HUH 
 
 ^^^^H 
 
 .-.-,.-..., 
 
 MlllMHI
 
 INIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 MAY TREAT MORRISON 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 ALEXANDER F MORRISON
 
 j 
 
 ,
 
 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD
 
 RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD, 
 
 1871. 
 
 M. LB BARON DE HUBNBR, 
 
 vv 
 
 FORMERLY AMBASSADOR AND MINISTER, AND AUTHOR OF " SIXTE QTJINT. 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 LADY HERBERT. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES, 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 1874. 
 
 [The "Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.]
 
 LONDON" : 
 
 K CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOK, PBINTEKR, 
 BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 480 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 To behold, beyond the Rocky Mountains, in the 
 virgin forests of the Sierra Nevada, civilization in 
 its struggle with savage nature ; to behold, in the 
 Empire of the Rising Sun, the efforts of certain 
 remarkable men to launch their country abruptly 
 in the path of progress ; to behold, in the Celestial 
 Empire, the silent, constant, and generally passive 
 but always obstinate resistance which the spirit of 
 the Chinese opposes to the moral, political, and com- 
 mercial invasions of Europe : these are the objects 
 of the journey, or rather of the wanderings, which 
 I purpose making round the globe. I shall not visit 
 India : my time is too short. I reserve to a future 
 occasion, if God give me life and health, the ex- 
 amination of the results produced in the course of
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 a century by the contact of a great Christian nation 
 with the millions of Hindoos and Mussulmans subject 
 to her dominion. 
 
 On my road, I mean to amuse myself ; that is, 
 to see all I can which is curious and, to me, new: 
 and every evening I shall note down in my journal 
 what I have seen, and what has been told me during 
 the day. 
 
 This being clearly understood, let us close our 
 trunks and start. 
 
 CORVILLR HOUSE, TlPPERARV, 
 
 May 13, 1871.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART L AMERICA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 FROM QUEENSTOWN TO NEW YORK. FROM THE 14TH TO THE 24ra MAY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Departure. Sabbath day's rest at Queenstown. The Emigrants on 
 board the China. Inconvenience of the Navigation to the North 
 of the 41st Parallel. Disembarkation at New York 3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 NEW YORK. FROM THE 24TH TO THE 26TH MAY. 
 
 Broadway. Wall Street. Fifth Avenue. Influence of New York on 
 the destinies of North America 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 WASHINGTON. FROM THE 26TH TO THE 29ra MAY. 
 
 The dead season in the Official Capital. The Alabama Treaty from the 
 American point of view. Transformation of ideas and habits since 
 the Civil War. Conflicting opinions on the Emancipation Question. 
 Growing preponderance of the coloured races in the Southern 
 States . 32
 
 viii CONTENT*. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 FUOM WASHINGTON' TO CHICAGO. FROM THE 29TH TO THE 30Tn MAT. 
 
 PACE 
 
 Travellers in the Far West The Miseries of a single Man. Aristo- 
 cratic longinga in the Country of Equality. The Susquchaiina. 
 The Junintn. Arrival at Chicago 44 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 CHICAGO. FKOM THE SOTH MAY TO THE IST JUNK. 
 
 Appearance of Chicago. Growing importance of the German clement. 
 The great Caravanserais. Economy of human strength. The 
 superiority, in the United States, of the lower strata of Society. 
 Chicago the great emporium of the West. Michigan Avenue. A 
 house on wheels. General Sheridan. Manner and character of 
 European travel. The position of Woman in the family .... 58 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. FROM THE IST TO THE 4Tii 
 
 JUNE. 
 
 Mr. Pullman and his Cars. The Mississippi. Race between two Trains. 
 Omaha. The Prairies. The Valley of La Plato. The ludians. 
 A Stationmaster Scalped Stations on the Pacific Railway. 
 Cheyenne. The Roughs. The Life of United States Officers in the 
 Far West. Passage of the Rocky Mountains. Fearful descent of 
 Mount Wahsatch. Brigham Young at Ogden. Arrival in the 
 Capital of the Mormons 84 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 SALT-LAKE CITY. FKOM THE 4TH TO THE ?TH JUNE. 
 
 Appearance of the Town. The Modem Crusaders. The Mormon 
 Theatre and Tal>ernacle. Townsend'a Hotel. The Indians and 
 Indian AgonU. Douglas Camp. The Cations. Brigham Young. 
 Mormonism 10y
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER VII I. 
 
 CORINNE. FROM THE 7T1I TO THE 8'1'H JUNE. 
 
 .PAGE 
 
 Corinnc, the type of a Cosmopolitan Town. A Poiv-Wow on the Bear 
 River. Excursion in the Mountains. Copenhagen. Definition of 
 the word Rowdy 169 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 FROM CORINNE TO SAN FRANCISCO. FIIOM THE STH TO THE IOTH JUNE. 
 
 The Great American Desert. The Silver-Palace Cars. Ascent of the 
 
 Sierra Nevada. Cape Horn Arrival at San Francisco . . . . 183 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. FROM THE IOTH TO THE 13TH OF JUNE, AND FROM 
 THE 22ND JUNE TO IST JULY. 
 
 Its Origin. The Pioneers. The Reign of Pikes. The Vigilance Com- 
 mittee. Commerce and Trade. Wells & Fargo. Growing Re- 
 action against the Gold-diggers. Position, Climate, and Appearance 
 of San Francisco. Its Inhabitants. Its cosmopolitan Character. 
 A German Home. The Chinese Quarter. Cruel Treatment of 
 Chinese Emigrants. Jesuit Colleges. Cliff House 196 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 YOSEMITE. FROM THE 13TH TO THE 22ND JUNE. 
 
 Way of Travelling. Modesto. Mariposa. The Virgin Forest. The 
 
 Big Trees. The Valley of Yosemite. The Falls. Coulterville . . 236 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. FROM THE IST TO THE 25m JULY. 
 
 Departure from the Golden Gate. Dismal appearance of San Francisco 
 from the Sea. The Pacific Mail Company. The China. - Monotony 
 of the Passage. Reflections on the United States. Landing at 
 Yokohama 264 
 
 b
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I L JAPAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 YOKOHAMA. FROM THE 24ni TO THE 26TH ; AND FROM THE 28TU OF JULY 
 TO TUB Sun OF AUGUST; FROM THK HTH TO THE 18TH OF AUGUST; 
 
 ASM FUOM THF. 18TH TO THE 19TH SEPTEMBER. 
 
 PAOC. 
 
 First Impressions of n New Arrival. The look of the Town. Com- 
 mercial Movements. Europeans nt Yokohama 319 
 
 CH. \1TKK II. 
 YOSHIDA. FROM THE SRD TO THE 14m AUGUST. 
 
 .l.ijaii, saving the Trade Ports and the Towns of Yedo and Osaka, 
 always closed to Strangers. Way of Travelling in the Interior. 
 Passage of the O 'awara River. The Baths of Miyanosbita. The 
 Pilgrims of Fujiyama. The Temple of Yoshida. The defile of 
 Torisawa. Hachoji. Return to Yokohama 338 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 CON*, FROM THE 22NU AUGUST TO THE Isr SEPTEMBER. 
 
