and caution exercised by the 
 Peninsular and Oriental Company, several of their ves- 
 sels have been wrecked. 
 
 As yet there are but three light-houses between Suez 
 and the Straits of Babel-man-deb, a distance of more than 
 thirteen hundred miles. Two of them are on dangerous 
 reefs, which lie almost in the path of the steamers. One 
 is forty miles from the main-land. At low tide the reef 
 shows itself above the water, and those who have the 
 care of the light can walk a few rods upon the sand. 
 The Egyptian government keeps three men stationed 
 
72 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 there, who, after ninety days' service, are allowed one 
 month's absence, their places being supplied by others. 
 Think of being cooped up in an iron box, a little larger 
 than a bird-cage, set on stilts in the middle of the sea, 
 the waves foaming beneath, the spray dashing against the 
 trembling structure, the merciu:y at 87° in niid"winter and 
 140° in June ! 
 
 It is well for the rest of us that men can be found who 
 are willing to be grilled and roasted in that oven. The 
 dangers from currents, winds, reefs, and heat are so many 
 that sailing vessels never will navigate the Eed Sea to 
 any great extent, unless towed by steamers, — a matter' 
 to be taken into account in estimating the benefits to be 
 derived from the Suez Canal. 
 
 At the southern extremity of the sea is the island of 
 Perim, situated near the Arabian coast, and commanding 
 the channel. It is nearly two miles long and three fourths 
 of a mile wide, with a light-house upon its highest point. 
 I,t is a barren rock, the perfection of desolation, but impor- 
 tant in a military point of view. It belonged to Turkey, 
 but England took possession of it in 1857, and holds it 
 by a squad of English troops, who are relieved every 
 three months. 
 
 Louis N'apoleon sent a fleet round the Cape of Good 
 Hope to seize this position, which commands the highway 
 to India. The admiral, on his way, called at Aden, one 
 hundred miles east, to pay his respects to the English. 
 Of course there was a dinner, and while the champagne 
 went roimd one of the subalterns let out the secret that 
 they were going to Perim. While they tarried over the 
 wine, the English commander sent a gunboat and seized 
 the place. The Frenchman in due time departed to exe- 
 cute his mission, and found the British flag fljang on the 
 rock, and a qompany of soldiers in camp. No fortifica- 
 tions have been erected, but England having once seized 
 
FEOM EGYPT TO INDIA. 73 
 
 territory is not in the habit of giving it up, and so tlie 
 soldiers remain. 
 
 The narrow strait connecting the Eed Sea with the 
 Indian Ocean bears the Arabic name of Babel-man-deb, 
 — the " Gate of Tears." Here many a pilgrim bound for 
 Mecca, to make paradise sure by kissiug the holy stone in 
 the Kd,bah, has had his hopes cut short by finding a grave 
 beneath the turbulent waters. 
 
 It was across this narrow passage, according to Eawlin- 
 son, that the sons of Gush journeyed east from Upper 
 Egypt and Abyssinia to the Euphrates, and laid the foun- 
 dation of the first Assyrian Empire, several hundred years 
 before the confusion of tongues. Solomon's ship, from 
 Ezion-geber, sailed through these straits, and crept along 
 the coast to India ; and in the tiame of the Ptolemies small 
 vess^ edged their way from headland to headland ; but 
 from that time to the establishing of the Peninsular and 
 Oriental line of steamships few sails whitened these 
 waters. Now steamers pass almost daily, and it has be- 
 come one of the gateways of the world. 
 
 The great coaling station of the Indian Ocean is at 
 Aden, on a peninsula which juts out from the Arabian 
 coast in the form of a' sickle. Hours before reach iug it we 
 have rugged mountains in view, which rise from the point 
 of the peninsula, and which, ages ago, were seething, bub- 
 bling, thundering volcanoes. The cones are about one 
 thousand feet high, and it is hardly possible to conceive 
 of a place more desolate, barren, and forbidding than 
 the confused heaps of lava and pumice which rise be- 
 fore us. 
 
 But the harbor is capacious and well protected by 
 these mountains of ciaders from the heavy sea which 
 breaks on the Arabian coast during the southwest mon- 
 soon. As we approach the entrance we behold fifteen 
 steamers and over forty ships and barks in port, be- 
 
 4 
 
74 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 sides numerous small craft of the Arabian coast. The 
 Eangoon, from Bombay ; the Nubia, from Calcutta, with 
 China passengers, have just dropped anchor. The Ben- 
 gal, from Bombay, with troops, is getting up steam to 
 depart for Annesley Bay; the Agamemnon, with more 
 troops, is about to follow ; the French steamer for Ceylon 
 and China, and the steamer for Mauritius, are waiting 
 mails and passengers; gunboats and war steamers are 
 waiting orders ; tugs steam here and there with barges in 
 tow ; Arab sail-boats, with prows like the snouts of lean 
 swine, with high poop-decks like the vessels which we see 
 in old pictures, are cutting round the harbor, manned by 
 bareheaded, bare-breasted, bare-legged men, some with 
 shaven crowns, others with mops of yellow hair, in tex- 
 ture, fibre, curl, and kink like the wool of Southdown 
 sheep, their complexion a dingy bronze, their clothing 
 a strip of cloth wrapped round the loins. Besides these 
 there are smaller boats, a trifle larger than chopping-trays, 
 managed by boys, flourishing paddles shaped like mus- 
 tard-spoojis. 
 
 They swarm around the steamer, looking up with eager 
 eyes for the dropping of a piece of money overboard. 
 We throw a penny into the water, and in an instant every 
 boat is emptied. A family of young frogs sunning them- 
 selves on the brink of their native pool, just changed 
 from tadpoles to froghood, lithe and nimble, could not 
 jump in more quickly. Down they go to the bottom. 
 We see them groping for the prize, which when found 
 is fiercely fought for. They struggle, wrestle, pull each 
 other's hair, beneath the waves, then come to the surface, 
 one of them clutching the treasure. They climb into 
 their trays, bail out the water with their hands, and beg 
 in unintelligible gibberish for another toss. 
 
 Some of the adult natives, wearing little clothing, but 
 with hair enough on their heads to stuff a hassock, come 
 
FKO.M EGYPT TO INDIA. 
 
 75 
 
 on board with ostricli-plumes for sale. Many English 
 ladies, journeying to or from India, supply themselves 
 with feathers here at prices much cheaper than those 
 charged by the milliners of London or Calcutta. 
 
 The place is strongly fortified by batteries commanding 
 the harbor. The English call it the Gibraltar of the 
 East. Immense tanks have been made for the preserva- 
 tion of rain-water, and a distilHug apparatus has been 
 
 N.VTIVES OF ADEN. 
 
 erected. Provisions for the garrison sufficient for a three 
 years' siege are stored in the fortress. Wide streets, a 
 well-built quay, substantial buildings, attest the energy 
 and enterprise which has worked a wonderful transfor- 
 mation on this heap of cinders. Ereslr pro^dsions are 
 brouglit in by tlie Aralis. Sweeping the northern hori- 
 zon with a glass, we see a low plain, with mountains in 
 the far distance, an Arab village, palm-trees, and other 
 
76 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 signs of verdure, so that Aden is not the dreariest place 
 in the world. Being a half-way station on the great East- 
 em highway, it has become ' an important place, which 
 England will hold so long as her ilag floats over the soil 
 of India. 
 
 Steamers are almost as numerous on the Indian Ocean 
 as on the Atlantic. The traffic and travel between India 
 and England is so great that a large fleet is required. The 
 Peninsular and Oriental Company have just made a con- 
 tract with the British government for carrying the mails 
 during the next twelve years. They have in all forty- 
 nine steamers, distributed as follows: Twelve on the 
 Mediterranean, six between . Suez and Calcutta, thirteen 
 between Bombay and Suez, three between Ceylon and 
 Sydney, seven between China and Japan, and eight trans- 
 ports. Most of these are from eighteen hundred to two 
 thousand tons. They run at a lower speed than the At- 
 lantic steamers, the contract time being nine and a half 
 knots per hour. A higher rate requires a large constmip- 
 tion of coal, which is a great item where it costs fifteen 
 dollars per ton. The contract stipulates for a weekly 
 mail between Suez and Bombay, a fortnightly mail be- 
 tween Suez, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Shanghae, and Yoko- 
 hama, and a monthly mail from Ceylon to Austra;lia. 
 The Bombay and the Calcutta and China steamers aU run. 
 to Suez, and aU touch at Aden. The travel is so great in 
 the spring and fall that it is not unusual for passengers 
 to, secure their tickets six months in advance. The offi- 
 cers are courteous, and look well after the comfort and 
 convenience of the passengers, — at least such is the case 
 on the Baroda. Captain Hazlewood is an excellent com- 
 mander ; keeps his ship neat and tidy, is sociable at table, 
 ever ready to do anything to make the time pass pleas- 
 antly to his passengers. Each steamer is provided with a 
 physician, steward, stewardess, and a troop of waiters. 
 
FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 77 
 
 The crews are mainly Hindoos and Malays, who, under 
 European officers, make excellent sailors. They are light 
 and agile, run up the shrouds, slip down the ropes, or 
 hang dangling in the air like monkeys, doing their work 
 without grumbling. 
 
 The table is spread with a bountiful supply of substan- 
 tial food, yet many of the passengers find fault with the 
 fare. Set forth the best, and they will want it a little bet- 
 ter, or at least a little different. Accustomed to have the 
 juiciest beef at home, they growl and lose their temper, and 
 •make themselves red with swearing because they cannot 
 have it equally tender in the tropics. But they get good 
 mutton-chop. There are a haK-dozen pens amidships, 
 filled with the long-eared sheep of the East, which take 
 on fat easily, and do no't lose it on shipboard in these 
 hot climates. The breakfast chops are delicious, and the 
 joints sweet enough for an epicure. Considering that the 
 route of the steamers from Suez to China is wholly 
 within the tropics, it is surprising what excellent dinners 
 the steward can provide. 
 
 Passengers must be prepared for hot weather. The 
 atmosphere for about six hundred miles is steamy and 
 sticky. Knives, watch-keys, watch-pinions, rivets, screws, 
 and bolts in trunks or about the ship, take on a coat 
 of rust. In midsummer the heat on the Eed Sea is 
 fearful. The negro firemen have sometimes dropped dead 
 by the furnaces, in the months of June, July, and August ; 
 but no one travels then, unless compelled by military 
 orders or the imperative demands of business. The pas- 
 sage in the winter and spring months is delightful. Our 
 trip across the Indian Ocean has been over a smooth sea, 
 with a gentle breeze, sufficient to keep us comfortable, 
 though the mercury is nearly up to ninety. The waves 
 are smooth now ; but a month hence, in May, the south- 
 west monsoon will be blowing, and then there will be 
 lively times on shipboard. 
 
78 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 The native boats whicli navigate this ocean have sharp, 
 thin, low bows, high and wide stern ; one tall mast for- 
 ward, supporting a great square lateen-sail ; a short mast 
 aft, carrying a narrow, triangular sail. Americans would 
 hardly venture upon such boats for a trip from one head- 
 
 -ili.- 
 
 •' ^ 
 
 .1^ :' ^v=- ' A 
 
 
 r.^f 
 
 V ' * - fry s ' s. 
 
 RATHER "WARM. 
 
 land to another. Yet these East-Indians, without sex- 
 tant or quadrant, and with but little knowledge of the 
 science of navigation, having only a rude native compass 
 and log, strike boldly out to sea, and make the passage 
 to Aden, a distance of nearly seventeen hundred miles. 
 
 At this season of tlie year they have cloudless days and 
 nights, make their way by the sun and stars, and can 
 keep tolerable reckoning ; but it is a "\'oyage that few of 
 us would like to undertake, unless compelled by stern 
 Necessity. 
 
 We are not without entertainment on board the steamer. 
 Every night the forward deck presents a lively scene. 
 
FROM EGYPT TO INDIA. 
 
 79 
 
 The sailors are fond of dancing, and are not at all particu- 
 lar about their partners. Hearing the orchestra tuning 
 up, we go forward and find a red-faced Englishman, 
 with dist'ended cheeks, blowing fearful blasts on an old 
 brass trumpet, a fall-grown Malay scraping a violin, and 
 a little Hindoo boy tooting a flageolet. Ehythm and 
 
 ' The man th:it bath no mu'-i'' 
 
 in himself, „i,^^- 
 
 Kor is not moved v.'ith coacoi I l~^ 
 
 of sweet sounds. 
 Is fit for treasons, stratas'cms, 
 
 and spoils." 
 
 THE JOLLY MAIIINEES. 
 
 melody are of no X)articiilar account, noise is everything ; 
 and the crew are enjoying themselves with lireak-downs 
 and double-shuffles. The louder the music the more vig- 
 orous the action. An Irishman and a negro undertake a 
 waltz, whirling round the capstan amid the enthusiastic 
 cheers of the admiring crowd. 
 
80 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 CHAPTER VIH. 
 
 BOMBAY. 
 
 LOOKING northward from the deck of our steamer, 
 we behold a long line of breakers tumbling over a 
 rocky reef Around us hundreds of saiL-boats are bowing 
 and courtesying on the waves, like partners in a quadrille ; 
 before us lie a fleet of ships at anchor, slowly swinging 
 with the tide; beyond them, through the haze of the 
 morning, we dimly see the confused mass of buildings 
 which constitute the city of Bombay. Forming the back- 
 ground are hillocks, crowned with palm-trees, on the north 
 side of the bay ; wMle eastward and southward the ocean 
 is bounded by hOls and mountains. Such is our first view 
 of India. 
 
 Steaming into the harbor, we are met by a tug, which 
 slowly works its way alongside, puffing and wheezing like 
 an old man afflicted with the asthma. The mail-bags are 
 taken on board, an immense pile, the weekly correspond- 
 ence between England and India. The custom-house 
 officers come on board, and courteously perform their duty ; 
 and then the native boatmen quickly take us to the land- 
 ing. There are no piers or docks in the harbor ; steam- 
 slaips and sailing vessels anchor in the stream, and every- 
 thing is transferred to lighters. Carriages are waiting, 
 and we are whirled up a wide avenue, turning now to the 
 right, now to the left, amid scenes unlike anything in 
 Constantinople, Damascus, or Cairo. 
 
 The Byculla Hotel is said to be the best in Bombay. 
 It is a building about two hundred feet long, seventy wide. 
 
BOMBAY. 81 
 
 and four stories high, witi. green lattice-work from the 
 bottom to the top, as if it was a huge hennery ; but, 
 alighting from our carriage, we enter a portico, and iind 
 a wide veranda behind the lattice. The lower story is 
 one vast room. In the centre stands a long dining-table. 
 At one end is the office, at the other are billiard-tables. 
 On one side are sofas, chairs, and lounge's, and desks upon 
 which are spread the newspapers of India and England. 
 In one corner is a bar, with fine-cut decanters upon the 
 shelves, and a pyramid of ale-bottles, bearing the trade- 
 mark of "Bass & Co." Windows and doors are wide 
 open for a free circulation of air, and hundreds of spar- 
 rows, seeking shelter from the blazing sun, chirp and 
 chatter from the beams above us. If we wish to dine in 
 private, we may sit down at one of the small tables ranged 
 along the walls, and the Hindoo waiters will surround us 
 with movable screens ; but it is cooler and more comfort- 
 able at the public table, where the breezes, perfumed with 
 jessamines, honeysuckles, and magnolias, blow in upon us 
 through the open windows, and where the punka is sway- 
 ing over our heads. 
 
 The punka is a frame covered with cotton cloth, worked 
 by ropes, and serves the double purpose of cooling us 
 while eating and keeping the flies from the food. It is 
 common in private houses, couiiting-rooms, and churches, 
 and is a necessity in a country where for half the year 
 the temperature in dining-room and bedchamber ranges 
 from 85° to 110°. It would be a comfort in America 
 during the summer months ; but if adopted, and if the 
 good ladies were to cease rattling their palm-leaf fans in 
 church, would not the congregation drop off to sleep, pro- 
 vided the preacher was prosy ? The sleeping-apartments 
 in the hotel are about thirty feet square, with bath-rooms 
 attached. The only way in which a person can cool off 
 is by bathing. Morning and evening, and sometimes at 
 4* p 
 
82 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WOBLD. 
 
 noon, the residents resort to the bath to bring the blood 
 down to an endurable temperature. 
 
 The city of Bombay is the largest in India. The cen- 
 sus of 1864 gave a population of 816,000. It is built on 
 a cluster of islands, connected with one another and with 
 the main-land by causeways and by filliag up the shallows, 
 so that now it forms a long peninsula. The harbor is 
 on the south side, is capacious, deep, and sheltered from 
 the heavy swells that roU in from the Arabian Sea dur- 
 ing the monsoons. The city extends over a large area. 
 The government buildings and barracks occupy the far- 
 thest point of the peninsula. 
 
 Farther up the city is the European business section. 
 It is called the "Fort," from the fact that it was once 
 fortified, but the walls have been pulled down, and com- 
 merce now has peaceful possession. The " hub " of Bom- 
 bay is " Elphinstone Circle," around which are stately 
 edifices, — banks, insurance offices, and counting-houses. 
 The streets are wide, macadamized, and kept in excel- 
 lent order. Bombay, like Boston, has its " Back Bay." 
 Going west a short distance from the Circle, we come to 
 a large tract of made-land, — a trotting-park and pleas- 
 ure-ground, filled in by a company which was formed 
 several years ago, when there was a plethora of money, 
 and everybody had the speculative fever, and men, like 
 mackerel, were as ready to bite a bare hook as one well 
 baited. The shares of the company were sold at fabulous 
 prices. It was to be one of the best investments the 
 world ever heard of. Suddenly there was a collapse, and 
 the holders discovered that it was another South Sea 
 bubble. But the opening of the lines of railway through 
 the country has raised the value of real estate, and the 
 Back Bay may yet be covered with costly buildings. 
 
 A wide parade-ground separates the European business 
 section from the Hindoo and Mohammedan quarters. 
 
BOMBAY. 
 
 83 
 
 Entering the latter, we find houses of brick three or 
 four stories high, witli steep tiled roofs, — the lower 
 stories used for shops and bazaars, the upper rooms swarm- 
 ing with women and clnldren. A dense crowd is in the 
 streets, — a large portion on foot. Many are in canvas- 
 topped buggies, or sh it/mms, ~ coxered fonr-wlieeled car- 
 riages, with seats for four, drawn by one horse, the liody 
 of the carriage hanging low between tlie wlieels. There 
 are private coaches, elegant as any seen in P.oston or 
 Xew York ; omnibuses ; carts drawn by oxen, not only 
 for the conveyance of gocjds, but passengers als(j. 
 
 AYould that the farmers of New England could see how 
 the Hindoos manage their oxen. Think of a pair of lean, 
 lank, humpbacked kine, witli enormous horns sticking 
 straight up into the air ; a straight ])iece of round wood 
 
84 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 six inches in diameter for a yoke ; four pins, each about 
 ten inches long, driven into it to keep it in place ; ropes 
 instead of bows, not lashed to the horns, but tied round 
 the necks ; a cord in the nose of each ox, with reins 
 attached ; a two-wheeled cart with four seats, the driver 
 sitting in front bareheaded, bare- armed, bare-footed, bare- 
 legged, hardy dressed in every respect, — his only raiment 
 being a cloth about the loins ; several Hindoo passengers, 
 with no more clothing than himself; the oxen upon a trot 
 or canter, the dusky Jehu handling the reins adroitly, 
 turning sharp comers, picking his way through the crowd 
 as easily and quickly as the hackmen of New York can 
 thread their course through Broadway. 
 
 Proceeding farther inland, we reach the suburbs, where 
 the Europeans, Parsees, and rich native merchants reside, 
 and iind broad avenues, as smooth as a sea-beach, shaded 
 by tropical trees in great variety. We pass stately palaces 
 surrounded by spacious gardens ; look up the long grav- 
 elled walks, and behold flowers of every hue, — exotics of 
 the temperate zone mingled with the luxuriant vegetation 
 of the tropics, — oleanders, magnolias, laburnums, acacias, 
 oranges, lemons, honeysuckle, verbenas, roses, azalias, pe- 
 tunias, tiger-lilies, — the entire flora of our green-houses 
 blooming in the open air ; vines and creepers, clematis 
 and jessamine climbing the walls, and overrunning arbors ; 
 trees wholly unlike those we are accustomed to see ; no 
 elms, no maples or giant oaks, but the tall and slender 
 palm, the palmyra and cocoanut, with their green plumes 
 waving in the .breeze ; the India-rubber-tree, the teak, 
 the fig, and mango ; the baftyan, a grove in itself, sending 
 new trunks from its limbs down into the generous earth, 
 and spreading its branches far and wide, thickly throwing 
 out its leaves and making a delightful ^hade. 
 
 The Parsee does his best to make his earthly home a 
 paradise. His palace is large and lofty, with wide veran- 
 
BOMBAY. 85 
 
 das and passage-ways running in all directions, so that, 
 let the breeze come from the sea or the mountains, from 
 the north or the south, it may sweep through his halls. 
 
 The Parsees are the Yankees of the East, — the busi- 
 ness men who have the knack of making money. They 
 surpass the English in the elegance of their residences. 
 Beyond the palaces and villas we come to the plains, 
 extending northward and eastward, bounded in the dim 
 distance by mountains. 
 
 In approaching the city from the sea, or looldng down 
 upon it from the hotel, we see a long reach of tiled roofs, 
 wide streets, open lots, patches of green foKage, with but 
 few objects to attract special attention. 
 
 Taking a walk before the sun is up, we behold queer 
 scenes in the streets. The people are just rising, some 
 from bamboo cots, but hundreds of them from the ground 
 in front of their shops andjiouses, where they have slept 
 through the night. Turning a corner suddenly, we fall 
 headlong over a young man, who springs to liis feet, 
 angry at being thus unceremoniously disturbed ; but an 
 apology, given in pantomime, restores his good nature, 
 and we laugh together over the incident. 
 
 The Hindoo religion has one excellent feature, in that 
 it requires cleanliness. The climate also demands it ; and 
 not only in the morning, but several times during the 
 day, the natives cool their blood and keep the pores of 
 the body open by ablutions. It is an entertaining spec- 
 tacle to look down the street and see the general washing 
 up. One man pours water by the bucketful o.ver his 
 neighbor, while another friend rubs and scrubs with 
 brush or broorp., each in turn taking a dovxihe. Mothers 
 are washing their babies in large earthen jars, as if en- 
 gaged in putting down pickled lobsters or desiccated 
 meats, the little imps squirming and kicking up their 
 heels in vain remonstrance. 
 
86 
 
 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 WASHIXG UP. 
 
 The children, like those in many American homes, are 
 np bright and early, making mud-pies. Tliey are not 
 dressed qnite well enough to make their appearance at an 
 American Sunday school. In a country Avhere the father 
 and mother make a small piece of cloth serve for full 
 dress, it is not in tlie nature of things that their offspring 
 should appear in coat, vest, and pants, or -with crinoline 
 and trails like those with which some ladies sweep the 
 streets of American cities. The attire of the maidens 
 of the "West — especially the ball-room dresses — have 
 longer sl-drts, and are perhaps not quite so low in the 
 neck, as the costumes worn by their sisters in India ; but 
 in the display of jewelry, the dark-featured ladies of this 
 country can outshine them all. 
 
 Take a look at this black-haired mother, who has 
 decked herself with a hea-^-y necldace of gold chains and 
 English sovereigns, silver armlets above each elbow, ten 
 
BOMBAY. 
 
 87 
 
 bracelets upon her -nTists, so many rings upon her fingers 
 tliat we cannot count tliem, twelve rings with little tink- 
 ling silver bells dangling from her ears, rings on her toes, 
 and a jewel in the nose ! 
 
 JE'VVELS AND ORNAMENTS. 
 
 N"otice, too, how lavishly slie has adorned the darling in 
 her arms, — body, thiglis, legs, ankles, toes, fingers, ^^Tists, 
 arms, neck, ears, and nose ornamented with rings, chains, 
 charms, jewels, Ijracelets, and liangles ! Quite a display 
 for a girl who has not yet celebrated her first birthday 
 amii^'ersary ! 
 
 The Cjuestion is soh'cd as to what becomes of the sil- 
 ver. India absorbs it. A love for ornaments is charac- 
 
88 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 teristic of men as well as of women in India, many of 
 them wearing bracelets and nose-rings. 
 
 The population of the country is nearly one hundred 
 and eighty millions, and it may be said that each indi- 
 vidual has upon an average four or five rings, bracelets, 
 or charms, usually of silver. Doubtless there are at least 
 ten hundred million ornaments worn by the natives, but 
 no estimate can be made of their value. Through all 
 ages India has swallowed up silver, and the absorption is 
 as great to-day as ever. The coin of the country is 
 mostly silver. The native does not like a gold currency. 
 Attempts have been made to introduce it, but without 
 success. 
 
 As the crowd thickens, w;e see turbans of all sizes, 
 shapes, and colors. A native kiijdly permits us to ex- 
 amine his head-gear, which is composed of a strip of 
 cloth one hundred and fifty yards in length. It is of 
 scarlet, and curiously and wonderfully made, plaited in 
 the centre for the crown of the head, and wound round 
 and round, fold upon fold, making a truck three inches 
 thick and two feet in diameter ! The numerous red, yellow, 
 blue, white, green, and purple turbans in motion remind 
 us of a bed of variegated poppies, moved by a passing 
 breeze. Conspicuous in the crowd are the native police- 
 men, in blue coats and pants, wearing yellow turbans 
 shaped like toadstools ; they walk with dignified step, 
 conscious of their authority, carrying a cat-o'-nine-tails. 
 
 We notice a crimson spot upon a waU. surrounding a 
 garden, as if some one had there upset a pot of paint ; 
 but a friend informs us that there is a god somewhere in 
 the wall, and that the paint has been smeared there as an 
 offering to the deity. 
 
 » Turning the corner of a street, we come upon a t'oddy- 
 seller, who has a sign in English, " Licensed to keep and 
 sell toddy" ; and an English sailor, in a blue jacket and 
 
BOMBAY. 
 
 89 
 
 straw hat, is drinldng liimself gloriously drunk. The 
 liquor-vender lias a small temple and god aU to himself, 
 ■ — a box about the size of a little giii's doll-house, — set 
 
 TODDY AKD DEXOTION. 
 
 off "n-ith tinsel and silver paper. He kneels and beats a 
 rat-a-tat-tat upon a drum, bows before the image, jumps 
 up witli a laugh, and is ready to serve any thirsty customer. 
 
 He takes his pjay in a currency such as we ha^'e not 
 heretofore seen, — rupees, annas, and pice. A rupee is 
 about ec[ual to fifty cents, American coinage. One anna is 
 equal to tliree cents ; it is a copper coin, and sixteen 
 make a rupee. It takes twelve pice to nialve one anna. 
 In the interior, cowries or sea-shells are used by the 
 nati^•es for currency. Bank-notes are issued by the In- 
 dian government, wliich circulate at par in the presi- 
 dencies where they are issued ; but the notes of Bombay 
 are at a discount in Bengal, wliile those of that presi- 
 dency are below par in Bombay. 
 
 On one of the islands which dot the harbor are the 
 celebrated caves of Elephanta, excavated from the sohd 
 
90 OTJE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 rock. Not only here, but ' in many places throughout 
 Western India, similar temples are foimd. It is supposed 
 that they were cut by the Buddhists, when that religion 
 was in the ascendant. No temples erected by the Bud- 
 dhists are now in existence ; they have been destroyed, or 
 have crumbled during the centuries which have passed 
 since the sect has died out in India. But those of Ele- 
 phanta are excavated in the volcanic rock, and can only 
 perish when the rock itself shall fall. The temples are 
 entered by magnificent doorways, cut in the face of the 
 precipice. The approach is by a series of broad stone 
 steps. Two rudely sculptured lions guard the entrance- 
 way, like those which showed their teeth at the Christian 
 pilgrims who approached the palace Beautiful, as set 
 forth in Bunyan's allegory. There are halls, passages, 
 courts, some admitting the sun, others dark and gloomy 
 tilL lighted by torches. In the largest hall are colossal 
 images, twenty feet high, representing Brahma the crea- 
 tor, Vishnu the pres*ver, and Shiva the destroyer. In 
 the dark recesses are minor deities. Here, in ancient 
 times, multitudes of worshippers came, but now the halls 
 are deserted, and the immense excavation only remains as 
 a silent witness of the civilization and religion of the by- 
 gone centuries. 
 
 The population of Bombay, as we see from the crowd 
 in the streets, is very dense. According to the census of 
 1864, it is divided as follows : — 
 
 Hindoos 585,968 
 
 Mohammedans .... 145,880 
 
 Parsees 49,201 
 
 Europeans ..... 8,415 
 
 Jews ...... 2,872 
 
 Other races 24,226 
 
 Total 816,562 
 
BOMBAY. . 91 
 
 The census gave about twenty-one persons to each 
 house throughout the city. The natives have few com- 
 forts. They herd together like sheep, each one lying 
 down upon the floor, without mattress or comforter. ^ 
 blanket is aU the covering needed during the coldest 
 winter nights. 
 
 The Parsees and Europeans transact nearly all the mer- 
 cantile business, although numerically they constitute but , 
 a small portion of the commimity. Before the commercial 
 disasters of 1865 - 66, the Parsees were the great bankers 
 of the East, with unlimited credit at London. They 
 gained their high standing by enterprise and integTity. 
 They have no caste prejudices, and so are able to mingle 
 freely with all . classes, which the Hindoos cannot do. 
 They are courteous and refined, and their culture and 
 breeding admits them freely to the drawing-rooms of 
 Europeans, not only at Bombay, but in London. 
 
 They are the last of an ancient race, and followers in 
 an old religion. Their ancestors came from Persia, prob- 
 ably at the time India was concLuered by Darius Hystapes, 
 512 B. C, — that monarch whose kingdom is spoken of in 
 the Book of Esther as extending from India to Ethiopia. 
 Zoroaster, the founder of the sect, was a fire-worshipper. 
 We may think of him as contemporaneous with the 
 Prophets Ezra and Malachi, and as promulgating his 
 doctrines about the time that Cincinnatus was called to 
 leave his plough and undertake the dictatorship at Eome. 
 
 The Parsees are without a country now. They are not 
 native to the soil, and have nothing in common with the 
 Hindoos. They have not suffered persecution as have the 
 Jews, but, hke them, they are wanderers upon the earth, 
 and exceedingly sharp at a bargain. Besides being wor- 
 shippers of fire, they are different from aU other people in 
 regard to their disposition of the dead. 
 
 Going out of the city a little distance, and ascending 
 
92 OUE NEW W-AY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 the gentle slope leading by a winding way to Malabar 
 Hill, we come to three Martello towers, forty or fifty feet 
 high, and thirty or more in diameter, built of stone. At 
 fisst sight we might take them to be fortifications, erected 
 to protect the city from invasion on its landward side. 
 But there are no embrasures for cannon or loop-holes for 
 musketry. They are "towers of silence," where the 
 ■ Parsees lay their dead. The bodies are exposed upon 
 inclined shelves, and when the flesh is consumed the 
 bones drop into the circular area of the interiors. Flocks 
 of crows and vultures circle in the air, or cluster in the 
 surrounding tree-tops, obtaining their daily food from 
 these houses of death. 
 
 It is sickening to think of it ; not that there can be any 
 difference to the departed spirit, whether its cast-off tene- 
 ment movdders slowly to dust or is devoured by vultures ; 
 whether burned by fire or blown to the winds ; but the 
 earth is our mother, and it is sweeter to lie on her bosom 
 amid blooming flowers or beneath bending elms and sigh- 
 ing pines, in God's acre. 
 
 . " God's acre ! yes, that blessed word imparts 
 
 Comfort to those who in the grave have sown 
 The seed that they had garnered in their hearts, — 
 Their bread of life, — alas ! no more their own." 
 
BRITISH INDIA. 93 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 BEITISH INDIA. 
 
 E"VEEY American knows that John Bull has a large 
 farm in the far East, but the extent of the domain 
 can only he comprehended by studying its boundaries. 
 Its most northern point is the lofty mountain range, the 
 largest in the world, which lifts its snowy peaks above 
 the Vale of Cashmere. Two thousand miles away is 
 Cape Comorin, the southern extremity. The greatest 
 width is about sixteen hundred miles. 
 
 The Indian Ocean laves fifteen hundred miles of the 
 western, the Bay of Bengal twelve hundred of its eastern 
 border. India is as large as all the States lying east of 
 the Mississippi ! The distance from New Brunswick to 
 Texas hardly equals its length, or from Boston to Omaha 
 its greatest width. 
 
 Of mountains, besides the Himalayas, there is a range 
 lying on the western coast, a few miles from the sea, 
 as the Andes and the Sierra Nevada ranges lie along the 
 western border of America. 
 
 South of Bombay is the Malabar coast, which old sea- 
 captains avoid during the monsoon. One hundred and 
 fifty miles north of Bombay is the Gulf of Cambay, and 
 two hundred mUes farther the Gulf of Cutch. 
 
 The rivers Indore and Toptee, which empty into the 
 Gulf of Cambay, are as large as the Connecticut. North- 
 ward of these is the Indus, which has its source in 
 Thibet, in regions not yel fully explored by Europeans. 
 The sacred Ganges, fed by the snows of the Himalayas, 
 
94 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 gives fertility to a valley whicb, for thixty-five hundred 
 years, has teemed with human life. 
 
 The Itristna and Godavery, taking their rise amid the 
 mountains of the western coast, pour their floods into the 
 Bay of Bengal, nearly one thousand nules from their 
 source. 
 
 In this vast domain there is every variety of surface, — 
 plains, hills, deep ravines, verdant meadows, fields, forests, 
 clothed with tropical vegetation ; inaccessihle mountains, 
 sandy deserts, and barren wastes. 
 
 In these dominions England holds sway over one hun- 
 dred and eighty millions of people, according to the latest 
 census. In the Bengal Presidency the population is three 
 hundred and eleven to the square mile ; in the northwest 
 provinces, four hundred and thirty-eight, — exceeding 
 Belgium, the most densely populated country of Europe, 
 which has four hundred to the square mile. Oude, with 
 an area nearly equal to Pennsylvania, has eight millions. 
 
 There are few great cities, Bombay being the largest, 
 with 800,000 ; Madras, 720,000 ; Calcutta, 500,000 ; Luck- 
 now, 300,000 ; Benares, 173,000 ; Agra, 142,000 ; but the 
 inhabitants are mainly in small villages. They speak 
 various languages, — 40,000,000 talking the Hindi ; 
 30,000,000, the Hindustani; 10,000,000, the Mahratti; 
 12,000,000, the Tamil; 14,000,000, the Telegu ; and 
 30,000,000, the Bengali. The Tamil and Mahratti are 
 languages of the South; Bengali, the language of the 
 East; the Hindi, of the Central Provinces; and the 
 Hindustani, the language of Lucknow and Delhi, and 
 the upper valley of the Ganges. Some of these have 
 several dialects, so diverse that the natives of one 
 province cannot converse with those of another. 
 
 The whole country is under a Governor-General, or 
 Viceroy, who is appointed and removed at pleasure by the 
 Queen of England. It has four great political divisions 
 
BEITISH INDIA. 95 
 
 or presidencies, — Bombay in the west, Madras in the 
 south, Bengal in the east, Punjab in the northwest ; 
 also provinces and territories, — Oude in the northeast ; 
 the Central Provinces, between Bombay and Bengal ; and 
 Burmah, on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal. 
 
 This country, containing one sixth of the whole human 
 race, is held in subjection by seventy thousand Eng- 
 lishmen ! The development of British power in the 
 East is one of the marvels of history. 
 
 In the year 1591 some merchants of London, having a 
 fever for speculation and adventure, fitted out three ships, 
 and sent them round the Cape of Good Hope to trade 
 with India. Only one of them reached the far-distant 
 land, but the success of the one determined them to make 
 a second venture on a more extended scale. A com- 
 pany was formed, and a charter obtained, in the year 
 1600, with a capital of £ 72,000. 
 
 The iirst trading-house or factory was established at 
 Surat, north of Bombay, in 1612, which was the only 
 point for trade till 1640, when Madras was founded. No 
 other port was acquired till 1662, when Catharine of Por- 
 tugal brought to Charles 11. Bombay as a small item in 
 her dowry. 
 
 The stormy political times in England in the latter 
 part of the seventeenth century did not interfere with 
 Indian traffic ; and so successful was the company that its 
 stock, which had a par value of one hundred; pounds, was 
 worth five hundred pounds in 1683. A few years later, 
 in 1698, Calcutta was purchased, in orde"r to obtain the 
 vast commerce of the valley of the Ganges. After one 
 hundred and eight years of trade, the company received 
 a new charter. 
 
 The French were in India during aU these years, and 
 now came the struggle for dominion. Moguls had ruled 
 in the North, and the Mahrattas in the South, but the 
 
96 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELIX 
 
 Mogul power was broken, and the empire was divided 
 into provinces, each having its rajah. Caste, and the 
 strong hands of the Mohammedan rulers, had degraded 
 and demoralized the people. There was no nationality, 
 no bond of union, and therefore no patriotism. All cir- 
 cumstances were favorable for the advancement of the 
 power of the company. 
 
 The East India Company was a close corporation, 
 despotic, powerful, with England for a backer ; but the 
 company is no more, the Queen is sovereign, and Parlia- 
 ment the supreme authority. But there must be a great 
 change in the manner of making and administering law 
 from the present system, before England will reap the 
 full benefit of her East India possessions. 
 
 The government now is lodged in the person of the 
 Governor-General and his counsellors. Neither natives 
 nor English residents have any voice in making or admin- 
 istering the laws. It is stOl a close corporation, slow, 
 behind the times, the members impressed with a sense 
 of their importance and dignity.' Taxes are imposed 
 tariffs made and unmade, laws promulgated, without 
 much attention being paid to the wishes or wants of the 
 natives. 
 
 How would the people of the United States relish it if 
 the President were to remove the whole of the executive 
 machinery of government, on the 1st of May, to some 
 healthy locality among the Alleghanies, — secretaries, 
 heads of departments, clerks, printer, and all, — staying 
 there till October to enjoy the mountain breezes, at a cost 
 to the country of more than a million dollars ? Yet Sir 
 John Lawrence, the Governor-General of India, has gone 
 to Imla, more than one thousand miles distant, with all 
 the government officials. 
 
 The Governor-General has a salary of $ 10,400 a month, 
 nearly $ 125,000 per annum, — five times that of the 
 
BEITISH INDIA. 97 
 
 President of tlie United States, — besides $50,000 for 
 entertainment- of guests, and also an allowance for ser- 
 vants. His six councillors have each $ 40,000 per annum. 
 The Lieutenant-Governor has $ 50,000. There are several 
 secretaries which have each $ 24,000. 
 
 Then come the Governors of the Presidencies and Prov- 
 inces, — Bengal, Madras, Bombay, the Punjab, and North- 
 west Provinces, — each of which receive $50,000 per 
 annum. The Governor of the Central Provinces, Oude 
 and Burmah, each receive $25,000. All of these men 
 belong to the Tite Barnacle family, and subordinate places 
 are, in a great measure, filled with their nephews and 
 cousins. The sum of nine hundred thousand dollars ia 
 paid to twenty-one individuals in salaries. 
 
 For educational purposes, for the enlightenment and 
 elevation of one hundred and eighty minions, the amount 
 paid is $ 3,370,000, and this is set down as an unwar- 
 ranted expenditure by some of the officials. 
 
 The total receipts of the government are nearly two hun- 
 dred and twenty million dollars, and the expenses about 
 the same. The English Church in India is maintained at 
 an expense of $ 700,000 per annum. 
 
 By far the most important article yielding revenue is 
 opium. It is a government monopoly. The poppies from 
 which the opium is manufactured are grown in the valley 
 of the Ganges, near Patna and Dinapore. There is a sale 
 of the drug at Calcutta on the ninth of every month, 
 where there is an excitement equal to that of the New 
 York exchange when gold is on a rise. The trade is 
 mainly in the hands of native merchants, who rush into 
 opium speculation recklessly. Everything about the drug 
 seems to be intoxicating. The sale last year yielded, 
 a clear revenue of thirty-five million dollars to the gov- 
 ernment, and the Minister of Piaance, Mr. Massey, with 
 great glee, announces in his budget for 1869, that the 
 
98 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 sales will yield a profit of forty-one million seven hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand dollars ! 
 
 Before long the treaty between England and China is 
 to be revised, and the opium question consequently is 
 under discussion. The Chinese government and some 
 Europeans in that country are opposed to a continuance 
 of its sale. On the other hand, one of the leading opium 
 firms in China, has addressed a memorial to the Gover- 
 nor of Hong Kong, setting forth the benefits arising from 
 the use of the drug. It declares: "Opium-eating is not 
 a curse, but a comfort and benefit to the hard-working 
 Chinese. As well say that malt is a curse to the Eng- 
 lish laborers, or tobacco to the world at large. Misuse is 
 one thing, use another. If to a few the opium-pipe has 
 proved a snare, to many scores of thousands it has been 
 productive of healthful sustenation and enjoyment." 
 
 This has been answered by those who have had an 
 opportunity of witnessing its effects. They present a re- 
 volting picture of degraded, restless, weeping, slobbering 
 skeleton figures, tormented by terrible visions. 
 
 The India Daily News, in an article upon the question, 
 says that the consumption is increasing not only in 
 Chiaa, but. in England; and its use wiU become more 
 general when it is maintained that it is beneficial to 
 health, and to be ranked with beer and tobacco. 
 
 The Chinese government is stiU opposed to the trade, 
 but powerless to prevent it. It is destroying the people, 
 takes away forty miUion dollars per annum, giving in 
 return poverty, degradation, and death. But having the 
 monopoly, the British government wiU not relinquish 
 such a princely revenue on moral considerations just yet. 
 
THE RAILWAYS OP INDIA. 99 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA. 
 
 UP to 1853 locomotion through India was attended 
 with great difficulties. The Ganges and the Indus 
 are the only navigable rivers, and these during the dry 
 season can only be ascended by small sail and row boats. 
 The government had opened here and there a highway 
 connecting interior military stations with Bombay, Cal- 
 cutta, and Madras ; but the empire, containing one million 
 four hundred thousand square miles, had few carriage- 
 roads. Travellers sometimes made their way from point 
 to point in carts drawn by oxen, but the usual convey- 
 ance was a palanquin, borne on men's shoulders. Some 
 of the paths were tolerable in dry weather, but during the 
 rainy season wholly impassable. 
 
 Such were the facilities for travel when the project of 
 constructing railroads was agitated. The plan was op- 
 posed by many, not only in India, bxit in England. It 
 was asserted that the natives never could be induced to 
 enter a railway-car on account of their religion, which 
 forbids an intermingling of castes. The Hindoos be- 
 longed to a sluggish, indolent race. Contact with Euro- 
 peans for a century had not quickened the millions of 
 India, and it was doubtful if they could be vitalized by 
 any of the appliances of modern civilization. So in- 
 credulous were the public of obtaining any returns for 
 their money, that with difficulty sufficient funds could be 
 obtained for the opening of a short experimental line at 
 Calcutta, and another at Bombay. 
 
 Contrary to expectation, it was soon discovered that 
 
100 
 
 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WOBLD. 
 
 INDIA 
 
THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA. 101 
 
 the natives were eager to avail themselves of this new 
 mode of travel The success of the ejcperiment was 
 nnmistakable, and measures were taken to develop a 
 grand system of railways, to afford more direct and 
 speedy communication between the chief cities of the 
 seaboard and the interior. 
 
 The work was imdertaken by private companies. The 
 government aided them, making over the land for a 
 term of ninety-nine years, and also guaranteeing five per 
 cent interest during the same period on the money 
 spent in construction. All income was to be paid into 
 the government treasury. After meeting the working 
 expenses, the remainder was to be devoted to repaying 
 the five-per-cent interest guaranteed for the current 
 year. If then there should be a surplus, one half of 
 it was to be divided between the stockholders and the 
 government, — that for the government being for arrears 
 of interest accumulated while the road was under con- 
 struction. When all arrearages were paid, the companies 
 were to receive ten per cent; but should the income 
 exceed that rate, the authorities were to have power 
 to lower the fares. The property is to revert to the 
 government at the termiuation of ninety-nine years. 
 Either company might surrender its franchise after three 
 months' operation, and the government must take the 
 road at its original cost. 
 
 Under these conditions several companies were organ- 
 ized. Looking first at the lines radiating from Bombay, 
 we see one running directly up the coast to the three im- 
 portant cities of Surat, Baroda, and Ahmedabad, which 
 lie along the Gulf of Cambay. The line is completed to 
 the last-named city, a distance of three hundred and 
 twelve miles, and probably will be extended to Delhi, 
 about eight hundred miles farther. 
 
 The Great Indian Peninsular EaiLway consists of a 
 
102 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 trunk line and two branches. The trunk line is designed 
 to connect Bombay with Allahabad, in the valley of the 
 Ganges ; one branch, Bombay with the city of Nagpore, 
 in the heart of India ; the other, Bombay with Madras, 
 on the Coromandel coast. The main line, seven hundred 
 and twenty miles in length, will be completed during the 
 present year of 1869. The branch to Nagpore, a distance 
 of five hundred and twenty miles, is already in use. It 
 is not improbable that this branch may eventually be 
 extended across the peninsula to Calcutta, and become a 
 main line. Thirty-three miles out from Bombay is Calian 
 junction, from which the Madras branch strikes south- 
 east to Sholapore, a distance of two hundred and eighty- 
 two miles. This company will have twelve hundred and 
 sixty-six miles of railway when the several lines are 
 finished. 
 
 Looking at the south of India, we see a line already 
 constructed from Beypore on the Malabar or western 
 coast to Madras on the eastern ; also a line running 
 northwest from Madras to connect with the road coming 
 down from Bombay. The lines of Southern India are 
 under the control of the Madras Eailway Company, 
 which will have eight hundred and twenty-five miles 
 when completed. The distance then between Madras 
 and Bombay by rail will be about nine hundred mUes. 
 
 The accompanying map of the railway system thus 
 far developed shows that Bombay bids fair to take posi- 
 tion in the front rank of great commercial marts. Al- 
 ready the maQs for Calcutta, and for every portion of 
 India except the Madras Presidency, are landed here; 
 and when the last rail of the line now in progress is laid, 
 it win become the port of entry and departure for pas- 
 sengers from Europe to India. It wiU then be easier and 
 quicker to reach Madras and Calcutta by rail than by the 
 present circuitous route by way of Ceylon and the Bay 
 of Bengal. 
 
THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA. 103 
 
 Going up to the mouth of the Indus by steamer from 
 Bombay, we may land at Kurachee, and travel by rail one 
 hundred and five miles to Hydrabad. We shall find the 
 river at that point four nules wide, up which we may 
 steam, during the rainy season, nearly a thousand miles 
 to Moultan, where we take the Punjab EaiLway, running 
 northeast to Lahore two hundred and fourteen miles, then 
 turning south toward Delhi. It will soon be in operation 
 to that city, three hundred and fifty miles, making a total 
 of five hundred and sixty-six miles controlled by the 
 Punjab company. 
 
 * We may go from Delhi by rail dovsm the vaUey of .the 
 Galiges in a southeast direction one thousand and seven- 
 teen mQes to Calcutta. This line is controlled by the 
 East Indian Company, which has a branch running south- 
 west from Allahabad two hundred and forty-three miles 
 to Jubbulpore, there to connect with the main line of 
 the great Peninsular Eailway coming up from Bombay. 
 There are several branches in the Ganges Valley, which 
 increase the total number of miles managed by this com- 
 pany to fifteen himdred. It is one of the great railway 
 companies of the world, — as gigantic and powerful as 
 the Pacific or any other of the important trunk lines of 
 the American continent. 
 
 The railway system of India embraces about five thou- 
 sand miles. A uniform gauge was adopted at the outset by ■ 
 the government, — that of five feet six inches, — a medium 
 between the broad and narrow gauges of England. 
 
 The construction of these railways has been beneficial 
 not only to India, but to Great Britain, whence all the 
 materials used in their construction have been trans- 
 ported, giving a great stimulus to British industry, and 
 employing a vast amount of shipping. Between 1853 
 and 1867 more than three and a half miUion tons weight 
 of railway material was shipped from English ports. 
 
104 
 
 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 The grading was done by natives, who at first declined 
 to work for the contractors, fearing that they would be 
 cheated out of their earnings. To inspire confidence, 
 payments were made every night, and this soon brought 
 a multitude of laborers. The wages were about ten cents 
 per day, — a small sum, but the Hindoo at manual labor 
 cannot accomplish more than one third as much as a 
 European, and the cost of his support is comparatively 
 trifling. 
 
 We see several thousand men and women at work 
 upon the unfinished lines. They fill their baskets with 
 earth, raise the burden to the top of the head, walk ia 
 single file from the gravel-pit to the line of the road, and 
 dump it upon the embankment. One of the contractors 
 distributed several thousand wheelbarrows, and sent word 
 that they must be used. A few days later he went out 
 and found all hands carrying them on the top of the 
 head! 
 
 HEAD WORK. 
 
 The incident illustrates the tenacity with which the 
 masses adhere to old customs. 
 
THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA. 105 
 
 ■ There were great difficulties to he surmouiited, especially 
 in crossing the mountain range along the western coast, 
 called the Ghats,- where eighteen hundred feet of elevation 
 are overcome in sixteen miles, — the average iaclination 
 being one in forty-eight, the maximum one in thirty- 
 seven. The ThuU Ghat and the Bhore Ghat inclines 
 required the labor of forty thousand men during the work- 
 ing months of seven years. 
 
 When the mutiny broke out all work was suspended, 
 and for nearly two years little was accomplished towards 
 extending railways. On the 1st of May, 1868, about four 
 thousand miles had been completed, and one thousand 
 were under contract, nearly all of which will be finished 
 in 1870. 
 
 The cost per nule is about £ 17,000 ($ 85,000).* The 
 total amount of English capital already invested in In- 
 dian railways is not less than three hundred and fifty 
 million doUars. The five thoiisand miles in progress 
 will ultimately cost not far from four hundred and fifty 
 millions. 
 
 A new line of railway, the Oude and Eohilcund, six 
 hundred and thirty miles long, has recently been chartered, 
 and work upon it will be commenced the present year. 
 
 The road leading from Bombay to the valley of the 
 Ganges, though opened only a portion of the way, has 
 paid five per cent since 1866 ; that completed up the 
 valley of the Ganges, and that leading from Madras across 
 Southern India, have likewise earned five per cent. 
 
 The. chief revenue is derived from third-class passen- 
 gers. It was early discovered that the natives would ride 
 often if the fares were put at a low rate ; and the com- 
 panies wisely adopted such a tariff as would develop 
 travel * 
 
 * Speech of Mr. Massey, late Minister of Indian Finance, in Parlist- 
 ment, October 29, 1868. See London Times. 
 6* 
 
106 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 In 1867 there were thirteen million seven hundred and 
 sixty-four thousand passengers, and all but ahout six hun- 
 dred thousand were third-class. It is five hundred and 
 twenty miles from Bomhay to Nagpore, and the fares are 
 as follows : — 
 
 First-class $g5.00 
 
 Second-class ..... 12.50 
 
 Third-class 5.50 
 
 Fourth-class 3.50 
 
 The mail train has first, second, and third class cars, 
 and goes through in seventeen hours. The cooly train 
 has cars for all the four classes, but is thirty-three hours 
 on the way. The Hindoo has already comprehended the 
 truism that time is money ; for, notwithstanding he can 
 save a trifle by taking fourth-class passage, he chooses 
 the third instead, and patronizes the mail-train rather 
 than one which is run in connection with freight-cars, and 
 is nearly twice as long on the way. 
 
 At the commencement of the raUroad enterprise, the 
 Brahmans petitioned for the running of caste cars. They 
 could not come in contact with men of lower grade. It 
 would defile their sacred persons, and unfit them for their 
 high destiny, — absorption into Brahma after death. But 
 the raOroad managers had an eye to profits on their invest- 
 ment. They could not put on cars for each separate 
 caste. Such a procedure would be attended with great 
 confusion in management, and increased expense. They 
 therefore adopted the European system of class-cars, and 
 told the Brahmans they could stay at home if they could 
 not accommodate themselves to established rules. 
 
 The result is a complete breaking up of caste on the 
 railroad. Now the priest, who is pure enough to enter 
 the most exalted circle of the Hindoo heaven, for the 
 sake of saving a few rupees, can sit aU day in a locked 
 carriage on a hard bench, between two outcast Pariahs, 
 
THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA. 107 
 
 the Tilest of the vile, for whom there is no place in para- 
 dise. The Brahman may drop off to sleep, and his head 
 rest upon the shoulders of the degraded wretches,' yet he 
 is not deiiled ! 
 
 Under Mohammedan rule idolatry was in a great 
 measure suppressed; but when the English came into power 
 they refrained from interference with religious rites and 
 ceremonies, and the Hindoos became very zealous for a 
 revival of their decaying faith. Suttee was allowed, and 
 there was no check upon infanticide. Temples which had 
 been broken down were repaired, and new ones constructed. 
 The wealthy gave Hberally, nor did the poor withhold 
 their contributions, till in every shady grove, and by every 
 running stream, there was a temple to Krishna, Vishnu, 
 or some other deity of the Hindoo pantheon. It is stated 
 that at the present time there are not less than thirty 
 thousand idol temples in the Bombay Presidency alone. 
 
 But a great change is taking place among the people. 
 Formerly it was believed that the gods alone conferred 
 wealth, honor, and distiaction, but the natives begin to 
 see that steady industry brings wealth to those who have 
 no faith in idols as well as to the most devout worshipper 
 of manufactured deities. Ten years ago five thousand 
 images of the idol Doorga were sold at the annual festival 
 held on the banks of the Ganges in honor of that god ; 
 but since the openiug of railroads the sale has almost 
 wholly ceased. 
 
 The locomotive, like a ploughshare turning the sward 
 of the prairies, is cutting up a faith whose roots run down 
 deep into bygone ages. It is dragging a mighty train 
 laden with goods for the whole human race, and especially 
 the millions of this land. The engine does not turn out 
 for obstructions such as ia former days impeded the car 
 of progress ; it makes miace-meat of bulls, be they bovine, 
 Brahmanical, or papal. The days of Brahma are num- 
 
108 OUB NEW WAY EOUJfD THE WORLD. 
 
 bered, and the time is not far distant when regenerated 
 India will clap her hands for joy over the decision of those 
 who directed that there should be no distinction of caste 
 in railway carriages. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 
 
 TO arrive at a just estimate of the condition of the 
 people and their prospects, it is necessary to take a 
 brief review of their history. India is known to have 
 been inhabited for nearly forty centuries, yet many of 
 the aboriginal tribes still exist, — the Santhals, Khoonds, 
 Pariahs, Malas, Domes, and Koles. It is from the last- 
 named tribe that we have our modem word " cooly," a 
 laborer. The ethnological differences between the Hin- 
 doos and remnants of the ancient tribes are strongly 
 marked, as are their habits and customs. 
 
 Hindoos are divided into castes, while the aborigines 
 have no such distinction. 
 
 Hindoo widows do not marry ; but those of the native 
 tribes take second husbands, usually a younger brother of 
 the deceased, following the custom of the Jews and 
 Scythians., 
 
 Hindoos will not eat beef; but the aborigines have no 
 religious scruples on the meat question, eating aU they 
 can get. 
 
 Hindoos eat only what is prepared by one of their own 
 caste ; while the Khoonds, Santhals, and Pariahs ask no 
 questions about the cook, but eat whenever invited. 
 
 The Hindoo religion forbids the use of fermented or 
 distilled liquors ; but the primitive races think that the 
 
HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 10? 
 
 more liquor tliey drink the higlier their spiritual con- 
 dition ! 
 
 The Hindoos have a priesthood of Brahmans, who 
 are greatly venerated; but the aborigines respect their 
 priests only as they perform wonders in mediciae or 
 magic. 
 
 The Hindoos dispose of their dead by burning ; but the 
 Santhals and other remnants of the original tribes lay 
 theirs in graves, with bows, arrows, and war-clubs. 
 
 The government of the Hindoos, from their earliest 
 history, has been municipal ; whUe that of the tribes has 
 always been patriarchal. 
 
 The Hindoos have their courts of justice, composed of 
 equals ; but the tribes have chiefs who decide matters in 
 dispute. 
 
 Three thousand years ago the Hindoos were well ad- 
 vanced in science, art, and literature ; but to this day 
 the aboriginals have made no advancement towards civili- 
 zation. 
 
 The people of Southern India are the Tamils, who in 
 form and feature bear a strong resemblance to the Tartars 
 of Central Asia. Their language resembles that spoken 
 by the ancient Scythians. Their ancestors were in South- 
 ern India long before the dawn of authentic history, 
 and there are temples now standing Which are as old 
 as the pyramids of Egypt, which, from, their massive- 
 ness and beauty, attest the greatness of an age of which 
 there are no written records. 
 
 By reference to the map on p. 100, it will be seen that a 
 railway has been constructed from Beypore on the west- 
 ern to Madras on the eastern coast. South of that line 
 are numerous structures of wonderful architecture, di- 
 verse from that of the Hindoos, and reared by the old 
 Turanians, showing that, long before the appearance of 
 the Hindoos, the country was occupied by a people far 
 advanced in civilization. 
 
110 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Cluistian nations accept the Bible account of the rise 
 and progress of the human race as authentic history ; so 
 the Hindoos turn to their sacred books — the Vedas — 
 for a history of their own race. The Vedas are the 
 "fountains of knowledge," and consist of four books. 
 The oldest is the Eig Veda, which contains about one 
 thousand hymns, ranked among the oldest writings in the 
 world. No detinite statements are given as to the early 
 origin and history of the Hindoo nation, but from passages 
 in the hymns it is evident that, about the time the cliil- 
 dren of Israel left Egypt, one of the tribes which had been 
 dwelling among the mountains of Persia moved southeast, 
 crossed the mountains which he northwest of the Indus, 
 and took possession of the fertile vaUey of that great river. 
 They called themselves Aryans. In the hymns,- which 
 were composed by their poets at a later period, and 
 were handed down from father to son tm committed to 
 writing, we hear them sighing on those heated plains for 
 the coolness of the Northern climes, — for the frosts and 
 snows and life-giving breezes of their native land. They 
 had fair complexions, but the southern sun was marring 
 their beauty. In the summer the ground was parched, 
 the great river dwindling to a narrow stream ; their flocks 
 and herds were dying for want of water, and they sent 
 up their prayers for relief to their god of rain. 
 
 " Sindhu, renowned bestower of wealth, hear us, and 
 bring water to our broad fields." 
 
 One thousand years later the poets and historians 
 of Greece talked of the Sindhios of the far East, and from 
 them we have our modern word Hindoo. 
 
 The native hoiises which we see in the country to-day, 
 sheltered by waving palms, are types of those which 
 stood on these wide plains twenty-five centuries ago. The 
 Aryans, when they entered the valley of the Indus, lived 
 in tents, but they found there a people dwelling in sub- 
 stantial houses. 
 
HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. Ill 
 
 They were herdsmen and kept cows, horses, camels 
 and humped oxen. Their great ambition was the posses- 
 sion of cows. The Sanscrit word for '^ war," when traced 
 back to its root, signifies " a desire for cows." They 
 lived in villages, had workers in iron, copper, and gold. 
 They had chariots and tame elephants in war. The wo- 
 men coukl spin and weave, and were termed tlie " hght 
 of the d-\A'elling." They were not debarred from acquir- 
 ing knowledge. Society was not divided into castes, and 
 
 HOUSE IN INDIA. 
 
 tlie Brahmans were but one of several orders of priests. 
 Men could eat together without defilement. They had 
 thirty-three gods, who are thus invoked : — 
 
 " Gods who are eleven in heaven, eleven in earth, and 
 who are eleven dwelling in glory in mid-air, may ye be 
 pleased with our sacrifice ! " 
 
 The other books of the Vedas were composed at later 
 periods, one of which, " The Institutes of Menu," is sup- 
 posed to have been written some five or six centuries be- 
 
112 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 fore Christ, or about the time of Sennacherib, Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, and Hezekiah in Biblical history. 
 
 By another reference to the map, a line is seen run- 
 ning northeast from Bombay, crossing the Nerbudda Eiver. 
 Menu speaks of the country south of it as the DaJeshan, 
 or Deccan, and describes the inhabitants as barbarians, 
 living in forests, and speaking an unknown language. 
 
 Comparing the Vedas with the Bible, we learn that 
 during the six centuries and more which elapsed from the 
 departure of the children of Israel from Egypt to the time 
 when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, and carried 
 the people to Babylon, the Hindoos had only grown to be 
 a nation occupying the northern half of India. It was 
 within that period that the Brahmans set themselves up 
 as a holy priesthood, and through them caste had its origin. 
 
 There are four principal castes, — Brahmans, or priests ; 
 Chhatteris, or soldiers ; Vyshes, a class of merchants ; and 
 Sudras, including petty tradesmen, clerks, writers, and la- 
 borers. Each order is subdivided. Every trade has its 
 caste; carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, barbers, fish- 
 ermen, shoemakers, leather-dressers, tailors, and all 
 branches of industry. The tailor is superior to the 
 leather-dresser ; the carpenter is defiled by coming in con- 
 tact with the man who keeps cows. The Hindoo clings 
 to caste as he does to life. There is no intermarrying. 
 A woman who is born among the weavers may love a 
 water-carrier sufficiently to elope with him, but to take the 
 marriage vow would be sacrilege ; or a high-caste Brah- 
 man may be enamored by the beauty of the swineherd's 
 daughter, and take her for a mistress ; that would not be 
 defilement, but he would lose his chance of heaven were 
 he to make her his wife ! 
 
 These distinctions are so rigidly adhered to, that though 
 a man may be dying for want of a drink of water, he 
 win not take it from a cup used by one of a lower 
 
HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, AND EELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 113 
 
 order. As a rule, a Hindoo of one caste wiU not help one 
 of another, though the timely aid mjght save hfe. It is 
 stronger than the instincts of humanity. It is mas- 
 ter of aU trades, professions, and callings. The son is not 
 at liberty to depart from the occupation of his fathers. 
 Nature may have given him capabilities of becoming 
 a Euclid or a Herodotus, but if the father is a driver of 
 donkeys, such must be the calling of the son. It is the 
 mightiest task-master of the ages ; body, intellect, soul, 
 are in slavery, and under the Hindoo system there is no 
 emancipation from it for time or eternity. 
 
 How the Brahmans obtained their power is not re- 
 corded ; but inasmuch as they were the learned men 
 of ancient times, and as knowledge is power and ig- 
 norance weakness, it is not wonderful that they were 
 able to exalt themselves into a ruling priesthood. 
 There was a time when Eome was only a bishopric, but a 
 few centuries of ecclesiastical assumption and arrogance, 
 enabled popes to put their feet on the necks of kings. 
 There is no instinct so strong as that of religion in the 
 human race; and so the priesthood of Hindostan were 
 able, through the credulity and ignorance of their follow- 
 ers, to create that mighty system of caste which is without 
 a parallel in human history. 
 
 Succeeding the poetical period of the Vedas was the 
 philosophical age, which began nearly sis hundred years 
 before the time of Christ. While Solon was forming a 
 constitution for his country at Athens the Brahmans were 
 indulging in philosophical speculations, and reducing 
 them to systems which to-day are accepted by myriads 
 of the human race. One might as well try to penetrate 
 the densest jungle of India as attempt to give in detail 
 the schools of Hindoo philosophy. The diversity is as 
 great as that which distinguishes modern theology. An 
 enumeration of the names is sufi&cient to give us a head- 
 
 6 H 
 
114 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 ache. There is the Nyaya school, the Vaisheiska, the 
 Sankhya, the Yoga, the Puva Mimansa, and the Vedanta. 
 These may be grouped into three classes. 
 
 The first speculates upon the knowledge that comes 
 to us through the' five senses. The second reasons on 
 methods of inquiry, logic, and justice, — asserting the 
 atomic theory and the eternity of matter, — a system which 
 appears at the present day under the name of realism. 
 The third is Pantheistic, asserting that there is but one 
 real existence in the universe,— the immortal, self-existent 
 Brahma, who is the soul and substance of aU matter. 
 AU of the schools believe in the transmigration of souls. 
 They do not look upon it as a blessing, but an evil, — a 
 condition of existence, to be avoided if possible. 
 
 The Sankhya philosophy teaches that aU disturbance 
 of the soul is due to the antagonism between matter and 
 spirit ; that once they were separate, but being united in 
 this life, the inevitable result is pain, sorrow^ disquietude ; 
 and that only through successive transmigrations after 
 death can there be perfect freedom. 
 
 The Yoga philosophy teaches that immunity from pain, 
 sorrow, and remorse can only be obtained by the concen- 
 tration of the mind in intense thought on nothing ! Devo- 
 tees of this sect are to be seen in meditative attitude, tak- 
 ing no notice of things around them, their eyes fixed on 
 vacuity, their thoughts on nothing, expecting thus to 
 arrive at perfect bliss ! , Under this philosophy the idiot 
 should be the happiest of mortals. 
 
 Brahmanism has its dissenters and independents, its 
 Ultramontane and Cisalpine parties. Some men believe 
 in obtainiag merit through sacrifice, others by pilgrimage, 
 hook-swiaging, or costly offerings to the gods. It teaches 
 the deification of heroes, poets, statesmen, princes, — 
 great men, — great in wickedness as well as power, and 
 that there are gods without number. 
 
HISTOEY, PHILOSOPHY, AND BELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 115 
 
 We can go no further. Beyond us is an impene- 
 trable thicket of speculation, credulity, ignorance, fanati- 
 cism, and superstition. Through twenty-four centuries 
 the philosophy of the Brahmans has held sway, except 
 during the period when Buddhism was triumphant ; and 
 aU progress in search of truth may be summed up in one 
 sentence, " The world by wisdom knew not God." 
 
 Nor can we foUow the changes which have taken place 
 in the condition of the people under their rulers, — Per- 
 sians, Greeks, native rajahs, Moguls, and Maharatta 
 princes, — their advancement in art and science, and their 
 retrogradation and decay. We may measure the turmoil 
 and commotion of India by that of Europe during the 
 Middle Ages. Army after army has marched over these 
 wide plains. War has succeeded war. MilLLons have 
 been slaughtered, and millions swept away by famine. 
 Once it' was a great empire, governed by one man, the 
 great Arungzebe, but the fabric crumbled. Once the 
 crescent flag waved from Cape Comorin to Cashmere, and 
 the religion of Mahomet was triumphant over Brahman- 
 ism. But the Mohammedan power went down. Its last 
 dying struggle in India was when the mutineers of the 
 late rebeUion shot their officers, slaughtered men, women, 
 and children indiscriminately, expecting that by an exter- 
 mination of aU foreigners there would be an end of Eng- 
 lish rule. 
 
 But the hand of the Briton is powerful, and India is 
 more securely fastened to-day to the British throne than 
 ever before. Slowly but surely England is establishing 
 here a new empire, founded on Christian civilization. 
 
116 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 THROUGH THE DECCAN. 
 
 IT is a motley crowd which we see at the railway station 
 in Bombay, where we take our seats in the cars for a 
 trip through the Deccan. Here and there we see a high- 
 caste Brahman holding himself aloof as much as possible 
 from the great herd of natives, but who, inasmuch as he 
 cannot afford a first or second class ticket, is compelled 
 to mix with the crowd. 
 
 Third-class passengers are not allowed to roam at will 
 about the station, but are kept in pens, like sheep, till 
 just before the starting of the train, then crammed into 
 cars like those used for the transportation of stock on 
 American roads. The only difference between the con- 
 veyance of cattle in our own country and natives in 
 India is this : in the one case oxen and cows are put 
 into the same car, while in the other there is a separa- 
 tion of the sexes. 
 
 Leaving the station at Bombay, we sweep through the 
 suburbs, past the delightful gardens of the Parsees, wealthy 
 merchants, and bankers. In one the Mohammedans are 
 keeping the feast of the month, the jolliest of all the 
 year. Whoever dies now will find the gates of heaven 
 wide open. 
 
 It is the hour of evening twilight, and in the gather- 
 ing darkness we behold a crowd of revellers beneath the 
 trees. An hour's ride brings us to the Ghats, or hiUs. We 
 wind through valleys, gradually ascending, leaving the 
 luxuriant vegetation of the sea-coast, and finding instead 
 stunted shrubs, and ground so parched that it crunches 
 
THROUGH THE DECCAN. 
 
 117 
 
 Leneatli oxa feet as we step from tlie car for a breath of 
 fresh air at the stations. 
 
 Mountaius with ragged rocks tower above us, deep 
 gorges and beds of dried-up rivers lie below ils. JSTassick, 
 a town on the sum- _ _ 
 
 mit of the Ghats, is 
 on the "\-erge of the 
 great plateau that 
 extends across the 
 country to the Bay 
 of Bengal, which is 
 as far as from Chi- 
 cago to Boston. The 
 ■\\-ater that in the 
 rainy season tills 
 in this town reaches 
 the Bay of Ben_,al 
 through the Godi- 
 very ri^'er. 
 
 "Whenever the 
 train comes to a 
 stopping-place, "s^ e 
 hear the Hindoos 
 in the cars menil} 
 chattering. At e^ - 
 ery station thcie 
 are some to leave, 
 others to get in. The company have Avatermen at all the 
 stations, who go among the crowd with leather bottles 
 slung to their backs. "When a nati^'e wishes to drink, he 
 sits upon Iiis heels, claps his hands to his nwutli, presses 
 them firmly against his under lip, thus making a spout 
 into ■\\liich the carrier slowly pours a stream of water. 
 
 AVe lireakfast at the junction of the Xagpore Ijranch 
 with the main hne. The country in the vicinity is 
 
 TAKI>G A DEI^K. 
 
118 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 generally level. Northward we behold flat-topped hiUs, 
 rising one or two hundred feet above the plain. The last 
 year's cotton crop has been gathered from the neigh- 
 boring fields, and the snowy product is piled in unpressed 
 bales near the station. Speculators are about, — English 
 buyers from Bombay, — in a great stew because they can- 
 not get it rushed down at once 'to the seaboard, while 
 high prices prevail. 
 
 "We speak of fields, but they are not enclosed. There 
 are no fences. Having reached Central India, we confess 
 that our preconceived ideas of the country are all wrong. 
 What school-boy has not received the impression from 
 geographies that it is a 'country of almost pathless forests, 
 where one is in danger of being trampled to death by 
 wild elephants or devoured by tigers, and where boa- 
 constrictors, winding down from the tree-tops, are ever 
 on the watch to enfold us in their slimy coils, crush 
 every bone in the body, and swallow us at a mouthful ! 
 
 We find, instead, a plateau, with here and there a grove, 
 sometimes a thicket, and. once in a wliile a patch of wood- 
 land. On the mountains there are forests. But a jungle 
 is not always a dark, dense, impenetrable growth of vines, 
 creepers, shrubs, bushes, and trees, but all waste land, even 
 that which in the United States is called pasture-land, is 
 classed as jungle. 
 
 Central India is very much, in its general features, like 
 Illinois, except that the palm, the cocoanut, bamboo, and 
 banyan take the place of black-jack, persimmon, and pa- 
 paw. There is the same scarcity of timber, only a few 
 trees dotting the landscape. We miss the well-swarded 
 fields of the West, the great herds of cattle, neat farm- 
 houses, and wheat-stacks looming on the horizon, — the 
 signs of thrift and enterprise, — and behold instead a 
 wide plain, huts of bamboo, thatched with grass, wliich 
 a lighted match would whiff out of sight in two minutes. 
 
THKOUGH THE DECCAN. 
 
 119 
 
 a few goats and cattle, so lean that they cast but thia 
 shadows, a sharpened stick for a plough, carts of the 
 pattern in use two thousand years ago, witli plank trucks 
 for wheels, and a little framework body of bamboo lashed 
 together by cords. 
 
 But no Western lady can appear in such gorgeous cos- 
 tume as the Plindoo Avoman before us, wearinu- a robe of 
 crimson silli reaclung to the Ivuees, trimmed with yellow 
 bands across the shoulder, a yellow sldrt edged around 
 the bottom Avith cloth of silver, beneath wliich is an 
 uuder-sldrt of purple silk. Tliere is silver enough in the 
 broad rings and bands clasping her anldes for a set of 
 table-spoons, to say nothing of the display on her arms, 
 round her neck, dangling from her ears and nose, and 
 gleaming on her fingers, or of what she has lavished 
 upon the garnientless cliild toddling by her side. She 
 sits dovm in the dirt with another woman, and the two 
 examine each other's heads for — phrenological develop- 
 ments, of com'se ! 
 
120 OUR NEW WAT BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 The mercury is 105° in the shade, 130° in the sun, — 
 weather likely to last through the month. In such an 
 atmosphere the woodwork of houses, furniture, carriages, 
 and everything exposed to the sun, shrinks marvellously. 
 The coachmen and carters wind the spokes of their wheels 
 with straw, which they wet from time to time, — watering 
 their carriages as well as their horses ! Hats large enough 
 in the morning are two sizes too small at night, and had 
 ours not been soaked with water before leaving the train, 
 we should have been compelled to ride to the hotel bare- 
 headed. ■ The wind which sweeps over the plain is like 
 the breath of the sirocco. It burns, blisters, and turns 
 the whitest skin to bronze. . An English gentleman here, 
 who has been exposed to the sun of India for nine years, 
 has lost all freshness of complexion ; the usual floridity 
 of countenance has disappeared, and, so far as color is 
 concerned, we might class him as a half-blooded Hindoo. 
 : It is impossible for one who has not been in India 
 through the hot season to comprehend the intensity of 
 the heat, the mercury during the day registering 130°, 
 and 100° at night. The scorching air is like a blast from 
 a furnace, and tries the endurance of Europeans fearfully. 
 Great care must be taken to avoid sunstroke. Cover- 
 ings for the head like trays, made of pith or cork, or 
 patterned after the old Eoman helmets, are worn. It 
 is dangerous to go out in the middle of the day un- 
 less thus protected. Natives as well as Europeans carry 
 sun-umbrellas. At the station, where we stop for din- 
 ner, thick mats, called tatties, are hung in the door- 
 ways and windows, which, being kept constantly wet, 
 give coolness to the air within, where, though the tem- 
 perature is 98°, it is cold in contrast with the furnace 
 heat outside. 
 
 Visitors to India should time their journey so as to 
 be there in winter. The rainy season commences at 
 
THROUGH THE DECCAN. 
 
 121 
 
 Bombay about the 9th of Jmie, and continues till the 
 middle of October. No one can travel with comfort dur- 
 ing that period, and little business is accomplished. But 
 November, December, January, February, and March are 
 charming months. The air is clear and calm, the sky 
 serene, the temperature delightful. The lowest range of 
 the mercury in winter is about 52°, but in the months of 
 April and May, the hottest of the year, the average heat 
 is about 100° in the shade. 
 
 A NAGPOHE COACH. 
 
 It is eleven o'clock in the evening when we reach Nag- 
 pore, one of the chief towns in Central India, the pres- 
 ent terminus of the railway. AVe place our baggage in 
 the hands of a nati^'e, who is shouting, " Carriage for the 
 Eesidency Hotel." We find that the coach is a two- 
 wheeled cart, with a canvas top. We enter at the tail ; 
 the two lean, white oxen attached to the ^'ehicle start 
 off upjon tlxe run down the broad street, the dri\'er 
 
122 
 
 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 whacking tlieir sides with a iDamboo, jerking the ropes in 
 tlieir noses, wringing their tails, and bringing us up to 
 tlie liotel in grand style. 
 
 We can see by tlie light of tlie moon that the building 
 is about sixty feet square, of one story, with a pjTaniid of 
 thatcli for tlie roof, and a wide veranda in front and on 
 the sides. Several tents are pitched near by for sleeping 
 apartments, to one of wliicli we are assigned. It is large, 
 liigh, with tliree tliickuesses of canvas upon tlie roof to 
 protect us from the sun. We lie down on cane cots, for 
 a mattress would only add to the heat, and find refreshing- 
 sleep. An hour before daylight we hear the gurgKng 
 of water, and looking about to see what fountain has sud- 
 denly begun to play, discover a Hindoo, with a leathern 
 bottle sluiig to his shoulders, pouring water into an 
 earthen bath-tub. 
 
 OUR QU.VETERS. 
 
 " Sahib, your bath is ready." Sahili is the Hindoo 
 word for " master." A low-class Hindoo has no conception 
 
THEOUGH THE DECOAN. 123 
 
 of the meaning of our word " mister." Centuries of sub- 
 jection to superior races has obliterated the instincts of 
 manhood, and he only understands that those whom he 
 finds above him are his masters. 
 
 It is delightful to sit in the doorway of our tent in the 
 cool of the morning, and look out upon the landscape. 
 The tamarind waves its green leaves above us. Yonder 
 is an avenue of feathery bamboos. In the distance rise 
 long, slender, graceful palms. A huge elephant, flapping 
 his immense ears, and moving with ungainly gait, appears 
 in view. Sparrows chatter amid the shrubs. Crows hop 
 past our door, and stalk into the tent with all the famil- 
 iarity of the bird of ill-omen which Poe apostrophizes : — 
 
 " When with many a flirt and flutter 
 In there stepped a stately raven." 
 
 They alight upon our chairs, cock their eyes, and caw with 
 hoarse voice. The crickets are chirping. The music of 
 the military band on parade ■ swells grandly on the air, 
 mingling its harmony with the tones of the church-bell 
 tolling the hours. Curiously constructed carts, drawn 
 by oxen on the gallop, dash down the street, the dusky 
 drivers wearing red, yellow, green, or white turbans. 
 Women in gay costume, bearing water-jars, baskets, and 
 bundles on their heads, with little silver bells tinkling at 
 their ankles, gaze at us as they walk past the hotel ; while 
 here and there groups of ebony imps, without jacket, 
 trousers, or shirt, roll in the sand and kick up their heels 
 in youthful glee. This scene is so unlike anythiug to 
 which our eyes have been accustomed, that we wonder 
 if we have not at last reached the land of Jack and his 
 bean-stalk ! 
 
124 OUR KEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 BIDING m A DAK. 
 
 THERE being no railway conununication between 
 Nagpore and Jubbulpore, we pass over this part of 
 Central India in a dak. This is a four-wheeled vehicle, 
 not unlike a London cab, except that the body is so 
 arranged that passengers can lie down if they choose. A 
 line of these carriages has been established between the 
 two cities, with stations for change of horses about five 
 miles apart. It is called the Deccan Horse Dak. The 
 distance from Nagpore to Jubbulpore is" one hundred and 
 sixty miles, and the advertised time for the journey 
 thirty-six hours ; but at this season of the year we should 
 be baked, grilled, stewed, fried, melted, or dried up, 
 were we to travel by day. No white man would at- 
 tempt it, unless compelled by necessity. We are to 
 ride by night, and lie by during the day in one of the 
 company's bungalows. These are buildings of stone 
 with rafters of bamboo, thatched with straw, containing 
 four or six rooms. They are built along the route about 
 twenty-five miles apart, and are furnished with chairs, 
 tables, plates, knives, forks, spoons, wash-basins, bath- 
 ing-tubs, towels, and cots. The keeper can supply chick- 
 ens, rice, potatoes, eggs, coffee and tea, milk, and cakes 
 made of rice fiour, called chaputies. At one or two 
 stations beer, wine, and liquors may be obtained, but 
 unless we take canned meats along with us we shall 
 not have a great variety of fare. The charges for what 
 we obtain in the way of food are not exorbitant, and 
 to those who are accustomed to " eat what is set before 
 
EroiNG IN A DAK. 
 
 125 
 
 tliem, asking no questions," and make the best of every- 
 thing, a little daking in India will not he unpleasant, and 
 will furnish incidents of travel not to he met with in any 
 other quarter of the globe. 
 
 At six o'clock, p. JL, the sun nearly dowii, all hands at 
 the Eesideucy Hotel come out to see us ofi'. It is an 
 amusing scene. Our dak is himg on eUiptic springs, — 
 though one of the party has not, liy the sense of feeling, 
 yet discovered that they ease the jolting of the carriage. 
 Its windows and doors are open for the free circulation 
 
 
 GETTING UXDER WAY. 
 
 of air, and enable us to take a view of the country as we 
 pass along. Our luggage is on the top. The hubs of 
 the wheels are wound with straw, which is watered the 
 last thing before starting, for everything is thirsty in this 
 land. On each side of the dak is an awning of thick 
 cotton duck, which we can have up or do^\^l at pleasure. 
 It bears the words " Deccan Horse Dak." We sit with 
 "Teat dignity and decorum, the oliserved of a score of 
 
126 OUR NEW WAY KOTJND THE WOELD. 
 
 natives, who take as much delight in seeing a dak off 
 as country boys in Yankee-land enjoyed in seeing the 
 stage-coach start from the vOlage tavern before the days 
 of raiboads. 
 
 We look at the horses, somewhat larger than mice, — 
 one placed outside the shafts, though ' there is space 
 enough for both between them. Our driver, in a dirty^ 
 pea-green jacket, white turban, three or four yards of cot- 
 ton cloth round his loins, a battered post-horn slung over 
 his shoulder, stout -whip with a short handle and lash, 
 mounts the box, winds a blast, long, loud, deep, and 
 chirrups to his mice ; but they do not move. The admir- 
 ing lookers-on put their shoulders to the wheels, the mice 
 are pushed a few steps, and once getting undejway start 
 off at a trot. We roll out of the hotel yard, gain the 
 highway, the driver lashing his animals into a run, blow- 
 ing his horn, and screaming to everybody to get out of 
 the way. " Hy-yi ! Hy-yi ! " he shouts, driving like a 
 madman, the dak rattling and reeling, and the natives 
 looking on with wonder and admiration. 
 
 Our own admiration rises with the occasion. This is 
 romantic, — riding through India, the land of Brahma 
 and Buddha, in such glorious style, — • and we half resolve 
 to parody Saxe's "Eiding on a-Eail" by a poem called 
 " Eiding in a Dak." But our enthusiasm meets with a 
 sudden chill. A mile of such break-neck speed and we 
 come to a stand-stOl. A nut has dropped from a bolt, and 
 one shaft falls upon the ground. Jehu dismounts, looks 
 at it, makes a wry face, scratches up an idea from his 
 long black hair, breaks a twig the size of a pipe-stem 
 from a bush, puts it into the bolt-hole, and ties up the 
 shaft with a cord. It is not pleasant to think of going 
 one hundred and sixty miles with such a fix-up. Walk- 
 ing back a few rods, we find the missing bolt. Jehu is 
 delighted. He produces a pair of nippers, examines the 
 
BIDING IN A DAK. 127 
 
 dak, finds a nut whicli lie thinks may he spared, 'wrenclies 
 it from its bolt, transfers it to the shaft, and, having thus 
 repaired damages, puts the mice into a run again, and 
 whirls us over the first stage with but little loss of time. 
 
 The managers of the dak company have not given 
 much attention to the proper matching of their horses ; 
 one of our second pair is tail enough for a dragoon, the 
 other but little larger than a Shetland pony. 
 
 Ten miles bring us to a military cantonment in the vil- 
 lage of Kamptel, — a charming place, with wide avenues, 
 shaded by great trees. The residences of the of&cers are 
 surroxmded with flowers and well-kept lawns. Just be- 
 fore reaching the place we pass a church, its tower and 
 spire standing out in beauty against the sky. After 
 having b.een a wanderer for so many months where there 
 are few churches, "it is an unexpected but exceedingly 
 pleasant sight. ' Beyond the town we have another sen- 
 sation. Jehu gives a long, loud blast, dismounts, takes 
 his horses from the dak, comes to the window, rattles 
 off some lingo which we do not understand, and dis- 
 appears with his horses, leaving the dak in the middle 
 of the road. 
 
 There are times when the best thing a man can do is 
 to follow the philosophy of Mr. Micawber, and wait for 
 something to turn up. One thing we are sure of, the dak 
 will not run away. In the course of half an hour a 
 native with a pair of diminutive oxen comes up, climbs 
 to the top of the dak, takes a beam which is lashed to the 
 iron railing, and fastens it to the end of the shafts. "While 
 thus occupied his oxen go off to pasture, but he brings 
 them back, lashes their horns to the timber, mounts the 
 box, jerks the ropes in their noses, and away we go down 
 a steep hill, through a deep excavation, enveloped in dust 
 and gloom, emerging upon the bank of a river among 
 carts, cattle, donkeys, and dusky crowds of men, biv- 
 
128 
 
 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 ouacked for the night. They are going to or returning 
 from ISTagpore with cotton. 
 
 Gaining the opposite Lank, our oxman, witli his cattle, 
 departs, leaving ua as before in the midcUe of the road ; 
 
 A STE.\DY TEAM. 
 
 but after a while our own Jehu returns with fresh horses, 
 that is, if such skeletons witli hides like old hair-trunks, 
 bruised and battered, can be called fresh in any sense. 
 K"o Hindoo horse starts of his own accord ; he must be 
 pushed a, few steps. So we are accompanied l)y three 
 men, who put their shoidders to the wheels, pull the ani- 
 mals by the ears, strike them with clulis, punch them in 
 the sides, rap their knees, slij) a cord around their fore 
 legs to draw them along, and go through many other 
 equally persuasive performances. Once under way, the 
 creatures go as if running for the sweepstakes, till wet 
 with sweat and f(_iam. 
 
 So through the night we ride on over a road as smooth, 
 hard, and well built as any turnpike in old England. It 
 
EIDING IN A DAK. 
 
 129 
 
 is interesting to see the nondescript vehicles, — crazy 
 concerns, witli plank trucks, bamboo frames, and not a 
 pin, bolt, or scrap of iron about them, the pieces of the 
 rickety things all tied togetlier with ropes and strings. 
 With a knife we could in two minutes make one of them 
 as complete a ruin as Holmes's " one-horse shay." We 
 pass numerous ^dllages of bamboo huts, the houses a trifle 
 larger than hencoops. The Mohammedan portion of the 
 community have fires kindled by the roadside, around 
 which they are having a grand religious hullaljaloo, — 
 joining hands, dancing, singing, and shouting, keeping up 
 tlie wake tiU daybreak. 
 
 Sunrise finds us at Karyea, one of the bungalow sta- 
 tions, a small place fifty-five miles from Nagpore, at tlu^ 
 foot of one of the southern ranges of hills wliich run 
 across India from the coast, above Bombay, nearly to Cal- 
 cutta. AYliile spending the day here an Englishman 
 comes to the bungalow who has been in the country 
 twenty years or more, now having charge of hands em- 
 
 6* I 
 
130 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 ployed in the construction of a bridge across a river near 
 hj. He has been in close contact with the natives in the 
 southeast, west, and north, can speak the language per- 
 fectly, and knows the habits and ways of the people. 
 
 Sitting under the veranda, he narrates the story of his . 
 Kfe. He was at Cawnpore when the mutiny broke out. 
 Saw his wife and two children cut, down before his eyes, 
 hacked to pieces by the swords of the fiends ; was him- 
 self shot, pitched over a wall, and left for dead. 
 
 " Ah ! " said he, " it was terrible to see my poor wife cut 
 to pieces, — literally chopped up, and my two children 
 also. It upset me. I can't forget it. I was getting 
 along well ; had seventeen thousand rupees laid up, but 
 it is aU gone. I don't care for money now. Life is a 
 burden." 
 
 Though there is a wild gleam in his eyes, yet he has 
 no words of bitterness to utter against the natives. He 
 goes out alone by night into the woods, and thinks over 
 the past, — the dear old times before that tragedy, which ■ 
 put a blight upon his life. 
 
 " The natives," he says, " are very kind to me. I never 
 struck one of them. I mean to use them well. There 
 are men in this village here," he points to the collection 
 of bamboo huts, " who would give their hearts' blood for 
 me." He is exceedingly severe upon his own country- 
 men for their treatment of the natives. " There is a native 
 here who has taken the contract from government to 
 build a bridge for their new road ; he is rolling in wealth, 
 has been to London, and was educated there. He has 
 the best of liquors, keeps a good table, has ice brought all 
 the way from Boston, is very hospitable, gives away no 
 end of money, invites Englishmen to diae with him, and 
 to hunt and fish. They come and drink his liquors, and 
 then when he meets them in Calcutta or Bombay they 
 don't know him ! " 
 
RIDING IS A DAK. 
 
 131 
 
 " Young officers," says lie, " who hwj a commission in 
 the army come out here, not knowing a word of the lan- 
 guage, and think they can lord it over the natives. 
 They call for this, that, and the other, just as they are ac- 
 customed to do at home ; the things can't be had, and, 
 more than that, the native, perhaps, does not comprehend 
 one word of the order. The Englishman gets mad, raves. 
 
 ti~^ \ V 
 
 THE BIASTER KACE. 
 
 swears, throws a plate or a beer-bottle at the servant, 
 kicks him out of the bungalow, when he ought to be 
 kicked out himself They do not hke us as a nation very 
 well, and I do not wonder at it." 
 
 He says that a great change has taken place since the 
 introduction of railroads. There is a general desire among 
 the natives to obtain an education, and especially to be 
 able to speak the English language. He thinks that it is 
 caste rather than idolatry which hinders progress in India. 
 An educated native usually throws aside idols and becomes 
 a free-thinker. He sees little in the conduct of those 
 who call themselves Christians to conmiend Christianitv. 
 
132 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 The natives, as a body, take all Europeans to be Cbris- 
 tians, but the majority of Englislimen whom they see curse 
 and swear, get beastly drunk, and do many things re- 
 pugnant to Hindoo notions of morality and religion. This 
 is one reason why missionaries make comparatively few 
 converts. He condemns many acts of British rule as 
 uncalled for, unjust, and sometimes cruel. India has 
 been looked upon as a lemon which might be squeeze 
 for the benefit of Englishmen, but a brighter day has 
 dawned upon this land ; the East India Company is no 
 more ; a liberal policy has been inaugurated ; great public 
 works have been undertaken which will be of incalculable 
 benefit. 
 
 " The American war has been the main cause of this 
 sudden advancement," he says. " When cotton went up 
 in price everybody began to plant ; but it cost so much to 
 get it to the seaboard, that the people in the interior 
 could n't afford to raise it, and thus came the demand for 
 roads." 
 
 Many ryots (farmers) have made money enough siace 
 1861 to become land-owners ; they have emancipated 
 themselves from the money-lenders, who are the curse 
 of the country. Formerly seventy-five per cent was the 
 usual price paid for money ! The lender did not expect 
 to get back the principal, but he managed to extort the 
 interest, and the ryot remained always poor. 
 
 This Englishman has done a great deal of hunting, first 
 and last. He says that we are in the tiger region. Two 
 years ^go he saw a tiger shot from the window of the 
 bungalow where we are sitting. It was in the edge of 
 the evening. The dogs of the village had been barking 
 furiously all day ; and the horses, sniffing the air, pricking 
 up their ears, just at night took to their heels and left 
 the place. Dogs and horses alike have a keen scent for 
 tigers. The animal came up to the bungalow, stood 
 
KIDIXG IN A DAK. 
 
 133 
 
 within ten ffeet of it, when a native from the window put 
 two balls through his body, and brought him down. There 
 is a famous old tiger now at large, a " man-eater," who 
 has carried off several persons ; for once having had a taste 
 of human flesh, lie prefers it to any other. Five hundred 
 rupees have been ofiered for this ferocious fellow, and 
 parties are gettiug ready to hunt him down. 
 
 A >rAN-E.VTEl;. 
 
 At sunset we are once more on the way, winding 
 slowly over the hills, where about two thousand natives, 
 men and women, are building a turnpike. We pass two 
 abodes of the gods, — Qxie in a ledge, the other in a tree. 
 The worshippers ha"\'e been rubbing red paint on the 
 rocks and trees. This is the work of the Hindoos, but 
 the Mohammedans, equally religious, are dancing in com- 
 memoration of the death of Hassan. 
 
 The half-way station on the route is at Seonee, a large 
 to'wn, the centre of a great traf&c. With our horses upon 
 the run, our driver l^lowing his trumpet like a trooper, we 
 rattle down a hill, and come to a halt amid a multitude 
 of carts and wagons, nearly all loaded with cotton. It is 
 
134 
 
 OUE NEW WAY BOUND TPIE WORLD. 
 
 a calm, clear, moonlight niglit, and the scene around us is 
 of great interest. Numerous fires are kindled, around 
 which swarthy Hindoos are seated. Some are eating 
 supper, and others lying down to sleep. This is the 
 grand bivouac ; but near by are the town's-people keep- 
 ing the festival. 
 
 JIIDNiriTTT FESTTVAT,. 
 
 Groups of women are crouched around tarhoots, — 
 boxes adorned with red, yellow, and green 2:)aper, and 
 silver tinsel, — before which a lamp is burning. From 
 every quarter of the town we hear the rub-a-dub-dub 
 of drums and the squeak of flageolets. 
 
 We have an hour's detention for the greasing of dak- 
 wheels ; but when the time expires there is no harness- 
 ing of horses, or indication tliat we are to go on. "We 
 make signs and motions in the most expressive panto- 
 
EIDING IN A DAK. 
 
 135 
 
 mime to those around us, not one of whom can speak 
 Engiisli. There are loud words among themselves, and 
 evidently a hitch of some sort. AVe are perplexed, but, 
 making the best of the situation, wander for a half-hour 
 amid the crowd, solitary among tlie thousands. But now 
 to our relief and satisfaction an Englishman, who is on 
 his way home, making all haste to reach Bombay before 
 the sailing of the steamer, drives up. He can speak the 
 language of tlie country, and informs us, after inquiry, 
 that the diiver wliose duty it is to take us on will not go ; 
 that the Moonshee, the man in charge at this station, is 
 a forceless fellow, and cannot start the obstinate driver, 
 who wants to stay and have a good time during the fes- 
 tival. 
 
 " The only way," he adds, " to get along with the ras- 
 cals is to give them a good stirring up." 
 
 mm(r.^ 
 
 
 STIRLING UP A HINDOO. 
 
 Having coaxed in vain by pantomime, we conclude 
 to act upon the suggestion. We find the Moonshee, a 
 thin-faced, gray-headed Hindoo, cooking his rice over a 
 
136 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD.. 
 
 fire on the ground, where he sits in a contented, medita- 
 tive attitude, his hands clasping his knees, looking at the 
 flickering light. We can hardly make up our mind to 
 disturb such peace and contentment. But that man was 
 a fool who went ouj; and sat down upon the hank of a 
 great river and waited for it to run by before attempting 
 to cross. The contentment of a Hindoo is equally with- 
 out end ; it lasts forever. Necessity in such a case knows 
 no mercy. We spring towards him like a tiger, shake 
 our fist within an inch of his nose, and shout, " Put on 
 the horses quick, or you 'U catch it ! " 
 
 He leaps like a scared antelope, and points to a black 
 feUow who is having a joUy time with half a dozen com- 
 rades. He is the intractable rascal who had blocked our 
 way. Seizing him by the shoulder we set him spinniag 
 like a top, shake our fists, and scream again at the top of 
 our voice. The effect is magical. In a twinkling the 
 horses are harnessed, and we are on our way, laughing at 
 the ludicrousness of the whole affair. 
 
 We drop off to sleep, but awake after a while to find the 
 carriage standing in the middle of the road, without any 
 .horses. We are in the predicament of the man of whom 
 everybody has heard, who either had lost two horses or 
 found a cart. Horses and driver are gone. We wait 
 patiently for further developments. An hour passes, and 
 then the driver appears with a yoke of oxen, and gives 
 us to understand that the horses balked, and that he has 
 been back to the station for another team. 
 
 We are under way once more; but soon come to a 
 dead stop, for one of the wheels is just ready to fly from 
 the axle. The whole concern is so rickety that we only 
 escape wreck by constant watchfulness. We tie one part 
 with ropes, and tinker another with a hammer which 
 keeps flying from the handle. But as eternal vigilance is 
 the price of liberty, so is it of security in travelling by 
 
RIDING IN A DAK. 137 
 
 dak in India. By unceasing care and frequent hammer- 
 ing we at length reach the station, thus ending our second 
 night's experience late in the forenoon, when we should 
 have been there at daybreak. Fortunately the sky is 
 cloudy, and we do not suffer greatly from the heat. 
 
 An opportunity is afforded us at this station of seeing 
 our dinner prepared. All hands — father, mother, and a 
 haK-dozen little Hindoos — gather to run down a chicken. 
 It is an exciting chase, — cockerels and hens flying, flut- 
 tering, cackling ; escaping this ' way, chased that, tiU at 
 last one is captured. 
 
 Two women seat themselves upon the ground, with a 
 mill between them, grinding the rice for our cakes, just as 
 eighteen hundred years ago the women of Palestine pre- 
 pared their food. The scene calls to mind the words of 
 the Saviour : " Two women shall be grinding at the mill." 
 
 A half-hour later, and we are eating stewed chicken 
 and chaputies. The station agent sets before us ghee, or 
 clarified butter, but we prefer sugar on our cakes ; and 
 though there is not a great variety upon the table, hunger 
 has sharpened our appetites, and we make an excellent 
 meal. 
 
 While here we have an opportunity of seeing the 
 mail-carts pass. They have two wheels, and are drawn 
 by a span of horses that are changed every five miles. 
 The steamers which sail from Bombay take^ aU the mail- 
 matter from Northern and Central India, and the mails 
 are expressed from Calcutta across the country. Each 
 driver carries a post-horn, which he blows constantly to 
 warn people to get out of the way. He goes at a break- 
 neck speed, up hill and down, the horses upon the run. 
 In those sections of the country which are infested with 
 tigers, a native runs before the carts, at night, bearing 
 a torch to frighten them away. 
 
 "We have another night's ride before us. The driver 
 
138 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 sets himself to work to make the ■ dak last till we can 
 reach the repair shop at the next station. Although the 
 distance is only fifteen miles, we are several hours on the 
 way, fixing the wheel, which persists in working from the 
 axle. We reach the station at midnight. An extra dak 
 is there; but no persuasion can induce the Moonshee 
 to permit an exchange, — we must wait while ours is re- 
 paired. We do not altogether regret it, for it gives us a 
 chance to see native industry. Two Hindoos do the work, 
 assisted by fifteen others, who do the talking, each one 
 showing how it ought to be done, pointing to this, that, 
 and the other thing. We watch the trumpery repairs with 
 many misgivings, and at times feel like thrusting them all 
 aside and becom,ing blacksmith ourselves for the moment. 
 But the Sahib would lower himself in their estimation. 
 It will not do. 
 
 The moon is at the fuU, pouring its rays from the zenith 
 straight down upon us, with a power which is almost as 
 unbearable as that of the sun at midday. There is no 
 heat in its rays, but they have great effect upon the brain. 
 The blood rushes to the head, and there is a sense of 
 fulness and pressure, which, although not attended by 
 acute pain, is exceedingly unpleasant. We find it neces- 
 sary to keep our umbrellas spread at midnight as well as 
 at midday. It is dangerous to sleep in the moonlight in 
 the tropics. In • this country we can see new beauty in 
 those words of the Psalmist, expressive of God's care for 
 those who love him : " The sun shall not smite thee by 
 day, nor the moon by night." 
 
 At one o'clock in the morning we start upon our last 
 stage of forty miles, dashing down a hill with our horses 
 on a run, through a valley, descending another hiU, 
 holding up just in season to escape a smash-up. The 
 wheel is all but off the axle, and the repairs have 
 amotmted to nothing. The driver puts a boy on one 
 
EIDING IN A DAK. 
 
 139 
 
 horse, sends him back to the station, throws himself upon 
 the ground, and in two minutes is sound asleep. Another 
 hour, and tlie hoy comes hack with the otlier dak. We 
 are transferred to it, hut we cannot sleep. We are too 
 wide awake; the atmosphere is cljse, stifling, liot, and al- 
 most burning to our vitals as we inhale it. On we go, 
 the dri\-er making up for lost time by lashing the horses 
 into a gallop. Xow we ha\'e o.xen, and we go down into 
 the valley of the Xerbudda River, enveloped in a cloud 
 of dust. 
 
 It is daylight when we reach the stream, which, run- 
 ning westward from tlie heart of India, discharges its 
 waters into the Gulf of Cambay. It divides India near- 
 ly in the centre. 
 South of it is tlie 
 Deccan, wliile to 
 the north is Hin- 
 dustan. At this 
 place it is a small 
 stream during the 
 dry season, lut 
 when the rain com 
 mences it wills w 11 
 to a mighty flood 
 
 Close down t j 
 tlie water's edi, 
 upon the soli I 
 rocks, are tomb- 
 like structures, si\ 
 or eight feet srpiaie 
 three or four m 
 height, with- im\ 
 ges in stone not m 
 the likeness of any- 
 thing in heaT,'en or 
 
 PROTECTION AG.\TNST SUNSTROKE. 
 
140 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 eartli ; above them a tripod of sticks, supporting porous 
 earthen dishes, from which water slowly drips upon the 
 idols. 
 
 These structures are built by wealthy natives, who pay 
 an attendant $ 2.50 a month to keep the bottles filled with 
 water. It is an act of devotion to protect the gods from 
 sunstroke. 
 
 Upon the opposite bank, beneath palm-trees, are numer- 
 ous temples, — most of them small, whitewashed struc- 
 tures, at a little distance presenting by their whiteness 
 a pleasing contrast to the greenness of the foliage. But 
 now, with a fresh team, we enter upon our last stage, — 
 the horses upon the run, the driver blowing his horn; 
 everybody making haste to clear the track, for the dak 
 is a privileged vehicle, and has the right of way; so 
 raising a tremendous dust, we whirl up the streets of JuId- 
 bulpore, and reach the end of our journey and of oui 
 three nights of curious entertainment, which we would 
 not have missed, but do not care to enjoy a second time. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 IN THE HEART OF INDIA. 
 
 JUBBULPOEE has long been a military station. The 
 grounds occupied by the troops are spacious, regu- 
 larly laid out, and beautifully shaded by grand old trees. 
 The officers' quarters are elegantly arranged. The prem- 
 ises are large, and set off with every variety of tropical 
 trees, shrubs, plants, and flowers. The parade-ground 
 is an immense park, level as a floor, and surrounded 
 with groves. Nothing can be more delightful than to 
 
IN THE HEAET OF INDIA. 141 
 
 stroll down the long avenues, inhaling the fragrance of 
 the flowers, hearing the crows cawing above us, and 
 myriads of sparrows and birds of the tropics chirp- 
 ing and singing in the bamboo thickets, and look out 
 upon a landscape dotted with palms, waving, their broad ' 
 green leaves. The band attached to the brigade plays 
 every evening in the public garden, and at that hour all 
 the Europeans in town — officers and their wives, sons, 
 and daughters — gather in the garden for promenade. If 
 Mr. Emerson were to visit India, he might perhaps find 
 material enough for an additional chapter on " English 
 traits." It is amusing to see the young ofRcers, with 
 enormous side whiskers, dressed in white jackets and 
 pants, strutting over the parade-ground, clanking their 
 swords, jingling their spurs, manifesting in every feature, 
 in every glance of the eye, every movement of the body, 
 the ihtenseness of their nationality. A surly watch-dog, 
 pacing to and fro in front of his kennel, with ruffed 
 mane, and conscious that he is master upon the prem- 
 ises, does not manifest a greater sense of his. importance 
 than do these young gentlemen, a few months out ftom 
 England. None of the ancient Moguls could surpass 
 them in playing the nabob. Here and there we see one 
 who has been long in the service, who has passed the 
 puppy period, and become a regular old mastiff, treat- 
 ing aD. who approach him, be they Europeans or natives, 
 respectfully. 
 
 It is quite natural that those newly arrived should 
 have a high estimate of their importance. Britons have 
 conquered India; why should not they feel weU under 
 the circumstances ? 
 
 A large party of men are at work upon the raUroad, 
 and we stroll along its line to observe this great iron 
 highway. The embankments are of necessity much 
 wider than those upon railroads in the United States. 
 
2 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 e torrents which pour from the clouds during the 
 ny season make sad havoc with earthworks, unless 
 iy are well constructed. All masonry must be laid 
 
 soKd foundations, and the cement must be of a 
 iracter to stand the extremes of dryness and moisture 
 lident to the climate. Brick is mainly used, instead 
 stone, in the construction of culverts and small bridges, 
 e work is done in the most thorough manner, and the 
 )erstructure of this and other roads is probably supe- 
 r to that of most railways in our own country. 
 Jubbulpore being an important station, large buildings 
 ve been erected by the company. The passenger 
 3ot is spacious, but want of adaptation is manifest in 
 i arrangement. In a country where the sun in sum- 
 T burns like a red-hot ball in the heavens, and where 
 
 three months in the year the rain comes down im- 
 Lsingly, common sense would have erected some sort 
 shelter over the platforms of the station-houses ; but 
 ;h protection is wholly wanting. The station-houses 
 : brick buildings with solid walls, which act as radiators 
 iSie heat of the sim, and passengers waiting for the 
 rting of the train are baked in the oven-like heat. 
 
 is so at all the stations between Jubbulpore and 
 lahabad, a distance of two hundred and thirty miles. 
 When the road is completed down the Nerbudda to 
 mbay, Jubbulpore will be one of the principal sta- 
 lls. It is in a weU-watered and productive country, 
 e hills bordering the valley are from two to five hun- 
 id feet high, with natural terraces along their sides, 
 )wing distinctly the ancient water-marks of a time 
 en the river was two hundred feet above its present 
 el. As we move northeast we gradually leave the 
 tile soil, gain the plateau between the Nerbudda and 
 s streams which empty into the Ganges, and find a 
 rile region, destitute of wood, and supporting a sparse 
 Dulation. 
 
IN THE HEART OF INDIA. 143 
 
 This section of the road passes through a province still 
 held by one of the native rajahs. He has nothing par- 
 ticular to do, but is kept in place by the governmenti 
 because descended from the ancient rulers. His royalty 
 is acknowledged by the English everywhere. When he 
 travels it is in great state. He is saluted by the garri- 
 sons. He was loyal during the mutiny, and is receiving 
 his reward. 
 
 It is amusing to see the monkeys in the groves scam- 
 pering away and climbing the highest trees as the train 
 dashes past them. They abound in this section of the 
 country, and play the mischief with the garden-sauce 
 and field products of the natives. They steal everything 
 they can lay their paws on. They are as adroit in their 
 tliieving as the experts of the human species. A fellow- 
 passenger informs us that it is impossible to travel in 
 some parts of India without a native to keep constant 
 watch upon everything. Were we to go out upon the" 
 plains and pitch a tent, or lie down to sleep, in a few 
 minutes several score of these light-fingered, fleet-footed 
 gentry would come to pay us their respects, forming 
 a ring around the camp, sitting in solemn state, gazing 
 at everything going on. They are sober gray-beards, 
 harmless, innocent, sitting at respectful distance, as silent 
 and grave as Indian braves around a council-fire. Grad- 
 ually they draw nearer, watching to see who is asleep, 
 who awake. If the coast is clear they make a sudden 
 spring, seize whatever they can, and are off in a twinkling. 
 They are a nuisance to cultivator and traveller. 
 
 As we near the valley of the Ganges vegetation is 
 more rank, the foliage greener, and the soil more fer- 
 tile. We pass rice-fields, where men and women are 
 plashing in the water, weeding the young grain. The 
 country is more densely populated, and there are signs of 
 increasing thrift now that the railroad has been opened. 
 
144 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 The full moon is just risiag in the east as we come in 
 sight of the Ganges, — the most sacred of aU the rivers 
 of the world, — looked upon hy more than one hundred 
 millions of the human race as the river of life. There 
 are some remarkable similarities het\yeen the religious 
 legends of the Hindoos and the writings of the Bible. 
 We have not space to dwell upon them ; but it would not 
 be a difficult matter to show from the ancient litera,ture 
 of the Hindoos, that before the rise of Brahmanism the 
 people worshipped only one deity; and there are also 
 evidences to show that India has had an acquaintance 
 with the religion of Jesus Christ. 
 
 " It is generally supposed," says Marshman, in his history 
 of this country, " that St. Thomas introduced Christianity 
 into India, where he obtained many converts. The Hin- 
 doo legends present so many points of similarity with 
 the facts of the New Testament as to leave little doubt 
 that the events connected with the life and de^th of the 
 Saviour of mankind were widely disseminated through 
 India, and embodied, though in a distorted form, in the 
 writings of Hindoo poets and sages." 
 
 Every religion has more or less of the poetic element. 
 It abounds in the Jewish, also in the Hindoo. 
 
 " Thou visitest the earth and waterest it ; thou greatly 
 enrichest it with the river of- God, which is full of water; 
 thou preparest them corn when thou hast so provided it." 
 
 So sang the Hebrew poet ; were we to read the passage 
 to a Hindoo, he would believe it to be a description of 
 the sacred Ganges. Or read to him from the Book of Eeve- 
 lation the sublime description of the river of life, and 
 he would assure us that it had reference only to this 
 mighty stream, rolling its everlasting flood onward to the 
 sea, an emblem of the final absorption of himself into 
 the bosom of Brahma. 
 
 A few miles south of Allahabad is the jimction of the 
 
IN THE HEAET OF INDIA. 145 
 
 Jubbulpore ■with tlie great Peninsular line of railway, 
 running from Calcutta to Delhi. The train winds along 
 the bank of the river tiU it reaches the Jumna, the main 
 branch of the Ganges. It is a stream as wide as the Con- 
 necticut at Springfield, spanned by a costly iron bridge, 
 supported by piers of stone. The Jumna, like the Mis- 
 souri, is subject to capricious freaks, — scooping its bed 
 of qmcksand full of holes, cutting off a slice of land on 
 one side, carrying it over to the other, running away from 
 towns, and doing other truant acts. The engineers went 
 down seventy feet to iind firm foundations for their piers, 
 without reaching solid earth. They drove piles, sunk 
 iron shafts, and resorted to various expedients, and have 
 reared a splendid structure ; but no one has much confi- 
 dence in its permanency. It may tumble in a night diir- 
 ing some great flood. The engineers on the route between 
 Jubbulpore and Bombay have encountered the same diffi- 
 culty on the Iferbudda, and one expensive bridge and sev- 
 eral small ones have already fallen. 
 
 "We glide into the station, — a spacious structure, con- 
 taining a large restaurant and hotel ; but the landlord has 
 no accommodations. 
 
 "A great many travelling now," he' says. "Cotton 
 speculators are rushinig like mad bulls all over the coun- 
 try. People have, been telegraphing for rooms aU day." 
 
 But there are pubKc houses- in the town ; so stepping 
 into a shigram, we are carried through cross-streets and 
 by-ways to the " Great Eastern Hotel." It is a large square 
 edifice, with a wide veranda supporte(^ by tall Ionic col- 
 umns, and presents, an imposing appearance. 
 
 A half-dozen Englishmen are sitting at table, in the 
 centre of the great hall, drinking brandy and water. A 
 tail Hindoo shows us to our room, the door of which 
 is a red curtain. Partitions separate the rooms, but 
 there are no ceilings overhead. We can hear much of 
 7 J 
 
146 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 what is going on in the other apartments, and doubtless 
 our neighbors' ears are as sharp as ours, and they can 
 guess whether we are splashing in the earthen bath-tub 
 or breathing hard while asleep. 
 
 F.AISIXG THE WIND. 
 
 A punka hangs over our bed, kept in motion through 
 the night Ijy two Ijronzed creatures who sit beneath our 
 window, each taking turns at a rope, whicli runs through 
 the wall. Fanned by the machine, inhaling the sweet 
 fragrance of oleander, magnolia, and laliurnum, we lie 
 down to rest, Ijut not to slumber. AVe need no co^"ering. 
 The thinnest sheet is a lauxlen. The couch itself coidd 
 not be hotter even if a warming-pan filled with li^'c coals 
 were passed oxev it. "We toss and tumble, wipe olT tlie 
 perspiration oozing from every pore, and it is not till 
 the midnight breeze sweeps up tlie valley from the dis- 
 tant sea that we are able to get a wink of sleep. 
 
SCENES m ALLAHABAD. 147 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 SCENES IN ALLAHABAD. 
 
 T is cliarining in the cool of the morning to ride down 
 the broad shaded avenues of this chief mercantiLe 
 city of Central India, the Ganges laving the eastern and 
 the Jumna its western border. It occupies a favored 
 place in Hindoo estimation. The Ganges is the type of 
 the eternal. It has flowed from the beginning 'of time, 
 and wiU. roU^ on forever. The Jumna is its mightiest 
 afiluent, and its wooded banks are hallowed by the loves 
 of Krishna and Buddha, who once dwelt on earth, but 
 who are now immortal. 
 
 Beneath the luxuriant palm-trees of the Jumna, in bow- 
 ers adorned with flowers of every hue, the fabled Naiads 
 danced and sang, long before their voices were heard 
 amid the Grecian groves. At every step of our journey 
 in this Oriental land we meet with myths which, before 
 the Pelasgi were driven from Hellas, were rehearsed amid 
 these scenes. like the odor of sweet flowers pervading 
 parlor, haU, drawing-room, and chamber of a beautiful 
 mansion on a gala-night, so these legends give perfume 
 to literature, science, and art. The flower of ancient 
 Hindoo poesy gives fragrance to every page of history. 
 
 See how Indra has come down to us. To him one 
 hundred and seventy-eight of the hymns of the Eig 
 Veda are addressed. He was the god of air, — the ether, 
 ethereal. He was the Zeus of the Greeks. 
 
 " Zeus," says Max MiiUer, " was not an invention of 
 Homer. Jupiter was not borrowed from Greece. Long 
 before the Aryans immigrated into Greece and Italy, they 
 
148 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 - « 
 
 worshipped the same god under the same name. Brah- 
 mans, who migrated towards the south, invoked him along 
 the river of the Punjab." * 
 
 Modern astronomy has given this deity a place among 
 the spheres/ assigning him the largest planet of the 
 solar system. The numerous asteroids wheeling above 
 us are, some of them, only Grecian incarnations of gods, 
 worshipped ages before the schoolmaster Cadmus, as Mr. 
 Motley calls him, carried his writiag-book from the Nile 
 to the Peloponnesus. 
 
 Thousands of years ago Pruyag, the Mofti god, lived 
 here where the turbid Ganges and the sparkling Jumna 
 join their waters, and the place is holy. Superstition 
 has made it a spot where human beings can be purified 
 from sin. All who have their heads shavea at this junc- 
 tion of the rivers will secure one million years' residence 
 in paradise for every hair which falls into the sacred 
 waters ! Always there are pilgrims to be shaved ; but 
 in the month of January, when the moon is full, a grand 
 festival commences in honor of the god who once con- 
 descended to live here. The fair, or mela, lasts about 
 two months ; acres of ground are covered with tents, 
 and the place is crowded with devotees, beggars, and 
 merchants. It is therefore the greatest barber's shop in 
 the world, and those who handle the razor do a thriving 
 business. 
 
 Allahabad, being situated on the tongue of land formed 
 by the two streams, has always been a stronghold. The 
 fort which now rears its massive walls near the town was 
 a Hindoo fortress thirty centuries ago. The Moguls, when 
 they came into power, strengthened it. When the late 
 mutiny broke out it was the only place, except Lucknow, 
 in Upper India, which did not fall into the hands of the 
 rebels. " Keep Allahabad safe," was the despatch sent 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, October, 1851. 
 
SCENES m ALLAHABAD. 149 
 
 • 
 
 from Calcutta by Sir Henry Laurence ; and it was held 
 by the heroic little band against aU assaults, till HeOl 
 came up the river with reinforcements and raised the 
 siege. 
 
 Inside the fort stands a pillar forty-two feet high, — a 
 beautiful monolith of dark granite, slightly tapering to- 
 wards the top, and covered with inscriptions. Successive 
 generations have gazed upon it, wondering when and by 
 whom and for what purpose it was erected. It was not 
 till a few years ago that the characters were deciphered ; 
 but a pundit; learned in obsolete Indian literature, came 
 along one day, and discovered that the writing was the 
 ancient Pali, and that it was erected by the Eajah 
 Asoca, almost 250 B. C. The inscription is a royal 
 proclamation^ prohibiting cruelty to animals, and calling 
 upon the public to erect hospitals and other charitable 
 institutions. In those ancient days, before the art of 
 printing was discovered, princes thus promulgated their 
 decrees. 
 
 It was at Allahabad that the Greek Ambassador Me- 
 gasthenes resided 300 B. C, and wrote out those accounts 
 of India which have come down to us through Greek 
 historians. 
 
 This was a stronghold during Mohammedan rule, and 
 the old building called the Jummah Musjeed stOl stands, 
 a silent witness of devotion to the faith in those days. It 
 was a stately mosque ; but during the late mutiny English 
 soldiers ate their rations of salt-pork beneath its lofty 
 dome, and made it forever vile to the followers of the 
 Prophet. Strange are the contrasts of religious belief To 
 the Mohammedan pork is an abomination ; but three min- 
 utes' walk from this mosque brings us to a temple where 
 the Hindoos bow down to the image of the sacred hog 
 Baraha, — which is the second incarnation of Vishnu, who 
 rooted the world up from the bottom of the sea ! For that 
 
150 OUK NEW WAY ROUND THE WOKLD. 
 
 service lie is greatly beloved. Men present potatoes, man- 
 goes, and rice to his hogship ; -women sprinkle his sacred 
 head with holy water brought from the Ganges, and garland 
 his snout with flowers ! So man wallows in degrada- 
 tion, and blindly gropes his way to deeper darkness, when 
 he once turns away from God. 
 
 ' "We reach the market-place, where noisy purchasers 
 are chaiferiag with hucksters, who sit beneath wide-spread 
 umbrellas as awnings, supported by bamboo sticks. . Some 
 of the women are tattooed with fantastic representations 
 of fish, fridt, or flowers. The operation is performed 
 when they are quite young. Blue, red, and yellow colors 
 are used, and face, neck, arms, and body are subjected 
 to the process. To us it seems a ridiculous custom ; but 
 we dare say these Hindoo women, observing that we have 
 our ears bored, wonder we do not also adorn our persons 
 by wearing jewels ia the nose, or have flowers -pricked ia 
 India ink on our foreheads. 
 
 Some of the mothers carry their infants on the head 
 in a basket; others bear them on the hip, the little 
 bronzed creatures clinging to the shoulder of the mother 
 and riding at ease. 
 
 In the centre of the market-place is a deep well, with 
 a passage leading to the water down a long flight of stone* 
 steps. During the late mutiny, when the garrison in the 
 fort was holding out against the infuriated rebels, one of 
 their leaders, in order to incite the people to insurrection, 
 and influence their fanaticism, had a magic carpet spread 
 over the well, upon which he seated himself, and was sus- 
 tained, as the bloodthirsty fanatics believed, by the power 
 of God. Such an evidence of supernatural aid was proof 
 that they would win the victory, and their attacks upon 
 the fort were renewed with greater ferocity. 
 
 But NeHl was on his way from Calcutta with reinforce- 
 ments, and scattered the mutineers like chaff. Allaha- 
 
SCENES IN ALLAHABAD. 
 
 151 
 
 MOTHERS OF IXDIA. 
 
 bad was the first place relieved. Had it fallen liefore the 
 arrival of ISTeill, far different perhaps would liave been the 
 state of afiairs in India to-day. The valley of the Ganges 
 woidd have been in the hands of tlie mutineers to the 
 very suburljs of Calcutta, and the reliellion would have 
 obtained such a prestige and power, that a longer and 
 harder struggle would have been required on the part 
 of England to subdue it. 
 
 Prom the market-place we pass through a lofty gate- 
 way into the Chusero Bagh, a beautiful garden laid out 
 when the Moguls were in their greatest power and glory. 
 The gate itself is of wood, — solid, enduring teak. It was 
 erected more than two hundred and fifty years ago ; has 
 
152 OUR NEW WAY EOUKD THE WORLD. 
 
 withstood the burning heat of the sun, the parching winds, 
 tKe soaking rains, through all these mutable years, yet 
 the grain of the wood is firm and compact as when hewn 
 from the forest.- 
 
 The garden is bounded on one side by three stone mau- 
 soleums, erected by the Mohammedans several hundred 
 years ago. They are spacious and lofty, with panelled 
 walls, upon which are graven the virtues of two deceased 
 princes and the Begum of Jehangeer, for whom they 
 were erected. A square cupola, elaborately ornamented, 
 surmounts the flat roof of the edifice. The interior still 
 bears traces of its adornment by cimning hands when 
 India was ruled by the followers of the Prophet, and 
 when the crescent flag waved over every inch of territory 
 between the turbid Brahmaputra and the verdant vales 
 of Andalusia. 
 
 But the Englishman is here, and cares little for relics 
 of the past that do not glorify his own national history. 
 He has put up his billiard-table beneath the sculptured 
 roof of one of these magnificent tombs, and we hear the 
 clicking of the ivory balls where the Mussulman once 
 rehearsed the virtues of the deceased princes. The Eng- 
 lishman intends to make this tongue of land, so sacred 
 to the Hindoo, and so hallowed to the Mohammedan, 
 a busy mart of traffic. The courts, now held at Agra, are 
 to be held here, and it is proposed to make this the capi- 
 tal of the Northwest Provinces. It will soon be the gTcat 
 railway centre of the empire. Real estate is rising, and 
 men who are conversant with political affairs predict that 
 tdtimately the Governor-General will reside here instead 
 of at Calcutta. 
 
 The present population is about one hundred and ten 
 thousand, and is rapidly increasing. The railway station, 
 though spacious, is to give place to one of greater capa- 
 city for storing merchandise. 
 
SCENES IN ALLAHABAD. 153 
 
 But the increasing lieat warns lis to return to the 
 hotel; besides it is the breakfast hour. 
 
 A Hindoo waiter, with a turban shaped like a soup- 
 plate, who stands behind us at the table, says, " Amer- 
 ican ice, sir ! " as he drops a lump into my tumbler. 
 Looking out from the veranda to the next house we see 
 a sign, "American Ice." Mr. C. L. Brown is here, 
 agent of the Tudor Ice Company of Boston. He has 
 been fifteen years in India. The company are extend- 
 ing their operations to the interior. Heretofore the 
 cities up country have been supplied by " machiue ice," 
 which has been used by the Europeans, but which the 
 natives wiU not purchase. They are afraid it may con- 
 tata something that will make them unclean ; but Amer- 
 ican ice is pure, and they have no scruples about using 
 it. Mr. Brown has orders from Jubbulpore, Agra, Luck- 
 now, Delhi, and other cities along the different lines of 
 railway. Travellers send letters requesting him to have a 
 supply at the station on the arrival of the trains. They 
 look upon it, not as a luxury merely, but as an article that 
 cannot be dispensed with. In this climate it is a tonic. 
 Men do not exert themselves and get overheated here 
 as in the United States, and then cool off by drinking 
 ice-water, which, under such circumstances, brings on 
 cholera and fever; but they keep off such diseases by 
 reducing the system to a lower temperature by its use. 
 Mr. Brown gives the go-by to ale and brandy, the com- 
 mon drinks of Englishmen ; takes ice-water freely, eats 
 very little meat, but lives on rice, bathes every morning, 
 and has had no sickness during the fifteen years of his 
 Indian life. 
 
 The ice in our tumbler is three years old, having been 
 harvested in 1865. The most extravagant tale of the 
 Orient is not more romantic than the story of this solidi- 
 fied water from Wenham Lake. It is a piece of impris- 
 7* 
 
154 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 oned cold, a fragment of a bygone winter transported by- 
 sea and land to this city of Central India, to minister 
 to our health and comfort. 
 
 How romantic to thiak of it ! — of boyhood's rosy 
 cheeks and girlhood's laughing eyes, the joiniag of hands, 
 the swiftly flying feet sweeping the gleaming field, the 
 linking of hearts for a wider curve across the stream 
 of life ; — a picture of happiness without a counterpart 
 in the world, and as much in advance of life in this trop- 
 ical land as the Sistiae Madonna of Eaphael is superior 
 to the figures on a Chinese tea-chest ! 
 
 Call it rhapsody, sentiment, what you will; how can 
 one help tliis outburst of enthusiasm with a piece of ice 
 from Wenham Lake clinking in his tumbler, melting ia 
 his mouth, cooling his parched tongue, and bringing to his 
 soul a breeze of old associations ? 
 
 Blessed be the ice, and prosperity to the Tudor Com- 
 pany! 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 NATIVE SCHOOLS. 
 
 ALLAHABAD being centrally situated is a conven- 
 ient place for educational and missionary operations. 
 English and American missionaries have been some years 
 on the ground, not only preaching, but sustaining schools, 
 which are exercising a beneficial influence on the com- 
 munity. 
 
 The American Presbyterian churches have two mis- 
 sionaries in the city, Eev. Messrs. Owen and Walsh, 
 both of whom have been here about a quarter of a cen- 
 tury. We find Mr. Owen hard at work in his library on 
 
NATIVE SCHOOLS. 
 
 155 
 
 a new translation of tlie Bible. His time is given to 
 labor of that sort and to preacliing on the Sabbath. He 
 had a translation nearly completed at the time of the 
 breaking out of the mutiny, when his house was sacked 
 all his papers destroyed, and his work of years entirely 
 lost. It is very interesting to hear him recount the story 
 of the mutiny, while sitting at his breakfast-table, — the 
 trials of those dark days, the fidelity of the native Chris- 
 tians, and to listen to his account of a recent journey to 
 Thibet. An English officer last summer was ordered to 
 make an exploration of the country of the Himalayas 
 bordering on China, and invited Mr. Owen to accompany 
 him. They went up to Dellii; to the valley of the 
 Sutlej ; followed up that river ; climl)ed the nrountains, 
 over passes twenty-two thousand feet high, and reached 
 the borders of Western C!liina; but here they were 
 turned back by the authorities. 
 
 It is a coimtry wdiere men pray by machinery ; some- 
 tunes by. vmter, but oftener by hand power. Dr. Owen 
 lirought down one of their prayer -wlieels, wliich is some- 
 wdiat like a Avatchnian's rattle, only it makes less clatter. 
 It contains a strip of paper or parchment, on which 
 
 PEATING BY HAND. 
 
156 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 prayers are written. Swinging it is praying, just as the 
 counting of beads in Catholic countries is devotion. More 
 powerful praying machines are turned by the mountain 
 streams, which weary not, but make continued supjdica- 
 tion day and night. Between beads and wheels, the last 
 is the more ingenious, and doubtless quite as effective. 
 
 1 J ^ '"cst- : 
 
 I .' — * 
 
 FRAYING BY WATER. 
 
 From this gentleman we obtain many facts in regard to 
 missionary operations in India, as well as of other im- 
 portant movements for the enlightenment of Hindoos. 
 He informs us that the natives have a great desire to 
 obtain an education. He received a letter last week 
 from a nati^'c who had been educated in the mission 
 
NATIVE SCHOOLS. 157 
 
 school, and who had ohtained a place on the railroad. 
 He had been promoted^ and his salary advanced from 
 $ 75 to S 100 per month. The letter contained $ 25, and 
 reads as foUows : — 
 
 " My dear old master, please accept the increase of 
 my salary for one month as a thank-offering to the Lord." 
 
 Yet this man is not a Christian. Althoiigh he does 
 not worship idols, he has not embraced the Christian re- 
 ligion. He has only arrived at a state of hetweenity. He 
 knows the benefit of an education, probably looks upon 
 the Bible as superior to the Shasters ; at any rate, he gives 
 a prize of one dollar per month to the scholar of the 
 class who shows the most proficiency in Biblical knowl- 
 edge. Caste, and the influtence of friends, prevent him 
 from openly committing himself to the Christian religion. 
 
 And so with many native gentlemen. They hold the 
 missionaries in. high esteem, and encourage their good 
 work in many ways, but they cannot whoUy break away 
 from their idols, and range themselves in the ranks of 
 the Christians, — forego the love of friends and neigh- 
 bors, and be classed with the low and vile. 
 
 Eiding through the native portion of the city, past 
 bazaars, markets, and temples, we reach the house of 
 Eev. Mr. Walsh. He came from Newburg, N. Y. ; is 
 hale, hearty, energetic, and has a countenance fresh and 
 fair, after a quarter of a century of labor under the sun 
 of India. 
 
 The mission premises occupied by him are situated on 
 the bank of the Jumna, and formerly belonged to the 
 government. They comprise a church, a court-house, sev- 
 eral bungalows for of&cers, a garden, and an extensive 
 park, planted with shade-trees. The buildings cost a 
 large sum of money, but some wise engineer informed 
 the governor that in a /few years the whole would be 
 tumbled into the river ; therefore a new site was selected 
 for the public offices. 
 
158 OUE NEW WAY EOXJND THE WORLD. 
 
 The missionaries were better acquainted with the 
 eccentricities of the tivex, and, having confidence in its 
 integrity at that particular place, purchased the entire 
 estate for two thousand dollars. They can sell it now for 
 fifty thousand. 
 
 It is a charming locality, with shady lawns and wide- 
 spreading trees, beneath one of which we find Eev. Mr. 
 Walsh, at six o'clock in the morning, taking a cup of tea. 
 
 " I have about four hundred boys," he says, as we pass 
 across the lawn to the old court-house, " of all ages, shades, 
 and castes. You will see for yourselves what they are 
 and what they promise. There is such a demand for 
 English-speaking natives that I cannot graduate a class. 
 They are snapped up as soon as they can say, ' How do 
 you do ? ' and ' Good morning.' A great many who have 
 gone out from this school are getting far greater pay than 
 I am." 
 
 We reach the door of the building — a one-storied edi- 
 fice, with a thatched roof — in season to see the scholars 
 trooping into the large hall by classes. They rise and say, 
 " Good morning." Then comes the reading of the Bible, 
 and a prayer in ' Hindostani by Mr. Walsh ; then all 
 except the first class retire. 
 
 The first exercise is in reading, with Paradise Lost for a 
 text-book. The lesson for the morning is from the Sec- 
 ond Book, the descriptioi;i of Chaos : — 
 
 " Behold the throne 
 Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 
 "Wide on the wasteful Deep ! With him enthroned 
 Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, 
 The consort of his reign ; and by them stood 
 Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name 
 Of Demogorgon ; Rumor next and Chance, 
 And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled, 
 And Discord with a thousand various mouths." 
 
 Here is something not found in the Shasters ; yet the 
 
NATIVE SCHOOLS. 15f 
 
 scholars understand the meaning of the poet, and analyz* 
 the sentences quite as correctly as, those of our norma 
 schools. 
 
 "Who are the people mentioned here, and where dc 
 they live ? " 
 
 " They are not people, sir ; they are personifications." 
 
 " Is this poem wholly a fiction ? " . 
 
 " No, sir ; it is based on the Bible." 
 
 Other questions elicit intelligent answers, as will be 
 seen in their explanation of the following passage : — 
 
 " Or when THysses on the larboard shunned 
 Charybdis, and by the other Whirlpool steered." 
 
 "We question them to learn what they know of Homei 
 and the Odyssey, or of geography. 
 
 " "Who was the person here referred to ? " 
 " He was one of the characters in Homer's poem.'' 
 " "Who was Homer, and where and when did he live ? '' 
 " He was. a Greek poet, who lived more than two thou- 
 sand years ago." 
 
 " Where are the localities here mentioned ? " 
 " In the Straits of Messina, which separate Sicily from 
 Italy." ■ 
 
 Near the close of the book are these lines :. — 
 
 " This pendent World, in bigness as a star, 
 Of smallest magnitude close by the moon." 
 
 They offer us the opportunity of inquiring what the 
 pupils thiak of the Hindoo cosmogony, which makes the 
 earth a broad, flat surface, surrounded by seas, with a great 
 mountain, one hundred and twenty-two thousand imles 
 high, in the distant North, around which the sun revolves^ 
 thus producing day and 'night-; the whole supported on 
 the back of a great turtle. Above the earth are crystal 
 .spheres, where the gods dweU on green islands, surrounded 
 by oceans of melted butter. To us of the West their 
 
160 OUR NEW WAT BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 terrestrial and celestial physics seem on a par with the 
 description ia Mother G-oose of 
 
 " The man in the moon 
 
 Who came down at noon 
 To inquire the way to Norridge." 
 
 One of the pupils gives, at our request, an outline of 
 the Hindoo belief in regard to the structure of the Uni- 
 verse. He hangs his head while speaMng, as if ashamed 
 of his former ignorance. Their ideas of distance and 
 magnitude are limited. They never have travelled, never 
 have been far from their native city. The full moon to 
 them is no larger than a dianer-plate. The ninety mil- 
 lioli miles of space between us and the sun is an incom- 
 prehensible distance ; but they have correct notions of 
 the solar system, of balls whirling in space around a 
 central orb. 
 
 Noticing that one of the class has a watch, and hav- 
 ing been talking about the celestial scenery, we gradually 
 approach the subject of natural religion. 
 
 " Does your watch keep good time ? " 
 
 « Pretty good." 
 
 " Does it lose or gain ? " 
 
 " It gains." 
 
 " Did you ever see one that kept exact time ? " 
 
 " N"o, sir ; I don't think it possible for a man to make 
 one." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Because of the difference of temperature at times, and 
 for want of skiU." 
 
 " Does the earth revolve aroimd the sim without any 
 variation ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir ; and so do aU the planets." 
 
 " May we infer anything from this ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir ; I think that we may infer that there is a 
 God." 
 
NATIVE SCHOOLS. 161 
 
 He has not studied Butler or Paley, nor any other 
 author on natural religion; but it is the conclusion arrived 
 at ■ by the education he has received in the school, with 
 the Bible for one of the text-books. 
 
 It is not possible for us to fully understand the -work- 
 rngs of their minds. They are young men, — the oldest 
 perhaps twenty years of age; many of them married^ 
 some of them fathers. Those not married are betrothed ; 
 though who they are af&anced to, where she hves, how 
 she looks, whether beautiful or ugly, they know not. 
 The fathers have done all the business. They have been 
 brought up to worship idols; their parents bow down 
 to Vishnu ; their sisters lay flowers on the shrine oi 
 Krishna ; their friends and relatives and acqnaintances 
 believe in those deities, perform ablutions, and attend 
 festivals. They see the absurdity of their former belief, 
 and are ready to laugh when Mr. Walsh holds it up to 
 ridicule. 
 
 The next exercise is on the Mind, with Abercrombie's 
 Philosophy of the Moral Feelings for a text-book. The 
 lesson of the morning is in regard to Testimony, the credi- 
 bility of direct and circumstantial evidence. 
 
 Upon this they are at sea. The Hindoo is wanting in 
 all sense of moral obligation. His sacred book — his 
 Bible — contains no code of moral laws. His priest sets 
 him an example of duplicity. He never trusts his dis- 
 pute with his neighbor to the arbitrament of a native 
 judge, who has ever an open pahn for him who wiU pay 
 the highest fee. 
 
 i A missionary travelling through the country protected 
 himself from the noonday heat by lying in a stream ; 
 while in that rather unmagisterial position the people oi 
 the neighboring village came with their disputes, made 
 him their judge, and accepted his decisions. They have 
 perfect confidence in Eipropean, but none in Hindoo jus- 
 
162 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 tice. They do not wish to see natives, no matter how 
 learned they may be in the law, put upon the bench. 
 
 " How would you get at the truth in a court of law ? " 
 we ask. 
 
 " "We must make witnesses swear upon what they hold 
 to be most sacred." 
 
 "What would that be?" 
 
 " Some would swear upon the Shasters, others by the 
 Ganges." 
 
 " Do the Shasters make men better ? or does the Ganges 
 make men morally responsible ? " 
 
 " No, sir ; but whatever men believe to be sacred we 
 must make them swear by." 
 
 Another one says that we must judge of the credibility 
 of the witness from his previous character ; while the 
 third claims that we must judge by the general appear- 
 ance of the man. 
 
 Passing into the room occupied by the second class, we 
 find them reciting in algebra, one of their number at a 
 black-board solving a problem. They are boys from 
 twelve to sixteen years %{ age. As a test of their 
 ability to apply their knowledge of mathematics to prac- 
 tical life, we inc[uire how, if they were building a house, 
 they would ascertain mathematically the length of the 
 rafters of the roof. The answer is given quickly and 
 correctly. The Hindoos excel in mathematics, and com- 
 mand high salaries as clerks and accountants. Some 
 who obtained an education ia this school are reeei-\Tng 
 a salary of twelve hundred dollars per annum. This is 
 a stimulus to the native mind. Formerly it was diffi- 
 cult to obtain pupils, but there is no need now of urging 
 parents to send their boys to the mission schools, which 
 are preferred to those established by the government, 
 notwithstanding the missionaries make the Bible a text- 
 book, and teach the doctrines of the Christian religion 
 
FEOM ALLAHABAD TO BENAEES. 163 
 
 as laid down in the catechism of the Westminster 
 divines. 
 
 A journey from Bombay to this city, and our morning's 
 visit to this school, gives us a broader view of the mate- 
 rial and moral foices at work for the Christianization of 
 India. The success of this mission is the best answer 
 to all doubters of the efficiency of the means and the 
 men employed in regenerating this ancient land of 
 Buddha and Brahma. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 FROM ALLAHABAD TO BEKAEES. 
 
 BEFORE turning our faces southward from Allahabad, 
 down the valley of the Ganges, it wiU. be interest- 
 ing to glance at that section of India which lies north- 
 ward of this city. We behold a vast plain, watered by 
 the Jumna, the Ganges, and their numerous affluents. 
 It widens toward the north, and the whole of the im- 
 mense area is densely populated. It has been a human 
 hive for forty centuries. When the Aryans — the an- 
 cestors of the Hiadoos — entered the valley of the Indus, 
 it was thickly inhabited, and ten centuries passed before 
 they were powerful enough to obtain possession of the 
 country. 'No portion of the globe, unless some sections 
 of China may be excepted, has sustained an equal num- 
 ber of human beings. 
 
 The exceeding fertility of the soil, the industry and 
 art of the people, the rich fabrics of their looms, the 
 diamond mines of Golconda, made India, in bygone ages, 
 renowned as the richest of all lands. It ever excited 
 
164 ' OUR NEW WAY ROUND, THE WORLD. 
 
 the cupidity of the nations. There is evidence that 
 Sesostris once sent an expedition hither. Certain it is 
 that the Scythians and Persians successively swooped 
 down upon these treasure - fields. Alexander almost 
 reached them, and probably would have done so had his 
 life not been cut short at Babylon. The Mohammedans 
 came, fertilized the soil afresh with blood, ruled with 
 an iron hand, till their Empire crumbled through old 
 age, when the English took possession of the magnifi- 
 cent domain. 
 
 To comprehend the density of population here, we may 
 think of the six ITew England States and 'New York as 
 containing thirty-three million inhabitants, — aU of the 
 people of the United States crowded into that small 
 area ! Or if the present population of the Union were 
 living in Illinois and Iowa, those States would not con- 
 tain so many human beings as are now Uving on less 
 territory in the N'orthwest Provinces of India 1 
 
 The plain is alluvial, and would sustain a countless 
 multitude if there were a constant supply of water. But 
 the summers are dry, crops sometimes fail, and myriads of 
 the dusky race at times have been swept away by famine. 
 A canal four hundred miles ia length has been excavated 
 to bring water from the Himalayas, irrigation companies 
 formed, and it is the intention of the government to 
 establish a system of water supply, which wiU add im- 
 measurably to the productive capacity of the soil 
 
 Formerly the products of this section found their way 
 to the seaboard only by tedious and uncertain trans- 
 portation down the Ganges, while British goods were 
 still longer on the way up the stream from Calcutta. 
 The cost of freightage was so great that the inhabi- 
 tants could not afford to purchase the manufactures of 
 Manchester and Birmingham ; but the railroad has worked 
 a wonderful change. The natives cultivate cotton, which 
 
FROM ALLAHABAD TO BENARES. 16 
 
 is taken to England, wrought into calico, brouglit bac 
 again, and sold in the village whence the snowy pre 
 duct was sent away. Land and labor have advance 
 in value. Men who barely obtained a living before th 
 opening of the railroad are now beginning to accumulat 
 money. 
 
 It would be interesting to visit Cawnpoor, Agra, an 
 Delhi, and behold those places, made forever memorabl 
 by the events of twenty-five centuries, and more esp« 
 cially by the mournful and heroic scenes of the lat 
 mutiny ; but our course is down the valley of the Gangei 
 
 It is past midnight when we enter the railway statio 
 at Mirzapoor, fifty-five miles south of Allahabad, and fin 
 the carriage of an English missionary awaiting us. 
 
 At sunrise we are abroad with Eev. Mr. Lambert, ric 
 ing through that modem town, which stands on the wes 
 bank of the Ganges. A multitude of natives are tillin 
 their water-jars at the river. 
 
 The city is one of the best points for traffic in Hindos 
 tan. The country around is very productive. Aboi 
 one sixth of aU the cotton and grain of India comes froi 
 Mirzapoor, and the warehouses of this city supply gooc 
 to fifty millions of people ! A visit to these stores lets v 
 into the secret of England's prosperity. In every viUag 
 of this empire goods of British manufacture may be foun( 
 In every native hut something is seen which has passe 
 through the hands of British workmen. The strip of co 
 ton which the cooly wears for decency was woven in a 
 English loom ; the little brass image of Krishna befoi 
 which the Hindoo woman bows in worship came from 
 Birmingham workshop. 
 
 The town has no ancient renown, but has grown u 
 since the occupation of India by the EugHsh. The prei 
 ent population is about eighty thousand. 
 
 A short distance out of the town is a hOI upon whic 
 
166 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD, 
 
 stands the temple of Kali, the goddess of murderers. 
 Here, in former years, the Thugs came with their offer- 
 ings, laid them at the feet of the idol, worshipped, and 
 then went out to knock their victims on the head and 
 tumble them into the Ganges. It is said to he the only 
 temple to that goddess now standing in India. ' The gov- 
 ernment has hunted the last Thug out of the country, 
 and human life is as well protected here as ia any 
 other country. 
 
 We are kindly entertained by Mr. Lambert, who is 
 connected with the London Missionary Society, and who 
 confirms the view already advanced, that raUroads are 
 breaking up caste and revolutionizing society. 
 
 Seated in his pleasant parlor, with the punka in motion 
 over our heads, he gives us valuable information in regard 
 to the social life, of the Hindoos. "We have supposed that 
 a Brahman was only defiled if brought in contact with 
 those of lower caste, but they axe dishonored as well. If 
 a woman of the higher classes- uncovers her face before 
 strangers, she disgraces her husband as welj. as herself. 
 
 Aa Englishman at Mirzapoor whose windows overlooked 
 the garden of a wealthy Hiudoo was ungaUant enough to 
 use his opera-glass one day while the wife of his neighbor 
 was walking beneath the trees without her veil. The 
 result was domestic discord and unutterable woe. The 
 wife threw herself at the husband's feet, hiding her head 
 in shame ; and the man, with a broken heart, rushed to 
 the Englishman's residence, crying, ." I am forever dishon- 
 ored. Everybody wiU laugh at me. I never shall go 
 into good society again ! " 
 
 The tyranny of caste is inconceivable till one comes in 
 contact with it. If a Hiudoo woman of high caste wishes 
 to travel in the cars, she is taken to the station and put, 
 palankeen and all, into a freight-car. 
 
 It shows its power among the servants. There is no 
 
FROM ALLAHABAD TO BENAEES, 167 
 
 such thing as a general house-servant in India. One 
 man sweeps, another brings water, a third blacks our 
 boots, the fourth answers the door-beU. There is no 
 interchange of work. Men labor in-doors, while their 
 wives are cultivating the land. "Women can earn, by 
 hard work, four cents a day. They Hve mainly on rice, 
 the poorest quality of which costs two and a half cents a 
 pound. There cannot be much variety in their fare ; and 
 at the close of December, as to wealth, they are where 
 they were at the beginning of the year. On such a pit- 
 tance they do well to keep soul and body together. 
 
 Another ride of forty miles by rail brings us to the 
 station of Mogul Serai, where we leave the maiu line. 
 A branch four miles long, over a fertile plaia, where 
 numerous jackals are ranging, through the fields, takes 
 ■us to the Benares station, on the west bank of the 
 Ganges. Stepping from the car, we have a view before 
 us which has thriUed the souls of countless millions. 
 What Jerusalem is to the Christian, Mecca to the Mo- 
 hammedan, Benares is to the Hindoo, — the holiest spot on 
 earth. The city is one of the oldest ia the world. Twenty- 
 six centuries have passed since Eome wa| founded ; but 
 before Eomulus was heard of Benares was an ancient 
 town. Long before the shepherd-boy of Bethlehem tend- 
 ed his father's flocks on the Judaean hUls, before Jeru- 
 salem became the city of the Lord, pilgrims visited this 
 sacred shrine. Eomans, Greeks, Jews, Assyrians, Egyp- 
 tians, with their religions, have disappeared as nations, 
 but the Hindoo people still exist, numbering as many to- 
 day probably as at any period of their history. Their 
 reUgion remains, and Benares is now, as it has been from 
 the earliest ages, a city of temples. 
 
 Tail, white minarets, golden domes of mosques, and 
 temples and princely palaces rise before us.' At our feet 
 the Ganges roEs its mighty flood. Many a pilgrim, from 
 
168 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 the remotest proviace of India, measuring his weary way, 
 by prayer and penance, through months and years, he- 
 holding those gleaming spires has been thrilled with joy 
 unspeakable. Paradise was before him. The Ganges 
 was the river of eternal Life. In its flowing water the 
 sinful soul would be cleansed from every stain, and in 
 yonder holy city he would find everlasting peace. 
 
 A bridge of boats crosses the river, over which we are 
 taken in a carriage. Hundreds of Hindoos are bathing 
 along the shore, or plunging from the boats, paying no 
 attention to a swoUen and disfigured corpse floating down 
 the stream. The government is endeavoring to put a 
 stop to the practice of throwing dead bodies into the 
 Ganges ; but the river is so holy, and the custom so an- 
 cient, that the police canncft wholly prevent it. 
 • Several elephants, in charge of their keepers, are sport- 
 ing in the current. They disappear beneath the surface, 
 tin their masters are knee-deep in water. "When in play- 
 ful moods they shake them off, then pick them up as ten- 
 derly as a mother her child. No animals are more fond 
 of bathing. They are exceedingly serviceable in trans- 
 porting artilleiy . across the country. So tractable and 
 docile are they, that when caparisoned, and on parade, at 
 the word of command every animal salutes the reviewing 
 officer by elevating his trunk. 
 
 We ascend the steep bank on the eastern side by the 
 aid of a half-dozen Hindoos, who push at the carriage- 
 wheels, and thrust their hands into the window for 
 annas. They call us Sahib respectfully, ask beseechingly, 
 and are so thankful for what they receive, that it is a 
 pleasure to put. the diminutive copper coin into their 
 hands. Two cents ^vill give them a good dinner. . Who 
 would not make men happy when it can be done at so 
 cheap a rate ? 
 
 Up a broad street, beneath palms and pepul-trees. 
 
FROM ALLAHABAD TO BENAEES. 169 
 
 througli dust anMe deep, we ride to the Victoria Hotel, in 
 the northern suburbs. It is a small, one-story building, 
 with a thatched roof. The accommodations are not sump- 
 tuous, for few Europeans have business at Benares, and 
 there is no call for a spacious hotel. Our landlord, James 
 Ebenezer, a native Christian, doss his best to make us 
 comfortable, sets a good table, and is very courteous. 
 
 It will add to the interest of ' our visit if, before stroll- 
 ing through the streets, we take a look at Benares as it 
 was twenty-iive centuries ago. 
 
 In the earliest Hindoo records it is spoken of as the 
 great city Kasi, supported by Shiva upon his trident. To 
 him its shrines and temples are dedicated. Memphis, 
 Babylon, and Niueveh were its contemporaries, but they 
 have disappeared, while Kasi remains to attest the pre- 
 serving power of 'this mighty god. Its modern name is 
 derived from the Barana Eiver, an afiluent of the Ganges, 
 which winds past our hotel. 
 
 The institutes of Menu were written, as is supposed, 
 about 700 B. C, and in them we have an account of 
 Benares. It was one of six independent kingdoms in the 
 valley of the Ganges. Looking westward from our hotel, 
 we see at the confluence of the Barana with the Ganges, 
 the site of the fortress which in those times was the 
 stronghold of the kingdom, and within which stood the 
 royal palace. The writer of that ancient volume brings 
 before us the assembling of the royal guards, with shining 
 sabres and iron-bound war-clubs ; sentinels with scymitars 
 guard the gates ; warriors with immense bows, and arrows 
 six feet in length in their quivers, stand upon the tur- 
 reted walls ; cavalry, armed with spears, sweep the wide 
 plain ; the sovereign goes forth from his palace with 
 a train of elephants, richly caparisoned, and sabres on 
 their tusks, mowing down the opposing squadrons ; war- 
 chariots, drawn by strong horses, dasli into the ranks of. 
 8 
 
170 OtJE NEW WAY EOtraO THE WORLD. 
 
 the enemy. Sucli is tlie ancient picture of military 
 array. 
 
 Two hundred years before Plato opened his academy 
 in the olive-groves of the- western suburbs of Athens 
 Benares was in the zenith of her literary fame. The 
 streets were crowded with scholars, who flocked from 
 all the East to attend the seven hundred seminaries 
 of learning ! The Tamil drama, " Arichandra," pictures 
 to us the wealthy mansions of the Vaisas, the shops 
 and stalls, money-changers, and their heaps of gold and 
 silver. 
 
 Here Buddha taught his atheistical doctrines; here 
 Brahmans and Buddhists, learned in philosophy, held dis- 
 cussions as keen as ever were heard in Athenian groves. 
 
 From Chinese, Hindoo, and Mohammedan history we 
 have accounts of this holy city, which, through the mu- 
 tations of time, changes of dynasties, and commotions of 
 war, has maintained in some degree its ancient splendor, 
 > and to-day awakens in the hearts of one hundred and 
 fifty millions of the human race the most sacred asso- 
 ciations. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 THE CITY OF BENAEES. 
 
 « QAHIB, it is four o'clock!" We had given in- 
 O structions.to the servant at the hotel to call us at 
 that early hour, and he is prompt to a minute in doing 
 his duty. A half-hour later we are riding through the 
 streets, accompanied by Eev. Mr.- Hewlet, of the London 
 Missionary Society, to take a look at the city. N"u- 
 
THE CITY OF BENAEES. 171 
 
 merous adjutant-cranes are in the fields and gardens and 
 on tlie house-tops. They have long slender legs, and 
 stand motionless by the hour, or cock their eyes at us 
 with a knowing look. The English soldiers contrive to 
 kill time by tying pieces of meat together with several 
 yards of cord between. They are gobbled down by the 
 birds. Then comes the tug of war, on the ground or in 
 the air. They rise, one aiming for a tree, the other for 
 a house-top. Up they go, pulling, fluttering, losing their 
 balance, turning topsy-turvy, tOl a sudden jerk by one 
 causes the other to disgorge his breakfast, and the first, 
 not being able to carry the dangUng weight, comes head- 
 long to the ground. 
 
 No Hindoo kiQs a bird. Myriads of sparrows chirp 
 amid the shrubbery. There are kites by the thousand, 
 crows by the ten thousand. With the jackals, which 
 come in from the fields at night, they keep the streets 
 clear of all garbage. There never is seen in an Indian 
 town such filth as is common to the streets of New 
 York. 
 
 We are on our . way to the monkey pagoda, where 
 Hunnooman is worshipped in the form of a monkey. 
 This god was an ancient warrior who, early in Indian his- 
 tory, conquered Ceylon, the inhabitants of which were so 
 small of stature that he compared them to monkeys. As 
 the years roUed by, and his exploits were handed down 
 in story and song, the people thought of Mm as a deity, 
 and represented their ideal by a monkey. Not only at 
 Benares, but throughout India, his image, in brass, wood, 
 and stone, is worshipped in -public temples and at family 
 shrines. Because he bears an apish form, monkeys are 
 kindly -cared for, and the grand temple of Hunnooman 
 is their favorite resort. 
 
 Before reaching it we see the animals sitting on walls, 
 grinning at us from the tops of the houses, or hanging by 
 
172 
 
 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 their tails from the branches of tlie trees. Two of them 
 jump fjiuldenly from their perch upon the wall, seize a 
 
 melon from a tray, 
 and are up again 
 before the unsus- 
 pecting market- 
 woman wliom til ey 
 have plundered is 
 aware of lier loss. 
 At tlie corners 
 of streets, in gar- 
 dens and shops, 
 are shrines dedi- 
 cated to this mon- 
 key-god. 
 
 Flower - sellers 
 have set up their 
 stalls lay the en- 
 trance to the tem- 
 ple, for every wor- 
 slapper is expected 
 to give a flower to 
 the g(jd. He does 
 not live on flowers 
 alone, but accepts 
 melons, squashes, cucumbers, rice, or eatables of any kind, 
 which the priests talve into their own C[uarters, after 
 Hunooman has finished his repast. 
 
 The monkeys gnash their teeth at us as we appriwch 
 the gate. One of them opens his jaws as if to swallow 
 us at a mouthful ; but a flourish of an umlirella sends 
 them all scampering to a safer distance. 
 
 Old devotees, smeared with paint, are sitting by the 
 gateway. Their foreheads are streaked witli red, their Ijod- 
 ies with yellow. Thuir only clothing is a yard of cloth 
 
 ON THE SLY. 
 
THE CITY OF BENARES. 
 
 173 
 
 around the body. They have cocoanut-shells in their 
 hands, into -which they expect you to drop money, or rice, 
 or sonietliing good to eat. They are poor, lialf-starved 
 ^vretches, but esteem themselves to be very holy. 
 
 We step inside 
 the gate, and find 
 ourselves in a yard 
 aliout fifty feet 
 square, containing 
 a pagoda in tlie 
 centre. We look 
 through the open 
 door and see a hid- 
 eous idol, before 
 which a lamp is 
 burning. Two or 
 three worshippers 
 are there, oftering 
 flowers and sprink- 
 ling water. One of 
 them comes out, 
 strikes a bell, and 
 begins to walk 
 round the pagoda, 
 wliich is his man- 
 ner of worship- 
 ping. ■ 
 
 ]\£eanwhile the monkeys are having a gay frolic, run- 
 ning about the pagoda, leaping from the wall to the 
 ground, from the ground to the wall, or climbing into 
 the trees, the old monkeys carrying their little ones. 
 
 Benares is so lioly that the Brahmans say if an Eng- 
 lishman or an American dies here, though a disljeliever in 
 the Hindoo religiijn, he will be saved. In Hindoo liter- 
 ature the city is always spoken of as a place of holiness 
 and heavenly beauty. 
 
 ^O^tsSfc 
 
 DISPUTED TEKRITORT. 
 
174 
 
 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 A short ride brings us to the Ganges, at the northern 
 border of the city. The river sweeps past with a ma- 
 jestic tide, and tlie Avhole water front of more than three 
 miles is before us. Thousands of boats of various forms 
 are in view, — canoes dug from the trunks of trees, skiffs, 
 sailing vessels, with pointed prows, high and wide sterns, 
 and vnth rudders as large and unwieldy as the great 
 doors of an American barn, and slender masts, bamboo 
 yards, and sails of India matting. Stately stone steps 
 
 THE SACEED STREAM. 
 
 lead dowTi to the brink of the river. Thousands of the 
 natives, old and yoimg, are bathing in the stream, or 
 washing clothing, brass pots, and earthen pans, ilothers 
 souse their babies, and scrub them with sacred mud. 
 The little ones kick and scream and splash, but only by 
 this thorough ablution can a child be cleansed from sin. 
 Old men scour their mouths, cleanse their ears, and mn 
 their fingers briskly through their hair. If there is any 
 efficacy in the mud and water of the Ganges, they are 
 bound to get rid of all defilement. 
 
THE CITY OF BENARES. 175 
 
 TaMng a boat, we float slowly down with the ctuTeiit, 
 and have an excellent opportunity of beholding the city 
 from the river. "We pass the place where the bodies of 
 the dead are burned. They are brought to the bank of 
 the river and covered with wood. The flame is kindled 
 by the chief mourner; then the friends sit down, wait 
 till the body is consilmed, and gather the ashes and cast 
 them into the stream, to be borne out into the ocean. So 
 the spirit of the departed floats on the eternal tide, till 
 absorbed forever into the self-existing Brahma. 
 
 A river-bank is the most attractive place in the world 
 for a Hindoo. Bathing is a religious rite. To erect a 
 ghat, by which worshippers can reach the sarjred stream, 
 is a meritorious act, which the gods will remember 
 and reward. Hindoos are animated by a religious zeal 
 quite as fervent as that which prompts good people in 
 America, . and in other parts of Christendom, to erect 
 churches, or establish religious institutions of any kind. 
 To the people of Benares there are no places so near 
 heaven as these magnificent flights of stone steps. Their 
 happiest hours of life are passed here. In the early morn- 
 ing they come to bathe, and offer a prayer ; and when 
 the blazing sun wheels down the west, and the shadows 
 begin to lengthen, here they gather once more to gossip 
 upon the events of the day ; youth, beauty, fashion, all 
 aKke make it a resort, and human nature manifests 
 itself much the same by the flowing Ganges as by the 
 seaside at Newport or Long Branch. 
 
 Benares sets the fashion in India. Paris has no. power 
 here. The beauties of this old city are considered the 
 queens of Hindoo society. Here may be found the rich, 
 the learned, and the polite men of the nation ; here, 
 better than anywhere else, can be seen the India of the 
 past. 
 
 In our course down the stream we pass numerous 
 
176 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 pagodas, built by wealthy men for the benefit of the 
 millions of pilgrims that from time, to time throng 
 Benares. Grand palaces adorn the banks, erected by 
 princes and rajahs, who wish to spend their last days 
 near this sacred' stream. One of the finest of the ghats, 
 undermined by the floods, has slipped down the bank 
 into the river, and others are just ready to foUow, — fit 
 emblem of the change which has already commenced in 
 the Hindoo religion, which is being swept away by the 
 mighty current of Christian civilization. 
 
 "The time was," remarks our kind conductor, "wh'en 
 the Brahmans carried things with a high hand. When 
 I first came to this city, several years ago, if a priest 
 was passing through the street, and saw a Sudra advan- 
 cing, he had only to clap his hands, and the trembling 
 creature turned back till he reached a side street, that 
 the Brahman might not be polluted by his presence 
 as he passed ! And I have .seen them wade into the 
 ■water up to their necks, or throw themselves under the 
 hedges, that their shadows might not contaminate the 
 holy man." 
 
 .On one of the ghats we see a white bull, standing on a 
 broad step, contentedly .chewing his cud, lashing his sides 
 with his tail, and looking down upon the multitude as if 
 lord over aU. Not long ago one of these sacred animals 
 broke into the garden of a native Christian, and ate up 
 his vegetables. The native revenged himself by split- 
 ting open the sloill of the intruder. Of course there 
 was great commotion among the Brahmans, who were 
 indignant at such an insult to Shiva. They dragged 
 the Christian into court, and made complaint. 
 
 " Who owned the bull ? " asked the judge. 
 
 " Shiva," replied the Brahman. 
 
 " Then let Shiva appear and make complaint," said he ; 
 and there was an end of the case, but not an end of its . 
 
THE CITY OF BENARES. 177 
 
 influence. From that time to the present bulls and 
 Brahmans, like the ghats, have been slipping down, and 
 will be at the bottom by and by. 
 
 Dismissing our boat, and ascending the steps, we reach 
 the Madoo-rai-ke-dharara, a Mohammedan mosque, with 
 two slender white minarets, which rise two hundred and 
 twenty-five feet from the ground. Over the doorway 
 leading to the interior wasps have buQt an enormous 
 nest, and buzz about our ears as we approach. The 
 mosque is not much used by worshippers now, for 
 Benares is a JHindoo city, and an uncomfortable place 
 for a Mussulman. The antagonism is as strong between 
 the believers in Brahma and the followers of the Prophet 
 as was that between the Jews and Samaritans. 
 
 Climbing the winding stairs in one of the minarets, we 
 reach the highest balcony, and look out upon one of the 
 most charming views in all India. The city, with its 
 vast expanse of tiled roofs, its minarets and its spires, 
 and the domes of pagodas and temples, is spread out be- 
 fore us. Four hundred feet below rolls the mighty flood 
 of the Ganges. We can trace its winding course far 
 away, through green fields, fertile meadow^, and groves of 
 tufted palm. In the heart of the city in the Biseswara 
 pagoda, its roof of burnished gold dazzling our eyes 
 with its brightness. To the Hindoo this temple is as 
 dear as was the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah 
 to the ancient Jews, as sacred to him . as St. Peter's to 
 the most devout papist entering the walls of Rome. 
 
 Beyond the city are groves and gardens and native 
 villages, with their white pagodas ; and away to the 
 northeast we catch the outline of the Himalayas, tower- 
 ing in unapproachable grandeur. The hum of thou- 
 sands of voices, the tramping of feet, and the hubbub 
 of the street, rise softened to our ears. From this bal- 
 cony the muezzin calls the hour for prayer. 
 
 8* 
 
178 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Standing here we can cast a glance into the past, and 
 recall the time when the great Aurungzebe ascended the 
 throne. It was in the year 1630, — that year when 
 Governor Winthrop and his hardy followers were set- 
 tling the little town of Boston, — that he, through 
 treachery, hypocrisy, and blood, obtained the object of 
 his desire. The Brahmans felt his power. Hindoo 
 temples were demolished, idols overthrown, the prop- 
 erty of priests confiscated,^ and Mohammedan mosques 
 set up in the most holy places of the Hindoos. Qn 
 this spot, close by the Ganges, one of the most sacred 
 sites in the world, stood a temple dedicated to Vishnu, 
 which was constantly thronged with pilgrims. Aurung- 
 zebe pulled it down, and erected this mosque, whose 
 lofty dome and minarets overlook every holy place in 
 the city. Keenly the Brahmans felt the humiliation 
 and disgrace ; and now with no little satisfaction they 
 point to the last letters of the monarch, MT-itten just 
 before his death, when the Mahratta power was rising 
 in the "West and threatening his overthrow, and say 
 that Vishnu was troubling his soul. "Wherever I 
 look," wrote this ambitious, unscrupulous man, " I see 
 nothing but the Divinity ; I have committed numerous 
 crimes, and I know not with what punishments I may be 
 seized. Come what may, I have launched my vessel on 
 the waves." * 
 
 Descending and passing along narrow streets, by shops 
 where thousands of idols are exposed for sale, past devo- 
 tees, with painted foreheads, sitting in silent meditation, 
 we reach the court of the Biseswara, or the golden pagoda 
 of the holy bull. Wear the gateway, once glittering with 
 precious stones, but now despoiled of its riches, sit sev- 
 eral musicians, one with a two-stringed instrument, a 
 cross between a guitar and a violin, one beating a small 
 
 * Letters to Azim and Cambaksh. 
 
THE CITY OF BENARES. 179 
 
 dram, and a third striking two smaR bells with little 
 hammers. 
 
 Entering the gate we find an open court, with the 
 pagoda in the centre of the area. The edifice is not more 
 than thirty or forty feet square ; but whatever is wanting 
 in magnitude is made up in richness and beauty. The 
 dome-like roof is surmounted by four tall minarets, and 
 roof, minarets, and spire are overlaid with purest gold ! 
 
 N'ear by stands his godship, — a great clumsy stone 
 bull, — with wreaths of fresh flowers on his horns, fes- 
 toons about his neck, bouquets tied to his tail or wedged 
 into his nostrds. A Hindoo woman is bathing his hoofs 
 and spattering his sides with water just brought frpm the 
 Ganges. She bows before the idol, walks around it, and 
 again sprinkles the water upon the senseless stone, in 
 earnest devotion. 
 
 An orchestra of eight persons occupies a balcony over- 
 looking the court. Their instruments consist of a fiddle 
 that must have been patterned after a crook-necked 
 squash, a tambourine, and six kettle-drums ! The drum- 
 mers make an intolerable amoimt of noise, and the vio- 
 linist a faint squeak of melody. 
 
 A few steps from the idol is a well in which the god 
 once took refuge, when Benares fell into the hands of an 
 enemy, and which to the Hindoo is as. sacred as the bit 
 of time-yellowed cotton cloth, — the last rag of the Vir- 
 gin's chemise, — carefully preserved in the church of St. 
 Maria Maggiore at Eome ! Here sits an old Brahman, 
 with a bucket of holy water by his side, a cocoanut 
 dipper in his hand filling the cups of pilgrims with 
 water drawn from the sacreiwell, into which each pilgrim 
 drops a flower. Looldng into the well, we see a mass of 
 withered and decaying flowers, mingled with fresh ones, 
 floating in stagnant, slimy water. A green scum has 
 gathered on the surface ; fungi grow on the walls ; a 
 
180 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Sickening' odor pervades the air. We turn hastily away 
 from the nauseating cesspool, while pilgrims in an end- 
 less line present their cups to the old Brahman, and drink 
 the filthy mess. To them it is the elixir of life, the puri- 
 fier which wiU cleanse from aU sin ! 
 
 G-oing to another quarter of the court, we stand in 
 the presence of the great Shiva himself, seated on his 
 throne, with half-closed eyes, and expressionless coun- 
 tenance, — the image of a besotted heer-drinker in the 
 sleepy stage of drunkenness. Above him rises the gor- 
 geous golden dome. The spot on which this temple 
 stands has been his home for a hundred million years ! 
 Here for nearly thirty centuries worshippers have bowed 
 down to him. 
 
 He has food without stint, — several baskets fuU of 
 wheat, rice, and melons are placed before him, given by 
 devout worshippers. The priests wiU clear away the 
 table after Shiva has satisfied his appetite, — a happy 
 expedient for providing themselves with a donation ! 
 
 The place is thronged with women, not worshipping 
 Shiva so much as the representations of Ling, which are 
 numerous around the court. We may not give a descrip- 
 tion in these pages of this object of worship. Some in- 
 ferences may be drawn as to its character when we con- 
 sider that motherhood is the great desire of the female sex 
 in the East. It is as strong a passion among the women 
 of India to-day as it was among the mountains of Judaea 
 a little more than three thousand years ago, when a child- 
 less woman bowed before the ark of the Lord at Shiloh, 
 and asked for a son. 
 
 A few steps farther along a narrow street, thronged 
 with worshippers, and we are at the temple of Una 
 Poorena. It is larger than the golden pagoda, less costly, 
 but more imposing. This is a favorite shrine with the 
 women. The idol is a female figure, with four arms. 
 
THE BABOOS. 181 
 
 A curtain hangs before it, but in courtesy to us Chris- 
 tians it is drawn aside that we may behold the counte- 
 nance of the divinity. Its robes are like those of a 
 modern Hindoo lady of the upper class. Its head, neck, 
 and arms glitter with jewels ; lamps are burning in front, 
 and the crowd of devotees are casting flowers before it, 
 and sprinldiag the shrine with water from the Ganges. 
 Brahmans reading the Vedas are seated beneath the sur- 
 rounding balconies, with basins before them, into which 
 enraptured pilgrims toss copper coins for the benefit of 
 the holy men. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 THE BABOOS. 
 
 WEALTHY baboos congregate at Benares, to spend 
 the evening of Me in a city which is so much 
 nearer heaven than any other in India: Many of them 
 are well educated, can speak English fluently, and are well 
 informed in English literature. 
 
 While standing in the court of the temple just de- 
 scribed, we hold a conversation with a tall, dignified Hin- 
 doo, who informs us that he has read the Bible and 
 knows what it teaches, but he has made sure of several 
 hundred thousand years of life in paradise by the good 
 deeds he has done that morning ! "• 
 
 He contends that it is not the idol that he worships, 
 but the spirit which is enshrined in the image, and which 
 pervades the imiverse. This is the belief of an intelligenll 
 Hindoo, but the mass of the people have no such concep- 
 tions and make no such distinctions. They believe that 
 the deity enters the idol only when requested by the 
 
182 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 BrahmanS. They soon weary of their gods, and are ever 
 making or buying new ones. Old ones, of wood and 
 stone, are kicking ahout the streets in all states of di- 
 lapidation. We might gather second-hand gods by the 
 cart-load. 
 
 A lecture given by a native who has discarded idols, 
 though he has not yet embraced Christianity, contains 
 the following paragraph : — 
 
 " The mothers themselves being uneducated, and unac- 
 quainted with the mode of infant training, naturally leave 
 their children in the hands of their maid-servants, whose 
 iniquities, immoralities, and excesses defy description, and 
 who, as a matter of course, lay in those children a foun- 
 dation of all that is bad and poisonous. If the thus 
 fledged young men have a city like Benares for their 
 scene, it is adding fuel to the fi.re. Ill-starred is he who 
 has his children in this lioly city of Benares, where there 
 4s more vice and crime than has ever been named by 
 man. 
 
 " Our ideas of godhead are confined to the rooms in 
 which we worship these idols ; we are saints so long as 
 we are seated near these idols and are worshipping them ; 
 but the moment we lose sight of them, we are the most 
 abandoned profligates and sinners. We lie ; we steal ; 
 we deceive; we commit rape; we murder all day long, 
 and all night long; and then early iu the morning we 
 bathe in the Ganges, whose filthy waters wash away our 
 sins, and then worship our idols, who pardon us. Pre- 
 posterous and absurd !' There cannot be a more conceiv- 
 able foUy than this. Purity of personal character is 
 nothing to many of us ; the Ganges and our idols help us 
 to heaven." * 
 
 Stopping at an idol shop as we pass out of the temple. 
 
 Lecture before Benares Institute, by Laksh Maji Garu in 1867. 
 
■ THE BABOOS. 183 
 
 our missionary friend asks the keeper why he sells these 
 images. " I do it to get a living," is the reply. He has 
 a great variety, but seeing that we are foreigners he wants 
 to speculate a little. For a small brass Krishna, with the 
 face and tail of a monkey, he asks $ 1.25, but will let us 
 have Shiva for seventy-five cents ! At the suggestion of 
 our conductor, we do not purchase, but leave that for our 
 landlord, who 'supplies us with half a dozen at the price 
 asked for the monkey-god. 
 
 Another walk brings us to an ancient Hindoo observa- 
 tory, called Man Mundil. It is not known certainly ' 
 when or by whom it was erected, but it is supposed to 
 have been the work of the celebrated Eajah Manu, a 
 patron of literature, science, and art, who had fifteen 
 hundred wives, — beating Solomon and Brigham Young 
 in his matrimonial alliances. He had about two hundred 
 and fifty children. Ascending a flight of stairs in a large 
 square tower we gain the roof of an old stone building, 
 where astronomical instruments are found, consisting of 
 a graduated circle fifteen feet in diameter, a zodiac, me- 
 ridian line, sundial, and other marks and lines which we 
 cannot comprehend in the brief time allotted to our visit. 
 The characters on stone are weather-worn and time- 
 stained, but indicate the advancement made in astronomy 
 before Galileo pointed his little telescope to the skies. 
 Centuries before that astronomer, rising from the torture 
 of the Inquisition, uttered his thrilling exclamation, " It 
 moves ! " the astronomers of India had calculated the pre- 
 cession of the equinoxes and the rotation of the earth 
 upon its axes. 
 
 From the observatorj' we walk through the streets to 
 the shop of a silk-merchant, who received a gold medal 
 at the Paris Exhibition for the excellence of his fabrics. 
 We enter the establishment through a low doorway, 
 ascend a narrow flight of stairs, and are ushered into a 
 
184 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 large room, where we are courteously received by tHe son 
 of the proprietor, who seats us upon- a divan, maikes a, 
 profound salaam, and spreads before our wondering eyes^ 
 fabrics of silk interwoven with the finest threads of silver 
 and gold, wrought with stars, spangles, and flowers of the 
 most delicate workmanship. The sight of them brings 
 to mind Macaulay^s glowing description of Benares, and 
 its " silks, which went forth from the looms of this city to 
 adorn the halls at St. James and Versailles." 
 
 The sun is pouring down its fiercest rays, and we 
 hasten to our hotel. It is pleasant to hear the prattle of 
 children's voices in the Orphans' School, issuing from the 
 open windows as we pass the school-house, which stands 
 on the spot where many a Hindoo has lost his life at 
 the hands of the Thugs, who threw the bodies of their 
 victims into a deep well, which stiU remains in the en- 
 closure. Lying on a mattress in our darkened room, th& 
 punka fanning us and cooling our blood, which has been 
 sent up to fever heat by the exercise of the morning, we 
 review the changes which have taken place in India dur- 
 iiig the century. 
 
 While our own country has been making unparalleled 
 progress, India has been rising from her degradation, not 
 by her own efforts, but through intercourse with Chris- 
 tian nations ; although the dealings of the English with 
 India have been anything but Christian. We have only 
 to read the arraignment of Warren Hastings by Burke, 
 or the review of his trial by Macaulay, to get a glimpse 
 of the tyranny and rapacity of the East India Company 
 and its servants. Perhaps it is well for the world that 
 the full record of crime is never made public ; if it were, 
 the administration of the English in India would be one 
 of the darkest pages of modern histor\^ Yet it is morally 
 certain that if England, or some other Western power, had 
 not stepped in and taken possession of this country, ifr 
 
THE BABOOS. 185 
 
 would have iDeen a chaos instead of an empire under a 
 strong and energetic government. There^ was not vitality 
 enough in the Hindoo people to emerge from tlie dark- 
 ness of superstition which enveloped them. There- 
 never was any patriotism in the people of this country. 
 
 " Eich as the Sanscrit is," says Baboo Chunder, the 
 learned' Hindoo travelled'," " the vocabulary of the Brah- 
 mans has no word for patriotism. The range of Sanscrit 
 poetical literature extends from the simplest fable to the: 
 loftiest epic. But in the whole compass of that literature: 
 there is not one spirit-stirring war-song like Burns's' 
 ' Bannockburn ' or Campbell's ' Battle of the Baltic' The 
 Hindoos may have produced the first lawgiver in: the' 
 world, but in their poKtical jurisprudence there is not the 
 slightest exposition of the principles on which are based 
 the Magna Charta of Eight and the Habeas Corpus Act.. 
 The Upanishads and Dursanas have, indeed, received the: 
 favorable verdict of the most competent judges ; but no- 
 where in their philosophy do the Brahmaus: inculcate the. 
 sentiment, 'better death than slavery.' In their history 
 is found no one instance of political martyrdom, like 
 Gato or Sidney. Of what good, then^ w;ll the Sanscrit 
 be to help India ia her social reform, in her political 
 aspirations, in her efforts to keep pace with the nations 
 of Europe? The Sanscrit may improve the head, but 
 will not purify the mind or purify the heart. The effects 
 of the Sanscrit are best visible in a modern pundit, who 
 is good only for wrangling and quoting ancient texts, but 
 not for originating a new institution, or embarking ia a 
 new project for national progress: .... The Sanscrit 
 belongs to the age of the bow and arrow, and of travelling 
 in caravans : the English belongs to the age df Arm- 
 strongs, railways, and electric telegraphs." 
 
 Unchristian as the dealings of England have been, yet 
 she has laid the foundations of a new empire in. the East, 
 
186 OUB NEW WAT BOUND THE WOKLD. 
 
 whicli is developing with wonderful rapidity. "What 
 shall we do with it ? " is a question which erelong will 
 demand the consideration of British statesmen. The pres- 
 ent style of arrogance and assumption will not always 
 he tolerated. An Englishman expeqts every Hindoo to 
 make a respectful salaam as he passes. . "We have been 
 astonished to see everybody bowing to us on the streets, 
 but upon inquiry find that such homage is exacted by 
 the English. A rich native merchant from Calcutta 
 narrowly escaped a horsewhipping lately, because he did 
 not stop his carriage and make obeisance to an officer 
 of the army who was riding along the same road. Men 
 whose names are good at the counters of the Bank of 
 England for millions of dollars, who are learned in a 
 half-dozen languages, who can read the Eig Veda, or 
 Shakespeare, Eacine, Humboldt, Cicero, and Homer in 
 the original, must take the wall, and bow in humble 
 suppliance to the merest stripling of an ensign with 
 epaulets on his shoulders ! It will not always be so. 
 Seventy thousand Englishmen in the country wiU not 
 forever administer law to one hundred and eighty mil- 
 lions of people.. Christian civilization will infuse new 
 blood into these ancient Aryans. The time is not far dis- 
 tant when natives will have a voice in the government. 
 With each year there will be modifications in the laws 
 to suit the advancing wants of the people. Since the 
 East India Company has passed away the laws have 
 been more justly administered. Officials can no longer 
 plunder as before, but are held by the home government 
 to strict accountability. But though wrong has been 
 done by unscrupulous men in power, yet no one in read- 
 ing the history of India can come to any other con- 
 clusion than this, that through all the past the country 
 never has been so well governed as at the present time. 
 Our reflections are interrupted by the beating of a 
 
THE BABOOS. 187 
 
 drum under our windows, and looking out we behold two 
 natives making low salaams. They are snake-charmers. 
 The tallest, a fellow with thin cheeks and sparkling eyes, 
 has a boa-constrictor, almost ten feet in length, coiled 
 around his neck. iThe head of the boa appears above 
 that of the charmer, and his snakeship looks at us with 
 flashing eyes, sc[uirming, twisting into the shape of a 
 corkscrew, unwinding himself slowly, and sliding to the 
 ground. Upon each arm is coiled a snake of a different 
 species, — one of a greenish hue, which glides to the 
 ground, wriggles between the man's legs, and advances to 
 make our acquaintance, but turns back again at the voice 
 of his master, who puts down an earthen jar, from which 
 two cobras raise their hooded heads and hiss at us. At 
 a whisper they creep out of the vessel, wind themselves 
 up in coils, quicker than any old salt could lay up a 
 rope, and work themselves into a iierce rage under the 
 tormentings of the showman. The other native has an 
 earthen vessel full of scorpions. He takes them up as 
 fearlessly as a crab-catcher or lobsterman the spoil taken 
 in their nets. They cling to his fingers and creep over 
 his arms. He hangs them on his ears, plays all sorts of 
 pranks with them. They are as tractable as trained mice. 
 
 It is not a pleasing sight, and we care not for its repeti- 
 tion. We toss the charmers a few annas; they make 
 low obeisances, gather up their scorpions, wind up their 
 snakes and disappear. 
 
 A short walk from our hotel brings us to the Barana 
 Eiver, and crossing it to the northern bank we are upon 
 the site of the ancient city of Sarnath. Quite likely many 
 who read these lines never before heard that such a city 
 ever existed, but here it stood. Though its walls, its 
 palaces, its convents and schools have disappeared, the 
 world stiU. feels its power. It may be questioned wheth- 
 er Memphis, Babylon, Nineveh, Athens, or Eome have 
 
I88f OUR NEW WAY EOLTTO THE WORLD. 
 
 sent forth influences affecting the welfare of the tuman 
 race that have been so widespread as those emanating 
 from this city, nothing of which remains except here and 
 there a crumbling ruin. 
 