 The celebrated Tea-house of Hata, A bad Night. The Lake of 
 Hakone. The love of nature and the taste for art spread among 
 the People. Spirits travelling. The Hot Springs of Atami. The 
 Holy Island of Enoshima. Dailmtsu. The old Residence of the 
 Sioguns. Buddha in Disgrace. A great Japanese Lady. Kana-
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 YEDO. FROM THE 26TH TO THE 28TH JULY ; FROM THE 18TH TO THE 
 22ND AUGUST ; AND FROM THE 3RD TO THE 13TU SEPTEMBER. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 General Aspect. The Neighbourhood. Visit to Sawa, the Foreign 
 Minister. German School. The Shiba and its Art Treasures. 
 Evident _but inexplicable influence of Italian Taste. Conversation 
 with Iwakura, the new Minister. His plans of Reform. Shops. 
 Silks and Curiosities. The Temple of Meguro. Saigo. The Sanc- 
 tuaries of Ikegauii. The Forty-seven Ronins. Feast at Sawa's. 
 The Palace of Hamagoten. -Dinner at Iwakura's. The Prime 
 Minister Sanjo. At the Temple of Asakusa. Dramatic Art. A 
 Japanese Vaudeville. Lay Figures. Yedo at Night . - . . . 398
 
 PART I. 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD, 
 
 FROM QUEENSTOWN TO NEW YORK. FROM THE 
 14TS TO THE 24 MA Y. 
 
 Departure. Sabbath day's rest at Queenstown. I'he Emigrants 
 on board the China. Inconvenience of the Navigation to the 
 North of the 41st Parallel. Disembarkation at New York. 
 
 May llth. Queenstown* the port of Cork, and the 
 point of departure for the great steamers which keep 
 up almost daily communications with Europe and the 
 New World, never seemed to me more attractive than 
 at the moment when I was about to leave its shores. 
 The weather was delicious, the sky hazy, but without 
 clouds and almost blue ; the air soft, damp, and 
 redolent of the sweet scents of early spring. The 
 vegetation, save for the absence of orange-trees, and 
 the climate, except from the want of the deep, clear 
 blue sky of the south, reminded me of Portugal. 
 When, this morning, I climbed up to the church 
 which crowns the heights behind the town, I walked 
 
 B 2
 
 4 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 through a perfect garden of wild flowers, under the 
 shade of fine old laurels and sweet-smelling shrubs, 
 and through hedges loaded with roses and jessamine 
 to say nothing .of. that; of which neither Cintra, nor 
 Tapada, nor an)> of '^ie 'Lisbon gardens can boast 
 the hjeautftul: fibff thtcj^ vejvety, emerald green grass 
 of Old England. The peace and stillness of Sunday 
 reigned over the town. The villas, embowered in 
 trees and perched on the green sides of the hill, were 
 reflected in the blue glassy sea of the vast bay. All 
 the ships in the roadstead were dressed with flags in 
 honour of the day. The neighbouring hills, clothed 
 with magnificent trees and parks, interspersed with 
 comfortable-looking country houses, formed, as it 
 were, the frame of the picture. Looking towards the 
 sea, one narrow passage seemed the only outlet 
 towards the vast Atlantic, of which only a little bit 
 was visible. There, two miles off, our great Cunard 
 steamer is waiting for us. She left Liverpool yester- 
 day, and has touched at Queenstown to pick up the 
 mails and the rest of her complement of passengers. 
 The smoke from her funnel, and the activity of the 
 little boats round the great leviathan, tell us that the 
 hour of departure is at hand. 
 
 In front of the houses facing the water there is 
 quite a crowd of loungers : officers in uniform, gen- 
 tlemen, fishermen in their Sunday best, and peasant 
 women wrapped in their black cloaks, with bare heads 
 and large brown eyes, which look at you with a soft 
 and melancholy curiosity. They have all just come 
 from church, and are watching the embarkation of 
 the China's passengers. The emigrants come first : a
 
 I.] FROM QUEENSTOWN TO NEW YORK. 5 
 
 group of relations and friends gather round them 
 Hands are clasped, tears are shed for they are life- 
 long partings and then they drown their sorrow in 
 a last glass of whisky. A small steamer plies back- 
 wards and forwards between the quay and the great 
 ship outside. Accompanied by some members of the 
 Cork Yacht Club, the oldest in Great Britain, 1 the 
 Austrian Consul and the Rector of Queenstown or 
 his curates, I had often before witnessed these sad 
 scenes, in which nevertheless, there is sometimes a 
 comic element. Now it was my turn. The moment 
 of embarkation on a long and distant voyage has 
 always something solemn about it. Even the hearty 
 good wishes of your friends for a safe passage reminds 
 you of the caprices of that treacherous element to 
 which you are about to commit yourself. At three 
 o'clock I was on board the China ; at four, the 
 anchor was weighed and we were fairly off. 
 
 May 1 7th. The weather is perfect. The sky clear, 
 the air fresh and elastic, that crisp, clear, ocean air 
 which gives you a good appetite, and rocks you to 
 sleep, and makes you look upon everything on the 
 bright side. We are making every day 320 to 340 
 miles. On board, the Caledonian element prevails. 
 The captain, the officers, the waiters, and a large 
 portion of the passengers are Scotch. In the first- 
 class saloon cabin we are not very numerous. 
 
 My neighbour at dinner is General K , of the 
 
 United States army, who is travelling with his 
 
 daughter. He has seen service in the virgin forests 
 
 1 This Yacht Club was founded in 1727.
 
 6 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 of California, of Idaho, and of Arizona, bunting 
 with the redskins or being hunted by them, according 
 to the various circumstances and changeable policy of 
 his government. What a pity that one cannot steno- 
 graph his descriptions, so full of vivid interest, 
 stamped with truth, and related with all the sim- 
 plicity and modesty of a man who has himself passed 
 through it all ! 
 
 To jump with one bound from the deserts of 
 America to China, I have only to begin to talk with 
 the young man in front of me, with his distinguished 
 air, careful toilet, and high-bred manners. He is one 
 of the merchant princes of the great English factory 
 of Shanghai. With wonderful clearness he puts before 
 me a perfect picture of the commercial position in 
 China, especially as regards British interests. His way 
 of judging of and estimating things is that of more 
 than one European resident in the East. The Chinese 
 Empire is to be forced to accept the blessings of 
 civilization at the cannon's mouth ; they must kill 
 a good many Chinamen, especially the mandarins 
 and men of letters, and then exact a large war 
 indemnity. 
 