 Somewhere near the time when Esther was queen of 
 Persia, and Mordecai prime minister of that realm, a 
 prince named Gautama, who lived in Nepaul,, at the foot 
 of the Himalaya Mountains, became tired of the vani- 
 ties of the world, and determined to live a life of strict 
 seclusion. His father opposed it, but the young man left 
 his wife and family, eluded the vigilance of the guards 
 which had been placed over him, and in the darkness 
 of night fled to an old Brahman. He studied under 
 various teachers, passing from this to that sect, but only 
 to be dissatisfied with them all. He rejected the Bi^h- 
 manical religion, and established one of his own, teach- 
 ing it here at Sarnath. It was a system of religion an- 
 tagonistic to that taught by the Brahmans. He would 
 have no caste, no sacrifice of blood : there should be 
 no destruction of animal life. Man did not give life : 
 he had no right to take it. Mosquitoes might bite, bees 
 sting, parasites swarm, pests innumerable multiply : they 
 must be borne. He taught strict morality. To get rid 
 of sin, all natural affections must be subdued ; and holi- 
 ness could only be secured by taking the monastic vow, 
 and living retired from the world. The new religion 
 gained adherents. The people were weary of their priests. 
 Thousands flocked to the sage, who taught the new way 
 of life beneath the shady groves along the banks of the 
 Barana. Benares, the holy city of the Brahmans, was 
 near by, and here the old theologies were discussed with 
 intensest bitterness. Not only here, but in other places, 
 Gautama taught his doctrines, and at his death his teeth 
 and bones were distributed throughout India as holy 
 relics. For more than one thousand years the religion 
 
THE BABOOS. 189 
 
 taught by Gautama Buddha was in the ascendant. Count- 
 less millions embraced it. It was the prevailing relig- 
 ion of India in the time of Christ. When the fame of 
 the Christian religion, at the close of the first century, 
 had reached China, the Emperor Ming-ti sent commis- 
 sioners to the West to ascertain its merits. They came to 
 Sarnath, and supposing that they had found that which 
 they were searching for, carried the religion of Gautama 
 to their native land. 
 
 The' Brahmans were too powerful to be put down hj 
 the new religion. Theirs was aggressive. They lighted 
 the torch of civil war. The great city of Sarnath, with 
 its temples, its colleges, and its hospitals for pigs, mon- 
 keys, chickens, donkeys, rats, and mice, was swept out of 
 existence. In the eleventh century a rajah came into 
 power in this section of India who was a strong believer 
 in the old religion, and the Brahmans determined to em- 
 brace the opportunity to revive their ancient faith. Be- 
 nares, on the south side of the Barana, was the centre of 
 the old orthodoxy, wliile Sarnath, on the north bank, was 
 the chief city of the Buddhists. Taking arms suddenly, 
 the Brahmanical party attacked their neighbors with fire 
 and sword, applied the torch to every biulding; slaugh- 
 tered the surprised, frightened, unresisting multitude, and 
 wiped the plague-spot from the face of the earth. From 
 Sarnath the war extended to other Buddhist cities. The 
 persecution was fierce. Temples were destroyed, idols 
 broken, convents given to the flames, priests killed, and 
 the land purged of the heresy. Nothing is left, except 
 here and there a mound, to tell where Sarnath stood. 
 When the present bridge was erected over the Barana, the 
 ruins of the old city served for foundations to the piers ; 
 and tons of idols, worshipped through those distant years, 
 are beneath our feet as we stand upon the structure and 
 gaze upon the site of the ancient city. 
 
190 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 DOWN THE VALLEY OF THE GANGES. 
 
 BENGAL occupies the Lower Ganges country. In 
 going southward from Benares we come upon a 
 population vastly different from that of Central and 
 Northern India. In form and feature, in moral and 
 intellectual qualities, the Hindoos are superior to the 
 Bengalese. Macaulay has given in strong colors a pic-, 
 ture of a native of Bengal : — 
 
 " The physical organization of the Bengalee is feehle 
 even to effeminacy. He lives in a constant vapor-hath. 
 His pursuits are sedentary, his limbs delicate, his move- 
 ments languid. During many years he has been tram- 
 pled upon by men of bolder and more hardy breeds. 
 Courage, independence, veracitj', are qualities to which 
 his constitution and his situation are equally unfavorable. 
 His mind bears a singular analogy to his body. It is 
 weak even to helplessness for purposes of manly resist- 
 ance ; but its suppleness and its tact move the children of 
 sterner climates to admiration, not unmingled with con- 
 tempt. All those arts which are the natural defence of the 
 weak are more familiar with this subtle race than to 
 the Ionian of the times of Juvenal, or to the Jew of the 
 Dark Ages. What the horns are to the buffalo, what the 
 paw is to the tiger, what the sting is to the bee, what 
 beauty, according to the old Greek song, is to woman, 
 deceit is to the Bengalee. Large promises, smooth ex- 
 cuses, elaborate tissues of circumstantial falsehood, chica- 
 nery, perjury, forgery, are the weapons, offensive and de- 
 fensive, of the people of the Lower Ganges. All those 
 
DOWN THE VALLEY OF THE GANGES. 191. 
 
 millions do not furnisli one sepoy to the armies of the 
 company. But as usurers, money-changers, or sharp legal 
 practitioners, no class of human beings can bear any com- 
 parison with them." 
 
 The Bengalese occupy the valley, but the hills which 
 rise on our right as we travel southeast are inhabited 
 by an entirely different people, the Santhals. They are 
 descendants of the hiU tribes, which lived in the coun- 
 try when the Aryans came down from the region of the 
 Caspian and settled in the vaUey of the Indus. Physi- 
 cally, morally, and socially they are unlike the Bengalese 
 and Hindoos. Their religion, though it has been in- 
 fluenced by contact with Brahmanism and Buddhism, 
 has not been affected by that of Mahomet. 
 
 Baboo Chunder has pictured the Santhal in colors al- 
 most as brilliant as those with which the master-hand of 
 the great English essayist has those of the Bengalese. 
 
 "Naked, snake-eating, and unlettered as he is, the 
 Santhal has a code of honor and morality. He is dis- 
 tinguished for nothing so much as his truthfulness. The 
 civilized man hates lying, but the pure-minded and 
 straightforward Santhal knows no lying. He is no 
 more truth-loving than he is inoffensive, grateful, and 
 hospitable. The virtues of the untaught savage are few 
 but genuine. His religion is pure and unsophisticated. 
 No atheistical doubts ever come across his mind. He 
 professes no doctrinal creed. His faith, founded on the 
 monitions of conscience, is as unostentatious and sincere 
 as is the faith of a child in his Creator." 
 
 Tlie Santhal women do not veil their faces, but are 
 quite as fond of jewelry as their neighbors the Hindoos 
 and Bengalese. An English of&cer once weighed the 
 ornaments worn by a Santhal beUe ; she had thirty-four 
 pounds of bracelets, anklets, bangles, rings, and chains 
 about her person. Almost every woman in comfortable 
 
192 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WOEIJ). 
 
 circumstances carries at least twelve pounds of orna- 
 ments. 
 
 Like all aboriginal races, the Santhals deteriorate when 
 hrought into intercourse with Europeans. They copy the 
 vices, but not the virtues, of modern civUization. 
 
 We pass Moorshedabad, not much of a place at the 
 present time, but half a century ago one of the most im- 
 portant towns in the vaUey of the Ganges. It was the 
 capital of the Mohammedan rajahs. Here stood the mag- 
 nificent palace of Suraja Dowla, whose name is closely 
 interwoven with the history of India by his atrocious 
 treatment of his own people, as well as by the horrors 
 of the Black-Hole of Calcutta, which the eloquence of 
 Burke and the rhetoric of Macaulay have so vividly 
 painted. Cruelty was a pleasure to him. He delighted 
 to see a boat filled with men and women overturned in 
 the Ganges. The dying struggles of the drowning was 
 pleasing to his eyes, their shrieks for help the sweetest 
 music to his ears ! It was equally a pleasure to walk 
 through the streets with a drawn sword, splitting open 
 the ieads of those who did not render him sufficient hom- 
 age. Not daring to trust himself to a guard of his own 
 sex, he iUled his palace with Amazons from Tartary and 
 Abyssinia. 
 
 He scraped the wealth of Bengal into his coffers. It ' 
 was in this palace that Clive stood amazed amid the glit- 
 tering heaps of gold and silver, diamonds and precious 
 stones. He took forty million dollars for the East India 
 Company, and between one and two nullions for himself, 
 and afterwards expressed astonishment at his moderation ! 
 
 It was here, too, that another Mohammedan ruler, 
 Cooley Khan, took vengeance on tenants who did not, 
 pay their rent by putting live cats into their breeches ! 
 
 The railway from Benares to Patna, following the bank 
 of the Ganges, runs due east one hundred and thirty-one 
 
DOWN THE VALLET OP THE GANGES. 193 
 
 miles through the opium district. When the poppies are 
 in full bloom, travelling by rail in the Patna district is 
 like riding through a flower-garden. The warehouses- 
 where the opium is stored are at BanMpore, six miles 
 from Patna. The cultivation of the poppy and sale of 
 the .drug is wholly in the hands of the government, which 
 derives one twelfth of its revenue from the traffic. 
 
 We are on an express-train, which stops only for wood 
 and water, and at the prtacipal stations. As we are 
 whirled along we look eastward towards the field of Plas- 
 sey, which has been classed as one of the turning-points, 
 in the world's history. The battle, which was only a 
 smart skirmish, took place in 1756. CLLve halted the 
 morning before at the town of Cutwa, and it is there; 
 rather than at Plassey, that the turning-point should be 
 fixed. He had but a handful of men, — three thousand 
 in all, — and of these only one thousand, were English. 
 Suraja Dowla was on the opposite side of the river with 
 forty thousand infantry, fifty pieces of heavy artillery, 
 drawn by oxen and elephants, and fifteen thousand cav- . 
 airy. Should he fight or retreat ? Clive called a council 
 of his officers ; the majority decided not to fight, and he 
 gave his own vote against moving on. The officers went 
 to their quarters, while CKve walked out, sat down in a. 
 grove and reflected an hour. Within those sixty minutes 
 lay the future of India, — the prestige and power of the 
 British nation, the welfare of nparly two hundred millions 
 of the human race. His dauntless spirit, which for a 
 moment had quailed before the tremendous responsibility, 
 asserted -its supremacy once more. His decision not to 
 fight was reversed, and he returned to his tent with proud 
 step and determined purpose. The little army crossed 
 the river ; the Thirty-ninth Eegiment, its soul and centre, 
 fought the battle, won the victory. The magnificent do- 
 main of India, — a grand empire, — a vast and valuable 
 
 9 H 
 
194 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WOELD. 
 
 appendage to the British • crown, the advancement of civ- 
 ilization and Christia,nity throughout the benighted re- 
 gion, every hope of the present, all the possibilities of 
 the future, hung on the decision of that one contr9lling 
 mind! 
 
 " If I had taken the advice of the council," said Clive, 
 " the British would never have been masters of Bengal." 
 
 During our ride of more than five hundred miles we 
 have opportunities of seeiag the contempt with which 
 the Hindoos sometimes regard a drunken Englishman. 
 In the compartment adjoining our own one of the lordly 
 race attracts attention by driukiug brandy, abusiug the 
 native attendants, staggering in and out of the carriage 
 at the stations, and cursing aU around him. 
 
 At the stopping-places are natives in. uniform whose 
 duty it is to see that the passengers are all aboard before 
 the train starts. It requires a good deal of gentle per- 
 suasion on. their part to get him into his compartment. 
 Any use of force would subject them to kicks and blows 
 from this rum-crazed Briton. "We can see their lips curl 
 with scorn as they close the carriage door, and turn the 
 key in the lock. Js it strange that the "heathen" are 
 slow to accept the teachings of missionaries sent out by 
 England to convert them to- Christianity ? This besotted 
 representative of Western civilazation, after stretching 
 himself upon the seat in the carriage, tumbles headlong 
 upon the floor, makes two or three ineffectual attempts to 
 get up, mumbles a curse, drops off to sleep, and snores ajl 
 the way from Burdwan to Calcutta. 
 
OUB FIEST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 195 
 
 CHAPTEE XXI. 
 
 OtTR FIEST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 
 
 THE sun is setting when the train enters the sta- 
 tion, opposite the city of Calcutta. A glance at 
 the freight-house as we pass along the platform reveals 
 immense piles of cotton, ia bales, waiting shipment to 
 England, and pyramids of freight ready for transportation 
 to the interior. Vessels are at anchor in the Hoogly, 
 discharging or taking in cargoes ; steam-tugs are breast- 
 ing the current with newly arrived ships in tow; take 
 it all in all, it is a lively spectacle. 
 
 A steam ferry plies between the railway station and 
 the city, which is on the east bank of the river. Shi- 
 grams are at the landing, the coachmen wearing immense 
 turbans, and as wide-awake for passengers as hackmen 
 in American cities. 
 
 While at Allahabad, we made the acquaintance of Miss 
 Britton of New York, in charge of the American Mission 
 Home in Calcutta, and whose pleasant company has be- 
 guiled the hours of our passage hither. The kindest hos- 
 pitality awaits us. 
 
 A bath is the first necessity. How delicious to stand 
 in the great earthen basin up to our knees in water, 
 dashing it over us by the bucketful ! But our pleasure 
 has a sudden interruption. While in the ecstasy of enjoy- 
 ment the bath-tub breaks asunder, the little sea of water 
 is let loose, the premises overflowed, and there is a 
 
 " Wreck of matter and crush of worlds " 
 
 as we come down upon the broken pottery ! 
 Mem. — Don't use earthen bath-tubs. 
 
1^6' 
 
 OUK NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 We hear the blaring of trumpets, beating of drums, 
 crashing of gongs, squeaking of flageolets, and scraping of 
 violins ia the street. Stepping out upon the veranda, we 
 witness an approaching wedding procession. Colored 
 
 ■WEDDING PEOCESSION. 
 
 lights flare in the darkness and illume the surrounding 
 scenery. Following the torch-bearers are the musicians, 
 the trumpeters blowing their loudest blasts, the gongs 
 and drums thundering a deafening din, while no cater- 
 wauling can surpass the screeching of flageolets and 
 violins. 
 
 The bridegroom is rich. His marriage is the great 
 event of life, and he makes it a magnificent affair. Hi§ 
 friends ride in a triumphal car in the shape of a peacock, 
 the sacred bird of India, the favorite of the gods. It is 
 drawn by milk-white oxen, such as in ancient times were 
 
OUR FIRST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 197 
 
 sacrificed to India. The young men witliin the chariot 
 wear costly robes, ornaments of gold, diamonds, and pre- 
 cious stones. They carry flags and banners, and toss 
 bonbons to the admiring crowd. 
 
 Following the car are boys in crimson tunics and 
 gold-banded turbans, walking beneath purple canopies. 
 A company of men bear a platform on their shoulders, 
 upon which the bridegroom is seated in a golden chair. 
 Two pages stand by his side. A gorgeous pagoda, its 
 golden roof spangled with silver stars, shelters him from 
 the evening air. His robe and turban are of cloth-of- 
 gold. An embroidered mantle of finest sOk is flung oyer 
 his shoulders ; a crimson sash, a massive gold chain, and 
 a necklace of pearls adorn his person. 
 
 He is on his way to the housd of his bride, whom he 
 has never seen. She is only eleven or twelve years old, 
 — a child who knows nothing of life, and who has no 
 acquaintance with the world. Her conception of its 
 magnitude is limited to the httle she has seen in Cal- 
 cutta, or what she may have learned from her few ac- 
 quaintances. When the feasting at her father's is ended 
 she wOl go to the house of her husband, and the world 
 will hardly know of her existence from that hour tiU 
 her body is borne to the river-side, covered with blazing 
 fagots, and her ashes cast upon the tide. 
 
 The work which the American and English women of 
 the Mission Home have undertaken to do is the eleva- 
 tion of their, sex in India. They have left friends and all 
 that is dear to raise the degraded by planting the cross in 
 this heathen land. 
 
 " Missionaries are humbugs," said a red-faced, beef-eat- 
 ing surgeon of the Indian army on board the steamer from 
 Suez ; " India would be much better off without them." 
 
 "The missionaries have not accomplished much; the 
 money sent out for their support is all thrown away," 
 
198 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 said another surgeon, for there were several among the 
 passengers. 
 
 " There are some very fine men and women among 
 them/' said the captain of the steamer, " and they have 
 done a great deal of good." 
 
 Tacts and figures are better than opinions and preju- 
 dices. The census returns give the number of native 
 Christians connected with Protestant churches in India 
 and Burmah at about two hundred thousand, — the re- 
 sult of missionary effort. That is only one feature, for it 
 does not give the great number of children acquiring an 
 education in missionary schools, which are acknowledged 
 to be far superior to those established by the government. 
 No census can give the facts in regard to the moral in- 
 fluence which has gone out from these schools, but it is 
 so great that army of&cers cannot now, as in former times, 
 have Nautch-girls to dance for them, except in those dis- 
 tricts where there are no missionaries. 
 
 The time was when there were no European women in 
 India, and of&cers and soldiers, from Lord Olive down to 
 the buglers of the regiments, had native mistresses. All 
 Englishmen were Christians in the estimation of Hindoos ; 
 they were beef-eaters ; drank strong drink, and a great 
 deal of it. Beef-eating is an abomination to the worship- 
 pers of sacred bulls ; and, according to the Shasters, hard 
 drinkers will find it difficult to enter paradise. Hindoo 
 artists pictured a Christian as an Englishman seated at a 
 table eating roast-beef and drinking brandy, or with a 
 Nautch-girl on his knees. 
 
 The missionaries came upon the moral battle-field op- 
 posed by idolatry, ignorance, degradation, hatred of the 
 English name, and these false, distorted notions of Chris- 
 tianity on the part of the natives ; also the hostility of a 
 large portion of the English army, rank and file, especially 
 the rank. But there were some godly men in the army, 
 and aU honor to them for their example and iafluence. 
 
OUK FmST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 199 
 
 One of the most painful contrasts ■which forces itself 
 upon us is that between the condition' of woman in 
 America and India. Caste here holds them in its un- 
 relenting grasp with all the concentrated despotism of 
 the ages. Woman cannot rise. The immobility of the 
 Hindoos, their slowness to feel the tides of time, to be 
 moved by the mighty pulsations of this century, though 
 in contact with the progressive spirit of the times, is 
 comprehended in this one sentence : " As our fathers did, 
 so do we." 
 
 To comprehend the condition of the highest classes of 
 Hindoo women, look for a moment at native society, — 
 to the baboos, or wealthy princes and merchants, men 
 worth from $100,000 to $1,000,000. They speak 
 English as well as Bengali and Hindustani. "We find 
 many of the new books published in England in their 
 houses. Opening the daily papers of Calcutta, we read 
 that Baboo Jodoonath Ghose is to give a lecture on the 
 wants of India, or that Baboo Dooga Chuen Law offers to 
 give $ 25,000 to the Hoogly College to found scholar- 
 ships, the nominations to remain in the hands of himself 
 and his descendants. The baboos are exceedingly anxious 
 to have their sons educated, not in Bengali alone, but in 
 English. 
 
 Upon their book-shelves such works as Beeton's Uni- 
 versal Knowledge, Euclid, Algebra, and Blackstone, Se- 
 lections from the British poets, Cowper's Poems, and 
 Webster's Unabridged Dictionary may be found, besides 
 newspapers and magazines. 
 
 Education has made great progress among the natives. 
 There are several newspapers published in Bengali, which 
 discuss the questions of the day with ability, — with as 
 much vigor of thought as their English contemporaries. 
 The Dacca Prohash in a recent number objects to the 
 plan of establishing a University for Bengali vernacular, 
 
'2G0 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 because suitable books cannot be obtained, the natiye can- 
 not acquire a' superior education in an institution wbere 
 English is not taught, and because the natives preferred 
 to study EngKsh. 
 
 The discussion of English politics is intelligent and 
 creditable. We might make this plain by (quotations 
 from the Bigyapitmee and also the Ghamharta. These 
 papers are published in the Bengali language. In Hin- 
 dustani there is the UHbar Alun. A recent number has 
 an excellent editorial on the advantages of travelling, 
 showing that the Hindoos stay at home in the women's 
 apartments when they ought to be abroad informing their 
 minds by seeing the world. Men who have thus moved 
 up are beginning to feel that they stand alone. Their 
 wives are where the women of India have been ever since 
 the jolly god Krishna broke the hearts of the milkmaids, 
 and turned the whole female sex to himself. 
 
 To comprehend domestic life among the Hindoos, let 
 us take a look at one of their homes. The family is pa- 
 triarchal. The father is the head; his sons, one after 
 another, marry and bring home their wives. The women 
 of the household mingle freely together, but the brothers 
 never see each other's wives. Six or eight families, and 
 three or four generations, are sometimes gathered under 
 one roof. When the house becomes thus over-populous, 
 the patriarch of the household has quite as much as he 
 can attend to in settling family disputes. Think .of the 
 life of these women. They are ignorant ; they know not 
 a letter of their language. Why should a woman learn 
 to read ? What good woxild come of it ? They cannot 
 go upon the street. If they visit a neighbor, it must be 
 in a close palankeen, their faces veiled. They know noth- 
 ing except family gossip. They cannot do the plainest 
 sewing. The little tow-head on the lowest seat of an 
 infant school in America, sewing patchwork, can use the 
 
OUR FIRST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 201 
 
 needle more deftly than most of tlie wives of these mil- 
 lionnaire baboos. 
 
 A Hindoo girl is af&anoed by her parents at the age of 
 four or five, and is usually married at twelve. Being 
 a wife, she is shut up for the rest of her days with noth- 
 ing to do. She has no knitting, no embroidery, no needle- 
 work; is surrounded with books, yet not knowing how 
 to read. Her room is a blank wall ; her only duties are 
 the performance of the daily poojas, — worship of a little 
 brass or stone image in the form of a monkey, or a figure 
 with six arms and four faces ; hanging flowers round its 
 neck, sprinkling it with water, bowing before it, walking 
 round it, talking to it as little girls tails to their dolls, 
 lighting wax-tapers; nothing but this, except to dandle 
 her children, bring food to the husband, eat her own, and 
 rearrange the folds of cloth which serve for a. garment* 
 doing this and sleeping the rest of the time, from morning 
 tni night, from night till morning, through the twenty- 
 four hours, the weeks, the months, the years, from child- 
 hood to old age ! Such is the unvarying life of the wo- 
 men of the upper classes. 
 
 Hindoos who read the Eig Veda, Macbeth, Faust, the 
 Inferno, Orations of Cicero, and the Odyssey in their 
 original languages are beginning to feel that there is an 
 awkward gap in their system of life. The Hindoo upper 
 classes are too intellectual to be grossly sensual. They 
 are not polygamists, are fond of their wives, treat them 
 with respect, and love their children, especially if they 
 are sons. Biit there is no Eve in their Eden. They 
 come home from the coimting-house when the day's work 
 is ended, read a play from Shakespeare, an article from 
 Blackwood, or Longfellow's last poem, and then arises the 
 painful reflection that, so far as this is concerned, his;wife 
 is an idiot ! 
 ■Many of the baboos are now anxious to have their 
 
 9* 
 
202 OTJE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 wives instructed ; but the women, knowing nothing of the 
 sweets of knowledge, as a rule manifest but little desire 
 to obtain an education. Yet they have a strong desire 
 to learn embroidery, and those who have undertaken to 
 raise them from their degradation have seized upon it, 
 and are using it to great advantage. 
 
 Mothers make a nation; and among a people where filial 
 affection is one of the cardinal virtues the apothegm is 
 of mighty import, and may be turned to great account. 
 The Hindoos are an affectionate race, and the children 
 show great respect to their parents. But these women 
 can only be reached by their own sex. Caste and cus- 
 tom are in the way, and will not permit a woman to show 
 her face to any man other than her husband. 
 
 Two years ago Dr. Valentine, physician and missionary 
 *of the Scotch Pree Church, was travelling through the 
 territory of the Eajah of Jeypore, one of the up-country 
 provinces; the Eajah's wife being sick, he sent for the 
 Doctor, but the fair patient would only permit him to see 
 the tip of her tongue through a hole in a screen, and to 
 put his fingers on her pulse ! The woman would have 
 preferred death rather than that he should have seen her 
 face. But she recovered her health under the Doctor's 
 treatment; and the Eajah was so grateful that he would 
 not hear of his going away, offered him $ 3,000 a year 
 if he would stay in his territory, told him that he might 
 preach the Gospel when and where he pleased, — condi- 
 tions which were accepted. 
 
 The operations of the American Union Mission have 
 been attended with success. The Association has eleven 
 ladies employed, who, besides their direct labors, have the 
 supervision of thirty-five native teachers, who have about 
 eight hundred women of the higher classes under in- 
 struction. They do not go to every house, but five or 
 six women of a neighborhood meet in the house of one 
 
OUE FIRST NIGHT IN CALCUTTA. 203 
 
 of the baboos, and receive instruction in plain sewing 
 and in reading and writing, — some in English, and aU. 
 in Bengali. 
 
 Miss Britton, the energetic head of the mission, was for- 
 merly on the west coast of Africa. She gave her strength 
 and patriotism to help on the war in one of the hospitals 
 during the late Eebellion in America, and now is here 
 laboring to raise the women of India from their fallen 
 condition. 
 
 In one of the lower rooms we see a dozen or more 
 native women. Christians, receiving instruction, — some 
 studying the large maps on the walls, others with slates. 
 They all learn needle-work of some kind. They are pre- 
 paring themselves for teachers, and soon will be instruct- 
 ors in the baboos' houses. The women gone, a class of 
 girls come in. 
 
 We talk with a pundit, an oiitcast, because he has re- 
 jected idol-worship. His wife has been taken away by 
 her friends ; he cannot enter the houses of his old ac- 
 quaintances ; every door is shut against him, every face 
 averted, no hand gives him welcome. He is morally a 
 leper, unclean in the sight of those to whom he was 
 once most dear. His wife was five years old when she 
 became his bride. She is now thirteen, and he twenty. 
 The marriage was planned, as all Hindoo marriages are, 
 by the parents, and the parties had no choice but to obey. 
 
 He has determined to make an effort to see his ^\-ife. 
 He believes that she is not averse to living with him, 
 but is kept away by her parents. If such be the case, 
 he intends to test the matter in the courts, and see 
 whether the arm of the law is not strong enough to break 
 down this barrier of caste. 
 
 After breakfast the teachers start for their day's work. 
 They are welcome everywhere. Entering the houses 
 where the women assemble for instruction, the only chair 
 
f2G^ OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WOKLD. 
 
 of the apartment is given to tlie teacher. Her class sit 
 .at her feet, — children in mind, though adults in body, 
 and immeasurably behind the lowest class in a girls' 
 
 .grammar school in America. Their chief desire is to 
 learn embroidery ; but the rule is imperative that they 
 
 ,must first learn the alphabet, then easy reading, then 
 plain sewing, and so on step by step. Some give up, dis- 
 couraged, in three weeks, but most persevere tUl able to 
 read fluently in their own language. So from house to 
 house go these indefatigable teachers, — the mercury at 
 90°, — energy oozing from every pore. 
 
 Theirs is a great work. Educate the women of India, 
 and we withdraw two hundred millions from gross idola- 
 try. This mighty moral leverage attained, the whole 
 substratum of society will be raised to a higher level. 
 The mothers of America fought the late war through to 
 its glorious end. They sustained the anny by their labor, 
 
 -their sympathy> their heroic devotion. The mothers of 
 India are keeping the idols on their pedestals. Eor 
 
 .twenty-five hundred years the Brahmans have kept the 
 land in darkness, but these devoted women of the United 
 
 ; States, and England have got into the zenanas, and the 
 days of the Brahmans are numbered. Their Christian 
 work commends itself to the people of America. It is 
 one of the great enterprises of the day, and productive 
 of immediate results. 
 
MISSIONAEY OPERATIONS. 205 
 
 CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 MISSIONAEY OPERATIONS. 
 
 IN" surveying missionary operations, we must not un- 
 derrate the difficulties wHcli have been encountered. 
 To reach ail of the one hundred and eighty millions of 
 this country, the Bible must be translated into many dif- 
 ferent tongues. Dr. McLeod, who was sent out by the 
 Church of Scotland to visit the missions of British India, 
 says : — 
 
 " This vast country is occupied by various races, from 
 the most savage to the most cultivated, having various re- 
 ligious beliefs, and speaking languages which differ from 
 each other as much as Gaelic does from Italian, most of 
 them broken up by dialects so numerous as practically to 
 form probably twenty separate languages." 
 
 But a greater obstacle still in the way of reform is the 
 strong hold their religious opinions and practices have 
 upon them. Theirs is a very ancient religion. For 
 nearly a hundred generations the Hindoo has laved in 
 the sacred waters of the Krishna and the Ganges, and 
 offered his oblations to images which to him are symbols 
 of deity. Their sacred books, their traditions, all their 
 habits, their joys, their sorrows, whatever is dear to them 
 in life or hopeful to them in death, bind them down to 
 idolatry. 
 
 We should not be surprised at their aversion to a 
 religion wMch sweeps away caste, overthrows idols, 
 subverts the whole order of society, and reduces the sa- 
 cred Shasters to a fable. Eeligious convictions, however 
 erroneous, are not readily given up by any portion of th& 
 human race. 
 
206 OUR NEW WAY EOXJOT) THE WORLD. 
 
 In considering what has been done, or whether any- 
 thing has been accomplished, we are to take into accoimt 
 the difficulty of inducing the Hindoo to forsake the ways 
 of his fathers, sever the ties that hind him to kiadred 
 and friends, and accept the spiritual worship of an un- 
 seen Jehovah. 
 
 The subject demands careful consideration before the 
 enterprise is pronounced a failure. Moral ideas are of 
 slow growth. Seed-time and harvest are far apart. All 
 the circumstances of this people must be taken into 
 account in making up our estimate of progress. 
 
 The whole Bible has already been translated into four- 
 teen of the languages and dialects of India, the New 
 Testament into several more. Among all classes there 
 is a desire to' obtain an education. This is true of Mo- 
 hammedans as well as of Hindoos. Mr. Herrick, of the 
 Madura Mission, was recently requested to furnish a 
 Christian female teacher to take charge of a school for 
 Mohammedan girls. 
 
 Speaking of the eagerness of the yoxing to avail them- 
 selves of the privilege of receiving instruction. Dr. Mc- 
 Leod says : — 
 
 " Eight missionaries can, by means of the school, secure 
 a large and steady assemblage, day by day, of from five 
 hundred to one thousand pupils, representing the very 
 life of Hindoo society, eager to obtain an education." 
 
 Some of the converts are engaged in preaching the 
 Gospel to their countrymen. " The schools have already 
 raised from among their converts an intelligent, educated, 
 and respected body of native clergy," says the author above 
 quoted. 
 
 The school has been a most important instrument in 
 spreading intelligence among the people. It was found 
 that withdrawing children from the corrupting influ- 
 ences that surrounded them in their heathen homes, and 
 
MISSIONARY OPERATIONS. 207 
 
 placing tliem under the immediate instruction of Chris- 
 tian teachers, was one of the most successful means of 
 bringing the truths of Christianity into vital contact with 
 the Hindoo mind. The pupils have been prepared to act 
 effectually on those stiU. in darkness. They know the 
 strength of the chains that bind them to their idolatrous 
 practices, for they have been in the same thraldom them- 
 selves. Hence, from the iirst, the teacher has been con- 
 sidered as essential as the preacher. The wives of mis- 
 sionaries, as far as their duties would permit, and other 
 persons, have engaged successfully in this work. 
 
 As early as 1828 Miss Farrar was sent out by the 
 American Board, and other teachers have followed. 
 Through the iofluence of schools woman is rising to a 
 better position. As the pebble dropped into the calm 
 lake sends its wavelets to the distant shore, so will the 
 influence of those who have given their lives to this 
 work ever widen. Those who have contributed to send 
 the Bible to this people will not regret any sacrifice they 
 may have made. 
 
 The Eoman Catholic Church has had missionaries in 
 India from the time the Portuguese settled at Goa. For 
 a long while they had good success, because they gratified 
 the native taste for ceremony and display. Goa is still 
 the centre of their operations. 
 
 The Times of India has an account of the exorcising of 
 devils, as lately practised. A cross was erected, and effigies 
 of the Virgin and the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. 
 The women afflicted with devils kneeled before the im- 
 ages, weeping and wailing. The priest plucked out hand- 
 fuls of their hair, thus relieving them of the wicked 
 spirits. Some of the women got rid of six, others eight, 
 some ten, and one of twelve devils ! 
 
 Such a performance commends itself to the ignorant; 
 but educated Hindoos are more averse, as a rule, to Ca- 
 
208 
 
 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 tlioKcisni tlian to Protestantism. They are intellectual 
 enough to accept a religion of ideas, and having turned 
 from their images, reject everything that approaches idol- 
 worship. We are assured by those who ought to know, 
 that Catholicism is not making much headway at the 
 present time. 
 
 CASTING OUT DKVILS. 
 
 The intelligent natives who renounce idolatry, and do 
 not embrace Christianity, become Deists or Pantheists. 
 Those who are best acquainted with this class say that 
 Theodore Parker's works and the -writings of John Stuart 
 Mill are extensively read. The Hindoo who accepts 
 Christianity, attends church, aud receives the rite of bap- 
 
LIFE IN INDIA. 209 
 
 tism, is ostracized ; but he may reject the absurdities and 
 myths of the Hindoo religion, and adopt rationalism, 
 ■without losing his social position. 
 
 Many of the Baboos believe in the existence of the Su- 
 preme Being, but reject the Bible and its teachings. 
 
 CH4.PTEE XXIII. 
 
 LIFE IN INDIA. 
 
 TEAVELLEES iu the tropics, though they may be 
 charmed by the luxuriance of nature, wOI miss the 
 changes which mark the year in temperate climes. 
 Here nature has no dividing line. Elowers are always 
 in bloom, trees ever putting forth their leaves. The 
 sparrows never cease their chirping in the thickets. The 
 Hindoo minstrel chants no such songs of the seasons as 
 are sung around our winter firesides. To him Whittier's 
 " Snow-Bound " would be an unmeaning myth. He has 
 no conception of a coujitry in which the earth suddenly 
 puts off her green robe, and aU. the genial aspects of 
 nature change in a night to 
 
 " A universe of sky and snow." 
 
 There are no such wonderful manifestations of vital 
 energy as mark the resurrection of flowers and growth 
 of vegetation in cooler chmes, — 
 
 " No sweet decay and dying of the year." 
 
 There is no winter, spring, or autumn in the Indian 
 calendar. The year is divided into hot, rainy, and tem- 
 perate seasons. 
 
 The hot period commences in April and lasts till July. 
 
210 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 This part of the year tells most severely upon Europeans. 
 AH who can leave the city. Women and children are 
 sent to England. The exodus hegins in March.- We met 
 the fugitives at Suez, and every steamer siace then has 
 heen crowded. Many of those who remaia in India 
 hasten to the mountains. Some of the foreign resi- 
 dents of Calcutta flee to the DarjeUng hills, — the outposts 
 of the Himalayas. The Europeans of Southern India 
 seek health among the Mlgherry Mils of the Malabar 
 coast, where, at the height of five thousand feet, they 
 inhale the fresh breezes that herald the approaching 
 monsoon. Bombay, being on the western coast, first 
 feels the periodical gale, and the hot season there is not 
 so long or so severe as in the valley of the Ganges. 
 Western India has its Sanitarium in the mountains near 
 Poonah. Continued residence in the lowlands thins the 
 blood. One or two years may be passed without much 
 effect upon the system ; but lassitude creeps on ; men 
 iind it easier to be indolent than active ; and before they 
 are aware their native vigor is gone, to be recovered only 
 by returning to the land of their birth. 
 
 The rainy season lasts from July to N'ovember. Fitful 
 breezes from the southwest begin in May, but the mon- 
 soon does not set in till a month later. On the western 
 coast it begins about the 10th of June. It is preceded 
 by light clouds, that move rapidly up from the southwest. 
 As an army throws out its videttes while preparing to 
 march, so these swiftly-flying pioneers of the gale flit over 
 the heated land. 
 
 The breaking of the monsoon upon the moimtaias and 
 plains of India is grander than the onset of armies. The 
 elements wage mighty war with flaming lightning, crack- 
 ling and deep resounding thunder^, with the breeze 
 increasing to a gale, rising to a tempest, becoming a hur- 
 ricane, — demolishing houses, sweeping away forests, leav- 
 
LIFE IN INDIA. 211 
 
 ing desolation in its track ; rain pouring in torrents, wash- 
 ing down the mountains, drenching the highlands, and 
 flooding the plains ! There is not a continuous fall of 
 rain, but a succession of heavy showers, with alterna- 
 tions of sunshine. 
 
 Mists rise from the ground. The air is steaming and 
 sticky. Dampness creeps into houses, and musty smells 
 pervade the apartinents. Green mould gathers on cloth- 
 ing in the driest presses. Boots, though highly polished, 
 grow a crop of fungi in twenty-four hours, if unused. 
 The whitest walls become spotted with yellow, as if the 
 plague had suddenly made its appearance. Eoaring fires 
 must be kept in the rooms, braziers of burning charcoal 
 in the closets, to keep everything about the premises from 
 turning to mould. 
 
 There is a sudden swarming of insects. They are 
 innumerable ; creeping, hopping, flying, buzzing in the 
 ears, diving into the food ; taking possession of bed and 
 bedding ; biting, stinging, pestering ; giving no rest to 
 the weary. When those that bite by day cease their 
 annoyance, a hungrier set torment us when night comes 
 on. 
 
 More destructive than all others are the white ants. 
 Their teeth are sharp enough to gnaw anything, unless it 
 be stone, brick, glass, iron, or other metals ; everything else 
 is food to them. 
 
 " "We have put down," said a railway engineer, " wooden 
 ties, but the white ants eat them up in a few weeks. 
 We are obliged to build iron bridges, and eventually shall 
 have to resort to iron ties." 
 
 Grain of aU kinds, sugar, clothing, bedding, furniture, 
 books, are destroyed by them. "They devoured," said 
 a gentleman, " a large library for me in three weeks." 
 
 Clothing must be kept in camphor- wood trunks. Food 
 can only be preserved by placing it in earthen jars. Bed- 
 
212 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 posts must be set in glass or iron dishes, fiUed witli salt 
 water. Oilly by the utmost watchfulness can clothing 
 and furniture he protected from their ravages. 
 
 When the rainy season sets in, aU labor ceases. There 
 is no travelling on country roads. Before the construction 
 of railroads, there was little communication through the 
 interior from July to November. The cool season, which 
 begius in November and lasts till April, is the time for 
 active work. Then India is a paradise. It is the time 
 when travellers should visit this wonderful old land. 
 The air is fragrant with the odor of sweet flowers. The 
 trees bear their greenest foliage. The slight coolness of 
 the night gives keen relish for the enjoyment of the day. 
 The sun shines from a cloudless sky. The days are 
 serene ; and at night the heavens are studded with stars 
 of the first magnitude, while the southern cross and the 
 constellations around it are more brilliant than those of 
 more northern latitudes. 
 
 India, although so attractive during a portion of the 
 year, has its drawbacks. Along this coast the cyclones 
 sweep with unparalleled force. They usually occur be- 
 tween the monsoons. The year might be divided by 
 these alternate winds, which blow from June to October 
 from the southwest and from November to May from the 
 northeast. They do not shift at once, but are variable for 
 a few weeks ; and during the change, or before the mon- 
 soon has fairly set in, the hurricanes sweep along the 
 'coast. 
 
 "Walking through Calcutta, we see the effect of the 
 cyclon^ of last year. On every hand are wrecks of 
 bfuldings, trees torn up by the roots or twisted like 
 withes. The storm lasted but a few hours, yet ships 
 were sunk in the river, others dismasted, some driven 
 from their anchorage high upon the beach. The water 
 of the Bay of Bengal, swelling up the Hoogly and the 
 
LIFE IN INDIA. 213 
 
 mouths of tlie Ganges, inundated all the region of the 
 Sunderbund. Thousands of the natives perished in the 
 lowlands. When the tornado had passed, many of those 
 who survived . its violence found their houses gone, their 
 fishing-boats high and dry on the land, or floating sea- 
 ward in splintered pieces. 
 
 During the winter slight frosts sometimes occur upon 
 the high lands of the interior ; but in the valley of the 
 Ganges, and here at Calcutta, the greatest cold sinks the 
 mercury only a few degrees. Although the rainy season 
 is attended with so many discomforts, no one among the 
 himdred and eighty millions of India but looks forward 
 to it with anxious longing. If the clouds should fail to 
 come up from the sea with their freight of moisture, 
 famine would stalk over the land, as it has frequently 
 in the past. Several times since the English have occu- 
 pied the country the laws of nature have failed to per- 
 form their customary work, and hecatombs have perished 
 in consequence. 
 
 In the great famine of 1770 it is estimated that not less 
 than thirty million of people perished in the valley of the 
 Ganges alone. In 1866 nearly a million starved to death 
 in Orissa, in Southern India. In that province less rain 
 always falls than in other parts of India, owing to its 
 peculiar situation, the mountains on the western coast 
 intercepting the clouds. It is an out-of-the-way prov- 
 ince, and there are no means of reaching it from the sea- 
 coast. It was not known that there was a scarcity of 
 food; and when the terrible fact became known to the 
 government, the officials were so slow to act, that before 
 relief was given three fourths of a million had perished. 
 
 In 1770 there was no means of communication with 
 the interior except by the river Ganges. The govern- 
 ment at that time was not only forceless, but wicked. 
 There was but one animating motive, — to wring from 
 
214 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 the millions of India the greatest possible amount of 
 revenue. The account of that famine, the indifference 
 and heartlessness of the East India Company, is one of 
 the saddest pages that darkens the history of modem 
 times. Notwithstanding thirty-five per cent of the popu- 
 lation perished, and though one half of those who tilled 
 the soil were carried off, only five per cent of the land 
 tax was remitted during the year ; and in the year 1771, 
 when the whole country was desolate and poverty- 
 stricken, the company not only demanded the full tax, 
 but ground out from the struggling population ten per 
 cent additional! When the famine was at its worst; 
 when natives were living on roots, grass, and leaves of 
 trees, and devouring even the bodies of the dead ; when 
 the Ganges was filled with floating corpses which the 
 jackals and tigers of the jungles could not devour, the 
 government met in council and voted to distribute 
 $20,000 worth of rice a month among thirty mil- 
 lions of people. The grant, which may seem munificent 
 when reckoned by thousands of dollars, gives only a 
 cenfs worth of rice per day to five hundred starving in- 
 habitants, — the fraction of a kernel to each person ! 
 
 But those years of maladministration have passed 
 away, and it is hoped the days of famine may never 
 return. 
 
 Free ports, free trade in breadstuffs, railroads, steam- 
 ships, and telegraphs have made it almost impossible 
 that there should be a long-continued famine in any 
 country. 
 
 Eiding down tlie banks of the Hoogly, we stop in front 
 of a gateway opening into a yard where the bodies of the 
 dead are burned. Venders of wood are waiting beside 
 tWir piles of fagots for the arrival of funeral trains. A 
 brisk fire is burning in the centre of the enclosure, and 
 amid the crackling flames is the half-consumed body of 
 
LIFE m INDIA. 215 
 
 an adult. A sickening odor pervades the air. Near by 
 sit the sorrowing relatives, one of whom kindled the fire 
 as a last loving act towards the dead. 
 
 The odor heing very oifensive, the government has 
 recently erected tall chimneys, and are constructing fur- 
 naces enclosed in iron cars, which can be run into ovens, 
 so that the noxious gases will no longer endanger the 
 health of the community. The natives themselves are 
 much pleased with the change, as it wiU be more 
 economical. 
 
 Eeturning, we pass the government buildings, which 
 are extensive and imposing, and kept up at great expense. 
 The Governor-General has a salary five times that of the 
 President of the United States. Calcutta being the polit- 
 ical capital, a great deal of pomp and show is main- 
 tained, not only by the officials, but by the merchants, 
 who live in princely style, and have large retinues of 
 servants. 
 
 "You will see some very handsome uniforms, Mr. 
 "Weller," said Mr. John Smauker, as those two gen- 
 tlemen entered the little green-gtocer's shop to attend 
 a soiree, as narrated in the Pickwick Papers; and the 
 same remark wiU apply to servants and footmen in 
 Calcutta. 
 
 Nearly every evening the military band plays on the 
 Chowringhee, a beautiful park where the aristocracy ap- 
 pear in coaches blazing with armorial decorations. Chaises 
 and dog-carts abound. The foreign residents of Calcutta 
 live high. A dinner is a formidable affair. There is no 
 letting up of etiquette. Though the mercury may be at 
 120°, gentlemen must appear in full dress suit of black 
 with white cravat, and go through aU the courses of soup, 
 fish, flesh, pastry, and dessert, with a variety of drinks, — 
 claret, old sherry, or Bass & Co.'s ale. 
 
 The English do not change their customs. Native 
 
216 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 customs must bend to theirs, — theirs to the Hindoo 
 never. 
 
 "We shall not soon forget the experience of our last 
 night in Calcutta. It has a very agreeable beginning in 
 the parlors of ah American resident, where, while the 
 hours fly swiftly by, we make the acquaintance of ladies 
 and gentlemen from the United States. It is midnight 
 when we bid them farewell to go on board the steamer 
 which is to leave at daylight for Singapore and China. 
 
 Our Bengalese coachman starts off at full speed ; biit 
 there is a sudden halt. His horse refuses to go in the 
 direction of the steamer. He will go in any other. We 
 pass up a short street to the right, turn round and come 
 back again, go in a circle, backwards, sideways, up a street 
 to the left, then back again, once more in a circle, and 
 finally come to a stand-stiU. The driver chirrups, clucks, 
 utters a variety of Hindoo words, but the beast is totally 
 depraved. We are fixed in the streets. A thunder- 
 shower is coming up, and by the gleaming lightning we 
 can see the perverse animal with legs firmly braced, de- 
 termined not to advance another inch. 
 
 The driver has a whip, but dares not use it. He comes 
 to the carriage, makes doleful lamentations in Bengali, of 
 which we know as little as of Timbuctoo. 
 
 Getting out of the carriage, motioning the driver to 
 his seat, and seizing the whip, we try its effect. Stolid 
 indifference a moment, then kicks, snorts, shakings of 
 the head, backing, turning round, plunges at one end, 
 and kicks at the other; standing on two legs, — antics 
 too numerous to be mentioned. The coachman holds up 
 his hands in supplication. He wiU take us back, the 
 horse will go in that direction. But we are going to the 
 steamer. The lean, lank, spavined old rackabones has 
 always had his own way, and does not mean to yield ; 
 but finally thinks better of it, makes one last despairing 
 kick, and plunges madly down the road. 
 
ACROSS THE BAY OF BENGAL. 217 
 
 We have barely time to leap aboard. He tears up the 
 road, the sparks fly beneath his hoofs; now we are in 
 the gutter, the carriage reeling. We turn a corner and 
 barely escape a capsize. But aU is well that ends well, 
 and so we reach at length the river-bank, and find quar- 
 ters on board the steamer. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV. 
 
 ACEOSS THE BAY OF BENGAL. 
 
 WE have tossed and tumbled, fought fleas, and waged 
 a sanguinary war with innumerable mosquitoes 
 through the night, and now at daylight are upon the 
 deck of the Clan Alpine, to take a farewell look at 
 Calcutta. 
 
 We float past a fleet of merchant vessels lying in the 
 stream, with topmasts and spars sent down to the deck, 
 a precaution against the cyclones. The river is alive 
 with native craft. At this early hour the followers of 
 Brahma are on the bank, thousands of them taking their 
 morning bath. Stately adjutant-cranes look down upon 
 us from the neighboring houses ; kites scream over our 
 heads ; crows make themselves at home on the deck of 
 our steamer. The bustle of the day is beginning in the 
 streets of this lively city of India. 
 
 The tide is in our favor, and we glide rapidly away 
 from the town, — past the beautiful parade, or common ; 
 the cathedral, with its taU spire and turrets ; the fort, its 
 ramparts bristling with cannon, — the place where, two 
 centuries ago, the East India Company first got foothold 
 on Indian soil ; past the dock-yards of the Peninsular 
 
 10 
 
218 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 and Oriental Company, where one of their noble steamers 
 is taking in coal for her long trip down the coast to 
 Ceylon, then to Suez ; past the docks of the Messageries 
 Imperiales, where another steamer is receiving a new 
 coat of paint after a voyage to Japan; past beautiful 
 residences, and lovely gardens, and well-kept grounds, 
 where peacocks and monkeys are sporting among the 
 shrubs and flowers, where elephants, like the Hindoos, 
 are taking a morning bath in the Hoogly. 
 
 The river has many a graceful sweep, but the banks 
 are low, and there is no background of liills to set off the 
 groves of cocoa, palm, and plantain. We look upon rice- 
 fields ; upon fishing-boats high and dry on the shore, fifty 
 rods away from the river, swept up there in the great 
 storm of last year, which made terrible havoc at even this 
 distance from the sea. 
 
 The Clan Alpine is rated a fast steamer ; she is freighted 
 with opium, for which the Chinese are hankering. The ' 
 government of India holds an auction of the drug on 
 the 9th of every month, and on the 21st the houses of 
 Jardine, Skinner, & Co. and Apcar & Co. despatch a fast 
 steamer to Hong Kong. These two steamers sail for 
 China direct, but indirect communication is h^d by the 
 Peninsular and Oriental Company via Ceylon, and once 
 a month a steamer creeps along the coast of Burmah to 
 Singapore, where the voyager must wait to hit the regular 
 liners. 
 
 It is mid-afternoon when we pass from the fresh water 
 of the river to the salt water of the Bay of Beno-al. 
 While asleep in our state-room, maldng up what was 
 lost in the battle with the mosquitoes of the night before, 
 there is a sildden explosion like the discharge of a can- 
 non, a hurrying of feet overhead, and shrieks' of agony. 
 The steward rushes past our door. 
 
 "What is the trouble?" 
 
ACROSS THE BAY OP BENGAL. 219 
 
 "The boiler lias — " He is gone, the sentence un- 
 finished. A cloud of steam rushes into the cabin. We 
 leap from our berth, and hasten to the deck. Mrs. C. 
 is there. Our startled imagination hears only her voice 
 in the wild shrieks of agony, more piercing, more paiaful 
 than all the others. "We reach the cabin stairs, and are 
 met by the hot vapor rolling down tire gangway. In- 
 stiQct is quick at such times. We crouch low, covering 
 our face, creep up the stairs, crawl along the deck, gasp- 
 ing, pantiQg, inhaling air that sends a sharp pain through 
 the lungs. We reach the chair ia which she sat when 
 we went below. She is not there. The cries are fainter 
 now. We can see nothing. The white cloud is impene- 
 trable tQ the sight, — so thick that we convulsively 
 clutch at it to tear it away, as if it were a curtain, or 
 something palpable to the grasp. 
 
 We call : no answer. Again ; then a faint " Here ! " 
 
 Creeping along, with face close to the deck, we reach 
 the stern of the vessel, where the captain, the chief 
 engineer, and the five or six other passengers are stand- 
 ing on the taffrail, with their heads above the awning, 
 and thus protected from the steam : among them Mrs. C. 
 ■ unharmed ! 
 
 0, how long it takeb for that cloud to clear away ! It 
 seems an age. Little by little we see what has happened. 
 One poor feUow is writhing in agony at our feet, — 
 face, hands, and breast parboiled. Going forward, and 
 looking into the engine-room, we see that one of the 
 superheaters has burst, pouring a volume of steam into 
 the apartment, and completely enveloping the engineers 
 and firemen. One by one the poor creatures are brought 
 up ; some are dead, others dying ; some with skin hang- 
 ing in shreds and patches, countenances disfigured be- 
 yond the possibility of recognition, flesh burned away, 
 leaving tendons and bones bare. There are nineteen 
 
220 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 victims in all. .They are all natives except one, the fourth 
 engineer, who is a Scotchman. Tablecloths are torn up 
 for bandages, oil is poured upon the wovmds of the suffer- 
 ers; everything possible is done for their relief; but for 
 thirteen of them human aid is of no avail. 
 
 The chief engineer states that there were but eighteen 
 pounds of steam on at the time, and that he has fre- 
 quently run the engine with twenty-five. It is the 
 " priming " of the boilers consequent upon passing from 
 fresh into salt water that caused the explosion ; but an 
 examination of the fractured iron shows that under the 
 superheating process the life of the metal has been grad- 
 ually burned out. 
 
 Having two boilers still intact, and the engine unin- 
 jured, the captain decides to go on, though our voyage 
 wiU be delayed two or three days in consequence of 
 the accident. 
 
 The bodies of the dead Hindoos are committed to the 
 deep without any religious ceremony, for they have no 
 funeral rites. But a sad group gathers amidships at sun- 
 set, — the capjiain, the of&cers, the passengers, and the 
 Malays and Hindoos, who are curious to see how Chris- 
 tians dispose of their dead. Father, mother, relatives, 
 and friends of his youth are far away in his native land. 
 A few strokes upon the bell, a few words from the burial- 
 service, read with faltering voice by the captain. Tears 
 course down the bronzed cheeks of his brother of&cers 
 as they bear the body to the vessel's side, and commit it 
 to the deep. 
 
 " O mother, praying God will save 
 
 Thy sailor, — while thy head is bowed 
 His heavy-shotted hammock-shroud 
 Drops in his vast and wandering grave." 
 
THE SPICE ISLANDS. 221 
 
 CHAPTEE XXV. 
 
 THE SPICE ISLANDS. 
 
 OUE course is southeast^ across a smootli sea. Five 
 hundred miles bring us to the Andaman Islands, a 
 group which lies west of the coast of Burmah. On the 
 map they are represented as being near the main-land, 
 but it is full two hundred miles across to Eangoon. 
 They are of volcanic origin, heaved up from the sea ages 
 ago, but clothed now with the rankest tropical verdure. 
 
 There is a light-house on Cocoa Island, maintained by 
 the English government. A ship calls there three or 
 four times' a year, sent out by the India Light-house 
 Board ; but the five or six individuals composing the 
 colony live by themselves during the long months, with- 
 out other intercourse with the world. On one of the 
 southern islands of the chain the East Indian govern- 
 ment has established a penal colony. Birds are flying 
 along the shores ; monkeys without number are chat- 
 tering in the green forests; but there are no signs of 
 human life, — no roads winding up the hillsides. The 
 wild men who people this group occupy only the largest 
 islands, which lie out of our track, and are as wild now 
 as their ancesters were a thousand years ago. 
 
 Nature has put a great block in the path of commerce 
 here, as she has also at Suez and Panama. The Malay 
 peninsula is a narrow tongue of land, only twelve miles 
 wide at one place ; if it did not exist, or if there were 
 a canal across it, vessels bound to or from China might 
 save a thousand miles of their voyage. 
 
 This is a land of enchantment. We never weary of 
 
222 OUE NEW WAY KOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 gazing upon its hills and mountains, — some so high that 
 their summits are lost in the Clouds, — clothed in the 
 richest verdure, from wave-washed base to cloud-capped 
 peak. 
 
 We look into deep ravines, through lovely vistas, 
 varying every moment, and revealing new beauties, 
 which are succeeded by others before we. have time 
 to express our admiration of them. 
 
 These are the " spice islands," — of nutmeg, clove, 
 pimento, and cinnamon, — fanned by balmy breezes, 
 laved by gentle waves, reposing beneath skies ever 
 beautiful, — islands that have enchanted us in poesy. 
 
 But there is another side to the picture. The mercury 
 is ninety-three in the shade, the atmosphere steamy and 
 sticky. Wipe ourselves thoroughly dry with a towel, and 
 in five minutes we are again reeking with perspiration. 
 Energy evaporates. We feel like doing nothing, but 
 would give a good price for a cool place to do it in. 
 The breeze, so balmy over the poetic page, is hot and 
 penetrating; we would like to carry out the idea of 
 Sydney Smith, and take off our flesh and sit in our 
 bones. 
 
 Were we to take up our residence upon the islands, we 
 should find snakes, scorpions, centipedes, lizards, and aU 
 sorts of vermin, making themselves free with our prem- 
 ises. We should have wood-leeches creeping into our 
 nostrils whUe asleep, and absorbing the best blood of the 
 brain. The deadly cobra would wriggle into our bed- 
 chamber, without asking our leave ; spiders, with legs 
 three inches Ibng, bodies the size of a small teacup, 
 would spin webs over our windows, or look down upon 
 us with hungry eyes from the corners of the room. 
 Swarms of ilying ants would come into the dining-room 
 at dinner-time, and light upon the roast mutton ; white 
 ants would bore out the table-legs, gnaw away the pillars 
 
THE SPICE ISLANDS. 223 
 
 of the house, or carry off our test suits of clothes in a 
 siagle night; hugs, flies, fleas, beetles, cockroaches, lice, 
 — blue bugs and black bugs, yellow bugs and green 
 bugs, little hugs and big bugs, — creeping, flying, skip- 
 ping, hopping, jumping, running, — coming at morning, 
 noon, and night, — especially at night, when we are 
 sweating, tossing, turning, and tumbling, and trying to 
 get a wink of sleep ! How nice to have a great spider 
 straddle over your face, cockroaches as large as mice skip 
 across the dinner-table ! If these seem to be exaggera- 
 tions, go into a Museum of Natural History, and there see 
 what company the people of the tropics are compelled 
 to put up with. The lands of spice are delightful, as 
 seen by the poet's eye. The natives undoubtedly think 
 there are no climes so beautiful; and some Englishmen 
 profess to like these lands better than their own misty 
 isle. It is well for the world that tastes differ. 
 
 A change of course, and a few hours' steaming, would 
 take us up the Gulf of Martaban to Burmah, to the 
 mouths of the Irawaddy, to Eangoon and Maulmain ; 
 but our course is towards the equator. We have a 
 view of Port ComwaUis, — the penal settlement of the 
 Indian government. 
 
 Steaming southeast a few hours brings us in sight of 
 the mountains on the main-land, which rear their lofty 
 summits high above the sea. Approaching nearer, we 
 gaze entranced upon the scene. We are sailing over 
 smooth waters, — 
 
 " Calm on the seas, and silver sleep, 
 And waves that sway themselves in rest." 
 
 The air is loaded with perfume from the shore ; a varied 
 verdure meets the eye, — palms on the low land, betel, 
 cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, dorian, and mangosteen upon the 
 slopes ; shades of deep green in the ravines, fading to 
 
224 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 lighter hues higher up the mountain-sides. No fields 
 or farms or villages fill up the panorama. Native huts 
 are seen along the shore, hut the Malayan attempts no 
 conquest of nature. The sea gives him fish, the forest 
 fruit ; thus he is provided with food. A mat affords him 
 ■ shelter. So the hand of man has wrought no changes 
 in the landscape. It is as it has been since the morn- 
 ing stars sang together. 
 
 Opposite the northern end of Sumatra, close under 
 the coast of Malacca, is the island of Penang, about thir- 
 teen miles long and eleven wide, separated from the main- 
 land by a narrow strait. It was taken possession of by 
 the East India Company in 1786, and was held by that 
 corporation tiU 1857, when it became a dependency of 
 the British crown. A few years ago a strip of the main- 
 land was obtained, — ceded to the British government by 
 the native rajah, Queda, who has placed himseK and tribe 
 under English protection. The island and the ceded ter- 
 ritory are known as the province of Wellesley, and have 
 together a population made up as follows : — 
 
 Malays 72,000 
 
 Chinese 39,000 
 
 Natives of India 14,000 
 
 Asiatics and Europeans . . . 1,700 
 
 126,700 
 
 The number of Europeans does not exceed one hxm- 
 dred ; but they are sufficient to maintain order even in 
 such a mixed population. There might be a different 
 story were it not for the presence of war-vessels and the 
 cannon of the fortress, which overlook the town as well 
 as command the strait. 
 
 The harbor is on the east side of the island, completely 
 sheltered from the monsoons, which never are violent in 
 this region. We sight the island before the sun goes 
 
ACROSS THE BAY OF BENGAL. 
 
 225 
 
 10* 
 
226 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 down, but it is nearly ten o'clock before we drop anchor 
 in the harbor. We do not regret it, for we sail over a 
 phosphorescent sea. 
 
 " O hundred shores of happy climes. 
 
 How swiftly streamed ye by the bark ! 
 
 At times the whole sea burned, at times 
 
 With wakes of fire we tore the dark." 
 
 CHAPTEK XXVI. 
 
 PENANG. 
 
 WE are surrounded by boats, which put out from the 
 landing, and long before we can discern the dusky 
 forms of the rowers, or the outline of the craft, we can see 
 their oars dip up the liquid light ! Every fish darting 
 through the water carries a torch. "We behold lines of 
 light curving and turning, now slow, now darting with 
 the rapidity of lightning, liae cuttiag across line in end- 
 less streams. A shower comes on, and every rain-drop 
 turns to fire as it touches thei sea, as if a hand unseen 
 were sowing the deep with diamonds ! Hour after hour 
 we gaze in wonder and delight. The boats have gone to 
 the shore ; the steamer swings at her moorings ; the. tide 
 is setting past ; as the eddies come and go, we behold as 
 it were the unwinding of webs, the unfolding of scrolls of 
 light over the broad surface of the deep. 
 
 In the morning we find ourselves lying east of a low 
 fort, — a green esplanade in front, the town south of it, 
 two church-spires outlined agaiust the dark green of the 
 mountain beyond, which rises two thousand feet high. 
 A few vessels are anchored in the harbor, hundreds of 
 row-boats around ns, a Chinese junk near by. 
 
PENAN6. 
 
 227 
 
 We have reached the western verge of the Flowery 
 Land. We might say that that land had bloomed over 
 its own borders, and its blossoms had fallen here. Our 
 waiters on the steamer are Celestials with pigtails. 
 
 We go ashore in a boat rowed by a Chinaman with a 
 hat three feet in diameter, shaped like the cover of a 
 huge sugar-bowl. His sampan, or boat, has two eyes 
 painted at the bow. 
 
 "bo have eyes, no can see.' 
 
 " AMiy do you liave eyes to your sampan ? " we ask. 
 
 " No liave eyes, no can see," is the reply of the good- 
 natured feUow, who puts on a broad grin every time we 
 look at liim. 
 
 A Malayan duck-pedler — a lad with a large basket 
 filled with tlie fowls — is on tlie pier when we land, 
 ready to drive a good bargain. He has obtained a cast- 
 off English soldier's cap, of which he is as proud as an 
 American juvenile with a pair of new boots. He has a 
 pleasing countenance, and is bright enough to drive a 
 sharp trade with the steward. 
 
228 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 We land at a little jetty, or pier, the only one of the 
 port. The water is deep enough to admit our steamer 
 alongside ; but this pier is never put to such a vulgar use 
 
 as the loading or un- 
 loading of merchan- 
 dise. It is reserved 
 for his Excellency 
 the Governor, who 
 lives at Singapore, 
 and who visits the 
 place once a year 
 to see how Penang 
 is getting on. His 
 puissant mightiness 
 has ordered that no 
 vessel shall be per- 
 mitted to drop an- 
 chor within five 
 hundred yards of 
 the pier. He can- 
 not have it contam- 
 inated by being 
 made the depot of 
 rice, sugar, and oth- 
 er merchandise, nor 
 can he be bothered, 
 although he comes only once in a twelvemonth, liy having 
 a steamer or a sliip in the way of his lauding, '^^^len he 
 arrives, the cannon of the fort boom their loudest thun- 
 ders, and all Penang stands trembling in his presence. 
 
 Arrogance flourishes out here. It grows luxuriantly 
 in English soil, and loses none of its vigor by trans- 
 j)lanting. 
 
 Penang has one hotel. Our captain's recommendation 
 of it is laconic, if not elegant. " You will," said he, " find 
 it a mean, dirty, stinking hole." 
 
 POULTRY BOY. 
 
PENANG. 229 
 
 Eiding up a broad avenue, witli palms rustling above 
 us, bananas bending witb fruit, and gorgeous flowers in 
 full bloom, filling the air with fragrance, we arrive at 
 the establishment, — an airy bungalow, open oh all sides, 
 to admit the breeze. 
 
 Over the entrance is a painting intended to represent 
 the three ostrich-plumes and crest of the Prince of Wales, 
 and beneath it a golden-lettered sign, with this inscrip- 
 tion, "By permission, Hotel Keeper to H. E. H. Prince 
 of Wales ! " Eegent Street, with all its unicorns, lions, 
 grif&ns, crowns, and crests, cannot display a more affect- 
 ing example of flunkeyism. The Prince never has been 
 to Penang, nor is it likely he will ever sleep in this 
 bungalow; nor is there any reason to suppose he wiU. 
 ever buy a saddle, tooth-brush, bug-poison, or anything 
 else, at any of the numerous shops in old England 
 which, by special permission of the Lord Chamberlain, 
 are allowed to keep such things for his benefit ; but it is 
 one way in which the Britons show their affectionate and 
 unswerving loyalty. This wretched daub of a sign we 
 are to consider as a standing hurrah of the hotel-keeper 
 for royalty in general, and Albert Edward in particular. 
 
 The Europeans here are engaged in the spice trade. 
 The warehouses are piled with boxes and sacks of 
 pimento. Nearly all the employees in the mercantile 
 establishments are Chinese, who make expert accountants 
 and bankers. The currency is the Mexican silver dollar. 
 Having been advised to exchange rupees for coin current 
 in China, we enter a banking-house, and are waited on 
 by a Chinaman, who counts out our change with great 
 rapidity, clinking each piece, ascertaining by the sound 
 its genuineness. We are informed that they are as 
 shrewd and competent as Europeans in aU business mat- 
 ters. » 
 
 A short ride enables us to see the features of the place : 
 
230 
 
 OUE NEW Tv'AY KOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 the fort, WT.th low walls and finely kept esplanade ; wide 
 avenues, well watered, bordered by the elegant residences 
 of the few Europeans ; narrower streets, crowded with 
 Chinese shojos, joss-houses, stalls for the sale of the 
 betel-leaf, toddy-shops, where the Chinamen drink Sam- 
 shu and Bhang, — liquors made from rice and hemp ; 
 opium hells, where they become oblivious to the cares 
 and troubles of life by smoking themselves into a state 
 of beastly stupefaction. 
 
 MALAY HOUSE. 
 
 The houses of the Malayans, in the suburbs of the 
 town, are built on posts for free circulation of air, to in- 
 sure dryness, and keep out snakes and vermin, as well 
 as other like intruders. The entrance is liy a ladder, 
 which is a favorite lounging-place for the mistress of the 
 establishment, who has no great amount of housework to 
 do. Her parlor, dining, sleeping room, and kitchen are 
 one and the same. 
 
 Until recently the Peninsular and Oriental steamere 
 
PENANG. 231 
 
 between Ceylon and China have called at .this port, but 
 now they pass it by, saving a day in the trip. It is a 
 damaging blow to the prospects of the Europeans, who 
 remain here only for the purpose of trade. Occasionally 
 a steamer calls on its way from Singapore to Eangoon on 
 the Burmah coast, and the Calcutta and China steamers 
 make the port ; but there is not much life in the colony, 
 and its future prospects are not very hopeful. 
 
 Once more on board, we have a run of three hundred 
 and thirty miles down the Malay coast before reaching 
 Singapore. We have an unruffled sea, the coast in view 
 nearly all the way ; now low, flat, and uninteresting, and 
 now beautiful, with groves of palms, cocoa, nutmeg, and 
 cinnamon ; bold headlands, high moimtains, clothed with 
 varying shades of green. It is not till we are near Singa- 
 pore that we catch sight of Surnatra, — a low shore covered 
 with tropical vegetation, and beyond, through the haze, 
 the peaks of mountains which rise ten thousand feet 
 above the sea. 
 
 An English gentleman, who takes passage for Sin- 
 gapore, is enthusiastic in praise of the dorian, which 
 grows upon the island. 
 
 " You shall have a taste of it, sir, at dinner," he says, 
 pointing to a basket contaiaing several dorians. They 
 are oval-shaped, and about the size of a pineapple. 
 
 "That is the husk," he. adds, "the fruit lies within. 
 It is lilce custard, flavored with pineapple and strawberry. 
 It is the most delicious fruit in the world. My boys here 
 will eat it from morning tUl night. I myseKam extrava- 
 gantly fond of it." 
 
 "Prepare yourself," said the captain, "for a stench 
 worse than any that ever entered your nostrils." 
 
 " Nonsense ! The first odor may not be agreeable, but 
 I am si^ you will like it." 
 
 " If you don't hold your nose I shall be mistaken. 
 
232 OTJE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 that 's all. Think of all the disgusting, ill-smelling, un- 
 savory, nauseating, stinking things in the world, — fried 
 onions, stewed garlic, burnt feathers, singed hair, assafce- 
 'tida, all sorts of doctor's stuff, and the odor of skunks !" 
 responds the captain. 
 
 Such conflicting opinions excite curiosity, if not ap- 
 petite. 
 
 Dinner conies; and, the meat and puddings . disposed 
 of, we await the dessert. A passenger upon the opposite 
 side of the table, a full-blooded Englishman, suddenly 
 begins to sniff the air. 
 
 " What infernal stench is that ! " is his first exclamation. 
 " I should thiak that the steward had got hold of a bad 
 egg," he adds, looking towards the pantry, and twisting 
 his face into an expression of the utmost disgust. 
 
 The odor becomes intense, permeating the cabin and 
 extending to every state-room. Handkerchiefs are brought 
 into requisition ; and now the steward enters, holdiag a 
 plate in one hand and his nose with the other. He drops 
 the plate upon the table without ceremony, and goes out 
 upon the run, the liberated hand clapped suddenly upon 
 his stomach, as if to keep his internal machinery all 
 right. 
 
 " Are you going to try it ? " 
 
 " Pitch in." 
 
 "After you." 
 
 "Goodness gracious ! what a stench ! " 
 
 " Minks and muskrats ! " 
 
 " Worse than that, — feirets and polecats ! " 
 
 Each waits for his neighbor to begin. It recLuires some 
 effort to keep the stomach from turning inside out. But 
 we are travelling to see what is worth seeing, to eat 
 what is worth .eating ; and as the Penang gentleman is 
 swallowing the fruit as if it were the daintiesl^elicacy 
 in the' world, we determine to try it, though conscious 
 
SINGAPORE. 233 
 
 all eyes at table are watching the result of the experi- 
 ment. 
 
 There is pothiag that in the realization so belies the 
 promise as the dorian. The edible part is like custard 
 flavored with pineapple and strawberry, but the final 
 taste that of garlic. 
 
 " How do you like it ? " 
 
 "What does it taste Hke ? " 
 
 "Is it good?" 
 
 Such are the questions ; then others, growing bolder 
 nerve themselves to try it, — some to succeed, others to 
 follow the steward to the gangway, and throw their dinner 
 to the fishes. One of the passengers seizes the basket 
 containing the remainder of the fruit, and tosses it over- 
 board, while the steward sprinkles the cabin with disin- 
 fecting fluid. 
 
 The seventy distinct smells of Cologne, if condensed 
 into a single bottle, could not be more nauseating than 
 the odor of the dorian. Yet it is a favorite fruit at Pe- 
 nang ; and the children of the European residents, like 
 Oliver Twist at the parish workhouse, hold up their 
 plates for more. 
 
 DHAPTEE XXVII. 
 
 SINGAPOKE. 
 
 WE pass the town of Malacca, on the main-land, with 
 the British flag flying from the fort. Chinese 
 junks and native craft lie in the harbor. The population 
 numbers about seventy thousand, two thirds of whom are 
 Malay^ A few Europeans reside there, but the trade of 
 the pl^e is mostly in the hands of the Chinese. 
 
234 OUE NEW WAY ROIISD THE WORLD. 
 
 Singapore, or "the town of lions," is situated on an 
 island at the easterly entrance to the Straits of Malacca, 
 and forms the extreme limit of the long, narrow penin- 
 sula that projects from the continent of Asia one thou- 
 sand miles southward. It is about seventy miles north of 
 the eqiiator. ISTo port on the gloloe is more conveniently 
 situated for ocean travel. It is on the great thoroughfare 
 of Eastern commerce, all of which, passing from the Cape 
 of Good Hope, or from Suez and India, to China, must 
 make the Straits of Malacca or those of Sunda. In either 
 case vessels pass near Singapore. 
 
 The island is about twenty-seven miles long and from 
 twelve to fifteen broad, separated from the main-land by a 
 strait that in many places is not more than one fourth 
 of a mile wide, so that this island is substantially a part 
 of the peninsula. 
 
 It is early morning when we steam into the iiarbor, 
 feeling our way slowly along a passage that winds 
 among numerous small islands. The main cliannel is 
 farther south, but this up which we pass to the new 
 harbor, though narrow, has deep water, and is navigable 
 for large steamers. We look up inlets and into shel- 
 tered coves, and see huts standing on bamboo posts 
 driven into the mud. The tide ebbs and flows beneath 
 them. Tethered to the posts are the small lioats of the 
 fishermen, whose famiUes live in these frail structures. 
 
 Emerging from the network of islands, and making a 
 wide sweep to avoid a coral reef, we have an opportunity 
 of seeing the crescent-shaped harbor, filled with English 
 and American vessels, wlrich have stopped here for fresh 
 supplies on their way to or from China. Se^-e^•al steam- 
 ers are at anchor. One iron screw, just in hova ^lanila, 
 is taking in coal for her long stretch across the Indian 
 Ocean round the Cape of Good Hope, and thgnce to 
 Liverpool, under contract to make the distance between 
 
SINGAPOEE. 235 
 
 Manila and the Mersey in seventy days, or forfeit five 
 dollars per ton for every day exceeding tlie time speci- 
 fied. Another steamer has its flag flying at the peak, as 
 a signal for departure, and a few hours hence wiU be 
 running down the coast of Sumatra for Batavia, three 
 days distant. 
 
 The harbor is alive with boats, — junks just in from 
 China, and Malay craft such as formerly were manned 
 by pirates, ever on the watch for ships passing through 
 the straits. Many a noble vessel lies beneath these 
 waters, captured by them in years gone by. But piracy 
 has been entirely suppressed in these seas, and this once 
 dreaded section of the Indian Archipelago is now as free 
 from the sea-rovers as the Atlantic. The latest piracies 
 were committed by Captain Semmes. SaUing out of this 
 port, cheered by the British residents, "almost within sight 
 of the town, he plundered and burned three American 
 vessels. 
 
 We pass small islands covered with cocoas and palms, 
 with leaves so broad that Mother Eve, if she could have 
 had them, would have required but two to make her a 
 complete garment. The town is level ; but behind it rise 
 hills two or three hundred feet high, one of them sur- 
 mounted by a fort and marine telegraph station. Shady 
 nooks and charming retreats aboimd. We have perpetual 
 spring, — no winter nor summer nor autumn ; a tem- 
 perature almost unvarying ; showers nearly every day ; 
 verdure luxuriant, new leaves always swelling from the 
 bud, flowers always in bloom ; the sun rising and setting 
 within a minute or two of six o'clock the year round, — 
 for we are only seventy miles from the equator ; balmy 
 breezes laden with sweet odors from the nutmeg-groves ; 
 tides and currents sweeping past, between the China Sea 
 and the Say of Bengal. There are few places that have 
 so unvarying, attractive, and healthy a climate. 
 
236 
 
 OUK NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 The street fruit- 
 sellers of Singa- 
 pore have seen our 
 entrance to the har- 
 bor, and are wait- 
 ing on the wharf 
 to supply us with 
 dorians, bananas, 
 mangosteens, and 
 pineapples. After 
 our experience with 
 the dorian, we do 
 not care to lay in 
 a fresh supply of 
 that Malayan pro- 
 duction, but the 
 other fruits are 
 juicy, cooling, de- 
 licious. 
 
 Tlie population of the place, by the latest enumeration, 
 was as follows : — 
 
 FRUITS OF MALACCA. 
 
 Chinese . 
 Malaj'S 
 East Indians 
 Asiastics . 
 Europeans 
 
 Total . 
 
 58,000 
 
 13,500 
 
 12,700 
 
 6,500 
 
 0,000 
 
 90,700 
 
 It is rapidly increasing by the inilux of Chinese, and the 
 town is supposed to contain more than one hundred thou- 
 sand inhabitants at the present time. Being a free port, 
 it has a large trade. Goods to the value of fifteen million 
 dollars per annum are imported, whicli are su]iplied to the 
 surrounding islands. The exports are six or seven mil- 
 
SINGAP^Efi. 237 
 
 lions. It is a great nutmeg mart. Coffee is raised here in 
 large quantities, which is sold as prime old Java ! 
 
 The streets of the town are wide and straight; the 
 houses and shops mainly of two stories, covered with 
 tiles. ' The signs are in Chinese characters, and nearly 
 every person we meet has a pigtail. The scenes are new 
 and strange ; — men with hats three feet in diameter, the 
 crown running up to a point like a cupola, others tunnel- 
 shaped, others like reversed wash-howls ; men, with a ' 
 strip of blue cotton, cloth round the loins, trip past, 
 walking briskly, carrying buckets and baskets, tubs and 
 pails, suspended from a light, springing bamboo laid 
 across their shoulders. These are the market-men. Look- 
 ing into the shops, we see all crafts and trades. There 
 are shoemakers, joiners, carpenters, washermen, bakers ; 
 and opium saloons, reeking with sickening odors. We 
 drive into the square where Europeans principally con- 
 gregate, and find it laid out with shade-trees, flowering- 
 shrubs, and gravelled walks, and surrounded by ware- 
 houses. Young men from England are here to make 
 their fortunes in trade. They are dressed in white 
 pants and black jackets, — the orthodox business cos- 
 tume for this climate. 
 
 They have not lost their taste for ale, their time 
 seeming to be about equally divided between their 
 desks in the counting-houses and the saloons of the 
 liquor-dealers. 
 
 The public square is a pleasant business place, though 
 business does not seem to be very lively. No one moves 
 with- vigor. The climate takes aU energy out of a Euro- 
 pean in la short time. The merchants gather in groups 
 beneath the grateful shade, and talk business and take 
 things easily. In the side streets are numerous dram- 
 shops for the sailors. The "Jolly Tar," the "Sailors' 
 True Home," display the Stars and Stripes close beside 
 
238 OTJE NEW WAY KOXJND THE WOELD. 
 
 the Cross of St. George. The little salt creek which 
 divides the town swarms with Chinese boats. Families 
 live afloat in these small craft, the only shelter from sun 
 and rain being a piece of matting. 
 
 We have reached the land of pigs. A Chinaman has 
 no scruples about eating pork, — none of the prejudices 
 of the Mohammedan, the Jew, and the Hindoo. He is as 
 fond of it as a native of Arkansas. Pigs roam the streets 
 and devour the garbage, doing here such scavenger work 
 as is done by the dogs of Constantinople, Cairo, and 
 Damascus, and the cranes and kites of Calcutta. 
 
 The grounds around the English residences are taste- 
 fully laid out, and adorned with shrubs and flowers in 
 great variety. Nowhere have we seen such profusion 
 and richness of vegetation. It flourishes with such 
 vigor that it is almost impossible to keep the gravelled 
 walks and flower-beds free from grass and weeds! 
 
 " Don't faO. to see the Chinaman's garden," is the in- 
 junction of a gentleman on the steamer. Taking a car- 
 riage, we ride through the town, past the government 
 buildings, — large and imposing edifices, looming grandly 
 from the bay, — past two very pretty churches, and resi- 
 dences of merchants, surrounded by well-kept grounds, 
 ■shaded with tropical trees, and beautified by gorgeous 
 flowers of every hue. Upon the road we meet crowds of 
 Chinese, going to or returning from market ; some halt- 
 ing at the tea-shops to drink their favorite beverage, or at 
 the opium saloons to whifi^ the fumes of the stupefying 
 drug. 
 
 Never rode we through an avenue so beautiful as 
 that leading to the " Whampoa Gardens." Stately palms, 
 wild almonds, tail, feathery bamboos, and trees of un- 
 known name, line the roadway, spreading out their 
 branches overhead, their trunks wreathed with creeping 
 plants. Orchids and wild heKotrope bloom in the thick 
 
SINGAPORE. 
 
 239 
 
 hedges : shrubs, plants, vines, in endless variety, broad 
 and narrow leaved, ovate, heart-shaped, trifoliate, — leaf 
 and flowers filling the air with odors new and strange, 
 and almost overpowering. 
 
 A ride of about two miles brings us to the residence of 
 a Chinaman who has made a large fortune b)^ trade at 
 Singapore, and who, instead of returning to his native 
 land, as most of his countrymen are in the habit of doing, 
 has made this his permanent home. He h^ves tloricul- 
 
 
 AVE^•VE .\T SIXG.\roi;E. 
 
 ture, and has spent a great deal of money in iitting up his 
 residence and the grounds around it. A tall fellow, with 
 thin face, lantern-jaws, long pigtail, wearing a blue cot- 
 ton tunic and flowing trousers and Chinese hat, escorts 
 us through the grounds, to which we have free admission. 
 The proprietor is sick, otherwise he would himself show 
 us the rare tropical plants and flowers. 
 
 The grounds are not laid out in accordance mth the 
 rules of landscape gardening given by English and Anier- 
 
240 OUR NEW WAY KOUND THE WORLD, 
 
 ican .florists. The premises contain a dozen acres, — 
 gardens within gardens, — with arhors, tea-houses, and 
 canals,, and tanks stocked with 'goldiish. There are 
 straight paths, winding walks, and labyrinths, a wonder- 
 ful variety of tropical vegetation, — a place where the 
 florist or botanist might "find unspeakable pleasure. Our 
 conductor brings us to a section of the grounds where 
 dogs, dragons, hobgoblins, and crocodiles, with great 
 goggle eyes, stare at us, — fashioned from a twining 
 shrub, that is hedged in' and clipped off, trained on wires, 
 and thus tortured into fantastic shapes. 
 
 Passing through one of the tea-houses, we find that the 
 proprietor has Italian vases, French clocks, Japanese 
 carved work, windows of German stained glass, floors of 
 English fencaustic tiles, flower-pots from the potteries of 
 his native land, arranged with little taste or order. A 
 Chiaaman's ideas of the artistic are grotesque. The pic- 
 tures which we see on China-ware are excellent represen- 
 tations of Chinese art. They have not advanced beyond 
 the child's plain surface drawing, and have no compre- 
 hension of the rules of perspective. 
 
 The chief attractions of the garden are the monster 
 Victoria regias, which here reach their full development 
 in the open air. Mocks of- waterfowl are sitting on the 
 leaves of the plants, which are large and strong enough 
 to bear up a chUd. 
 
 Here we behold the gigantic fan-palm flourishing with 
 wonderful vigor, the stems of the leaves radiating from the 
 tall trunk like the sticks of a fan, each leaf seven or eight 
 feet in length. In that charming child-romance of Paul 
 and Virgiaia the lad carries such a leaf to protect his 
 fair companion from the sun and rain. The natives of 
 Malacca know nothing of Paul and his exploits, but they 
 are well acquainted with the palm, and we see hucksters 
 by the road sheltering themselves from the sun beneath a 
 single leaf 
 
SINGAPOEE. 
 
 241 
 
 On one side of the garden is a liospital for hogs. The 
 owner of the grounds is a believer in tlie Buddhist re- 
 ligion, and holds to the transmigration of souls. Enter- 
 
 FAN-rAL:M. 
 
 ing the pigsty, we l^ehold aliout a dozen fat porkers. 
 The owner keeps them in excellent condition ; they have 
 enough to eat and are well cared for, inasmuch as the 
 spirit of his father may be inhabiting one of them, his 
 grandfather another ! A deceased elder brother may be 
 inhabiting the body of the baboon that gnashes his teeth 
 at us, and rattles the chain which confines him to one of 
 the posts of the building. Of the lieast, beastly ; yet the 
 religion which inculcates such a belief is accepted by one 
 third of the human race ! 
 
 The Chinese are great money -getters. Merchants and 
 servants are equally thrifty The attendant who conducts 
 us through the garden holds out his hand for money jiist 
 as eagerly and naturally and unblushuigly as if he were 
 a verger of Westminster Abbey or Salisbury Cathedral. 
 
 H P 
 
242 OUR HEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Our coachman demands four dollars fare, though entitled 
 to but one. He appeals to our sympathies by panto- 
 mimic signs, pressing his hands upon his belly, giving 
 us to tmderstand that there is a vacuum inside. He looks 
 upon foreigners as legitimate prey ; but tlie police regu- 
 lations are very strict, and at the mention of the word 
 " police," he becomes civil, respectful, and contented with 
 his due. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVIII. 
 
 LIFE IN MALACCA, 
 
 ALONG the sea-shore are low lands, with dense 
 thickets of mangroves, — shrubs with dark-green 
 leaves, and a tangled network of roots. These- shrubs at 
 night are luminous with myriads of fire-ilies. • The thicket 
 not only sparkles, but at times glows with light. A 
 favorite amusement with the Chinese boys is throwiiKT 
 clubs among the shrubs, and watching the sudden flashes. 
 The Malayan maidens, on gala-nights, to make them- 
 selves more attractive, wear " lightning-bugs " in their 
 hair ! The women of Malacca have soft, lustrous eyes, 
 drooping lashes, and countenances indicative of kind 
 dispositions. They are modest in their deportment, and . 
 dress neatly and tastefully. They protect themselves 
 from the sun by an enormous cheese-shaped head-gear, 
 which, though two feet in diameter and six inches thick, 
 is light and airy. 
 
 The men are well-proportioned, fuU-limbed, with dark- 
 brown eyes and smooth copper-colored skins. They can 
 be firm friends or malignant enemies. They are naturally 
 
LIFE IN JIALACCA. 
 
 243 
 
 affectionate, but being Moliannnedans, tliey have accepted 
 the worst features of tlie faitli of Islam, — hostility to all 
 other religions. 
 
 The road which leads across the island to a little place 
 called Selita, — a resort of the Europeans for rest and 
 recreation, — passes through a, IMalayan forest. Trees 
 six feet in diame- 
 ter rear their lofty 
 trunks one hundred 
 feet above us. They 
 throw out their 
 stout branches and 
 lock arms witli their 
 neiLrIib(irs, forming 
 a deliglitful arcade. 
 Of less heiglit are 
 the dorian, mango- 
 steen, and jaclv, — 
 fruit-ljearing trees, 
 in which apes and 
 monkey's chase each 
 other from liml) to 
 limb ; where paro- 
 quets and macaws, 
 birds of paradise, 
 and others of bril- 
 liant plumage, chat- 
 ter thr(_iugh the 
 day. There are 
 
 shruljs with \inknown names, herliaceous plants of vari- 
 eties unknown beyond the tropics. Parasitic j^^ilants, 
 drawing their life from the stately trees, hang in darli 
 masses or droop in graceful festoons from the bending 
 limbs ; creepers, clinging to tlie rough liark, tAvine up- 
 ward with their tendrils till they clasp the topmrost 
 
 JIAL.WAN LADY. 
 
244 OUK NEW WAY BOUND THE WOKLD. 
 
 twigs ; rattans, no larger than a walking-stick, wiad them- 
 selves around the towering monarchs of the forest, reach 
 the highest branches, climb along the interlaced limbs 
 from tree to tree, the nourishing juices of the soil giving 
 Hfe to leaves three hundred feet distant ! Mightier than 
 these are huge twiners, a foot in diameter, encircling with 
 many turns the trunks as they ascend, running out upon 
 the limbs, dropping to the ground, striking new root, 
 doubling again upon themselves, and gathering tree after 
 tree in their folds, as the serpents wreathed themselves 
 about Laocoon and his sons. It is always night in such 
 a jungle. The fiercest rays of the sim cannot penetrate 
 the gloom. 
 
 Tigers abound, and are very ferocious. It is stated that 
 they devour a man every day. A large reward is offered 
 for every tiger-skin. The most successful himter is an 
 American named CaroU, who lives with the natives and 
 accommodates himself to their habits of life. The Euro- 
 peans here teU wonderful stories of his exploits. The 
 jtmgle is too dense to admit of regular hunts, and he 
 constructs pitfalls. He knows the haunts of the beast, 
 captures a cub if possible when the tigress is away after 
 food, and places it in the pit, to which its cries soon 
 bring the mother. 
 
 The trapping of a tigress is a great event. The natives 
 from the surrounding region assemble to enjoy the ravings 
 of the beast in its vain endeavors to escape. CaroU states 
 that the tigress secretes her cubs from the male, who, if 
 he discovers them, makes a breakfast of his own progeny. 
 He is of the opinion that two out of every three are 
 thT:is devoured. He looks upon this propensity on the 
 part of the tiger as a happy arrangement in the econ- 
 omy of nature ; for if all the cubs were to come to 
 maturity, they would destroy the other animals and 
 depopulate the island. 
 
LIFE IN MALACCA. 245 
 
 Singapore. has contributed pne very important article 
 to the commerce of the world, — gutta-percha. Some- 
 where ahout twenty-five years ago an Englishman noticed 
 that the native coachmen had very curious whip-stocks, 
 which they said were made from the juice of a tree. He 
 sent some of them to London, where they attracted the 
 attention of chemists and artisans, and the article was 
 soon brought into general use. The discovery was made 
 at the right time, for without gutta-percha no Atlan- 
 tic cable could have been laid, and the whole world put 
 into instant communication. It has entered largely into 
 the arts and manufactures, and the world could not now 
 weU dispense with it. 
 
 The natives make incisions in the trees, collect the 
 
 sap, which is evaporated in the sun. When reduced to 
 
 the consistency of tar, they use it to trap tigers. Not 
 
 long since a man was carried off from ohe of the villages 
 
 by a tigress, and partially devoured. Kuowing that the 
 
 beast would return the next day to complete its meal, 
 
 they spread a quantity of the gutta-percha in the vicinity, 
 
 and covered it with chaff. The animal came, got it into 
 
 his mouth, on his jaws, into his eyes, upon his body. 
 
 He soon wrought himself into the condition of Hamlet's 
 
 uncle, — growling, roaring his wordless 
 
 " O lim^d soul that, struggling to be free, 
 Art more engaged." 
 
 The natives gathered, watched awhile his ineffectual 
 efforts to rub it off, and finally dispatched him. 
 
 A few years ago the European residents engaged in the 
 cultivation of nutmegs. Success attended their efforts 
 for a while ; but the trees are short-lived, and the experi- 
 ment has resulted in failure. Pepper is still cultivated 
 by the Chinamen. It is a plant which requires constant 
 attention, but is made profitable by this patient, pains- 
 taking people. 
 
246 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 The climate of Singapore is one of the most eq^uahle 
 in the world. The mercury seldom sinks helow 70°, 
 and rarely rises above 90°. 
 
 " Eternal summer " reigns. The days are not all cloud- 
 less, for sudden showers fall, which cool the air, and 
 give fresh vigor to the exuberant foHage. The raia-fall 
 is almost double that of the United States, the average 
 being eighty-seven inches. It fell on one hundred and 
 eighty-four out of the three hundred and sixty-five days 
 of last year. The monsoons, which are so powerful and 
 destructive in India, are not felt here; neither are the 
 cyclones of the Indian Ocean nor the typhoons of the 
 Chinese Sea. 
 
 There are few localities more charming, and it is said 
 to be an excellent climate for invalids. The variety of 
 vegetation, its luxuriance, the beauty of the surround- 
 ing waters, the wonderful gardens beneath the waves, 
 the workmanship and industry of the coralline insects, 
 the gorgeously-tiuted shells, the myriads of brilliant in- 
 sects which sport in the sunshine, — make it attractive to 
 the naturalist as well as the pleasure-traveller. 
 
 The residents here tell good stories of the igno- 
 rance and stupidity of the London managers of the old 
 East India Company ia regard to the productions and 
 the natural history of Malacca. There was a time 
 when the English preferred white pepper to black, and 
 orders came out from the India houses to their agents 
 here to pay more attention to the cultivation of the white 
 plant, not being aware that both grow on the same tree, 
 and that the white is gathered at an earlier stage. 
 
 More ludicrous is another story of what the London 
 managers proposed to do with the white ants. One year 
 there was a deficit in the exchequer, and the agent sug- 
 gested that the white ants had got into the treasure- 
 chest and carried off the silver, amounting to several 
 
FROM SIHGAPOEE TO .HONG KONG. 247 
 
 thousand dollars. The next ship from England brought 
 a large package of files, and a letter of instructions, to 
 the effect that, as the white ants could eat their way 
 through everything, men must he employed to catch 
 them and file off their teeth ! 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIX. 
 
 FROM SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG. 
 
 AT Singapore we take on board about two hundred 
 Chinese, men, women, and children, who have 
 been making money here, and who are going back to 
 their native land to enjoy it. While sailing up the 
 China Sea we have ample time and an excellent oppor- 
 tunity to study their singular traits of character. They 
 pay twenty dollars each for a passage to Hong Kong, 
 boarding themselves. They have a vast amount of bag- 
 gage, — more trunks than a devotee of fashion on her way 
 to N'ewport. Each family has a small portable furnace, 
 a bag of charcoal, baskets of potatoes, with rice, salt- 
 fish, shrimps, crabs, and hampers of live chickens and 
 ducks. They waste nothing. Standing on the bridge 
 of the steamer, we can look down upon the crowd pre- 
 paring and eating their breakfast. All sorts go into the 
 stew-pan, — the chicken in bits, the tongue, the comb, 
 the whole body down to the toes, even the intestines, 
 after being well washed and cleaned ! Then bits of 
 dried fish, small shrimps, dried crabs, the roe of fish, 
 potatoes, small sq^uashes, and other vegetables of the 
 tropics, all cut into small pieces, mixed, stirred, and 
 cooked. For utilizing odds and enda of food, the Chi- 
 nese far surpass the French. 
 
248 
 
 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WOKLD. 
 
 A Chinaman's habits at table are not such as we of 
 the West are accustomed to. He holds a bowl of stew 
 or rice to his lips, and pokes the food into his mouth 
 with his chop-sticlvs. The sticks are a little larger than 
 a pen-holder, are> held on each side of the middle 
 
 finger of the right 
 hand, and are kept 
 in place by the 
 thumb. One of the 
 men before us uses 
 them for stirring 
 the stew while it is 
 cooking ; also as 
 tongs, picking up 
 bits of charcoal to 
 add to the fire, raps 
 an urchin over the 
 head with them, 
 punches the sides 
 of a little shaggy 
 puppy who helps 
 himself to some of 
 the stray frag- 
 ments, and ^Yllo will 
 go into the stew- 
 pan himself one of 
 these days. Not- 
 withstanding this 
 varied use of the sticks, the Chinaman, without taking 
 the trouble to wipe them, uses them while eating his 
 breakfast. 
 
 Their curiosity is unbounded. They are ingenious in 
 their way of making knick-knacks, — puzzles, porcelain, 
 liamlioo chairs and baskets, — but they cannot comprehend 
 machinery. They are never weary of watching tlie mo- 
 
 CHOP-STICKS. 
 
FROM SINGAPOEE TO HONG KONG. 249 
 
 tions of the engine, and gaze by tlie hour, with all the 
 wonder of children, upon the cranks, wheels, and pis- 
 tons, which to them seem to be alive. Several 
 years ago, when steamers first appeared in Chinese 
 waters, the ingenious mechanics of Canton resolved to 
 construct a steamboat. They rigged a junk with paddle- 
 wheels, put up a funnel, painted great eyes at the bow, 
 and wondered why the thing did n't start ! The outside 
 was aU right, but the motive power was wanting. 
 
 They are inveterate gamesters. Here is a group which 
 have finished their breakfast, and are prepared to spend 
 the day in gambling, using dominos. They stake but a 
 little, — play for their dinner or supper. Many of these 
 men are wealthy. That one with a blue cotton cloth 
 about his loins went down to Singapore years ago as a 
 cooly. He lived at the cheapest possible rate ; his rice 
 may have cost him a cent a day. Out in the harbor were 
 plenty of fish which he could catch at night. A yard 
 or two of cotton cloth made him a suit of clothes for a 
 year. He earned a few dollars, left off carrying coals 
 and bags and bundles, and became a huckster ; aad now, 
 as he lifts the lid of his chest to get money to pay his ' 
 fare, we see a pile of silver dollars. He is rich, and is 
 going home to take his comfort. He applied for a cabin 
 passage, was ready to pay the regular fare of one hun- 
 dred dollars, but being only half clothed, the captain 
 would not assign him a state-room. 
 
 " These are aU of the lowest class," says the captain. 
 "The upper classes of China wear costly clothing, and 
 would deport themselves well in any society." 
 
 The people of China look with pride upon their nation- 
 ality. They know that they are the oldest nation under 
 the sun. They are the civilized of the earth; aU the 
 rest of the human race are barbarians. They speak of 
 Europeans and Americans as " foreign devils." The epi- 
 
250 
 
 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 thet was applied to the Engiish first because they com- 
 pelled China to take opium. They are men and we are 
 devils : we can accomplish what they cannot, — can make 
 steamboats, big guns, long-range rifles, revolvers, and 
 terrible instruments of destruction. A foreign devil is, 
 therefore, a creature of abihty, but dreadfully wicked. 
 
 We are much amused by the appearance of one of the 
 Chinese women, who makes herself at home on the quar- 
 ter-deck. She wears her hair in the Canton style, — heavy 
 
 puffs over the ears, the 
 back-hair in a mass, a 
 lock upon the cro'wn 
 gathered in the form 
 of a jug-handle, the 
 general make-up called 
 by foreigners " the jug- 
 handle pattern." 
 She has a retreating 
 
 o 
 
 forehead, flat nose, wide 
 mouth, high cheek- 
 bones, and wears a va- 
 riety of ornaments 
 about her person. By 
 her resolute bearing 
 she e^'idently would 
 have us comprehend 
 that she belongs to an 
 ancient and honorable 
 race. She has opinions 
 
 of her own, and is not afraid to declare them. 
 
 riacing herself in front of Mrs. C, she addresses her 
 
 in Chinese. The captain understands the language, and 
 
 explodes with laughter. 
 
 " She is complimentary. Would you like to Icnow what 
 
 she says ? " 
 
 ETPEESSING AN OPIMON 
 
FROM SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG. 251 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " She has the happiness to inform you that you are a 
 red-faced, foreign female devO. ! " 
 
 The woman enjoys our merriment, and joias in it 
 heartily. 
 
 Junks are multiplying around us, — unwieldy, clumsy 
 •craft, with sails so constructed that a reef can be taken 
 instantly without goiug aloft ; not one reef, but a half- 
 dozen if necessary, reducing the maiasaH to a small bit 
 of canvas when the storm grows wild. The junk-builders 
 seem to have no particular place for putting the masts. 
 Sometimes there is but one, which is amidships, then 
 there is a taU mast in the middle, and a short one at the 
 stern. Now we come ia sight of a craft with a short 
 stump of a mast at the extremity of the bows, a tall 
 mainmast in the centre, a shorter one farther aft, and a 
 fourth fastened to the port side ,of the craft, as far as pos- 
 sible astern. It can be unshipped at pleasure, and raised 
 on the starboard side of the vessel. A framework like a 
 carpenter's staging is built out several feet over the 
 helm. The rudder itself is a clumsy affair of plank and 
 timber, larger than that of a man-of-war. 
 
 There is a lively chatting among the Chinese passen- 
 gers. They are nearing home, and are giving thanks to 
 Joss by setting gilt paper on fire and throwing it over- 
 board. They are packing up their pots and kettles, gath- 
 ering together their baskets and boxes, and are straining 
 their eyes for the land. 
 
 " There are the Ass's Ears," says the captain, looking 
 steadily iuto the northwest. 
 
 Turning our eyes in that direction we see two black 
 specks on the horizon ; a nearer view shows that they are 
 conical hUls, which rise abruptly from the sea. Numer- 
 ous other islands appear, aU. of them with shores so bold 
 that we can run withiu cable's length of the wave-washed 
 
252 ouB neXv way round the woeld. 
 
 rocks. The Portuguese called them the Ladrones, — the 
 "islands of thieves." Chinese pirates formerly lived 
 upon them, and watched their ' opportunity to plunder 
 native or foreign craft. The English have suppressed 
 piracy at Malacca, but the freebooters of the China coast 
 are not all dead. The junks which are in sight around 
 us are all armed, for fear of these robbers of the sea,, 
 which even now occasionally overhaul stray coasters. 
 We can count eight cannon on the deck of one, ten on 
 another. The guns vary in calibre. No Armstrong or 
 other breech-loaders, no Parrott or Dahlgren, but old- 
 fashioned and rusty two, four, six, and eight pounders ; 
 also fusees a foot long, ancient gingals, such as were in use 
 three hundred years ago among Western nations. Some 
 of these pieces are about as dangerous at. the breech as at 
 the muzzle. The old-cannon trade has been profitable in 
 China, as every large junk is armed ; and the amount of 
 old iron afloat, if melted and rolled into rails, would go 
 far towards building a road from one end 'of China to the 
 other. 
 
 We have had a heavy sea all day, and dark clouds, with 
 sharp lightning and grand thunderings. For seventeen 
 days the Clan Alpine steamer has been our home ; and 
 though we have had an agreeable captain, good service, and 
 smooth seas nearly aU of the time, it is with pleasure that 
 we find ourselves, on Saturday evening, entering the har- 
 bor of Hong Kong. We go in by the northern entrance. 
 The thunder-clouds have rolled away, the fuU moon is 
 risiag from the sea, and we have before us a grand pano- 
 rama, — high, steep hills, green from the sea-beach to the 
 topmost peak, ledges of white granite, with here and there 
 patches of red earth on the hillsides. Eounding a point 
 of land, a mountain slope gleaming with lights bursts into 
 view. We glide nearer, threading our difficult way past 
 ships and boats, and drop anchor at ten o'clock, — too 
 late to land before morning. 
 
GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF CHINA. 253 
 
 CHAPTEE XXX. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF CHINA. 
 
 IF we draw a line from the British possessions due 
 south through Dakotah and Nebraska, and along the 
 western boundary of Kansas through Texas till we reach 
 the Rio Grande, and follow that stream to the Gulf of 
 Mexico, we have in the territory of the United States east 
 of that line an area about as large as that embraced in 
 the eighteen provinces of Chiua. 
 
 The entire territory of the United States . contains a 
 population of about thirty-five millions, while that of 
 the eighteen provinces is peopled by about fouj hundred 
 and twenty millions! 
 
 The Empire of China includes Manchuria and Corea 
 on the north and northeast, Mongolia on the northwest, 
 Turkestan and Thibet on the west. China proper contains 
 about one million three hundred thousand scLuare miles, the 
 countries enumerated above contain three million seven 
 hundred thousand additional square miles, making the 
 total area under Chinese dominion five million square 
 miles. This domain is nearly as large as the entire 
 territory of the United States, including Alaska, also 
 the Dominion of Canada, the Eepublic of Mexico, and 
 the Central American States. 
 
 These passengers who are cooking their dinner, smok- 
 ing opium, and playing cards speak of their native coun- 
 try as the land of Chin, Sin, or Sinae, the pronunciation 
 varying with the dialects of the different provinces. 
 They caU themselves Chung Kwah, — " natives of the 
 Middle Kingdom." Theirs is not only the mightiest 
 
254 OUE NEW WAY EOUNB THE WORLD. 
 
 and oldest kingdom on earth, Mt it is the centre of 
 civilization. Their empire is hoary with age. Its his- 
 tory, literature, science, and art were perfected thousands 
 of years ago. It has been the centre of light to the 
 world. It is the Hwa-Kwah, — " the refined," " the culti- 
 vated." Its civilization was blooming like a flower when 
 all Europe was in darkness, even before what we call an- 
 cient civilization had taken root along the- shores of the 
 Mediterranean. Thus it came about that theirs is the 
 "Elowery," or refined kingdom. More than that, the 
 rulers of the land belonged in ancient times to a heavenly 
 dynasty, — they ruled by right diviae derived from the 
 celestial spheres. 
 
 The woman who addressed Mrs. C. as a foreign deyil 
 used the term contemptuously, and so we travellers of the 
 West pay her back by caUing her a " Celestial," ridiculing 
 her aspiring pretensions. 
 
 But she can point far down the vista of time and show 
 us an authentic history of a nation which has continued 
 more than three thousand years. She might narrate 
 traditions of historical events which are said to have 
 transpired four thousand seven hundred years ago, in the 
 time of Fuhhi, the first emperor. According to the chro- 
 nology of Archbishop Usher, that period of time would 
 place the event five hundred and eight years before the 
 Deluge. Among the successors of Fuhhi was Whang-ti. 
 In the sixty-first year of that monarch's reign one of the 
 astronomers of China established the sixty-year cycle, 
 which has been continued to the present time. The sev- 
 enty-sixth period ended 1863. Whang-ti began to reign, 
 therefore, 2758 B. C, which was four hundred and ten 
 years before the Flood, as calculated by Usher. 
 
 The Chinese historian Meng-tse says the country 2204 
 B. C. was a desert ; the lowlands were covered Avith water 
 and the hOls with trees. Yau caused them to be cut 
 
GEOGEAPHT AND HISTORY OF CHTNA. 
 
 down, and tlie swamps drained. He was a hard worker, 
 spending all his time directing the digging of ditches and 
 the clearing of forests. On tliree several occasions he 
 tied np his hair while taking a bath, so that he might 
 attend to husiness. The servants on the steamer, and 
 the whole crowd of 
 Chinese passengers, 
 folloAv his illustri- 
 ous example hy coil- 
 ing their pigtails on 
 the crown of the 
 head while at work, 
 but never forgetting 
 to display them at 
 full length during 
 their hours of rec- 
 reation. , 
 
 Tlie Deluge, as 
 calculated by Usher, 
 was only about fifty 
 years earlier than 
 this overflowing of 
 Northern China, and 
 it is taken for grant- 
 ed by some scholars 
 
 that the legends of the Chinese ha-^-e reference to that 
 event. A recent writer, who is conversant with the liter- 
 ature of China, says, in regard to these annals : — 
 
 " The earliest records of the Chinese correspond rather 
 too closely with their present character to receive full 
 belief ; but while they may lie considered as unworthy of 
 entire confidence, it will lie allowed that they present an 
 appearance of probability and naturalness hardly pos- 
 sessed by the early annals of Greece." * 
 
 * Confucius and the Chinese Classics, p. 20. 
 
 CHINESE SEKYA^T. 
 
256 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Eussia is proud of Peter the Great, Prussia of Frederic, 
 and China points with equal pride to the Great Yu, who 
 ascended the throne 2205 B. C. He did what Yau was 
 not able to accomplish, — ^'drained the lowlands and kept 
 out the floods. 
 
 The historians of China narrate the events of his reign. 
 Confucius, writing seventeen centuries later, eulogizes 
 that sovereign. On one of the mountains of Hang 
 Shang, in the province of Shensi, where the ancient em- 
 perors offered annual sacrifice, is an inscription cut in 
 the solid rock which relates to the inundation and the 
 labors of Yu in subduing it. No one knows when it 
 was engraved, as it bears no date ; but it is conceded to 
 be one of the oldest rock-cut inscriptions in the world, 
 probably quite as ancient as the pictured obelisk of He- 
 liopolis. 
 
 " The Hia dynasty, founded by Yu the Great," says Mr. 
 Loomis, " existed four hundred and thirty-nine years 
 down to 1766 B. C, under seventeen monarchs, the rec- 
 ords of whose reigns are very brief Among the contem- 
 porary events of importance are the call of Abraham, 
 Jacob's flight to Mesopotamia, and Joseph's elevation in 
 Egypt. 
 
 " The Shang dynasty began with Chingtang, B. C. 1766 
 and continued six himdred and forty-four years, under 
 twenty-eight sovereigns, down to B. C. 1122. This period 
 was characterized by wars among rival princes, and the 
 power of the sovereign depended chiefly upon his personal 
 character. The principal contemporary events were the 
 exodus of the Israelites, their settlement in Palestine, 
 judgeship of Othniel, Deborah, Gideon, Samson, and 
 Samuel. The first monarch of this dynasty, Chingtang, 
 is reputed to have paid religious worship to Shangti, the 
 Supreme Euler. 
 
 " The Chau dynasty began with Wu Wang, and contin- 
 
GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF CHINA. 257 
 
 lied for eight hundred and seventy-three years, under 
 thirty-five monarchs, down to B. G. 249, — the longest of 
 any recorded in history. The sway of many of these was 
 little more than nominal, and the .feudal states increased 
 or diminished 'according to the vigor of the monarch or 
 the ambition of the princes. Among the feudal states 
 under the house of Chau, that of Tsin on the Northwest 
 had long been the most powerful, occupying nearly a fifth 
 of the country, and its inhabitants forming a tenth of the 
 wliole population. 
 
 " Mention has been made of the burning of the Ancient 
 Books, by the founder of the Tsin dynasty. It oc- 
 curred about 212 B. C, and is always referred to as the 
 greatest disaster of ancient times ; and with it was 
 coupled the slaughter of many of the hterati by the 
 same monarch. 
 
 " The emperor's ministers had represented to him that 
 the scholars of his day gave their time to the study of 
 antiquity, and to . eulogizing the rulers and the customs 
 of former times, instead of devoting their talents, as be- 
 came them, to studying the laws and strengthening the 
 power of the government under which they lived ; there- 
 fore they advised that all the books should be burned, 
 excepting those on medicine, divination, and husbandry. 
 The Emperor followed their suggestion. 
 
 " It cannot be supposed that a complete destruction of 
 the Ancient Books of China was effected by this monarch. 
 
 " Some remained in the hands of individuals, in whole 
 or in parts, and it was a work for future scholars to col- 
 lect, arrange, and reproduce these works, some of which 
 reproduction may have been made, perhaps, partly by the 
 aid of memory and partly by tradition." 
 
 The Tsin dynasty began in 770 B. C, in the Northwest 
 
 .Provinces, and obtained possession of the entire empire 
 
 250 B. C. From this monarch comes the presertt word 
 
258 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 " Chin " or " Sin," the word which our fellow-passengers 
 use when talking of their country. 
 
 It was while Tsin was making his conquests that Isaiah 
 at Jerusalem, looking with prophetic vision down the 
 future, to the time of the Messiah, wrote this sentence : * 
 " Behold, these shall come from far ; and lo, these from 
 the north and from the west, and these from the land 
 of Sinim." 
 
 The credible history of the Chinese reaches back to 
 nearly the time of Abraham. In the year 1765, about 
 the time that Jacob was falling in love with his cousin 
 Rachel at Haran, we find that one E. Yin here in China 
 was presenting a written memorial to his sovereign, while 
 Egypt at that time had only attained to figures of beasts, 
 birds, reptiles, and insects, and corresponding symbols in 
 the art of writing. 
 
 The Chinese who sailed these waters at the time that 
 David was king of Israel, it is said, had .just the same 
 sort of a mariner's compass as that by which the un- 
 wieldy junks are now navigated along the coast. 
 
 The claims of the Chinese to an antiquity reaching far 
 . beyond the Mood cannot be proved, but there is no doubt 
 that they are by far the oldest nation on the globe. The 
 Jews, Persians, G-reeks, Eomans, all have had their day 
 and disappeared since Yu drained the swamps. Egypt 
 and Assyria, which had a contemporaneous beginning, 
 have disappeared, but China remains. The civilization 
 of this land attained a high development before Eome 
 became a republic. The laws, customs, manners, and 
 habits of the people strike their roots deep into the 
 mould of centuries. For three thousand years they have 
 been an exclusive people. They were remote from the 
 old nations. The Greeks knew of them. The map of 
 Eratosthenes, made 250 B. C, as Strabo informs us, 
 
 Isaiah xlix. 12. 
 
GEOGEAPHY AND HISTORY OP CHINA. 259 
 
 located Thina at the eastern end of the -world. It was 
 the land of the Seres, — the Greek for ■worms which 
 produced silk. Cotton was raised in China at least two 
 hundred years hefore the Christian era. 
 
 Dionysius, who translated the works of Eratosthenes, 
 has this description of Thina : — 
 
 " Nor flocks nor herds the distant Seres tends ; 
 But from the flowers that in the desert bloom. 
 Tinctured with every varying hue, they cull 
 The glossy down, and card it for the loom." 
 
 When Eome was in its days of affluence and power, 
 the matrons of that empire were robed in silks brought 
 from China by caravans over the steppes of Tartary and 
 the vast regions of Central Asia. But commercial inter- 
 course with China was on a limited scale, through all the 
 centuries from the time of the Greeks and Komans down 
 almost to the present century. In 1624 the Dutch gained 
 a settlement on the island of Formosa, and Europeans 
 were made acquainted with the use of tea. In 1666 
 Holland obtained, by treaty, permission to trade at Can- 
 ton, Ningpo, and several other ports ; but the Chinese 
 officials were haughty, overbearing, made offensive ex- 
 actions, and commercial intercourse was attended with 
 many difficulties. 
 
 France, Eussia, and England subsequently opened trade. 
 The commerce of the Enghsh with this country com- 
 menced in 1637, through the East India Company, and 
 gradually increased ; but the Chinese never lost an oppor- 
 tunity of showing that they considered themselves supe- 
 rior to all foreigners. 
 
 In 1795 Lord Macartney was sent out as an ambassa- 
 dor to ask the privilege of trading at the ports of Chusan, 
 Ningpo, and Tientsing ; also the privilege ' of establishing 
 a depot on one of the islands of the Bay of Canton, where 
 unsold goods could be stored. But the Chinese refused to 
 
260 OXTB NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 grant the request to tlie " Eed-lDristled barbarian tribute- 
 bearer," as Lord Macartney was styled in the of&cial 
 record which has been published. They considered that 
 the payment of large sums by the English merchants for 
 the privilege of trading made the English nation tributary 
 to China. 
 
 Trade between the United States and China commenced 
 in 1786, when a vessel of three hundred and fifty tons 
 reached Canton. It rapidly increased duriag the first 
 years of the present century, while Europe was at war. 
 After the war between England and China in 1840, by 
 which Great Britaia obtained commercial advantages by 
 treaty, Mr. Cushing was sent to Pekin by the United 
 States government ; and commercial relations were opened 
 in 1844, which have been harmoniously maintained to 
 the present time. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXI. 
 
 HONG KONG. 
 
 AT sunrise we are on deck gazing upon a beautiful 
 scene. The town of Hong Kong lies south of us, 
 at the foot of a moimtain which rises abruptly from the 
 sea to the height of nearly two thousand feet. It seems 
 to be a city of palaces, — large edifices, with colonnades 
 and verandas, the residences of the merchants. Steamers, 
 ships, and Chinese boats are all around us. Two United 
 States war vessels, the Piscataqua and Maumee, have re- 
 cently arrived. Farther up the bay the cross of St. George 
 and the tricolor of France float in the breeze. 
 
 Northward lies the main-land, — verdure-clad hUls, 
 lofty mountaiQS, deep ravines, patches of yellow earth 
 
HONG KONG. 
 
 261 
 
262 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 here and there, contrasted with the greenness, lending 
 rare heauty to the picture. 
 
 The Bay of Naples is hroader, the moxmtains of Leba- 
 non give a loftier background to the harbor of Beyrout, 
 but there are few ports which for picturesqueness and 
 beauty equal that of Hong Kong. It. is so completely 
 land-locked that yessels are but little exposed to the 
 terrific typhoons which sometimes sweep over the waters 
 of China. 
 
 The town is situated on an island eleven miles long, 
 from two to five wide, and containing twenty-nine square 
 miles. It is separated from the main-land by this strait, 
 which forms the harbor. It was ceded to Great Britain 
 in 1841, at a cost to the royal treasury of two hundred 
 thousand dollars. It is a free port, and the town is in- 
 creasing in population with a rapidity equal to that of 
 American cities. In 1851 there were only five thousand 
 inhabitants; by the census of IP' "5 there were one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five thousand. Europeans and Americans 
 number about twenty-two hundred. The present popula- 
 tion is not far from one hundred and forty thousand. It 
 is a colony by itself, having a governor and a council ap- 
 pointed by her Majesty. In the ifiritish Blue Book it is 
 known as the Colony of Victoria, though the world over 
 it goes by the name of Hong Kong, the Chinese for 
 •'. Sweet Water." 
 
 Twenty-two hundred vessels and- steamers, with a ton- 
 nage of one million one hundred thousand tons, entered 
 the port last year. They are from every quarter of the 
 globe. It is the great mail centre of the East, — mails to 
 Europe, to Australia, Batavia, Manila, Japan, and the 
 United States. Twice every month the Peninsular and 
 Oriental steamers sail for Suez, every month to Australia, 
 twice a month to Japan. Once a month the French mail 
 arrives and departs, connecting with Siam. Two steamers 
 
HONG KONG. 263 
 
 ply regularly to Calcutta. The Pacific mair leaves every 
 montli for San Francisco. Three or four times a week 
 there are steamers up the coast to Shanghae. Every day 
 there is a steamer to Canton, and another to Macao. So 
 Western enterprise is making itself felt in these waters. 
 
 The town is healthy, though situated on the north side 
 •of the Victoria peak, which prevents it from receiving the 
 benefit of the southwest monsoons, that Uow steadUy 
 during the summer. The only drawback is the heat, — 
 the thermometer in the summer ranging from eighty to 
 "ninety degrees. 
 
 The flotilla around us are junks and sampans, with 
 matting stretched on bamboos to form a little cabin, and 
 another kind of craft where the family live on board, 
 sleeping at night in drawers, which are closed during the 
 day. In these family boats there is great economy of 
 space ; every inch is occupied. Thiak of a father, mother, 
 several sons and daughters, a grandfather and grand- 
 mother, living on a craft a little larger than a ship's long- 
 boat ; urchins tumbling about the deck without clothing, 
 growing to manhood, to old age, rearing families of their 
 own, their sisters living with them till married. Here 
 they eat, sleep, work, play, drink tea, gamble, — here to- 
 day, to-morrow somewhere else, — apparently happy and 
 contented with their lot. 
 
 We take a seat in one of the sampans, while our bag- 
 gage is put into another. The captain of our boat is a 
 healthy looking woman of thirty-five or forty, with a wide, 
 mouth, showing a superb set of teeth. She sits at the 
 helm, not having room enough to stand, while her hus- 
 band and three sons ply the oars. The captain of the 
 other sampan is her daughter, a girl of about eighteen, 
 with bright black eyes, regular and interesting features, 
 and a bewitching smile. She is Hthe and agile, and 
 •makes the' oar bend in her hands as she- dips it in the 
 
264 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WOELD. 
 
 wave. She seems to be the admiral of the two boats, 
 giving orders about the stowing of the baggage. Per- 
 haps she has this exalted command because she can 
 speak a few words of English. 
 
 Our admiral looks over to us with laughing eyes, and 
 as we approach the wharf, courteously lies by till we 
 are on shore. 
 
 We are welcomed by a crowd of coolies, who are ready 
 to seize our luggage to carry it to the hotel. They leap 
 
 ' THEREBY I-IANGS A TAIL." 
 
 on our admiral's sampan. Four of them seize our one 
 small tninl-;:, three grasp the carpet-bag, and there is a 
 tussle between two others for the roll of shawls. A 
 dozen more are crowding up, but find their match in the 
 plucky woman, who pitches them right and left, slaps 
 one in the face, gives another a vigorous punch in the 
 ribs, pulls the pigtail of the third, and stands sentry 
 till we are ready to move, then accepts her fee with a 
 smile and a courtesy, and does not ask for bakshish. 
 The monks in the churches of Italy, the Arabs of Egypt, 
 the vergers in Westminster Al)bey, miglit take ft lesson in 
 politeness and good breeding from this China girl. 
 
HONG KONG. 265 
 
 A few steps, and we are in the Hong Kong Hotel, — a 
 new iDuilding, large, spacious, well arranged and fur- 
 nished, — superior in these respects to any hotel we 
 have seen east of Marseilles. 
 
 It is Sunday morning ; after weeks of deprivation 
 of Sabbath service, it is a pleasure to hear the church- 
 bell, and to enter a house of worship. There are no pub- 
 lic coaches in Hong Kong, and not many private ones. 
 A few of the Englishmen have dog-carts, and other 
 fantastic vehicles equally uncomfortable. It is hardly 
 worth while to keep carriages where the longest possible 
 drive is not over five miles ; so everybody rides in sedan- 
 chairs, which are carried by two Chinamen, or, if the dis- 
 tance is great, by four. The chair is a bamboo box, with 
 a light framework ; it has green painted canvas to shelter 
 us from the stin, and curtains at the side that may be 
 rolled up or let down at pleasure, and is supported by 
 two long, springing bamboo poles, which the bearers place 
 on their shoulders. 
 
 We are lifted from the ground, find ourselves springing 
 up and down, and moving along with a wave-like motion. 
 We cannot help laughing outright at this queer mode 
 of travelling, — shut up in a hen-coop, carried by men in 
 blue cotton blouses, shoes with soles an inch thick, that 
 turn up at the toes, and wearing hats with brims three 
 feet in diameter, curving up from circumference to centre 
 like the lid of a teapot, each bearer having a pigtail 
 hanging down his back like a bell-rope. 
 
 We are in a procession of sedans ; men and women are 
 bobbing up and down before and behind all the way to 
 the church. It is so novel an experience, that we can 
 hardly tell whether we are in or out of the body, though 
 we know that we are in a, sedan. It puts us to dreaming 
 of old times, when men were borne about the streets of 
 London in such conveyances, with link-boys going before 
 
 12 
 
266 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 them in dark nights ; and recalls the scene of Mr. Pick- 
 wick, at Ipswich, on his way to the magistrate's agaiast 
 his will, and giving utterance to his indignation in a 
 speech to the crowd. 
 
 HOW WE GO TO CHURCH. 
 
 Arriving at the chnrch, we find the space around it as 
 closely packed with sedans as a market-place or poultry- 
 fair with coops and baskets. 
 
 The illusion that we have somehow got back into a 
 past age is not dispelled, but rather increased, when we 
 step out of the sedan and enter the church beneath a 
 portico supported by tall j^illars, and look up the aisle and 
 see beautiful stained-glass windows, and a dozen punkas 
 suspended by cords from the roof, swinging backward and 
 forward with a gentle motion. We hear the deep notes 
 of the organ, the sweet tones of a choir of boys, the voice 
 of the clergyman, and the responses of the congregation ; 
 and there is such a mingling of the past and present, old 
 and new, sober and funny things, that we wonder whether 
 it is reality or illusion. 
 
OPIUM. 267 
 
 The Sabbath is well observed in Hong Kong by the 
 European population. The wholesale Chinese merchants 
 close their places of business, not from reverence for the 
 day, but because they cannot trade with the Europeans. 
 The retail shops in the native quarters are open, and 
 business goes on there as on other days. The shoemakers 
 and joiners are at their benches ; the huckster, with his 
 baskets suspended from a bamboo over his shoulders, 
 looking like a walking pair of grocer's scales, cries his 
 vegetables as on all other days of the week. There are 
 two services at the English church, also mass in the 
 morning and vespers in the evening at the Catholic 
 cathedral. The Chinese theatres are open, and there is 
 the ever-lively scene in the harbor. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXII. 
 
 OPIUM. 
 
 THE opium saloons at night are crowded with 
 smokers. Looking in we behold some reclining 
 on couches ; others lying at full length on mats, with 
 bamboo pillows under their heads. The opium is first 
 reduced from a solid to a liquid form by boiling it in 
 water. When ready for the pipe, it is about the color 
 and consistency of tar. It is prepared and put up in 
 little tin boxes by the dealers, being brought from India 
 in the solid cake. It is so powerful in its effects that the 
 hundredth part of an ounce is sufficient to intoxicate a 
 beginner, though an old stager can stand a quarter of an 
 ounce. If the drug is used regularly at a certain hour 
 every day, the smoker in a short time cannot get past 
 
268 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 that hour without his pipe. He becomes restless, ner- 
 vous, feverish, irritable, out of sorts, and endures terrible 
 torture. If he takes a few whiffs, he is the happiest of 
 mortals. He passes from purgatory to paradise. Once 
 form the habit and there is no breaking it off. The 
 victim is doomed. It is an expensive luxury, one in 
 which the very poor cannot indulge. It costs an in- 
 veterate smoker about fifteen dollars per month, and 
 the vice in a short time leads to listlessness, indolence, 
 neglect of business, incapacity, disinclination for labor, 
 disease, and horrible death. The Chinese have a saying 
 that opium-smokers make the day night and the night 
 day. Those who give themselves up to tHe pipe, are 
 called "opium devils." 
 
 The future historian will mark its introduction into 
 China as one of the saddest incidents of its history. 
 
 In 1773, about the time that the people of Boston were 
 throwing British tea into the harbor, the East India Com- 
 pany were disposing of their first small venture of opium 
 q,t this port. From the topmasts of their vessels the 
 sailors had looked out upon these fertile valleys, and be- 
 held them white with poppy-blooms, from which opium 
 was manufactured for the wealthy classes. A chest of' 
 opium in the market of Canton was worth $500; but 
 the banks of the Ganges were more fertile than these 
 mountain slopes, the climate more genial, and a chest of 
 the drug could be produced for $ 100. Here was a chance 
 for speculation. N"o other product of India would yield 
 four hundred per cent profit. 
 
 Tlie trade rapidly increased, and in 1800 amounted to 
 two thousand chests per annum. Up to that year no 
 action had been taken by the Chiaese government against 
 its introduction; but the withdrawal of coin from the 
 empire, and the demoralization of the wealthy classes 
 and public of&cials who had the means of indulging their 
 
OPIUM. 269 
 
 appetites, induced the emperor to prohibit its manu- 
 facture and sale. Confiscation of property and death 
 were the penalties, not only for those who cultivated and 
 sold, but for those who smoked the drug. 
 
 Notwithstanding these prohibitory measures, the con- 
 sumption still increased. Armed EngUsh vessels were 
 stationed in the Canton Eiver, which supplied smugglers' 
 boats, also well-armed and ready for battle with the Chi- 
 nese war-junks. Of&cials were bribed, mandarins con- 
 ciliated, the imperial laws set at defiance. 
 
 The government at Pekin used eVery effort to stop 
 the sale, while the East India Company employed every 
 means to stimulate it. The Chiuese authorities, when 
 fortunate enough to catch smugglers or dealers, strangled 
 them in front of the English factories ; but the death of 
 a Chinaman now and then did not deter the English from 
 violatiug the laws of a weaker nation, and the illicit sale 
 increased from year to year, till in 1840 it amounted to 
 forty thousand chests per annum. 
 
 In 1839 the Chinese government determined to break 
 up the traf&c at all hazards. Lin, the imperial commis- 
 sioner at Canton, pushed matters so vigorously that the 
 trade for a time nearly cdased. 
 
 The emperor demanded a surrender of all the opium 
 in the hands of the. English, which at the command 
 of Admiral EUiot was given up, and twenty thousand 
 chests destroyed, — at a cost of six million dollars to 
 the imperial treasury ! The English merchants who had 
 dealt in the article signed an obligation not to re-engage 
 in the traffic, and then immediately violated it ! The 
 trade being revived, the Chinese officials became insolent, 
 overbearing, and the merchants were subjected to hu- 
 miliating exactions, exceedingly galling to high-spirited 
 Britons. The result of it all was the war of 1840, waged 
 ostensibly to avenge insult to the British flag, but in 
 
270 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 reality to force opium upon a goyemment laboring to 
 suppress the traffic. 
 
 It was an easy matter for the British fleet to knock 
 down the Bogue forts at the entrance to the Canton Elver, 
 and to take possession of Canton, and all the other mari- 
 time cities. Avarice, supported by fleets and armies, ac- 
 complished its end. So Christian England dealt with 
 heathen China! 
 
 How stinging the rebuke the emperor gave when asked 
 to license the sale of opium at Hong Kong : — 
 
 " It is true," said he, " I cannot prevent the introduction 
 of the flowing poison. Gain-seeking and corrupt men 
 will for profit and sensuality defeat my wishes ; but noth- 
 ing will induce me to derive a revenue from "the vice 
 and misery of my people." 
 
 Her Majesty's late treasurer at Hong Kong, Mr. Mar- 
 tin, gives utterance to the foUowiug noble outburst of 
 indignation in regard to the course pursued by Eng- 
 land : — 
 
 " The records of wickedness since the world was created 
 furnish no parallel to the wholesale murders which the 
 British nation have been, and still are, hourly committing 
 in China. 
 
 " "What has been done on the subject ? Have we simply 
 remained passive, and allowed the crimes and the mur- 
 ders caused by the opium-trade to go on silently, un- 
 noticed and unopposed by her Majesty's government?. 
 We cannot even allege the poor, miserable plea of wink- 
 ing as a government against a crime which it is pretended 
 could not be checked. On the contrary, the representa- 
 tive of Queen Victoria has recently converted the small 
 barren rock which we occupy on. the coast of China in- 
 to a vast ' opium - smoking shop ' ; he has made it the 
 ' Gehenna of the waters,' where iniquities which it is a 
 pollution to name cannot only be perpetrated with im- 
 
OPIUM. 271 
 
 punity, but are absolutely licensed in tlie name of our 
 gracious sovereign, and protected by the titled represent- 
 ative of ber Majesty ! 
 
 " Better, far better, infinitely better, abjure the name 
 of Christianity, call , ourselves heathens, idolaters of the 
 ' golden calf,' worshippers of the ' evil one.' 
 
 " Let us do this, and we have then a principle for our 
 guide, — the acquisition of money at any cost, at any 
 sacrifice. Wliy, the slave-trade was :perciful compared 
 to the opium-trade. We did not destroy the bodies of 
 the Africans, for it was our immediate interest to keep 
 them alive; we did not debase their natures, corrupt 
 their minds, nor destroy their souls.. But the opium- 
 seUer slays the body after he has corrupted, degraded, 
 and annihilated the moral being of unhappy sinners, — 
 while every hour is bringing new victims to a Moloch 
 which knows no satiety, and where the English murderer 
 and the Chinese suicide vie with each other in offering 
 at his shrine." * 
 
 No excuse can be offered for tjie conduct of England 
 in forcing opium upon the Chinese. It will ever stand 
 forth in history as the high-handed barbarian act of a 
 nation which puts forth the highest claims to Christian 
 civilization. 
 
 Here are the smokers, two of them lying on a mat 
 with piUows under their heads, a little tin box of the 
 opium, a lighted lamp, and a pipe between them, all ready 
 for a descent to their infernal paradise. The pipe has a 
 clay bowl and a wooden stem eighteen inches long. One 
 of the smokers dips a wire into the opium-paste, takes 
 up a globule the size of a pea, puts it into the bowl, 
 holds it to the flame, draws the smoke into the lungs 
 through the mouth, letting it out through the nose. A 
 half-dozen whiffs consume the globule. He refills the 
 
 * Martin's China. 
 
272 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 pipe, hands it to his companion, who takes his turn. 
 It is a study to watch tlie coming on of the happy 
 feeling. At tlie commencement tliey are haggard and 
 woebegone ; tlie hanker is on them ; they are restless 
 and uneasy. A few whiffs, and they feel better, — re- 
 freshed and invigorated; a few more, and they are haj)py; 
 another turn, and they are silly. One of them has a 
 
 OPIUM-SMOKERS. 
 
 countenance now which is a good counterpart of the 
 drunken Bacchus recently excavated from the ruins of 
 the temple of that god under the sliadow of the Acropolis 
 at Athens. He grins, screws up his eyes, giggles, makes 
 funny faces, laughs, not broadly, with legitimate luimor, 
 but in a manner indicative of the last stage of silliness. 
 Another pull at the pipe and he is do\^'n in his paradise 
 among the gods and flowers. He will be happy awhile ; 
 but there is a hell beyond, with devils innumerable and 
 tortures unutterable. 
 
FROM HONG KONG TO CANTON. 
 
 273 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXIII. 
 
 FROM HONG KONG TO CANTON. 
 
 ALIXE of American-built steamers, like those plying 
 on Long Island Sound, lias been established between 
 Hong Kong and Canton. Coolies take lis in sedans from 
 the hotel to the wharf, and set us down amid a chattering 
 crowd, some rushing on board the steamer, others bidding 
 their friends farewell. A few Europeans and Americans 
 have the forward deck to tliemselves, the first-class cabin 
 passengers occupying that portion of the steamer. The 
 upper deck aft is 
 filled with first- 
 class Chinamen, 
 most of Avhom pass 
 the hours while on 
 board lay smoking 
 or in gandjling. 
 Among them wu 
 notice some who 
 take jiride in wear- 
 ing long finger- 
 nails. Tliey trim 
 those of tlie first 
 and second fingers 
 of the right hand, 
 but allow the third 
 and fourth to re- 
 main uncut. The 
 accompanying illus- 
 tration, engraved 
 
 12* 
 
 NATURAL 01;^'.VMENTS. 
 
274 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 from a photograph, will show the length which these 
 appendages sometimes attain. 
 
 Second-class natives cram the lower deck. Although 
 they might make the trip on junks at a third the cost 
 of a passage on the steamer, they pay the higher price. 
 It is a noteworthy fafct that, although the nation has made 
 little progress for centuries, and stagnation is the normal 
 condition of things, the people are quick to accept some 
 of the appliances of modern civilization. They patronize 
 the steamers, and if railroads are introduced there will he 
 no lack of passengers, for they will be as eager to ride as 
 the Hindoos. 
 
 "No Chinaman," said a gentleman at Hong Kong, 
 " goes on foot if he has money enough to pay for a ride." 
 
 We steam out into the harbor, pass ships of war, steam- 
 ers, junks, innumerable fishing-boats, and gain the bay 
 which lies west of the island of Hong Kong. 
 
 The town of Macao, where the Portuguese, in. advance 
 of all Western nations, obtained a foothold in China, lies 
 upon the southern side of the bay. It has lost commer- 
 cial importance, and is now a seaside resort for the Euro- 
 peans of Hong Kong. A steamer owned by an American 
 gentleman plies between that port and Canton. It makes 
 its appearance from among the small islands, and foUows 
 in our wake up the bay. 
 
 It is fifty mUes from Hong Kong to the Bogue forts. 
 They are in ruins now, the shattered blocks of granite 
 lying just as they were left at the close of the bombard- 
 ment in 1856. The grass is springing fresh and green 
 where the mandarins once marshalled their soldiers. The 
 scenery here is charming ; no high mountains, but a suc- 
 cession of hUls, which, combined with the water views, 
 make it a locality of rare beauty. Thus far we have 
 been sailing northerly, but now turn toward the west, 
 with the river deep enough for the largest ship to reach 
 Whampoa, the port of Canton. 
 
FROM HONG KONG TO CANTON. 
 
 275 
 
 We look across a point of land, over wide fields, green 
 ■with young rice and sugar-cane, and behold a nine-storied 
 pagoda, rising like a tall light-house above the alluvial 
 expanse, — one of the monuments of the time when the 
 empire was in its glory. 
 
 ©AAN1-TQ)NI 
 
 The town of Whampoa is an uninviting place, many 
 of the houses being built on bamboo poles thrust into the 
 mud. A dozen foreign vessels are at anchor, taking in 
 cargoes of tea, or waiting their turn in the dry-dock, 
 which foreign capital has built on the southern bank of 
 the river, where there are also extensive repair-shops for 
 steamers. 
 
 A little farther and we are up with a great fleet of 
 salt junks, with enormous eyes at the bow, with flam- 
 ing dragons painted on the sides, — so lumbering and 
 
276 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 crazy to all appearance, that a single wave would crusli 
 them ; but th6y sail boldly out to sea, down to the Gulf 
 of Tonquin, to the salt-works of the western coast, and 
 return with full cargoes. The article is a monopoly con- 
 trolled by government, and yields a large revenue to 
 the mandarins ; for, like the whiskey inspection of the 
 United States, a small percentage only reaches the gov- 
 ernment treasury. 
 
 Passing these we behold Canton, the city of pongee 
 silks such as our grandmothers wore, lacquered ware and 
 fire-crackers, of tea and ivory. Joss-houses and pagodas, 
 with a million inhabitants. The main portion of the 
 town is on the north bank, in a bend of the river ; there 
 is a suburb on the south bank, or rather on an island 
 called Honam, but it is all Canton. The name was 
 given to the place by the Portuguese, who called it after 
 the pi;ovince of Kwang-tong, of which it is the chief 
 city. The Chinese designate it Sheng-cheng, " the capi- 
 tal of the province." 
 
 Boats are moored along the shore or swing at anchor 
 in the stream. They swarm around us, loaded to the 
 water's edge with chests of tea. There is a struggle for 
 the first ch^ce alongside the steamer. In one we see 
 a fat old woman and a young girl, working with all 
 their might the great sculling oar astern, while the hus- 
 band and his two sons are puUing hard at the side-oars. 
 Another, commanded by a little woman, shoots suddenly 
 ahead of the heavier craft. There are loud words, fierce 
 looks, and a shaking of fists as they pass ; then, as the 
 steamer drops anchor and swings round with the tide, a 
 third, piled with tea-chests, pokes its nose up to the gang- 
 way, crowds the others away, and secures the position. 
 In the West, such struggling would probably be accom- 
 panied by bruised faces and bleeding noses, but these 
 easy-going Celestials wage only a war of words. Sel- 
 dom do they come to blows over such provocations. 
 
FROM HONG KONG TO CANTON. 277 
 
 Many of these boats are occupied by famiKes, and ter- 
 rible accidents sometimes happen to them. Often they 
 are drawn under the great paddle-wheels of a steamer, 
 and the frail crafts smashed to kindlings. It is the de- 
 molishing of a house, the breaking up of a home. While 
 the poor wretches are struggling in the water, instead of 
 picMng ' them up, their neighbors are intent upon plun- 
 dering the wreck ! This is one of the worst phases of 
 Chinese character. Human life is cheap because there 
 is so much of it, and property is dear because there is so 
 little of it ; and they seek to save that which wiH do 
 them the most good. They wiU draw in a trunk, and 
 help themselves to its contents, before throwing a rope 
 to the owner. 
 
 Beyond the boats we see a vast collection of mean 
 houses. Here and there a square brick tower rises 
 above the tiled roofs; these are pawnbrokers' estab- 
 lishments. Away out on the lulls, — the White Cloud 
 Hms as they are called, — toward the north, is the 
 outer wall of the city, and a great square building in the 
 Chinese style of architecture, called the " Five-storied 
 Pagoda." Nearer is a tall, gray ediiice, like a light- 
 house, — a pagoda of the ancient times ; westward rises 
 a spire, — that of the English Church. No other, not a 
 dome or tpwer, to relieve the dreary monotony of low 
 roofs. A few flag-staffs, and here and there a building 
 higher than the mass of houses ; but, other than these, 
 there is nothing to attract the eye. 
 
 I About fifty Europeans and Americans reside in Can- 
 ton ; their houses are in strong contrast to those of the 
 Chinese. They are large, stately edifices, with all the 
 comforts and conveniences to be found in European or 
 American homes. These houses are owned by the chief 
 mercantile firms, and have all been built since 1860. The 
 old factories, as the former establishments were called, 
 
278 'OUB NEW WAY EOXIND THE WOBLD. 
 
 were pillaged and burned in 1856. Then came the war 
 between China and England and France, in which the 
 United States also took part, followed by the new treaty- 
 throwing open five ports. The merchants returned to 
 Canton and erected these princely residences. There is 
 one hotel, but the accommodations are miserable; and 
 American visitors are kindly cared for by Eussell & Co., 
 Heard & Co., Oliphant & Co., or Law & Co. These firms 
 have their principal houses at Hong Kong and Shanghae, 
 which have become the two great ports of China ; they 
 also have branch houses in all the treaty ports, and at 
 Japan. Most of the commerce between the United 
 States and China passes through their hands, and in the 
 silk business they have a large share of the French trade. 
 There are other American firms, but these are the prin- 
 cipal ones. Before the war Canton was the chief port ' 
 of China, but the business has gradually been transferred 
 to Hong Kong. 
 
 The steamer has not been at the wharf five min- 
 utes before the head of the firm of EusseU & Co. at this 
 place, Mr. J. M. Forbes, is on board to conduct us to 
 their house. It is a large, new building, standing on the 
 ground formerly occupied by the old factories. "We work 
 our way through a dense crowd of coolies, gamblers, for- 
 tune-tellers, hucksters, and idlers, at the lower end of Old 
 China Street, enter the premises, and feel ourselves at 
 home, through the urbanity and kindness of our host. 
 
 Before strolling through the city, let us briefly review 
 the life of the extraordinary man whose influence has 
 been so powerful in moulding the character of this 
 people. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF CONFUCIUS. 279 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXIV. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CONFUCIUS. 
 
 FEW men have exercised a wider influence than Confu- 
 cius. He was born 549 years before Christ, and was 
 contemporary with the Prophets Daniel and Zechariah. 
 At the time Daniel was interpreting to the troubled king 
 of Babylon the mysterious handwiiting which appeared 
 on the wall of his palace, Confucius was a lad playing 
 in Northeastern China, in what is now the province of 
 Shangtung. Socrates and Cincinnatus were not born till 
 one hundred years later. His wisdom was not borrowed 
 from Greece or Eome, whose sages all came after him. 
 His simplicity was equal to that of Socrates, his political 
 system more enduring than that of Solon. His father, 
 who was prime minister of the province of Loo, died 
 while Confucius was a child, and the son was educated 
 by his grandfather. He was married at nineteen, but 
 after a year of wedded life was divorced. "When only 
 twenty-one years of age he was appointed to a high posi- 
 tion as superintendent of a department of internal rev- 
 enue. Those were the days of form and ceremony. 
 Of&cials thought more of their dignity, comfort, and ease 
 than of their duties. Affairs were very much wound 
 round with red tape. He cut through old customs, intro- 
 duced reforms, turned out fossilized and venal officials, 
 and reorganized the department. The revenue which had 
 been pocketed by the officers found its way into the 
 treasury. Having won the approbation of his sovereign, 
 he was appointed to a higher position, as siiperintendent 
 of oraia. Men who are turned out of office always have 
 
280 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 a grudge against tlie person who displaces them. Corrapt 
 office-holders cannot tolerate an honest colleague, and 
 success begets envy. The favor of the sovereign and the 
 applause of the people were offset in the case of Confu- 
 cius by the enmity of the mandarins, who were able to 
 drive him from office. 
 
 He travelled iu his own coimtry, and studied the habits 
 and customs of the people of the different provinces. 
 Finding vice and immorality prevalent everywhere, he 
 took the side of virtue, rallied good and true men around 
 him, was eventually called to court and made prime 
 minister, with almost absolute authority. There was an 
 overhauling of public affairs, correction of abuses, aban- 
 donment of old customs, clearing out of dishonest offi- 
 cials. They made every effort possible to get rid of the 
 new minister, but he was nearest the throne, and had a 
 strong hand. The state coach with its new driver crushed 
 all who threw themselves in its way. Some mandarins 
 lost their heads, others were sent into exile. 
 
 China at that time was composed of nine provinces, 
 instead of eighteen as at present, each governed by a 
 priace. The wise administration of affairs in the proviace 
 of Loo, of which Confucius was prime minister, soon gave 
 it a superiority that provoked the enmity of surrounding 
 states. 
 
 The prince of Loo, not unlike many other princes of so- 
 called royal blood, who have lived since his time, thought 
 less of virtue than of the voluptuous damsels which were 
 gfent to his court by a neighboring ruler, who understood 
 the weak side of his royal brother. 
 
 Through woman's charms Samson lost his eyes and 
 hair, David his uprightness, Solomon his exalted wisdom, 
 Mark Antony an empire, Confucius his place at court. 
 
 " I think it was a Persian king 
 
 Wlio used to say, that evermore 
 
THE mFLUENCE OP CONFUCIUS. 281 
 
 In human life each evil thing 
 
 Comes of the sex that men adore ; 
 In brief, that nothing e'er befell 
 
 To harm or grieve our hapless race, 
 But, if you probe the matter well. 
 
 You '11 find a woman in the case ! " 
 
 Let tlds not be construed as a calumny against the 
 better half of the human race. Antony was weaker than 
 Cleopatra, and the prince who sent Confucius into exile 
 more foolish than the damsels who captivated him by 
 their wiles. 
 
 At the age of fifty-six Confucius laid aside the robes 
 of office, left the province, travelling westward, mel- 
 ancholy and depressed, hunted by his enemies, who, 
 having driven him from power, determined to take his 
 life. He was harassed from town to town, from the 
 plains to the mountains, from the public road to out-of- 
 the-way places, and forced to conceal himself in lonely 
 retreats, where he bemoaned his lot in verse, as thus 
 translated : — 
 
 " Through the valley howls the blast. 
 Drizzling rain falls thick and fast. 
 Homeward goes the youthful bride 
 O'er the wild, — crowds by her side. 
 How is it, azure heaven. 
 From my home I thus am driven, 
 Through the land my way to trace, 
 With no certain dwelling-place 1 
 Dark, dark, the minds of men ! 
 Worth in vain comes to their ken. 
 Hasten on my term of years : 
 Old age, desolate, disappears." 
 
 He gathered a band of disciples, taught them moral 
 aphorisms, inculcated virtue, composed hymns, and col- 
 lected the writings of the ancients. About fifteen years 
 before Ezra annotated the Old Testament Scriptures, Con- 
 fucius collated the five Sacred Books of China, which 
 from that time to the present, through twenty-three cen- 
 
282 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 turies, have been looked upon by the millions of this 
 land with a reverence akin to that given to the Old Testa- 
 ment by the Jews and the Christian nations of modern 
 times. Four other volumes were added to the Sacred 
 Books by his disciples, about three hundred "years before 
 Christ, which are historical, biographical, and poetical, 
 with aphorisms, moral precepts, and principles of political 
 economy. In one respect they are in marked contrast to 
 the Jewish Scriptures, the religious element being almost 
 wholly wanting. 
 
 Confucius himself worshipped the spirits of his ances- 
 tors, also heaven and earth. He believed that heaven 
 had power to govern, reward, and pimish, and he offered 
 prayers and sacrifices to the Shang-Tai, or High Euler. 
 
 The virtues taught by him were benevolence, righteous- 
 ness, propriety, knowledge, and faith. This moral pre- 
 cept inculcated by him, " What you do not want done to 
 yourself, do not do to others," is the negative side of the 
 teachings of the Saviour, in the Sermon on the Mount, 
 delivered nearly four hundred and fifty years later. 
 
 All questions relating to morals' and government are 
 referred to the writings of Confucius, and those of the 
 ancients revised by him, as the ultimate authority. 
 
 The civilization of the present time — habits, customs, 
 social life, society in all its relations — is controlled by 
 a literature coeval with that of ancient Greece. The old 
 civilization has not been changed by the succession of 
 dynasties, Tartar conquest, or Buddhism. Like a river 
 flowing from the mountains to the sea, through two 
 thousand years it has pursued its almost unvarying 
 course. 
 
 These are important considerations for us to keep in 
 view while wandering through the great cities, and ob- 
 serving the manners and customs of the people. 
 
SOUTHEEN CHINA. 283 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXV. 
 
 SOUTHEEN CHINA. 
 
 EIGHT of tlie eighteen provinces of Cliina lie south 
 of the Yangtse-kiang Eiver. The city of Canton is 
 the commercial metropolis for Kwangton and Kwangsi, 
 which are, respectively, about as large as New York 
 and Pennsylvania. The trade of tlie other six provinces 
 centres at other points, — either on the coast or on the 
 Yangtse. The Canton Eiver is the chief avenue of com- 
 merce for the two provuices already named. Its rise is in 
 the southwest part of the empire. 
 
 Very little is known of Yunane, which has an area 
 equal to that of Ohio and Indiana combined, except that 
 it is mountainous, and the source of half a dozen great 
 rivers, wlrich discharge themselves into the Gulfs of 
 Tonquin and Siam. The Yangtse runs along its north- 
 ern border. It is sparsely settled, — inhabited by wild 
 tribes, who give slight allegiance to the emperor. In 
 this province the Taeping rebellion began. The people 
 are hardy, brave, powerful, — the Swiss of China, — and 
 almost always in rebellion. 
 
 The northern boundary of Kwangton and Kwangsi 
 is a chain of mountains, which has a general direction 
 east and west, and which separates these provinces from 
 the central ones of the empire. This momitain range 
 was a barrier against the armies of Tartary, in the times 
 of the old dynasties, and by it these provinces were able 
 to resist for a long while the conquerors who finally 
 obtained the mastery. Kwangton has five hundred miles 
 of sea-coast, alluvial lands along the rivers, fertile valleys. 
 
284 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 and simny hillsides. Canton is the richest, and said to 
 be the oldest, city of the empire. 
 
 The river is the highway, and upon it float innumerahle 
 junks and sampans. Were it the cool season, — October 
 or November, — a delightful trip might be made in a 
 boat, at comparatively small expense, to the interior of 
 Kwangsi. Were we to go up the stream about forty 
 miles we should find a manufacturing town which has 
 a population of twenty thousand. We are not to pic- 
 ture great ranges of brick buildings six stories high, or 
 think of the click and clatter of machiaery, as at Lowell 
 or Lawrence, when we speak of Chinese manufacturing 
 towns. Their manufactures, whether of silk goods or 
 grass-cloth, are carried on by individuals, each man work- 
 ing in his own house. Factory organization is unknown. 
 The beautiful silk gauzes, the damask cloths that are still 
 the admiration of the world, are woven in the mean 
 dwellings of the poor weavers, where cat and kittens, dog 
 and puppies, which play with the children, are raised for 
 food, and where rats are trapped to satisfy the cravings 
 of hunger. The looms which turn out these iine fabrics 
 are of the rudest construction. The whole family, from 
 grandparent to grandchild, has a hand in the spinning, 
 dyeing, and weaving. 
 
 Ancient pagodas line the banks, and tower aloft as con- 
 spicuous landmarks on the bills. They are the relics of 
 a past age, — of the time when the empire was in its 
 glory, — when public-spirited individuals, wishing to be 
 kept in remembrance, reared these edifices. Very few 
 of them are now used as temples ; they are moss-grown 
 and time-worn, and fast going to decay. 
 
 The river is winding in its course. From the White 
 Cloud Hnis, which lie north of the city, it may be seen 
 for a long distance, as the Connecticut from Mount Tom 
 or the Hudson from the Highlands. 
 
 a 
 
SOUTHERN CHINA. 285 
 
 The cities along the bank are numerous, and all carry 
 on a brisk trade with Canton. European fabrics, cottons 
 from Manchester, glass-ware, especially lamps, Yankee 
 clocks, and a great variety of articles from the "West, are 
 to be found in these interior towns. The people utilize 
 the tributary streams by dams and sluipes for irrigation, 
 and for the rearing of fish, which is extensively carried 
 on. The steamer which plies between Canton and Hong 
 Kong usually carries a tank filled with live fish, weighing 
 from one to two pounds, taken from ponds up river and 
 transported alive to market, where we see eels, shad, 
 bass, sole, and other varieties. The Chinese imderstand 
 that fish, to be good, must be taken at once from the 
 tank to the frying-pan. We shall hardly care to follow 
 them in the matter of cats and dogs, but the fresh-fish 
 dealers ia the markets of the United States have some- 
 thing to learn in regard to the rearing and sale of the 
 finny tribe. 
 
 The river is navigable for steamers to the borders of 
 Kwangsi, though thus far no attempt has been made to 
 supersede the junks, there being no treaty port above 
 Canton. It is hoped that the visit of Ambassador Bur- 
 lingame to the Western nations will result in the open- 
 ing of the whole empii'e to foreigners, that the Canton, 
 Yangtse, and other streams will be free to steam naviga- 
 tion, and that railroads wiU be introduced. 
 
 Around Canton and throughout the province of Kwang- 
 ton the people generally can read and write, but farther 
 inland there is more ignorance, less refinement, and a 
 lower civilization. 
 
 The staple exports of the Kwangton district are silk 
 and tea ; the imports rice, opium, and cotton goods. But 
 Canton is losing its trade. The rebeUion here and the 
 rebellion in America have both had a damaging effect 
 upon this city. The Taepings from the neighboring prov- 
 
286 OUR NEW WAY KOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 ince overrun the district, ravaging it with fire and sword. 
 Then came the- war ia the United States, with its dis- 
 turbiag influences in the cotton market ; but more than 
 this, the opening of Hankow as a treaty port on the 
 Yangtse in the very heart of China, drawing north- 
 ward goods which formerly came to Canton, and then the 
 growth of Hong Kong as a free port, have deprived Can- 
 ton of its pre-emirience. In 1860 the imports amounted 
 to $18,400,000, the exports to $16,200,000. In 1865 
 the imports were less than $ 8,000,00, and the exports 
 about $ 13,000,000. Yet this statement alone does not 
 convey a correct impression. Tliere is great facility for 
 inioit traf&c. Not one third of the opium sold ia Canton 
 passes through the custom-house. Just before reaching 
 Canton, on our passage hither from Hong Kong, we saw 
 a box tumble from the steamer into the river, which was 
 picked up by a boat and taken ashore. It undoubtedly 
 contained opium, and was pitched overboard by one of 
 the Chinese passengers, who had his confederates waiting. 
 The Chinese of&cials are as willing to take bribes as in- 
 spectors of customs in more civilized lands. The coast 
 swarms with smugglers. Salt is almost the only article 
 which cannot be got in surreptitiously. 
 
 The country south of Canton, between here and Ton- 
 quin, is celebrated for its silk. The hills are covered 
 with mulberry-trees. The silk is purchased by the mer- 
 chants of Canton, mainly on French account. Dealers 
 come with their samples, showing them to the house of 
 Eussell & Co., who have an inspector, a young man from 
 Lyons, who from early childhood has been looking at the 
 texture of silk, and can tell at a glance or a touch its quality 
 and value. The Chinese have not yet learned that hon- 
 esty is the best policy, and that it is more profitable to 
 produce a good article than a poor one. They have pecu- 
 liar traits of character. We can trust them with any 
 
SOUTHERN CHINA. 287 
 
 amount of money or merchandise ; but tender them a 
 dollar in payment for anything purchased, and they will 
 adroitly substitute a counterfeit piece, and hand it to you 
 with an air of innocence. So in silk producing ; if they 
 can palm off a little of inferior c[uality with the good, 
 they think it clear gain. 
 
 The principal exports to the United States from this 
 port are tea, fire-crackers, and matting, and the imports 
 Spanish coin and California flour. 
 
 The Chinese live principally on rice, but they have 
 tasted the wheat of California, and possibly this may 
 become a profitable trade in the future. 
 
 Macao formerly had extensive dealings with Canton, 
 but the Portuguese, who reside there, have lost their an- 
 cient vigor. It is a decaying town, beautifully situated 
 on a peninsula, presenting a noble front to the harbor. 
 The location is superior in every respect to that of Hong 
 Kong. The harbor is sheltered from the sea, and spa- 
 cious and deep enough for the largest vessels ; the climate 
 is salubrious ; the buildings plain solid structures, less 
 imposing than those of Hong Kong. 
 
 Aside from the beauty of the place, there is very little 
 to interest a visitor at Macao. It has had its day, and, 
 like Portugal, has gone to sleep. Its trade now is insig- 
 nificant compared with that of former years, when it was 
 the only port on the South China coast. It is now the 
 place from which nearly aU. the coolies are exported. 
 The Portuguese take more readily to dealing in human 
 flesh and blood than any other nation. Formerly they 
 dealt in slaves, but now in coolies. The Chinese govern- 
 ment has interdicted the trade, but Portugal, holding 
 Macao, can carry it on in defiance of Pekin, just as Eng- 
 land can the opium traffic. 
 
 It may be asked how the coolies can be obtained in 
 violation of law.. The answer wiU show the weakness 
 
288 
 
 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 thus pro- 
 many arg 
 
 'W* 
 
 ti 
 
 
 of the Imperial government. Here in the provinces of 
 Kwangton and Kwangsi, especially in the southern por- 
 tions bordering on Tonquin, there is very little govern- 
 mental power ; the people are divided into clans, and are 
 subject to chiefs, between whom there are frequent wars. 
 The prisoners taken are brought to Macao and sold to 
 the Portuguese by half-castes, who are travelling through 
 the country continually stirring up strife. 
 
 In addition to 
 those 
 cured 
 
 kidnapped. The 
 coast swarms with 
 pirates. Some now 
 in sight quite likely 
 are of this charac- 
 ter. They purchase 
 their cannon of 
 English merchants 
 at Hong Kong, sail 
 along the coast, at- 
 tack and plunder 
 other craft, bring 
 the crews to some 
 out - of - the - way 
 place, and sell them 
 A cooLY. to cooly-traders, the 
 
 whole proceeding 
 lieing winked at by the government of Macao, which 
 rests itself on an "Emigration Act" regulating the 
 traffic. 
 
 Another source of supply is from the gambling-houses. 
 The Chinese are such inveterate gamesters that, when 
 their money is gone, they st«ke themseh-es. It is the 
 custom of the Chinese to pledge their bodies whenever 
 
 •> 
 
 •V' 
 
 ' iliV 
 
 
SOUTHEEN CHINA. 289 
 
 they have no other security to offer their creditors. There 
 are " crimps " in the employ of the cooly-dealers, who 
 frequent the gambling-hells of the interior towns, ready 
 to advance a trifle of money to the gamblers on their 
 bodies; when they have lost themselves by play, they 
 are brought to Macao, threatened by the crimp with 
 death if they do not give proper answers to the " com- 
 missioner." A few questions are asked. 
 
 " Do you go willingly ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Of your own accord ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 The thiQg is done. They go into the barraeoon, from 
 ■the bar-racoon to the vessel; are taken. to Cuba or Peru, 
 or some other place, to all intents and purposes slaves. 
 
 Including head-money, they cost from twenty-five to 
 thirty dollars apiece. The barraeoon keeper or dealer 
 doubles his money, selling them to the shipper for sixty 
 or seventy dollars. Insurance, passage, and other ex- 
 penses bring their cost to about two hundred dollars at 
 . Havana, where these emigrants are sold for eight years' 
 service at about three hundred and fifty dollajs. Nearly 
 fifteen thousand a year are shipped, and the trade is in- 
 creasing. 
 
 The Governor of Macao is appointed by the king of 
 Portugal, and has a salary of $ 3,750. There is also ^ 
 judge and a bishop, each having a salary of $ 2,300. AH 
 laws are made by the senate, consisting of three persons, 
 who are elected by the people. Suffrage is universal, 
 that is, for Portuguese residents. 
 
 If a person wishes to lead a lazy, careless, good-for- 
 nothing life, Macao is the place for him. The inhabitants 
 are in no hurry or worry about business ; provisions are 
 cheap, the climate mild, the heat of summer tempered by 
 the monsoon ; the atmosphere conducive to indolence. 
 13 s 
 
290 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Society imposes no restraints ia regard to moraKty 5 there 
 is no necessity for troubling the priest to pronounce the 
 marriage vow j they only ask for absolution when death 
 steals on apace. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXVI. 
 
 A EAMBLE IN CANTON. 
 
 MANY of the central towns of the empire were in 
 the hands 6i the. rebels during the Taeping rebel- 
 lion, and suffered severely, losing some of the features of 
 the . old civilization ; but Canton was not taken by them. 
 Shanghae is a modern place, while Pekin is a Tartar city, 
 and here, therefore, better than anywhere else, we may 
 study the characteristics of old China. 
 
 Going a few steps down a narrow passage, we are in 
 one of the priacipal streets, which would be classed as 
 a lane or alley in an American town. The widest 
 thoroughfare in the city would scarcely admit a car- 
 riage drawn by horses. Keeping the points of compass 
 in mind, and heeding our turnings, we enter the labyrinth. 
 The houses are usually two stories ia- height, with tiled 
 roofs, projecting eaves, and overhanging balconies, — shops 
 in the lower story, rooms for the family above. 
 
 Chinese art has adorned door-post, cornice, curved roof, 
 and ridge-pole with dragons. Each shop has an elaborate 
 perpendicular sign-board, painted in chrome, vermilion, 
 and purple, with letters in green or gold, while flags and 
 banners are suspended from cords drawn across the street. 
 Doors and windows are open, for it is a mUd climate and 
 glass is little used. 
 
 We see, in addition to the signs and banners, a goigeous 
 
A RAMBLE IN CANTON. 
 
 291 
 
 display of lanterns, — hamlioo frames covered with red, 
 yellow, blue, or green oiled silk, pictured with genii and 
 gnomes in all the grotesqueness of Chinese art. Some 
 are not larger than a small market-basket, others six or 
 eight feet in diameter. 
 
 The goods in the 
 shops are displayed 
 in the most tempt- 
 ing manner. We 
 see porcelain vases, 
 worth liundreds of 
 dollars ; lacquered 
 wares, elaborately 
 ornamented ; silk 
 robes, elegantly em- 
 broidered ; fans 
 manufactured from 
 peacocks' tails, for 
 the officials of the 
 empire ; sedans, 
 fditterin<i A"sith sil- 
 ver and gold, for 
 the wealthy classes. 
 
 A jostling crowd 
 fills the street. 
 Hucksters with 
 baskets or trays on their heads are shouting with stento- 
 rian voices the excellence of their cabbatres, melons, and 
 onions. 
 
 The proA'ision shops are supplied with mutton, pork, 
 chickens, turkeys, and ducks. Here comes a cooly.with 
 two li"\'e pigs, tied by the legs, hanging from his bam- 
 boo. They protest against going to market in this fash- 
 ion by a A'igorous squealing, which sets aE. the dogs in 
 the vicinity howling. 
 
 AN OPEN COUNTENANCE. 
 
292 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 But dogs go to market as well as pigs. The carcasses 
 of five fat curs are hanging on the hooks of one establish- 
 ment. A pedler, leading a lot of puppies, and carrying 
 a basket containing several kittens, enters the shop. He 
 strikes a bargain with the provision-dealer, who puts them 
 into cages for future customers. The shopman has no 
 rats on hand to-day, but we can iind them at other staEs. 
 
 GOING TO MARKET. 
 
 In a tub near tlie door is a squ.irniing mass of young 
 eels, and in a tanlt supplied with fresh water a vari- 
 ety of fish. A well-dressed customer enters, points to 
 a large fish, which the shopman catches in a dip-net, 
 dresses it on the spot, saving the head and entrails. A 
 second customer, a poor cooly who can only manage by 
 hard work and strict economy to keep soul and body to- 
 gether comes in, haggles awhile over the price, departs 
 with the intestines of the fish, the comli of a cockerel, 
 and a joint of puppy ! 
 
 It would not be giving a fair representation of tlie Chi- 
 nese to represent them all as eating cats, dogs, rats, 
 
A RAMBLE LN CANTON. 293 
 
 mice, and garbage in general ; the majority of the people 
 live on rice and fish ; but in a coimtry so densely popu- 
 lated as this, everything that can sustain human life must 
 be brought into requisition. 
 
 We must look sharp if we would not be run down by 
 the coolies, who stream past in an endless procession, car- 
 rying bundles, boxes, bags, bales of goods, — aU wearing 
 bamboo hats with rims so broad that in some of the 
 narrow alleys they are obliged to tip them on one side 
 to pass. We meet water-carriers with buckets, and sell- 
 ers of all sorts of wares. A dozen men stagger along with 
 a large block of granite, shouting in chorus, "Hootoo, 
 hootoo ! " — Get out of the way ! get out of the way ! 
 
 Although Europeans have been at Canton for nearly 
 a century, we cannot walk the streets without at- 
 tracting attention. An old man, seeing us, raises his 
 grandchild, — we know he is a grandfather because he 
 wears a mustache, — points us out to the little one as 
 a curiosity, just as many American grandparents might 
 do if this gentleman were to appear in the United States 
 with his pigtail, broad-brimmed hat, and pointed shoes 
 turned up at the toes. We hear hiTn say, " Fan Kwei ! 
 Fan Kwei ! " — Foreign devil, foreign devil. 
 
 In travelling it is policy to get the good-wiU. of stran- 
 gers, and we reply " Chin-chin," which is equivalent to 
 How do you do ? and we have the pleasure of hearing 
 Chin-chin in return. Putting our fists together and 
 shaking them at the gentleman, we make a profound 
 salaam. Not to be outdone in politeness, he shakes his 
 at us, makes the little one in his arms, with a funny tail 
 sprouting from the crown of his head, put his hands to- 
 gether and say Chin-chin ! and so we bow and chin-chin 
 and shake our fists, greatly to the amusement of the gath- 
 ering crowd. 
 
 An amusing story is told of the fright given to a Chi- 
 
294 
 
 OUR NEW" WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 nese barber, wlio once shaved a bald-headed English- 
 man. While liis back was turned the customer, taking 
 a wio- from his hat, placed it on his head. The sud- 
 den o-rowth of hair almost frightened the barber out 
 of his senses. He fled from the shop fully persuaded 
 that he had been shaving the Old Hairy! 
 
 Old China Street, 
 ' ' ' ' ^ as the foreigners 
 
 have named one 
 of the passages, is 
 a great resort for 
 minstrels, fortune- 
 tellers, gamblers, 
 astrologers, and 
 quack doctors. 
 
 A company of 
 musicians are giv- 
 ing a concert in a 
 small building, and 
 ^\Q work our way 
 through the crowd 
 at the door. Being 
 a foreigner, we are 
 invited to take a 
 seat in front of the 
 minstrels, — three 
 women sitting on 
 a raised platform, 
 their faces painted with vermilion, their hair stiffly starched 
 and decorated ■with flowers. Their voices are shrill and 
 sharp, their singing a distressing wall. They are accom- 
 panied by an orchestra composed of a one-stringed fiddle, 
 a drum, and gong. Its best counterpart is the rolling of 
 the sheet-iron thunder behind the scenes of a tlieatre to 
 represent the coming on of a storm. 
 
 OLD HAIRY. 
 
A RAMBLE IN CANTON. 
 
 295 
 
 Passing ou a few steps, we enter the shop of an apoth- 
 ecary, who has bundles of herbs, jars, phials, and boxes 
 filled with drugs and medicines. Conspicuous among liis 
 nostrums are dried snake-skins, coiled in artistic forms 
 around the pillara supporting the roof, or tied in double- 
 knots on the counter. Aii assistant is mixintj some sort 
 of medicament in a 
 mortal', putting in 
 different herbs and 
 a piece of serpent- 
 skin. It will liardl} 
 do to laugh at him, 
 for there are people 
 in the United States 
 who are fully pci- 
 suaded of the mi- 
 tues of the heaiis 
 of rattlesmikes ni 
 curing particulii 
 diseases. 
 
 The apothec"ii"\ 
 pulls teeth. He his 
 done a deal of Inisi- 
 ness in that line, 
 for he has nearly a 
 half-ljusliel of old 
 stumps in a basket 
 
 by the door. "We liave seen a quart or two displayed 
 l;iy dentists in American cities, but po]iulation is more 
 dense here than in the ITnited States. He has a patient 
 alHicted with rheumatism in the knee, who hes upon a 
 mat wliile the doctor is removing the disease by the 
 use of cupjjing-glasses, and by rubbing the afflicted parts 
 ■ndth his hand. 
 
 Many of the passers-by stop for a moment at the gam- 
 
 THE ORCHESTRA. 
 
296 
 
 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 bling-stalls, to try their luck at cards, dice, or dominos. 
 They begin the game by 'dividing the cards into six little 
 packs. The first player lays a card on the table, his op- 
 ponent places one immediately across it, the others are 
 arranged at all the points of tlie compass, in the form of 
 a star, each man scoring the respective value of his cards 
 as the play goes on. The stakes are a few " cash," — 
 small copper coins, ten of them equivalent to a cent. 
 They play for a dinner or supper, or pledge their clothing 
 when they have nothing else, so strong is the passion. 
 
 The fortune-tellers are nu- 
 merous, sitting at small, por- 
 table tables, which they carry 
 away at night. One of the 
 tribe, who seems to be very 
 popular, judging by the crowd 
 around him, is an old man, 
 wearing immense spectacles 
 with round glasses, set in 
 bamboo frames. Upon the 
 table is a shallow wooden 
 bowl, with a diagram of fig- 
 ures and characters painted 
 inside. He shakes his dice 
 in a small tortoise-shell, drops 
 them into the bowl, notes the 
 characters upon which they 
 rest, repeats the operation 
 three times, and then -writes 
 out the decisions of the Fates 
 in regard to the future of 
 the anxious young gentleman, 
 who pays his cash and gives 
 place to another customer. 
 Women are not so shy as 
 
 SOLE OF A CHINESE yllOE. 
 
THE TEMPLE OF THE OCEAN BANNEB. 297 
 
 those of Inflia ; they appear on the street without veils. 
 Most -women in China are obliged to work for a living, 
 and their feet are of natural size. Those of the upper 
 class, whose feet have been subjected to cruel and un- 
 natural compression in childhood, fare badly if misfortune 
 overtakes them. They can only toddle about like little 
 children just able to walk, and are wholly incapacitated 
 for labor. But the ancient practice is stUl adhered to by 
 the wealthy classes. " Why do you keep up such a cus- 
 tom ? " inq[uired an American gentleman of a leading 
 merchant. 
 
 '' Small foot-ee woman no go walk-ee — walk-ee — 
 walk-ee !" was his reply; by which we are to understand 
 that Chinese ladies like to walk the streets, and see what 
 is to be seen, as well as women of other lands. 
 
 The accompanying illustration is the exact outline of 
 the sole of a shoe, showing the size of one which has been 
 worn by a Chinese lady of Hong Kong. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXVII. 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF THE OCEAN BANNER. 
 
 TAKING a boat, we cross the river, and land at a 
 small pier in front of the "Great Temple of the 
 Ocean Banner," one of the oldest Buddhist edifices of 
 Canton. It stands on the island of Honam, and is called 
 the temple of Honam by foreigners; but the Chinese 
 delight in flowery names. 
 
 Passing through a gate, we enter a large yard paved 
 with stone, and walk up a long avenue beneath old 
 trees. This is the outer court of the temple, in which is a 
 
298 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 building of one story, with a curved roof, adorned with 
 figures of dragons and satyrs, peering from the cornices, 
 perched at the angles, or sitting astride the ridge-pole. 
 Ascending the stone steps and entering the wide doorway, 
 we are confronted by a huge idol with an ugly coun- 
 tenance. 
 
 The temple is guarded by this warder, Mi-leh-fuh, who 
 has an assistant close by, — an image mailed from head 
 to foot, and wielding a bludgeon. He is the spiritual 
 policeman of the place, — the terror of evil-doers, and 
 especially of thieves. A little farther and we come upon 
 four other figures, one bearing the holy umbrella. When 
 he spreads it, heaven and earth are darkened ! Another 
 holds a guitar-shaped instrument ; he is the Orpheus of 
 the Chinese Pantheon, and has power over dragons. 
 The third bears a long sword, the emblem of domin- 
 ion; while the fourth is a sort of St. Patrick, — an 
 exterminator of snakes. 
 
 Passing through this edifice we enter the inner court, 
 and beyond it behold the temple itself, — a building of 
 the same general features externally as the one just de- 
 scribed, but larger. It is eighty or ninety feet in length, 
 seventy or eighty wide, and about fifty high. 
 
 Stepping within, we see the whole interior at a glance. 
 It is a large room with tQed floor and brick walls, the 
 rafters and beams exposed and festooned with cobwebs. 
 The dim light which struggles in through the narrow 
 windows serves to reveal the dinginess of the place, 
 which bears a strong resemblance to a dilapidated iron- 
 foundry. The " Three Precious Ones," — representing 
 the Past, Present, and Puture, — occupy the space in. 
 the centre. They are images about twenty feet high, 
 sitting cross-legged amid 'lotus-flowers. Sticks of san- 
 dal-wood are smouldering on an altar, filling the build- 
 ing with fragrance. Looking through the smoky atmos- 
 
THE TEMPLE OP THE OCEAN BANNER. 299 
 
 phere, we see a demon in one comer, a big bell in 
 another, and a pot-beUied wooden fish between them. 
 It is the hour for worship. One man beats the drum, 
 another tolls the bell, a third rattles a tattoo upon the 
 fish, while a procession of priests, wearing soiled robes 
 of red, yellow, and green silk, files in and forms rouud 
 the idols. 
 
 These fellows are supported by endowments and gifts, 
 and are as lazy, well fed, and filthy as some of the 
 monks which we see in the streets of Eome. They bow 
 to the images, and to each other, march backward and 
 forward, kneel, — the high-priest chanting a prayer in old 
 Hindustani, the others responding in the same language, 
 of which they probably understand as little as they do of 
 Hottentot. They lay paper flowers upon the altar, 
 wreathe them round the golden candlesticks, kneel and 
 bow again, going through a ceremonial very much like 
 that of the Catholic Church. 
 
 It is impossible for us to give an extended description 
 of the religions of Chiaa. Sects here are as numerous 
 as ia Christian lands, but they may all be comprehended 
 in three systems, — Buddhist, Tauist, and Confucian. 
 
 The Tauist religion is the oldest. 
 
 The name of the deity worshipped by this sect is 
 Lao-ts, which, literally rendered, means the " Old Boy ! " 
 About the time that Solon was giving his new code of 
 laws to the Athenians, 600 B. C, a philosopher appeared 
 in China who wrote a remarkable, work entitled " Tau-teh- 
 king," a treatise on Truth and Virtue. 
 
 This book taught that, thousands of years before 
 the Creation, there was an unembodied living prin- 
 ciple existing in vacant space. There were transfor- 
 mations, .evolutions, general mixings up and turnings 
 over for innumerable ages, then the principle appeared as 
 a deity bearing the name of " Holy Euler of Wonderful 
 
300 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Nonentity." Other ages rolled away ; succeeding trans- 
 formations took place, and he appeared as the " Holy 
 Euler of Wonderful Entity," and then as the "Holy 
 Euler of Chaotic Confusion." 
 
 After the creation of man, he dropped from heaven 
 in the form of a hall, falling into the open mouth of 
 a virgiu who was asleep. He was not horn till eighty- 
 one years after. At hirth his hair was white. with old 
 age, and so he was named the Old Boy ! 
 
 Nearly a thousand years ago one of the kings of the 
 
 Sung dynasty composed this hymn of adoration to 
 
 this deity, otherwise called Tau : — 
 
 " Great and most excellent Tau, 
 Not created, self-existent ; 
 From eternities to eternities, 
 Antecedent to the earth and heaven, 
 Like all-pervading light, 
 Continuing through eternity : 
 Who gave instruction to Confucius in the East, 
 And called into existence Buddha in the West. 
 Director of all kings ; 
 Parent of all sages ; 
 Originator of all religions ; 
 Mystery of mysteries." 
 
 Besides the Old Boy there are numerous gods in the 
 Tauist religion, many of which are akin to those of the 
 Buddhist Pantheon. Su-tsn is the great medicine god of 
 China, to whom prayers are offered in sickness. 
 
 Lue-kung has a hig drum and manufactures thunder, 
 while his wife Lue-po makes the lightning hy using a 
 looking-glass to reflect the sun ! 
 
 The dragon, the emblem of which is on the flag of 
 China, is one of the deities of this sect. This god has 
 dominion over lakes, rivers, seas, clouds, and tempests. 
 He has myriads of inferior dragons at command. Fish, 
 crabs, turtles, lobsters, and snakes, which are of the 
 lower class, are in a state of progression, and from time 
 
THE TEMPLK OF THE OCEAN BANNER. 301 
 
 to time are elevated according to their merits. These and 
 numerous other superstitions are held by the Tauists, 
 and by some of the other sects as well. 
 
 Tauism is the court religion of the empire. Its forms 
 and ceremonials are imposing, but it is not so popular a 
 belief as the Buddhist, which is the principal religion of 
 Eastern Asia, accepted by a third part of the human race. 
 
 The Confucian religion, which is based on reverence 
 for parents, has taken the form of ancestral worship. In 
 houses and shops we see tablets setting forth the virtues 
 of the dead, and shall doubtless have an opportunity of 
 witnessing this form of worship. 
 
 Wandering at will through the grounds adjoining this 
 Temple of the Ocean Banner we come upon a pigsty and 
 hennery filled with imprisoned spirits. A plump rooster 
 gives a lusty crow, which we may consider as a cry of 
 welcome from a gay old cock of other days, who, having 
 sinned while in the form of man, has gone back in the 
 scale of creation to do penance in the shape of a rooster ! 
 Old gentlemen of former times, who did something 
 wrong while alive, are now snoozing in the sty. The 
 priests see that they are well fed, for who knows but they 
 may become porkers by and by, needing good fare ! 
 
 The Buddhist monks or priests live in the temple. 
 Their kitchen is in an adjoining building, with large cop- 
 per boilers for cooking, ovens for baking, tubs for wash- 
 ing, and beneath the same roof are their dining-tables. 
 In another building, which has a veranda overlooking 
 a large garden, are the sleeping apartments. Americans 
 would not consider the accommodations very inviting, but 
 to most Chinese they would be luxurious. 
 
 What has been said of another monastery is applicable 
 to this of the Ocean Banner : — 
 
 " Within the quiet of the convent cell 
 The well-fed inmates pattered prayers and slept. 
 And liked their easy penance well." 
 
302 
 
 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 EecTOSsing the river, taking sedans, and entering one of 
 the most crowded streets of the city, we are set down in 
 the outer court of a temple which is dedicated to the god 
 who has the city in his Iveeping. 
 
 Here 'we behold a representation of the future life, — 
 plaster images portraying the transmigration of souls. A 
 boy is changing to a dog. One man has horns growing 
 from his forehead, his feet and hands are changing to 
 hoofs, a tail is sprouting from his back. He will soon 
 be a bull. A third is changing to an ass ; head and 
 ears are already on. (Perhaps that is not so very re- 
 markable !) We see no transformations of the female 
 sex. For them there is no future. 
 
 TRANSMIGKATION. 
 
 In another portion of the building are the horrors of 
 the Buddhist hell. The devils have a grist-mill in wliich 
 they grind up the wicked. One sinner has been put 
 in headforemost, and we see only his feet stickm" out 
 of the hopper. The two demons turning the mill are en- 
 gaged in pleasant work, judging by their sardonic grins. 
 
THE TEMPLE OF THE OCEAN BANNER. 
 
 503 
 
 The interior of the temple is very much like that of 
 the Ocean Banner, only that this is not so clingy, while 
 the crimson hanaings over the idols are more iJorQ;eous, 
 and the crowd of worshippers is vastly greater. Numer- 
 ous idols are set in niches along the walls. In an adjoin- 
 ing apartment is the goddess of flowers with her thirty 
 muses, accompanied by the god of the kitchen and the 
 all-protecting dragons. 
 