 But now to come to Mexico. Here is my man 
 a little brown animal, half Spaniard, half Indian. His 
 complexion and his linen would be equally the better 
 for a change. He is a merchant of Monterey on the 
 Rio Grande. He has the gift of the gab and he 
 certainly does not neglect it. If you are to believe 
 him, there is nothing in the wide world so picturesque 
 as the rice-fields of Texas, and nothing so civilized as 
 the life of the solitary " ranches " in the Paso-del-
 
 i.] FROM QUEENSTOWN TO NEW YORK. 7 
 
 Norte. Chihuahua, his home, is a second Paris. In 
 fact, in many ways, it is superior to it. As to the 
 yellow fever, it has never penetrated into those 
 favoured regions. Besides, even this fever is 
 maligned : if you don't die of it, it purifies the 
 blood. Those who escape are fresh and vigorous ; 
 it gives them a new lease of life. But in spite of 
 all this poetical license (the effect of an Andalusian 
 imagination joined to a fiery patriotism), his is a 
 practical turn of mind, and he has a thorough know- 
 ledge of men and things in his own country. He is 
 quick of understanding, and his stories, though per- 
 haps somewhat vulgar, are full of raciness and fun. 
 When he speaks of the Emperor Maximilian, his little 
 eyes kindle and his very language becomes ennobled. 
 This unfortunate Prince, a martyr to his cause, has, 
 by his heroic' and tragic death, acquired an aureole 
 of glory which will last as long as the world. He is 
 already become in that land which he hoped to 
 regenerate, and which sacrificed him in return, one of 
 those legendary figures which grow with time and 
 are perpetuated from generation to generation. The 
 Empress, likewise, is not forgotten. Her philan- 
 thropic works still exist, and the " Children's Homes " 
 which she founded and placed under the care of 
 the Sisters of Charity, have survived the terrible 
 crime of Queretaro. 
 
 There are also half a dozen young Yankees on 
 board. They are men of business, and all of the same 
 stamp : tall, straight, narrow-shouldered, flat-chested, 
 with sharp, anxious, inquiring yet intelligent eyes, 
 thin lips and sarcastic expressions. They seem to
 
 6 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 scent money in possession or in the future, to be 
 obtained no matter at what cost or with what 
 effort. 
 
 As the weather is beautiful the after-deck is swarm- 
 ing with emigrants men, women and children sitting, 
 squatting, or stretched full length on the bare deck. 
 If they were from the south, or peasants from the 
 Latin hills, what studies they would make ! But these 
 groups have nothing picturesque about them. Except 
 the black mantillas of some of the Irish girls, everyone 
 is dressed in common-place workmen's clothes. The 
 greater part of the faces wear a look of indifference 
 or resignation, the result of over-work or misery. 
 Now and then, however, they make feeble attempts at 
 gaiety. The young men sing in parts or make love 
 to the young girls, who are generally busy knitting. 
 Some Alsatian workmen, who have left their homes 
 not to become incorporated with the Germans, come to 
 ask my advice as to the choice of their future residence. 
 Shall they go North ? or South ? or to the Far West ? 
 What trade shall they take up ? How are they to 
 escape dying of hunger on landing in the streets of 
 New York ? Of the geography of their new country 
 they know little or nothing ; of the way of living, or 
 of getting work, they are absolutely ignorant. What 
 marvellous indifference ! Yet, it seems that the 
 majority of the emigrants are in the same case. 
 They are unhappy at home, and they say, " Let's go 
 to America ! " And so they start, having sold their 
 goods to pay for the passage, confident that they will 
 light on their feet somehow or somewhere in the 
 New World.
 
 i.] FROM QUEENSTOWN TO NEW YORK. 9 
 
 An old man of eighty, the very type of a patriarch, 
 leaning on the arm of a fine young fellow of one-and- 
 twenty, has just crossed the deck. His manners are 
 respectful and yet with a certain amount of dignity. 
 He is an English peasant ; a Somersetshire man. 
 " Sir," he says to me, "it's late in the day for me to 
 emigrate, but I leave nothing but misery in England, 
 and hope to find at least bread to eat in the. New 
 Country. Here are my two grandsons," showing me 
 two lads by his side with a touching expression of 
 tenderness and honest pride : " their father and my 
 granddaughter have stayed behind in our old village, 
 and I shall never see them again." He gave a short 
 cough ; I looked another way, and he took advantage 
 of it to brush his arm across his moistened eyes. 
 
 There is a very good library on board English 
 classics, histories, reviews, and Walter Scott's novels. 
 But to me the most amusing books to study are my 
 fellow-travellers, coming as they do from every quarter 
 of the globe and belonging to all classes of society. 
 The mornings pass only too quickly. As for the meals, 
 they are excellent as regards the quality of the food, 
 but as to the cooking and the waiting, it is Old 
 England before the Reform Bill. I don't complain. 
 I only state the fact. The Directors of the Cunard 
 Company are essentially Conservative. The least 
 agreeable part of the day is the evening. It is 
 difficult to read by the uncertain light of a candle, of 
 which the wick is half blown out by a draught of air 
 from the North Pole, sharp enough to give you the 
 rheumatism, although not enough to carry off the 
 exhalations of the supper. As to your cabin, in
 
 10 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WOULD. [CHAP. 
 
 these latitudes in the month of May, you may make 
 up your mind to find the climate of an ice-house. 
 
 May 20th. During these two last days we have 
 had strong winds from W.S.W. The English call this 
 a "double-top-reef-breeze." A little later on, this so- 
 called "breeze" will come to a "half-gale." As long 
 as the white foam from the crests of the waves falls 
 like a cataract over the sides, it's a " top-reef-breeze," 
 but when the foam is driven by the wind horizontally, 
 then it is a "gale." All this lore our amiable captain 
 has just been explaining to me with a smile. Neither 
 wind nor waves disturb his mind in the least; but 
 the fogs and the ice, which at this season are sure to 
 be found on the " Banks." Yesterday evening, how- 
 ever, we had fine weather again. We saw a beautiful 
 aurora borealis, and this morning, what was still more 
 striking, a huge iceberg. It was sailing along about 
 a mile ahead of us. Brilliantly white, with greenish 
 rents here and there, and ending in two sharp peaks, 
 this great mass of ice rolled heavily in the swell, 
 while the waves beat furiously against its steep, shining 
 sides. A sort of dull rumbling sound like low thunder 
 is heard in spite of all the noise of the engines. The 
 cold, pale sun of the Arctic regions throws a sinister 
 light over the scene. It is all very fine and very 
 grand, but not reassuring. We are in the midst of 
 the Banks of Newfoundland. This evening we shall 
 double Cape Race. By a lucky chance, the weather 
 is quite clear. But if we had come in for a fog, which 
 is the rule at this season, and had then struck against 
 this floating mass of ice which took so little trouble
 
 i.] FROM QUEENSTOWN TO NEW YORK. 11 
 
 to get out of our way, what then ? " Oh," answers 
 the captain, " in two minutes we should have gone 
 down" and that is the unpleasant side of these 
 voyages. This is -the third time that I have crossed 
 the Atlantic in the space of ten months, and almost 
 invariably the sky has been as leaden as the fog was 
 thick. In consequence, it is impossible to take the 
 meridian ; for there is neither sun nor horizon. But 
 such is the experience of these captains, that they 
 steer by " dead reckoning ; " that is, they ascertain 
 by minute and constant calculations, the result of the 
 speed of the boats on the variable action of the cur- 
 rents. If, instead of going so far north, by way of 
 shortening the voyage, they were to follow a more 
 southerly course, they would meet with far less ice 
 and no fogs, and the danger would be ever so much 
 lessened ; there would be no risk of striking against 
 icebergs, nor of disappearing altogether, nor of sinking 
 the fishermen's boats, which are so numerous on those 
 Banks. In vain the alarm-whistle,, that useful but 
 aggravating little instrument, blows its hoarse and 
 lugubrious sound minute after minute ; it cannot pre- 
 vent every accident ; and they are far more numerous 
 than people imagine. If they succeed in saving a 
 man belonging to the ship, or in finding out the 
 number of the . unhappy boat which has sunk, the 
 captain sends in his report, and the Company pays 
 an indemnity. But if the accident should happen in 
 the dead of night, and every soul on board has gone 
 down with the boat, it is impossible to verify the 
 name of the owners : the great leviathan has simply 
 passed over it and all is said and done. Companies
 