 THE GmXDEES. 
 
 Joss-sticks, as they are called, are smoking on the 
 altars. These are composed of slow-liurning composi- 
 tions, — like the port-fire for touching off cannon in use 
 before the invention of percussion primers. 
 
 A poor woman is l.iefore the altar, trjung to ascertain 
 what the gods have in store for her, by using two small 
 pieces of wood resembling the two halves of a pear. 
 She kneels, throws the luck-blocks on the groimd ; tries 
 again ; a third time, and departs with a sad countenance ; 
 the gods will not hear her prayer. If a flat and a round 
 side had come up together t^vice out of the three trials, 
 her request would have been granted, and she would have 
 "one home vith a lighter heart. 
 
304 OCR NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 A man kneels in her place, witli a cylindrical box in 
 his hands, open at the top, and containing several small 
 wooden sticks, which are numbered. He shakes the 
 box till one stick falls out, then consults the^ book of 
 omens. The responses are vaguely written. Oracles in 
 aU ages have been iadeiinite. The superstitious hopes 
 and fears of those who resort to them make them favor- 
 able or unfavorable. This worshipper is evidently well 
 pleased at his luck, for he rises with alacrity, touches off 
 several bunches of fire-crackers, burns a quire or two of 
 gilt paper on the altar, pays over his cash to the waiting 
 priest, and departs with a cheerful countenance. There 
 is a continual exploding of fire-crackers throughout the 
 temple, — which, with the beating of drums, makes the 
 worship very much like the irrepressible patriotism mani- 
 fested on the Fourth of July in the United States. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXVIII. 
 
 MORAL FORCES. 
 
 '""I "HE missionaries can give you more information 
 X than anybody else," said a friend at Hong Kong ; 
 "they know all the city, are in daily contact with the 
 people, and speak the language with fluency." 
 
 We saw the Presbjrterian Mission buildings from the 
 deck of the steamer as we came up the river. Threading 
 our way through the narrow streets, we soon reach them. 
 A Chinaman in a brown cotton frock opens a gate, and 
 gives us admission. There are two substantial houses of 
 brick, two stories high, with verandas, a. large chapel, and 
 several smaller buildings. 
 
MORAL FORCES. 305 
 
 We have hearty welcome from Eev. Mr. Preston and 
 Dr. Keer, both of whom are connected with the mission. 
 
 In 1835, a third of a century ago, Dr. Peter Parker of 
 Boston, a missionary of the American Board, was here 
 in Canton, and conceived the idea of establishing a medi- 
 cal hospital. By curing the diseases of the body, he 
 hoped to commend the religion of Jesus to the Chinese. 
 In 1841 the Massachusetts Medical Society, having heard 
 of the project, passed a series of resolutions approving it, 
 ahd appointed a committee to present the matter io the 
 merchants of Boston, and the result of this action was 
 a fund of about five thousand dollars. The charity was 
 brought before the English and American merchants of 
 Canton, who formed an association known as the Medical 
 Missionary Society of China. Since then the society has 
 gone on enlarging its sphere of operations. The mer- 
 chants contribute annually to defray the necessary ex- 
 penses. The Parsees also make liberal donations. 
 
 Dr. Keer is the principal physician and surgeon; he 
 has several Chinese assistants, some of whom have be- 
 come learned and skilful There are other physicians in 
 the inland towns, operating under his direction. 
 
 We find the Doctor at home, his family occupying the 
 chambers of the hospital building. It is the hour for 
 seeing the patients, and we go down the long stairs to 
 a crowd of men, women, and children in the chapel. 
 It is a plain edifice, with the Ten Commandments and 
 Lord's Prayer in Chinese characters on the walls. While 
 Dr. Keer is attending to the patients ia an adjoi ni ng 
 room, Mr. Preston talks upon the truths of the Bible and 
 the Christian religion. 
 
 About twenty persons are in the dispensary, — one 
 woman with an incurable cancer, another with one cheek 
 thrice its usual size. 'The Doctor whips out his lancet, 
 and in a trice the patient is relieved of the pain pro- 
 
306 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 duced by an ulcerated jaw. A motlier is solicitous for 
 the little child in her arms. One person shows the 
 scrofula, which is eating the flesh from her limhs. Step- 
 ping into an adjoining room, we see a man who had half 
 of his under jaw taken out last week, and is recovering. 
 So on through the long catalogue of disease. Those 
 patients who require constant treatment are lodged in 
 the hospital, others are 'cared for by their relatives. 
 They look upon Dr. Keer as their best friend, and trust 
 Idiemselves implicitly in his hands. ' • 
 
 It will be gratifying to the merchants of Boston, who 
 contributed money to start this enterprise, to know that 
 twenty-six thousand patients were treated last year, and 
 that the society has the confidence of the Chinese. It is 
 under the direction of the missionaries of the Presby- 
 terian Board, but Ihe treasury of that society is not 
 chargeable with any of the expenses. It is a great 
 civilizing and Christianizing agency. 
 
 "The Medical Society is doing more than anything 
 else to remove prejudice against foreigners from the 
 minds of the Chinese," said a gentleman who has long 
 resided at Hong Kong. 
 
 The idea is Ellmost universal among the natives, or 
 rather it has been, that the missionaries have a political 
 object in view. They cannot understand why foreigners 
 should leave their homes and settle in China to preach 
 religion, unless it is for some such sinister purpose. 
 
 " I preach every day to the Chinese," says Mr. Preston ; 
 "would you hke to see what sort of a congregation 
 I have ? " 
 
 " By all means." 
 
 We take our seats in sedans, and are carried through 
 the' streets, coming at length into one of the principal 
 thoroughfares, and stop before a Httle store kept by the 
 missionaries for the sale of books. Dozens of people are 
 
MORAL FOECES. 307 
 
 already there, waitiag for the opening of the doors of the 
 adjoining chapel. It is one o'clock, and the tide of life 
 surging through the city is at its flood. A preacher would 
 have a slim audience in State or Wall Street, at 'Change 
 hour J but the Chinese are an old people, their empire 
 is finished, their civilization complete, and time is a drug. 
 They have abundant leisure, while we foreign barbarians 
 are worrying and hurrying ourselves to death. 
 
 The chapel is furnished with settees capable of seat- 
 ing two hundred or more. Sitting by the desk, we 
 have an opportunity to observe the audience. On the 
 front seats are some literary students, — young men 
 who are studying for of&cial employment, well dressed 
 in white, clean froclcs and trousers, their pigtails neatly 
 braided. At our right hand is a bare-headed cooly with 
 three bundles and a porter-bottle in his arms. He has 
 stepped in to rest himself a few minutes, and to hear 
 what the "foreign devil" has to say. Behind him is 
 one wearing a broad-brimmed hat. Men of all ages, all 
 conditions, from the well-to-do merchant down to the 
 poor ^^Tetch who lives on rice and snails, residents of the 
 city and strangers from the country, compose the audi- 
 ence. 
 
 These men are actuated by various motives, — love of 
 novelty and curiosity to hear a foreigner speak fluently 
 in their language perhaps being the prevailing ones. 
 They are not accustomed to hear public speaking ; they 
 have their story-tellers, but no orators or gatherings 
 ■wchere arguments are put forth. Very few of them are 
 seekers after truth, and their conceptions of the Chris- 
 tian religion are exceedingly low ; but yet every day they 
 flock to the chapel to hear this American preacher, a 
 short, thick-set, good-natured man, who understands 
 their language perfectly, and is well read in their liter- 
 ature. 
 
308 OUK NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 His subject to-day is the conilict 'between good and 
 evil, holiness and sin. A yoimg man with bright eyes, a 
 student, breaks in : — 
 
 " If your doctrine is true, why don't you foreigners 
 practise it ; why do you bring opium to China ? " 
 
 A home question, practical, right to the point. The 
 audience are alert to hear what Mr. Preston will say. 
 
 "There are wicked men all over the world; and if 
 foreigners bring opium to China, you must have nothing 
 to do with it." 
 
 The laugh which goes up shows that the audience 
 appreciate the reply. , 
 
 " "Why did you make war upon China ? Why do you 
 come and take the coolies and make slaves of them?" 
 another asks. The replies are evidently satisfactory, 
 judging by the good-humor of the audience. 
 
 The church connected with the Presbyterian Mission 
 numbers between thirty and forty members. The Church 
 of England, the London Missionary Society, and the 
 English "Wesleyans all have missionaries at Canton. 
 
 Taking our sedans again, we are carried through several 
 streets to the eastern section of the city, to the cathe- 
 dral, going up under the direction of the French Catholics, 
 Since 1860 over five hundred priests of the Eomish 
 Church have arrived in China. The Catholics of France, 
 seemingly, have taken the empire in hand and it is hinted 
 that Louis Napoleon means to make French influence 
 superior to that of England here. Be that as it may, it 
 is plain that somebody is taking a long look ahead. 
 
 Soon after the treaty of 1859 was signed ground was 
 obtained for the erection of a cathedral, and the founda- 
 tions laid for an edifice which is nearly two hundred and 
 fifty feet in length, with a corresponding width, in the 
 form of the Latin cross. The material is granite, in color 
 and grain very much Hke that of Cape Ann, quarried on 
 
ON THE CANTON EIVEK. 309 
 
 the island of Hong Kong, and 'brouglit ninety-two miles 
 by water. It is estimated that the structure will cost 
 from three to four million dollars. 
 
 We hear the clicking of hammers and chisels before 
 we emerge from the labyrinth of streets, and upon get- 
 tiQg out of our sedan find ourselves in a great yard with 
 a bamboo shed over us, in which stone-cutters are at 
 work. The cathedral walls are about half-way up, but 
 it probably will be five or six years before the roof is on 
 and the building completed. 
 
 Those who have seen the elaborate workmanship of 
 the capitals of the Treasury building at Washington 
 may form some conception of the ornate sculpture of 
 this cathedral, when they consider that it far surpasses 
 anything in the United States in the way of architectural 
 embellishment. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXIX. 
 
 ON THE CANTON EIVER. 
 
 TAKING- a sampan, with a woman and a girl for cap- 
 tain and crew, we float up the river with the tide, 
 to view the scenes along its banks. We have ducks and 
 chickens for fellow-passengers. A rooster perched on the 
 roof over our heads claps his wings and gives a lusty 
 crow as we push into the stream. The girl speaks a few 
 words of " pigeon English," which is an almost unintelli- 
 gible mixture of English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, 
 and Chinese. It is used in commercial transactions. 
 "Pigeon" is the best pronunciation which the Chinese 
 can give of the word " business," hence the name. 
 
310 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 If we were old acquaintances, this young lady pulling 
 at the oar would say : — 
 
 Have savvee facy to muchee long time. 
 
 We have known you a long time. 
 
 But the characteristics of the jargon wiU be best shown 
 by the following letter of a prominent merchant, HowcLua, 
 written to Mr. Eichardson of Boston, now deceased : — 
 
 My good Friend : How fashion insi hob got this morn- 
 ing? Hob catchee little more better? What thing Dr. 
 Parlcer talkee- 'long you ? He hah show you true what 
 thing insi ? 
 
 My good Priend : How are you (what is the state of 
 your insides) this morning ? Have you got a little bet- 
 ter ? What does Dr. Parker say to you ? He has (no 
 doubt) shown you correctly (what is wrong inside). 
 
 My thinkee spose any man show you ^catchee- that gin 
 go 'long that watir sjpose you wantee catchee. ' No. 1 fine, 
 that he talkee small chils jplay pigeon. No got reason, all 
 same one fools. 
 
 My opinion is, that if any man recommends you to 
 take gin and water, to get perfectly well (No. 1 fine), 
 that he tallis childish. He is as unreasonable as a fool. 
 
 Spose my all the same for you sick, my must waritee too 
 muchee chin chin, that large Joss my thinkee he can savvee 
 that pigeon more lettir for Dr. Parker little. 
 
 Suppose I was as sick as you are ; I would want very 
 much to burn incense (chin chin) to that great Joss (the 
 idol). I think he (Joss) knows that business (what is 
 the matter with you) a little better than Dr. Parker. 
 
 No 'casion you talkee insi. So eh. Cause any man can 
 savvee, hab got reason talkee. 
 
 There. is no occasion for you to doubt this (talk inside), 
 because any one will see I talk reasonably. 
 
 Have hear any news come from that Melica si ? Too 
 muchee piecee man shew my hab got two piecee ships talkee 
 
ON THE CANTON EIVEE. 311 
 
 Don Juan go 'long that Paulina hah iegin long teem before 
 walkee this side. Just nsw he no hah got Macao si. 
 
 Have you heard any news from America (shores) ? 
 Several men have told me that there are two ships, 
 named Don Juan and (go long) Paulina, started to come 
 here long since. They have not reached Macao. 
 
 Don Juan have begin that No. 15 day, that No. 1 moon, 
 Europe counter, and Paulina have all the same fashion No. 
 19 day, any man thinkee he must come Macao directly. * 
 Can see, can sawee. That no my pigeon, that hah Joss 
 pigeon. 
 
 The Don Juan started the 15th of January, European 
 reckoning, and the Paulina the 19th, same reckoning. It 
 is to be supposed they will arrive soon. As soon as we 
 see, we shall know. It is Joss's business, not mine. 
 
 Just now must finishee, no got teem talkee any mAyre long 
 you. . My chin chin, you catchee more better chop chop. So 
 fashion talkee. Your good friend. 
 
 I must now close, as I have no time to write any more 
 to you. I hope you will get better veiy soon. So write 
 your good friend. 
 
 It will be seen that " catchee " means to get or bring ; 
 "go 'long," with, or, and; "chin chin," good wishes or 
 prayer; "Joss," the idol or heathen god; "chop chop," 
 very quick. 
 
 The river abounds with fish, and thousands of poor 
 wretches, who have no other home than their boats, draw 
 a large portion of their sustenance from the water. Fish 
 are reared for the market in ponds, but those which 
 ascend the river from the sea arp taken in vast number 
 by hook and line, by nets, and by trained cormorants. 
 These birds have a great appetite for fish, a keen eye 
 to see, and are expert in catching them. The fisherman 
 makes them not only work for their own living, but for 
 his. A ring is slipped upon the neck of the bird, to 
 
312 
 
 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 prevent it from swallowing the fish. It dives, appears 
 with its prey, is taken on board tlie boat, fed a few mor- 
 sels, just enough to sharpen its appetite, tossed over 
 again, to reappear perhaps without a fish, when it is 
 chastised and tossed rudely into the water without being 
 fed. The bird is kept always at the starvation point. 
 
 We pass a number of gayly decorated " flower-boats," 
 which are not floating green-houses, as their names might 
 indicate, but establishments where dinners are served. 
 
 FLOWER-BOAT. 
 
 In America every house has its dining-room and parlor 
 suitable for the entertainment of friends, but tlie majority 
 of the Chinese are content- if they can obtain four walls 
 with space enougli to sleep and cook their rice. They 
 like to entertain their friends, and these gayly decorated 
 flat-bottomed boats, with elegantly furnished cabins, — 
 silken curtains, gorgeous lanterns, gay flowers iu earthen 
 pots and wooden tubs, fluttering flags and pennons, Ijriglit 
 gilding and fine paintings, — are for public hire. 
 
 We have an opportunity to see a company at dinner as 
 
ON THE CANTON RIVER. 313 
 
 we float lazily past. The giver of the feast and the in- 
 vited guests, about a dozen in aU, are seated around a 
 table. Their sleek and glossy pigtails, which are elabo- 
 rately braided for the occasion, hang down their backs 
 and dangle on the floor. They wear their hats, for' it 
 would be a breach of politeness for guests to remove 
 them wlule at table or in the presence of their host. 
 
 In one corner, partly screened by a large orange-tree 
 blooming in a tub, are three girls, their cheeks and lips red 
 with carmine, their hair stiffly starched and ornamented 
 with flowers. One has a guitar, another an instrument 
 resembling a banjo, and the third a small pair of cym- 
 bals. They are hired for the occasion, just as in the 
 United States the Germanians and Mendelssohns, or the 
 best musicians and vocalists, are employed to increase 
 the pleasure of the guests at grand dinner-parties. 
 
 There is a good deal of sense in their method of enter- 
 taining friends. Mrs. Loo Choo "Will not have to rear- 
 range her parlor .in the morning. There wiE be no 
 stale tobacco-smoke about the house, no dishes to wash, 
 no setting things to rights. It is an economical way. 
 The proprietor of the boa,t furnishes the dinner and en- 
 gages the minstrels ; the host has nothing to do but pay 
 the bills. 
 
 Ducks are reared on the river in boats set apart for 
 the purpose. They are hatched in ovens, and soon learn 
 to obey the quack of their master or mistress. They are 
 permitted to take a swim several times a day, but a call 
 from the keeper brings them quickly on board. The last 
 one receives a good drubbing, which so quickens its 
 memory that it is seldom tardy a second time. They 
 are kept till full grown, and then taken to market. 
 
 One of the conspicuous houses at our right hand, as 
 we saU up the river, is a native charitable institution of 
 some sort. 
 
 14 
 
314 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 It has been asserted that benevolent societies are the 
 outgrowth of modern civilization, but they have existed 
 in tliis empire from time immemorial. There are orphan 
 asylums, homes for the aged and infirm, widows' retreats, 
 public hospitals and free schools, mutual-aid societies, 
 guilds of the different trades, and protective unions. 
 Some of them in years gone by received grants from 
 the Imperial treasury. Widows are not encouraged to 
 re-marry. It is more honorable to remain single. For 
 tliis reason provision is made for their support. 
 
 DUCK-BOAT. 
 
 The free schools are sustained by the benefactions of 
 the rich, but only the poorest classes attend them. The 
 Chinese dislike to accept charity in any form, and no one 
 attends a free school who can raise the money to pay for 
 an education. 
 
 Missionaries cannot obtain scholars unless a small tui- 
 tion is charged. Pupils are secured by giving them a 
 superior education. In Canton provincial societies exist, 
 made up of those who have come from other provinces. 
 
ON THE CANTON EIVEE. 315 
 
 just as New York has its "New England Society," 
 Boston its " Sons of New Hampshire," only that these 
 "are mutual-aid organizations, resembling the Masonic Pra- 
 ternity and Odd FeUows. Nearly all of the Chinese 
 emigrating to California and Australia belong to the 
 Southern Provinces, and are shipped from this port, and 
 while here waiting passage find accommodations at the 
 head-c[uarters of the societies. 
 
 A sick or unfortunate member is cared for. If death 
 overtakes him, his body is sent home for burial. If poor 
 and out of money, he is assisted. 
 
 The head-quarters are in a haU, where the sojourn- 
 ers spread their mats and prepare their rice, so that they 
 are independent of boarding-houses and can live at an 
 economical rate. 
 
 Missionaries inform us that there are no people in the 
 world more benevolent than the Chinese. Yet it is as- 
 serted that their charity, instead of being influenced by 
 high moral principle, is animated solely by selfish motives. 
 
 " The characteristic feature," says Mr. Loomis, " of the 
 false religion of China is the performance of meritorious 
 actions with a view to the attainment of selfish ends. In 
 doing an act which conscience pronounces good and right, 
 a Chinaman imagines that he is entitled to some persortal 
 advantage or reward corresponding to the character of the 
 act performed." 
 
 The society of Sam Yap, which embraces the Canton 
 district, has sent about fifteen thousand emigrants to Cal- 
 ifornia. The initiation fee is S 10.* The Kong Chau Com- 
 pany, which embraces the district sauthwest of Canton, 
 has sent out sixteen thousand. The initiation fee is .$ 5. 
 This society has property in San Francisco valued at 
 $ 40,000. The Yueng Wo Company, embracing the Macao 
 district, has sent* out twenty-six thousand emigrants. 
 * Overland Monthly, September, 1868. 
 
316 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 There are six companies in San Francisco, and by far 
 the largest proportion of emigrants to our country go 
 imder their auspices. The same may be said of those* 
 who go to Australia, Singapore, and the islands of the 
 archipelago. 
 
 The washermen, tailors, and shoemakers have their 
 trades-unions, distinct from these organizations. The 
 machinery of society in this respect is very much like 
 that of England and the United States. It is the univer- 
 sal story, -^ protective union, mutual aid, and co-opera- 
 tion. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 UP THE COAST OF CHINA. 
 
 IT is five o'clock in the afternoon when the steamer 
 Erl-King works her way out of the harbor of Hong 
 Kong eastward, till past a group of small islands, then 
 turns her prow northward, for a run of about nine hun- 
 dred miles to Shanghae. 
 
 The night is cloudy, the following morning misty, and 
 it is not till afternoon that we obtain- a clear view of the 
 mainland, and find ourselves in sight of Swatow, one of the 
 five treaty ports of China. It is one hundred and eighty 
 miles north of Hong Kong, was thrown open to trade by 
 the treaty of Tient-sing, 1858, and is the shipping port of 
 the city of Ch'ao-chow-foo, which lies a short distance 
 inland. It is the emporium of a large territory, compris- 
 ing the northern sections of Kwangton and Eukien, the 
 two southern coast districts of China. That range of 
 mountains which we see south of the entrance to the har- 
 bor of Swatow, which Hfts its rugged outhne far away 
 
UP THE COAST OF CHINA. 317 
 
 toward the west till lost in the distance, after running 
 about a hundred miles inland, trends north, then north- 
 east, and comes gut to the coast again, as we shall see 
 hy and by. " * 
 
 This amphitheatre is drained by the riyer Han and its 
 tributaries, which pour down from the mountains of the 
 two districts through a wide plain almost wholly devoted 
 to the cultivation of sugar-cane. The Chinese are great 
 lovers of sweetmeats, and consume a large quantity of 
 sugar, which is most profitably raised in the southern 
 provinces. The cargo of our steamer consists principally 
 of this article. It is shipped to Shanghae, to be taken 
 up the Yangtse, and out through the numerous canals to 
 the interior of the empire. 
 
 We are at the Cape of Good Hope, — not the southern 
 extremity of Africa, but a headland, five himdred feet 
 high, jutting into the sea, along which the Han pours its 
 cream-colored tide. Upon a hill of less elevation, a pa- 
 goda rears its white walls, forming a prominent landmark 
 for seamen. Many of the islands of the bay are terraced 
 from the sea-beach to the summit. We pass fleets of 
 fishing-boats. 
 
 " I can always teU," says the captain, " my whereabouts 
 by the style of the boats. Here the hulls are white; 
 those in the vicinity of Hong Hong have pointed bows, 
 and are painted green. At Shanghae we shall find square 
 bows and red gunwales." 
 
 This district, in which Swatow is situated, from its 
 excess of population is poverty stricken. Great numbers 
 of people emigrate. Many of the coolies now throwing 
 up the embankments of the Pacific Eailroad in California 
 are from this section of the country. From a missionary 
 we learn that this province is considered one of the 
 " hardest " in China, — hard for the government to man- 
 age, hard to live in, hard for missionary effort. Clan 
 
318 
 
 OUK NEW WAY KOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 fights are of frequent occurrence, and armed mobs resist 
 the mandarins wlien occasion calls. 
 
 Laws cannot be executed here, as in other provinces, 
 without producing riots ; especially is the collection of 
 taxes resisted. In China confederates in crime are 
 frequently punished for small offences by having their 
 pigtails tied together. There is no greater disgrace. The 
 
 cue is the emblem 
 of honor ; and to 
 be tied by it to 
 another criminal, 
 and suffer expos- 
 ure in the street, 
 subjected to the 
 taunts and jeers of 
 the populace, is ex- 
 ceedingly humili- 
 ating. 
 
 Although so near 
 Canton, the local 
 dialect is unintelli- 
 gible to the Canton- 
 ese. ]\Iany imagine 
 that the four hun- 
 dred millions of the 
 empire have one 
 language ; but the dialects are so numerous and diverse, 
 that the people of the different provinces can almost as 
 readily understand a foreigner as one of their own couu- 
 trymen of another district. 
 
 Swatow is muclr exposed to the typhoons which sweep 
 this section of the coast. It is opposite tlie soiithern 
 point of the island of Formosa, the situation of which is 
 supposed to have something to do with tlie severity of 
 tliose terrible gales of wind, and scarcely a year passes 
 
 FAST FEIENDS. 
 
UP THE COAST OF CHINA. 319 
 
 "without the occurrence of one or more destructive storms, 
 wMch strew the land with wrecks. 
 
 Amoy, \<fhich"lies one hundred and fifty miles north of 
 Swatow, has one of the most accessible harbors on the 
 coast. A thousand years ago it was the chief port of the 
 empire for foreign trade. Western historians inform us 
 that junks from Amoy were frequently seen in the Per- 
 sian Gulf. In the time of Marco Polo it was a great 
 shipping port. The Portuguese were here in 1544, but 
 a quarrel haA'^ing sprung up, they were expelled, — the 
 people of the town burning thirteen ships and massa- 
 cring four hundred foreigners. During the opium war in 
 1841 it was captured by the English fleet, and when the 
 treaty of Nankin was signed it was thrown open to for- 
 eign trade. 
 
 The town is situated on the southwestern shore of the 
 island of Amoy, which is from eight to ten miles long, and 
 about . forty in circumference, and contains a population 
 estimated at half a million. If there were forests on the 
 mountains or groves on the hiUs, the scenery would be 
 very beautiful ; but the absence of trees detracts much 
 from the beauty, not only of this, but of other Chinese 
 landscapes. 
 
 This city, which has a population of about three hun- 
 dred thousand, was for a long time in the hands of the 
 rebels, and has not yet recovered from the ravages com- 
 mitted by them. The cormtry aroimd Amoy has a thin, 
 hard soil, but, like that of New England, produces enter- 
 prising men. Many of the princely merchants of China 
 — and there are some who rank with the Eothschilds in 
 wealth — are natives of this district. 
 
 The most important port between Hong Kong and 
 Shanghae is Foochow, which is one hundred and eighty- 
 five miles north of Amoy. It is located on the river 
 Min, thirty-five mQes inland. The entrance to the 
 
320 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 harbor is marked by bold headlands. It is the chief 
 shipping port for black teas. Over sixty-five miUion 
 pounds were exported from this city in 1866. The esti- 
 mate for the present year is from seventy to eighty 
 millions, — a " tea fever " having set in. More than 
 half is sent to England. The tea-plants best suited to 
 this district are the Oolong, Congou, and Flowery Pekoe. 
 The Orange Pekoe is also produced, but the difference 
 between the two lies, we believe, in the manufacture 
 rather than in the plant. We wish very much to see 
 this tea metropolis; but the steamer being bound for 
 Shangha,e, we are not able to gratify our desire. About 
 one hundred foreigners reside there, includiag several 
 missionaries from the United States and England. 
 
 The many ways in which Eoochow is spelled on maps 
 and in books is a good illustration of the unsettled con- 
 dition of Chinese orthography. On Philip's map, sup- 
 posed to ■ be standard authority, it is put down as , Foo- 
 choo-Foo. Eev. Mr. Doolittle, a missionary residing 
 there, spells it Fuh-Chau; the British Consular Service, 
 Foo-chou; the Chinese authorities, Fuchan; while the 
 Foochowians. themselves pronounce it Hak Chien. The 
 population of the city is about six hundred thousand. 
 
 ■ The province of Fu-kien, of which this is the metrop- 
 olis, is a little less ia area than the six N"ew England 
 States, but it has a dense population. The climate is 
 mUd. Frost and ice are rarely seen. The mercury 
 seldom falls below 38°. During the winter of 1864 
 about two iaches of snow fell, — an occurrence unknown 
 for forty years. In July and August the heat is exces- 
 sive in the valleys, but the temperature on the moun- 
 taius is delightful. 
 
 The bamboo flourishes along the streams of this prov- 
 ince, and the timber trade is very extensive. The junks 
 of Foochow are especially constructed for its transpor- 
 
UP THE COAST OF CHINA. 321 
 
 tation. Being hollow, the bamtoo is very light, and 
 there is no danger of overloading, although the long, 
 slender poles project far over the sides, and are piled 
 high upon the decks. One of them, seen m the distance, 
 looks like a gundalow freighted with hay from the salt- 
 marshes of the Merrimack, or an old-time New England 
 meeting-house, with a sail tacked to the steeple. The 
 monsoon is setting in, the wind blowiag up the coast, and 
 the " meeting-house " will make good time to Shanghae. 
 The timber disposed of there, a return cargo will be ob- 
 taiued of rice, bean-cake, and other productions of the 
 lowlands and plains of the Yangtse valley. 
 
 Long before reaching the entrance to the great river 
 of China, we find the water discolored by the sediment 
 brought down from the mountains of Thibet and the 
 plains of the Central Provinces. The estuary is sixty 
 miles wide, but is gradually becoming narrower. Sand- 
 reefs and mud-banks are forming; islands appear from 
 time to time, showing that the delta is gaining upon the 
 sea. 
 
 The land is so low that sometimes, when there is 9. 
 conflict of waters between the floods pouring out and 
 the waves and tides rolling in, the surrounding country 
 is inundated, and the people are compelled to take refuge 
 in their boats or in trees. 
 
 Steaming up the bay, we see numerous foreign ships, 
 some just entering the river after a long passage around 
 Cape Horn or across the Indian Ocean, others spreading 
 their white wings for a homeward voyage. An English 
 steamer is shaping its course for Japan, an American for 
 a voyage up the coast to Cheefoo and Tientsin, carrying 
 the mails to Pekin. Everything about us indicates that 
 we are approaching a great commercial city. 
 
 14 • ■ u 
 
322 OUK NEW WAY ROUND THE WOELD. 
 
 CHAPTEE XLI. 
 
 APPEOACH TO SHANGHAE.' 
 
 WE have left the great river and steamed into the 
 Wusung, which is only a tidal estuary connected 
 with the great network of canals south of us. It is fast 
 filling up, especially siuce commerce has built up a great 
 town on its banks, and it is feared that before many years 
 this river will be narrowed to a muddy ditch. Should 
 that ever happen, the town of Wusung, and the French 
 naval depot established there, will quite likely become 
 the site of the new city. 
 
 From the deck of the steamer we have a fine view 
 of the place. It is situated on a green bank near the 
 confluence of the Wusung with the Yangtse. The Chi- 
 nese had a mud fort here in 1841, which was knocked to 
 pieces by the English. 
 
 Before us are low, mean houses, narrow streets, and 
 crowds of men, women, and children on the shore ; other 
 crowds swarm on the niunerous junlcs, boats, and sampans 
 in the stream. 
 
 The low-lying meadows are bordered with reeds and 
 rushes. Beyond are cotton-fields, the plants now about 
 six inches high ; acres of sugar-cane and sorghum, rice- 
 fields, bamboo huts with walls of matting, apple and 
 peach trees, gardens filled with cabbages and cauliflowers, 
 potato-patches, — a landscape somewhat like that of the 
 Mississippi, only there are no grand old forest-trees, or 
 gigantic cotton-woods, or background of limestone bluffs, 
 or stately mansions, but everywhere, as far as the eye 
 can reach, a dead level of meadow, of cultivated fields, 
 and vegetation of unsurpassed richness. 
 
APPROACH TO SHANGHAE. 323 
 
 Tiiming a bend of the river, tlie masts of the ship- 
 ping are seen, — a hundred ships and barks, thousands of 
 junks, and sailing-boats by the ten thousand. There are 
 steamers by the score, bound for Japan, Hong Kong, and 
 other places on the coast, north and south. Conspicuous 
 along the* docks are the river steamers of Messrs. Eussell 
 & Co., modelled after those of Long Island Sound, of light 
 draught, capacious, strong, and swift. Some of them were 
 built in New York, and made the voyage out by Cape 
 Horn. The Englishmen "laughed to see such a craft." 
 Their steamers were screws, deep, heavy, with small stow- 
 age, able to make only eight miles an hour against the 
 current of the Yangtse. They changed countenance when 
 they saw these Yankee nondescripts go against the cur- 
 rent twelve miles and with it twenty miles an hour! 
 Since then the river has been known as the Yankeetse, 
 and the Yankees have had it all their own way. 
 
 Shanghae ! The name is associated in our mind, as 
 doubtless it is in the minds of many, with the Hen Fever. 
 AVho ever heard of Shanghae till the coarse, tall, gawky 
 Shanghae fowls made their appearance ? Who does not 
 remember those days, when all our conversation was 
 about Shanghaes ? People talked Shanghae in the cars, 
 going to and from their counting-rooms. We heard it at 
 the corners of the streets, in the market, and especially 
 at the. dinner-table. "We have a Shanghae, my dear, 
 to-day," was a common remark of the wife to the hus- 
 band when Bridget brought on the fowl. The Shanghae 
 department was the most attractive feature of coimty 
 cattle-shows. The fever made its first appearance in 
 Massachusetts, and spread throughout New England; 
 New Hampshire caught it, then Vermont ; Ehode Island 
 had a touch of it ; the Hudson was no barrier, for it 
 moved westward like the cholera in its march. One 
 summer we sojourned a few weeks at Saratoga, and of 
 
324 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 all the impressions made at that famous watering-place, 
 the strongest is the cock-a-doodle-doo of a Shanghae, 
 that woke up the eastern section of the town at three, 
 A. M., with a blast longer and louder than any blown 
 from conch-shell or fish-horn by a farmer's wife caUiag 
 her husband to dinner from the harvest-field.. 
 
 This is the garden of China. It has an area of nearly 
 fifty thousand square miles, — larger than the State of 
 New York. But there are no hills or mountains in 
 sight. Comparing it to Wew York, we must imagine the 
 Adirondacks and Alleghanies, and every other elevation, 
 levelled to a vast meadow, crossed by innumerable artifi- 
 cial canals, connecting with natural creeks and wide rivers. 
 The soil is exceedingly fertile, and kept in the highest tilth. 
 Three crops a year are harvested. Five hundred years 
 ago Marco Polo visited this garden, and made the West- 
 ern world incredulous by his account of its wonderful 
 fertility. We see bridges across the streams that were 
 ©rected, it is supposed, two thousand years ago. The cot- 
 ton-plant has been cultivated here for centuries. Before 
 Solomon buUt his throne of ivory, before Greece, had a 
 history, the Chinese were feeding silk-worms on this 
 delta, saOing their sampans through these canals, trund- 
 ling ' their one-wheeled carriages through the streets of 
 the cities. This great alluvial lowland has been swarm- 
 ing with hiiman life, generation after generation, with 
 little advancement in science and art. 
 
 In 1841 Admiral Parker, of the British navy, saiLed up 
 the Wusung, bombarded the towns, took Shanghae, and. 
 exacted a ransom of nearly one and a half million dollars. 
 At the close of the war this city was thrown open to 
 foreign trade, which up to that time had been carried on 
 at Canton. 
 
 The foreigners located themselves a little below the 
 town. In sailing ,up the Wusung, welcome first to the 
 
APPEOACH TO SHANGHAE. 325 
 
 American settlement, where the Stars and Stripes are 
 waving from a tall staff in front of the consnlate. A 
 creek spanned by a bridge separates the American from 
 the British settlement, and another the British from the 
 French, which is nearest the old city. The Chinese are 
 sharp-sighted. They have found it' profitable to locate 
 themselves near foreigners, and so the oH city has over- 
 flowed its walls, and a large native population is found in 
 each settlement, where the streets are wide, macadamized, 
 and kept free from filth; but the old city is foul and 
 unsavory. 
 
 The growth of the place was rapid for a few years. In 
 1856 there were not less than seventy foreign firms. The 
 ex;port of tea in that year was seventy-seven million 
 pounds, and of silk fifty-six thousand bales. In 1857 
 the rebels approached the city. One after another of 
 the interior towns had fallen into their hands, and refu- 
 gees by the hundred thousand flocked to-Shanghae for 
 protection under the guns of English, French, and Ameri- 
 can war-ships. The great influx of people gave a mush- 
 room growth to the place, which in 1861 was supposed 
 to contain over one million inhabitants. Speculation in 
 land set in; fortunes were made in a day; and there 
 were predictions that Shanghae would soon have a popu- 
 lation exceeding that of London ; but the final defeat of 
 the rebels and suppression of the rebellion sent half a 
 million of refugees back to their old homes. Eeal estate 
 became unsalable; lots which had been held at fabulous 
 prices could not be disposed of. Houses in process of 
 erection were left unfinished. Then came financial dis- 
 aster in England. Old firms having the confidence of the 
 community went down. The crash was felt to the very 
 heart of China. The failure of Englishmen carried down 
 Chinamen here, who in turn carried down others of their 
 countrymen in the interior provinces. In the United 
 
326 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 States during the American war less tea was consumed 
 than formeriy, as was the case in England. With a cot- 
 ton famine in Lancashire, with mill-wheels still, machin- 
 ery silent, warehouses filled with unsold goods in London 
 and Manchester, people could not drink tea nor wear silk 
 dresses. Trade diminished in London and on the Yangtse, 
 and Shanghae became one of the dullest of towns. It is 
 now recovering from its decline. In 1868 trade came up 
 to former figures, and the tea market the present year has 
 opened at higher prices than those of last season. The 
 reports from the silk districts are favorable. Eeal estate 
 is salable at advancing prices, and those who are best 
 informed in regard to the resources of China, and who- 
 believe there is to be an increase of trade with foreign 
 nations, predict that this place will have a. steady growth, 
 and that ultimately it wOl become one of the great com- 
 mercial marts of the world. 
 
 We drop anchor in the stream, and before the chain has 
 time to run out the steamer is surrounded by sampans. 
 They are all alike, — two great eyes, a caboose amidships 
 to shield passengers from sun and rain, painted wliite, 
 with red stripes reaching from stem to stern. The boat- 
 men speak broken English. " Melican man go with me." 
 The letter r is an insurmountable obstacle to him. " Me 
 boat pidgeon." "Me pidgeon row Melican man." (It 
 is my business to row an American.) Such the gib- 
 berish. They swing their broad-brimmed hats, flourish 
 their tails, get into a fracas among themselves in their 
 eagerness to make an engagement to take us ashore. It 
 is better than witnessing a comedy at the theatre to 
 lean over the rail of the steamer and study such a life 
 scene. We are in no hurry to take a sampan. We are 
 here to see China and the Chinese, and these are amusing 
 spectacles. 
 
 In the course of half an hour the ship is warped up to 
 the pier, and the boatmen leave us in disgust. 
 
APPKOACH TO SHANGHAE. 
 
 327 
 
 But a real comedy is before us, iii wliicli we take part. 
 Now conies tlie contest for tlie luggage. Six meu have 
 possession of the trunlc, four of the carpet-bag, and two 
 are pulling at the roll of shawls. They surge to and 
 fro ; toes are crushed, pigtails pulled, and ril)s punclietl. 
 Blows and kicks are freely gi^-en. There is an indescrib- 
 able jargon. Two start off with the trunk, but others 
 
 BATTLE OF SnA>'Gir.\E. 
 
 hasten to the rescue. We let them fight awhile, and then 
 charge bayonet with an umbrella. A few raps over the 
 head, a vigorous push gi^-eii to another, a kick at a third, 
 and a commanding tone of voice, are sufficient to con- 
 quer a peace. Giving the traps into the hands of two, 
 we leave the pier without further annoyance. 
 
 These battles are a part of a tra^'eller's experience. Let 
 the fellows fight awhile, and then he can assert his au- 
 thority and give directions. It is so in all Eastern coun- 
 tries, — at Constantinople, Alexandria, and Canton as 
 well as here. 
 
 A few minutes' walk brings us to the Astor House, 
 
326 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 a btiildiag Hot qydte so imposing as its namesake of Kew 
 York, but clean and comfortable, with good fare, a coin-- 
 teoTis landlord and excellent landlady from Old England, 
 who do their best to make our stay agseeable. 
 
 CHAPTEE XLII. 
 
 IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 
 
 FROM our Windq\«' in the hotel we have a beautiful 
 view not' only of the English and French quarters, 
 but of the harbor as well. The numerous war-ships, 
 merchant-vess6ls, riv6r and ocean steamers, tugs, junks, 
 tea-lighters, canal craft, flower-boats, and sampans give 
 the place a lively appearance. The hotel being situated 
 in the American quarter on the quay, we have an excel- 
 lent opportunity of observing this chief shipping port of 
 China. 
 
 The tea-ships lie in the stream and receive their cargoes 
 from lighters, or from boats which come down the canals. 
 The Soochaw Creek enters the Wusung in front of the 
 hotel, forming the boundary between the American and 
 English quarters: "Were we to take passage on the boat 
 sailing past, we might go up the creek seventy nules to 
 the city of Soochaw, containing more inhabitants than 
 New York, and from thence up the imperial canal to the 
 Yangtse, and on to Pekin ; or, turning south, we could 
 traverse an extensive territory, visiting large cities and 
 towns, with villages always in sight. Shanghae being 
 the shipping port for all this region, and having such 
 superior communication by water with the interior, has 
 become the busiest city in China. 
 
IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 
 
 329 
 
 The transportation of the empire is mainly carried on 
 by water ; but in the monntaiiious districts donkeys 
 and pack-horses are 
 in use, and in the 
 northern section 
 two-wheeled carts. 
 
 In the cities and 
 along the paths in 
 the country one- 
 wheeled barrows 
 are used for the 
 conveyance of pas- 
 sengers. They car- 
 Ty two persons, who 
 sit cross-legged on 
 a narroAV board. Xo 
 bells are needed to 
 herald the com- 
 ing of these public 
 vehicles. The creak- 
 ing of the wooden 
 axles is so loud and 
 sharp, so much hke 
 
 the wail of a dumb animal in distress, that we are thank- 
 ful when one has passed beyond our liearing. 
 
 The delta of the Yangtse, like that of the Mississippi, 
 is raised but a few feet above the river. Marshy ground, 
 fresh water five feet below the surface, and insufficient 
 drainage are conditions not conducive to health ; and 
 Shanghae is not a desiralile place to live in. Foreigners 
 endure it because of its advantages for trade. Mission- 
 aries make it their home, that they may benefit the mil- 
 lions around them. 
 
 It is jiot an attractive field for missionary effort. 
 Christian ^drtues are not always manifested by sailors in 
 
 CHINESE COACH. 
 
330 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 foreign ports. Jack ashore here takes qmte as much 
 liberty as when at home, and his deportment does not 
 greatly commend Christianity to the Chinese. 
 
 A sailors' chapel has been opened in the suburbs, on 
 the southern bank of the river. It is a neat stone edifice, 
 and forms a pleasing feature in the view from the hotel. 
 
 It is a pleasure to know that all sailors do not give 
 loose reins to passion and appetite while in port. Ac- 
 companying the chaplaiu, Eev. Mr. Syle, on Sunday, we 
 find an attentive congregation of about fifty bronzed tars. 
 It is affecting to see them drop their dollars into the 
 plate as they pass out after service, — money hard earned, 
 but given freely to sustain the place of worship. 
 
 There, are several American missionaries laboring 
 among the Chinese, — Mr. Yates, Mr. Nelson, and Mr. 
 Thomson; and although there are so many discourage- 
 ments, their labor has not been without its reward. Many 
 Chinese have accepted the Christian religion. Sunday 
 services in English are held both in the English and 
 American sections of the city. It is one of the charac- 
 teristics of the Anglo-Saxon, that wherever he goes he 
 carries his institutions with him. The representatives 
 of this sturdy race at Shanghae cannot get along with- 
 out their church, their daily newspaper, race-course, bil- 
 Uard-tables, club, library, and reading-room, Masonic haU, 
 yacht association, and societies for the promotion of 
 laiowledge. All of these are here; and well sustained. 
 A Yankee is keeping a periodical store that would do 
 credit to a Western city, where we can obtain all the 
 best magazines and newspapers, as well as the issues of 
 the English and American press. Foreigners come here 
 to make money, but do not forego the conveniences and 
 comforts of home. 
 
 With a gentleman to interpret for us we stroU through 
 the city, looking into the shops and tea-houses of Hip 
 
IN THE CITY OF SHAH6HAE. 331 
 
 Wo, Hop Kee, Tin Yuk, and Chung Wo. These are not 
 the names of the proprietors, but of their establish- 
 ments. 
 
 In the cities of the United States we have the Tremont 
 House, the National Hotel, and Lone-Star Saloon. In 
 England the Boar's Head, where Falstaff drank his " intol- 
 erable deal of sack," and the " Pig with the Poker." In 
 Paris we may trade at the " Good Angel," or the " Poor 
 Devil " ; but here we are invited to patronize the " Heav- 
 enly Jewel," the " Sincerity and Faith," the " Everlasting 
 Harmony." An apothecary keeps " The Hall of Everlast- 
 ing Spriiig." This tea-house, with its benches filled by 
 drinkers, is " The Chamber of Fragrant Almonds." The 
 newspaper in the hands of this gentleman smoldng a 
 long-stemmed pipe is the Lin Su Fang, or "PhcEnix 
 of Talent." The rival house on the opposite side of the 
 street is the " Golden Garden of All Peace." 
 
 The gentlemen sitting here at this noonday hour have 
 come in to talk business. They do not at once plunge 
 into it, but order their tea, converse awlule on other mat- 
 ters, and approach the subject of trade only after a profu- 
 sion of flowery compliments. 
 
 In nearly every shop we see an inscription, — usually 
 a moral aphorism from Confucius, who .was the " Poor 
 Eichard" and Dr. Watts of China ! 
 
 The inscriptions are on scrolls of red paper, with illu- 
 minated borders. From Bridgeman's book of Chinese 
 Proverbs we select a few to show their character : — 
 
 " If the blind lead the blind, they wOl both go into the 
 pit." fr 
 
 "A fair wind raises no storm." 
 
 " A man may be deprived of life, but a good name can- 
 not be taken from him." 
 
 " Every man sees the faults of others, but cannot dis- 
 cern his own." 
 
332 OXIE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 " If the fence is strong the dogs will not get in." 
 
 " "What is easily accjuired is easily lost." 
 
 " Man contrives, but heaven decrees." 
 
 " A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man 
 perfected without trials." 
 
 " A word spoten in the ear is heard a thousand miles 
 off." 
 
 " Better not be than be nothing." 
 
 " Great humility is great honor." 
 
 " That which soars not high is not hurt by the fall." 
 
 " It is only the naked who fear the light." 
 
 "If what we see is doubtful, how can we believe what 
 is spoken behind the back." 
 
 We reach the liquor-shop of Shun Woo, the " Faith 
 and Charity" saloon, while the proprietor is worshipping 
 his deceased ancestors. 
 
 The entire front of the establishiiient is open, and we 
 have an unobstructed view of the interior, — bottles of 
 brandy, gin, whiskey, wine, and cordials, on the shelves, 
 and in the centre of the room a table spread with plates 
 of fish, one with a cold chicken, cups of boiled rice, plates 
 of sweetmeats and delicacies. The shopkeeper and his 
 family stand behind the tables. He lights two candles, 
 and several incense sticks ; and while the pleasant fra- 
 grance fills the room, he kneels, touches the floor with his 
 forehead, rises, doubles up his fists, putting his knuckles 
 together, raises them to his face, bows and kneels again, 
 takes from the table a bunch of silver paper, sets it on 
 fire, and stands in reverent attitude till it is consumed. 
 
 This religious ceremony which we have just witnessed 
 is to be taken into account in all of our estimates and 
 expectations for the future of this country. It will have 
 to do with the introduction of railroads, the construc- 
 tion of telegraphs, and the advancement of civilization 
 and Christianity. 
 
IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 333 
 
 Filial reverence is religion, and the worship of the 
 dead is now the chief religion of the empire. 
 
 The Chinese heUeve that the world — China in par- 
 ticular — is the realm of light, and that after this is the 
 world of darkness ; that the dead stand in need of the 
 same articles of food and clothing, as well as imple- 
 ments of industry, that they did in this. Coats, hats, 
 shoes, money, boats, sampans, rice, fish, chickens, are 
 needed there as here. As the dead have become invis- 
 ible, they of course cannot eat, wear, or use anything 
 tangible, but everything must be made invisible. There 
 are no coats in that land, no hats, no sampans, but those 
 who have gone there are entirely dependent upon their 
 friends in this world. Those who are in the light cannot 
 see into the darkness, but they, being in the darkness, can 
 look out into the light and behold all the acts of the 
 living, and it is in their power to reward those who feed 
 and clothe them, and to afElict those who forget to relieve 
 their necessities. The spirits, if neglected by the liv- 
 ing, take their revenge by sending sickness and disease, 
 in its various forms, not only upon their relatives, but 
 upon the public generally. A dutiful son worships at 
 the grave of his father, Vho rewards him with health and 
 prosperity. It is a great misfortune for a Chinaman to 
 die in a foreign land away from home, for then he is 
 deprived of the benefits of the offerings of his relatives 
 and descendants. We see, therefore, why it is that the 
 Chinese in California send home the bodies of their coun- 
 trymen who die there. They have a fund for that pur- 
 pose. The dead would take vengeance upon them if they 
 did not perform the filial act. 
 
 The government of the world of darkness is supposed 
 to be a counterpart to that of China, from the emperor 
 down to the mandarins of one button, and even to the 
 policemen. They also believe that character is not 
 
334 OUR NEW WAY EODND THE WORLD. 
 
 changed by death, but that a mandarin, a judge, a police- 
 man, can be influenced in that land by bribes, just as in 
 this world. 
 
 The ancestral tablet in this " Faith and Charity " sa- 
 loon is a small red board, covered with characters setting 
 forth the virtues of deceased ancestors. In old families, 
 tablets are found dating back many centuries. 
 
 There are temples erected by wealthy men for the 
 preservation of the tablets of their fathers, to which 
 their own will be added after death. There are no 
 edifices more sacred than these ancestral halls. "We of 
 the Western world trace with pride our connection with 
 the family tree back to the ancient trunk which flourished 
 on the soil of Old England, and in that " fast-anchored 
 isle" the last thing which men part with ia adversity 
 is the old homestead. We cannot bear the thought 
 of being forgotten after death. Our instinct of immor- 
 tality ever utters its protest against annihilation. We 
 want to be remembered. The heart-ache of Kirk White 
 has been felt by millions. Mournful that exclamation 
 of his, " Fifty years hence who wUl think of Henry ! " 
 
 To secure immortality, to cause our names to be held 
 in fond remembrance, we found schools and hospitals, 
 put stained windows in churches, endow colleges, estab- 
 lish Libraries, with the hope that we shall not be wholly 
 forgotten when we have passed away. In like manner 
 this ancestral worship appeals to the deepest instincts of 
 the soul. It permeates society, and is the basis almost 
 of the political system of the empire. It is the foun- 
 dation of the law of inheritance, and to a great degree of 
 the land tenure. The chief desire of the Chinaman is 
 for children to bear his name, — a son who will care for 
 him when he is dead, and make his existence comfort- 
 able and pleasant in the future life ;. for just in propot- 
 tion to the reverence and devotion of the living will be 
 
IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 335 
 
 tlie happiness of the dead. A daughter is of but little 
 account, hence woman's degradation. 
 
 It is the duty of the eldest son to perform these filial 
 acts to the dead; hence the laws which give him the 
 largest share of the estate, and that keep up the un- 
 equal distribution of property through succeeding gen- 
 ■erations. A man having been married a certain number 
 of years, and having no son, may marry a second wife, 
 or any number of wives, and thus polygamy becomes a 
 civil institution. If a man dies without male issue, or 
 becomes a Christian, or repudiates the worship of his 
 ancestors, he consigns aU of them, father, grandfather, 
 and great-grandfather, to beggary, and inflicts unknown 
 miseries upon the living. 
 
 Eev. Mr. Yates says : " I have known a father threaten 
 to take hie own life in order to insure punishment upon 
 his only son if he became a Christian ! " 
 
 If one man offends another, the aggrieved will not seek 
 revenge by taking the life of his enemy with revolver, 
 rifle, or by arsenic, as some people are in the habit of 
 doing in civihzed lands, but will stab himself on the 
 doorstep of his enemy, who, under the laws of China, 
 will stand a chance of having his head chopped off ! 
 
 To be beheaded is not only the severest punishment 
 but the greatest disgrace that can happen to a man ; for 
 if a spirit appears in the world of darkness without a 
 head, it \s prima facie evidence, only the face is wanting, 
 that he was a wicked fellow here, and he is at once given 
 over by the mandarins of that world to be tormented by 
 demons. 
 
 During the late rebellion both parties cut off the heads 
 of those slain in battle, that they might be headless in 
 the other world. The friends of those who were thus 
 decapitated were accustomed to visit the battle-fields and 
 unite the heads and bodies again. We are not informed 
 
336 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 as to wtat the effect would be > if a head was joined to 
 the wrong body, making a composite man ! It must be 
 rather c[ueer for a person to find out that he had the 
 brains, eyes, mouth, and nose belonging to somebody 
 else, or discover that his body was not his own ! 
 
 There are three great festivals during the year, when 
 contributions and offerings are made for the dead who 
 have no friends to care for them. It is estimated that 
 the expenditure in this city for paper, shoes, boats, robes, 
 hats, coats, and other articles of clothing for the comfort 
 and happiness of the friendless dead, is not less than 
 $ 18,000 per, annum. With this for a basis, there wotdd 
 be expended throughout the empire about thirty million 
 doUars per annum in public charity. In addition every 
 family has its own offerings to make. Allowing each 
 family in the empire to spend one doUar and fifty cents 
 per annum, and taking the population at four hundred 
 millions, or eighty million families, with five persons to 
 each household, we have one hundred and twenty mOlion 
 dollars expended in private offerings for the dead, or a 
 total of one hundred and fifty millions, including public 
 contributions. This amount goes out in flame and smoke 
 burned for the benefit of the dead ! 
 
 Yet this is not prompted by filial affection; for the 
 Chinese are not more affectionate than the people of the 
 United States. This constant sacrifice for the dead is 
 impelled by self-interest and fear, and not by reverence 
 alone. The hying are slaves to the dead. The genera- 
 tions of to-day are chained to those of the past. 
 
 A few steps farther along the street and we are at the 
 shop of " Heavenly Benevolence," where articles for the 
 dead are sold. A man with two large baskets suspended 
 from a bamboo passes us, collecting the gifts that have 
 been made for the benefit of deceased sailors, orphans, 
 and all who have no living friends to care for them in 
 
IN THE CITY OF SHANGHAE. 
 
 337 
 
 the future life. The articles have been exposed in front 
 
 of the shops and houses dming the day, that all may see 
 
 how kind-hearted 
 
 and benevolent the ' "^'^ 
 
 contributors are. ^ -, ^ 
 
 Although the Chi- =^ ^=z^ 
 
 nese do not sound ^ ^=~— '" r. 
 
 a trumpet before 
 them, as did the 
 Pliarisees of old 
 time, they make 
 an ostentatious dis- 
 play of their bene- 
 factions. 
 
 As the eveniu" 
 approaches, the peo- 
 ple gather, kindle a 
 fire, and cast the 
 gifts into the flames. 
 Shall we smile at 
 the idea ? "Was it 
 not Friar Tetzel 
 who declared that 
 as soon as the money chinked in the box, the imprisoned 
 soul escaped from purgatory ? Does not the greatest 
 church in Christendom still hold to the doctrine that gifts 
 of money for the saying of mass wdl transfer a spirit from 
 purgatory to paradise ? It is not well for us to ridicule 
 the Cliinese, in view of all the circumstances. 
 
 KEHEMBERING DEPARTED FRIENDS. 
 
 15 
 
338 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 CHAPTEE XLIII. 
 
 FUNG SHUEY. 
 
 CHIKA is a land of superstitions. Perhaps it is not 
 to be wondered at, for gross credulity still lingers in 
 communities that call themselves most civilized. Not 
 only in England, but in America, communities may be 
 found which believe that when a murder is committed 
 the innocence or guilt of aU persons may be ascertained 
 by compelling them to touch the body of the victim. If 
 guilty, blood will ooze from the pores. A thunder-storm 
 in this country is a sign that the emperor's ministers are 
 in a quarrel, and when a fog comes on it is a sure in- 
 dication that women are having an undue influence over 
 public and private affairs ! It is to be hoped that the 
 affairs of our own country will not become foggy under 
 the present movement of woman for an enlargement of 
 her sphere of action. 
 
 The superstition which perhaps is almost as great a hin- 
 drance to progress as ancestral worship is Fung Shuey. 
 The literal meaning of the term is " wind and water." To 
 comprehend it we must understand the natural philoso- 
 phy of these people, and become acquainted with their 
 views of the phenomena of the seasons. 
 
 In speculating upon the philosophy of nature, behold- 
 ing the putting forth of leaves at the approach of spring, 
 the budding of fruits, the unfolding of flowers, before the 
 breezes from the balmy south on the one hand, and on 
 the other noticing the falling of leaves, the decay of vege- 
 tation before the north winds of the fall and winter, 
 they have come to the conclusion that aU, genial and life- 
 
FUNG SHUEY. 339 
 
 giving influences are from the south, and all decaying and 
 destructive iafluences are from the north. Goodness, vir- 
 tue, happiness, joy, peace, prosperity, and long life are 
 from the south, wafted on the gentle breezes; but the 
 northern blasts blown by the devil, if not turned aside, 
 will bring disaster, disease, and death. 
 
 They have not peopled the fields and woods, the moun- 
 tains and valleys, with the nymphs and naiads of Grecian 
 fables ; Pan does not play his pipe ; there are no danciag 
 fauns or pretty sprites in their philosophy; but these 
 climatic influences are incarnations, — good spirits from 
 the south, bad ones from the north. 
 
 Somehow these influences cannot move east or west, 
 but are compelled to advance in right lines from the 
 north or- south. They cannot turn a corner, and if any 
 obstacle is placed in their path, they are . effectually 
 stopped. 
 
 We smile at the superstition, but to the Chinese it is 
 reality and sound philosophy. It is a science, and there 
 are numerous doctors of Fung Shuey, — men yho are 
 called Sien Bangs, who detect the causes of bad Fung, 
 Shuey and apply proper remedies. 
 
 Some months since the merchants in thejcity became 
 alarmed at the falling off of business, a^d the Fung 
 Shuey doctors were called upon to ascertein the cause. 
 They met in solemn council. ISTo consul^tion of country 
 doctors over a desperate case of typhoid fever could be 
 more grave than theirs. After a thoro^^h canvass of the 
 case, it was discovered that the north gate of the city 
 had no walls before it to arrest the bad spirits, and that in 
 consequence they had come in and played their pranks 
 among the business men, causing stagnation of trade, fail- 
 ures, and hard times generally ! The wall across the 
 street was at once erected, and as the devils cannot turn a 
 right angle, no more can get in by that portal ! 
 
340 OUR NEW WAT BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 With, Eev. Mr. Yates for a guide, we walk down the 
 comparatively clean streets of the French settlement, 
 and enter the city by th^ northern gate. The walls are 
 of brick, about twenty feet high. We pass some poor 
 wretches who obtain their rice by picking up straws, 
 sticks, and reeds from festering muck-heaps, which they 
 dry and sell for fuel. By the entrance are itinerant 
 venders of doughnuts, barbers, and fortune-tellers. 
 
 We are compelled to turn to the right, as we step in- 
 side, — a brick wall being buUt across the street. 
 
 " This waU is Fung Shuey," says Mr. Yates. 
 
 A few steps farther, and he calls our attention to a bas- 
 ket dangling from a pole in front of a chamber window. 
 
 " That also is Fung Shuey." 
 
 The basket was put up to catch any of tbe bad imps 
 who might be aiming to get into the apartment. 
 
 Down the street a few rods we see a board fence built 
 in front of windows which face the north, and are ia- 
 formed that the fence is Fung Shuey. 
 
 We notice a rude picture of a Chinese deity on the 
 waU with a lamp burning before it, reminding us of the 
 pictures of the Virgin on the walls of old Eome. 
 
 " More Fung Shuey." 
 
 Our stroU takes us to the Mission church, a plain edi- 
 fice with a Gothic tower ; near by is the yamun, or palace 
 of a mandarin. He calls our attention to its situation, 
 and says, "Here we have some Fung Shuey which is 
 connected with our church edifice.'' While the city was 
 besieged by the rebels the mandarin who occupied the 
 palace near Mr. Yates's church died, and all the Fung 
 Shuey doctors said his death was caused by the tower 
 of the church, which kept off the good spirits but let 
 in the bad. 
 
 After the rebels were driven away, a deputation of 
 of&cials waited upon the missionaries, and stated that, as 
 
FUNG SHUEY. 
 
 341 
 
 the tower had caused the death of a mandarin, no one 
 was willing to come under its baleful influence, and that 
 for the good of the community it must be torn down. 
 The missionaries proposed to discuss the matter, but the 
 officials decUued the ofl'er and appealed to higher au- 
 thorities to remove the palace to some other quarter of 
 the city. This was not granted. The doctors of Fung 
 Shuey were then called in comicil, and it was finally 
 decided to reluiild the edifice, which had been nearly de- 
 stroyed by the rebels, in such a way that wlien the bad 
 devils came down from the north they would strike the 
 outer wall of the palace at a sharp angle, just as the 
 current of a swift river strikes the cutwater of a clipper, 
 and thus be turned aside. Perhaps the doctors fancied 
 the imps would go pilump against the church. Had we 
 
 FUNG SHUET. 
 
 the pihilosophy of these people, and were our sight re- 
 fined enough to penetrate the realm of these spirits, pos- 
 sibly we should see a heap of imps at the foot of the 
 church-tower ! 
 
342 OUB NEW WAY EOUNB THE WORLD. 
 
 This superstition is xmiversally believed in by the 
 wisest mandarin of three buttons as well as by the 
 poorest and most ignorant cooly, and the attempts of 
 individuals to ward off bad spirits by the erection of 
 fences, walls, baskets, and the planting of trees, to the 
 detriment of their neighbors, leads to constant litigation. 
 It must be borne in mind that Fung Shuey affects the 
 dead as well as the living, and the greatest care is taken 
 to protect graves from eviL influences. 
 
 " Here," says Mr. Yates, " we get at the cause of the 
 hostility of the Chinese to foreigners." We are iimo- 
 vators ; we disturb Fung Shuey, keep out the good and 
 let in a legion of bad spirits. We want to set up tele- 
 graph-poles, open coal-mines; and build railroads, which 
 would disturb the dead ; for if railroads are constructed, 
 the Chinese will be compelled to gather up the bones of 
 their fathers, put them, in pots, and remove them to other 
 localities. 
 
 With this insight into the religion of Cliina, we can 
 better comprehend the reason for the deadness of the 
 empire. The people think constantly of the dead ; every 
 motive of action has reference to the reward or punish- 
 ment they will receive from their ancestors. How can a 
 nation advance while dragging a hundred generations ? 
 Their thoughts and aspirations are circumscribed by their 
 slavish fear of the dead. An innovator — a man who 
 does what the fathers did not do — perils the happiness 
 of both the living and the dead. Foreigners are inno- 
 vators, therefore to be resisted. Hence all advancement 
 thus far has been made by superior force, — by the can- 
 non's argument. Every treaty that has been made with 
 foreign powers has been wrung from a government re- 
 luctant to disturb the old order of things. We see why 
 missionaries have siich up-hill work, and wonder at what 
 they have accomplished; we see why the Chinese are 
 
FUNG SHUEY. 343 
 
 determined not to have railroads. The empire is a 
 graveyard. Eailroads are remorseless ; they cut through 
 the cities of the living and of the dead alike. A railroad 
 running ten miles in China would disturb the whole 
 spirit-realm. Unlucky strokes from spades might sever 
 skulls from vertebrae in some ancestral burial-ground, and 
 then there would be headless ghosts wandering through 
 the land of darkness, and sickness, pestilence, calamity, 
 and untold horrors would settle upon China. Firmness 
 only on the part of the Western nations in the revision 
 of the treaties will fdrward Christian civilization in this 
 benighted land. China will advance only by pressure 
 from without. The inertia of the mass is too great to 
 move of itself along the path of modern civilization. 
 When that screeching innovator, the locomotive, begins to 
 move across the plains of this Flowery Land, ploughing 
 up old bones, breaking the chains which bind the living 
 to the dead, there will be hope for China. It will yet do 
 for China what it is doing for India. It is a powerful 
 missionary. Idols, caste, prejudices, sacred bulls, Brah- 
 mans, customs, religions, laws, governments, dynasties, 
 •pashas, mandarins, and kings are borne down by that 
 great leveller. No other agent of civilization can be so 
 potent in these Eastern lands, not even the press. 
 
 There is a strong anti-foreign party composed of man- 
 darins, officials, and literary men, who fear that the intro- 
 duction of machinery, with liberty for foreigners to go 
 where they please, and carry on trade, will in the end 
 diminish their power and influence. In October last the 
 emperor sent a secret note to the governor-general of 
 the two provinces of Kiangsi and Nganwhei, calling for 
 his views in regard to the revision of the treaties with 
 foreign powers. 
 
 This official, Tseng, who is a mandarin of high rank, 
 and one of the ablest in the empire, has prepared a curious 
 
344 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 document. He says that "the object of foreigners in 
 coming to China and trading largely in goods is to 
 follow out their nefarious devices of depriving others 
 of advantages, and they wish to damage the mer- 
 chants of China." He draws a picture of the deplor- 
 able condition of the empire, and attributes it to the 
 throwing open of the treaty ports and the presence of 
 foreign steamers, which have ruined trade and driven 
 off junks. 
 
 He says : " If small steamers be allowed in the interior, 
 native craft of every size, sailors, and pilots will suffer ; 
 and if they are allowed to construct telegraphs and rail- 
 roads, owners of carts, mules, chairs, and inns, and the 
 coolies, will suffer." 
 
 We do not wonder at such an expression; it is the 
 same old cry which has been raised in every land against 
 public improvements. What a prejudice Stephenson had 
 to encounter in England before getting the first railroad 
 started ! Land-owners, turnpike-men, owners of fast 
 horses, proprietors of stage lines, lords, dukes, and earls, 
 opposed the introduction of raOroads with just such argu- 
 ments. The ablest lawyers of the realm, politicians in 
 the Commons and peers in the House of Lords drew 
 gloomy pictures of the ruin and distress which railroads 
 would bring upon the country. And to-day the farm 
 laborers of England are smashing mowers and reapers, be- 
 cause they compete, as they thinl?, with manual labor. 
 
 But Governor-General Tseng is not altogether an old 
 fogy. He is anxious to introduce foreign machinery into 
 the coal-mines on the Yangtse and in the Northern 
 Peninsula. The Chinese are mining the surface veins, 
 and the coal, though of poor quality, is used by the river 
 steamers in their downward trips. It is believed that 
 veins lower in the strata will yield a better article. The 
 governor-general says : — « 
 
" It would enrich. China to horrow appliances for ex- 
 tracting coal, and it would appear to deserve a trial." 
 
 The position which he would have the emperor take 
 is summed up in the following sentence : — 
 
 " With respect to the points that are not highly obnox- 
 ious, we not only should not contend over them much ; 
 we should grant them, if asked. It is only as to rail- 
 roads, steamersj salt, and residence in the interior for 
 trade, as destructive to our people's interest, that a stren- 
 uous fight should be made." 
 
 It has been known, for some time, tliat there are gold 
 deposits in the mountains of the Shangtting province, 
 which lies north of Shanghae half-way to Pekin. The 
 mandarins have kept a close watch over the country, 
 driving off aU gold-seekers, dreading an irruption of red- 
 shirted men from California and Australia. But the Chi- 
 nese have at last broken loose. The people have set the 
 officials at defiance, and have gone to work washing the 
 gold from the streams. They are called the Cheefoo mines, 
 and are easy of access. How extensive or how rich the 
 deposit is not known. Should they prove to be rich, 
 Tseng's recommendations for keepiag out foreigners will 
 be of no avail. The Cliinese themselves have caught the 
 gold-fever. So many of them have been in California that 
 they are keenly abve to anything relating, to gold-miniag. 
 The mines bring business, and there are no sharper or 
 shrewder men in the world than the Chinese. 
 
 " The best thing that could happen to China," says a 
 leading American merchant, "would be the introduction 
 of a few thousand California gold-miners." The irruptiqn 
 of such an element, if not too violent, would infuse new 
 life into the dead mass. 
 
 In 1849 one of the high officers of the empire was 
 sent into exile for publishing a geography, for eulo- 
 gizing the character of Washington, and praising th^ 
 
 15 
 
 * 
 
346 OUR NEW WAY EOTHSfD THE WORLD. 
 
 people of other lands, especially of the United States. 
 Up to that time the Chinese believed that they were the 
 mightiest people under the sun, the favored of Heaven. 
 The emperor signed himself "Son of Heaven." There 
 was no other country so grand. There was no south pole, 
 no Antarctic continent. Their map of the world was 
 like a shawl, China being the shawl and all other coun- 
 tries the friQge. This high official, the lieutenant-governor 
 of Foochow, had come in contact with the American 
 ndssionaries, acq[urred a knowledge of geography and 
 history, and astonished his countrymen by issuing a work 
 in ten volumes, with forty-two maps, which as completely 
 upset old Chinese ideas as did the discovery of America 
 those of the cardinals and prelates of the Church in 
 1492. The empire which, from all time, 'had been the 
 great " Middle Elingdom " of the universe, was seen to be 
 but a mere patch on the surface of the globe ; and the 
 high eulogy of the character of Washington, his patriot- 
 ism, his prowess, placed him on a par with the old he- 
 roes of the empire, who flourished, according to Chinese 
 chronology, four thousand years ago. The emperor was 
 swift to take vengeance upon one who had thus degraded 
 the empire and brought himself, the "Son of Heaven," 
 down from his exalted position. The offender was sent 
 into exile, and was only restored last year. One of the 
 last official acts of Mr. Burlingame was the presentation 
 to him of a copy of Stuart's picture of Washington. He 
 is now in office again at Peliin. 
 
 There is not much strength in the Imperial govern- 
 ' ment, and we have met men here who say that it cannot 
 last long, that it will soon fall to pieces, that the "dis- 
 integrating elements at work are increasing in force. 
 When Mr. Burlingame started from Pekin, on his foreign 
 mission, he was in danger of capture by banditti, and was 
 obliged to send to Tientsing for an escort of marines. 
 
FUNG SHUEY. 347 
 
 The marauders are still having things their own way. 
 It is reported that the Southwest Province, Yunan, has 
 set up a governihent of its own, and we have intelli- 
 gence that the Mohammedans of the western provinces 
 have thrown off allegiance to the emperor, and are waging 
 war against idolatry. This is in China proper, territory 
 which lies east of the ninety-ninth meridian. Beyond that 
 are Thibet and Turkestan, which are nearly as large as 
 all the rest of the empire, that have paid tribute for many 
 years, but now have broken loose from the Manchu 
 dynasty. 
 
 These events are regarded as the beginning of a com- 
 plete dissolution. But, on the other hand, the Pekin 
 government is undoubtedly stronger to-day than it was 
 when the Taepings were besieging Shanghae, were in 
 possession of the whole valley of the Yangtse and rioting 
 in the imperial city of Nankin. The lopping off of the 
 tributary countries may give strength instead of produ- 
 cing weakness. The danger of the empire lies in the 
 independence and authority of the governor-generals of 
 the provinces, who do pretty much as they please, piling 
 on taxes and plundering the people for their own benefit. 
 The Pekin government has made a good beginning. 
 Tlie appointment of foreigners in the customs ; the estab- 
 lishment of the College of Pekin, with Eev. Dr. Martin, 
 an American missionary, at its head ; the appointment of 
 Mr. Burlingame ; the general friendliness toward foreign- 
 ers, especially Americans, augurs weU for the future of 
 China and the advancement of American interests. 
 ( i In our outlook toward the future, the part which Kus- 
 sia'is playing in the East must not be forgotten. Her 
 influence is powerful in Mongoha. The caravan trade 
 between China and the chief towns of Siberia is im- 
 mense. A.t the proper season of the year it is not a diffi- 
 cult journey to Kiachta. Couriers are sent from Pekin 
 
348 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 every week with telegraphic despatches, which are trans- 
 mitted from that place. By that route the information 
 of Mr. BurUngame's appointment was sent to the United 
 States. General Ignatieff, the moving spirit of Eussian 
 diplomacy at the present time, was formerly Minister 
 at Pekin. Before his appointment to this post he had 
 military command in Central Asia. He understands 
 China and the Chinese, and, under the ever-aggressive 
 Muscovite policy, the forces of Eussia, civil and military, 
 are creeping constantly nearer to the Great Wall. It 
 was under Ignatieff s policy that the vast region north of 
 Corea was aimexed to Eussia. The arms of the Czar are 
 triumphant at Bokhara. Mountain ranges and deserts 
 are not formidable obstacles to a people whose home is 
 among northern ice-fields, whose banners have waved 
 over Paris, who held the Malakoff so many months 
 against the combined forces of England, France, Italy, 
 and Turkey. In the course of time the Western nations 
 may look for the quiet transfer of Mongolia to Eussia. 
 China can make no fight against anybody. There is not 
 force enough in the body politic' to create an army able 
 to contend against the disciplined troops of Western 
 nations ; and whenever Eussia sees it for her interest to 
 extend her Mongolian frontier, there wiU be no resist- 
 ance. 
 
 CHAPTEE XLIV. 
 
 Festivals. 
 
 TO the native watchman of Shanghae, especially to 
 him whose beat is around our hotel, Dogberry's ad- 
 dress is most appropriate: "You are thought here to be 
 the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the 
 watch." 
 
FESTIVALS. 
 
 349 
 
 Through the night we hear the sound of his bamboo 
 staff upon the pa^•ement, beating the ground to let all 
 rogues know that he is about. With the thumping of the 
 bamboo and the croaking of several hundred thousand 
 frogs without, and the singing of five hundred tliousand 
 nine hundred and ninety-nine million mosquitoes within, 
 we ha^'e Little sleep ! The census of croakers and singers, 
 like that of the four hundred millions of people in the 
 empire, is not supposed to be exact, but only an approxi- 
 mation towards the true number. The soloists and grand 
 chorus of the amphibious minstrels, and the multitudi- 
 nous voices of the winged choir, are musical in compari- 
 son to the jargon between the watch and several "vagrom 
 men," who persist 
 in hallooing and 
 liowhng on this 
 grand festival night 
 dedicated to drag- 
 ons. 
 
 There are numer- 
 ous festivals, held 
 at different seasons 
 of the year, in honor 
 of deities and drag- 
 ons. The epidemics 
 which sometimes 
 sweep over this del- 
 ta in summer are 
 believed to be un- ,^.^ 
 der the control of \>S; 
 the "Five Emper- 
 ors," whose temple 
 we saw at Canton. 
 These Emperors are 
 devil deities, who " black spirits and white." 
 
350 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 send forth their messengers in various forms to poison 
 the air. 
 
 To ward off such calamity it is necessary to propitiate 
 their good-will. There are two classes whose favor must 
 be won, the white and lofty and the black and dumpy 
 demons. They are hollow figures. The first named are 
 twelve to fifteen feet high, with tall hats and white robes. 
 They, are carried by men who walk within them, wholly 
 concealed from view. 
 
 The demons of darkness are like dwarfs at a masq[uer- 
 ade, clothed in black. These images are borne by boys, 
 who, like their fellow-spirits in white, are concealed 
 withia the hideous figures. 
 
 The procession passes through streets, avenues, by- 
 ways, fields, and gardens, and the Emperors thus hon- 
 ored are supposed to withdraw their messengers of evil. 
 But notwithstanding all this, malarious diseases prevail 
 at Shanghae and in other parts of the delta during the 
 summer. Fevers are frec^uent, and cholera sometimes 
 makes frightful ravages. 
 
 The transitions from heat to cold are sudden. In 
 spring and autumn a change of 20° iu a few hours is not 
 jmcommon. The annual rain-faU is about fifty iaehes. 
 In July and August the air is saturated with moisture, 
 and showers are frequent. Our boots, that have been in 
 a closet twenty-four hours, are covered with green mould ; 
 the linen in our trunks is breaking out with yellow spots ; 
 books become musty. Fires are kindled on rainy days to 
 dry up the dampness, and every moment of bright sun- 
 shine is improved to air clothing. Foreigners who can 
 get away run over to Japan or up to the hills of Cheefoo, 
 in Northern China ; but the Chinese take the means al- 
 ready described to drive off the bad spirits that produce 
 all this dampness, mouldiness, and accompanying sick- 
 ness. 
 
FESTIVALS. 351 
 
 The display on this festival day is not alone in the 
 streets of the town, but every Chinese boat on the river 
 is decorated. 
 
 "When at Canton we thought that in no other part of 
 the world could there be found so great a collection of 
 sea-going and river craft, but Shanghae takes the palm. 
 Boats are here that were built under the shadow of the 
 Himalayas and the mountains of Thibet, or came through 
 the grand canal from the Yellow Eiver, bringing to mar- 
 ket the productions of Tartary. They are packed a hun- 
 dred deep, in lines; moored in blocks like the squares 
 of a city, with passage-ways — water streets — between 
 . them, through which in a sampan we work our way. 
 
 To count them would be a hopeless undertaking ; we 
 can only reckon them by the acre or square mile. Up 
 and down, as far as we can see, they are fastened to the 
 bank, anchored in the stream, or tied to each other. It 
 is a city of boats, the floating homes of a multitude of 
 people. 
 
 From every mast there waves " a banner with a strange 
 device," — dragons spitting fire, gods with goggle-eyes ; 
 escutcheons emblazoned with mottoes from Confucius and 
 other sages of this Flowery Land. 
 
 Eeaching the landing, we take a look at the native city. 
 The streets are filthy. Fertilizers are collected, not in 
 closely covered carts, for no cart was ever seen inside the 
 walls of this old town. Coolies ladle the contents of 
 vaults and cesspools into open buckets at midday. The 
 perfume of peach-bloom, hyacinth, and heliotrope is cer- 
 tainly more fragrant, though not so powerful, as the odors 
 in this old city of Shanghae. 
 
 It being a festival day, many of the shops are closed, 
 and the citizens are drinking tea, smoking, playing cards, 
 or, if of a literary turn of mind, reading novels or books 
 of poems. 
 
352 OUE NEW WAY KOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 The modern literature of Cliina consists mainly of the 
 history and geography of their own land, and of fiction 
 and poetry. 
 
 In the hookstores may be obtained novels which are 
 quite as useful and entertaining as many published in 
 the United States. Here too we may purchase the works 
 of the most popular modern pofet of their country, Lin, 
 ■who was bom at Foochow in 1787. He was distia- 
 guished not only as a scholar and poet, but as an officer 
 of the gbvemment. He was prefect of Canton in 1838, 
 and destroyed the twenty thousand chests of opium de- 
 livered to him by the English. He appears to have been 
 an efficient officer, and carried out his instructions with 
 so much vigor that he was degraded and sent into exile 
 in the extreme northwest province of the empire, on the 
 borders Of Tartary. The title conferred Upon him by the 
 eihperor T*-hile he was in favor was " The Literary and 
 Faithful." He died in 1851. A volume entitled the 
 "Eagle-Shooting Turret," containing selections from his 
 writings, was published soon after his decease.* 
 
 While in exile he received the portrait of his wife, who 
 was an estimable and highly educatied lady, but who had 
 a paralyzed hand, to which allusion is made in the sweet 
 and tender lines written upon the receipt of the pic- 
 ture : — 
 
 " Like the wild waterfowls, in mutual love 
 Each upon each dependent, did we move ; 
 But now, grief-stricken, a poor, lonely man, 
 I roam in desolate exile ! StiU the ban 
 Of separation is less hard from thee. 
 Beloved ! than would the horse-hide cerement t be ! 
 
 * Transactions of the China Branch of the Boyal Asiatic Society. ^Part 
 in. 1851, 1852. 
 
 t Ma Yuen, a hero of the Han dynasty, in order to show his devotion 
 to his country, exclaimed : " Let me die in battle, and my corpse be 
 wrapped up and sent home in a horse's hide." 
 
FESTIVALS. 353 
 
 Why should I weep ? — I hreathe the mountain air, 
 Although a herdsman's humble garb I wear. 
 Yet I must weep, for my mind's troubled eye 
 Sees thee on suifering's couch of misery ; 
 Thy gay cosmetics all neglected, — thou 
 Dost never seek the flattering mirror now ; 
 Yet thy fair gharacters, in verse outpoured. 
 Have raptured all my soul, — mine own adored ! 
 I see thee, welcome thee, in every line 
 Whose every pencil touch, dear wife ! is thine ! 
 
 Oft think I of thy shrivelled hand again ! 
 
 Well may it guide a melancholy pen ! 
 
 Shall it not be restored ? the wondrous gem 
 
 Shines on thy verses, spiritualizing them 
 
 As with a heavenly agency.* 
 
 Grass of gold t 
 
 Thou scatterest ; and thy mystic strains unrolled 
 
 Make my heart vibrate. There 's a power in song 
 
 Stronger than sorrow; was not Tsai Linen J strong 
 
 In all her grief? how blest, my wife ! to hear 
 
 Thy heart-thoughts poured so sweetly in mine ear, 
 
 As if thy very soul were stamped in strains 
 
 Of truth and love, to lighten all my pains." 
 
 This grand festival day is brought to a close by the 
 burning of innumerable fire-crackers, joss-sticks, and gilt 
 paper for the benefit of friends in the spirit-world. Fam- 
 ilies invite their friends to dine with them at a neigh- 
 boring tea-house, or on a flower-boat, and thus the entire 
 day is given to pleasure. 
 
 * The wondrous gem refers to the sudden cure of a deformity of the 
 hand, which is reported to have happened to a wife of Kow Kwo, under 
 the Han dynasty. 
 
 t This refers to the lanceolated strokes formed by the Chinese pencil in 
 writing, and which are much admired. 
 
 t Tsai Liuen was a fairy, who married a man called Wan Stih. She 
 wrote poetry to support herself, and bore her misfortunes with much 
 serenity. 
 
364 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOKLD. 
 
 CHAPTEE XLV- 
 
 EOMANISM m CHINA. 
 
 ACCOMPANIED by our landlord, we ride through the 
 English settlement, strike into the Soochow road, 
 pass the limits of the city, and gain the open country. 
 The fields and gardens are swarming with men and 
 women at work with hoes among the young cotton-plants. 
 The country is intersected with canals, and in aU directions 
 we see white sails apparently moving along the surface of 
 the land. People of all conditions are abroad, — wealthy 
 gentlemen and merchants in sedans ; coolies going to 
 market, carrying baskets filled with garden products ; Eng- 
 lish sportsmen trying their horses on the race-course ; half 
 a dozen sailors having a joUy time at a beer-shop. 
 
 The picture would be incomplete were we to leave out 
 a poor beggar lugging the decaying carcass of a cat, so 
 long dead that it taints the air. 
 
 " "What have you there, John ? " 
 
 "Chow chow!" 
 
 A broad grin lights up his tawny face as he holds up 
 his prize. It is not often that he tastes animal food, but 
 to-day he is going to have a meat dinner ! 
 
 Our way is through a cemetery. Graves are aU around 
 us. The masonrj' of the ancient tombs crumbled long 
 ago, but the grass-grown mounds remain, undisturbed 
 from century to century. 
 
 "We notice a common receptacle for children who die 
 before they are old enough to have their heads shaved. 
 It is a structure fifteen or twenty feet square, covering a 
 deep well that contains the decaying dust of thousands 
 
ROMANISM IN CHINA. 355 
 
 of infants. The child who dies without having his head 
 shaved, not being entitled to a coffin, is reckoned a non- 
 entity ; but if he lives to have the hair braided, he is en- 
 titled to respect after death. It is his badge of honor. 
 He has the queue, of life. 
 
 Farther on we come to a Foundling Hospital established 
 by the Jesuits, a spacious brick building, four stories in 
 height, with a church edifice attached. Looking through 
 the gateway of the enclosure, we see a troop of boys in 
 the garden, — foundlings, orphans, and some who have 
 been purchased gf their parents to be trained for the 
 chutch. 
 
 The interior of the church is small; it has marble 
 floors, altars along the walls, poor pictures of scenes in 
 the life of Christ and the Saints, tawdry paper flowers, 
 and a great show of tinsel around the high altar. At one 
 of the side chapels a Chinese youngster is kneeling, kiss- 
 ing the tiles, dipping his fingers in the holy water, and 
 making the sign of the cross. The prayers are in Latin, 
 — just about as intelligible to these children as Cherokee 
 or Choctaw. As it is not necessary for the worshipper 
 to understand what he is mumbling, he might as well 
 repeat a stanza from Mother Goose. And yet, for all 
 this, Eomanism is doing a work in China which wiU 
 be more clearly seen ygars hence than at the present 
 time, — that of bringing the people to acknowledge the 
 existence of one God. The great advantages obtaiued by 
 the French priests, — the adroitness, energy, persever- 
 ance, imflagging zeal, and wealth of the church on ac- 
 count of the restoration of property confiscated two hun- 
 dred years ago, — all these combined influences will go far 
 toward making Catholicism the dominant religion of the 
 empire. In this hospital we have a good illustration of 
 the far-sightedness of the Catholic clergy. They have 
 great schemes for the future. These children have been 
 
356 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 forsaken by fathers and mothers, and the priests have 
 taken them up. They will be trained fbr the church, 
 will hare a livelihood, which in this country is an im- 
 portant matter, and their power will soon be felt as 
 teachers, priests, and missionaries, throughout the land. 
 
 The influence of Eome in China dates back to the year 
 1288, when Pope Mcholas IV. sent Corvino, an Italian, 
 to labor as a missionary in this country. He built a 
 church at Pekin, and baptized several thousand persons. 
 Intercourse between Eome and China was overland in 
 those days. It was a long, uncertain journey. Affairs 
 in Europe occupied the attention of the Popes, and iheix 
 missionaries in the East were neglected, and little was 
 accomplished. It was not till 1581. that the attempt was 
 renewed of. converting the Chinese to Christianity. In 
 that year Eicci, an Italian, reached Canton, disguised as a 
 Buddhist priest. He began his work cautiously, was well 
 received, and in time assumed his true character. 'No 
 obstacle was placed in his way by the government or 
 people. Other priests were sent out under the control of 
 the Jesuits. Success attended their efforts. Eicci was a 
 shrewd man, and cultivated the friendship of the Chinese. 
 The Anecdotes de la Ghiyve has a notice of the labors of 
 this preacher of the faith, which, if true, allows us to 
 conclude that his Christianity was not of a high order. 
 The author of the work, himself a Eomanist, says : — 
 
 " The kings found in him a man full of complaisances, 
 the pagans a minister who accommodated himself to their 
 superstitions, the mandarins a politic courtier, and the 
 Devil a faithful servant, who, far from destroying, estab- 
 lished his reign among the heathen, and even extended it 
 to Christians ! " 
 
 He adopted the practice of sacrificing to Confucius and 
 the ancestors, and placed a cross wreathed with flowers 
 among the idols in the temples. Converts multiplied. 
 
EOMANISM IN CHINA. 357 
 
 and monasteries, convents, and churches were established 
 in many places. 
 
 Up to this period the Jesuits had control of the church 
 in China, but the contest between that order and the 
 Dominicans in Europe for supremacy extended to this 
 country and raged fiercely. Plots and counter-plots -were 
 laid. The Jesuits intrigued in political affairs. The gov- 
 ernments of Europe at this time were expelling the order. 
 They were driven from France in 1593 ; from Venice, 
 1606 ; Poland, 1607 ; and Bohemia, 1619. 
 
 Erom the earliest records of authentic history, the 
 Chinese govenmient has been tolerant of all religions. 
 The people might believe what they pleased, worship 
 after their own inclination, preach any faith, provided it 
 did not interfere with the government. 
 
 The priests, after the death of Eicci, which occurred in 
 1610, were wanting in worldly wisdom. The principles of 
 the order made tbem arrogant. They demanded obedience 
 of their converts to themselves rather than to the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 An emperor came to the throne in 1723 who deter- 
 mined to rule. A large number of priests were banished, 
 and edicts passed ordering the few who were permitted 
 to remain at Canton to give no cause for complaint. 
 Some of those who were exiled returned. They were 
 subjected to persecution, and the property of the church 
 confiscated, but they were never wholly driven out. 
 
 When the French brought forward the treaty lately 
 signed between France and China, one article stipulated 
 that aU the property confiscated two himdred years ago 
 should be restored to the Jesuits. 
 
 " It is impossible," said the emperor's ministers. 
 
 " It must be done," was the reply of the French com- 
 mission. 
 
 " "Who can teU where it was situated ? How can it be 
 
358 OUR NEW WAY BOTOD THE WORLD. 
 
 identified ? There have been great commotions, — a great 
 many changes since then. We cannot find it," said the 
 ministers. 
 
 " Of course there may be some difficulty ; but if the 
 Fathers of the church can identify the property, your 
 Highnesses "will restore it ? " said the bland commissioners. 
 
 " yes ; if they can show that it was once owned by 
 the church," was the reply ; and the article went into the 
 treaty. 
 
 ^ A few months later the " Fathers " appeared at PeMn 
 with a great bundle of title-deeds and dociunents, yel- 
 lowed by time, and mouldy from their long repose in the 
 archives of the Propaganda at Eome ! 
 
 The emperor's ministers were confoxmded, but there 
 was no help for it; and so the church to-day is in pos- 
 session of immense estates in nearly every city of the 
 empire. 
 
 In Shanghae there are long ranges of buildings . in the 
 heart of the city which have been restored under that 
 article of the treaty. The income from these estates is 
 very large. 
 