 12 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 are bad philanthropists : besides, they have to race 
 one another in speed. Each departure from Queens- 
 town or New York is registered in the newspapers 
 with the utmost exactness ; and the same with the 
 arrivals. Hence this frantic race to arrive first. In 
 England, public opinion has more than once exclaimed 
 against this system, and the Times has not dis- 
 dained to give publicity to these complaints with all 
 the weight of its authority. If they would follow a 
 more southerly course (to the south of the 42nd 
 degree), the passage would certainly be slower 
 by two or three days, but the security would be 
 doubled. The loss of time would be more than com- 
 pensated by the comparative absence of danger. To 
 effect such a change, however, all the Companies 
 must agree (which unfortunately they have not yet 
 done) to give up the Northern Route. It is in fact, 
 mainly owing to their rivalry that accidents happen. 
 Cunard's Company, it is true, have never lost a ship 
 or a passenger ; and the steamers of the two German 
 Companies are equally perfect in their arrangements ; 
 first-rate captains, officers chosen with the utmost 
 care, one and all thoroughly acquainted with this 
 part of the Atlantic, the ship's crews consisting of 
 picked men, with perfect machinery, which is care- 
 fully examined, and taken to pieces after every voyage 
 in fact every human guarantee of safety. And yet, 
 accidents (rare indeed when we consider the enormous 
 risk run, but still fearful accidents) are far more fre- 
 quent in comparison with the number of steamers 
 employed in the service, and with other lines, this 
 one being the most difficult and perilous of all the
 
 i.] FROM QUEENSTOWN TO NEW YORK. 13 
 
 regular and periodical navigations on the face of the 
 globe. The winter is dreaded on account of the gales. 
 But March, April, and May, really constitute the bad 
 season, for at these times the currents drift the ice- 
 bergs from the Banks of Newfoundland towards the 
 Mexican Gulf Stream, and these, meeting with a 
 certain amount of resistance, accumulate on the 
 borders of the hot and cold waters, the contact with 
 which produces the fogs. Later in the year, that is 
 in June and July, the icebergs of the previous year 
 come down from the North Pole. Far larger than 
 the fragments from the Banks, and consequently draw- 
 ing more water, they advance very slowly, but easily 
 cross the Gulf Stream, proving its small depth, and 
 also the existence of other submarine currents. Some- 
 times they are stranded on the shores of Newfound- 
 land and form huge rocks, not marked on any chart, 
 which remain there for weeks ; but those which have 
 veered towards the south melt quickly. The seventh 
 and eighth days of departure from Europe are the 
 most perilous for the American steamboats. They 
 then cross the great canal open towards the North 
 Pole, between Iceland and the shores of Labrador. 
 This is, above all others, the region of north winds, 
 thick fogs, and icebergs. Hardly had we left the 
 shores of Ireland, than the sailors began to discuss 
 these seventh and eighth days, just as doctors talk of 
 critical days in serious illnesses. Until then, " it's 
 all plain sailing ; " afterwards, " there's nothing to 
 fear from the floating ice ; " but those two days ! 
 
 Last year, during the month of July, I was on 
 board the Scotia, one of Cunard's finest ships.
 
 14 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 Although we were in the height of summer, we had 
 only seen the sun once and that for a few seconds, 
 from Cape Clear to Sandy Hook. An impenetrable 
 fog shrouded the Banks of Newfoundland. In the 
 middle of the day it was almost as dark as night. 
 Even standing on the middle of the deck it was al- 
 most impossible to distinguish the four watchmen on 
 the look-out. Every moment, as the air seemed to 
 thicken, the thermometer pointed to a sudden increase 
 of cold in the temperature of the sea. Evidently 
 there were icebergs ahead. But where ? That was 
 the question. What surprised me was, that the speed 
 was not slackened. But they told me that the ship 
 would obey the helm only in proportion to her speed. 
 To avoid the iceberg, it is not enough to see it, but 
 to see it in time to tack about, which supposes a 
 certain docility in the ship, depending on her speed. 
 Thus, as in many other circumstances of life, by 
 braving a danger, you run the best chance of safety. 
 I tried to reach the prow, which was not easy. We 
 were shipping a good deal of sea, and the speed at 
 which we were going added to the force of the wind, 
 which was dead against us ; we were making fifteen 
 knots an hour. I tried to crawl along, struggling 
 with the elements, nearly blown down by the wind 
 and lashed by the spray. One of the officers gave 
 me a helping hand. " Look," he exclaimed, " at that 
 yellow curtain before us. If there's an iceberg behind, 
 and those lynx-eyed fellows find it out at half a 
 mile off that is, two minutes before we should run 
 against it we shall just have time to tack, and then 
 all mil be right.'' I wished him joy of the position !
 
 i.] FROM QUEENSTOWN TO NEW YORK. 15 
 
 But I could not help admiring his coolness and quiet 
 scientific calculations, while all the time regretting 
 the latitude given to our chances of safety. By 
 degrees, I make my way on to the four sailors on the 
 look-out, who seem to me to hold our fate in their 
 hands, or rather in their eyes. They were fine speci- 
 mens of the Anglo-Saxon race, square-shouldered, big 
 men, with complexions which once may have been 
 white and pink, but which now were reddened and 
 bronzed by wind and sun, with aquiline noses, and red- 
 dish hair, of which some locks, furiously blown about 
 by the wind, escaped from the flattened brim of their 
 south-westers. They stood like statues nailed to the 
 deck, their arms crossed on their breasts. The laws of 
 gravitation did not seem to exist for these fellows. 
 All the powers of their minds seemed to be concen- 
 trated in those keen, eager, piercing looks fixed on 
 that yellow curtain which hid the unknown. The 
 immobility of those four great bodies contrasted with 
 the slight emotion of their faces and the violent agita- 
 tation of all nature around them. They were the 
 very image of health, strength, discipline, and the 
 habit of facing danger. 
 
 Sunday, May 21st. We have arrived on the 
 coast of Nova Scotia. The day is magnificent. The 
 ocean rolls along in huge flat waves unmolested by the 
 wind. They reflect the brilliant sun and the sky, 
 which, by its opaque blue, points to the near vicinity 
 of the great continent. Sea, sky, air, all nature and 
 man himself, breathe a Sabbath day's calm. The 
 passengers gathered in the great cabin are having a
 
 16 A RAMBLE MOUND THE WORLD. (CHAP. 
 
 service of some sort, read by the doctor in the absence 
 of a clergyman. Then they sing a hymn. Seated on 
 the poop, 1 listen from a distance. The harsh Scotch 
 voices and the nasal tones of the Yankees fall on my 
 ear, softened by the deck between us and by the open 
 air. There is a sort of sweetness and solemnity in 
 the sound in keeping with the day and the hour. 
 
 In the afternoon the scene changes. The fog is 
 come back again. It seems to fall upon us suddenly 
 like a curtain of black crape. The sky darkens as 
 rapidly as in a drop-scene. The sun, which was so 
 brilliant in the morning, now looks like a little red ball 
 of fire on the point of being extinguished. Very soon 
 it disappears altogether. The wind blows furiously, 
 and the deck is covered with snow-flakes and ice. 
 Here there are no icebergs or bank ice to fear, but we 
 are on the high road to New York. There are few 
 fishermen's boats, but heaps of sailing-vessels going 
 towards and returning from that great port. True, 
 we have still 500 miles to run before reaching the 
 mouth of the Hudson ; but as everyone follows the 
 same course, which is the straightest and shortest, 
 the ocean, so vast in theory, is thus reduced in prac- 
 tice to a long street of 3,000 miles, but not half wide 
 enough for the passers-by. On this line, at this very 
 moment, there are five huge steamers, each of which 
 left New York yesterday in the day. Fortunately they 
 are still at some little distance off. But the sailing- 
 
 o 
 
 ships ! Shivering with cold, we are gathered on the 
 hatchway, a little passage on the deck where the sailors 
 get their rations of punch ; and which, on board the 
 Cunard steamers, is used by the passengers as a smok-
 
 i.l FROM QVEENSTOWN TO NEW YORK. 17 
 
 ing saloon. There we discuss our good or bad chances. 
 The captain comes in for a moment, the water is 
 trickling down his oil-skin jacket, and his beard is 
 an icicle. He lights his cheroot and gives himself the 
 innocent consolation of swearing at the weather. He 
 is in the position of a man who is running with all 
 his might in a dark lobby without knowing if there 
 be any steps or not, and with a certainty that some 
 one else is running in a contrary sense. I never in my 
 life, in any country, saw the air so thick as this 
 evening, and yet we are running at the rate of thirteen 
 knots and a half. These are terrible moments for the 
 commanders of these ships ! If there be a collision, 
 the proprietors of the damaged or lost boats go to 
 law. Should the result of the lawsuit be unfavourable 
 to the company, heavy indemnities must be paid, and 
 the directors revenge themselves on the captain. At 
 sea he risks his life, on land his credit and his fortune 
 are at stake. What a hard lot, and what a horrible 
 nuisance these fogs are ! But this evening Captain 
 Macaulay reassures his passengers. " We are the 
 strongest," he says ; " no sailing-ship could make head 
 against the China ; if any boat founders to-night, it 
 won't be ours/'' 
 
 This comfortable assurance restores the good spirits 
 of the company. Everyone goes to his cabin with the 
 cool consciousness of his strength and of his impunity, 
 and equally resolved to destroy without remorse the 
 unhappy vessels which may cross his path. It is 
 with these laudable sentiments that we lay our heads 
 on our pillows and find, in spite of the continual 
 screams of the alarm- whistle, the sleep of the just. 
 
 VOL. i. c
 
 18 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CH. i. 
 
 May 23n/. The fog and the whistle have pur- 
 sued us unrelentingly for thirty-six hours. This morn- 
 ing for the first time we have once more seen the 
 earth and the sun. Now (eight o'clock in the evening), 
 the China is at anchor at the quarantine station. 
 It is still light. But, with a striking analogy to 
 their European brothers, the doctor and the officer who 
 are to give us a clean bill of health, are supping com- 
 fortably in the bosom of their families and decline to 
 be disturbed. We must wait patiently till to-morrow, 
 therefore, before we can land on American soil. We 
 have also been warned that these gentlemen will not 
 come on board till after their breakfast ; that the 
 formalities of the Custom House will take at least 
 three hours, and that therefore we shall not be allowed 
 to go on shore till after midday. 
 
 The last time I arrived, after a similar voyage, my 
 patience was put to the same test. Thus fourteen to 
 eighteen hours are added to the length of the crossing. 
 It was certainly well worth while to make us run all 
 the risks of ice and fogs at a speed of fourteen knots 
 an hour ! But it appears that red-tapism is the same 
 in both hemispheres. My patriotism found some con- 
 solation in the fact that this country is so little ahead 
 of us in the matter of progress.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 NEW YORK. FROM THE 24 TO THE 26 MAY. 
 
 Broadway. Wall Street. Fifth Avenue. Influence of New 
 York on the destinies of North America. 
 
 AT New York everything is interesting. I do not 
 say that I am delighted with everything. But it is 
 impossible to weary of the extraordinary, feverish 
 activity which pervades Broadway and Wall Street 
 early in the morning ; or of the social elegance which 
 towards evening is displayed in the beautiful Fifth 
 Avenue, the resort of hundreds of loungers of both 
 sexes and multitudes of carriages. The excessive 
 luxury of these vehicles with their great coats-of-arnis 
 emblazoned on every panel, the over-smart liveries, the 
 heavy, almost priceless carriage horses, and the some- 
 what extravagant dresses of the ladies, whom nature 
 has been kinder to than their dressmakers, all combine 
 to arrest the attention and interest of the spectator, 
 even should they fail to satisfy his fastidious taste. 
 One tries to discover the moral link between all this 
 ostentatious display, which though on a republican 
 soil, is not afraid to show its face, and that thirst for 
 
 C 2
 
 20 
 
 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 equality which is the motive-power, as it is the spur, 
 the end, the reward, and also the punishment of a 
 democratic society like the American. There is no 
 doubt that this fashionable world is only tolerated by 
 the working man, who elbows them roughly enough 
 in the street, and by what are emphatically called in 
 Europe " the People," but their toleration is accounted 
 for by the hope which each one entertains, and which 
 in this country is not a chimera, of arriving himself 
 some day at the same state of prosperity ; of seeing 
 his wife, who, to-day is at the wash-tub, or rinsing 
 bottles in a gin palace, indolently stretched on 
 the morrow in her own luxurious landau ; or of 
 driving himself in his gig with a fast trotter, which 
 shall have cost at least five thousand dollars ; of sur- 
 rounding himself, in fact, with all those material 
 enjoyments of which the sight excites his longing and 
 admiration, even more than his envy, until his own 
 turn comes. This is what makes the real distinction 
 between the American democrat and the democrat of 
 Europe. This last, in despair of attaining to a higher 
 position, strives to drag down everyone else to his 
 level. Envy and jealousy are his strongest motive 
 powers, and the result is the wish to lower and destroy. 
 The American, on the other hand, wishes to enjoy : to 
 obtain this, he must work to produce the money, 
 which in this new country is always possible, and 
 often easy. Having done this, he feels honestly that 
 he is on a level with the best of them. His object, 
 therefore, is to rise. He seeks for equality in a higher 
 sphere than that in which he was born and bred, and 
 he finds it. The European democrat reckons on
 
 ii.] NEW YORK. 21 
 
 arriving at equality by lowering everyone else to his 
 own level. Of the two democracies, I infinitely pre- 
 fer the American. 
 
 But it would seem as if, here below, in America as 
 in our hemisphere, real equality is only to be found 
 in theory. Nowhere has this struck me more forcibly 
 than in the United States. Let us come back to our 
 man in a "blouse," who is lounging in the Fifth 
 Avenue, between five and six o'clock in the evening. 
 The sights which are unrolled before his eyes fascinate 
 without irritating him. He watches it all with real 
 and joyous emotion. He hopes some day that all this 
 will be within his own reach. But in most cases this 
 hope can only be partially realized. It will be quite 
 possible for him to make a large and even princely 
 fortune, to rival in luxury the millionaires of Wall 
 Street, but it will be difficult, if not impossible, to 
 penetrate into certain social regions. In his rare 
 relations with those men who do belong to them, 
 he cannot fail to feel his own inferiority. His son or 
 his grandson will penetrate into those charmed circles 
 some day, but he himself will be excluded. But as 
 he forms the majority, he is not discouraged. By dint 
 of struggling, secretly, openly, even brutally now and 
 then, he pursues, without ever fully attaining, his 
 ideal of intellectual and social equality. 
 