 The difference in ceremony between the religion of the 
 Chinese and that of the Catholic Church is so slight that 
 the Eoman Church finds it easy to make converts. In- 
 cense, candles, and lamps are always burning before the 
 idols of the temples, just as before the altars of Eome. 
 The priests appear in yellow robes, recite prayers in con- 
 cert, or responsively, with such intonations as are heard 
 in St. Peter's. 
 
 Paper flowers adorn the altars, and there is bowing, 
 kneeling, passing from the left to the right, from right to 
 left, as in the Catholic ceremonial. 
 
 A Chinaman entering a Protestant church sees no 
 images or pictures, and he comes to the conclusion that 
 the Protestants are altogether godless j but he enters 
 
EOMANISM IN CHINA. 359 
 
 a Jesuit cliurcli and sees a better class of images than 
 those he is accustomed to worship, and pictures more 
 beautiful than those upon the walls, of his own temples. 
 Eomish priests are more gorgeously arrayed than those 
 who mioister at the altar of Buddha, and* he inhales 
 sweeter incense than that ascending from joss-sticks. The 
 music of the choir and the deep-toned organ is more 
 pleasing than the rub-a-dub of drums. Is it any wonder 
 that the churches are thronged at morning mass or at 
 the hour for vespers ? 
 
 A gentleman at Shanghae, who speaks the language, 
 has travelled through several of the proviQces dressed 
 as a Chinaman, and has had excellent opportunities for 
 observation, says, " Of the missionary effort put forth in 
 Chiua, at least ninety per cent is by the Catholics." 
 
 The French minister has been pressing the Imperial 
 government in another direction. He has obtained a 
 decree permitting the priests to decide all questions of 
 law between Chinese Catholics and those who still adhere 
 to the Chinese religion. Secretly and persistently Eome 
 is laboring to obtain possession of China. 
 
 In 1846 there were twelve bishops, seven coadjutors, 
 eighty foreign Jesuit missionaries, and ninety native priests 
 employed. The number of converts at that time was not 
 far from four hundred thousand. It is estimated there 
 are now more than seven hundred thousand. 
 
 They are baptized, required to attend mass and the 
 confessional, and contribute to spread the gospel. They 
 must abjure all their old idols, but may worship Mary 
 and the Saints. 
 
 The converts are supplied with saintly charms. These 
 are worn about their persons, and have power to protect 
 them from dragons. Superstition, old beliefs, and cere- 
 monials are so artfully interwoven with the superior at- 
 tractions of the new religion, that there are multitudes 
 
360 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE' WOELD. 
 
 ready to accept it. Protestants must be prepared to see 
 a rapid development of the Eoman Catholic religion ia 
 this quarter of the globe. 
 
 The Protestant religion has made slow progress, and we 
 do not wonder at it. The first effort towards introducing 
 it was made by Dr. Morrison in 1807. He had fiist to 
 acquire the language, then translate the Bible, which, 
 when translated, is not easy of comprehension by the 
 Chinese. Christian ideas cannot well be conveyed by 
 the Chinese language, for want of proper terms, and a 
 great portion of Biblical history is incomprehensible, 
 because of its allusions to rites, ceremonies, and customs 
 with which they are unacquainted. The opening of 
 Mark's Gospel, in our translation, is as foUows : — 
 
 " The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son 
 of God." 
 
 " This," says Mr. Nevius, " seems perfectly simple to 
 us, and it may appear strange to some that any di£6.culty 
 can be found in it ; but almost every word is an enigma 
 to SI Chinaman. According to the Chinese idiom the 
 translation runs thus : — 
 
 " ' God's Son Jesus Christ Gospel beginning.' 
 
 " The word ' God ' suggests a thousand deities, supernal 
 and infernal, but certainly not the God of the Bible. . . . 
 The names of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, are translated 
 by Chinese characters resembling, as nearly as possible, 
 the sounds of the original, and representing simply for- 
 eign names without meaning or associations. 'Gospel' 
 is translated by two characters meaning respectively 
 ' happiness ' and ' sound,' but the combination is a new 
 and peculiar one, and it would be difficult for the uhin- 
 structed reader to tell with certainty its meaning. The 
 last word, ' beginning,' which is evidently connected with 
 the two preceding it, forming the expression ' happiness, 
 sound, beginning,' affords no assistance towards making 
 
eOmaotsm in china. 361 
 
 it mtelEgible. Each of the following verses, looted at 
 from the Chinese stand-point, presents similar difficulties, , 
 and is liable to some other misconception." 
 
 A foreigner, attempting to acq\iire the Chinese lan- 
 guage, and discouraged by his futile efforts, declared that 
 it must have been invented by the Devil. It is abstract, 
 hard, uncouth. Years of constant practice are required 
 to enable one to comprehend it. To translate the Bible, 
 and make it intelligible to the natives, was a difficulty 
 which had to be surmoimted at the outset. 
 
 Morrison labored seven years before he found a con- 
 vert, and the first church was not gathered till twenty- 
 eight years after he commenced teaching. Then came 
 the opium war. The forcing of the drug upon the empire 
 by a nation calling itself Christian prejudiced the people 
 against the new religion. Foreign shipmasters and mer- 
 chants were supposed to be Christians, but their morality 
 often was of a lower grade than that taught by Confucius. 
 Their deportment did not commend Christianity. Not- 
 withstanding all this, the progress made by the Protestant 
 missionaries has been quite rapid dviring the last few 
 years. 
 
 The number of missionaries in China in 1865 was one 
 hundred and eighty-seven. Of these ninety-two were 
 American, seventy-eight English, and seventeen German. 
 The present number of native church-members is not far 
 from three thousand. About two hundred native preach- 
 ers and teachers are employed. No theological school 
 has yet been established for the training of preachers, 
 and the native helpers have no commentaries or other 
 books to enable them to explain the Bible. But the 
 Chinese are a reading people, and the leaves of Scripture 
 scattered here and there are read till worn out. 
 
 Protestantism as yet has only obtained a foothold. Its 
 success lies aU in the future. 
 
 16 
 
362 
 
 •QUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
T 
 
 UP THE TANGTSE. 363 
 
 CHAPTEE XLVI. 
 
 UP THE TANGTSE. 
 
 HE Tangtse-kiang is one of the largest rivers of the 
 globe, surpassed in grandeur only by the Amazon 
 and Mississippi. Some geographers have placed it fourth 
 on the list, giving the third place to the Nile, but the 
 flood poured out by the Yangtse is far greater than that 
 which flows from the plateau of Central Africa into the 
 Mediterranean. Its source is three thousand miles dis- 
 tant from the ocean, among the mountains of Thibet. 
 
 That region has not yet been reached by explorers, and 
 it lies temptingly before the geographer, naturalist, and 
 traveller. It is almost the only portion of the globe 
 which has not been traversed by scientific men. The 
 river is navigable for ships of the largest size to Hankow, 
 a distance of nearly six hundred miles. Sea-going steam- 
 ers can ascend about eleven hundred miles, while light- 
 draft, flat-bottomed river steamers, it is believed, can 
 ascend to the very base of the Himalayas. 
 
 It is the great artery of the empire and its grand high- 
 way of commerce. Like all rivers which flow through 
 countries where the rain-faU is large, it is subject to great 
 changes. The water begins to rise in March and attains 
 its highest level in July, when, like the Mississippi, it 
 submei^es the lowlands. Frequently there is great de- 
 struction of property, but the annual inundation has its 
 compensating features in the fertilizing- deposits left be- 
 hind when the waters recede. 
 
 This mighty stream is to be in the future, far more 
 than now, an avenue for foreign trade. Great cities stand 
 
364 OUE NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 upon its banks. The mercantile marine afloat upon these 
 waters transports the merchandise of two hundred and 
 fifty millions of people. 
 
 The English were first here with heavy sea-going steam- 
 ers drawing twelve to fifteen feet of water; hut enter- 
 prising Americans brought out such boats as navigate the 
 Hudson, and by their superior speed, carrying capacity, 
 and economy have driven the English from the river. 
 
 At four o'clock in the morning, while the dawn is light- 
 ing the eastern horizon, the Kiang Loon, "the Eiver 
 Dragon," swings from its moorings, and we go down the 
 Wusung with the tide, wheel into the broad estuary of 
 the Tangtse, bound for the heart of China. 
 
 The commander. Captain Friend of Gloucester, Mass., 
 has been navigating the stream so long that he is as 
 famihar with its windings, eddies, currents, sand-bars, 
 and mud-banks as a Cape Cod skipper with his own 
 coast. 
 
 Our destination is Hankow, and we have one hundred 
 and fifty miles to make before reaching the most northern 
 bend. Eunning at times close in shore, we see creeks, 
 inlets, and canals leading through the green meadows in 
 all directions. We might saO. hundreds of miles through 
 this delta, finding canals and water-ways as numerous 
 and intricate as the highways and byways of the country 
 towns of N^ew England. There are numerous lakes, larger 
 than Winnipisaukee or Champlain, or those of Central 
 New York, navigable for steamers as capacious as those 
 which ply on the Ohio Eiver. 
 
 Fishermen are watering their nets along the banks. 
 They do not like the steamers of the foreigners, for they 
 believe that the fish are frightened from their old haunts 
 by the plashing of the paddles. 
 
 We meet the Plymouth Eock, bound for Shanghae, 
 loaded to the water's edge with twenty thousand chests 
 
UP THE YANGTSE. 365 
 
 of tea ; but there is ■ little to attract attention till we are 
 seventy-five miles on our way. The first place of any 
 importance is Kiang Yang, a large walled town, pictu- 
 resque with its ancient fortifications, temples, and a 
 seven-storied pagoda, that was reared centuries ago. 
 Shrubs and grasses are gj-owing in the crevices of the 
 crumbling stone. The city lies along the river-bank, 
 with suburbs extending to a range of green hills in the 
 distance. The whitewashed cottages and temples, the 
 yellow flags floating from tall staffs illuminated with 
 dragons, the inlets and creeks filled with junks and 
 smaller boats, with blue mountains far away in the 
 north, make up the strange but pleasing picture. 
 
 Farther on we behold a range of mountains looming in 
 the south, but lowering to cliffs along the river. On 
 their summits are tall pagodas, that were reared by 
 wealthy men of ancient times as holy places, or as 
 memorials of their benevolence. 
 
 Bounding a bluff, we sweep on toward the southwest, 
 passing towns where crowds of people in blue blouses 
 and broad-brimmed hats stare at us from the doors of 
 their houses and the decks of their junks. There are 
 no mansions and church edifices, — features such as lend 
 a charm to an American or European landscape, — but 
 small houses with tiled roofs, standing on narrow, dirty 
 streets. 
 
 The broad plains and verdant meadows, the fields, 
 hedgerows, clustered trees, cottages half hid beneath the 
 foliage, blue smoke curling upward, people in the fields, 
 present a picturesque scene ; but In China, as well as in 
 other lands, " distance lends enchantment to the view." 
 
 "We have already learned that poverty and degradation 
 is the lot of a large portion of the Chinese. 
 
 The first stopping-place for our steamer is at Ching 
 Kiang, a large walled town on the southern bank. Below 
 
366 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 it is the rock Ts'ioo, which rises ahtuptly four hundred 
 feet ahove the stream. Its sides are clothed with foliage, 
 and its summit crowned with Buddhist temples. 
 
 The city of Ching Kiang occupies an important point on 
 the river. Its name signifies "Eiver Guard," and it com- 
 mands the Yangtse and the grg^d canal 
 
 About one hundred miles south of Shanghae is the 
 great city of Hang-chow, on a large stream which comes 
 down from the hills of the eastern provinces. At that 
 city the canal commences. It runs across the meadows 
 in a northwesterly direction to Soochow, a city ahout 
 seventy miles west of Shanghae, and thence to this city, 
 connecting with the Yangtse. 
 
 There are no obstacles north of the river, and so the 
 imperial water-way — this noble work of the ancients 
 — reaches a hundred miles farther to the Hoang-ho or 
 Yellow Eiver, and thence continues to Pekia. We 
 have said that it goes to the Yellow Eiver, but it is a 
 statement which needs to be explained. The Hoang-ho 
 is a capricious stream. Formerly it emptied into the 
 Yellow Sea, but recent explorations show that by far 
 the largest volume of water runs north into the Gulf of 
 Pecheli. This statement is confirmed by Eev. Dr. Martin, 
 now at the head of the Pekin University, who has trav- 
 elled extensively over Northern China. 
 
 We might step on board one of these river boats, 
 spread the lateen-sails, turn up the canal, at the north- 
 ern bend of the Yangtse, and come out at Pekin, or at 
 any one of the fifty outlets along the coast, or, gaining 
 the maiu channel of the YeUow Eiver, work our way 
 one thousand miles due west from the sea, then, turning 
 north four hundred miles, pass the great wall, enter Mon- 
 golia, sail three or four hundred miles in that country, 
 re-enter China, and traverse the northwest provinces of 
 the empire. 
 
UP THE YANGTSE. 367 
 
 As yet nothing is known as to the practicability of 
 navigating these northern streams by steam, but here are 
 junks loaded with salt for the Manchus of Tartary, also 
 boats bound for Pekin. During the war between the 
 Allies and China the city of Ching Kiang was taken by 
 the naval forces, and the whole northern provinces felt 
 the blow at once, for it stopped aU trade between the 
 north and south. 
 
 It was this which probably did more than anythiag 
 else towards bringing the Chinese government to accept 
 the terms of the English. 
 
 The town of Kwa-chow, on the northern bank opposite 
 Ching ICiang, is a great salt port. Foreign vessels are not 
 allowed to transport the article, and the trade is wholly 
 in the hands of the government, which derives a large 
 revenue from the custom receipts. The salt trade at this 
 port gives employment to eighteen hundred junks, manned 
 by thirty thousand sailors. 
 
 A portion of the people are averse to any further 
 opening of the interior waters to foreign steamers, which 
 are prohibited from towing native boats. When the 
 current is strong it takes a junk six weeks to run from 
 this poiut to Hankow, a distance of four hundred and 
 fifty miles, though it is easily accomplished by steamer 
 in two days. The complaint is that the introduction of 
 American boats has already deprived twenty-five thou- 
 sand men of employment. Notwithstanding this hostility, 
 the native merchants and speculators always travel by 
 steamer. The Kiang Loon is crowded with them. 
 
 The crop of tea for the year is just coming to market, 
 and the dealers are as lively as any class of merchants in 
 America. They have an immense amount of treasure on 
 board, — Spanish dollars and Sycee silver ingots, in the 
 shape of a woman's shoe, besides about seventy tons of 
 copper cash! 
 
368 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 Eills of exoliange are coming into use among the lead- 
 ing traders of the seaboard cities, hut those in the interior 
 prefer specie. 
 
 When Ching Kiang was made a trading port, it was 
 supposed it would he one of the most important on the 
 river, but the expectations have not been realized ; other 
 ports higher up are better commercial points. 
 
 We meet large rafts of timber, with houses upon them, 
 which have floated two thousand miles from the western 
 provinces. The raftsmen, tiU reaching Hankow, never 
 saw a steamboat, and they gaze in wonder at a vessel roll- 
 ing on wheels up stream twelve miles an hour ! They 
 will have marvellous stories to tell when they get back to 
 their far-distant homes. 
 
 ])fankin, or the " Southern Capital," as its name implies, 
 was the capital of the empire till the Manchu dynasty, 
 in the fifteenth century, came into power, when the seat 
 of government was transferred to Pekin. It was once a 
 •great city, adorned with imperial palaces, famous for its 
 porcelain tower, a picture of which was to be found ia 
 all school geographies ia our boyhood days, which, with 
 the great wall, a mandarin carried ia his sedan, and a 
 CQoly with rats and puppies for pies, made up the sum 
 total of our ideas about China. But the pagoda has dis- 
 appeared, and Nankin is an iosigoificant place in com- 
 parison with its former greatness. In March, 1853, the 
 rebels captured the town, and held it tiU July, 1864. 
 
 It is one hundred and niaety-four miles west of Shang- 
 hae, on the south bank of the river. The walls are about 
 thirty feet thick at the base, and varying in height from 
 fifty to sixty feet. They enclose an area of twenty-five 
 square nules. The population, previous to the rebellion, 
 was estimated at about two millions. The famous pagoda 
 stood without the walls on the southwest side of the city. 
 It was destroyed by the rebels^ 
 
UP THE YANGTSE. 369 
 
 Not only in Nankin, but along the river, there are ruins. 
 Eesidents here say that the destruction of Me during 
 the war may be estimated at twenty-five millions ! The 
 struggle commenced in the southwest province of Yu- 
 nan, on the borders of Burmah. It spread to Canton. It 
 rolled down the valley of the Yangtse to Shanghae, and 
 down the YeUovV Eiver to PeMn. Every one of the 
 great cities of the interior fell into the hands of the 
 insurgents. They took possession of town and country. 
 It was a struggle in which no quarter was shown by 
 either party. 
 
 The rebels consumed all that came in their way, and 
 desolation marked their progress. Disease and famine fol- 
 lowed them. It was a contest which lasted nearly twenty 
 years. Captain Friend, of this steamer, saw the final 
 victorious attack of the iinperial troops upon the rebels 
 at this city, the cutting off of heads on the shore, the 
 sinking of thousands in the river as they attempted to 
 escape. There was no mercy shown. The imiperial troops 
 were animated by one desire only, — to kill. ' It was a 
 terrible harvest which was reaped on these meadows 
 during those years. 
 
 Nankin ' is not a port open to foreign trade, and we 
 steam past it, stopping the wheels a moment to drop a 
 Chinese passenger into a boat which puts out from the 
 shore for that purpose. The tombs of the Ming dynasty 
 are near here. They were damaged by the rebels, and 
 are now hardly worth a visit. 
 
 About four himdred miles from Shanghae we leave the 
 dead level of the meadows and approach an elevated 
 region, a range of hills and mountains, which have a 
 general direction from the northwest to the southeast. 
 We look upon landscapes of surpassing beauty, — hills, 
 gxeen slopes, brown rocks, and secluded glens. The 
 cliffs are like those of Cumberland in old England, and 
 16* X 
 
370 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 as green as the hills of Vermont. 
 of Coleridge : — ■ 
 
 We recall the words 
 
 " A green and silent spot amid the hills, 
 Small and silent dells ! O'er stiller place 
 No singing skylark ever poised himself." 
 
 We pass a remarkable rock, which rises four hundred 
 
 feet above the stream. Its eastern wall is perpendicular, 
 
 __ and so smooth 
 
 -'r" '=' = -r--'^ that a sparrow 
 
 ^^-'■;;^._ "'' jf could scarcely 
 
 j-=f j-Cfi'^'^^^^i^ fiii<i a resting- 
 
 place. The west- 
 ern side is not 
 quite so steep. 
 The Buddhist 
 monks have built 
 their huts, like 
 dove-boxes, on a 
 shelf half-way up 
 the heioht, and 
 erected a joss- 
 house upon the 
 summit. Shrubs 
 and small trees 
 spring from the 
 crevices of the 
 rocks. Tlie island 
 bears the name 
 of "The Little 
 Orphan." 
 Looking across a green fringe of meadow southward, 
 
 we behold a beautiful sheet of water, the Poyang Lake. 
 
 The surrounding mountains are mirrored in its waters. 
 
 Numerous sails are flitting along its peblily shores. 
 
 Were we to embark in a small junk, we might sail up 
 
 ,5C * 
 
 LITTLK ORPHAN ISLAND. 
 
UP THE YANGTSE. 6 I i. 
 
 the river whicli enters it from the south, and thus make 
 our way by water half the distance to Canton. 
 
 As we pass the outlet of the lake, we have a view of 
 the calm waters reposing heneath a cloudless sky, reflect- 
 ing the beauties of the surrounding scenery. A fortress 
 commands the narrow passage between the Yangtse and 
 this Champlain of Chiua, and a templ6 dedicated to the 
 god of war rears its white walls on the brow of the hill 
 above the fortification. The priests have given their 
 leisure time, of which they have a great deal, to the 
 cultivation of vegetables and flowers in the gardens at- 
 tached to their place of worship. In the small ponds 
 near by they propagate fish, which find a ready market 
 at Kju-Mang. 
 
 The lake is about fifty miles long and iifteen wide. 
 It is dotted with islands, green and sunny, and beautiful 
 with vegetation peculiar to the clime. On this sweet 
 summer day, under a softened light, the view is as 
 charming as any beneath Italian skies. 
 
 A large amount of green tea is produced in this district. 
 
 These junks which vre see whitening the lake, motionless 
 
 upon the calm waters, — 
 
 "As idle as a painted ship 
 Upon a painted ocean," — 
 
 are doubtless loaded with tea for the Kiu-Mang market. 
 
 The city, in its general appearance, is much like those 
 already visited, — houses and shops of one story, with 
 the usual accompaniment of dirt and unsavory smells, 
 sickening to us, but as refreshing to Chinese olfactories, 
 perhaps, as rosemary or verbena to ours. In the market, 
 as at Canton, are tubs containing yoimg eels, coops filled 
 with fowls, cages crowded with dogs, which set up a 
 furious barking as we approach. We can bear it with 
 the philosophy of a stoic, knoAsdng thal^ the curs will 
 soon be at their last bark, and that the stew-pan is their 
 destiny. 
 
372 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 A large area inside the walls is covered with ruins, — 
 heaps of brick _and broken tiles, — the relics of the re- 
 bellion. Escaping from the crowd of boys following us 
 to get a look at the foreigners, we stroU through the sub- 
 urbs, and reach the grounds belonging to the Eoman 
 Catholics, who have a church, convent, and other build- 
 ings. French priests, wearing the costumes of the Chinese, 
 adapting themselves to the habits and customs of those 
 whom they are seeking to convert, are moving about the 
 premises, superintending workmen who are hammering 
 stone for a new edifice. They have selected an excellent 
 location, not only with reference to the city, but the sur- 
 rounding country as well ; not only for present, but for 
 future operations. 
 
 In coming years the thunder of the locomotive will be 
 heard along this valley, connecting the southern sea-coast 
 with the central cities of the empire. The chief afiBiu- 
 ents of the Yangtse are the Han, Ming, and Lung on the 
 north, and the Kiang on the south, and they are the 
 avenues by which Western civilization will make itp 
 way to the millions of people in the interior. As a 
 great continental thoroughfare, the Yangtse is not sur- 
 passed by any river on the face of the globe, the Mis- 
 sissippi not excepted. The tide of trade and travel sets 
 directly across the Mississippi, from east to west. The 
 commerce of the world is in the same direction. This 
 mighty stream runs in the direction of the universal trade 
 line. It is in the great commercial zone that belts the 
 earth. These junks, freighted with tea, coming down the 
 Poyang Lake one after another like a covey of ducks, wOl 
 discharge their cargo into the river steamers, which in turn 
 will transport it to Shanghae, and thence by sailing vessel 
 or ocean steamship it will be taken along the same lines 
 of latitude to San Francisco, and, if land carriage can be 
 made cheap enough, to Chicago and New York. 
 
UP THE YANGTSE. 373 
 
 As yet modern civilization has barely obtained a foot- 
 hold m this portion of the empire. Five ports are opened 
 to trade, and permission is given to go up to Hankow 
 with steamers. Missionaries may travel where they 
 please, for they are looked upon as inoffensive persons. 
 The Chinese government has been wise enough to take 
 foreigners into its customs service, and to encourage 
 natives to acquire foreign languages. It has further 
 exhibited its wisdom by appointing Mr. Burlingame an 
 envoy to Western nations. 
 
 "We are gliding toward the heart of the empire, in a 
 steamer built on the Hudson, propelled by an engine 
 from the hands of New York machinists. Our captain 
 is a clear-headed Yankee from Cape Ann. We are 
 brought face to face with questions of the future. What 
 part is America to play on this continent ? San Fran- 
 cisco is only twenty-six days distant. The Pacific Eail- 
 rbad is opened and New York is but one month from 
 Shanghae. What is to be the measure of tlie influence 
 of American ideas — political, social, moral, and religious 
 — in this land ? More important, — what influence is 
 China to have upon America ? Sixty to eighty thousand 
 Chinamen already are in California and Oregon, and one 
 thousand Americans, perhaps, in aU China. The steamers 
 of the Pacific mail are crowded with Chinamen. Every 
 sailing ship bound to San Francisco carries a full com- 
 plement of emigrants. America has thirty-five million 
 inhabitants, China four hundred millions. Here, every 
 inch of land is occupied; there, millions of acres are 
 waiting the coming of the cultivator. 
 
 There are merchants in China as rich as the wealthiest 
 men of the United States. The West is yet tributary to 
 the East. China compels us to bring our silver to her 
 coffers. She is powerful enough to keep the balance of 
 trade against us. 
 
374 OXIB NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Is there vitality enough in our country to affect this 
 inert mass ? Is there not reason to fear that the emigra- 
 tion of Chiaamen to America will serve as a drag upon 
 our own progress ? Is there power enough ia the great 
 democratic mOl to grind up the odds and ends of aU 
 lands, — to reduce Ireland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, 
 Denmark, England, Scotland, Italy, Africa, Mexico, and 
 China to common pulp ? These are grave questions for 
 the consideration of the people of the United States. 
 
 CHAPTEE XLVII. 
 
 CENTEAL CHINA. 
 
 AT Whang-choo, a city on the northern bank, with 
 beautiful green hills behind it, we have an oppor- 
 tunity of seeing a Chinese military encampment, which 
 is surrounded by a low earthwork as a protection against 
 surprise from the prowling banditti, which still infest the 
 northern proviaces. 
 
 Although the rebellion is subdued, the rebels are not 
 all exterminated. They gather in bands, make a sudden 
 raid upon a villElge or town, but disperse upon the ap- 
 proach of the slow-moving troops. Many of the plun- 
 derers, quite likely, are soldiers discharged from the army. 
 When their term of service expires they are sent adrift 
 without means of returning to their distant homes, and it 
 is one of the most natural things in the world that they 
 should become plunderers. The Pekin government is 
 too iaeft to put down the pillaging of these predatory- 
 bands. If caught, their heads are cut off ; but they are 
 seldom captured. They are the Klu Klux of China. 
 
CENTRAL CHINA. 375 
 
 The inhabitants fear and tolerate them just as the people 
 of Tennessee and Texas hear with the murderous gangs 
 infesting those States. 
 
 These soldiers who stand upon the bank of the river 
 gazing at us, judging from their appearance, are the rag- 
 amuffins of the land. They wear round straw hats, 
 shaped like the tin colanders which are hanging up in 
 every American kitchen. 
 
 There is little uniformity of dress, but each soldier, 
 wears his "chop" — the number of his regiment — on his 
 breast and back. Viewing them from front or rear, we see 
 a full-Orbed moon about a foot in diametfer, ^et off with 
 red lettering like that upon chests of tea, as if each 
 soldier was a bundle of merchandise, packed, labelled, 
 and ready for market. 
 
 Over the encampment wave several thousand red and 
 white flags. That which waves over the tent of the 
 general-in-chief is large enough for the mainsail of a 
 man-of-war, with a white ground, dark border, and Chi- 
 nese characters in the centre in black. There are so 
 many flags that the hillside has the appearance of a 
 flower-garden blooming with roses, hollyhocks, poppies, 
 bachelors'-buttons, and marigolds. The Chinese can do 
 a vast deal of fighting with flags, gongs, and lanterns ! 
 
 "We are informed that when the English attacked one 
 of their towns, during the late war, the besieged hung 
 several thousand lanterns on the walls at night, and kept 
 up a tremendous beating of gongs, to let the foreign 
 devils know they were wide awake and prepared for an 
 attack ! 
 
 The city of Hankow is situated at the mouth of the 
 Han, one of the largest tributaries of the Yangtse, which 
 has its source among the highlands in the North Central 
 Provinces. At this junction of the two streams are three 
 populous towns, — Hankow and Hanyan on the northern 
 
376 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 tank, divided by the Han ; and on the south hank Wu- 
 chang, one of the chief literary cities of tlie empire. 
 
 The three places are considered as one under the name 
 of Hankow by foreigners, just as Brooklyn . and Jersey 
 City might be looked upon by strangers as parts of 
 New York. The population probably ia nearly, equal 
 to that of those three cities. The lowest estimate places 
 it at more than one miUion. 
 
 The course of the Yangtse is southwest, and as we ap- 
 proach the city the foreign settlement is seen at our right 
 hand. The residences of the merchants are spacious and 
 lofty, with, green blinds and wide verandas, fronting a 
 grand esplanade along the river-bank, which is set out 
 with shade-trees and adorned with flowers. 
 
 How striking the contrast between these buildings and 
 the low, narrow, mean, unfioored houses and shops of the 
 Chinese quarter a little farther up stream ! Wherever we 
 turn our eyes we see the old civilization confronted by 
 the new, — and there is a difference between them of 
 three thousand years. 
 
 The river here is a mile' in width. It is now rapidly ■ 
 rising, and in a few weeks the surrounding country will 
 be under water. Last year the whole city was inundated. 
 In the European quarter the people lived in the second 
 story of their houses, and navigated the streets in boats. 
 In the native section everybody took to junks and sam- 
 pans, having three weeks of boat life. On both sides 
 of the river there are large shallow lakes or lagoons, 
 reaching miles away, so that at this season of the, year 
 Hankow bears some resemblance to Venice. The dif- 
 ference between the winter and summer level of the 
 river at this point is from fifty to sixty feet, which has 
 involved ' an immense outlay oi money on the part of 
 foreign residents to obtain wharfage. One can hardly 
 realize that in 1861 the first foreigner settled here, and 
 
CENTRAL CHINA. 377 
 
 tliat all the noHe edifices, the promenades, the ware- 
 houses, the emhankment along the river, the wall in rear 
 of the city, have been buHt since then. Looki'ng at 
 what has been done here, and at Kiu-kiang, Shanghae, 
 Ningpod, Foochow, Hong Kong, and other river and sea- 
 coast towns, taking into consideration what has been ac- 
 complished at Pekin, — the establishing of a college, the 
 regulation of customs, and the general policy of govern- 
 ment, — it is not extravagant to say that there has been 
 as much progress during the last seven years as for fif- 
 teen hundred years previous. 
 
 The foreigners here, at the close of 1861, numbered 
 about forty ; in 1863 they had increased to one hundred 
 and fifty, but depression of business and overtrading has 
 reduced them to about one hundred. These English, 
 Americans, and Germans have an excellent club-room, 
 library, and athenaeum, well supphed with papers and 
 magazines ; a volunteer fire brigade and rifle corps, boat- 
 club, ice-club, for the cutting and storing of ice in winter 
 for their own consumption, a race-course, cricket-ground, 
 liyery-stable, and newspaper ! So Western civilization 
 plants itself in the heart of China. The climate in sum- 
 mer is hot and dry, and far healthier than at Shanghae. 
 While it has these advantages, it is not pleasant, on the 
 other hand, to be compelled to navigate a sampan through 
 parlors and bedrooms for one month during the year. 
 
 Accompanied by an English gentleman connected with 
 one of the mercantile firms, and crossing the river, we 
 enter the suburbs of Wu-chang. Our path leads through 
 vegetable and flower gardens, where cabbages, beans, 
 garlics, onions, celery, cucumbers, and other plants are 
 in vigorous growth. The gardens are not laid out with 
 much regularity; nor are they kept free from weeds. 
 We doubt if any people in the world can surpass the 
 Chinese in forcing successive crops from the same piece 
 
378 OUK NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 of ground. AU fertilizers are . applied in liquid form. 
 In; every garden there are tanks filled with liquid 
 waste, which coolies are briagiag from the city ia open 
 huckets. Other laborers are applying it to the growing 
 crops. A walk of nearly two miles through the main 
 street brings us to the house of Bishop Williams. We 
 had the pleasure of meeting him in LoMon, in 1867, 
 while the Pan-Anglican Assembly of Bishops and Pre- 
 lates of the Episcopal Churches was in session. He 
 formerly resided in Japan, and has but recently removed 
 to this city. It was with difficulty that he could obtain 
 a house in Wu-chang. Being a literary city, where 
 students from all the central provinces of the empire 
 assemble, the predominating influence has been against 
 foreigners. In past times visitors have been jostled in 
 the streets, and householders are afraid to let their prem- 
 ises. 
 
 We find the bishop sick in bed, attended by a Chi- 
 nese servant! If any one is under the impression that 
 missionaries live in grand style, surrounded with all 
 the comforts and luxuries of life, we think they would 
 take a different view after seeing his premises. The 
 house is on a narrow street, where sickening odors per- 
 vade the air. We enter the front hall, which is but a 
 shed, pass through a court and a succession of rooms with 
 stone floors, bare brick walls, windows with oiled paper 
 instead of panes of glass, and find the bishop in his bed- 
 room. It is scantily furnished, — two or three chairs, 
 a table, his narrow bed, no carpet, no pictures, a room 
 almost as cheerless as the cell of a monastery. It is not 
 that the bishop is an ascetic, but this is the best he can 
 do. He has selected this place as a favorable position, 
 and will soon be joined by other missionaries. 
 
 Ascending an elevation in the centre of the city, a wide 
 panorama is spread before us, — the river with countless 
 
CENTRAL CHINA. 379 
 
 • 
 
 junks and sampans ; the three cities ; the suburbs, vil- 
 lages, fields, gardens; here and there a pagoda rear- 
 ing its gray walls, and multitudes of people in the streets. 
 At our feet is the palace, or yamun, of the governor-gen- 
 eral of the two central provinces, a mandarin of three 
 buttons, and ruler of from sixty to seventy millions of 
 people. The entrance to the palace is marked by two tall 
 fla^-staffs, from which immense banners float ia the breeze. 
 Upon the brick wall of the outer court we see the repre- 
 sentation of a fiery dragon, of proportions more astound- 
 ing than the megatherium or ichthyosaurus, teeth longer 
 and sharper than a crocodile's, claws more terrible than 
 those of a lion, with scales like a fish, a taU like a ser- 
 pent's, eyes more fiery than any hobgoblin's, and flames 
 darting like lightning from his nostrils. Pendent from 
 the eaves of the palace are paper lanterns, each the size 
 of a hogshead. Squads of soldiers, as dirty as the coolies 
 of the streets, are lounging around the doors, playing 
 cards. Upon the walls are paintings by Chinese artists, 
 distinguished for gay colors, andan utter absence of per- 
 spective. Such the outside appearance. There may be 
 luxurious apartments within, but probably throughout 
 the palace there is nothing which would be called com- 
 fortable by Americans. 
 
 Passing a building, we hear the voices of children, and 
 looking through the open door see a room crowded with 
 urchins, with shaven brows and small pigtails. 'They 
 are studjdng aloud at smg,ll tables. The master sits 
 or half reclines on a bamboo couch. He can hardly be 
 called a master, for the boys do pretty much as they 
 please ; neither can he be called a teacher, for he does 
 not profess to teach them : he only hears the recitation. 
 3^hese pupUs know nothing of geography or arithmetic, 
 for Chinese education does not embrace that which we 
 esteem fundamental. 
 
380 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 These pamphlets which they hold in their hands con- 
 tain extracts from the writings of Confucius and Mencius 
 on morals and political economy. "When the lesson is 
 committed to memory, they turn their hacks to the mas- 
 ter and recite it, screaming at the top of their voices. 
 The pupils do not comprehend what they are reciting any 
 more than an American child that has just learned to 
 talk understands the Catechism. 
 
 The Chinese consider the writings of Confucius as the. 
 foundation of all wisdom. "Whatever is learned from 
 him is good. The scholar will understand it in after 
 life. A corresponding method of education in the United 
 States would be to throw aside all text-books, — readers, 
 geographies, grammars, histories, and arithmetics, — and 
 study the ceremonial law, the sayings of Solomon, or the 
 chapters of hard names from Chronicles ! 
 
 Writing is taught, and by long practice the boys become 
 experts. 
 
 There are numerous primary schools, supported by 
 parents or public-spirited men. Girls are not often edu- 
 cated. Woman is of little more account here than in 
 India. She does not need an education. It is beyond 
 her sphere. The question as to what her sphere may be 
 has not yet been agitated. When it is settled in our own 
 land, there wiU be a wide field in China for philanthropic 
 effort. 
 
 Wandering through these streets, on this sultry day, 
 when the doors of the houses are wide open to admit 
 fresh air, we have an opportunity of seeing the women in 
 their homes. By far the largest portion of them toil from 
 morning till night. But in a great literary city there are 
 people of wealth and refinement. Some of the women 
 of the higher classes would be called good-lookino- in. 
 Western lands. The accompanying illustration, from a 
 photograph, that has been faithfully reproduced for this 
 
CENTRAL CHINA. 
 
 381 
 
 ONE OF THE UPPER CLASS. 
 
 volume by the artist, will enable the reader to form a 
 better conception of the personal appearance and style 
 of dress than pages 
 of description. It 
 will be seen that 
 the hair is worn 
 low in tlie neck, 
 which is the pre- 
 vailing fashion in 
 some pro\'inces at 
 tlie present time. 
 An old salt un- 
 doubtedly would 
 call it tlie " sou'- 
 wester style." 
 
 The women of 
 C'liina are far above 
 those of other East- 
 ern nations. The wife of an Arab or a Hindoo is a slave, 
 — a drawer of water and hewer of wood. Here they 
 sometimes work in the fields, but their proper spliere is in 
 the house attending to domestic duties. AYives seldom 
 go upon the street with their husbands. Sometimes they 
 may be seen together at a picnic, or at the graves of their 
 ancestors, Init they do not lock arms or wallc in company. 
 Tlie husliand will be a few rods in advance or in rear 
 of the wife. 
 
 Tlie women are capable of strong affection, and we are 
 assured liy missionaries that they are fiiithful in keeping 
 the marriage vow. There are those who lead dissolute 
 lives ; but they, as a class, are as susceptible of the claims 
 of virtue as those of more enliglitened lands. Give them 
 an education, and they will honor their sex. 
 
 ■ Eeflecting upon their present condition, and what 
 cajiabilities are before them, the Edeii of the futui'e 
 
382 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 seems far distant. Social customs and religious belief are 
 against them. Their lot in life is hard, for superstition 
 has taught them that they committed grievous sin ia a 
 former state of existence, and were created women in this 
 as a penalty for the crime. They lead a life of degra- 
 dation here, and will pass to another like it in the future 
 life, if not circumspect in this. 
 
 They are exhorted by the moral writers, and by their 
 husbands, to lead virtuous lives, if they would not be 
 women in the hereafter. One of the moralists, in a book 
 upon the marriage relation, thus addresses the female 
 sex : — 
 
 " That you have not in this life been bom a male is 
 owing to your amount of wickedness in a previous state 
 of existence ; you did not then desire to adorn virtue and 
 perform good actions, so that now you have been hope- 
 lessly bom a poor female ; and if you do not now amend 
 your faults, your wickedness will be greater, so that it is 
 to be feared that, in the next existence, if you wish for a 
 male's body it will be difficult to obtain it." 
 
 It is one of the glories of the Christian religion that 
 it elevates woman, and one of the brightest features of 
 the present time that men are coming into clearer per- 
 ceptions of the claims of the female sex. The day can- 
 not be far distant when the wave of progress wiU roll 
 across the Pacific to the shores of this old land. Then 
 the millions of women now degraded will rise to a higher 
 plane of existence, and, with enlarged liberty, enlightened 
 intellect, a clear vision, enjoy the benefits of modern 
 civilization, and live in the peaceful light of the " Shining 
 Cross." 
 
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 383 
 
 CHAPTEK XLVIII. 
 
 COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 
 
 COMPETITIVE examination was established about 
 the commencenient of the Christian era. It is the 
 foundation of the present political system of the empire. 
 It is democratic in principle, and deserves the attention 
 of statesmen the world over. Under it a person of the 
 lowest condition may attain to the highest positions of 
 honor. There are several classes who are excluded from 
 entering the course of study, — play-actors, prostitutes, 
 executioners, jailers, and inferior servants waiting upon 
 mandarins. Tlieir children to the third generation are 
 also excluded. The theory adopted is that these persons 
 and their immediate descendants are wanting in those 
 moral qualifications which are necessary in the adminis- 
 tration of government. Persons who- have lost a parent 
 cannot enter the course of study till after the expiration 
 of three years, inasmuch as hard study is inconsistent 
 with due respect for the dead during that period of 
 time. 
 
 In the United States official positions -are obtained 
 through personal favor, or on political considerations. 
 Beer and whiskey have infltience. Brothers, cousins, 
 friends, are appointed to office by those who have the 
 dispensing of patronage. Party service demands pay. 
 Merit and qualification are too often the least of con- 
 siderations. 
 
 Not so in China. The theory of the system there is, 
 that all civil of&cers must be literary graduates. Three 
 degrees have been established. The first may be obtained 
 
384 OUB NEW WAY BOUND- THE WORLD. 
 
 in the Eien, or district college ; tlie second in the Fu, or 
 provincial college; the third in the Imperial Uniyersity 
 at Pekin. 
 
 The city of Wu-chang being a provincial capital at 
 the centre of the empire, and easily accessible, has be- 
 come one of the chief literary centres. In this respect 
 we may think of it as ranking with Cambridge or Oxford 
 in England, Harvard or Yale or Ann Arbor in the United 
 States. 
 
 The student having been through the district college, 
 and obtaining a degree from the Chancellor, comes to 
 Wu-chang to enter the higher courses. Each student- 
 is required, before leaving home, to file a paper -with the 
 local magistrate containing the name of his father, grand- 
 father, teacher, and next-door neighbor, stating also his 
 o-wn age, height, and complexion. The names of several 
 literary graduates are necessary as indorsers for his good 
 character, and one of these must be present when he 
 enters the University. 
 
 Passing down one of the streets we reach the Univer- 
 sity buildings, occupying a large area enclosed by a wall 
 about twenty feet high, covered completely over with 
 placards displaying the names of the successful candi- 
 dates for honors at the last examination. Entering the 
 enclosure, we find a paved court containing long ranges 
 of sheds, with tiled roofs, beneath which are about ten 
 thousand small cell-like apartments or alcoves, three or 
 four feet square, open in front, with a seat, and a board 
 which can be placed against the wall, on supports, for 
 a table. These are the students' quarters, which they 
 occupy during examination. 
 
 A Chinese university does not have recitation-hall or 
 dormitory. It is not a place at which students spend four 
 years in study, but simply a barrack where they con- 
 gregate for a few days, — a prison rather, for while here 
 
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 385 
 
 they are shut in and are not allowed any connnnnication 
 with their friends. 
 
 In the centre of the area stands the " Temple of Perfect 
 Justice," a building erected for the convenience of the 
 examiners, and imperial commissioners, who are sent 
 from Pekin to decide upon the literary merits of the 
 students, and are sworn to render an impartial verdict. 
 Spacious apartments are assigned them, for. they are 
 accompanied by a large retinue of servants. 
 
 The students who come to this city have taken their 
 first degree in the district college. It is not Master 
 or Bachelor of Arts, but the degree of " Beautiful Abil- 
 ity," which means quite as much in China as that of 
 A. B. in the United States, and without it no student 
 can compete for higher honors. 
 
 The examinations are held triennially, and there are 
 , never less than ten or twelve thousand competitors. 
 
 These are great occasions. People from the surrounding 
 country come in to see the honors conferred. Friends 
 are here to witness the triumph of those most dear. The 
 city is filled with strangers. It is a grand harvest-time 
 for hotel and shop keepers. Excitement is at fever heat. 
 The student who wins brings honor, not only to himseK, 
 but to his friends. He is on the road to fortune, for 
 if he passes examination, official position awaits him. 
 Wealth is sure ; privilege is one of the results, — graduates, 
 like members of Congress, being exempt from arrest, ex- 
 cept for crime. High station in life, favor of the em- 
 peror, everything worth living for as viewed from the 
 Chinese stand-point, is involved in the effort. 
 
 Students bring bedding and food, as they are required 
 to stay on the premises several days ; servants and friends 
 accompany them to the gate, which is guarded by sol- 
 diers, who allow none but scholars to entex. "When aU 
 are in, the gat& is shut and sealed, and the troops pre- 
 
 17 T 
 
386 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 vent all outsiders from approaching the wall. The stu- 
 dents are allowed no books, but are supplied with paper, 
 pen, and ink. The commissioners announce themes from 
 the "Four Books" of the ancient classics, upon which 
 they are to write three essays and one poem. 
 
 As soon as the subjects are given out, all hands apply 
 themselves to composition. They have no aid, can con- 
 sult no one, but must rely wholly on themselves. Their 
 compositions, when finished, are handed to one class of 
 examiners, whose business is to see that there are no 
 great defects, and that the rules have been complied 
 with. If they pass this ordeal they are copied, so that 
 the judges may not show favoritism by any previous 
 knowledge of the handwriting of the candidates. 
 
 A jury of literary men read the essays, which if they 
 reach a certain degree of excellence, receive a red mark 
 of approval, and are passed on to the chief examiners.^ 
 All others are rejected. 
 
 The standard adopted by the final judges must be very 
 high or the scholarship exceedingly low, for not more 
 than one hundred out of the ten or twelve thousand 
 obtain the second degree of "Advanced Men," — a pro- 
 saic title in comparison with " Beautiful Ability." 
 
 Great ovations await those who win these high honors. 
 The best orchestras of the empire are here with fiddles, 
 flageolets, cymbals, gongs, and drums ; cannon are fired, 
 bonfires kindled, lanterns lighted, processions formed, 
 feasts prepared, songs sung, and the whole city joins in 
 the grand jubilee. 
 
 Messengers convey the tidings to all the surrounding 
 country. This is an election, and as exciting as a polit- 
 ical contest in America. Each district is interested in 
 the success of its candidates, and so drums beat and 
 bonfires blaze over the entire province. 
 
 The name of the student who takes the first honor is 
 
COMPETITIVE EXAJnNATION. 387 
 
 placed highest . on the wall, where it may he seen by the 
 excited multitude. 
 
 The successful competitors, if they aspire to the third 
 degree, have an allowance from the imperial treasury to 
 enable them to go to Pekin, where they pass a similar 
 examination in the highest literary halls. If successful 
 there, they receive the degree of Doctor of Laws, and are 
 prepared to occupy high official stations. 
 
 A large number of students reside here. Many who 
 failed this year wiU apply themselves for three years, and 
 then try again. Old men are among the competitors, who 
 have been studying for a half-century without success. 
 Men eighty years of age have died during the trial, 
 through excitement, while in pursuit of hterary fame, 
 and the distinction and privileges which lie behind it. - 
 
 The democratic prin^ple in this political system is 
 . remarkable, and the theory of competitive examinations 
 must commend itself to all who believe in a democratic 
 form . of government. It has lasted nearly two thousand 
 years, an"d there must be an element of stability in a 
 system which continues that period of time. 
 
 The effect upon the community is apparent. In no 
 country is literature held in higher estimation. Wher- 
 ever we go we see bookstores. Printing-offices are nu- 
 merous, — shops where men sit at small tables with blocks 
 on which the " word characters '' are engraved. 
 
 It is a reading community. The preparation for exam- 
 ination familiarizes a large number of men with history, 
 political economy, and general literature. To be sure, it 
 is the history of China, and not of other nations ; but we 
 are not to forget that the authentic history of this people 
 reaches back to the time of Moses, that the "Book of 
 Classics " is as old as the Pentateuch, and the chief 
 text-book of political wisdom written by Confucius as 
 ancient as the prophecy of Isaiah. 
 
388 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Literary and political aspirations fill the students, — the 
 desire for fame combined with the hankering for office. 
 
 But notwithstanding all this, the method of choosing 
 political and military officers by competitive examination 
 gives a powerful stimulus to literary pursuits. Every 
 village has its schools, and ambitious young men, seeing 
 the possibility of attaining positions of honor, eagerly 
 engage in study. Poor people deny themselves comforts 
 that they may educate their sons. Brothers in a family 
 unite to help on one of their number, that all may obtaiu 
 honor. Virtue in this respect is found in China as well 
 as in our own land. 
 
 Unfortunately, the profound reverence paid to the Chi- 
 nese classics robs the system of some of its excellence, 
 ft is now conducted as if we were to choose our officials 
 on their ability to. write an essay from a text in the Book 
 of Genesis, or a poem from a passage in the Song of Solo- 
 mon. It is an open question whether that would not 
 be quite as sensible a proceediag as to elect one who has 
 just taken out naturalization papers, and whose only 
 recommendation is that he keeps a liquor-shop, and can 
 influence voters by supplying them with whiskey ! 
 
 Lop off the defects of the Chinese system, adopt its 
 excellences, modify some of its parts, and we shall have 
 the true democratic system for official service. "We com- 
 mend it to the attention of the people of the United 
 States. 
 
 The students leave their studies to see the foreigners, 
 and we soon have a crowd at our heels. That there is 
 something very funny ia our appearance is manifest. 
 The wits of the college are saying their smart things, the 
 wags getting off their best jokes. The play-grounds of 
 Tale or Harvard never resounded |Hth heartier laughter, 
 and there never was a more jolly o?owd on the play- 
 ground of Dartmouth than that around us. Some walk 
 
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 389 
 
 in front of us to take a look at our faces, while others 
 make remarks behind our backs. The cut of our coat is 
 outlandish, no doubt. Our hats are queer. "We are fit 
 subjects for caricature. 
 
 They are ready for a lark, and the older ones push the 
 younger against us. We have seen school-boys at home 
 play similar pranks. But the fun has been carried far 
 enough. It is annoying. We stop, look steadily at them 
 a moment. It will not do to be demonstrative ; such a 
 course will bring a shower of stones, and we shall have 
 the worst of it in a fight. Cool nerves, and a control 
 of the muscles, are far better than shaking of fists, loud 
 words, or energetic action when surrounded by such a 
 crowd. 
 
 They stop their jests, become respectful, and allow us to 
 go our way without further molestation. Children follow 
 us, dogs bark, people rush out of their shops to see us, but 
 no indignity is offered, and we roam at will through the 
 town. The inhabitants are largely engaged in the manu- 
 facture of chop-sticks, cords of which are piled in the 
 shops, the common ones of bamboo, those used by the 
 middle classes of ebony. The wealth}'' citizens use ivory, 
 which comes mainly from Siberia, brought overland from 
 Kiactka. They are manufactured from bones and tusks 
 of fossil mammoths, which lived when the Arctic region 
 had a tropical clime. Far up towards the north pole, in 
 the frozen ocean, is the Isle of Bones, which abounds with 
 fossil ivory. 
 
 "The Isle of Bones," says Tiguier, "has served as a 
 quarry of this valuable material for export to China for 
 five hundred years, and it has been exported to Europe for 
 more than one hi*adred, but the supply from these strange 
 mines is undimSEshed." *• 
 
 Ten thousand "yeSrs ago, according to geologists, the 
 
 * The World before the Deluge, p. 341. 
 
390 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 elephants and mammoths of that region became extinct. 
 But their tusts are here, and the Chinese workmen are 
 sawing them up for the benefit of the mandarins and the 
 fair ladies of this thicMy peopled empire. 
 
 Large quantities of chop-sticks are sent out from this 
 city up the Yangtse to Upper China, down the stream to 
 Shanghae, from thence to California or the Sandwich 
 Islands, Australia, or wherever the Chinese emigrant may 
 be foimd. 
 
 Eeturning to Hankow, we find an invitation awaiting 
 us from the governor of the district, to visit him at his 
 palace. He has learned through the consul, Mr. Salter, 
 that an American journalist is in the city, and has sent 
 us his card, — a piece of red paper about a foot long and 
 eight or ten inches wide, — accompanying which is the 
 letter of invitation, abounding in flowery language, and 
 containing the following sentence : — 
 
 " A literary man travelling that he may write with 
 spirit makes me think that we are aU of one family. 
 I shall wait the arrival of the worthy gentleman with 
 clean-swept floors ! " 
 
 We go in state, accompanied by the consul and the 
 interpreter, Mr. Jenkins. Our sedan-bearers are in livery. 
 The people rush from their houses into the street, to see 
 the grand procession of sedans containing the foreigners, 
 on their way to the palace of the highest official of the 
 district. If the Chinese embassy made a sensation in 
 this country, so do we create one on a small scale in the 
 heart of China. 
 
 A crowd attend us to the outer court of the yamun, 
 where we are received by a guard of soldiers. The great 
 doors are flung wide open, and we descend from our 
 sedans in the inner court, surrounded by pictures of drag- 
 ons and warriors with drawn swords, si^ 
 
 Passing through a doorway, we find ourselves face to 
 
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. 
 
 391 
 
 face with his Excellency, who, placing his fists together, 
 
 shakes theui at us. Eemembering that, when we are in 
 
 Iionie, we are to do as the Eomaus do, we shake ours at 
 
 him. "With many a 
 
 shake, chin chin, 
 
 and bow, we stri\e 
 
 to outdo each other 
 
 in politeness. If he 
 
 hows low, we lower ; 
 
 if he shakes gently, 
 
 we vigorousl)'. 
 
 "We sit down to a 
 repast prepared and 
 waiting for us at a 
 small table. 
 
 " How old are 
 you ? " is his first 
 question. 
 
 This is etiquette, 
 and has been since 
 Joseph presented 
 his father to Pha- 
 raoh, yet the ques- 
 tion might be em- 
 barrassing to some 
 of the geutle sex. 
 
 W"e know that he is a grandfather by his mustache, 
 but politeness requires us in turn to ask his age. He is 
 sixty-seven. 
 
 The first course of the repast is brought on, — roasted 
 watermelon seeds ! The second is cherry cordial, of 
 which he is exceedingly fond. Glass after glass is drained. 
 He drinks our health, the health of the consul, and that 
 of the interpreter. Food in various forms, minced, pre- 
 pared with rice and sugar, is placed before u.3. 
 
 CHIN CHIN. 
 
392 
 
 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 has read about 
 war, and wishes 
 
 Being at the table of his Excellency, we eat what is set 
 before us, asking no questions for the stomach's sake. 
 
 Whether the animal which furnished the meat ever 
 barked or mewed we do not care to know. Sweetmeats, 
 cups of delicious tea, more cordials, end the repast. 
 
 The governor has many questions to ask in regard to 
 
 the United States. 
 He 
 the 
 
 to know how we are 
 getting on. He has 
 read the letter re- 
 cently %vritten by 
 Governor - General 
 Tseng to the em- 
 peror in regard to the 
 proposed revision of 
 the treaties between 
 China and foreign 
 nations, but, being a 
 diplomat, expresses 
 no opinion. 
 
 He is a well-in- 
 formed old gentle- 
 man, with twinlding 
 black eyes. He hopes 
 that we like China, that we shall stay long. He is sorry 
 to hear that we are to leave Hankow in the morning, as 
 it will deprive him of the great pleasure which he has 
 anticipated of returning our visit. 
 
 We cliin chin once more, shake our fists again, bow 
 profoundly, and then his Excellency of the " clean-swept 
 floors," to show his great respect for us, takes hold of our 
 fists and shakes them for us. 
 
 So we take our departure, and return through the 
 streets, followed by a wondering crowd. 
 
 THE GOVEKNOE. 
 
CULTIVATION OF TEA. 393 
 
 CHAPTEE XLIX. 
 
 CULTIVATION OF TEA. 
 
 THE position of Hankow being in the vicinity of the 
 tea region, the facilities afforded for transportation 
 has made it an important place for trade.. About forty 
 million ponnds of tea per annum are sent down the river 
 from this place for export. 
 
 Tea-drinMng is so general among Americans that a 
 brief description of the plant, its cultivation, and the prep- 
 aration of the leaves for market, will be of interest. 
 
 That cannot be accoimted a small matter which affects, 
 in any measure, the happiness of thirty million people 
 three hundred and sixty-five times a year. So important 
 is the bevei-age we obtain by decocting this herb, that it 
 has become a universal synonyme for an entire repast. 
 
 " Please take tea with us," is not simply an invitation 
 to slake our thirst, but to partake in full measure of aU 
 the viands of the evening meal. 
 
 The charming home picture so skilfully drawn by one 
 of England's sweetest poets when he wrotb, 
 
 " Now stir the fire and wheel the sofa round," 
 
 would not have been perfect had he left out, 
 
 " The bubbling and loud hissing urn. 
 And cups that cheer, but not inebriate." 
 
 The drooping watcher, the tired housekeeper, the brain- 
 taxed editor, and the weary hod-carrier, all turn to tea for 
 solace ; nor do they seek in vain. 
 
 It is a disputed question whether there is any nutri- 
 ment in tea, but experience goes to show that there is 
 17* 
 
394 OUR NEW WAY KOIIND THE WOELD. 
 
 cheer at any rate, and if taken in moderation no evil 
 resjdts follow. 
 
 Dr. Draper says of tea : " It is a mild stimulant to tlie 
 skin and kidneys, prevents sleepiness, counteracts the 
 effects of alcohol, and reduces the rate of waste of the 
 tissues ; an action supposed to he due to the theine, or 
 peculiar principle of the plant, the quantity of which 
 is variously estimated from one half of one to four per 
 cent." 
 
 To an American tea has an interest aside from its 
 social or stimulating or nutritive qualities, for indirectly 
 it helped us gain our independence. 
 
 " The tea perhaps was very good 
 Bohea, Souschong, Young Hyson ; 
 But drinking tea was not the rage, 
 For duty made it pizen." 
 
 Among the exciting causes that resulted in the war of 
 the Eevolution, and independence of America^ tea held a 
 very prominent place. 
 
 Events trivial in themselves sometimes exert a control- 
 ling influence upon the destiny, not of individuals merely, 
 but of cities and nations. If Eome was saved from sur- 
 prise and capture by the clamoring of a goose, so the 
 tax of threepence a pound upon tea had very much to 
 do in sundering the American Colonies from the British 
 crown, and starting them on a national career of their 
 own. 
 
 Among the Chinese tea has long been in common use. 
 An Arabian merchant, Soliman, who visited China more 
 than" a thousand years ago, spoke of it as the common 
 beverage of the people. Its use in Europe appears to 
 have been very limited till the early part of the seven- 
 teenth century. The Portuguese had held commercial 
 intercourse with the Chiaese long before that time, and 
 had doubtless acquired, to some extent, a relish for the 
 
CULTIVATION OF TEA. 395 
 
 herb ; but it was almost imknown in Europe till after' the 
 formation of the Dutch East India Company, about the 
 close of the sixteenth century. The Hollanders, at that 
 time a leading maritime nation, imported a considerable 
 quantity of the article, and it slowly came into favor in 
 Great Britain and on the Continent. 
 
 In 1660 it was so far introduced among the English 
 people, that the sale of it in the saloons was seized upon 
 as a source of revenue to the government. Parliament 
 that year passed an act imposing a tax of eightpence per 
 gallon on all tea made and sold in coffee-houses. The 
 drinking of tea must have been a costly luxury, since the 
 price of it in England then was three guineas per pound. 
 In less than fifty years from that time the price had fallen 
 to about one fifth of that sum. 
 
 The consumption of tea in the United States amounts 
 to more than , 30,000,000 pounds per annum, or nearly 
 one pound for each inhabitant. 
 
 Americans use an unduly large proportion of green 
 tea, but no Chinaman would think of drinking this va- 
 riety which we so highly prize, for they know that the 
 greenness which gives it such value in our estimation is 
 not a natural condition of the leaf in its dried state. It 
 is obtained by the admixture of foreign substances, and 
 poisonous ones at that. Prussian blue, -and other inju- 
 rious substances, are used in the preparation of green 
 tea. 
 
 The tea shrub is an evergreen, and may be propagated 
 either by seeds or slips. The illustration which we give 
 was drawn by a Chinese artist, and represents the young 
 plant just springing from the ground. The hoe in the 
 hands of the cooly is a rude affair, — a blade of wood 
 shod with iron, and a bamboo handle. 
 
 In some portions of the country the hoes are wholly 
 of iron, but nearly all of the agricultural implements are 
 
396 
 
 OUR NEW WAY EOXJND THE WOELD. 
 
 clumsy and ill adapted for use. It is not to be wondered 
 at, for the memory of the writer runs back to the time 
 
 THE YOUNG PLANT. 
 
 when ploughs in New England had wooden mould-boards 
 plated with old ox-shoes and bits of iron, when the 
 shovels were of wood shod with iron, and the forks so 
 clumsy and unpolished that there "was a great waste of 
 
 strength in using them. 
 
 TKAKSPLAHTINQ. 
 
CULTIVATION OF TEA. 397 
 
 When the tea-plant has attained a height of a foot or 
 more, it is transplanted into well-cultivated iields. The 
 cooly, as will be seen in the illustration, uses a long knife 
 in opening the mellow soil. Slips from the inain stalk 
 are taken off, set out iu trenches, and subsequently trans- 
 planted. 
 
 Though it sometimes attains a growth that would seem 
 to give it a right to be ranked among trees, yet as culti- 
 vated by the Chinese it is not often more than seven feet 
 in height. The root is not unlike that of the peach, and 
 the plant is very tenacious of life. It blossoms in the 
 winter, the flower resembling the wild rose. The seeds 
 contain considerable oleaginous matter, and a commodity 
 called "tea oU." is extracted from them. 
 
 The shrub is hardy and thrives well on poor, gravelly 
 soil. It is very desirable to have a southern aspect, since 
 sunshine promotes the thrift of the plant, and greatly im- 
 proves the quality of the tea. 
 
 The leaves are gathered three times a year. The first 
 picking occurs early in the spring, while the leaves are 
 young and tender. This crop is mostly bought up by the 
 mandarins and wealthy people. Very little, if any, of this 
 harvest ever reaches America. The second plucking comes 
 several weeks later, and the quality is inferior. 
 
 The third picking is in midsummer, quality poorer stUl, 
 and it is gathered with less care. 
 
 The tea is prepared for market by roasting, or firing, as 
 the process is called. Iron pans are brought to different 
 degrees of heat over charcoal fires. The tea is first sub- 
 jected to a low degree of heat ; when sufiiciently heated 
 it is thrown upon a mat, and the leaves are rolled, then 
 passed into the second pan, which has a higher temper- 
 ature, then roUed again. Each process is called "a firing." 
 The tea is greened by the use of turmeric, Prussian blue, 
 and gypsum. The turmeric is applied at a low degree of 
 
398 
 
 Om NEW WAY KOXIND THE WORLD. 
 
 heat, the other coloring matter at a later stage and over 
 
 a hotter fire. 
 The leaf at the 
 first has quite a 
 brownish hue, 
 but when thus 
 treated is of a 
 bright green. 
 
 The tea used 
 for home con- 
 sumption is not 
 doctored. The 
 Chinese wonder 
 . FiKiNGTEA. ^t the tastc of 
 
 people who live on the other side of the globe. They do not 
 drink strong teas. The best article does not greatly color 
 the water in which it is infused ; and most foreigners, if 
 they were to judge of its excellence by the eye, would pro- 
 nounce it " slops," but tasting it would elicit a different opia- 
 ion. When a Chinaman wishes to make a superb drink, he 
 selects the tender 
 leaves of a young 
 plant. He does 
 not boil them, but 
 pours boiling water 
 upon them, keep- 
 ing in the aroma by 
 having a close-fit- 
 ting cover to the 
 pot or cup in which 
 the tea is made. 
 
 In packing tea 
 one man pours it 
 into the chest from 
 a basket, while an- 
 
CULTIVATION OF TEA. 399 
 
 other tramples it with his bare feet. It is not pleasant 
 to think of while you are sipping the beverage. But 
 peasants in France tread the wine-press, and if they do , 
 not defUe the nectar good enough for the gods, why 
 should we sicken at the thought that a Chinaman's heel 
 has pressed the tea into a chest ? Perhaps sugar would 
 not be quite so toothsome as it is, if we knew all about 
 the processes going on in refineries, where men wear such 
 scant clothing that the sight of them reminds us of the 
 Mermaid of the Ehrne, 
 
 " Vot had n't got nodings on," 
 
 as sung by Hans Breitman. 
 
 The tea being packed into the chest, the lead is sol- 
 dered, cover nailed down, paper pasted over, and the 
 " chop " mark affixed, matting sewed over all, and it is 
 ready for shipment. 
 
 All of the English and American tea firms have 
 tasters, who take samples of each " chop," steep it, test it 
 by taste, weight, and measure, and thus ascertain its 
 quality. The tastiag-room of an old established house 
 resembles a pantry, china-closet, and canned fruit shop all 
 in one. Samples of all the teas purchased since the firm 
 commenced are preserved in the cans, which are labelled 
 with cost, quality, and year of purchase. On tasting-day 
 fifty or one hundred samples are prepared, — so many 
 grains weighed out, steeped so many minutes in a given 
 quantity of water, then poured into small china cups, 
 tasted. The entire "chop" or lot is judged by the 
 sample. 
 
 The tea district is mainly south of the Tangtse Eiver, 
 extending from the sea-coast eight hundred miles inland. 
 It thrives on, the hiUs and in the soil of that region. 
 Foochow on the coast, Ningpo, .Shanghae, and Hankow, 
 are the chief sliipping ports. 
 
400 OXnJ NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 In the tea-saloons we notice that all grounds are care- 
 fully saved. Those in our own cups, as well as those in 
 the cups of the natives who drink at a neighboring table, 
 are tossed into a basket, which when full is emptied 
 upon a screen placed in the sun. After drying awhile 
 they are " fired " agaiu, coloring matter added, the leaves 
 re-roRed, trodden a second time beneath the feet of a na- 
 tive, repacked and sold, as 'good as new, to do service once 
 more, — quite likely in the United States ! 
 
 The average cost of teas in China is from fifteen to 
 twenty cents per pound, but duties, freights, insurance, 
 interest on capital, profits to importers and middle-men, 
 swell it to prices which make it an article of luxury. 
 
 More poor tea is drank in the United States than ia 
 any other land. Eussia imports the best. England 
 stands next, and consumes an enormous quantity. France 
 uses very little, and a smaU quantity is consumed on the 
 Continent. Cheap wine and beer take its place. 
 
 The value of the export of tea from China to G-reat 
 Britain and the United States is as follows : — 
 
 To Great Britain in 1867. 
 
 Black tea $11,440,000 
 
 Green tea 4,061,000 
 
 $15,501,000 
 To United States. 
 
 Black tea . • . , . $2,007,066 
 
 Green tea . . , , , 5,503,000 
 
 $7,510,066 
 
 The coirmiercial relations between the United States 
 and China do not make a very flattering exhibit for our- 
 selves. The total exports to the United States in 1866 
 were valued at seven million eight hundred and twenty- 
 three thousand dollars, while the value of goods sent to 
 
CULTIVATION OF TEA. 401 
 
 China was only two hwndred and eighty-nine thousand dol- 
 lars ! The balance, more than seven and one half mil- 
 lions, was paid ia silver. 
 
 Great Britain shows a different balance-sheet. That 
 country exported to Chiaa in 1866 produce amounting to 
 ninety-nine million dollars, and received from China, for 
 herself and colonies, in produce, fifty-two miUion one 
 hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars, and the balance 
 of thirty-three million four hundred and eighty-nine tJioUr- 
 sand was in specie ! By forcing opium upon the Chinese, 
 she is able to carry on her India government with a fuU 
 exchequer, and at the same time make China her debtor 
 more than thirty-three millions per annum ! 
 
 America never wiU compete with England in selling 
 opium to the Chinese, inasmuch as it cannot be raised 
 profitably in this country. We shall not send whiskey 
 across the Pacific, for they do not crave it. If they wish 
 to get intoxicated, they can do it much more cheaply by 
 drinking their own samshu. If we would stop the out- 
 flow of specie, we must export more goods or import less 
 tea and silk. But our importations, instead of diminish- 
 ing, are on the increase. We have a rapid growth, and a 
 corresponding demand for tea and silk. China at the 
 present time takes about six million dollars' worth per 
 annum of cloth, mainly gray cottons. 
 
 The United States might supply nearly the entire 
 amount, for the cottons are mostly coarse and can be 
 woven more cheaply ia American looms than anywhere 
 else. A visit to a warehouse in China where American 
 and English cottons are stored side by side will enable us 
 to understand why England successfully conipetes with us. 
 
 It is a long voyage from England to this country. 
 Ships are four to five months making the passage, passing 
 twice through the tropics. English shippers accordingly 
 pay great attention to the packing of goods. Every bale, 
 
402 , OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 after being compressed, is 1301111(1 witli iron and encased in 
 water-proof wrapping. 
 
 Not so the goods from the United States, which often 
 are mildewed when unpacked. The result is that Ameri- 
 can cottons are out of favor. California flour and the 
 lumber of Oregon have found a favorable market; but 
 unless the manufacturers and shippers of the United States 
 obtain possession of the trade in cotton fabrics, we shall 
 always be compelled to send our silver to China. 
 
 CHAPTEE L. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 
 
 CHINA is awaking from her long repose. 
 " I aver," says ' Mr. Burlingame, " that there is no 
 spot on this earth where there has been greater progress 
 made within the past four years than in the Empire of 
 China. She has extended her business and reformed her 
 revenue system ; she is changing her naval and military 
 ■ organizations, and is establishing a great school where 
 modem science and the foreign languages are taught. 
 She has done this under very adverse circumstances. 
 She has done this after a great war lasting through 
 thirteen years, — a war out of which she comes with 
 no national debt." * 
 
 The University which has been established at Pelcin is 
 for the education of Chinese scholars in the modem 
 sciences and languages. It was founded through the 
 influence of Prince Kung, the emperor's uncle, and the 
 most influential man in the empire. 
 
 * Speech in New York, June 28, 1868. 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 403 
 
 Eev. Dr. Martin, a native of Indiana, for eighteen 
 years a missionary, has been appointed President. Eng- 
 lish, French, and German are taught by competent profes- 
 sors. 
 
 Fifty-six students are under training for official posi- 
 tions. Ninety were sent last year from the district 
 colleges, having been selected by competitive examina- 
 tion, of whom twenty-seven were found qualiiied for 
 admission to the University. 
 
 The mandarins do not all look with favor upon this 
 enterprise. They know that knowledge is power, and 
 ignorance weakness ; that if learned men come up, igno- 
 rant men, though they may wear three buttons, in time 
 will have to go down. Here and there a mandarin is 
 found ready to uphold the government in its new pro- 
 gressive policy. 
 
 Not long since a book appeared, written by a high 
 official, upon the course of the government in granting 
 concessions to foreigners, and the influence of missiona- 
 ries. The following literal translation of a single sen- 
 tence shows the largeness and liberality of his views. 
 He says : — 
 
 " The advantages resulting from commercial inter- 
 course are not sufficient to compensate its attendant 
 evils, but the benefits resulting from the enlightening 
 influences of missionary teaching are more than can be 
 enumerated." . 
 
 That the missionaries are held in high esteem is shown 
 by the positions they occupy. Dr. Martin is at the head 
 of the University. Dr. Williams is connected with the 
 United States legation at Pekin, and Mr. Burlingame 
 would have found his diplomatic duties much more ardu- 
 ous than they were had it not been for the thorough 
 acquaintance of this gentleman with China and her insti- 
 tutions. Eev. Mr. Yates is interpreter to the Municipal 
 
404 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Coimcil at Shanghae, and Dr. JenMns to the United 
 States consul. Dr. Jenkins has a son who is interpre- 
 ter at Hankow. At Canton Dr. Owens is translator to 
 the consulate. Were it not for the missionaries, the 
 ministers and consiils would find it difficult to get 
 on with their business. The governmental language is 
 the mandarin dialect, wholly distinct from the provin- 
 cial. The common people and the mercantile commu- 
 nity know nothing of the mandarin, speaking only the 
 dialect of their several provinces : hence it is that the 
 services of tjie missionaries are indispensable. The gov- 
 ernment has felt the want of competent scholars, and 
 has established the University to educate men for offi- 
 cial positions. Progress is in the right direction, — 
 literary, scientific, and practical.' Dr. Martin has com- 
 pleted a new work on natural science, — philosophy, 
 chemistry, astronomy, geology, well illustrated with draw- 
 ings by Chinese artists. In the illustrations, where the 
 artist is not called upon to exercise his own imagination, 
 the execution is excellent, but in a few engravings, where 
 they have recourse to 'their own ideas, there are amusiag 
 blunders. The book is beautifully printed by block- work. 
 They have not learned to use types, though ten centuries 
 before Guttenberg began to multiply books at Mayence 
 on the Ehine, when Eome was in her glory, even as far 
 back as the age of Pericles, if we may believe Chinese 
 history, books were printed in this country. 
 
 The establishment of the University was resisted by 
 the reactionary party of the empire. There are men 
 here, as -weU as in other lands, who want things to 
 continue just as they are. Is it any wonder that the 
 Chinese cling with pertinacity to the institutions of their 
 fathers ? Like their own great river, flowing from the 
 Himalayas to the sea, has been the steady, unbroken cur- 
 rent of their history. What American does not feel a 
 
THE FUTUEE OF CHINA. 405 
 
 glow of patriotic pride at the progress in freedom and 
 intelligence, attained during the two centuries of our 
 existence ? "We hegin to feel that we are in the vigor 
 of national manhood. But we are to measure our two 
 hundred years with the four thousand of China. What 
 Englishman standing beneath the groined arches of West- 
 minster, gazing upon the tattered and dusty banners 
 above him, once ■ borne by departed kings of the realm, 
 does not plume himself upon being a Briton ? His 
 country has a history, a national life reaching back 
 to the Heptarchy, a thousand years ! 
 
 Age is venerable. We take off our hats in its presence. 
 We stand with awe upon the foram of old Eome, and 
 bow with uncovered head upon the Bema of Athens, 
 while the procession of statesmen, heroes, philosophers, 
 and sages of ancient times passes by. 
 
 Is it surprising that the Chinese, with a history reach- 
 ing back to the time of Moses, with a code of laws 
 framed when Babylon was mistress of the world, feel 
 proud of their civilization ? 
 
 If this were a treatise upon the science of government 
 or civilization, instead of a book of observations, we 
 might profitably inc[uire how it happens that China has 
 lived for forty centuries, while everywhere else national 
 life, like a plant, has had growth and decay ? Is it in 
 the pacific temper of the people ? China never has been 
 aggressive. Egypt waged war with all her contempora- 
 ries. Sparta, Athens, Macedon, and the other members 
 of the Grecian family, were ever quarrelling among them- 
 selves, or else combined against the Persians. Eome 
 trampled all nations beneath her feet. The governments 
 of modern Europe have ever been ready to interfere in 
 the affairs of their neighbors. But China has remained 
 at home and minded her own business. It is not that 
 she has been isolated. Genghis Klian found means to 
 
406 OUE NEW WAY KOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 traverse the region of Central Asia and pour his conquer- 
 ing hosts upon the plains of India. Tamerlane found no 
 obstacle in his westward march from Tartary. There 
 were no greater obstacles in the way of any aspiring and 
 ambitious monarch of China, but no one of her emperors 
 had a disposition to conquer other lands. They had vast 
 navies, and might have invaded India by sea. There was 
 constant intercourse between the two countries through 
 the early centuries of our era. 
 
 China has always been the chief commercial nation of 
 the East. She has had myriads of people from which to 
 raise armies, but has never called them to the field to 
 wage aggressive war upon a neighboring state. In this 
 respect she has been a Quaker among the nations ; if not 
 a peacemaker, hardly ever a peace-breaker. 
 
 Undoubtedly the pacific temperament of the people 
 has been one cause of the great duration of national Hfe, 
 for a peaceful temper is conducive J;o longevity. 
 
 Perhaps a stronger reason may be found in the demo- 
 cratic principle which li* at the foundation of her politi- 
 cal system. It may seem a contradiction to say that a 
 government with a monarchical head can have a demo- 
 cratic base. But the Chinese have this political axiom : . 
 "The will of the people is the will of Heaven, and 
 must not be set at naught by the Emperor the Son of 
 Heaven." 
 
 Four thousand years ago the emperors were chosen by 
 the nobles, who, in making their selection, took into view 
 the virtues of the candidates, no less than their talents 
 and rank. Hence the illustrious Yaou was elected in 
 preference to an older brother, who led a dissolute life. 
 In succeeding elections the emperor's sons were passed 
 by and others chosen. But there is a bewitching charm 
 in royalty, and in time an emperor came to the throne 
 who cared more for the transmission of the crown to his 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 407 
 
 posterity than for the rights of the people or fishes of 
 the nobles. 
 
 As Napoleon, fascinated by power, turned a consulate 
 into a monarchy, so the Emperor Yu changed the Chinese 
 government from an elective to a hereditary form. By 
 this change the principal heir of the emperor succeeded 
 to the throne, while the other members of the royal family 
 were provided for by making them rulers over the dif- 
 ferent provinces. They became hereditary governors, 
 and in a few generations the feudal system was firmly 
 established. The power of the central government was 
 in some measure held in check by the feudal lords, while 
 in case of invasion all were united in defence against the 
 common foe. 
 
 Perhaps for those rude ages, when life and property 
 were insecure, when their northern neighbors, more war- 
 like than themselves, were hable at any time to lay waste 
 the country, the Chinese could not have adopted a gov- 
 ernmental policy more serviceable to them. At any rate, 
 this order of things continued for the greater part of 
 twenty centuries. The essays, poems, and other writings 
 of literary men of ancient times recognize this form of 
 government, and discourse as fuUy upon the relations of 
 the local governments to one another and to the im- 
 perial authority as American politicians do upon " State 
 rights " and " Federal powers." Confucius, in a beautiful 
 simile, hkehs the imperial power to the polar star, and 
 the principalities to constellations revolving around it. 
 
 In the year 246 B. C, Lecheng, a powerful, ambitious 
 noble, usurped the throne and proclaimed himself ruler, 
 under the title of the first- Whangte. He established 
 despotic rule, destroyed the power of the feudal lords, and 
 did what he could to blot from the memory of the people 
 all recollection of the checks that had formerly existed to 
 limit the imperial power. His maxim was, " Good gov- 
 
408 OUE NEW WAY EOIJND THE WOELD. 
 
 emment is irreconcilable with a multitude of masters." 
 He was bold and bad ; burned tbe classics that he might 
 make more secure the continuance of absolutism ; built 
 the great bulwaik against the Tartars, which stands to 
 this day ; but the dynasty which he established in usur- 
 pation and blood was of short duration. 
 
 Some of his successors encouraged literature, but most 
 of them sought their own gratification rather than the 
 good of their subjects. 
 
 Cruel and tyrannical as were some of the rulers, much 
 that is valuable has come down from those distant 
 periods. During the rule of the Han dynasty the classics 
 were restored, and the democratic principle of competitive 
 examinations established. The invention of paper, the 
 discovery of the art of printing, the advancement in 
 education, and the multiplication of books in that epoch, 
 gave a great stimulus to national life. 
 
 Because the people now have a voice in electing their 
 rulers and administering government, and from the 
 fact, that knowledge is diffused, this nation, which has 
 been considered as dead, by being brought in contact 
 with the nations of the West is now taking a new lease 
 of life. 
 
 China was awakened by the thunder of England's 
 cannon. Knowing little of the power of modern civ- 
 ilization, wise in their own conceit, proud of their 
 longevity, looking upon themselves as the favored of 
 Heaven and perfect in aU things, and the rest of man- 
 kind as barbarians, they were the most arrogant people 
 ia the world. 
 
 The lesson which England taught them in 1842 was 
 as salutary as if it had been prompted by a disinterested 
 motive. 
 
 It was a severe lecture which they received in 1856, 
 when the allied forces quartered themselves in the im- 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 409 
 
 perial palace at Pekin. Then the government began to 
 imderstand that Western civilization was superior to that 
 of China, and from that time to the present the empire 
 has made wonderful progress. 
 
 The treaties of 1858 are nowsuhjeot to revision. Mr. 
 Burlingame has already negotiated a supplementary treaty 
 at Washington, which is denounced by men in California 
 and Oregon, and by foreign merchants in China, as being 
 one-sided, and as giving the Chinese the best part of the 
 bargain. It is presumed that any treaties which may be 
 concluded between China and European powers will be 
 similar to this, as China cannot consistently grant privi- 
 leges to one which at the same time are not common to 
 all. Under the present treaty, twelve ports are accessible 
 to foreign trade and residence; the Yangtse is open for 
 steamers to Hankow ; foreigners can travel with passports 
 anywhere for business or pleasure ; they can send foreign 
 goods into the interior by paying a definite commutation, 
 fixed at one half the ordinary rates levied on merchan- 
 dise in transit. 
 
 But merchants in China ask for stiU greater privileges. 
 They are Anglo-Saxons, — energetic, restless, and animat- 
 ed by progressive ideas. They want fuU liberty to live 
 anywhere, to navigate all the waters of the empire with 
 steamers. They want railroads and telegraphs. They 
 axe anxious to work coal-mines, and set up machinery for 
 manufacturing purposes. The empii;e must be thrown 
 open to modern civilization, and, if China refuses, she 
 must be forced to accede to the demands of modern 
 times. 
 
 It would not be just to assert that such is the posi- 
 tion taken by all the foreign merchants in China, but 
 such are the demands of some of them. 
 
 The mission of Mr. Burlingame is freely discussed, and 
 not always in a friendly spirit. It would not be strange 
 
 18 
 
410 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 if that ambassador, animated and enthusiastic in carrying 
 out his mission, should arrive at an exalted opiaion of 
 the desire of the Chines'e to enter upon the new path. 
 He has been brought in contact with Prince Kung, the 
 leader of the progressive party in the government, but 
 there is a strong reactionary party, backed up by the 
 ignorance and degradation of the empire. 
 
 The English residents in China have little faith that 
 the Chinese wUl advance, except as they are pushed. 
 Sitting in the club-house at Shanghae, we hear a great deal 
 said about knocking the heads of the Chinamen as the 
 only way to obtaia any new concessions. Whatever may 
 be the amount of moral force which America has at 
 Pekin, whether greater or less than that of England, 
 any one visiting China will not need such a "pair of 
 microscopes" as Mr. Samuel Weller described whale 
 giving his testimony in the case of Bardell vs. Pickwick 
 to see that the physical force of England is held in high 
 respect by the Chinese. The United States government 
 has no troops outside of its own temtory ; but English 
 soldiers and war-ships are here, to back up any demand 
 made by the Queen's ambassador or consul. There is no 
 dillydallying on the part of her of&cials in obtaining re- 
 dress, if harm is done to English residents. The policy 
 of Great Britain, we think, is more in favor with the for- 
 eign merchants than that pursued by the United States. 
 Whether it is the best is another matter, to say nothing 
 of the moral aspects of the question. The merchants con- 
 tend that it is a kindness to China to compel her to adopt 
 the improvements of modern times, and that, unless she 
 accepts them, slie will not be able to avert internal dis- 
 sensions, or oppose her powerful Muscovite neighbor ad- 
 vancing towards her northern boundary. 
 
 On the other hand, the Chinese object to foreigners 
 residing in the interior and introducing new inventions. 
 
. THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 411 
 
 unless under native jurisdiction. They know that the 
 introduction of steamers on the rivers, machinery in the 
 workshops and fields, will revolutionize society, and 
 that millions wiU. be driven from their present pur- 
 suits. Undoubtedly there are many Americans who look 
 upon China as a great missionary field, where we, in con- 
 seq[uence of our geographical position, are to civilize one 
 third of the human race. Let us see how we have com- 
 menced. In California and Oregon a Chinaman has no 
 rights which an American is bound to respect. Oregon 
 orders them out of her domain. Laws are passed dis- 
 criminating against them. No Chinaman can toil in the 
 gold-mines of the Pacific coast without paying an exor- 
 bitant tax. An Oregonian going to China is allowed to 
 remain in peace. He may find justice in American con- 
 sular courts, irrespective of Chinese jurisdiction. If he 
 wishes to send goods into the interior, the revenue laws 
 discriminate in his favor. Would the people of the 
 United States consent to the establishment of a foreign 
 court in San Francisco ? But China has granted us the 
 right to make our own municipal laws at Shanghae, and 
 to find redress in our own tribunals. A Chinaman walk- 
 ing peaceably through the streets of San Francisco is set 
 upon by a brutal mob, knocked down, and kicked into 
 the gutter, because he is an Asiatic. 
 
 " You call yourselves Christians," is his only reply, as 
 he rises and brushes the dirt from his clothes, and goes 
 peaceably on his way. 
 
 He might plead till doomsday before the courts for 
 redress, without obtaining it. 
 
 We ramble alone, day after day, through Canton, 
 Shanghae, and the great cities in the interior of the 
 empire, without molestation. Were We maltreated, the 
 consul would demand instant redress, and obtain it ! 
 
 California and Oregon protest against the introduction 
 
412 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 of Chinese labor, because it competes with the Irish labor 
 in those States. 
 
 " The iatroduction of your own steamers," says Mr. 
 Burlingame, "throws out of employment one huncbed 
 thousand junk-men, and the introduction of several hun- 
 dred foreigners into civil service embittered of course the 
 ancient native employees." The Celt just over from Ire- 
 land, with the ink scarcely dry upon his naturalization 
 papers, proposes to shut out the more industrious Asiatic 
 from aU chance of employment in this country ; and par- 
 tisan politicians, devoid of all sense of honor and justice, 
 and comprehending nothing of the true principles of 
 democratic economy, pass laws which are a disgrace to 
 our country. 
 
 The people of California and Oregon may hang their 
 heads in shame when they contrast their treatment of the 
 Chinese with that which Americans receive in China. 
 Their persecution of the Asiatics demands the reprobation 
 of the nation. 
 
 That the government and the people of China are 
 moving slowly a,long the path of progress cannot be 
 doubted, yet it wiU take a long while to overcome the 
 inertia of the mighty mass. It would not be strange 
 if the reactionary party should yet succeed in obstructing 
 the onward movement. There are men in China, as there 
 are in California, who would like to see aU foreigners 
 swept into the sea. People, who have been throwTi out 
 of employment by the introduction of steamboats are 
 restless; mandarins who see their power departing are 
 ready to stir up discontent. There cannot be a social 
 revolution without a disturbance of elements, and it will 
 be contrary to the experience of all history if China is an 
 exception. 
 
NOETHEEN CHMA. 413 
 
 CHAPTEE LI. 
 
 NOETHEEN CHINA. 
 
 TEAVELLEES visiting Nortliern China make Shang- 
 hae their point of departure. Unfortunately for us, 
 ■we are here at the very worst season for a journey to 
 Pekin, and are compelled to forego the pleasure which we 
 had anticipated in visiting the capital of the empire. The 
 discomforts more than counterbalance the pleasure if the 
 trip is made in July or August. It should be" undertaken 
 in May, June, September, or October. It must be re- 
 membered that there are no comfortable hotels, and that 
 the only accommodation is that furnished by the native 
 inns. The midsummer months are intensely hot, the 
 winter and early spring cold, rainy, and disagreeable. 
 
 Steamers leave Shanghae every week for the northern 
 ports. The first stopping-place is at Cheefoo, on the 
 promontory of Shantung. The fare from Shanghae to 
 that city is sixty-six doUars, and the voyage occupies four 
 days. The province of which this is the chief port is a 
 little larger than the State of Kew York, and contains 
 twenty-eight million inhabitants. The promontory is 
 hilly, but the interior is a low plain, intersected by a 
 network of creeks and small rivers, through wliich the 
 Yellow Eiver pours its flood to the sea. 
 
 Cheefoo is considered the healthiest section of China 
 accessible, to foreigners, and during the hot months is a 
 resort for those residing at Pekin and Shanghae. 
 
 From Cheefoo the steamer sails across the gulf of 
 Pechili to the village of Taka, situated at the mouth of 
 the Peiho, and from thence to Tientsin, sixty-seven 
 
414 QUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 miles up that stream, which closes to navigation about 
 the middle of I^ovember, and does not reopen till March. 
 The lands are low, — laid off into rice-fields and orchards, 
 — the river is so winding and narrow that the steamers 
 not unfrequently come to a stand-still in the mud-banks. 
 
 Formerly communication with Shanghae was by the 
 Grand Canal ; but since the Yellow Eiver has run away 
 froiQ its old channel and found new outlets to the sea, a 
 portion of the canal has become useless, and the trade 
 and travel is now along the coast in junks and foreign 
 steamers. , 
 
 ■ Tientsin has a population of about four hundred thou- 
 sand. It is' one of the filthiest cities in China, and very 
 imhealthy. To one who has seen Canton and the in- 
 terior cities of the empire, it wiU present few objects of 
 interest ; but it is accounted one of the best places in 
 China for foreign trade, and a hotel has been opened by 
 a Frenchman. Several missionaries reside there, from 
 whom travellers wiU always receive courteous attention. 
 
 It is eighty miles from Tientsin to Pekin, and there are 
 two routes, one by boat to Tungchow, which is thirteen 
 miles from the capital, the other by cart all the way from 
 Tientsin. The journey by land requires three, that by 
 the river five days. The cost of a boat for the trip is 
 from seven to ten dollars. The charge for a cart and one 
 mule, one dollar per day ; two mules, two dollars. 
 
 There is no harder riding than in a China cart. The 
 wheels are clumsy, the body nailed to the axle, and 
 there is no seat, spring, or cushion. The mules are har- 
 nessed tandem. The road is worn by constant travel, and 
 there are deep ruts, sloughs, and miry places, which the 
 driver is not careful to avoid. The only accommodations 
 for the night will be those furnished at the native way- 
 side inns. The thirteen-mile ride from Tungchow to 
 Pekin wiU be as much native cart-riding as most travels 
 
NORTHERN CHINA. 415 
 
 lers will care for. The conveyance by boat will be far 
 more comfortable. 
 
 Passports are needed to Pekin, wbicb may be obtained 
 of the consul at Tientsin. 
 