 The result is this : men of cultivated minds and 
 of refined manners, with a taste for historical tradi- 
 tions, and in consequence for all things of European 
 interest, withdraw themselves to a great extent from 
 public life, make a little world of their own, and 
 escape, as far as they possibly can, from all contact
 
 22 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 with that real life, and those great schemes which 
 draw forth the riches of this extraordinary country, 
 and create the wonders which fill us with surprise 
 and admiration. It is allowable to exhibit a fearful 
 amount of luxury, for material riches are accessible 
 to all. But they carefully screen from the vulgar 
 eyes of the multitude, who feel they can never attain 
 to such heights, those refinements of mind and manners 
 in which consist the real enjoyments of life. These 
 treasures are as jealously guarded as the Jews in the 
 Middle Ages, or the Orientals in our own day conceal 
 their riches behind squalid walls and poor-looking 
 dwellings. 
 
 This being the case, one meets in the United States 
 far more vulgar and pretentious people than real 
 gentlemen. Hence the erroneous opinion so current 
 in Europe, that an American does not know how 
 to behave. The truth is, that these parvenus, but 
 parvenus thanks to their courage, their intelligence 
 and their activity that these remarkable, self- 
 made men, who have had the time to make colossal 
 fortunes, but who could not, at the same time, educate 
 themselves beyond a certain point, who feel their own 
 value, and resent in consequence the feeling that they 
 are excluded from any real intimacy with their 
 superiors in education, habits, and manners the truth 
 is, that these men are always thrusting themselves 
 forward ; while the real gentlemen and ladies lead a 
 comparatively retired life, protesting by their absence 
 against their supposed equality ; and form among 
 themselves in the great towns of the east?, especially 
 at Boston and Philadelphia, a more exclusive society
 
 ii.] NEW YORK. 23 
 
 than the most inaccessible coteries of the courts and 
 capitals of Europe. 
 
 New York, in its outward aspect, reflects in a very 
 remarkable manner the characteristics of the great 
 territory of the Union. One would say that the in- 
 tellectual, moral, and commercial life of the American 
 people was here condensed, to spread its rays after- 
 wards across the immense tracts which are called the 
 United States. 
 
 Broadway is the representative and the model of 
 those great arteries which bind together the different 
 portions of this great continent from ocean to ocean. 
 The great thoroughfares of London, the Boulevards of 
 Paris, the Eingstrasse, and other great streets of 
 Vienna, are as busy and as animated perhaps as 
 Broadway ; but 'their animation springs from the 
 wants and the commerce of their respective cities ; 
 while this great artery of the American metropolis is 
 more than a street it is a high road a royal road 
 leading to everything. Besides the crowds of men 
 and merchandise crossing your path right and left, 
 there are the equally filled railway cars. The persons 
 who throng them are travellers more than passers-by. 
 Their look is anxious as well as business-like. One 
 would fancy that every man was afraid of missing his 
 train. Certainly New York is a great capital in the 
 European sense of the word, like London, or Paris, or 
 Vienna. But it is more than this, it is at the same 
 time an enormous railway station, a " depdt," to use 
 an American term, both of travellers and goods; 
 where one meets a floating population large enough
 
 24 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 to give the impression of that agitation and preoccu- 
 pation, and that provisional state of things which is 
 the characteristic of all the great American cities. 
 To sum up in one word, Broadway represents the 
 principle of mobility. 
 
 Let us pass on to Wall Street. This is the centre 
 of all the great financial operations. Here the re- 
 semblance with the City of London is incontestable. 
 The buildings, which are nearly all Banks, the crowds 
 who jostle one another in the streets, the very air one 
 breathes smells of money and of millions ! Yet even 
 here the analogy with Europe is not complete. Of a 
 thousand little indications of difference, I will quote 
 but one : your banker will not pay you the sum you 
 ask, at once, however small it may be. He sets the 
 telegraph to work ; and after a few minutes the money 
 is brought to you from the public bank, where the 
 funds of his particular house are deposited. Nothing 
 can be more praiseworthy than this practice ; for these 
 banks are real fortresses which would make any at- 
 tempt at breaking into them impossible ; and which 
 in case of any rising of the mob (if such risings are ever 
 again to be dreaded in New York, which I doubt) 
 would afford the best guarantees for the security of 
 the deposits. But money is a coward. We must 
 own, however, that there is wisdom in the system 
 which provides for its own safety, as everyone does 
 in America, from the Backwoodsman who, whenever 
 transporting his household goods to the utmost limits 
 of the civilization of which he is the pioneer, begins 
 by building a blockhouse ; down to the officer sent to 
 keep the red-skins in order, who at each bivouac, en-
 
 ii.] NEW YORK. 25 
 
 trenches himself and his men behind gabions and 
 ditches. 
 
 Now we are in the Fifth Avenue, and consequently 
 far from the industrial quarter. Here the eye rejoices 
 in the contemplation of all the luxury which money 
 can bring. Do not let us be hypercritical, or examine 
 too closely the artistic taste of these pretentious 
 buildings, which seem by their pompous architecture 
 to make a parade of their magnificence. After all, 
 the same meretricious taste has spread to Europe, 
 and prevails more and more. The Belgravia of 
 London, the Bingstrasse of Venice are both examples 
 of this style. M. Haussmann and his architects have 
 borrowed their inspirations from the same source 
 while striving to amalgamate these two " renaissances," 
 the French and the American. It is the architecture 
 of Henry the Third converted into Yankee. 
 
 But let us come back to the Fifth Avenue. Charm- 
 ing little gardens surround each house, which, in this 
 beautiful month of May, form bright spots of green, 
 blue, red, pink, white, and lilac, giving the most ideal 
 and poetic look to the whole. Amidst these groups of 
 shrubs, and grasses, and creeping flowers, and tiny 
 bright green lawns, coquettishly .bordered with marble 
 balustrades, there are endless picturesque details. One's 
 eye rests with real pleasure upon them, and gladly 
 turns aside from looking at the .overcharged, over- 
 decorated fa9ades of the houses beyond. Taken as a 
 whole, the Fifth Avenue is really very grand, and 
 here and there quite charming. 
 
 But what struck me most in New York is the 
 enormous number of public buildings consecrated to
 
 26 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 Divine worship of various kinds. I am not speaking 
 of the great Gothic cathedral which the Irish are now 
 building, and which belongs to another date and 
 another order of ideas, but of the innumerable little 
 churches belonging to the different sects, built very 
 often at a great cost and with a profusion of ornament 
 in every possible and impossible style, which fix one's 
 attention and pique one's curiosity. Their small size 
 makes them the more remarkable, side by side with 
 the vast buildings around them. In Europe, the 
 massive pile of the cathedral, and the belfries, spires, 
 towers, and high roofs of the other churches, stand out 
 against the sky, tower above the houses of the faithful, 
 and give to each town, seen from a distance, a particular 
 character. At New York it is quite the reverse. Seen 
 from the river or from Jersey City at the moment of 
 disembarkation, this huge metropolis unrolls itself 
 before you in great masses of red, grey, or yellowish 
 brick. One or two steeples at the outside rise above the 
 roofs, which in the distance, seem all of the same height, 
 and to form one vast horizontal line stretching towards 
 the plain beyond. Europeans who have just landed 
 for the first time cannot help wondering how these. two 
 or three churches can possibly suffice for upwards of a 
 million of Christians ! But they find out their 
 mistake when they walk through the town and espe- 
 cially when they come to the Fifth Avenue, where the 
 commercial fever is at rest or, at any rate, gives place 
 to a little quiet, to study, and perhaps to meditation 
 and prayer. Not that all those little chapels in the 
 Fifth Avenue impress, one with a feeling of sanctity 
 or fill the mind with that grave spirit of recollection
 
 ii.] NEW YORK. 27 
 
 which comes over one in the aisles of our great cathe- 
 drals. So far from it, the sanctitas loci is entirely 
 wanting in this wide and worldly quarter. These 
 little buildings, each consecrated to a different form of 
 worship, are only accessories to the whole. They are 
 only open during their respective services, and these 
 services are only performed on Sundays. But there 
 they are, and however poor they may be, they prove 
 the existence of a religion in the hearts of these rich 
 people, who had perhaps little or no time to think of 
 their souls when they were making their fortunes, but 
 who, now that they are millionaires, begin to believe 
 that there is a future state. Either from honest con- 
 viction or because they feel the need, or from pure 
 custom and a sense of respectability, they contribute 
 liberally towards a chapel and forming a congrega- 
 tion. 
 
 In a society of which the most energetic, the most 
 important, and the youngest portion lives in a per- 
 petual mill-race, it is evident that anything like 
 spiritual or inner life must be unknown or, at least, 
 dormant. To outsiders, indeed, such ideas seem to 
 have no existence at all in the American mind. But 
 this is not so. From time to time, there is an extra- 
 ordinary awakening. The enormous sums then given 
 for the building of new churches, the revivals, those 
 great meetings in the forests and prairies of the Far 
 West, where a sudden thirst for spiritual consolation 
 bursts out with extraordinary violence, seizing upon 
 the masses like an epidemic and producing the most 
 fantastic scenes, now tragic, now comic, these revivals 
 and the splendid churches in the Fifth Avenue are
 
 28 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 only different manifestations of the same spirit the 
 spirit of Faith, asleep, oppressed, kept down, but not 
 exterminated by the worship of the Golden Calf which 
 is the religion of the State: the only apparent religion, 
 in fact, of the merchant, the miner, the carrier, the 
 porter, in one word, of the fortune-hunter of young 
 America ! 
 
 Notwithstanding that we were really in the dog- 
 days, we continued our explorations of New York, 
 sometimes in carriages, sometimes in cars, but still 
 oftener on foot. What struck me even more this time 
 than during my first visit, and which I cannot find 
 mentioned in any other description of New York, is 
 the way in which this city has, as I before said, given 
 the type to all the other great centres of population in 
 the Union. The preponderance which she exercises 
 arises from her extraordinary centralisation, to which 
 neither the exclusive legislation of other States, nor 
 the extreme mobility of American society, nor the 
 unlimited space acquired or conquered by this great 
 nation, can in any way resist. T could multiply 
 examples to prove my theory, but how discuss such 
 questions with the thermometer at 30 degrees 
 Re'aumur ? 
 
 I have just been going through a large though some- 
 what common-place quarter of the town, inhabited 
 entirely by Germans. Here all the emigrants of that 
 nation, many of whom only arrived the day before, 
 are welcomed, lodged, and put in the right track before 
 starting for the Far West. They bring with them an 
 atmosphere fresh from the Vaterland, and thus
 
 ii.] NEW YORK, 29 
 
 renew all the home-feelings of their fellow-countrymen 
 and prevent them being transformed altogether into 
 Yankees. The old settlers, on the other hand, who 
 have mostly outlived those republican aspirations 
 which form such a powerful element in German 
 emigration, strive first of all to destroy the illusions of 
 the new-comers ; to give them some idea of the real 
 state of things ; and to prepare them as far as possible 
 for the new life which awaits them. Quite a meta- 
 morphosis is the result, and that in a few days, 
 under the influence of this great centre of American 
 life. The consequences will be felt at the most extreme 
 points of this vast country under the shadow of the 
 forests in which Lake Superior is embedded ; or in the 
 great granaries of Minnesota and Wisconsin ; in the 
 prairies of Nebraska and Arkansas, on the borders of 
 the Red River, in Texas, in the isolated ranches of 
 Oregon, and even to the grassy slopes of the Sierra 
 Nevada. 
 
 In a minor degree, the same may be said of the 
 Irish. I say in a minor degree, because the child of the 
 Emerald Isle shows himself less amenable to outside 
 influence ; and that everywhere the Celt is sufficient 
 to himself ; and as in England and Australia as well 
 as in America, he shuts himself up from modern civi- 
 lization. It is also an ascertained fact that nations 
 who have emerged earlier from a state of barbarism 
 exercise a sort of superiority over races who are 
 younger in that respect. Where they come in contact 
 it is always the first who become supreme and the 
 latter who succumb ; and that, in spite of the equality 
 which may exist between them, and even a sort of
 
 30 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 political superiority in the latter. Certainly, the con- 
 quests that the elder generation make over the younger 
 in the human family are limited; but they are an incon- 
 testable fact. Thus on the frontier between Italy and 
 the Austrian Provinces, it is the Italian element which 
 prevails over the German and the Sclave, perhaps on 
 the confines only of the two provinces and to an infi- 
 nitesimal degree, but still it is perceptible. In Hungary, 
 vis-d-vis the Magyars and the Sclaves, in< Bohemia 
 and Illyria, in Poland and Russia, the German is 
 evidently and ostensibly the pioneer of civilization. 
 That of the Celts dates from the first centuries of our 
 era, if it be true, as I believe, that Christianity is the 
 only cradle of true civilization. From that point of 
 view, the Celts are the elders of the Anglo-Saxon and 
 German races. But these having gone ahead of them 
 in every respect, they have never been able to establish. 
 their rights except by a passive resistance to the influx 
 of modern ideas. In New York, thanks to universal 
 suffrage, they are a real power and even a formidable 
 one. At the elections, they often obtain a majority. 
 In the States they form the principal Catholic element 
 and are the born antagonists of the Germans, who are 
 mostly Protestant. Emigrants of other nations land 
 with the intention of becoming American citizens ; the 
 children of the Emerald Isle remain for ever Irish. 
 Not that they have an idea of returning to the old 
 country, although they admit the possibility of such 
 an eventuality, or of inducing their children to do so, 
 but by an ideal and mystical link, they remain united 
 to the mother-country, and have, as it were, carried 
 off a portion of it with them. The ocean which sepa-
 
 ii.] NEW YORK. 31 
 
 rates them, seems to have no existence in their minds ; 
 it is, after all, but a stream. The day will come, 
 God knows when, when they will cross it once more, 
 they, their American brothers, as they are called 
 in Ireland, to bring with them liberty in the modern 
 sense of the term, as it is understood by the democrats 
 and liberals of Europe, and which means for them 
 independence and separation from England. Then 
 they will fight and conquer. Fenianism is the off- 
 spring of these dreams ; that intangible conspiracy 
 which resists the efforts of the police, detectives, and 
 of the English troops, as much as the exhortations of 
 the Catholic clergy ; and gives a feeling of uneasiness 
 both in England and Ireland, which is not exempt 
 from danger. The Irish, therefore, are little influenced 
 by Anglo-Saxon ideas and habits. However, they do 
 not escape them altogether, and it is again at New 
 York, that the Irishman is transformed into the 
 American brother. The same effect is produced, 
 only in a greater degree, on the emigrants of other 
 nations. 
 