 ]^ekin is an old city. It was the capital of the king- 
 dom of Ten. Prom Chinese records we learn that 222 
 B. C. it fell into the hands of the Tsin dynasty. Genghis 
 Khan captured it 1215 A. D., and it has been the capital 
 of the empire from that time to the present. 
 
 It is composed of two parts, — the northern or Tartar, 
 the southern or Chinese city. The former contains about 
 twelve square miles, and is surrounded by a wall about 
 fifty feet high and forty thick, with frequent buttresses. 
 Within this area is the imperial palace and the resi- 
 dences of the officials. 
 
 The Chinese section is also waUed, and contains the 
 shops and residences of the mercantile and industrial por- 
 tion of the community. The total circumference of the 
 two cities is about twenty miles, and the population prob- 
 ably is no^ far from two million. 
 
 As in aU Chinese cities, the dull uniformity is unbroken 
 by spires, domes, or towers, and the only objects seen 
 above the tiled roofs are the numerous flag-staffs which 
 stand in front of the official residences of the mandarins. 
 
 The walls that surround the imperial palace enclose 
 a space about a mile square. It is known by the foreign- 
 ers as the " Prohibited City," into which no one is allowed 
 to enter unless connected with the royal family or high in 
 official position. 
 
 According to Chinese writers, the room in which the 
 emperor receives his officers of state is painted in ver- 
 milion and carpeted with yellow velvet, figured with 
 black dragons. 
 
 Within the enclosure is the "Palace of the Earth's Ee- 
 pose," and the "Heavenly Flower Garden"; in plain 
 
416 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 English, they would he called the palace and garden of 
 the empress. In the eastern division of the Prohibited 
 City is the "HaU of Intense Thought"; also the "HaU 
 of the Literary Abyss " ! — in other words, the hall where 
 Confucius is worshipped, and the library. 
 
 Among the objects of interest in the Tartar city is 
 the Lama Temple, containing a colossal image of Buddha 
 sixty feet high, composed of wood and clay, with a bronzed 
 surface. The temples are numerous, but they are not 
 more magnificent than those of Canton or of the cities 
 in the interior. Pekin has not yet recoT^red from its 
 capture by the Allies in 1860, when several of the pal- 
 aces were destroyed. 
 
 The great wall, which is one of the chief objects of 
 interest in this empire, is about fifty miles north of the 
 city. It is a five days' excursion to that wonderful struc- 
 ture, reared two and a half centuries before the Christian 
 era. This, and the few temples in Pekin, are the only par- 
 ticular objects of interest in Northern China. 
 
 The round trip from Shanghae will require one month, 
 and the expense will be from $ 250 to $ 300. Probably 
 most travellers will leave it out of their programme, and 
 devote the time to other portions of the route arouixd 
 the world. 
 
 Bidding farewell to the many Idnd acquaintances at 
 Shanghae, who have made our stay pleasant and profit- 
 able, we steam down the Wusung into the Yangtse on 
 the Costa Pica of the Pacific mail line of steamships. 
 
 We have agreeable company in the person of Captain 
 Phelps, formerly of the United States navy, and now 
 principal agent of the steamship company in China and 
 Japan, residing at Yokohama. 
 
 The Costa Eica has two barges in tow, which are to be 
 taken to Nagasaki. The distance is four hundred and 
 eighty miles, and the trip is usually made in forty-eight 
 
NORTHERN CHINA. 41Y 
 
 hours ; but for five days we are tossed and tumbled on 
 tbe Yellow Sea in a typhoon. 
 
 The gentle breeze of the morning gradually freshens. 
 The barges break loose, are picked up and more securely 
 fastened. The waves iacrease in height. The light 
 fleecy clouds, flitting up from the southeast, assume a 
 grayer hue. The gale is rising to a tempest. The stout 
 warps, which were attached to the lighters in the morn- 
 ing, vibrate across the waves like the overstrained strings 
 of a harp, then part, and they are free once more. 
 Darkness is coming on, and a boat would hardly live 
 in such a sea. Through the night they drift while we 
 steam around them, the wheels slowly turning. They 
 are too valuable to be abandoned. The wildness of the 
 night is succeeded by a calmer morning. The boats are 
 launched, and the truants secured, this time with newer 
 and stronger cables. 
 
 But space is wanting for a detailed narrative of the 
 greater fury of the storm, — -.the sailors lashing them- 
 selves to the rigging ; the laboring of the ship through the 
 lagging hours, rolling the passengers out of their berths ; 
 the cannon breaking loose, crashing into the cattle- 
 pens, and cnlshiag the legs of the cows ; waves .dashing 
 over the deck, washing the geese from their pen, taking 
 the cackling flock out to sea; chairs and tables tum- 
 bling, crockery smashing, wind howling, lightning flash- 
 ing ; a mighty billow rolling over the steamer, ingulfing 
 the barges, severing the two eleven-inch and the five 
 three-inch best Manila cables, between them and the 
 ship, as if they were but threads ! 
 
 The storm has ceased, and the sea no longer raves. 
 We are in sight of Japan. 
 
 " Earth how beautiful ! how clear 
 Of cloud or mist the atmosphere ! 
 What a glory greets the eye ! " 
 18* AA 
 
418 OXm NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 HiU upon hill,, motmtam upon moiintam ; -white sand 
 and gray rocks along the shore ; groves of pine and palm, 
 bamboo and oak ; terraces, gardens, and orchards adorn- 
 ing the land ; villages reposing in peaceful vales ; the 
 boats of fishermen anchored in snug harbors or saiUng 
 over the sea. Charming the scene I 
 
 CHAPTEE LII. 
 
 APPROACH TO NAGASAKI. 
 
 THE harbor . of Nagasaki is approached through a 
 narrow inlet which is so concealed from view by 
 small islands that mariners unacquainted with the coast 
 sometimes are puzzled to find it. Not till we are close ia 
 shore can we see any opening among the hUls. There 
 are small sheds upon the hillsides, that, upon a close 
 inspection, we discover to be erected over cannon placed 
 en harhette ■ in fortifications . commanding the entrance. 
 About fifty guns are in position, mostly twenty-foui- 
 pounders, — bronze ordnance, cast several hundred years 
 ago, and said to contain a large percentage of silver^ 
 They probably would not be any more effective on that 
 account, but are more valuable than old iron for smelting. 
 None of the foreign powers as yet have had any serious 
 conflict with the Japanese, and their military prowess has 
 not been tested, but they are following in the path of 
 Western nations in naval and military preparations. A 
 gunboat, built in England, lies off the harbor as we 
 approach, looking after the vessels coaling at an island 
 at our right hand, where coal of excellent quality is 
 mined. 
 
APPROACH TO NAGASAKI. 
 
 419 
 
 Before us rises the island of Pappenberg, a conical liill 
 bsfrely a mile in circumference, with a perpendicular pre- 
 cipice a hundred feet high upon the southern side. 
 When Christianity was suppressed, three hundred years 
 
 WESTERN JAPAN. 
 
 ago, it was the scene of a terrible slaughter. Twenty 
 thousand men, women, and children were driven up the 
 slope, upon the northern side, and pitched headlong down 
 the declivity upon the rocks below. No Christian is 
 allowed to visit it. We pass within cable's, length of the 
 rocks on which the martyrs to the faith gave up their 
 lives. Fishermen are casting their nets along the shore, 
 where the mangled bodies were tumbled into the deep. 
 No monument marks the spot ; but the gray cliff, wearing 
 its emerald crown, is an everlasting memorial to the mar- 
 tyred dead : — 
 
420 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 " Like sheep to slaughter led, 
 Unmurmuring they met their cmd fate ; 
 For conscious innocence their souls upheld, 
 •• In patient virtue great." 
 
 Passing the island, we enter the narrow inlet and be- 
 hold the harbor, —a deep indentation of the coast, two 
 miles in length, about a mile wide, and surrounded by- 
 high hills. At our right hand are the residences of 
 foreigners, and beyond them the city, 
 
 We have reached a new empire, and, before landing, 
 we may profitably review its history. 
 
 In 1853 Commodore Perry, commanding a United 
 States fleet, appeared off' the coast of Japan tp hold com- 
 niunication with a people which for centuries had held 
 themselves aloof from the rest of the world. The first 
 treaty between the Tycoon and the United States was 
 signed the succeeding year. It provided that citizens 
 of America should be allowed to trade at two ports, 
 under restrictions ; that supplies should be furnished 
 to ships putting into those harbors ; and that shipwrecked 
 sailors should be well treated. In 1858 a more satis- 
 factory treaty was negotiated. This action of our country 
 stirred up other nations ; and Great Britain, the Nether- 
 lands, Prance, Eussia, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and 
 Prussia made haste to open diplomatic and commercial 
 relations with the Tycoon. 
 
 Although ten years have elapsed since the signing of 
 the last treaty, we know very little of" the country or 
 its government, ^nd yet this is one of the oldest na- 
 tions on the faceof the earth, with a history going back 
 nearly to the time of Moses. Through the long centuries 
 revolutions, wars, the struggles of dynasties, aU have been 
 going on here. 
 
 The first allusion in European writings to Japan is in 
 Marco Polo's account of liis travels in Cathay, who was 
 at the court of Ghengis Khan of Tartary from 1260 to 
 
APPROACH TO NAGASAKI. 421 
 
 1294 A. D. That great Tartar cMeftain fitted out a grand 
 expedition for the conquest of this empire of Zvpaiwii, — 
 the Japanese pronunciation of the word Japan. 
 
 The country was discovered by the Portuguese in 1542, 
 in that age which, above all others, was marked by zeal 
 for the propagation of religion. It was ia 1540 that 
 seven young men met in a little underground chapel in 
 ■ Paris, and organized themselves into a society, taking 
 solemn vows never to marry, to remain always in poverty, 
 to render absolute obedience to their chief; to go at any 
 instant, by day or by night, into unknown danger, — to 
 the burning sands of Africa, to the jungles of Asia ; to 
 employ any 'means, — truth when it would serve, false- 
 hood and duplicity when nothing else would do, — to 
 propagate the Gospel Their election of a chief fell 
 upon Ignatius Loyola, whose ablest follower was Prancis 
 Xavier. 
 
 India was then conspicuously before the "Western na- 
 tions. All governments were reaching out their hands to 
 grasp the wealth of that land which exported gold, ivory, 
 and peacock's feathers, whose rivers sparkled with dia- 
 monds, whose temple roofs were overlaid with pure gold, 
 and whose barbaric kings displayed wealth greater than 
 that of all Christendom. It was an age of greed as well 
 as of zeal The chief officer of the Society of Jesus and 
 Ms most devoted followers were ia Spain in 1542. 
 
 At that time a vessel was fitting out in one of the ports 
 for Goa, the Portuguese colony of India. 
 
 At a day's notice from Loyola, Xavier was ready for 
 the journey to his future field of labor. He stopped not 
 to bid farewell to friends,- made no provision for the 
 voyage, packed no ponderous trunks, but with his old 
 tattered cloak, a bag over his shoulder, started upon his 
 far-distant ^mission, reached Goa before the end of the 
 year, went to the Straits of Malacca, visited the neigh- 
 
422 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 boring islands, where he fell in with a Japanese named 
 Angrio, who had been brought to Malacca by the Portu- 
 guese, and who accepted the new religion. Xavier pushed 
 on to Japan, arrived here at Nagasaki in 1549, made a 
 few converts, ■ obtained information, laid plans for the 
 future, sailed for Chiaa, and died on the passage. 
 
 But his plans were taken up by his followers. Priests 
 came, and Christianity obtained a foothold at this port. 
 The Portuguese began to trade here at Nagasaki in 1558. 
 A church was established, and several of the Japanese 
 damios, or priaces, embraced the Christian religion. The 
 emperor was well disposed towards the missionaries. Two 
 of the damios were sent to Europe as ambassadors to the 
 Pope in 1582, at which time Christianity had made great 
 progress in the empire. They were received at Eome with 
 grand ceremonies ; there was great rejoicing throughout 
 Christendom over the thought that the far East was wel- 
 coming the Gospel, that the islands of the sea had stretched 
 out their hands to God, and that prophecy was being ful- 
 filled. It is stated that it was the custom of the priests 
 to go through the streets bearing a cross, ringing a bell, 
 and sprinkling holy water upon the crowd. Upon whom- 
 soever a drop fell he was counted as a Christian, was 
 made to believe that he had received the new religion, 
 and was numbered among the converts. 
 
 A new Tycoon came into power in 1587. He was a 
 conservative, who held that Japanese should rule Japan, 
 and that foreigners were of an inferior race. He ordered 
 them to quit the coimtry. The people began to throw 
 stones at them in the streets, to jostle them off the side- 
 walks, and occasionally a Japanese gentleman of the con- 
 servative party manifested his superiority by ripping up 
 or cutting down a priest. The government began to hang 
 native Christians on trees, impaled them on stakes, or 
 pitched them down precipices. The first martyr was ex- 
 
APPROACH TO NAGASAKL 423 
 
 ecuted in 1598, but the Jesuits were not wliolly driven 
 from tlie couijtry till twenty-two years later. In 1620, 
 when the Mayflower was making her lonely voyage 
 across the Atlantic, the Tycoon drove the last Jesuit 
 priest from the empire, and a few years later the Dutch 
 traders, who had made no efforts to introduce a new re- 
 ligion, were coniined to the small island in front of the 
 town of Nagasalri, called the Desima. Through them the 
 Japanese informed, themselves of what was going on in 
 the world, at the same time keeping themselves wholly 
 secluded/ 
 
 ThS^ief islands forming the Japanese group are four 
 in number, — Yesso, Mphon, Kiusiu, and Sikok. In ad- 
 dition there are several hundred small islands, some in- 
 habited, others the resort of innumerable waterfowl. The 
 two southern islands, Kiusiu and Sikok, are most fertile, 
 ■ and have a dense population. Being situated between 
 the thirtieth and fortieth parallels, the climate is variable,- 
 cooler than that of the United States in the same lati- 
 tude in summer, and warmer in winter. Europeans re- 
 siding in China, worn and wasted by hard work, com£ to 
 Nagasaki to recover their strength and to revel in the 
 beauties of the mountain scenery. 
 
 The entire group of islands is of volcanic origin. It is 
 easy to trace here and there the various strata of lava 
 which ages ago flowed down the mountain-sides. Earth- 
 quakes are frequent, and the people rarely build their 
 houses more than one story high on that account. Though 
 the hand of man has accomplished but little in the way 
 of adornment, Nature has done so much that we are 
 chaxmed with the prospect before us. 
 
'124 OUR NEW WAT ROUND THE wbRLD. 
 
 CHAPTEE LIII. 
 
 WESTERN JAPAN. 
 
 THE city of Nagasaki is located on tlie eastern shore 
 of the bay, and is spread out upon a level plain 
 with its suburbs rising upon the slopes of lofty hills. 
 Though the houses are low and of uniform architecture, 
 though the temples have no domes, minarets, or spires, 
 their situation upon the hillsides, surrounded by groves, 
 gives a pleasing picture to the scenery. 
 
 A few ships swing at their anchors, — American, Eng- 
 lish, and French vessels of war, three Japanese gunboats 
 and native junks; but the mercantile activity which 
 characterizes Shanghae is wanting. 
 
 The population of the city is estimated at one hundred 
 thousand. The streets are wider than those of Chinese 
 cities, cross at right angles, and are well paved, though 
 carts or carriages never pass through them. Every- 
 thing is carried by coolies. The city is divided into 
 wards, having gates, which are closed at night as a 
 precaution against riot. 
 
 That the people are hardier than the Chinese is our 
 first impression. They are taller, have a more manly 
 physique, and are less mildly tempered. The second 
 impression is that they are lower in morals. 
 
 A shopkeeper invites- us to enter his establishment. 
 The front part is his shop, wide open by day, but 
 closed by wooden shutters at night. We accept the 
 invitation, and look at his work-boxes, tea-trays, lacquered 
 ware, fans, and, carved ivory. A movable screen sepa- 
 rates the shop from the parlor. A few low stools, pic- 
 
WESTERN JAPAN. 
 
 425 
 
 tures by Japanese artists on tlie walls, pots and pans, 
 teacups, saucers, bowls, and plates of nice porcelain, 
 mats which will be spread on the floor at night for bed- 
 ding, are the chief articles of furniture. 
 
 We are in the presence of the shopkeeper's wife and 
 daughter, the last a young lady about twenty years of 
 age. Her only clothing is a skirt reaching from the 
 waist to the ankles. The mother is well dressed in a 
 long flowing robe. She bustles about, sets the stools 
 aside, disappears behind a screen and reappears with a 
 stuffed chair, and -with many a smile and nod and wink 
 motions us to the seat, then herself crouches upon the 
 floor at OUT feet, shows us photographs of ISTagasaki and 
 other works of art. 
 
 She has long l:)lack hair, combed, braided, and taste- 
 fully adorned with artificial flowers, a pug nose, high and 
 prominent cheek-bones, a broad forehead, small black 
 eyes, a tawny complexion with a tinge of peach-bloom 
 on her cheeks, a homely mouth, and a red lip. Not 
 many artists would give such features to their ideal 
 of perfect beauty, but for all that there is a pleas- 
 ing expression of 
 the countenance 
 when animated, 
 or when she 
 smiles ; but when 
 the smile be- 
 comes a laugh, 
 and the lips par-t^, 
 we see that her 
 teeth are black as 
 jet. 
 
 She has been 
 taking a cup of 
 tea. The hot wa- 
 
 ;'l|||ip ;: 
 
 PKEPAKING FOK A SMOKE. 
 
426 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 ter is still steaming in the kettle, and the little poroelaia 
 pot and diminutix^e cup are on a box by her side. She 
 is preparing for a smoke. 
 
 DEVOTED LOVE. 
 
 This lady has plucked out every hair of her eyebrows. 
 Thereby hangs a story. Years ago a beautiful princess 
 of Japan, in order to show her devotion to her husband, 
 blackened her teeth and pulled out her eyebrows, making 
 herself hideous in the sight of all gallants, and so aU 
 loving wives follow her example. 
 
 We see a family bathing in their own house, not 
 taking the trouble even to place a Screen between 
 themselves and the open door. Turning up a side 
 street we come to a public bath-house, wliere men,- 
 women, and children have laid aside their clothing, and 
 are bathing together with as much freedom as a ilock 
 of ducks ! 
 
 "We meet now and then a lady of the upper class, wear- 
 ing a blue silk dress, or of flaming yellow or red, with 
 under-dress of other bright colors, flowing sleeves, em- 
 
WESTERN JAPAN. 
 
 427 
 
 broidered -n^th gold, wearing yellow or crimson sHppers, 
 her hair neatly plaited, set off with piaks and marigolds, 
 ear-drops of jade-stone, a costly fan, its sticks of ivory 
 elaborately carved, adorned with beetles, bugs, and flies 
 of bronze or pearl. 
 
 The handsomest buildings in the native city, like those 
 described by Kempfer two hundred years ago, are now 
 devoted to immoral uses. The keepers of the establish- 
 ments purchase girls of their parents, lodge them m good 
 apartments, teach them to dance, sing, play, or write, 
 and instruct them in domestic economy. It is said that 
 
 JArANESE LADIES. 
 
 a girl in such an establishment has a far better chance 
 of obtaining a husband than those who are not thus edu- 
 cated, — a statement which we are loath to credit. But 
 ' society in Japan presents a remarkable contrast to other 
 Eastern countries in the education of women. Here boys 
 and girls of the poorer classes are taught together in vil- 
 lage schools. At the age of twelve or fourteen the boys 
 are put into schools by themselves, while the girls are 
 taught domestic economy. The education is not of a 
 hiffh order, but far better than utter ignorance, as in 
 
428 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 India. Girls belonging to the higher classes practise 
 music, jDainting, and the composition of poetry. 
 
 Strange contrasts ! There is no disgrace to the girls iii 
 leading such a life before marriage, but their parents are 
 debarred from good society, while the keeper of the estab- 
 lishment is looked upon as a vile feUow. The sense of 
 modesty, as understood by civilized nations, seems to be 
 wholly wanting. In Egj'pt and India modesty consists 
 in covering the face, even though the body may be ex- 
 posed ; but in Japan it is not immodest to expose face and 
 body alike. There is plenty of room for civHization and 
 Christianity to develop their power in this quarter of the 
 globe. 
 
 The chief musical instrument used by the ladies is 
 somewhat like 
 
 " David's harp of solemn sound," 
 
 to quote from Dx. Watts, which had ten strings, while 
 these have all the way from three to thirteen, wliich are 
 stretched on a highly ornamented frame, lacquered and' 
 inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Minstrels saunter the 
 streets and frequent the tea-houses, plajdng on harps, 
 
 bamboo flutes, 
 and flageolets, 
 accompan}'ing 
 singers whose 
 voices are 
 pitched on a 
 high key, and 
 whose songs • 
 are wails in 
 the minor 
 mode. Their 
 music is not 
 so thunderous 
 and ear-split- 
 
 MINSTKELS. 
 
WESTERN JAPAN. 429 
 
 ting as that of the Chinese, but is eq[nally wanting in 
 rhythm and harmony. 
 
 They are more accomplished in painting than in music. 
 Their mistakes in perspective are as amusing as those 
 delineated by Hogarth. In a picture before us we see a 
 boat in the foreground in which are several gayly dressed 
 ladies, one of them holding an umbrella which shelters 
 several vessels ia a distant harbor, as well as a large town 
 surrounded by groves and gardens. The ducks and water- 
 fowl sportiag in the stream a haK-mile away are nearly 
 as large as the nearer sail-boats. 
 
 In brilliant coloring the Japanese are unsurpassed. 
 Boxes, screens, tea-trays, and books are highly and 
 elaborately ornamented. The designs are rude attempts 
 at landscape, with Fusiyama, the " matchless mountain " 
 of the empire, which we shall see on the eastern coast, as 
 a prominent feature. The stork, stretching its broad 
 wings in flight, or wading by reedy marshes, is a fre- 
 quent figure. It is the guardian bird of Japan, and is 
 as affectionately regarded here as in Germany. 
 
 We meet men wearing one long and another short 
 swords in their belts. These fellows are called Yako- 
 nins ;' they are the retainers of the various damios, or 
 princes, of the empire. They hold themselves in high 
 esteem, and -look upon foreigners as belonging to an in- 
 ferior race. At the present time these gentlemen are on 
 a rampage, being greatly exercised on the question 
 whether Japanese shall rule Japan, or whether inter- 
 lopers from the United States and England shall have 
 social and political privileges. 
 
 A fanatical or drunken Yakonin ought to shake hands 
 with "conservative" gentlemen of Texas and other 
 Southern States. Several foreigners have lost their lives 
 lately at the hands of these fellows. They attacked the 
 English Minister, Sir Eutherford Alcock, at Yedo, not 
 
430 
 
 OTJE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 long since. Admiral Eowan of the United States navy, 
 now at Yokohama, has ordered all the officers to carry 
 their revolvers when on shore, and if they see a Yakonin 
 drawing his sword to shoot him down instantly, for it is 
 a rule with them never to unsheathe it except to strike 
 down an enemy. The coimtry is convulsed with civil 
 war, and they are under no restraint. Conservatism 
 has the same arguments here that it has in America. 
 No political privileges shall he granted to foreigners. 
 They shall have no social or political rights. 
 
 We are accompanied in oux stroll through the town 
 by several fellow-passengers, and have a crowd following 
 us, indulging their curiosity. The women are greatly 
 amused when they discover the hoop-skirts worn by the 
 ladies of our party. They test the springs, gaze at the 
 mysterious framework in wonder, and then give way to 
 
 THE MYSTERY OF CBINOLIKE. 
 
THROUGH THE INLAND SEA. »■ 431 
 
 toisterous merriment. To them it is undoubtedly the 
 most ridiculous arrangement in the worid. Undoubtedly 
 they think that the women of America must have very 
 strange ideas of dress to wear such complicated ma- 
 chinery. 
 
 CHAPTEE LIV. 
 
 THROtTGH THE INLAND SEA. 
 
 NEVER was there a lovelier morning than that which 
 dawns upon us as we steam out of the harbor of 
 Nagasaki and up the western coast of the island of Kiu- 
 siu. Clear the air and calm the sea. We look upon an 
 ever-changing panorama, — pebbly beaches, sunny hill- 
 sides, whitewashed cottages, blooming gardens, deep bays, 
 dotted with white sails ; rocky islands, with beetling cliffs ; 
 scarped rock, sharp needles of granite, worn by the 
 waves; sheltered coves, where the fishermen moor their 
 boats ; lofty mountains in the distance, — a picture of sur- 
 passing beauty. 
 
 Ten mUes north of the entrance to Nagasaki harbor we 
 behold a wonderful specimen of natural architecture, — 
 two granite columns, one hundred and fifty feet highj at a 
 guess, and fifty feet apart, rugged, sharpened at the top, 
 with a great boulder of a thousand tons, chucked like a 
 wedge between the pillars, forming a stupendous gateway 
 through which a fleet of fishing-boats and schooners, or a 
 yacht squadron, might sail in grand procession. How 
 came it there ? By what volcanic upheaval was it tossed 
 high in the air, to fall like a wedge into its position ? Or 
 did it tumble from a mountain cliff which has been worn 
 
432 
 
 OXJE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 away by the waves ? It is so remarkable, so immensej so 
 perfect a gateway, that we are all but ready to exclaim : 
 It is not Nature's architecture, but the handiwork of the 
 
 ( 
 
 SCENERY OF THE WESTERN COAST. 
 
 Titans and Cyclops, — the fabled, strong, and mighty 
 monsters of mythological era ! But there is nothing of 
 man's work, nothing of legend and fable, so wonderful 
 as the handiwork of God. 
 
 "WJiile enjoying the beauties of this coast, we meet a 
 Japanese steamer, the Six Harry Parkes, bearing the flag 
 of the full moon, the national ensign. This steamer 
 sailed from Nagasaki three weeks ago, with four hundred 
 native Christiaus on board, who had been arrested, thrown 
 into prison, put on board this vessel, and carried off, no 
 one knows whither. There are stories that they were 
 taken out to sea and thrown overboard; but the more 
 probable supposition is, that they have been sent to the 
 
THROUGH THE INLAND SEA. 433 
 
 mines, siway nortli, on the island of Yesso. They will be 
 worked hard, poorly fed, and subject to cruel treatment?! 
 Their only crime is that they are Christians. 
 
 What vitality there is in a religious idea ! Through 
 the three hundred years which have elapsed since the 
 expulsion of the Jesuits Christianity has lived in the 
 empire. Persecution has failed to root it out. 
 
 One of our passengers is the Catholic prelate of Japan, 
 on his way to Yokohama, to see the French ambassador 
 in- regard to the persecution. He informs us that there 
 are probably one hundred thousand Christians in the em- 
 pire. He is already in communication with twenty thou- 
 sand. They have held their faith in secret, have met ia 
 the mountains, in caves and dens, maintained rude forms 
 of prayer and ceremonies of worship. The present perse- 
 cution is instigated by the priests of Buddha. One of 
 them last year visited Nagasaki, called upon Mr. Verbeck, 
 a Dutchman, who is trading there, stayed with him 
 awhile, obtained some information in regard to Christian- 
 ity, and then disappeared. Not long since a pamphlet 
 Was published, inciting hostility to the new religion. Mr: 
 Verbeck at once recognized it as the production of the 
 priest who had been undei; his instruction. 
 
 Mr. Verbeck, who is a Protestant, and the French 
 bishop, both are of the opinion that idolatry is dying out 
 in the empire. There is a great desire on the part of the 
 people to acquire the English language. In all of the 
 cities open to foreign trade there are many men and wo- 
 men who can speak English. They have found out that 
 it is of great advantage, as they can earn more money, 
 and it gives them wider influence. Acquaintance with 
 foreign languages and ideas, and an enlargement of men- 
 tal vision, leads them to discard the worship of idols; 
 They discover that the priests are ignorant and lazy, liV- 
 inCT upon the people, arid doing no good. In the country 
 
 19 BB 
 
434 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE .WORLD. 
 
 the priests have great influence, but in Nagasaki they are 
 looked upon as burdens upon the community. 
 
 Our course for one hundred and fifty miles is along the 
 western shore of Kiusiu. The climate of this region is 
 variable, but far more healthy than the corresponding 
 coast of Cliina. The country is 'well wooded, owiag to 
 the care taken by the government to preserve the forests. 
 People are not allowed to cut down a tree in this part of 
 the empire imtil they have planted one to take its place. 
 Extensive forests exist in the northern islands, where 
 there is a scanty population, and the law is not enforced 
 in that section. The bamboo, pine, and oak grow side by 
 side, and present by their great contrast, a pleasing feature 
 in the landscape. 
 
 Tlie approach to the Straits of Si-mo-na-sa-ki, through 
 which we reach the Inland Sea, is marked by a great 
 number of junks and boats under saU. It is the great 
 water-way of the empire, the passage between Wiphon 
 and Kiusiu. We have been sailing north, and now at our 
 right is the island of Siro-sima, distiuguished by rocks 
 which rise perpendicularly three hundred feet from the 
 sea, seamed, scarred, worn hj the waves, crumbled by 
 storms and shaken by earthquakes. We look into deep 
 caverns, and hear the surf thundering in the grottos. 
 Thousands of sea-fowl have their homes in the clefts. 
 Passing on, rounding the island of Eokuren, a Paradise of 
 itself, clothed with trees, shrubs, long rank grass, flow- 
 ers of every hue, we enter the narrow straits and sail up 
 a tortuous channel. 
 
 On the southern main-land is the town of Kokura, 
 where a silver stream falls into the sea after leaping and 
 laughing its way from the mountain summits, which rise 
 four thousand feet above us. The hillsides are beautifully 
 terraced, set off with shrubbery, groves, orchards, houses 
 in sunny nooks, and a cemetery with white headstones. 
 
THROUGH THE INLAND SEA. 435 
 
 People from the town are strolling along a sandy beach 
 and hundreds of boats are dancing on the waves in a 
 sheltered cove. 
 
 We sweep past numerous islands, green gems on the 
 glassy deep, and catch glimpses of pleasant homes, — 
 snug cottages almost hid from sight by the dense foliage 
 of overhanging trees. 
 
 The Japanese do not worship their ancestors, as is the 
 case with the Chinese, but the teachings of Confucius 
 have left a deep impression on tliis people. A modified 
 form of the Confucian religion prevails to some extent. 
 Buddhist and Sinto worshippers alike reverence the dead, 
 and the most charming spots are selected on the hillsides 
 for their places of sepulture. The graves are carefuUy 
 tended. 
 
 A funeral procession, the mourners in white robes, is 
 winding up a narrow path. The Japanese deem white 
 the most appropriate color to be worn while in mourning. 
 The dead are usually buried at sunset. Two pieces or 
 joints of bamboo are placed before the grave to hold the 
 iiowers, which are brought fresh from the garden every 
 morning, and flowering plants and shrubs are planted 
 in the cemeteries. In this respect the Japanese show 
 a higher degree of refinement than any other Eastern 
 nation. 
 
 The higher classes do not appear in public during the 
 period of mourning. They give no feasts, entertain no 
 company, and only are seen while decorating the graves 
 with fresh flowers. The bridal veil is the shroud of mar- 
 ried women at their decease. If a husband or wife dies, 
 space is always left in the cemetery for the surviving 
 partner. 
 
 |The Sintoos believe that the spirit at death passes at 
 OBce to a place of happiness or misery, to be punished 
 or rewarded according to the deeds of the present life. 
 
436 OUB NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 According to Chinese history, the Sintoo religion pre- 
 vailed before the children of Israel received a code of 
 laws on Mount Sinai. If this is true, the doctrine of 
 rewards and punishments in the future life was not 
 any monkish idea introduced from Europe. A thousand 
 years before Plato discoursed of the immortality of the 
 soul, the philosophers of Japan talked of the future life. 
 Conscience entered into their philosophy. Death was 
 not sleep. They had 
 
 " That dread of something after death." 
 
 In the month of August a festival is held, during which 
 the spirits of the dead are supposed to revisit the earth. 
 Tombs, trees, gardens, houses, are Oluminated with lan- 
 terns of every hue. It is a joyful night. 
 
 " Then the forms of the departed 
 Enter at the open door." 
 
 On the second evening the spirits return to their shad- 
 owy land, which lies, somewhere beyond the sea. With 
 much ceremony, little paper, boats are borne to the sea- 
 side, lighted tapers placed within, and the tiny craft 
 laungh^d upon the waves. A. 
 
 The straits are not. more than half a mile wide, and at 
 this narrow crossing we see the Tokaido, or imperial high- 
 way of the empire, 'whicli extends to Yedo. Each damio 
 keeps it in repair in his own territory. Tea-houses and 
 inns are established at regular intervals. The road is 
 twenty feet wide, built three centuries ago ; macadamized 
 three hundred years before McAdam thought of using 
 pounded stone for highways. 
 
 Upon the northern side of the straits is the large town 
 of Chofu, the capital of damio Choisiu. In 1864 he un- 
 dertook to levy a contribution upon ships going through 
 the straits, and fired upon the American bark Pembroke 
 
THEOUGH THE INLAND SEA. 
 
 437 
 
 from the batteries which we see along the water, under 
 the shade of the trees. The United States ship-of-war 
 Wyoming, Captain McDougal, was at Yokohama, and 
 came do^^Ti to see about it. Choisiu had two gunboats 
 at anchor in front of the town, and opened fire from them 
 and from all his batteries. Captain McDougal steamed 
 between the town and the gunboats, ran alongside the 
 latter, sent them to the bottom and steamed back again, 
 as if nothing had happened. This was in July, and in 
 September, the damio still being insolent, the allied fleet 
 at Yokohama came down and silenced his batteries and 
 brought him to terms. 
 
 THE CANGO. 
 
 The common mode of travelling, by the poor classes, is 
 on foot or horseback. Ladies of the higher classes ride in 
 the canrjo, borne by two coolies, as seen in the accom- 
 panying illustration. The back is slightly inclined ; but 
 as the space is contracted, the occupant is obliged to sit 
 
438 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 cross-legged, or with the knees in close proximity to the 
 chin. 
 
 The . damios and their wives are carried in the no- 
 rivion, which is much like an East India palankeen. 
 The roads which lead • from the Takaido to the towns 
 in the interior are mere paths, traversed by people on 
 foot, or riding the smaU, kicking, vicious ponies of the 
 country. 
 
 We have entered the narrow passage, called the Inland 
 Sea, which separates the island of Kiusiu from Niphon. 
 It is rather a succession of broad sheets of water connect- 
 ed by narrow straits. The Japanese word Ifada means 
 sea, and in sailing east we pass first through the lyo-nada, 
 then the Bingo-nada, the Harima-nada, and the Isumi- 
 nada, so named from the damios whose districts border 
 on the passage. 
 
 "We enter the Straits of Si-mo-na-sa-ki at sunset, and 
 during the night our course is across the lyo-nada. We 
 see the dim outline of mountains in the distance. The 
 waters are as calm and peaceful as a forest-sheltered 
 pool. 
 
 We are aroused from sleep in the early morning by 
 the voice of the mate. " If you want to gaze upon 
 the loveliest scenery in the world, now is your time," 
 he says, with, his lips to the key-hole of our state-room 
 door. 
 
 Eeaching the deck we behold the glories of the In- 
 land Sea in the light of the approaching dawn. Our 
 course is towards the rising sun. Before, behind, on 
 either hand, and beneath us in the unruffled depths, 
 we see the beauty of a thousand isles. Some of them 
 are but specks on the water, — emerald gems in set- 
 ting of polished silver. Others are of larger area, with 
 whitened shores washed by the ebbing and flowing 
 tides. There are fields, forests, wooded hills, shaded 
 
THEOUGH THE INLAND SEA. 
 
 439 
 
 ravines, and mountain cliffs, — a panorama painted by 
 a Hand divine ! 
 
 It is more than a panorama. Its loveliness far surpasses 
 all artistic skill. It is a palace, with court, hall, drawing- 
 room, chamber, and corridor. But what conception of 
 man can imitate such a design ! What artistic cunning 
 can fashion in muUioned window, hooded porch, lofty- 
 portal, by corbel or gargoyle, such beauty as that in 
 the groves of pine and palm that crown the hiUs and 
 adorn the slopes ! 
 
 Or shall we liken it to a cathedral ? This narrow pas- 
 sage between these two green islands, where the hiUs rise 
 
 THE INIiAND SEA. 
 
 to the magnitude of mountains, is the western gateway ? 
 We gaze entranced down transept and nave, into chapel 
 and choir, up to domes, turrets, towers, and pinnacles, with 
 
MO OUR -NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 giich mural painting as never yet was attempted by old 
 masters. 
 
 AVTaat chaneel, or oratory, or approach to high altar, so 
 gorgeous as this sapphire sea, rippled with silver and 
 flooded with golden light ! Comparison fails. We can 
 only gaze entranced before the ever-changing loveliness. 
 We dream . of Arcadian scenes, and listen to hear, as 
 Ulysses heard, the song of sirens on the shore, or fairies 
 of the sea caHing from the sylvan shades : ^- 
 
 " Mariner, mariner, furl your sails, 
 For here are the blissful downs and dales. 
 And merrily, merrily carol the gales, 
 And the spangle dances in bight and bay. 
 And the rainbow forms and flies on the land. 
 Over the islands free ; 
 
 And the rainbow lives in the curves of the sand. 
 Hither, come hither and see ! " 
 
 We gaze upon the changing views till eyes grow weary, 
 wishing that aU our friends might behold the indescriba- 
 J)le glories of this Inland Sea. 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 HIOGO. 
 
 ALL day long we have been in sight of countless sails, 
 — junks and fishing-boats, rudely constructed, with 
 lofty quarter-decks and an immense amoimt of rudder. 
 We have been steaming at the rate of eleven knots an 
 hour, but have not for a moment lost sight of the junks. 
 We count over five hundred under sail at once, while 
 other hundreds are at anchor or drawn up in coves and 
 Tinder the lee of islands. The presence of such a number 
 
KtOGO. 441 
 
 of sailing craft is STjfficient pf itself to in(}iea(te a dense 
 population. 
 
 The shores are dotted with towns and villages, and the 
 country is under high cultivation. The wheat and barley 
 crops have been harvested ; the rice-fields are of the rich- 
 est green, the stalks knee-high, and the crop will be gath- 
 ered in season to be followed by turnips. 
 
 We are approaching the town of Hiogo, which is sit- 
 uated on the southern shore of Mphon, about two hun- 
 dred miles south of Yedo by land, three hundred and 
 seventy by sea. It was opened to foreign trade in Janu- 
 ary, 1868, under the treaty of 1858, 
 
 It is located on the western side of the bay with a high 
 mountain behind it. 
 
 ISTearing the harbor we see green fields, pastures, moun- 
 tain ridges, ravines, groves, peasants' huts, and discern a 
 forest of masts through the smoky atmosphere, steam 
 past a martello tower of hewn stone, with cannon in the 
 embrasures, and come to anchor amid a fleet of war ves- 
 sels, — four American, three English, two Trench, one 
 Prussian, and a half-dozen Japanese. 
 
 This is the port of Osaka, one of the great cities of the 
 empire, lying fourteen miles east of us, on the other side 
 of the bay. The water is not deep enough to permit 
 vessels to approach the city, and Hiogo has become the 
 place for foreign trade. Osaka is the Venice of Japan, 
 situated in a meadow, a river winding through it, besides 
 being traversed by numerous canals. A gentleman who 
 has visited the city says that there are over four hundred 
 bridges across the river and canals. They are all of stone, 
 and some of them of elaborate workmanship and fine ar- 
 chitectural beauty. It has for a long time been a favorite 
 dweUing-place of the damios, or princes, who have their 
 palaces along the banks of the main river, each with its 
 well-kept garden, with broad flights of stone steps extend- 
 ing down to the water. 
 
442 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 There is no resemblance between this city and Venice, 
 except in the means of water communication, — no such 
 old palatial, imposing edifices as those upon the Grand 
 Canal of the city of the Doges, no such wonderful temple 
 as the Cathedral St. Mark's, with three thousand years of 
 genius in its walls. It is a city of half a million inhab- 
 itants, with five hundred temples. 
 
 The inhabitants are largely engaged in the manufacture 
 of cotton goods, silk, sugar, paper, oil, and products of 
 flax. 
 
 The tradesmen and mechanics have their mutual-aid 
 societies, which have been organized for centuries. This 
 feature of modem civilization — the brotherhood of man 
 — is not wholly of Western origin. 
 
 The country around Osaka is fertile and densely settled. 
 Foreign merchants at Hioko are confident that a large and 
 lucrative trade will spring up at this port, and they are 
 already looking forward to the time when a railroad, run- 
 ning along the sea-shore, will connect it with Osaka. The 
 Tocaido passes through Hiogo. 
 
 The climate is delightful, the harbor spacious and deep 
 enough for the largest ships, and, being in the Inland Sea, 
 is thoroughly protected from storms. It is only about 
 thirty miles from Kioto, the capital of the Mikado, or 
 Emperor. 
 
 A brawny Japanese boatman takes us ashore, and we 
 saunter along the streets, followed by a crowd, curious to 
 see the ladies of our party. 
 
 If we enter a shop, they gather at the door, blocking 
 the street. Our ladies are looking for curiosities, but 
 they themselves are the curiosities of the moment. A 
 woman walking on pattens, and carrying a child on her 
 back, gazes with laughing eyes and smiUng face at the 
 ladies of our party. Feminine curiosity is as marked here 
 as at Nagasaki. 
 
HIOGO. 
 
 443 
 
 Avoiding the increasing multitude, we gain the sub- 
 urbs of the town, pass up an avenue bordered by hedges 
 and bounded by rice-fields, irrigated 
 by water drawn from numerous 
 wells. 
 
 On our return we stop at a tea- 
 house to refresh ourselves witli a 
 cup of Japanese tea. Tlie proprietor 
 is dehghted to have his establish- 
 ment patronized by foreigners, ar- 
 ranges seats for us, brings out liis 
 best cliiira, passes the cups around 
 on a liighly ornamented tray, fills 
 tliem again and again from a porce- 
 lain pot, smiles, grins, nods, and 
 winks his pleasure, gives us all we 
 can possibly swallow, and thinks 
 himself well paid with four cents 
 for twenty cups ! 
 
 His tea-houses and gardens are 
 hung with enormous paper lan- 
 terns of red, green, blue, casting rainbow hues upon the 
 people, wlao sit beneath the trees through the evening 
 sipping tea, winding up with a glass of saki, — rice 
 liquor, — and, since the foreigners came, with whiskey 
 and brandy, that sets them whooping like Indians on 
 the war-path. From this we see how rapidly tliey are 
 advancing in civilization ! 
 
 A walk of a mile brings us to a temple dedicated to 
 the Goddess of Agriculture, — not to tlie Ceres of the 
 Grecian Pantheon, but to the Sun, wliicli in Japan is 
 regarded as a female deity. 
 
 The temple has a tiled roof; but tiles, woodworlc, posts, 
 all are higlily ornamented. A bell is suspended over the 
 entrance. There is an altar on which the worshippers lay 
 their offerings of fruit, flowers, or money. 
 
 PLE.\SED TO SEE US. 
 
444 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 The trees around the temple are hung with slips of 
 paper printed with prayers, requesting the deity to give 
 
 TEMPLE TO THE SUN GODDESS. 
 
 a good yield of rice. The Hiogo traders, like their Chris- 
 tian brethren in Western lands, have an eye to business, 
 and have even stuck up their advertisements on the posts 
 of the temple. One man informs the public that he has 
 lime for sale ; literally, " stone fire-ashes," or ashes of 
 stone. A worshipper is at his evening devotion walldng 
 round the temple, touching the bell at every circuit. 
 Step, motion, action, look, feature, all indicate his zeaL 
 He goes as if on a wager. 
 
 A woman enters the court, touches her forehead to the 
 altar, commences her walk round, round, round again, 
 touching the altar and the bell at every turn. 
 
 Outside the gate, not three steps from the avenue, a 
 priest is taking his bath in a tub, with no more sense 
 of modesty than the stone post against which he leans. 
 
 Here, as at Nagasaki, we see members of families bath- 
 ing together in their own houses, or in the public bath 
 with their neighbors. 
 
HIOGO. 
 
 445 
 
 The Japanese are affectionate. Among the higher 
 classes, it is said, tliat men who have offended tlie laws 
 have killed themselves hy Harrkari, or " happy despatch," 
 that the punishment of the offence might not fall upon 
 their children and friends. It is a point of honor among 
 high officials to rip themselves open if they incur the dis- 
 pleasure of the Tycoon or Mikado. By so doing, the 
 family does not suffer, and not uufrequently a son is ad- 
 vanced hy having so honorahle a father ! 
 
 The Japanese are social in their hahits, and visit not 
 only the tea-houses, hut the fields and woods in company 
 to enjoy each other's society. Picnics are common at 
 this season of the year. A short distance out from Hiago 
 there is a small stream leaping down the hillside, with 
 shady nooks along its hanks, whither the Hiogans resort 
 for recreation. 
 
 take 
 
 The ladies 
 more care to pro- 
 tect their faces from 
 the sun than those 
 of America. Their 
 hats are more ca- 
 pacious than the 
 honnets worn by 
 our grandmothers. 
 They might he used 
 for market-baskets. 
 They ser-\'e the 
 wearers admirably 
 in all weather, alike 
 protecting from sun 
 and rain. No won- 
 der they laugh at 
 the diminutive hats 
 worn by our ladies. 
 
 :^'^ 
 
 WELL FKOTECTFD. 
 
446 
 
 OUR NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Luncheon-baskets are as common here as in England. 
 It is not unusual to see a party of friends, with a lac- 
 quered cabiaet, containing plates, bowls, knives, teacups, 
 and a basket filled with provisions, on their way to the 
 woods or the hillside, where the entire day is passed in 
 conversation, reading, singing, playing cards, and drink- 
 ing tea and saki. Sometimes the saki turns the picnic 
 into a row, and the return is very much like the goiag 
 home from Donnybrook Fair. 
 
 The coolies of Japan are stout fellows, who stagger 
 through the streets and along the highways with im- 
 mense burdens. They 
 wear bowl-shaped hats, 
 and are better dressed 
 than the same class of 
 laborers in China. They 
 are noisy while at work, 
 and very savage in a fight. 
 If we wish them to hurry 
 their pace while riding in 
 a cango we shout, " Jigcrer ! 
 jigger!" wdiich is equiva- 
 lent to saying. Hurry up ! 
 The distance from Hiogo 
 to Yokohama is three hun- 
 dred and fifty-five miles. 
 Our course for eighteen 
 miles is due south, then 
 rounding a sharp point 
 of land we are on the 
 Pacific Ocean, running up 
 
 PORTER. ^ ^ 
 
 the eastern coast. The 
 land rises abruptly from the sea. The hills are as green 
 as those on the western shore. The land is not so well 
 cultivated, and the people not so numerous as in other 
 
HioGO. 447 
 
 sections of tlie empire. A gentleman on the steamer, 
 who has been several years in Japan, assures us that 
 the population of the empire has been over-estimated; 
 that, instead of containiug thirty millions, it probably 
 does not contain more than eighteen or twenty. An- 
 other gentleman puts the number at a still lower rate. 
 This eastern section of Mphon is subject to earthquakes. 
 We pass Simoda, the port opened to the United States by 
 the treaty negotiated by Commodore Perry. A large por- 
 tion of the town was shaken down and the harbor filled 
 up by an earthquake in 1864. 
 
 Long before reaching the entrance to the Bay of Yedo, 
 Fusiyama, " The Matchless Mountain " of Japan, appears 
 in view. It is sixty miles from the coast, yet the captain 
 of the Costa Eica informs us that he has seen it when 
 one hundred miles at sea, or one hundred and sixty from 
 the mountain. 
 
 It stands alone in a broad plain with an elevation 
 of nearly fifteen thousand feet, rising in the form of a 
 cone. It is an extinct volcano. Its last eruption occurred 
 in 1707, and caused great destruction of property and 
 life from the sudden overflowing of lava. , PUgrims toil 
 up its rugged sides to pay their devotions at the tomb of 
 Sinto, the great sage of Japan, who was buried there 
 three hundred years before the time of Christ. He 
 founded the religion which bears his name, and which is 
 closely -allied to Buddhism. It is the prevailing religion 
 of the country. 
 
 Off the entrance to the bay is Vrie's Island, named 
 for an old Dutch admiral who sailed these waters when 
 Holland was the only nation holding commercial inter- 
 course with Japan. The island is volcanic, and we see 
 a column of gray smoke ascending from the loftiest sum- 
 mit. There has been no eruption of late years, but the 
 surrounding country shakes from time to time, indi- 
 
448 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 eating that there are internal commotions not far distant 
 from this vent-hole in the earth's crust. 
 
 The entrance to the Bay of Yedo bears some resem- 
 blance to the "Narrows" of New York. The strait is 
 defended by earthworks, along the beach and upon the 
 bluffs. The hillside batteries, if mounted with hea'vy 
 guns, might almost command the channel. 
 
 A little village is nestled under the cliffs of the western 
 shore, and a large fleet of junks are at anchor in front of 
 the town. It is the place where all native craft bound 
 to Yedo are inspected by the government officials. 
 
 The bay is about thirty miles in length and twenty 
 wide. Yokohama, our destination, is on the western 
 shore, about twenty miles from the entrance. Pleasing 
 views meet the eye as we approach the town, — villages, 
 grain-fields, groves of pine> with Fusiyama lifting its 
 crystal crown against an azure sky. Foreign ships mul- 
 tiply around us, and at length we drop anchor amid a 
 large fleet of war-ships and merchant-vessels flying the 
 flags of nearly all nations. 
 
 CHAPTEE LVI. 
 
 YOKOHAMA. . 
 
 YOKOHAMA is the great centre of foreign traffic in 
 Japan. Its situation, only twelve miles from the 
 capital, and in one of the richest portions of the empire, 
 and its relations to San Francisco, Panama, and Puget 
 Sound, on the western coast of America, give it great 
 prominence as a commercial mart. 
 
 There is excellent anchorage along the shore, though 
 
YOKOHAMA. 449 
 
 when a heavy southern gale prevails, the ships in, the 
 harbor are somewhat exposed. The place first selected 
 by the foreign powers for a port was Kanagawa, which is 
 nearer Yedo, but the shallow water off the shore decided 
 them to locate the future- port at the little fishing vil- 
 lage of Yokohama. The fishermen had built their huts 
 on a sandy plain, where they could draw up their boats 
 on a smooth, hard beach. The plain was bordered on the 
 north by a marsh. A creek, winding through the low- 
 lands and coming out to the bay again, enclosed an area 
 of about three hundred and forty acres, so that the village 
 was situated on an island. South of the town, and be- 
 yond the creek, are bluffs of yellow earth, from whence 
 material is obtained for filling up the marshes. 
 
 ■The island is in the form of a rectangle, and has a sea 
 frontage of about a mile, along which the residences of 
 the foreign merchants are erected. 
 
 Although ten years ago it was so insignificant a place, 
 it has now a population of about twenty-five thousand. 
 At first the Japanese were afraid to settle so near the 
 foreigners from whom they had stood aloof through all 
 the past; but the advantages to be derived from trade 
 overcame their timidity, and the population has rapidly 
 increased. 
 
 The western half of the town is occupied by the for- 
 eign merchants. It is regularly laid out, the streets 
 crossing at right angles. The -English and French have 
 secured land on the bluffs, where military and naval hos- 
 pitals have been erected. A regiment from India is en- 
 camped on the hiUs. They were sent for by the English 
 minister a short time ago to defend the place, while the 
 civil war continues which is now being waged between 
 the northern and southern damios. 
 
 Two moles, which the Japanese call Hatobas, have been 
 constructed, and a portion of the marsh fiHed up. The 
 
450 
 
 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 improvements that have been made show great energy on 
 the part of the foreign residents. 
 
 Passing along tlie street we see a fire-engine ; its con- 
 struction will be seen from the accompanying illus- 
 tration. 
 
 FIRE-ENGINE. 
 
 The houses are built of wood, and, as at JSTagasabi 
 and Hiogo, are open at the front, with lower floors raised 
 a foot or two above the ground, and are neatly carpeted 
 with white matting. The shops are more tastefully ar- 
 ranged than at Nagasaki. One shopman, after showing 
 us the articles which he has for sale, kindly takes us 
 to the rear of his establishment into a garden, neatly 
 and tastefully laid out, adorned with bronzes, an arti- 
 ficial grotto, fountains, flowers, shrubs, and twining 
 vines. 
 
 The finest bronzes are from the province of Couza, which 
 lies in the interior. Some of them are inlaid with sih'er 
 in arabesque designs, but the prices asked will proliably 
 deter most travellers from purchasing. Since the ojiening 
 
YOKOHAIIA. 
 
 451 
 
 of the coiTntry to foreign trade everything has ach-anced 
 in price. Articles of tortoise and ivory, elaborately 
 car^•ed, formerly were to be had at low rates. 
 
 Passing into an adjoining sliop, "we iind very good pho- 
 tographs, taken by a native artist. The wife of the pho- 
 tographer waits upon us, and is pleased when we purchase 
 a picture of herself wearing a pannier, with her back 
 hair neatly combed and skewered, as wiU be seen by the 
 accompanying illustration. 
 Panniers have been worn 
 here from time immemo- 
 rial ; and the ladies who 
 sport them in the United 
 States are following tlie 
 fasliions of Japan instead 
 of Paris. 
 
 Tlie foreign trade of Yo- 
 kohama is steadily increas- 
 ing. It consists mainly of 
 raAv sillv, silk-worm's eggs, 
 tea, and lacc[uer-ware. The 
 government has not favored 
 an extension of the trade with foreign nations, looking upon 
 it as a disad-^-antage. They do not desire the introduction 
 of foreign goods, believing that it will drain tlie country 
 of the precious metals. Tliough adopting this mercantile 
 policy, the damios in power have spent large sums for 
 foreign A'essels of war, cannon, and military arms. Eng- 
 lish and American ship-owners ha-\^e done an excellent 
 business in selling old steamers, several of which are 
 lying in the harbor. 
 
 Our use of the term " government," as applied to that 
 of Japan, is liable to be misimderstood. Eacli of the great 
 damios has his army of retainers and his ships of war, 
 and gunlioats, some of which did service as blockaders 
 
 THE PAS>aER. 
 
OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 /the war, and others as blockade-runners, are owned 
 iierent damios, who have united their forces to main- 
 -w— -jheir power. 
 
 The government of Japan is unlike any other on the 
 face of the earth. In some respects there is an approach 
 towards the old feudal system of Europe. For a long 
 while we have been in the dark in regard to the political 
 status of the empire. The treaty negotiated by Commo- 
 dore Perry was with the Tycoon, as also were aU subse- 
 quent treaties ; but last year the foreign ministers, after 
 getting out of patience with the dillydallying of the 
 Tycoon about opening the port of Hiogo, ascertained that 
 he was not the head of th% government. To understand 
 the organization of the government, we must go back 
 several centuries, to the time when the system was more 
 feudal than at present, when there was an emperor, 
 the Mikado, and leading priaces or damios, each su- 
 preme in his own district, but owing allegiance to the 
 Mikado. There came a time when one of the damios 
 obtained great power, became ruler of eight districts, and 
 secured a revenue of forty million dollars per annum ! 
 He became the executive officer of the empire, wielded 
 all power, was in effect the head of the nation, while the 
 Mikado became his dependant, was supported by him, 
 obeyed the Tycoon, and signed such documents as he 
 required. No law or document was valid unless it bore 
 the signature of the Mikado, — a fact which was not 
 known when the treaties were negotiated. 
 
 The Tycoon who first acquired this commanding posi- 
 tion was of the Tokugawa family, and the law of succes- 
 sion which was accepted continued it in the family, — 
 each appointing his successor, and keepiag the other 
 damios under control, by compelling them to send their 
 wives and children to Yedo, as hostages for their good 
 behavior. Yedo is the Tycoon capital, while the capital 
 
YOKOHAJIA. 
 
 453 
 
 of tlie ^Mikado is at Kioto, not far from the recently 
 openoJ port of Iliogo.) 
 
 Tlio present figlit is Letween the Xorth and the Sonth. 
 The Southern damios, Satsnma, Choisiu, and Eizen, and 
 one or two others, eacli of -winch have a revenue of two 
 to three million dollars, determined to Lrealc down the 
 Tokugawa familj-. Stotsbashi, the T}-coon who nego- 
 tiated the treaties, 
 did ncit obtain the 
 signature of the 
 Mikado to the trea- 
 ties, and this was 
 held to be an un- 
 pardonable offence. 
 The southern da- 
 mios did not re\'olt 
 from the ^likado, 
 but with the IMika- ^ 
 do's banner above 
 tliem waged war up- 
 cm Stotsliaslu, who 
 finally resigned, ap- 
 pointing his sue- . 
 cessor from his o^vn 
 family. But the 
 southern damios 
 were not content 
 with driving him 
 individually from 
 power, — their oli- 
 
 ject only could be obtained by breaking down the famity, 
 and liv taking the government into their own liands. 
 Tliey took possession of the Mikado, — who is Init a boy, 
 
 issued their edicts at Yedo, and were going on swim- 
 
 minoiy, when one of the powerful Northern damios, Idsu, 
 
 STOTSBASHI. 
 
454 OUE NEW WAY EO]UND THE WORLD. 
 
 appeared in the field. He informed tlie Southern con- 
 federates that there was to be no change in the law of 
 succession. He rallied the other Northern damios, and 
 bloody battles have been fought. 
 
 Before Stotsbashi resigned, he fought the Southerners 
 not far from Osaka, aided by some of the Northern 
 damios ; but in the heat of the battle one of his allies 
 went over to the enemy vnth all his force, and Stotsbashi 
 was utterly routed. He fled to his castle at Osaka, then 
 on board the United States man-of-war the Iroquois, 
 appointed his successor, and delivered himself up to the 
 Mikado. The Southerners confiscated his immense es- 
 tates, sent off his relatives into the South, and had things 
 aU their own way at Yedo. Then it was that Idsu ral- 
 lied the Northern damios. 
 
 An immense amount of military supplies have been 
 sold to the contending parties, — Enfield and Spring- 
 field rifles, b"reech-loaders, revolvers, rifled cannon, shells, 
 and solid shot. Each party has its navy, — steamers 
 sent from England and the United States, for which the 
 Japanese have paid round sums of money, and which in 
 a short time wiU be useless hulks. 
 
 It is not a war in which the people are interested ; they 
 care very little about it. History is repeating itself. It 
 is like the dispute between York and Lancaster, or the 
 old struggle of France as to which party shall have the 
 Dauphin. It is also a question of the supremacy of 
 climate, race, and blood. The Southerners are from a 
 simny clime. They have tropical blood in their veins, 
 — a mingling of the blood of the inhabitants of the Cen- 
 tral Pacific islands with that of the aboriginals of the 
 empire. The Northerners are from a vigorous chme ; 
 they face the cold wintry winds which sweep down the 
 sea of Ochotsk from Kamtchatka. 
 C The Tokugawa family came into power about the year 
 
YOKOHAMA. 455 
 
 1128, and have retained it to the present time, though 
 there have been several revolutions. Wljat royal family 
 in Eujope can boast of such a duration of power and priv- 
 ilege, or show an annual revenue of forty million dollars ? 
 Surely there are some wonderful things _about this country, 
 of which we know as yet very little. 
 
 To the botanist the flora of Japan -j^esents an interest- 
 ing variety. Camelias and azalias are common, as weU 
 as a species of pine, resembling the stone pine of Italy, 
 but here taking the form of an umbrella. The Japanese 
 are experts in floriculture. They have produced many 
 varieties of ilex, and other plants of the same order. The 
 florists and botanists of the United States will be able to 
 obtain new variegations from the gardens in the vicinity 
 of Yokohama and Yedo. 
 
 There is not much to be seen in the vicinity of Yoko- 
 hama, but an excursion of fifteen miles will take us to the 
 ancient city of Kamakura, one of the sacred cities of the 
 empire, containing a hundred temples. It was the capi- 
 tal of the empire seven centuries ago, but since the 
 removal of the Tycoon to Yedo it has dwindled to an 
 insignificant place. 
 
 Though some of the temples are in ruins, and others 
 closed, there are objects which will interest the tourist 
 who has time to make the excursion. 
 
 The road winds through a fertile valley, amid green 
 fields and shady groves. There are frequent villages and 
 tea-houses where refreshment may be obtained. 
 
 The old city is located in a charming valley ; and the road 
 leading to it is often thronged by pilgruns going to or re- 
 turning from the sacred shrines. It was made the Miaco, 
 or capital, of the empire in 1185, by a tycoon named Yo- 
 ritomo, one of the heroes of Japan, though Ms heroism 
 consisted mainly in bearing down all opposition and hav- 
 ing things his own way. Under his rule and that of his 
 successors it became an opulent city. 
 
456 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Civil war in this country is as chronic as it was in Europe 
 under the feudal system. In a struggle for power between 
 the Northern and Southern damios which occurred in 
 1333, Yoshisata, the damio of the province of Smitske, 
 conquered the city, put a large number of the inhabitants 
 to the sword, set fire to the wooden buildings, and pulled 
 down those of brick and stone. From that time to the 
 present it has been a ruin. 
 
 At the present day Kamakura does not differ from 
 Japanese villages in general, except in the wideness of 
 some of its streets, — vestiges of the original plan of the 
 old capital, — its sacred buildings and traditional associa- 
 tions. 
 
 The various temples and shrines — more than a hun- 
 dred in number — are distributed widely over the plain, 
 but the largest and most imposing of them all is the 
 Hachiman, erected in honor of a deified hero, who is 
 adored by the military class. It is approached from the 
 south by a straight and wide avenue. The temple is en- 
 tered ttrough the gateway of the " two kings," who are 
 represented by huge dilapidated wooden figures, with 
 bows and arrows for weapons. A large bronze bell is 
 suspended in one corner of the court. It has a rich 
 tone ; and when the air is stOl, its reverberations are 
 heard floating over the calm waters of the distant bay. 
 The numerous temples of Kamakura are mainly of wood, 
 strongly built, and variously adorned, especially the gate- 
 ways and cornices, with carvings representing fish, birds, 
 flowers, and dragons. The images and figures when new 
 were covered with gilt, but the gold has become dim, and 
 the colors of vermilion and purple have faded to a dingy 
 brown. 
 
 About a mile southwest of Kamakura is the famous 
 statue Dia-boots, or the Great Buddha, in a grove of bam- 
 boos, oaks, and camelias. It is one of the most remark- 
 
YOKOHAMA. 457 
 
 able works of art in the world. It was erected in the 
 twelfth centiiry, while the city was the capital. When 
 Kamakura was destroyed, no damage was done to. the 
 ten>ples or idols. 
 
 This great prophet is represented as sitting cross-legged 
 in the position usually taken by the people of the East, 
 who prefer sitting on the floor rather than in chairs. The 
 statue occupies a position which, like the colossal figure 
 representing Bavaria at Munich, shows it off to the best 
 advantage. It is approached by an avenue leading by a 
 flight of stone steps to a platform of the same material 
 about four feet high. The figure, which sits upon this 
 granite floor, is about fifty feet high. It is constructed 
 of bronze plates, so closely united, and presenting so 
 even a surface, that the joints cannot be detected with- 
 out considerable scrutiny. The circumference of the 
 body is ninety-eight feet, its iiose three and a half feet 
 long, the ears six and a half, and the other features in 
 proportion. The head is covered with curls, of which 
 there are eight hundred and thirty. The countenance is 
 of a sleepy cast, representing BuddhS, in mournful medi- 
 tation. The interior is hollow, and contains small images 
 of Buddhist saints. Many of the idols of Japan are rep- 
 resented with glories encircling their brows, like those so 
 often seen in Eoman Catholic churches, and it is probable 
 that the idea was borrowed from the Jesuits. 
 
 The neighborhood of Kamakura aboimds with temples, 
 which are surrounded by gardens, and a visit to the local- 
 ity will well repay any one who may have time to make 
 the excursion. 
 
 20 
 
458 OUK NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 CHAPTEE LVII. 
 
 YEDO. 
 
 THE capital of Japan is the chief point of interest in 
 the eastern section of the empire. It is a great 
 disappointment that we are not permitted to see it, but 
 all foreigners have been compelled to leave on account of 
 the civil war. The English, French, and American min- 
 isters have taken up their residences at Yokohama, where 
 they will remain till the conflict is over. We are com- 
 pelled, therefore, to rely upon gentlemen who have resided 
 in Yedo for a description of the city.* 
 
 It may be reached by land or by water. The last- 
 named mode is the easiest ; but a ride on a Japanese pony 
 over the imperial road will enable one to see the coun-. 
 try and the people. 
 
 Pesmission to visit the city of the Tycoon must be ob- 
 tained through the consul at Yokohaina. A guard of Yako- 
 nins, if desired, can be secured. These soldiers are re- 
 tainers of the damios. They wear two swords, and are 
 bloodthirsty fellows, who, if they were to take offence 
 at us, would not hesitate to cut off our heads ; but if set 
 to guard us will be faithful to their trust, and decapitate 
 any one who offers insolence. With a squad of them 
 for a guard, and mounted on one of the tough ponies of 
 the country, the traveller bound for Yedo will have a 
 delightful ride up the Tocaido. 
 
 Yedo means " river door." It is situated at the head 
 of the bay at the mouth of the " Great River," although 
 in the United States it would be classed as an insig- 
 * The foreign ministers have now, May, 1869, returned to Yedo. 
 
YEDO. 
 
 459 
 
 nifieant stream. The main portion of the city is built 
 on the western bank, but there is a large suburb on an 
 island called Hondjo. 
 
 5ji.ClEXC 
 
 THE EASTERN SHOKE. 
 
 The island is connected with the main-land by four 
 wooden bridges, iirmly though rudely built. The river 
 is a tidal estuary about one thousand feet wide, in which 
 numerous small boats and junks are moored. 
 
 The imperial road as it approaches the city becomes 
 the 0-to-ri, or Grand Street, upon which are numerous 
 shops. Crossing a creek, one will find the residences of 
 the English and French legations on the left, and a httle 
 beyond the palace of Satsuma. The residence of the 
 American minister is still farther on. 
 
 There are no hotels in Yedo, and a visitor will be 
 under the necessity of putting up with such accommoda- 
 
460 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 tions as are found in the tea-houses. As yet liberty has 
 not been granted to foreigners to reside, outside of the 
 legations, but the restrictions doubtless will be removed 
 upon the revision of the present treaty. 
 
 Yedo proper is divided into three parts, — the Sii'o, or 
 Castle ; the Soto-Siro, or Outside of the Castle ; and the 
 Midzi, consisting of the town and suburbs. 
 
 The Castle is a city by itself, containing the palace of 
 the Tycoon, the residences of the three brothers of the 
 emperor, the members of the council of state, and of 
 about twenty of the high damios. That portion of the 
 Siro which contains the imperial palace is surrounded 
 by a high wall and several canals, which the public are 
 not aRowed to pass. 
 
 These royal residences have none of the magnificence 
 of the palaces of Europe, none of the comforts of our 
 own houses. A palace in Japan would be considered 
 rather a mean affair by most Americans. The man who 
 earns his daily bread by driving the plane or using the 
 trowel, and who goes home to a plainly furnished cottage, 
 to a table spread with such food as our mechanics pro- 
 vide for themselves and families, who lies down upon a soft 
 mattress at night, has far more comfort in life than those 
 princes of the empire, who sit on the floor at meal-time 
 and make it their couch during the night, with only a 
 mat for a bed, and a wooden block for a piUow. 
 
 These palaces have none of the " modern conveniences," 
 but without and within are cheerless and uncomfortable. 
 
 That portion of the city called the Soto-Siro is sepa- 
 rated from the Siro by a canal, and from the island of 
 Hondjo by the river. The canal is spanned by about 
 forty bridges. Smaller canals intersect this portion of 
 the city, which occupies an area of about five square 
 miles. One of the bridges bears the name of Niphon 
 Bass, or "Bridge of Japan," which is considered the 
 
TEDO. 461 
 
 centre of the empire, — all distances on the imperial 
 road being measured from it. This section contains a 
 large number of houses which are occupied by the small 
 damios and their retainers. The streets along the river 
 are given to mercantile pursuits. There are five run- 
 ning parallel with it, wliich are crossed at right angles 
 by twenty or thirty others, forming altogether seventy- 
 eight municipal districts, separated from each other by 
 wooden gates that are guarded by the police, who in- 
 stantly close them in case of a riot. 
 
 This is the only portion of Yedo that is densely popu- 
 lated. Here the tides of life flow from morning till 
 night, but the other sections of the city are as quiet almost 
 as a coimtry village. The eastern suburb on the island, 
 containing an area of seven square miles, is a retired 
 locality. It is traversed by canals, which are the bound- 
 aries of municipalities. In the western section, upon the 
 streets leading to the bridges, are shops and warehouses. 
 Farther eastward are residences of merchants, teniples 
 and palaces of damios. Each palace has a garden and 
 pleasure-grounds attached, each temple its grove. 
 
 The Midzi, or suburbs, contain an area of about twenty- 
 four square miles, in which are palaces, scattered resi- 
 dences of merchants, and temples. The entire area of 
 the city is about thirty-six square miles, or as large as 
 the townships laid out by the United States in the survey 
 of the public lands. 
 
 In boyhood we learned from our school geographies 
 that Yedo was the largest city in the world, containing 
 an estima^ted population of about three millions. But in 
 superficial extent it is surpassed by London, while in the 
 number of inhabitants it is excelled by that city. Pekin 
 and Paris probably equal it. If Brooklyn and New York 
 may be reckoned as forming the metropolis of the United 
 States, as Hondjo is considered a part of Yedo, or South- 
 
462 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 wark of London, then New York will rival the capital of 
 the Tycoon. 
 
 A large portion of the residents are retainers and ser- 
 vants of the damios, one half of whom by law must re- 
 side at the capital. 
 
 There are eighteen great damios and three hundred 
 and forty-two smaller ones. Each has his followers or 
 retainers. Satsuma, Bizen, and Chosu each have about 
 ten thousand followers. Nearly all of the great chiefs 
 have an equal number. The smaller damios have each 
 about two thousand. The followers of the great damios 
 always present may be set down at about ninety thou- 
 sand, and those of the smaller chiefs at three hundred 
 and forty thousand, — a total of four hundred and thirty 
 thousand soldiers and servants. 
 
 This at first view would seem to warrant the conclu- 
 sions which geographers have arrived at, that Yedo is the 
 largest city in the world, and that the population is from 
 three- to four millions. 
 
 The most satisfactory estimate which we have seen 
 in regard to the population of this capital may be found 
 in a communication made to the North China Branch of 
 the Asiatic Society. The writer resided at the capital, 
 and had made a careful estimate. He gives the follow- 
 ing summary : — 
 
 Followers of great damios . . 90,000 
 
 Followers of small damios . . . 342,000 
 
 Imperial officials .... 150,000 
 
 Priests ' . 200,000 
 
 Residents 572,000 
 
 1,354,000 
 
 But there is always a large floating population of pil- 
 grims and country traders, estimated at about two hun- 
 dred thousand. The most liberal estimate gives a mil- 
 lion and a half 
 
YEDO. 463 
 
 The description given by a gentleman who has long 
 resided at Yedo * will enable the traveller to understand 
 what Yedo is : — 
 
 " On arriving in the city itself, however, one is rather 
 disappointed. The temples disappear behind the trees 
 with which they are surrounded; the palaces resemble 
 scarcely anything better than large fire-proof warehouses ; 
 and the dwellings of the merchants and other citizens, 
 though extremely clean, are small, and look rather poor. 
 There are no handsome shops, no grand establishments, 
 no triumphal arches, no statues, no monuments ; in 
 short, nothing of what constitutes the beauty of our 
 Occidental capitals. The streets and quarters belonging 
 to the damios are almost deserted. The mercantile quar- 
 ter, tliough in it there is great animation, looks neither 
 jrich nor handsome ; and altogether there is not one street 
 in Yedo which could in the least recall such streets as, at 
 home, we expect to find in the capital of a great and 
 powerful empire. When riding through the damios' quar- 
 ter, one might easily fancy himself in a great and wealthy 
 village, or outside the park of some rich proprietor ; and 
 in passing through the mercantile district he might be- 
 lieve himself in a manufacturing city, crowded with a 
 poor population. Yedo, though not ugly, certainly does 
 not deserve the reputation for splendor and magnificence 
 which has been given to it by some writers." 
 
 The numerous temples in this great city, although very 
 much like those at Nagasaki and Osaka in their general 
 appearance, yet present sufficient, variation to make them 
 interesting to the traveller who wishes to become ac- 
 quainted with the habits, customs, social and religious 
 life of the Japanese. 
 
 * Paper communicated to North China Branch of the Asiatic Society, 
 December, 1864. 
 
464 OUK NEW WAY KOUND THE WOKLD. 
 
 CHAPTEE LVIII. 
 
 FEOM JAPAN TO CALIFOENIA. 
 
 THEEE are no steamsMps afloat that for comfort 
 equal those of the Pacific Mail Company, which 
 ply between Hong Kong and San Prancisco, touching at 
 Yokohama. 
 
 In the year 1865 Congress appropriated to a monthly 
 steam line of first-class ships between San Francisco, 
 Japan, and China, calling at the Sandwich Islands, an 
 annual payment of five hundred thousand doUars for ten 
 years for carrying the mails. The contract was awarded 
 to the Pacific Mail Company, and the service began the 
 1st of January, 1867, steamers leaving both ends of the 
 route, — the Colorado from San Francisco via Honolulu, 
 and the Few York from Hong Kong. The Costa Eica was 
 put on to ply between Shanghae and Yokohama, connect- 
 ing at the latter port with the New York. The Costa 
 Eica at that time made the trip round the southern point 
 of Japan. 
 
 It was discovered on the first voyage that the harbor 
 of Honolulu was not deep enough to flo9,t vessels of five 
 thousand tons' measurement, and authority was obtained 
 for a change of the route. The service to the Sandwich 
 Islands was cancelled in consideration of its extension 
 through the Inland Sea, carrying mails to Nagasaki. 
 Five round trips, including branch service, were per- 
 formed the first year, quarterly trips at first, and then one 
 every six weeks. Steamers now leave both ends of the 
 route once a month. The monthly service began Jime 1, 
 1868. Notwithstanding the great distance which these 
 
FEOM JAPAN TO CALIFOENIA. 465 
 
 sMps haye to run, about four thousand nine hundred 
 miles, without stopping, and with little prospect of trade 
 at first, the Colorado, the pioneer ship of the line, instead 
 of losing one hundred thousand dollars the first trip, net- 
 ted, we are informed, some sixty thousand dollars over all 
 expenses. From the start European travel and valuable 
 light freight, such as bullion, metals, raw silk, spices, 
 drugs, fine porcelain, teas, etc., have rapidly increased, 
 and the line has proved highly remunerative, the net 
 profits the first year on five round voyages being one hun- 
 dred and forty-seven thousand seven hundred and seventy- 
 two dollars and fifty-seven cents. 
 
 The largest portion of the revenue is from Chinese pas- 
 sengers, which are taken from Hong Kong to San Fran- 
 cisco at forty dollars per head. Each eastward-bound 
 steamer carries from one thousand to twelve hundred. 
 The Chinese do not go to the United States to remain, 
 but to make their little fortunes and return, and each 
 westward-bound ship has seven or eight hundred on 
 board. They are fed on rice, fish, pork, an^ beans. 
 
 These steamships have the greatest capacity of any 
 afloat. The one steamer Great Eastern alone is larger. 
 They are side-wheeled, with great breadth of beam. Four 
 of them, |;he Japan, Great Eepublic, China, and America, 
 have each a measurement of five thousand tons. The 
 engines have walking-beams, and are of fifteen hundred 
 horse power, which may be worked up to twenty-five 
 hundred. The cylinders are one hundred and five 
 inches in diameter, with twelve feet stroke ; the diame- 
 ters of the wheels forty feet, and the length of the shafts 
 sixty-seven feet. The state-rooms are large and comfort- 
 able, the cabins as wide and ornate in finish as the draw- 
 iug-rooms of a first-class hotel. The hulls are of wood,, 
 and subdivided by bulkheads into water-tight compart- 
 ments. Should fire break out, thirty-two streams of wa- 
 
 20* DD 
 
466 OUB NEW WAV KOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 ter from force-pumps, worked by the engine, may be put 
 in play in two minutes. 
 
 The size of these magnificent steamers gives them great 
 steadiness. The rate of speed is the same as that of the 
 Peninsular and Oriental ships, — nine and a half knots an 
 hovx The time between Yokohama and San Francisco is 
 twenty days. It might be made with ease in seventeen, 
 but at a reduction of the profits of the company, — the 
 increase of a mile or two per hour requiring a much larger 
 consumption of coal. 
 
 The action of the Pacific Mail Company in adopting 
 side-wheel vessels, when all European companies are 
 building screws, has been much criticised ; but the com- 
 pany, looking to the transportation of Chinese emigrants 
 as the chief source of revenue, chose a model which 
 would give room for a large number of steerage passen- 
 gers. 
 
 The steamer which bears us across the Pacific is the 
 Colorado, with one thousand Chinese emigrants. The 
 Great Eepublic lies in the harbor repairing a broken 
 shaft; and the China, twenty days from San Francisco, 
 drops her anchor while the Colorado is preparing to 
 depart. 
 
 The parting gun is fired, and we move down the bay, 
 but are brought to by a boat from Admiral Eowan's flag- 
 ship. A search among the Chinese passengers brings to 
 light four deserters, who are taken back to the fleet, and 
 the steamer, resuming her course, passes the entrance to 
 the bay, and strikes out into the broad ocean. 
 
 We have forty first-class passengers, sixteen of whom 
 are bound for Europe, as the nearest and cheapest way 
 home. It is the beginning of the tide which wiU. set 
 across the United States, now that the last rail is laid 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 
 
 Our course is straight across the Kuro Siwo, or " black 
 
FROM JAPA2J TO CALIFOENIA. 
 
 467 
 
 current," that flows up the eastern coast of Japan, ahout 
 forty miles per day, runs to the Aleutian Islands, and sets 
 even beyond them into the Polar Sea. 
 
 The shortest line from Hong Kong to San Francisco is 
 by the great circle which follows up this current, then 
 curves eastward and southward down the coast of Oregon. 
 But the sea is more boisterous m those high latitudes, 
 and the steamships strike a direct course from port to port. 
 In making the westward trips they run about two de- 
 grees south of those going east. 
 
 WATER CtJKE. 
 
 We have not space to speak ia detail of the few in- 
 cidents of the voyage, the chief one which relieves the 
 dull monotony being a scrimmage among the Chinese, 
 which is suppressed by the water cure, as seen in the 
 above illustration. 
 
 Sailiag vessels are not often seen. Day after day we 
 look out upon the dreary expanse of water, with nothing 
 to bound the sight. We tell stories, walk the deck, doze 
 away the hours, read tUl weary, watch the sparkling foam 
 
468 OUB NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 at night, gaze upon the stars, and throw crumbs from the 
 table to the keen-eyed waterfowl ever hovering along 
 our track. 
 
 The route of the steamers eastward carries them about 
 nine hundred miles north of the Sandwich Islands. The 
 nearest approach to land is when passing Hermes Island, 
 which lies two hundred miles south of the course. It is 
 of coral formation and uninhabited. The company have 
 a small quantity of coal stored there, that it may be made 
 available in case of emergency, 
 
 Not till we are within twenty-four hours' run of San 
 Francisco do we behold a sail. It is a pleasing sight. 
 More thrilling is it to behold the dark outline of hills and 
 the golden gateway of the continent, feeling that, though 
 we are three thousand miles from home, we have reached 
 our native land. 
 
 CHAPTER LIX, 
 
 CALIFOENIA. 
 
 WHAT a delightful story is that of Aladdin and his 
 wonderful lamp ! A gentle rub, a wish, and he 
 had aU his heart's desire. If he wanted a palace, it ap- 
 peared. The advancement of the fortunate owner was 
 from obscurity to renown, from poverty to affluence. 
 
 This fiction has ever been the delight of the Oriental 
 story-teUer. Whether rehearsed beneath the tent of the 
 wandering Bedouin in the heart of Arabia, or within the 
 gardens of Damascus, perfumed by flowering almonds and 
 pomegranates, it is still a most charming romance. But 
 here, where the golden gate of the American continent 
 
CALIFORNIA. 469 
 
 throws open its portals to the Orient, it is no longer a 
 fiction, but a reality. 
 
 It is but nineteen years since the shining particles of 
 gold were discovered in the rivers of this State. The 
 country then was but little better than a wilderness. 
 There were wide plains, the pasture-grounds of herds of 
 wild horses ; . and snow-clad mountains, the haunts of griz- 
 zly bears ; forests, where Indians gathered their store of 
 acorns ; and sand-hills, bare of vegetation. Through eight 
 ihonths of the year the clouds gave no rain. The sun 
 shone fiercely during the summer months. The grass 
 withered, the ground parched. It was a forbidding place 
 upon which to rear a palace ; but here it is, the most won- 
 derful edifice in the world ! 
 
 It is not necessary that we should dwell upon the his- 
 tory of California, — the discovery of gold on the Sacra- 
 mento ; the rush of miners, aroimd Cape Horn and across 
 the Isthmus of Panama ; the fortunes made or lost, the 
 crude society, the founding of the State, and its unpar- 
 alleled growth, — for the events are recent, and every one 
 remembers them. 
 
 We have been looldng at old pictures of Egypt, India, 
 China, and Japan, covered with the dust of ages. In 
 those lands, civilization is to-day very much as it has 
 been through twenty centuries. Sluggish existence there, 
 intense vitality here. 
 
 We look upon a forest of masts ; tow-boats moving 
 across the harbor, with great ships in their wake, like ants 
 tugging at burdens thrice their size ; a city spread over 
 the hills, house above house, steeple beyond steeple ; 
 steam shooting upward; tall chimneys, sending out 
 clouds of smoke ; streets crowded with cars, omnibuses, 
 coaches, drays, and aKve with human beings. School 
 children are studying their lessons. The screaming of 
 the locomotive echoes over the hills. A dull roar, like 
 
470 OUE NEW WAT KOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 that of Niagara, falls upon the ear. Here are all com- 
 forts and luxuries, — fruits, flowers, paintings, literature, 
 science, art. Here is law, religion, liberty. What other 
 age has produced so magnificent a structure ? Is not 
 the reality more wonderful than any fiction, of the 
 Orient ? 
 
 California is ahout seven hundred miles long and two 
 hundred wide ; or, to obtaiu a better idea, it extends on the 
 coast as far as from Boston to South Carolina, and its 
 breadth is equal to New Hampshire and Vermont together. 
 It has a population of nearly half a million. San Fran- 
 cisco and Sacramento have a population of nearly one 
 hundred and seventy thousand, leaving about three hun^ 
 dred thousand for this vast area of country, — as 
 large as New England, New York, and Pennsylvania 
 together. 
 
 The development of this State is unparalleled in his- 
 tory. Look first at the gold product, — eight hundred 
 and fifty millions of doUars ! The total amount of coin 
 in circulation throughout the world, before the discovery 
 of gold iu California, was estimated by political econo- 
 mists at three hundred and twenty millions. We have 
 the question of high prices, of everything we eat or wear 
 or consume, already settled. Australia has produced five 
 hundred millions. Fourteen hundred millions of gold 
 have been added to the bullion of the world, and the 
 result is a rise of price in everything. It is not the 
 war, not greenbacks. It is the same in Europe, in 
 India, China, Japan, as in the United States. California 
 and Australia are at the bottom of all the mischief 
 
 The product of gold in the State, which formerly was 
 sixty-five millions per annum, has fallen to about twenty- 
 five, but the State is not going backward ; on the con- 
 trary, the development never was so great as at the 
 present time. There is more wealth in the fertile soil 
 
CALIFOENIA. 471 
 
 of the plains yet to be transmuted into golden grain, 
 purple grapes, and fabrics of silk, than has been taken 
 from the mountain gulches. The surplus wheat crop of 
 1868 brought thirteen million dollars to the people. The 
 export of all products amounted to seventeen millions. 
 The grape-vines yielded three and a half million gallons 
 of wine and four hundred thousand gallons of brandy. 
 The sheep gave up about ten million pounds of wool to 
 the shearers. The manufactures of the entire State are 
 estimated at thirty million dollars per annum. The 
 increase of valuation last year is estimated at twenty- 
 one million. The assessed property, if equally divided, 
 would give over four hundred dollars to each man, 
 woman, child, Chinaman, and Digger Indian ! 
 
 There seems to be no limit to the grape culture. Vines 
 grow in the valleys and on the hills. Six or seven 
 milKon gallons of wine will be produced this season. 
 It has been discovered that a sea voyage gives a 
 peculiar flavor to California wine, as it does to the 
 wines of Europe. Not long since a gentleman in Berlin, 
 who had received an invoice, invited his friends to a 
 party, informing them that he had some hock from a 
 new vineyard, which needed a name. He did not in- 
 form them that it was from America till after they had 
 unanimously pronounced it about the best they had ever 
 tasted. The result is, that this State is sending wine to 
 Ehine-land ! 
 
 The cultivation of sUk has become a profitable occu- 
 pation. The cocoons produced here are said to be larger 
 than those of China. One great advantage which Cali- 
 fornia has over China, Japan, Syria, and Italy is in the 
 steadiness of the climate. There are no extremes of 
 heat and cold, no thunder-storms. The silk-worm, es- 
 pecially when spinning or about to spin, is often de- 
 stroyed by any sudden change in the electrical condition 
 
472 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 of the atmosphere. California is singularly exenipt 
 from thunder-storms, the mulherry flourishes, the climate 
 is equable, and all conditions, except the dearness of labor, 
 are favorable for the cultiration of silk. 
 
 EaiLroads are being opened throughout the State, — 
 southward to the rich alluvial counties, eastward and 
 northward to the mines in the mountains ; over the Sierra 
 Nevada range, connectitig the iron network of the western 
 slope with the vast spider's web of the Union. 
 
 But railroads, wine, wool, brandy, wheat, and fertile lands 
 do not alone constitute a State. Education and religion, 
 — the school-house and the church, — are vital elements. 
 Without these the State would be a Sodom. The found- 
 ers of this Commonwealth have not left them out. The 
 school fund already amoimts to one million dollars, and is 
 rapidly increasing. Every school district has its library, 
 its maps, charts, and globes. There is a State Board of 
 Education and a Superintendent of Instruction. 
 
 Climbing the steep hOls over which the city is spread- 
 ing its streets we reach a school-house where the voices of 
 eight hundred girls, singing their mornrag songs, fall upon 
 our ears. Their eyes are as bright, their cheeks as bloom- 
 ing, their intellects as keen, as those of the older States. 
 Transportation to this side of the Sierra Nevada has not 
 diminished the iron or oxygen in the blood of the rising 
 generation. San Francisco has the school system of 
 Boston. Buildings, discipline, order, advancement, are 
 -similar. Another short walk brings us to the Lincoln 
 School, where one thousand boys are obtaining the rudi- 
 ments of knowledge. The building is an ornament to the 
 city, and for elegance is hardly surpassed in the country. 
 The cosmopolitan character of the community is seen in 
 this school, the head-master of which is a Pole, sub- 
 teachers Americans, the teacher of music an Irishman. 
 English, Irish, German, French, Italian, and South Amer- 
 
CALIFOBNIA. 473 
 
 ican children are found in the classes. Notwithstanding 
 the many nationalities, the grand machine moves without 
 friction, accomplishing a mighty work for the nullions of 
 our land. 
 
 The city has a Normal School, one for the education of 
 teachers ; a high school for boys, one for girls, one Latin, 
 eight grammar, twenty-four primary schools.. In 1860 
 the number of children in tlie city under fifteen years of 
 age was 12,116 ; the census of this year gives 34,720, — an 
 increase of about three hundred per cent. Twenty thousand 
 of these are being educated at an annual expense of three 
 hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The principals of 
 the high schools have a salary of $2,500, gold; their 
 female assistants, $1,200. The principals of the gram- 
 mar schools, $ 2,100 ; sub-masters, $ 1,500 ; female assist- 
 ants from $ 600 to $ 1,000. 
 
 The course of instruction may not be as systematic in 
 the United States as in Prussia, but it is less mechanical. 
 The education received in Germany may be more thorough, 
 but the American system is more elastic, and fits a 
 scholar to adapt himself to any avocation. 
 
 Our visit to the lincoln School is on a day when the 
 scholars take part in a general literary exercise. They 
 have two debating societies, and the question for discus- 
 sion is whether Congress was justifiable in executing 
 Major Andr^. The disputants are only from twelve to 
 fourteen years old, and, considering that the subject 
 embraces poiats of military and iuternational law, and 
 is of a high polemic character, it is well handled. The 
 superintendent and a portion of the school committee 
 are present, — gentlemen who are .elected by strict party 
 vote. This method of choosing the guardians of our 
 schools is one of the worst of our political practices. 
 Not unfrequently men are elected who are unfitted to 
 hold the position. 
 
474 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 At the conclusion of the literary exercise, the memhers 
 of the committee are called upon for speeches. 
 
 There are no foreign visitors present to listen to their 
 rhetoric and oratory ; hut if there were, they would not be 
 likely to go home with exalted opinions' of the tendency 
 of the American school system. One red-faced, burly man 
 makes a grandiloquent speech, eulogizing Nathan Hale, 
 the patriots of the Eevolution, and glorifying the American 
 eagle. He does not lose the opportunity of throwing 
 stones at England. It is a speech best characterized by 
 the colloquial term " splurge," suitable nowhere, not even 
 on the stump. The time has gone by for arraigning 
 George III. and Lord North for their conduct during our 
 struggle for liberty. It is neither politic, wise, nor honest 
 to instO. into the youthful mind animosity towards Eng- 
 land or any other nation, especially for acts committed 
 nearly a century ago. This is a speech by an individual, 
 and -we should be doing injustice to the community in 
 allowing the impression to go abroad that all gentlemen 
 elected to the guardianship of our public schools were 
 given to making such harangues. " Whenever you see a 
 head^ hit it," is the rule at Donnybrook; and it is a poor 
 rule that will not apply to America as well as to Ireland, 
 England, India, or any other land. For this reason we 
 speak just as freely of what we see in San Francisco as in 
 countries the other side of the globe. 
 
 If this people have developed their material interests, 
 they have not neglected the intellectual and moral. 
 Churches abound. The pulpit oratory of San Fran- 
 cisco is not surpassed by that of any city on the con- 
 tinent. Sabbath schools flourish, not only in the city, but 
 throughout the State. What other country has had such 
 development ? What other has such a prospect for the 
 coming years ? 
 
 What other can exhibit such variety of products, — 
 
CALIFOENIA. 475 
 
 animal, mineral, and vegetaMe, — wool and silk, gold and 
 quicksilver; wheat, wine, apples, pears, strawberries, 
 melons, peaches, plums, oranges, lemons, olives, bana- 
 nas ? Here is a commingliQg of temperate and semi- 
 tropical climes. The country is exeeediagly fertile, the 
 cliinate delightful, the scenery enchanting. And yet, 
 looking out upon the fields on these autumnal days, 
 everjrthiQg is uninviting, — grass dry and withered,\ the 
 summer flowers dead, the leaves of the live-oaks gray 
 with dust, the ground harder baked than the brownest 
 loaf that ever came from a baker's oven, the brooks dry, 
 the rivers shrunken to rivulets, and the entire country 
 has a thirsty look as if at its last gasp. But the rain 
 win be falling a few weeks hence : it will pour from the 
 clouds in December and January, and the ground will 
 drink its fill for another season. 
 
 "What a paradise this State would be to the poor 
 wretches starving out a miserable existence in the cellars 
 and garrets of our great cities ! Here are millions of 
 acres waiting for the cultivator. This soil has untold 
 riches for him who will but cast in the seed. We look 
 forward to the time when all over this western slope of 
 the continent there will be farm-houses, villages, cities, 
 schools, churches, and all the elements of a civilization 
 which has already gained a lofty elevation, and is mov- 
 ing on to heights yet unattained. 
 
476 ODE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 CHAPTEE LX. 
 
 TOSEMITE. 
 
 ABOUT one hundred |,nd fifty miles southeast of San 
 Francisco are those two wonders of the world, " the 
 Big Trees" and the Yosemite valley. They are most 
 easily reached by taking a steamer to Stockton, thence 
 by stage up the San Joaquin valley. There are two 
 routes by which Yosemite may be approached, but we 
 would advise all tourists to go by Mariposa and return 
 by CoultervUle. The distance from Stockton by Coul- 
 tervOle to Yosemite is one hundred and twenty-two miles ; 
 by Mariposa, one hundred and forty-one ; but the first 
 view of the valley on the Mariposa trail is one which 
 never will fade from memory. It is worth a journey 
 across the continent to behold it. 
 
 It is a tedio^is and dusty ride over the plains. We 
 cross the Stanislaus, Tuolomne, and Merced Eivers, all 
 affluents of the San Joaquia. Nearly aH the towns 
 through which we pass have a seedy look. They were 
 thriving places fifteen years ago, when the miners were 
 tramping over these hills and valleys. Now we see 
 only here and there gangs of Chinamen at work iu the 
 sluices. They pay four dollars a month for the privi- 
 lege of mining in these gulches, which have already been 
 worked over several times ; but each year brings new de- 
 posits of gold from the mountains, and as the wants of 
 these people are few, they make a good thing of it. 
 
 Mariposa is a county seat. The town is situated on a 
 hillside sloping west, with a main street, a hotel, livery- 
 stables, stores, shops, drinking-saloons, a court-house, small 
 
YOSEMITE. 477 
 
 chuxch, a quartz-mill of one hundred stamps, its engine 
 motionless, its doors closed, and an atmosphere of dul- 
 ness pervading the place. The people sit in front of the 
 saloons, when they are not inside taking a drink, living 
 on expectations, just as they are in every other played-out 
 mining town in the State. They are discussing the 
 future. The railroad is coming ; crowds of tourists will 
 be here ; the quartz-mill will start again ; new leads have 
 been found ; better days are at hand. So they comfort 
 themselves. 
 
 Here we take saddle-horses, with a fifty-imle ride 
 before us. The stage usually arrives early enough in 
 the day to allow travellers to go on to Hatch's the 
 same night. It is thirteen miles beyond Mariposa, in a 
 dense forest of pines, which are six, eight, and ten feet 
 in diameter, and some of them one hundred and fifty feet 
 high. 
 
 In such a forest our host has reared his home. Noth- 
 ing can be more delightful than, after a brisk gallop over 
 the hills, to wash off the dust at the spring pouring out 
 its crystal ilood in rear of the house, sit down to veni- 
 son steak and mountain trout, with whitest bread and 
 preserved fruits prepared by the charming hostess ; and 
 then walk in the cool of the evening beneath the grand 
 old trees, where the sohtude is so profound, and there is 
 such stillness in the air that you are startled by your own 
 footsteps. 
 
 Another thirteen-mile ride in the morning takes us to 
 Clark's, whose nearest neighbor is Mr. Hatch. 
 
 Mr. Clark is custodian of the Mariposa grove and Yo- 
 semite valley. We find his home a long, low building of 
 rifted logs, a sitting-room with a great fireplace, where 
 the pitch knots blaze in the cool evenings, with shadows 
 dancing on the walls, bringing back the dreams and reali- 
 ties of boyhood days. Mr. Clark is out hunting grizzly 
 
478 OUB NEW WAY ROUND THE WOELD. 
 
 bears among the moimtains, witli Uanket and kaapsack, 
 to be gone a week, accompanied by another hunter. To 
 these woodsmen there is no pleasure in the world to be 
 compared with this. 
 
 A party of Digger Indians have been out after a deer 
 for our supper, and here they come with a fine buck. 
 
 An old squaw has lost a pappoose, and has put on 
 mourning by smearing her face with pitch ! To her it is 
 as sensible and appropriate as it is for us to wear black 
 crape or for the Japanese to appear in white. 
 
 It is five miles to the grove of big trees, though there 
 are trees aU around us which would be called big in the 
 East. We climb a mountain, reach an altitude of seven 
 thousand feet, our horses all the way plimging their hoofs 
 into granulated rock, hardly enough decomposed to ,be 
 classed as soil. A few minutes' ride down the south- 
 western slope, and we are among the monarchs of the 
 forest They do hot seem to be at first sight very much 
 larger than the surrounding pines, and it is only by 
 measurement and comparison that we can comprehend 
 their magnitude. The great elm on Boston Common 
 is .between six and seven feet in diameter, but here- are 
 six hundred tregs, the smallest of which is twelve feet 
 in diameter, and the largest thirty-three ! The measure- 
 ments which give these diameters are taken one yard 
 from the ground. Ten feet up they have diminished 
 about one third, but above that hold their dimensions to a 
 great height. One which fell many years ago, from which 
 the bark has crumbled, is now thirty-three feet in diame- 
 ter, and we can walk two hundred and fifty feet along 
 that portion of the trunk which has not yet decayed. 
 One board from this tree would be sufiicient to wall in 
 the side of a meeting-house. We might hew from this 
 single trunk the hull of a ship of greater tonnage than 
 the Santa Maria, in which Columbus crossed the ocean ! 
 
YOSEMITE. 
 
 479 
 
 One larger even than the Mayflower of tlie Pilgrims ! 
 Sit clown and look at the monster called the " Grizzly 
 Giant." It is ninety feet up to the first limb, which is six 
 feet and four inches in diameter ! A limb one hundred 
 and thirty feet from the ground has been broken off 
 thirty feet from the body of the tree, and the fallen por- 
 tion lies before us, eleven feet in circumference, or nearly 
 four feet in diameter ! There are thirteen of us in our 
 party, iind we all ride into the burned cavity of one tree 
 still standing, and sit there upon our horses, with room 
 for sis or eight more ! 
 
 The illustratio*Q below, showing the cavity, is engraved 
 from a photL^i iph, and ib not exr^^^^eiited or in any 
 
 ONE F THE BILr TPECS 
 
 respect changed l:iy the artist from the original in our 
 possession; and yet this is a tree of medium size. 
 
480 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 We ride thirty feet through the hollow trunk of a 
 fallen tree, as if it were a section of the Thames Tunnel, 
 or of a tubular railway bridge ! 
 
 There is another grove in Calaveras County where the 
 trees are loftier than these, but of less circumference. 
 There are several other groves along the western slope of 
 the mountains. 
 
 Our wonder at the magnitude of these trees becomes 
 amazement when we look upon the cones produced by 
 them, and find they are not larger than a hen's egg, 
 and the seeds a mere speck. It would take a dozen of 
 them to weigh down an apple-seed ! Yet, enfolded in 
 this little feathery cell, which our gentlest breathing will 
 send whirling through the air, is another forest monarch 
 as mighty as these around us. Drop it in the soil, and 
 hundreds of years hence it, too, shall be just such a won-- 
 der as this, within whose trunk men may make their 
 home. How wonderful the chemistry of sunlight and 
 air and rain, that from a tiny germ can build such 
 a structure ! which can set its millions of pumps at 
 work, forcing sap to the topmost twig, distribute it into 
 the formation of fibrous bark, solid wood, and resin as 
 clear as crystal, with sweet and fragrant odors ! There 
 are mightier sermons in these trees than ever were uttered 
 by human Hps. Centuries ago they were just thrusting 
 their spires from the ground. "What tides of human his- 
 tory have rolled away since then ! They do not set us to 
 thinking of what man has been doing, but of what the 
 Almighty has done. These are the survivors of an almost 
 extinct flora, — of the period of mastodons, megatheriums, 
 and of bullfrogs weighing a ton. They seem to be out 
 of place in the flora and fauna of these times, and more in 
 keeping with the extinct monsters of those primeval years. 
 While they remain they will be the wonder of the world. 
 
 We cross the south fork of the Eio de los Merced, — > 
 
YOSEMITE. 481 
 
 the " river of mercy," — which has its source amid the 
 gleaming snow-fields that lie around the loftiest peaks of 
 the Sierras. Our path winds up the eastern side of the 
 ravine till we reach a height of eight thousand feet, and 
 from whence we look over the surrounding hiUs, covered 
 with trees of such magnitude as can be found in no 
 other portion of the world.- What wealth of verdure 
 in the cedars, as gigantic as those of Lebanon ; in the 
 pines, two hundred feet high ; and ia the slender balsam, 
 whose silver-tipped leaves, waving above us, fill this tem- 
 ple of Almighty God with health-giving odors ! The sun- 
 shine falls through leafy boughs across our path. The 
 swelling hiUs lie all around us. We climb their slopes 
 with such exhilaration of spirit as is experienced only 
 when we leave the lowlands and rise towards heaven. 
 
 We descend into deep dells, exchanging the bright s'un- 
 shine for twilight at noonday. These solitudes are never 
 disturbed. Song-birds sing on the plains, but we do not 
 hear the plaintive note of the sparrow or the cheerful 
 whistle of Bob White in the depths of the forest. Quails 
 have made their appearance round the dwellings of set- 
 tlers in the valleys, but their swift wings never fan the 
 air of these lofty regions. 
 
 There are voices in these solitudes, but they are silent 
 through the summer days. By and by, when storms 
 arise, they will join in such harmony as never yet pealed 
 from organ, orchestra, or choir, in temple or cathedral 
 reared by human hands. How sublime to hear the diapa- 
 son of the storm thundering in the distant valleys, and 
 reverberating among the mountains ! There " the voice of 
 the Lord breaketh the cedars." The lofty pines bend like 
 reeds before the blast ! 
 
 But all is calm and peaceful to-day, and, while our 
 horses plod along the narrow trail, we indulge in such 
 reflections as befit the hour. 
 
 21 EB 
 
482 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 It is twenty-six mUes from Clark's to the valley, and 
 throughout the entire distance there is no house, nor do 
 we hear the sound of the woodman's axe, or crack of the 
 hunter's riile, or low of herds upon the hills. There is 
 not air enough to stir the quivering aspen. Amid such 
 calmness and through such solitudes we approach the 
 great chasm- which the Almighty has cleft amid the 
 mounta.ins. 
 
 The Yosemite Yalley is situated on the western side of 
 the Sierras, about one hundred and fifty miles southeast 
 of San Francisco. The Ibftiest. peaks of the, range are 
 in the immediate vicinity. Before coming in Yiew .of 
 the valley, we catch here and there a glimpse of the ele- 
 vations beyond. The suinmits are rounded masses of gray 
 granite. They are composed of solid rock, rising above 
 the general level like the domes, of .a, mosque above an 
 Oriental city. But it is unfitting for us to institute a 
 cojnparison between this architecture of the .Almighty 
 with that of Damascus or Stamboul. , , . ' ., 
 
 The domes of St. Sophia and Suliman, so beautiful from 
 the Bosphorus, so mean when we approach thepi, bear no 
 more comparison to those of the Sierras than the card- 
 houses reared by children bear to the city of London. 
 The gray granite fashions itself into mansions, palaces, 
 and cathedrals. Imagination pictures a celestial city 
 above the clouds. The setting sun, falling on fields of 
 gleaming snow, illumines its jasper walls and pearly 
 gates with heavenly light. 
 
 Suddenly we find ourselves on the brink of an awful 
 chasm. One mad leap of our horse, and we should fall 
 three fourths of a mile ! The heart ceases for a moment 
 to beat. We hold our breath. The brain reels. ;N"o word 
 of exclamation. Every voice is hushed. The soul stands 
 in awe before this revelation of Omnipotence. This is 
 God's work. Eternal might alone cleft the chasm, rived 
 
YOSEllITE. 
 
 483 
 
 the I'ock, and reared tlie lofty domes. So vast, grand, ma- 
 jestic, so filled with God's presence, is this cathedral of 
 his, that we dare not speak. Hang over the chasm, if 
 
 SOUTH DOME, — 5,000 FEET. 
 
 yonx nerves are steady enough, and look into its depths. 
 Those little green points, like plants just springing from 
 a garden hed, are gigantic forest-trees. That foliage of 
 brighter hue, no larger than a tuft of grass, is an oak, 
 ^dlich has withstood the storms of centuries. That thread 
 of silver winding through the valley is a river, which has 
 poured its flood down a precipice twenty-seven hundred 
 feet. The opposite wall of the chasm rises three fourths 
 of a mile. It is a perpendicular rock, without seam or 
 scar to mar its beauty. 
 
 v'en.vhelmned by the scene, we can only gaze as one 
 
484 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 who has suddenly passed into a higher existence and 
 heholds things "not lawful for a man to utter." We 
 think of that holy city which Buuyan's POgTim saw 
 beyond the river, from the Delectable Mountains. The 
 sublimest imagery of the Eevelation of St. John, portray- 
 ing the transcendant glory of the New Jerusalem, alone 
 is adequate to describe it. White clouds rest above it as 
 the angelic host once hovered over the hills of Bethlehem, 
 and sung the sweetest music ever heard on earth. The 
 Merced, like the river of life proceeding from the throne 
 of God, winds down from the celestial city making glad 
 the peaceful vale. 
 
 like the song of the redeemed is the music of the many- 
 voiced waters, swelling upward through the evening air. 
 We behold beauty, grandeur, majesty, immensity, and 
 omnipotence, and hear the Te Deum Laudamus ever 
 ascending. 
 
 There are eight persons in our company, and we join in 
 singing Old Hundred ; but how insignificant ! The only 
 fitting choir would be the whole church militant singing 
 the Hallelujah Chorus of the Messiah ! 
 
 The choirs are hidden from our view, but we can 
 hear them chanting, as priests chanted in the temple 
 service at Jerusalem. 
 
 " In his hand are the deep places of the earth, 
 The strength of the hills is his also." 
 
 Night is coming on, and we work our way down the 
 zigzag path. It is too steep for easy riding ; if we do not 
 dismount, the chances are that we shall be flying through 
 the air and over the horse's head. 
 
 The ladies of our party are equipped for mountain 
 travel They have left all impediments suitable for 
 parlor and drawing-room behind, and appear in short 
 skirts, stout boots, thick gloves, and hats broad enough 
 
yOSEMITE. 
 
 485 
 
 to protect the face from the sun. Invigorated by the 
 
 fresh air of these lofty heights, with spirits quickened by 
 
 the wonders of the place, they go down the trail like 
 
 light-hearted chil- 
 dren enjojdng a 
 
 holiday. 
 
 From Inspn i 
 
 tion Point the \il 
 
 ley may be seen 
 
 through nearly itb 
 
 entire length. A 
 
 portion of the 
 
 chasm lies west of 
 
 us, but the most 
 
 wonderful section 
 
 is eastward. 
 
 A glance at the 
 
 map on the ne\t 
 
 page wiU show the 
 
 location of the pim- 
 
 cipal points. 
 From the bend m 
 
 the ]\Iariposa tnil 
 to Mirror Lake 
 the distance is not 
 far from seven miles. Tlie greatest width is about one 
 mile. The barometer gives the elevation of the Merced 
 Eiver, at the western end of the chasm, at four thousand 
 and sixty feet, the Mirror Lake at a h'ttle more than four 
 thousand one hundred feet. The Merced is about seventy 
 feet in width, so clear that the finest particles of mica 
 mixed with the pure white sand sparkle like silver in its 
 crystal depths. Ferns, flowers, and grasses grow along its 
 banks. 
 
 The pines are as lofty as those upon the hills. There 
 
 EQUIPPED FOR YOSE^IITE. 
 
486 
 
 OUE NEW WAY EOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 are smiling meadows and glens, so sheltered by overhang- 
 ing crags that it is always twilight m the mossy shade. 
 
 The valley wi- 
 dens as we ap- 
 proach its eastern 
 end, and takes a 
 form which may 
 be likened to the 
 outlines of a tran- 
 sept in some 
 grand cathedral, 
 and through it 
 flows the maia 
 fork of the JMer- 
 ced. Groiag up 
 this transept two 
 miles and ascend- 
 ing two thousand 
 feet, we reach the 
 Vernar Falls, and 
 beyond them the 
 Nevada Falls. 
 
 A night's rest 
 in the hotel kept 
 by.Mr. Hutchins, 
 who spreads be- 
 fore us bountiful 
 repasts of trout 
 and venison, of 
 blackberries .and 
 cream, and we are 
 ready at an early 
 morning hour to 
 behold the won- 
 ders of the valley. 
 
 TOSEMITB VALLBT. 
 
YOSEMITE. 
 
 487 
 
 The pen cannot port-ray its grandeur. We attempt no 
 detailed description. 
 
 In our journey to the hotel we pass Tu-toch-ar-nu-lah, 
 the " Great Chief," or El Capitan. It is a cliff of solid 
 
 1 L vriT \x 
 
 f^Tanite, without a seam, — rising perpendicularly from 
 the meadow thirty-three hundred feet. Tlie valley oppo- 
 site is so narrow that, if some mighty convulsion were to 
 send the Great Chief reeling southward, he would fall 
 against the confronting wall. The Po-ho-no fall descends 
 in silver spray, nine hundred feet from the edge of the 
 rock into the chasm. 
 
 The Indians reverenced it as the "Wind Spirit," but 
 Anglo-Saxon taste has discarded the appropriate name and 
 christened it the " Bridal Veil." 
 
 AU that is said of the beauty of the Staubbach — the 
 
488 OUK NEW WAY BOUND THK WORLD. 
 
 dust fall of Lautertnmnen, the most beautifiLl of European 
 waterfalls — can be said of this, and more, for this has a 
 greater descent, a larger volume of water, with the added 
 glory and grandeur of surrounding primeval forests. Simile 
 and metaphor can convey no adequate conception of its 
 ever-varying heauty. 
 
 Opposite the hotel are the Tosemite Falls. We gaze 
 upward, vainly endeavoring to realize that the broad white 
 stream has a descent of nearly twenty-seven hundred feet. 
 Yet so it is. There are two perpendicular descents ; the 
 upper one fifteen hundred feet, the lower one four hun- 
 dred, with an intervening cascade. The frontispiece of 
 this volume is faithfully reproduced from a photograph, 
 and gives the relative height and surrounding scenery. 
 The reader will obtain the best conception of the depth 
 of the chasm by the forest-trees. Those in the foreground 
 are lofty pines, and so are those in the background, near 
 the cliff. They are from one hundred to one hundred and 
 fifty feet in height. Pick out the tallest, measure its 
 height by the eye, then set it against the precipice, arid 
 see how little way it reaches up. It is no more than a 
 yard-stick against the pine itself, or the highest reach of 
 the upraised arm of a chQd against a church-steeple. It 
 is only by some such standard that we can comprehend 
 the height of this wall. 
 
 In the spring of the year, when the rains and the sun 
 dissolve the snow upon the mountains, this cataract is a 
 hundred times more majestic than in autumn. We have 
 evidence of its power in the great boulders of granite 
 around us, larger than a thirty-ton locomotive, which in 
 years gone by came thundering down the dizzy height, 
 snapping the largest trees as if they were but pipe- 
 stems, and crushing and pulverizing the rocks. So the 
 Almighty sets the forces of nature to grinding the solid 
 granite into flour for human food, — the " Eiver of Mercy " 
 
YOSEMITK 489 
 
 wafting it out upon the meadows, to be transmuted by 
 golden sunlight and nightly dews into ripened wheat and 
 purpling grapes. 
 
 Science is at a loss to account for the formation of this 
 abyss. Was it chiselled out ? Then what became of the 
 chips ? Or was there a falling in of the bottom, — a giv- 
 ing way of the props beneath ? Omnipotent might alone 
 could rend these miles of solid rock as if they had no more 
 tenacity than pipe-clay, — the same Omnipotence which 
 shields the sparrow and crowns the years with goodness. 
 
 Beautiful names the Indians had for these cliffs and 
 domes. On the opposite side of the valley is Wah-wah- 
 le-nah, — the Secret Hiding-Place. All Indian names of 
 four syllables are accented on the third, as Min-ne-ha-ha, 
 Altamaha. We have given a wrong pronunciation to 
 Piscataqua ; the true rendering is Pis-ca-ta'-qua. And so 
 with Niagara, which if pronounced properly would be 
 Ni-a-ga'-ra. 
 
 The three lofty cliffs which bore the sweet name of 
 Wa-wa-le-neh' are now known as the " Three Graces." 
 
 Upon the same side of the valley, a little farther along, 
 are the cathedral rocks and spires, — outlines of but- 
 tressed walls and lofty towers, in which we may trace a 
 resemblance to the facade of the minster of York or St. 
 Gudule. Those edifices may be two hundred feet high, 
 but these rise twenty-four hundred. Still farther along 
 we stand amazed before the grandeur and beauty of the 
 Sentinel Dome, an isolated rock, gray and hoary, its apex 
 about four thousand feet above the floor of the cathedral. 
 
 In the -wildest gorges there is only twilight through the 
 brightest day. We look up to mountains rising five thou- 
 sand feet above the valley, to gray domes, inaccessible to 
 human feet, where the eagle builds his nest undisturbed, 
 and where storms, tempests, and rolling thunder alone 
 break the awful solitude. 
 
 21* 
 
490 OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Eiding up the main valley .to the place where the 
 Merced mirrors the grandeur in a lakelet, we stand he- 
 tween the North and South Domes. The peak on the 
 north side of the chasm is as symmetrical as the roof of 
 St. Sophia, but haK of the South Dome has heen cleft 
 away. Lay a round Dutch cheese upon a block, and cut 
 it through at a stroke, and the cleavage would not be 
 smoother or more complete than this ! It is straight 
 down two thousand feet, and then slightly deflected 
 twenty-five hundred farther to the level of the valley. 
 
 It is between five and six thousand feet from the lake 
 to the summit of this riven dome. No exact measure- 
 ment has been obtained, for it is inaccessible. Five thou- 
 sand two hundred and eight feet make a mile. Measure 
 that distance along the road, or think of the White Moun- 
 tains as riven from the Tip-Top House down to the level 
 of the sea, — the cut as sharp and clean as if made by 
 one single stroke of the sword of the Almighty ! 
 
 Such is the architecture of this cathedral. How insig- 
 nificant and contemptible the grandest structures from 
 human hands when compared with this ! The apex of the 
 dome of St. Peter's, the noblest edifice of Christendom, is 
 about four hundred feet high, and men stand beneath it 
 and gaze in wonder at the vastness and immensity, admir- 
 ing the genius of Michael Angelo which could plan such 
 an edifice. But what is St. Peter's to this 1 less than the 
 little block-house reared by a toddUng child upon the 
 parlor floor. 
 
 Bring all the grand cathedrals of the Old World, with 
 their wealth of ornate arcMtecture, and frescoed walls, 
 and what are they in comparison with this mountain 
 edifice ? Bring New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Balti- 
 more, Washington, Chicago, — all the churches, ware- 
 houses, shops, stores, dwellings, — tumble them in, and 
 it will not be half full ! 
 
SALT LAKE. 491 
 
 Comparison, measurement, metaphor fail We can only- 
 gaze in awe -while in this temple of the Almighty, and 
 say, -with hushed hreath, 
 
 " Lo, God is here ! Let us adore, 
 And own how wondrous is this place ! " 
 
 CHAPTEE LXI. 
 
 SALT LAKE. 
 
 FEOM the top of an overland stage-coach we have our 
 first look at the chief city of the Latter-Day Saints 
 as -we approach it from the -west. We behold a beautiful 
 panorama. North-ward is the Great Salt Lake, calmly re- 
 posing beneath an autumnal sky, not a ripple on its sur- 
 face, not a li-ving thing in its transparent waters ; a 
 solitude as profound as that brooding over the Dead 
 Sea of Palestine. Eastward rises a mountain wall, white 
 with snow at the top, with hues like the ever-changing ani- 
 line dyes upon the slopes and in the ravines and gorges. 
 Southward is the Salt Lake valley, through which flows 
 the Jordan, — not the stream dear to the Church Univer- 
 sal, but the Jordan of this Latter-Day Church, flo-wing 
 through a valley ten or fifteen miles wide. 
 
 Before us lies the city, spread out upon a gentle slope. 
 Many of the houses are surrounded by gardens, giving it 
 the appearance of a large place, whereas the population 
 does not exceed twenty-five thousand. 
 
 In the spring of 1847 Brigham Young, -with one hun- 
 dred and forty-three pioneers, started from Missouri to 
 find a place far from ci-vilization where the church estab- 
 lished by Joseph Smith might have room for its full 
 
492 OUE NEW WAY EOXMD THE WORLD. 
 
 development. They arrived in this valley on the 24th of 
 July, the same year. They were one thousand miLes from 
 the nearest Gentile. Beyond them was the great unex- 
 plored desert, and still beyond was the Sierra Nevada, and 
 beyond that was California. Gold had not then been 
 discovered, or if discovered the news had not reached the 
 Eastern States. Amid the seclusion of the mountains, at 
 the heart of the continent, wij;h room for expansion to 
 Mexico on the south, the Pacific on the west, the frigid 
 zone on the north, with the Eocky Mountains, that 
 would be forever a barrier between them and those whom 
 they deemed persecutors, the Saints determined to build a 
 church and establish the State of Deseret, a religion and 
 government both diverse and antagonistic to any existing 
 ecclesiastical organization or republican order of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It was a forbidding prospect. This was a verdureless 
 valley. The wild artemisia, which feeds on alkali, was the 
 only growth of the plains. Along the river there were a 
 few willows. Up in the mountains there was lumber, and 
 when the spring rains came there was grass on the hill- 
 sides ; but the heats of July and August parched the 
 ground and baked it into solid cake. Swarms of grass- 
 hoppers came from the sands and devoured all vegetation. 
 But streams trickled from the mountain-sides, and the 
 settlers saw that they could be turned to account for ir- 
 rigation. Ditches were dug, potatoes planted, bricks 
 moulded, cabins reared, a city laid out. Food became 
 scarce, wolves, foxes, fish, sage-roots, seeds of the moim- 
 tain pine, were consumed. The first grain crop was a 
 failure. It was not more than six inches high, and the 
 grasshoppers devoured it. Many settlers became dis- 
 couraged and returned to Missouri, and others died. Then 
 came the rush of overland emigrants to California. The 
 gold-fever took away some, but those who remained had 
 strong faith and zeal. 
 
SALT LAKE. 493 
 
 They had covenanted at Nauvoo never to cease their 
 efforts nor relax their zeal till every man, womanj and 
 child who wished to come should have the means of 
 reaching Salt Lake. A missionary fund was established, 
 and missionaries went out in 1850 to England, Sweden, 
 Norway, and Denmark, and thousands of converts came 
 trooping to this land. The missionaries went to the poor, 
 the toUing, the hopeless. In this far-off valley there was 
 no moneyed power to oppress them; no laws to grind 
 them down. Here was freedom, work, plenty, comfort, 
 — a blessed future for time, and in the bosom of the 
 church bliss for eternity. They preached the new gospel. 
 Eevelation had not died out with the Apostles, but it was 
 still contmued through the servant of the Lord Jesus, that 
 holy apostle and head of the church on earth, Brigham 
 Young. Come and hear the tidings, be baptized for the 
 remission of sins ! Accept the bliss ! 
 
 Is it any wonder that willing ears and consenting 
 hearts were found when the attractiveness of this new 
 Zion was preached to the poor, toiling, ignorant people 
 of Europe ? England at once became the grand recruit- 
 ing-ground. Thousands who wished to come to America 
 found that the church of the Latter-Day Saints had the 
 machinery of emigration in operation, agents to help, 
 steamships to carry them. The church was ready to ad- 
 vance money to enable them to reach the land blessed 
 of the Lord. 
 
 Benefits for this life and special blessing for the life 
 eternal were influential motives. The Welsh miner, who 
 had groped for years in darkness in the collieries of Eng- 
 land, here might walk over his own green acres. The 
 men of Denmark, who found it hard work to keep soul 
 and body together on the marshes of their native land, 
 here could find ease and comfort in a genial clime. And 
 if there were men with strong passions anywhere ia the 
 
494 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 wide world, here, in the bosom of the church, they could 
 religiously gratify all carnal desire, and serve God ac- 
 ceptably while so doing. 
 
 The church maintains a rigid police, — ordinary, special, 
 and ecclesiastical. The ordinary and 'special police are 
 appointed by the Mayor, Mr. Apostle Wells, — Brigham 
 Young's right-hand man, chosen by him to administer 
 secular affairs, — and hold their of&ce at his pleasure. The 
 ecclesiastical policemen are the bishops of the church. 
 The city is divided into twenty wards, each under the 
 superintendence of a bishop, who receives his appoint- 
 ment from Brigham. Subordinate to the bishops, and 
 appointed by them, are teachers, who have each a small 
 district. They make frec[uent visits to every family, cate- 
 chise men, women, and children, not only upon doctrine 
 and belief, but upon worldly matters. Their reports go 
 to Brigham. 
 
 If a Mormon is disaffected, or indulges in religious 
 doubts, he is at once surrounded with difficulties. Mer- 
 chants do not care to trade with him. If a laborer, he 
 wiU not be able to find employment. He must cast out 
 his doubts, accept unhesitatingly the authority and dogmas 
 of the church, and all wiH be well. There is law and 
 order in Paris and in Eome. Louis Napoleon has his 
 secret police, and so has the Pope. Brigham, combining 
 the systems of Fouche, of the iirst Empire, and Ignatius 
 Loyola, of the Order of the Jesuits, has law and order in 
 Utah. 
 
 The theocratic state is a harp of many strings, and 
 Brigham's fingers sweep every wire ; or it may be likened 
 to an organ, Brigham at the key-board, and every pipe 
 responsive to his touch. 
 
 Near the centre of the city, on the west side of the 
 main street, is Tabernacle Square, containing the old 
 and new tabernacles and the foundations for the Temple. 
 
SALT LAKE. 495 
 
 The rounded roof of the new tabernacle, viewed from the 
 outside, resemljles a huge oval dish-cover. Approaching 
 the city from the west, it is seen looming above all other 
 edifices, and you think of a hotel dining-table, the great 
 meat-platter with its cover in the centre. The building 
 wUl seat fifteen thousand persons. At one end, raised 
 several feet above the general area, are the seats for the 
 prophet and his apostles and elders, also for the choir and 
 orchestra. An Englishman is constructing a large organ, 
 the pipes being obtained from Boston. 
 
 
 I* 
 THE TAllEKNACLE. 
 
 " There is not a city in the world so virtuous as this," 
 s the remark of a prominent Mormon. 
 
 Certainly, the outside look is fair, and that form of 
 dee known as the " social evil " is not so apparent here 
 LS in other cities. The Mormons would have us un- 
 
496 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 derstand that their religion is purer than any other. 
 They claim that it purifies society. In a book of ser- 
 mons we find it was revealed to Brigham that the test 
 service which men can render to God is the multipli- 
 cation of the human race. As soon, therefore, as girls 
 arrive at a marriageable age they become concubines. 
 In other parts of the world misplaced affection, or a 
 low sense of moral obligation, or poverty, leads many 
 from the path of virtue; but here the church teaches 
 that concubinage is ordained of God. To accept it is to 
 glorify him ; to reject it is to reject eternal happiness. A 
 man may have a score of concubines ; he may be old, 
 hateful, repulsive, but for a girl to repel his addresses is 
 to despise the gospel. Brigham consents, parents urge ; 
 there is the example of Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solo- 
 mon. In the Sunday school and from the pulpit the 
 doctrine of celestial marriage is taught ; and so natural 
 affection and the instincts of the soul alike are stifled, 
 and the shriaking maiden is made a prostitute in the 
 name of religion. 
 
 A few steps east of the tithing-of&ce is a three-storied 
 building, standing end to the road, large enough and long 
 enough for a factory boarding-house. It has a steep 
 shingled roof, with ten gabled windows on each side. 
 On the balcony over the door is a crouching lion. 
 
 This is the harem. A covered passage leads from the 
 ground floor to another building east, in which is the 
 general business of&ce of Brigham Young, and from which 
 telegraph wires run to every hamlet in the Territory. 
 Another passage leads to the private office of Brigham, 
 back of which is his bedroom, where his concubines wait 
 upon him, — Amelia to-day, Emeline to-morrow, Lucy the 
 day after. 
 
 Brigham's lawfully wedded wife was Mary Ann AngeU, 
 a native of New York, the mother of five children, — 
 
SALT LAKE.. 497 
 
 Joseph, or " Joe," as he is called at Salt Lake, Brigham 
 A., John, Alice, and Luna. She married him while he 
 was a young man, hefore he was a prophet, and with him 
 accepted the revelations of Joseph Smith. She lives in a 
 large stone building in the rear of the harem. Brigham 
 does not often visit her now. 
 
 The number of his concubines is not known to the 
 Gentile world. One report makes them seventy, another 
 only thirty. It is probable that the larger number includes 
 those sealed to Brigham for eternity and not for time. 
 
 His first concubine is Lucy Decker. She is the lawful 
 wife of Isaac Seely, mother of two children ; but Brigham 
 could make her a queen in heaven, and so, bidding good 
 by to Isaac, she became first concubine, and has added 
 eight children to the prophet's household. 
 
 Her younger sister, Clara Decker, also aspired to be a 
 heavenly queen, and became his second concubine, and 
 is the mother of four children. 
 
 The third is Harriet Cook, mother of one turbulent 
 boy, who does pretty much as he pleases. So does the 
 mother, who, when in her tantrums, does not hesitate to 
 send Brigham to the realm of evil spirits. 
 
 Lucy Bigelow is said to be one of the most lady-Hke 
 of all the concubines. Mrs. Waite, wife of one of the 
 United States judges of the Territory, who saw all of the 
 ladies of the harem, describes her as of middling stature, 
 dark brown hair, blue eyes, aquiline nose, and a pretty 
 mouth. She is pleasant and affable. 
 
 Miss Twiss has sandy hair, round features, blue eyes, 
 low forehead, freckled face, but, as she has no children, 
 is not of much account in the eyes of the prophet. She 
 looks after his clothes, sews buttons on his shirts, and acts 
 the part of a housewife. 
 
 Martha Bowker is another of the same sort, quiet, neat 
 in dress, motherless, and therefore of little account. 
 
498 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Harriet Barney, like Lucy Decker, left her husband 
 and three children to become a concubine, that she might 
 have exaltation in Heaven, but has not been honored in the 
 harem, not having added any children to the household. 
 
 Eliza Burgess is the only Englishwonian in the harem, 
 smaU. of stature, black eyes, quick-tempered, the mother 
 of several children. 
 
 Ellen Eockwood, daughter of the jail-keeper, is another 
 of the unfortunate women, not having had children. 
 
 Mrs. Hampton, whose first husband died at Nauvoo, 
 afterward married a man by the name of Cole, who left 
 her at Fauvoo and went to California. Brigham, hearing 
 of his departure, sent for the wife, who obeyed the sum- 
 mons and became a concubine, lived in the harem eight 
 years, then was cast out by Brigham. She now lives at 
 Ogden City with her son, Nephi Hampton. 
 
 Mary Bigelow is another castaway. She lived in the 
 harem several years, but Brigham became tired of her and 
 sent her away. 
 
 Margaret Pierce is another who, not having added to 
 the glory of the prophet by being a mother, is of little 
 account, though stiU in the harem. 
 
 Emeline Free, as described by Mrs. Waite, is the " light 
 of the harem," tall, graceful, mild, violet eyes, fair hair, 
 inclined to curl. She was a lively young lady, and Brig- 
 ham fell in love with her. Her father and mother were 
 opposed to polygamy, but Emeline had ambitious projects, 
 accepted his proposal, and became the favorite of the 
 harem. The favor shown her brought on a row. The 
 other concubines carried this jealousy to such apitch, that 
 the j)rophet had a private passage constructed from his 
 bedroom to.Emeline's room, so that his visits to her and 
 hers to him could be made without obfeervation. She has 
 contributed greatly to his glory in the future world by 
 presenting him with eight children in this. 
 
SALT LAKE. 499 
 
 The poetess of the church is Eliza Snow, said to be 
 quite intellectual. In one of her poems published in 
 Brigham's paper, the " Deseret News," she thus exalts the 
 Mormon religion : — 
 
 " "We have the ancient order, 
 To us by prophets given ; 
 And here we have the pattern 
 As things exist in heaven." 
 
 From which we are to understand that there are harems 
 in heaven ! So the Turk believes. 
 
 Zina Huntington also writes poetry, and acts as a sort 
 of governess to the numerous children of the prophet. 
 She came to Salt Lake with her lawfully wedded hus- 
 band. Dr. Jacobs. Brigham liked her, sent the doctor on 
 a missionary tour to England, took his wife into the 
 harem and became the spiritual father of her children ; 
 made her his temporal concubine, that he might also exalt 
 her to be a queen in Heaven. The doctor returned from 
 his mission, apostatized, and went to California, where he 
 now resides. 
 
 Amelia Partridge has added four children to the proph- 
 et's household. She is said to be of a sweet disposition, 
 and is not jealous when the prophet turns his attentions 
 to the other concubines. 
 
 Mrs. Augusta Cobb was formerly a Bostonian, became 
 converted to Mormonism eighteen years ago, left her home, 
 and accepted a position in the harem. 
 
 Mrs. Smith, a devout Mormon, wished to be sealed t^ 
 Brigham for eternity, but the prophet did not care to 
 make her a heavenly queen. He sealed her to Joseph 
 Smith for eternity and to himself for time. 
 
 One " poor unfortunate," Clara Chase, became a maniac, 
 and has gone where the wicked cease from troubling. 
 
 Amelia Folsom, a native of Portsmouth, N. H., is the 
 mistress of the harem. She entered it on the 29th of 
 
500 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 January, 1863. Her age is about nineteen, and the 
 prophet's sixty-three. She has things pretty much her 
 own way, — private box at the theatre, carriage of her 
 own, silks, satins, a piano, parlor elegantly furnished. If 
 the prophet slights her, she pays him in his own coin. 
 
 Such is an outhne of this saintly household! — thirty 
 women or more, and seventy or eighty children. Unless 
 human nature is vastly different in Utah from what it is 
 in other places, there must be many family jars. The out- 
 ward appearance is that of a peaceable and orderly com- 
 munity, but if there is any of truth in common report, it 
 is one of the saddest communities in the world. 
 
 In the Orient there is one institution which has long 
 been established, — concubinage. The modem Turk, the 
 Arab, Hindoo, Feegian, and the King of Ashantee, all fol- 
 low in the footsteps of their fathers. They keep concu- 
 bines by the score. The harem never has flourished un- 
 der the Christian civilization of Europe, but it has been 
 planted in Utah by the prophet and apostles of the 
 church of the Latter-Day Saints, and is thriving with 
 great vigor. 
 
 It is one of the anomalies of the nineteenth century. 
 The author of "N"ew America'' would have ms believe 
 that polygamy at Salt Lake is peculiarly an outgrowth of 
 American institutions ; but . the great body of recruits 
 come from that author's own land. There is nothing in 
 democracy any more than in autocracy to grow such' a 
 an excrescence as that of Utah. It is flourishing now, but 
 slavery has disappeared from the land, and the time is 
 not far distant when the country wiU. be purged of poly- 
 gamy, — by peaceful means if possible, by forcible if 
 there is no other way. 
 
THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 501 
 
 CHAPTER LXII. 
 
 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 IN" July, 1862, Congress loaned the national credit to 
 the amount of fifty million dollars to two railroad 
 companies, — the Central, building east from Sacramento, 
 and the Union, west from Omaha. The distance between 
 the two points is one thousand seven hundred and 
 twenty-one miles. The public had little faith in the 
 enterprise, but there were some gentlemen who had taken 
 long looks ahead, and amcmg them Governor Leland 
 Stanford, his brother Mr. Charles Stanford, Judge Crocker 
 of Sacramento, Mr. Durant of New York, Mr. Ames of 
 Massachusetts, who were ready to take hold of the enter- 
 prise. The Central Company was first organized. The 
 gentlemen connected with it had already constructed 
 a wagon-road over the Sierra Nevada range, and knew 
 what difficulties would be encountered. Most people 
 shook their heads at the undertaking, but the State of 
 California aided it by a subsidy of $ 1,500,000. 
 
 Work was commenced at Sacramento in January, 1863. 
 The track was carried for a long distance on trestle-work 
 over the low lands, which are flooded by the Sacramento 
 during the rainy season. The foot-hills of the Sierra 
 Nevada chain are reached at the little town of Eocklm/ 
 twenty-two miles northeast of Sacramento, at an eleva- 
 tion of two hundred and sixty-nine feet. From this 
 point to the summit of the Sierras the distance is eighty- 
 three miles, and the elevation overcome six thousand 
 seven hundred and seventy-four feet, or nearly eighty-two 
 feet per mile for the entire distance. 
 
502 OUE HEW WAY BOUND THE WOELD. 
 
 The ridge between the American Eiver and Bear Creek, 
 both tributaries of the Sacramento, is a series of hills, 
 spurs, ravines, deep gullies, gorges, and precipices. How 
 to get over or around them, hold what has been gained 
 of elevation, fit curve to tangent and tangent to reversed 
 curve, avoid rock-cutting and deep/ filling, projecting spurs 
 on the one hand and deep ravines on the other, with curves 
 of small resistance, were the grand questions for the en- 
 gineers to whom the work was intrusted. 
 
 It was found that a uniform grade of eighty-two feet 
 to the mile could not be had ; that there were long reaches 
 where a grade of one hundred and sixteen feet to the 
 mile, with frequent reversed curves, must be resorted to. 
 Twenty years ago no engineer would have thought it pos- 
 sible to construct and work a road under such conditions. 
 But the line is completed. It runs along the edge of^ 
 precipices where we look down fifteen hundred feet into 
 a dark canyon. It crosses ravines on bridges two hundred 
 and sixty-five feet high, — loftier than Bunker Hill Monu- 
 ment by thirty feet ! 
 
 In some places clay was encountered, of such a slip- 
 pery nature that thousands of tons came down upon the 
 track in a night; but patience, perseverance, and ten 
 thousand plodding Chinaman overcame all difficulties. 
 Thirteen tunnels have been cut through solid granite, 
 that on the sumniit being one thousand six hundred and 
 fifty-nine feet in length, another eight hundred and sixty- 
 three feet, and the aggregate amounting to six thousand 
 ahd fifty. 
 
 In addition, there is an immense amount of rock cut- 
 ting along the moiintain-sides, where gunpowder and 
 nitro-glycerine have been freely used. Even in the earth 
 excavations the contractors have, found it profitable to 
 blow up the hills, loosening tons of solid earth at a 
 single discharge. To ride over this line, to see how the 
 
THE PACIFIC EAILEOAD. 
 
 503 
 
504 OUE NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 work has been done, to behold the great boulders hurled 
 into the valley, broken into fragments, and a solid, sub- 
 stantial, well-built road laid over the tops of the moun-^ 
 tains, sets one to thinking that this must be the work 
 of the Titans. 
 
 But all the construction material — iron, engines, spikes, 
 implements, screws, nuts, bolts, shovels, spades, crow- 
 bars, chains, car-wheels, glass, the thousand articles to be 
 found in railway shops — had to come from the East by 
 Panama or Cape Horn. Ships failed to arrive on time. 
 Articles ordered months in advance were not at hand 
 when wanted. The track-layers were out of spikes, the 
 car-builders in want of bolts. Engines were not forth- 
 coming at the time appointed. Carpenters, masons, 
 bridge-buHders, were not to be had. There was a de- 
 ficiency of rolling stock, and the company could not 
 transport its own material. The traders of all Upper 
 California, Nevada, and Idaho were clamorous to have 
 their goods transported before the winter set in. The 
 steamboats from San Erancisco to Sacramento were loaded 
 to the water's edge with merchandise, the warehouses in 
 Sacramento were filled with boxes, bales, and barrels, with 
 machinery and furniture, which the railroad could not 
 take away for want of cars and engines. There was an 
 army of from fifteen to twenty thousand men out in the 
 desert of Utah to be fed, besides thousands of oxen and 
 horses. Every pound of grain, flour, meat, hay, everything 
 consumed, had to be sent up from Sacramento. 
 
 To keep the army in rations, forward ties, timber, and 
 iron, required an energy like that exhibited during the 
 war by the quartermasters of General Grant's armies. 
 
 The snow region of the Sierras is about fifty miles 
 wide. The deposition of moisture on the Pacific slope 
 in winter gives a great depth of snow on the moun- 
 tains. To make the line secure from avalanches, numer- 
 
THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 505 
 
 ous sheds have been constructed, which, if joined together, 
 would make about twenty-four miles of sheltered way. 
 They are built over excavations where the plough cannot 
 throw the snow from the track. 
 
 Beaching the summit of the Sierras at an elevation of 
 seven thousand and forty-two feet, the line follows down 
 the Truckee Eiver, into the great central basin of the con- 
 tinent, embracing the State of Nevada and Territory of 
 Utah. A more dreary, cheerless region cannot be im- 
 agined. There are treeless wastes, barren hills, and wide 
 plains, where the wild artemisia is the only vegetation. 
 The streams are bitter. The ground is filled with alkali. ^ 
 The soU would be fertile were there water for irrigation ; 
 but from the eastern slope of the Sierras to Salt Lake 
 there is only a dreary desert. 
 
 The road has been built by the Central Company from 
 Sacramento to the town of Ogden, and from that place to 
 Omaha by the Union Company, which was organizM in 
 July, 1864, and which has displayed an energy equal to 
 that shown by the Central. 
 
 "Work was commenced at Omaha in the fall of the 
 same year. On the 1st of January, 1866, forty miles were 
 open to travel ; a year later, three hundred and five miles ; 
 on the 1st of January, 1868, five hundred and forty miles ; 
 and now, in May, 1869, the locomotive runs from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
 The line beyond Omaha lies across the treeless plain 
 which extends to the Black Hills. -To throw up the road- 
 bed was comparatively an easy task, to obtain timber for 
 ties was a more serious matter. The ascent is so gradual 
 from the Missouri to the summit of the ridge which 
 divides the Missguri slope from the great central basin 
 of the continent, that the gain in elevation is almost 
 imperceptible. 
 
 Geographers have described the Black HiUs as the 
 
506 OUR NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 backbone of the continent. Imagination pictures them 
 as a lofty range of mountains, but they are hills rising 
 from a plateaii. Southward and northward from the 
 summit we see blue mountains capped with snow far 
 away, but the highest elevation on the line, eight thou- 
 sand two hundred and sixty-two feet, is gained by a 
 grade of ninety feet per mile, and that only for a short 
 distance. 
 
 The village of Sherman, situated on the summit, is 
 probably higher than any other town in the United 
 States. 
 
 Westward of the Black HiQs are the Laramie Plains, 
 which have a general elevation of seven thousand feet 
 above the sea ; and farther on is Green Eiver, running 
 south, discharging its waters into the Gulf of California. 
 Passing over the ridge beyond it, the line follows down 
 Weber canyon to Salt Lake, and up its northern shore to 
 Ogden, where Chinamen working eastward and Irish- 
 men westward have joined hands in laying the last rail 
 of a road which spans the continent. 
 
 CHAPTEE LXIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ON this eighth day of May, 1869, th'e last rail is laid 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific, and the loco- 
 motive now may run from the Penobscot to the Golden 
 Gate. Workmen are extending the line eastward to the 
 British Dominion, and the time is near at hand when 
 Halifax will be but six days from San Francisco. Then 
 thirteen days wUl suffice to bear the westward-bound 
 
CONCLUSION. 507 
 
 traveller from St. George's Channel to the shores of the 
 Pacific. Then the Londoner, sailing east or west, wUl 
 make Hong Kong in about forty-three days. A third 
 of a century ago Dr. Lardner proposed to eat the first 
 steamship which should cross the Atlantic, and now 
 steam-ferries are established between all lands. 
 
 But a little longer time has elapsed since George Ste- 
 phenson ran his first rude engine over a tramway ; now 
 Europe, America, and India are belted with railroads. 
 Advancement is the characteristic feature of the century. 
 Steamships and locomotives are giving new life to old 
 nations. 
 
 Goal, the stored-up sunlight of a million years, is the 
 grand agent. Liberty lights the fire, and Christian civil- 
 ization is the engine which is taking the whole world in 
 its train. 
 
 There are but three aggressive nations, — England, 
 America, and Eussia, — and together they are to give civil- 
 ization to six hundred millions of the human race.' Eng- 
 land is already moving the dead mass of India ; Eussia 
 is advancing upon Central Asia, and America, now brought 
 in direct contact with China, not by force of arms, but 
 by commercial intercourse and good-will, is to make her 
 power felt among the millions of that empire. 
 
 After an absence of two years and five months, we have 
 returned to our home, having lost some prejudices and 
 gained new views. America does not possess all the vir- 
 tues in the world. "We have something yet to learn. If 
 we have larger liberty than any other people, we must 
 confess, on the other hand, that there is no city in any 
 land so badly governed as the commercial metropolis 
 of this country. We may revise our liberty without 
 detriment to ourselves. 
 
 If, in the interior of China, there is a strong prejudice 
 against foreigners, we are to remember that it has its 
 
508 OUE NEW WAY BOUND THE WORLD. 
 
 counterpart in California and Oregon. If we are saints, 
 we shall do well to remember that it is saintly to observe 
 the golden rule. 
 
 If we have something yet to learn, on the other hand 
 America is the great teacher of the nations. The com- 
 pact signed ia the cabin of the Mayflower is the world's 
 charter of liberty. The thunder of Gettysburg is rever- 
 berating round the world. The people of Europe are 
 keeping step to the march of the great Eepublic. 
 
 "We have returned to America with a stronger love for 
 its institutions and an enlarged conception of its future 
 greatness. Our country is moving on as no other nation 
 ever advanced, and the world is following in our path. 
 Eemembering what the Union has cost and what it is 
 worth, we hail with swelling hearts our native land once 
 
 more. 
 
 " Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee. 
 Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears. 
 Our faith triumphant o'er our fears. 
 Are all with thee, — are all with thee ! " 
 
SUPPLEMENTAET. 
 
 IT will be our aim in this supplementary chapter to give informa- 
 tion which will be of especial value to those who may be con- 
 templating a tour round the world. Even those who are not 
 thinking of going may be interested to know how it can be done. 
 The preceding pages have only giveii, our own route of travel ; but 
 there are others which may be taken. There are places to visit 
 which we did not see, but which might have been seen had our jour- 
 ney been at a more auspicious season. 
 
 Our tour was from west to east, but the true course is with the 
 sun. By starting at the right time, and- by travelling westward, 
 every country may be seen at its best season, and the tourist may 
 be pretty sure of calm seas and pleasant weather all the way from 
 San Francisco to Suez, and on to Europe. 
 
 We take it for granted that any one making the tour of the world 
 intends to devote at least a year to travel. The trip can be made in 
 ninety days, but he who makes it in that time will have weariness 
 of body and a confused brain. Japanese, Chinese, Hindoos, and 
 Arabs wiU be so completely mixed, — there wiU be such indistinct 
 recollections of joss-houses, pagodas, mosques, temples, — of junks, 
 sampans, proas, and other queer craft, — 'such a snarl of streets, 
 lanes, and alleys, filled with myriads of people, carrying baskets, 
 bundles, chests of tea, and dressed in blue blouses, baggy trousers, 
 flowing robes, long gowns, turbans, broad-brimmed jor steeple- 
 shaped hats, — or wearing nothing at all, except a narrow strip of 
 cloth about the loins, — with pigtails, cues, or shaven crowns, 
 plucked brows, painted faces, tattooed skins, — riding in sedans, pa- 
 lankeens, or on donkeys, elephants, and camels, — that the brain, in- 
 stead of retaining distinct pictures, will be in the condition of a 
 sportsman whose horse turns a somersault in a steeple-chase, and 
 the unfortunate rider beholds only a whirling landscape of fields, 
 trees, hounds, hedges, and blinking stars I 
 
610 
 
 SUPPLEMENT AEY. 
 
 To be benefited by travel, time must be taken for study and re- 
 flection. No man can eat all the time ; if he attempts it, digestion 
 ceases. A person had better remain at home .than go round the 
 world in ninety days. A year is little time ftiough. Eighteen 
 months will be far more profitable ; but the trip can be made in 
 twelve, if the traveller has no more tlian that amount of time to 
 spend'. 
 
 The distance from New York, and the probable time required for 
 a trip across the continent, will be seen from the following tabular 
 statement, which is based on the supposition that the trains from 
 Omalia to San Francisco will be run at a speed of twenty-three 
 miles per houi-, including stoppages, and those between New York 
 and Omaha at twenty-five mUes per hour : — 
 
 Miles. Hours. 
 
 New York to Chicago 915 37 
 
 Chicago to Omaha 491 20 
 
 Omaha to San Francisco 1,845 80 
 
 3,251 
 
 137 
 
 The following table shows the distance from the eastern terminus 
 of the road to the prominent points along the line, with their eleva- 
 tion above the sea level : — - 
 
 Distance 
 from Omaha. 
 
 ■ EloTation 
 Above the Sea. 
 
 Omaha 
 
 Fremont . . . ... 
 
 Columbus 
 
 Kearney ... 
 
 North tlatte . . . . 
 
 Julesburg .... 
 
 Cheyenne 
 
 Sherman, summit of Black Hills 
 
 Laramie 
 
 Benton 
 
 Green River 
 
 Fort Bridger .... 
 
 Weber Canon .... 
 
 ■Humboldt Wells . 
 
 Humboldt Lake .... 
 
 Big Bend Truckee . 
 
 Tnickee River .... 
 
 Summit of Sierras . 
 
 Cisco 
 
 Alta 
 
 Colfax 
 
 Sacramento .... 
 
 Stockton 
 
 San Francisco .... 
 
 — mi 
 
 46 
 
 91 
 
 190 
 
 290 
 
 377 
 
 517 
 
 660 
 
 676 
 
 690 
 
 820 
 
 845 
 
 995 
 1,213 
 1,493 
 1,534 
 1,602 
 1,616 
 1,624 
 1,652 
 1,667 
 1,721 
 1,766 
 1,845 
 
 les. 
 
 967 feet. 
 
 1,215 " 
 
 1,455 " 
 
 2,128 " 
 
 2,830 " 
 
 3,557 " 
 
 6,062 " 
 
 8,262 " 
 
 7,134 " 
 
 7,534 " 
 
 6,092 " 
 
 7,009 " 
 
 4,664 " 
 
 6,650 " 
 
 4,047 " 
 
 4,217 " 
 
 5,£66 " 
 
 7,042 " 
 
 6,711 " 
 
 3,625 " 
 
 2,448 " 
 
 56 " 
 
 22 " 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY. 511 
 
 The trip will be made a few hours short of six days. The fare for 
 the through journey wiU probably be about one hundred dollars, — 
 the company not having as yet established their rates. 
 
 Pullman's palace cars will run the entire distance, giving travel- 
 lers state-rooms by night and a drawing-room by day. They will 
 be supplied with every comfort, and obtain their meals on board the 
 train while flying from ocean to ocean. 
 
 Travellers who intend making the tour of the world will wish to 
 see Yosemite before leaving their native land. 
 
 An excursion to that wonder of the world wiU require ten days, 
 at a cost of seventy-five to one hundred dollars. ■ 
 
 Before leaving home, the tourist will do well to give some 
 thought to the amount of baggage necessary for the trip, also to 
 the size of his trunks. No person should take anything that is not 
 absolutely necessary for comfort. Ready-made clothing can be 
 purchased anywhere in the seaports of the East; or a Chinese 
 taEor will get up a well-made suit at short notice, for women as 
 well as men. 
 
 The Pacific Mail Steamship Company are more generous in the 
 transportation of baggage than the steamship lines from China to 
 India and Egypt. The Peninsular and Oriental state-rooms are small 
 apartments, and it will be a great convenience to have trunks which 
 can be put .under the lower berth. The Egyptian Transit Com- 
 pany's regulations give the following dimensions for trunks and 
 packages : — 
 
 Length 3 ft. 
 
 Breadth . . . . ' - . . 1 ft. 3 in. 
 Depth 1 ft. 2 in. 
 
 Sole-leather trunks, in stout canvas ■ coverings, with strong straps, 
 are the best for a trip round the'world. Two small ones are better 
 than one large one. A water-proof canvas bag, which can be 
 strapped upon a trunk, is a great convenience, especially to hold 
 soiled clothing. A travelling-shawl and water-proof overcoat are 
 indispensable. 
 
 Such clothing should be worn as is suitable for fall wear in Boston 
 or New York. There will be some cool days on the Pacific ; and 
 cool nights in Japan, China, and India. A suit of dark gray is 
 usually worn by old travellers. Woollen under-clothing will be 
 best for every country, if the traveller goes by San Francisco, and 
 leaves that port at the proper season. 
 
 A lady will need a short travelling-dress, one black silk, and a 
 
512 SUPPLEMENTAEY. 
 
 third of such material as will be suitable for ordinary occasions, a 
 ■water-proof cloak, travelUng-shawl, hat, stout walking-shoes, and a 
 moderate quantity of under-clothing. We will not advise any lady 
 to attempt the trip ; neither will we discourage any one who may 
 be inclined to see the other side of the globe. Any one, endowed 
 with pluck, power of endurance, and good health, who is a good 
 sailor, who can put up with some discomforts and make the best 
 of everything, need not stay at home. On the other hand, one 
 lacking these qualities will find more comfort and pleasure by their 
 cosey firesides than in tossing on the deep, or in a sedan-chair car- 
 ried by coolies, or riding a vicious donkey. 
 
 A circular letter of credit will be needed on bankers in Yoko- 
 hama, Shanghae, Hong Kong, Singapore, Calcutta, Bombay, Alexan- 
 dria, Constantinople, and European cities. 
 
 It may be well to take Mexican dollars from San Francisco, for 
 use in Japan and China. The coin is current in those countries ; 
 and, as the balance of trade is usually against the United States, 
 something may be saved by taking silver. Gold is not needed. It 
 circulates to some extent in Japan; but the Chinese have not 
 adopted it in their currency. 
 
 The Pacific Mail Steamship Company ticket passengers through 
 from New York to Japan, China, and India, not by the Pacific Rail- 
 road, but by the Isthmus and Panama. Their rates at the present 
 time in gold will be seen from the following table : — 
 
 To Yokohama $ 250 
 
 " Hong Kong, Shanghae, &c. . . 300 
 
 " Swatow 315 
 
 " Amoy 320 
 
 " Foochow 340 
 
 " Singapore 380 
 
 " Penang 400 
 
 " Calcutta . . .' . . .450 
 
 Two hundred and fifty pounds baggage are allowed each adult cabin 
 passenger. 
 
 The fare from San Francisco to Shanghae or Hong Kong is 
 three hundred dollars, the same as fi-om New York, — the company 
 being a competitor with the railroad for passengers between New 
 York and San Francisco. 
 
 There are no steamers afloat which for elegance, comfort, and 
 spaciousness compare with those of this line. 
 
 The accompanying tables show the movements of the China 
 steamers for the present year : — 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 513 
 
 OUTWAKD. 
 
 HOMEWARD. 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 3 SP 
 1=1 ° 
 
 if 
 
 QQ 
 
 .^1 
 
 iJ 
 
 it 
 
 Jan. 4 
 
 Jan. 30 
 
 Feb. 7 
 
 Feb. 8 
 
 Jan. 21 
 
 Jan. 19 
 
 Jan. 31 
 
 Feb. 24 
 
 Feb. 4 
 
 Mar. 2 
 
 Mar. 10 
 
 Mar. 11 
 
 Feb. 20 
 
 Feb. 19 
 
 Mar. 3 
 
 Mar. 27 
 
 Mar. 5 
 
 Mar. 31 
 
 Apr. 8 
 
 Apr. 9 
 
 Mar. 20 
 
 Mar. 19 
 
 Apr. 1 
 
 Apr. 25 
 
 Apr. 5 
 
 Apr. 26 
 
 May 5 
 
 May 6 
 
 Apr. 19 
 
 Apr. 19 
 
 Apr. 29 
 
 May 20 
 
 May 4 
 
 May 27 
 
 June 5 
 
 June 6 
 
 May 19 
 
 May 19 
 
 May 29 
 
 June 19 
 
 June 4 
 
 June 27 
 
 July 6 
 
 July 6 
 
 June 19 
 
 June 19 
 
 June 29 
 
 July 20 
 
 July 3 
 
 July 26 
 
 Aug. 4 
 
 Aug. 4 
 
 July 19 
 
 July 19 
 
 July 29 
 
 Aug. 19 
 
 ■Aug. 4 
 
 Aug. 27 
 
 Sept. 6 
 
 Sept. 5 
 
 Aug. 19 
 
 Aug. 19 
 
 Aug. 29 
 
 Sept. 19 
 
 Sept. 4 
 
 Sept. 27 
 
 Oct. 5 
 
 Oct. 6 
 
 Sept. 18 
 
 Sept. 18 
 
 Sept. 29 
 
 Oct. 23 
 
 Oct. 4 
 
 Oct. 30 
 
 Nov. 7 
 
 Nov. 8 
 
 Oct. 21 
 
 Oct. 19 
 
 Oct. 31 
 
 Nov. 24 
 
 Nov. 4 
 
 Nov. 30 
 
 Deo. 8 
 
 Deo. 9 
 
 Nov. 20 
 
 Nov. 19 
 
 Dec. 1 
 
 Dec. 25 
 
 Dec. 4. 
 
 Dec. 30 
 
 1870. 
 
 1870. 
 
 Deo. 21 
 
 Dec. 18 
 
 Deo. 31 
 
 Jan. 24 
 
 1870. 
 
 1870. 
 
 Jan. 7 
 
 Jan. 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jan. 4 
 
 Jan. 30 
 
 Feb. 7 
 
 Feb. 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 The table is bountifully supplied, though fresh provisions some- 
 times run out before the steamer reaches Japan. The only draw- 
 back to comfort is from the large numbers of Chinese in the 
 steerage; but they are usually well disposed, and their presence 
 affords the traveller an excellent opportunity to study their habits 
 and customs, and to learn the pigeon English, which wiU come in 
 course when he reaches China. 
 
 The steamers westward bound usually carry about seven hundred 
 passengers ; the eastward bound, one thousand to twelve hundred. 
 
 The secret of travelling with ease is to know where to go, and 
 how to get there, — making all necessary preparations, and never to 
 worry. It is care which kills us, wears us out before our time. 
 The voyager in making up his route, if possible, should plan to be 
 in Central and Southern China in November, India in Deoember 
 and January, and Egypt in S'ebruary, Palestine and Syria in March- 
 and April, which will bring him to Europe, to travel northward up 
 the Danube, or to Greece and Italy, with the advancing seasons, 
 Nine months between Boston and Egypt, by the westward route, 
 is the least possible time which a traveller should devote to the trip. 
 In this estimate the supposition is that one month will be taken up 
 in the trip across the country and California, By diligence, a study 
 of routes, the days for steamers to sail, the trip can be made with 
 ease and comfort, and enough seen to give one comprehensive ideas 
 of the other side of the globe. It will be of great advantage be- 
 
514 SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 fore starting, or while on the way, to read the best books on the 
 countries to be visited. As yet there is no guide-book to those 
 lands, and resort must be made to books of travels and histories. 
 
 The following will be most accessible, and will give the fullest 
 information : — 
 
 FOE JAPAN, 
 
 Hildreth's History. 
 
 Alcock's Capital of the Tycoon. 
 
 Cornwallis's Two Journeys. 
 
 FOR CHINA. 
 
 William's Middle Kingdom. 
 Nevius's China and the Chinese. 
 Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese. 
 Blaikstone's Five Months on the Yangtse. 
 Bohn's Chinese, Standard Library Edition. 
 Ball's Tea Culture. 
 Oliphant's China. 
 
 Fortune's Residence among the Chinese. 
 Du Halde's General History of China. 
 Treaty Ports of China and Japan. 
 
 FOB INDIA. 
 
 Hunter's History. 
 
 Marshman's History. 
 
 Elphinstone's History. 
 
 Allen's History. 
 
 Travels of a Hindoo. 
 
 Miss Carpenter's Six Months in India. 
 
 Eural Bengal. 
 
 Some of these books, read while making the passage to Yoko- 
 hama, will be of great benefit to the traveller when he comes in 
 contact with the people of Japan, China, and India. 
 
 Reaching Japan, he will find a currency, composed of the itzibu, 
 a silver coin worth about thirty cents, and the tempo, a copper coin 
 worth a little more than one cent. The cobang is a gold coin, but 
 travellers will not be obliged to use it ; Mexican dollars will serve 
 his purpose. 
 
 To visit Yedo, or make excursions, passports are needed, which 
 must be obtained through the consul at Yokohama. 
 
 Having seen Yedo, and the country around Yokohama, the tour- 
 ist wiU take a steamer to Shanghae. We would advise every trav- 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY. 515 
 
 eller to take the Inland Sea route ; there are few places in the world 
 where the scenery is so charming. Should the troubles in the 
 empire cease, a journey from Yokohama to Hiogo by land would be 
 possible. It would be along the Imperial road, and would give one 
 an excellent opportunity to see the rural life of this strange people. 
 
 At Hiogo the steamer- could be taken for Nagasaki. 
 
 The distances from Tokohama to Shanghae by steamer, through 
 the Inland Sea, are as follows : — 
 
 MUea. 
 
 From Yokohama to Hiogo 355 
 
 Hiogo to Straits of Sl-mo-na-sa-ki 240 
 
 Si-mo-na-sa-ki to Nagasaki 150 
 
 Nagasaki to Shanghae 480 
 
 1,225 
 
 After having seen Eastern Japan, there will be nothing of partic- 
 ular interest at Hiogo or Nagasaki to detain the traveller. The 
 steamer stops several hours in each port, giving sufficient opportu- 
 nity to see the few objects worth visiting. At the entrance to the 
 harbor of Nagasaki may be seen the- island of Pappenburg, where 
 twenty thousand native Christians were pitched from a high preci- 
 pice upon the rooks below, when Christianity was driven from the 
 empire. And at different places along the coast there is scenery 
 which will charm the beholder. 
 
 The run across the Yellow Sea front Nagasaki to Shanghae will 
 occupy two days, and unless a typhoon is encountered, as was the 
 case when we made the- voyage, it will be a dehghtful trip. 
 
 When the steamer drops anchor in the harbor of Shanghae the 
 traveller will find sampans in readiness to take him ashore and 
 coolies at the landing with a sedan to- take him to the Astor House, 
 a comfortable hotel in the American quarter, overlooking the harbor 
 with all its lively scenes. Shanghae is a busy place, and the mer- 
 chants are as much absorbed in business as those of Boston or New 
 York ; but they are ready to show attentions to travellers, as are 
 the missionaries at Shanghae, Canton, Hankow, and everywhere 
 throughout China and India. There are no men so well informed as 
 they upon the country and people. They are in daily contact with 
 the natives, speak the language of the country, and as a rule are 
 better informed in regard to the habits, customs, social and religious 
 life of the people, than those who are engaged in trade. Upon com- 
 mercial matters, perhaps their opinions would not be of so much 
 value as those of the merchants. 
 
516 SUPPLEMENTAEY. 
 
 An agreeable excursion may be made to ITingpo, ■which is situated 
 about one hundred miles southeast of Shanghae. The steamer 
 leaves late in the afternoon, and arrives at its destination early in the 
 morning. Many fine pagodas and old temples exist in the imme- 
 diate yicanity, and there is charming scenery among the hills. 
 
 A longer excursion may be made up the Yangtse. A steamer 
 leaves Shanghae every other day for Hankow and intermediate 
 river ports. This trip will require fi-om seven to ten days, but a 
 great deal may be seen in that time. 
 
 The distances from port to port are as follows : — 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Shanghae to Wusiing 12 
 
 Wnsung to Chinkiang 138 
 
 Chinkiang to Nankin 44 
 
 Kankin to Kukiang 251 
 
 Kukiang to Hankow 137 
 
 582 
 
 If an excursion is made to Pekin, it should be undertaken in May 
 or June, or in September or October. If made in July and August, 
 the discomforts will more than counterbalance the pleasure. It can- 
 not be made in the winter. It must be remembered that as yet 
 thera are no comfortable hotels in Northern China. 
 
 Steamers leave Shanghae every week for the northern ports. 
 The first stopping-place is at Chee-foo, on the promontory of Shan- 
 tung. The province, of which this is the chief commercial city, is a 
 little larger than the State of New York, and contains twenty-eight 
 million inhabitants. The winter is as cold as in New England, 
 and the ground is covered with snow from December to March. 
 
 The fare from Shanghae to Chee-foo is sixty-six dollars, and the 
 voyage occupies three days. 
 
 From Chee-foo the steamer sails across the G-ulf of Pechili to the 
 village of Taku, situated at the mouth of the Peiho, and from thence 
 to Tientsin, sixty-seven miles up that stream. 
 
 Tientsin has a population of about four hundred thousand. It is 
 one of the filthiest cities in China, and very unhealthy, fevers pre- 
 vailing in the summer. 
 
 Missionaries reside there, from whom travellers will always re- 
 ceive courteous attention. 
 
 It is eighty miles from Tientsin to Pekin. There are two routes, 
 one by boat to Tung-chow, which is thirteen miles from the capital, 
 the other by cart all the way from Tientsin. 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY. 517 
 
 The route by the river will require five days, that by land three ; 
 but the conveyance by water is much the most comfortable. The 
 cost of a boat for the trip is from seven to ten dollars. Carters 
 charge for a cart and one mule one dollar per day; two mules, 
 two dollars. 
 
 There is no harder riding than that of a Chinese cart. The wheels 
 are clumsy, the body nailed to the axle, and there is no seat, spring, 
 or cushion. The mules are harnessed tandem. The road is worn 
 by constant travel, and there are deep ruts, sloughs, and miry 
 places, which the driver is not careful to avoid. The only accom- 
 modations for the night will be those furnished at the native way- 
 side inns. 
 
 More comfortable quarters can be had on the river boats. The 
 thirteen-mile ride from Tung-chow to Pekin wLU be as much native 
 cart-riding as most travellers will care for. 
 
 Passports are needed from Tientsin to Pekin. They may be ob- 
 tained of the consul at Tientsin. 
 
 Accommodations in the Imperial city can ^nly be had at the 
 native inn, or with the missionaries. The distances are so great in 
 Pekin that sedans should be hired by the day to visit the objects of 
 interest. 
 
 The Great Wall, one of the chief objects of interest in this empire, 
 is about fifty miles north of the city. 
 
 It wiU require five days for an excursion to that wonderful struc- 
 ture, reared two and a half centuries before the Christian era. This 
 and the few temples in Pekin are the only particular objects of in- 
 terest in Northern China. 
 
 The round trip from Shanghae wUl require one month, and the 
 expense will be from two hundred and fifty to three hundred dol- 
 lars. Probably most travellers will leave it out of their programme, 
 and give their time to other portions of the route around the world. 
 
 Few persons probably will wish to make the trip to Pekin and 
 that to Hankow. The last named is much more easily accomplished 
 and at a third of the cost. 
 
 If the tourist does not wish to visit Pekin, the departure fi-om San 
 Francisco may be delayed a month. 
 
 The traveller, after seeing Shanghae and Northern and Central 
 China will proceed down the coast. Steamers leave several times a 
 • week for Hong Kong. There are none regularly plying to the in- 
 termediate ports ; but if any one wishes to visit them, he can take a 
 steamer to Foochow, which is the first great commercial city below 
 Shanghae. 
 
618 SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 It is situated on the river Min, is the chief port for the ship- 
 ment of black teas, and has a population of six hundred thousand. 
 The scenery on the Min is dehghtful, and there is enough to inter- 
 ,est a traveller for a few days in the surrounding country; but if the 
 Tangtse has been ascended to Hankow, it wiU hardly pay to stop 
 at Fooohow or any of the cities along the coast, inasmuch as the 
 steamers have no regular time for sailing, and the tourist may be 
 obliged to wait several days. 
 
 The following table of distances may be convenient for refer- 
 ence: — 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Shanghae to Foochow 410 
 
 Foochow to Amoy 185 
 
 Amoy to Swatow 150 
 
 Swatow to Hong Kong 175 
 
 920 
 
 The fare from Shanghae to Hong Kong is seventy dollars by 
 private steamer, and ninety-flve dollars by the Peninsular and Ori- 
 ental. It will be considerably more than that if a steamer is taken 
 from port to port. The time is usually about four days. 
 
 If the journey is made in the autumn, when the monsoons blow 
 down the coast, the trip will be very pleasant. Sometimes sailing 
 vessels are to be found at Shanghae, which, when the monsoons 
 are favorable, make the run as quickly as a steamer, and take pas- 
 sengers at much lower rates. 
 
 Good accommodations can be found at the Hong Kong Hotel for 
 four dollars a day. There was formerly a club-house, where single 
 gentlemen could put up, and the prices were somewhat less. 
 
 The tourist should not fail to ascend Victoria Peak, the moun- 
 tain behind Hong Kong, nor must he omit a trip to the Happy 
 Valley and round the western shore of the island. There are few 
 places in the world that present such charming scenery. The trip 
 is made in Sedans, with relays of bearers, which can be obtained at 
 a cheap rate. A regular tariff is established for sedans in the city ; 
 but if you wish to go outside the limits, it is well to make a bargain 
 in advance. 
 
 Persons wishing to obtain camphor-wood trunks, lacquered-ware, 
 carved ivory, rice-paper views, vases, or any knick-knacks, will be 
 able to trade cheaper here than at Canton. They will find that the 
 Celestials have several prices for their goods, and if no impatience 
 or hurry is manifested in making a bargain, a great reduction in 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY. 519 
 
 price may be obtained. The best quality of silk gauzes are to be 
 found at Shanghae, but here and at Canton they are to be had also 
 crapes and grass-cloths. 
 
 The tourist is referred to the chapters relating to Hong Kong and 
 Canton for information in regard to what is to be seen in those 
 places. 
 
 ■ Prom Hong Kong the tourist will have a choice of routes and 
 steamers. The Peninsular and Oriental Company have steamers 
 leaving every fortnight, about the 7th and 19th of every month, for 
 Singapore, Ceylon, and Suez, connecting at Ceylon with steameBS 
 up the eastern coast of India, to Madras and Calcutta. The^Mes- 
 sageries Impdriales vessels leave once a month for Saigon, in 
 Cochin China, from thence to Singapore, Ceylon, and Suez. Two 
 of the great mercantile firms of Calcutta have steamers engaged in 
 the opium trade, which leave once a m'onth for Singapore, Penang, 
 and Calcutta, and are run in connection with the Pacific mail steam- 
 ers irom San Francisco to Hong Kong. 
 
 The tourist who has plenty of time, by taking the Messageries 
 Imp^riales to Saigon will be able to go on to Bankok, and see some- 
 thing of Siam ; but the communication is not frequent between 
 that port and Singapore, and most travellers will be likely to forego 
 the pleasure of a visit to that country. 
 
 Rates of fare by the Peninsular and Oriental line are as follows : — 
 
 Hong Kong to Singapore $ 140 
 
 " " Ceylon . ." 260 
 
 " " Madras via Ceylon .... 307 
 
 " " CalcuttajJi'a Ceylon 350 
 
 " " Bombay 300 
 
 " " Suez 460 
 
 The time from Hong Kong to Singapore, with the monsoon in 
 favor, is about six days. 
 
 The steamer of the Messageries Impdriales leaves Hong Kong the 
 26th of every month, making the run to Saigon in four days, re- 
 maining there a few hours, and reaching Singapore in three days, or 
 seven from Hong Kong, departing from that port on the days 
 of its arrival for Ceylon, where it arrives on the 10th of every 
 month, and reaching Suez on the 26th, or just one month from 
 Hong Kong. During the months of April, May, June, July, August, 
 and September, while the southwest monsoons are blowing, the 
 sailing days of all the steamers from Hong Kong are two days in 
 advance of their advertised tables, but the tourist will not need to 
 leave Hong Kopg till November for his trip to India. 
 
520 SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 The fares by this line are about the same as by the Peninsular and 
 Oriental. 
 
 The fare by steamers plying direct to Calcutta is $ 250, but there 
 is a deduction when purchased in connection with the Pacific mail 
 line. 
 
 'It will be well for travellers to map out their route of travel be- 
 yond Singapore before leaving Hong Kong, as there are several 
 routes from that point. 
 
 Those who may wish to see Batavia can do so by taking a Dutch 
 steamer plying between Singapore and that city, making the run in 
 three days. A fortnight in that island will enable them to revel in 
 the delights of tropical life at the most charming season of the year. 
 Or if not making this trip, they may, by waiting a few days at Sin- 
 gapore, take passage for Burmah, where they may see the wonder- 
 ful temples of Rangoon, and, if so disposed, shoot tigers and hunt 
 wild elephants. Steamers ascend the Irawaddy three hundred and 
 thirty-four miles, touching at numerous towns. The fare is $ 17. 
 
 The following table will enable the reader to see what ports are 
 touched by the monthly line of steamers up the Malayan peninsula 
 and Burmese coast : — 
 
 Leave Singapore . 26th. 
 
 " Malacca 28th. 
 
 " Penang 29th. 
 
 " Maulmain 3d. 
 
 " Rangoon 5th. 
 
 Arrive at Calcutta 10th. 
 
 Another line of steamers pUes regularly every fortnight between 
 Maulmain and Calcutta, leaving Maulmain on the 12th and 28th of 
 each month. 
 
 Not having visited Burmah and Ceylon, we can give no notes of 
 personal observation ; but from what we have learned from others, 
 were we again to make the tour of the world, Burmah would be 
 included in the route. 
 
 The traveller will reach Calcutta by one of the three routes 
 already named, and he should time himself to be there early in 
 December. If he arrives by the Burmah route, and wishes to see 
 Southern India, he can do so by taking tlie Peninsular and Oriental 
 line, or a coast line of steamers plying between Calcutta and Bom- 
 bay, and touching at all the principal ports. Landing at Madras, he 
 can cross the country by rail to Beypore on the western coast ; or, 
 taking the railway now under construction from Madras to Bombay, 
 may reach the latter city with but little dakijig. 
 
l8t Claaa. 
 
 2d Class. 
 
 $25 
 
 $13 
 
 30 
 
 15 
 
 42 
 
 21 
 
 48 
 
 24 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAET. 521 
 
 But more pleasurable than this will be the journey up the Ganges 
 to Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Agra, Delhi, and La- 
 hore, to the valley of the Indus, and thence by steamer down the 
 valley of that stream to Kurrachee, from whence there is a weekly 
 steamer to Bombay. 
 
 It is probable that Lahore, on the Indus, will be placed in railroad 
 connection with Calcutta in 1870 ; but a dak hne is established over 
 the portion of the line not yet completed, and the trip in December 
 or January will be delightful. K this route is taken, a view of 
 Central India can be obtained by taking a. run up the Nagpore hne ; 
 or to Poonah, on the southwestern branch of the great Indian 
 Peninsular Railway. 
 
 The distances and fares from Calcutta to Delhi are as by the fol- 
 lowing table : — 
 
 Miles. 
 Calcutta to Benares 540 
 
 Benares to Allahabad 629 
 
 Allahabad to Agra 905 
 
 Agra to Delhi 1,017 
 
 The government dak makes the distance between Dellii and 
 TJmritsur, the southern terminus of the Punjab Eailway, in about 
 forty hours. 
 
 The rate of hire is fixed by government, and is about four and a 
 half cents a mile ; but, as the dak is so soon to be superseded by 
 the locomotive on this line, we need not speak of the expense, 
 which wUl be much diminished in a few months. 
 
 Beaching the Indus, the traveller may take passage on one of the 
 steamers running on that stream from Mooltan to Kurjachee, 
 leaving the former city on the 11th and 25th of every month, for 
 about sixty dollars. 
 
 From Kurrachee he may reach Bombay by the regular weekly line 
 of steamers. Fare, $ 50. A saving of time and money may be made, 
 and a good view of India obtained, by going back from Delhi 
 to Allahabad, and from thence proceeding to Bombay whoUy by 
 rail. 
 
 We think that most travellers will prefer such a route, as it will 
 take them through the finest parts and over the most historical sec- 
 tion of Hindostan. 
 
 Two months in India will suffice to give those who have no more 
 time to spare a fair view of the country and its people. Those who 
 wish to ascend the Nile should be prepared to sail westward fi-om 
 Bombay not later tlaan the 15th of January. The water in the 
 
522 SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 Nile is low after tlie 1st of February, and the trip is made to the 
 upper cataract, the temples of Edfu and Philae, with difficulty after 
 that date. 
 
 The time by steamers from Bombay to Suez is fourteen days, 
 the fare three hundred dollars. In the spring they are crowded, 
 and travellers will do well to make early application for passage. 
 
 • The trip up the Nile, by steamer, from Cairo, will occupy twenty 
 days ; but the opening of the railroad now under construction to 
 Thebes will reduce it nearly one half. The upper Nile, and what 
 is to be seen around Cairo, will occupy about four weeks. 
 
 From Egypt there is a choice of routes, as pointed out in Chapters 
 I. and XI. of this volume. 
 
 Most travellers will be likely to visit Palestine, landing at Jaffa or 
 Beyrout. They will be beset by dragomans at Cairo and Alexandria, 
 but will do much better by waiting till they reach Jerusalem before 
 engaging their services. Horses may be obtained at Jaffa for the 
 ride to Jerusalem, where accommodations may be found at hotels, 
 in the Russian Convent, or Prussian Hospice. 
 
 Those who do not wish to make the whole tour of the country 
 will be able to make the excursion to the Jordan, Dead Sea, and 
 Bethlehem in three days, and at trifling cost. If the usual journey 
 northward to Samaria, and Nazareth, the Dead Sea and Beyrout, is 
 taken, the tourist will save a great deal of money and some annoy- 
 ance by not taking a dragoman till ready to leave Jerusalem. 
 
 Contracts with dragomans should be made for a specified time, 
 with the privilege of extending it. The usual route through Pales- 
 tine will occupy about twenty days, costing from five to seven 
 dollars per day while in the saddle. 
 
 Sailing from Beyrout, the traveller can proceed to Constantinople, 
 Athens, or Italy. The best months for visiting Palestine and Syria 
 are March, April, and the first part of May, and there is no more 
 delightful season of the year for the Bosphorus or the .35gean Sea 
 than the month of May. 
 
 By following the general route which we have thus indicated, the 
 traveller starting from New York in June and journeying westward 
 may reach Southern Europe in ten or twelve months, having ob- 
 tained meanwhile a good view of the old lands upon the other side 
 of the globe. 
 
 Full information cannot be given in regard to the cost of a journey 
 round the world, but the following general statement will enable 
 the tourist to estimate the probable amount required for fares, 
 reckoned at gold rates : — 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY. 523 
 
 Now Tork to San Francisco $ 100 
 
 San Francisco to Shanghae 300 
 
 Hankow and return 100 
 
 Shanghae to Hong Kong 75 
 
 To Canton, Macao, and return 30 
 
 Hong Kong to Calcutta via Ceylon 350 
 
 Calcutta to Delhi, second class 24 
 
 Return to Allahabad 10 
 
 Allahabad to Bombay 25 
 
 Bombay to Suez 300 
 
 Suez to Marseilles 90 
 
 Marseilles to London -20 
 
 London to New Tork 130 
 
 $1,554 
 Excursions to Pekin and Batavia are not included in the above 
 estimate. But, on the other hand, the full amount charged by the 
 Peninsular and Oriental Company to Calcutta via Ceylon is included. 
 If the Burmah route is taken the fare will be about the same, but if 
 the traveller chooses the direct route from Singapore to Calcutta it 
 will be $ 100 less. The statement is based on the supposition that 
 the railroad will be completed from Allahabad to Bombay, and that 
 the traveller will return from Delhi to Allahabad, and proceed, across 
 the country to Bombay, instead of going on to Lucknow and down 
 the Indus to Kurrachee and Bombay. If the last route is taken, 
 about $ 100 must be added to the amount as already summed up. 
 
 The cost by the direct route from Suez to London is given, first- 
 class fare. But the tourist will be likely to visit Constantinople and 
 Athens, and go up the Danube or the Adriatic, or pass round the 
 southern shore of Italy to Naples, and proceed to Central Europe. 
 
 A liberal estimate for fares in circumnavigating the globe will 
 make the required amount from eighteen hundred to two thousand 
 dollars. To this must be added the cost of living, which will be 
 about the same when on shore as at first-class hotels in the United 
 States. When at sea there wUl be the steward's fees in addition 
 to the fare, — a trifling matter. 
 
 If the departure from San* Francisco is made in August, Suez will 
 be reached about the last of February. Seventy days will have 
 been passed on ocean and river steamers, leaving one hundred and 
 thirty days for the land. 
 
 Reckoning hotel bills at four dollars per day, the aggregate is five 
 hundred and twenty dollars. Forty days may be spent in Palestine 
 and Syria, at a cost of two hundred dollars. 
 
524 SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 If the traveller intends to make the tour of the world -in fifteen 
 months he will have about seven months in Europe, which at five 
 dollars per day will amount to one thousand and fifty dollars. 'Sum- 
 ming up all the aggregates, it will be seen that a hberal estimate 
 makes the total cost from thirty-five to thirty-eight hundred dollars. 
 
 This does not include the cost of a trip to Yosemite or other 
 expenses in California. If through tickets can be purchased of the 
 Pacific Mail and Peninsular and Oriental Companies, permitting the 
 traveller to lie over at different points, it wUl reduce the aggregate 
 by several hundred dollars. 
 
 Whatever the expense may be, those having leisure and means to 
 make the tour of the world, if they time their journey to be in each 
 country at the best season, wUl not ba likely to regret the under- 
 taking. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 University Press, Cambridge : Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. 
 
EEEATUM. 
 
 The table of distances from Calcutta to Delhi, on page 521, should 
 read as follows, viz. ; — 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Calcutta to Benares ..... 540 
 
 " " Allahabad . 629 
 
 " " Agra . . .905 
 
 " Delhi . 1,017 
 
524 SUPPLEMENTARY. 
 
 If the traveller intends to make the tour of the world -in fifteen 
 months he will have about seven months in Europe, which at five 
 dollars per day will amount to one thousand and fifty dollars. 'Sum- 
 ming up aU the aggregates, it will be seen that a Uberal estimate 
 makes the total cost from thirty-five to thirty-eight hundred dollars. 
 
 This does not include the cost of a trip to Yosemite or other 
 expenses in California. If through tickets can be purchased of the 
 Pacific MaU and Peninsular and Oriental Companies, permitting the 
 traveller to lie over at different points, it will reduce the aggregate 
 by several hundred dollars. 
 
 Whatever the expense may be, those having leisure and means to 
 
 make the tour of the world^ if they time their joiirney to be in each 
 
 ..^UB^ijwM^lie "besrsea^EiWiU not ba Ukelv to reorfit fhp, nnHar. 
 
 University Press, Cambridge : Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.