 From this point of view, the supremacy of New 
 York is certain, as long as she remains the head of 
 the bridge which connects the two continents. At 
 the present moment, the immense majority of emi- 
 grants, the surplus of that strength which Europe 
 from over-population can no longer employ or main- 
 tain, turn their steps to the mouth of the Hudson, 
 land at New York on American soil, and there re- 
 ceive their first impressions, which they carry with 
 them to all parts of this vast continent.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 WASHINGTON. FROM THE 26 TO THE 29 MA Y. 
 
 The dead season in the Official Capital. The Alabama Treaty 
 from the American point of View. Transformation of ideas 
 and habits since the Civil War. Conflicting opinions on the 
 Emancipation Question. Growing preponderance of the 
 coloured races in the Southern States. 
 
 WHOEVER wishes to have a clear idea o'f the official 
 capital of the United States, without the trouble of 
 locomotion, has only to read Anthony Trollope's de- 
 scription. It is a real photograph, only lacking the 
 colouring, but the drawing and resemblance are 
 perfect. I almost regret that I have not contented 
 myself with copying it. The air is heavy, the heat 
 stifling, the dust and the mosquitoes pursue you 
 without mercy. " Arlington House," that great hotel 
 patronised by the official world, the rendezvous of 
 senators, politicians, lawyers, who swarm there, is 
 certainly the least agreeable of all the great caravan- 
 serais of the New World. I am spending sleepless 
 nights stifling under a mosquito net which has the 
 fault of not being impervious to my tormentors, and 
 whiling away the hottest hours of the day in the
 
 CH. in.] WASHINGTON. 33 
 
 rooms on the ground-floor of the house or on the 
 verandah. Stretched out on easy-chairs, are a multi- 
 tude of other men, striving in like manner to pass 
 the most intolerable part of the day in the most 
 comfortable way possible. They smoke, they spit, 
 they fix their eyes on the ceiling, but they won't talk. 
 A. dead silence pervades the whole place. You hear 
 nothing but the buzzing of the flies, and sometimes 
 the step of a black or coloured waiter or postman 
 bringing in papers, letters, or telegrams. From time 
 to time, a blast of hot air rushes in, bringing with 
 it a cloud of dust from the street. The atmosphere 
 is redolent of various kinds of odours which add to 
 the charm of the morning. I am told that even at 
 Buenos Ayres and Eio de Janeiro, the summer is less 
 trying and less injurious to health. 
 
 The consequence is, that everyone who can, 
 escapes from the town. The President is on the point 
 of starting ; Mr. Fisk is already gone. The diplomatic 
 corps and the heads of departments follow their ex- 
 ample. The House of Representatives is shut up. 
 The Senate will close to-day or to-morrow. I went 
 to hear one of the last sittings. The debate was 
 calm and quiet, but the reverse of lively. It rather 
 disappointed me, as amongst us, Europeans, although 
 the debates in our respective Houses of Parliament 
 are often exciting, we are apt to fancy that under 
 the cupola of the American capitol, the time is spent 
 in mutual recriminations, resulting very often in in- 
 sults and revolvers. Nothing of the sort happened. 
 Two honourable members attacked and defended a 
 certain question with grave courtesy and sonorous 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 voices, more like pleaders at the Bar, to which 
 profession these politicians probably belonged. In 
 speaking, they alternately raised and let fall their 
 voices, and only in certain eloquent moments, struck 
 the palm of their left hand, stuck out horizontally, 
 with their right finger. During the debate, the other 
 members read, wrote or slept. No one talked or even 
 whispered ; but on the other hand, no one seemed 
 to pay the smallest attention to the two speakers. 
 Their very existence seemed ignored. 
 
 The end of this session, however, coincides with an 
 event of no small importance i.e., with the signing 
 of the Treaty destined to bring about the solution 
 of the tedious question of the Alabama quarrel ; and 
 to strengthen the friendly relations between Great 
 Britain and the North American Republic, which 
 recent events had somewhat weakened. The English 
 plenipotentiaries had left Washington only a few days 
 before. Hence the Alabama Treaty was the great topic 
 of conversation. I heard of nothing else in England 
 before my departure ; on the steamer, in the railroad, 
 at New York, here and everywhere, no one talks of 
 anything else. The greater part of the English 
 people whom I have seen, are unanimous in regretting 
 that they have been obliged to make concessions ; b.ut 
 congratulate themselves at the same time on the 
 settling of a question which gave rise to mutual dis- 
 trust, and might have ended in a serious rupture 
 between the two countries. In their minds, a certain 
 satisfaction at the result is mingled with their 
 vexation. If I am not very much mistaken, that 
 is the predominant feeling in England. In America
 
 Hi.] . WASHINGTON. 35 
 
 politicians seem uncertain as to the amount of value 
 to be attached to the Treaty. They ask one another 
 if the question be really settled or not. I have seen 
 several official men, a number of members of Parlia- 
 ment, and the Governor of one of the principal States. 
 Evidently their idea on the subject is not a decided 
 one ; or else they have some reason for not expressing 
 it. In the ordinary public sense, the Treaty of 
 Washington is looked upon in America, as an act 
 of deference on the part of the English Government, 
 and a recognition of the superiority of the United 
 States. England has owned herself in the wrong, 
 arid has capitulated ; nothing more nor less. If this 
 erroneous interpretation of the business spreads itself 
 through the States, and takes root in the convictions 
 of the masses, the conciliatory dispositions of the 
 British negotiator are evidently misunderstood, and 
 the Treaty, although it may smooth over existing 
 difficulties, will pave the way for future compli- 
 cations. 
 
 The Canadians on the other hand, are extremely 
 dissatisfied. For them, there is the perpetual griev- 
 ance of the fishery question. They complain that 
 Lord Granville's plenipotentiaries neglected them and 
 sacrificed their interests ; that they are, in fact, aban- 
 doned by the mother-country. Even before my 
 departure from Europe, an eminent English statesman 
 had said to me : " The separation from Canada is only 
 a question of time. This treaty will hasten it. Before 
 four or five years are over it will happen." Everyone 
 knows how, in England, public opinion has familiarised 
 itself with the idea of the loss of the colonies. If any 
 
 D 2
 
 36 A E AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD, [CHAP. 
 
 one, thirty years ago, had ventured to suggest such a 
 possibility, he would have been denounced as an enemy, 
 if a stranger, or as a traitor, if an Englishman. But 
 the present generation look upon such questions from 
 a different point of view. They admit it as inevitable, 
 and expect a declaration of independence from 
 Canada and Australia at the very first shot fired by 
 Great Britain against a foreign enemy. Utilitarians 
 even discuss the advantages of such a separation, and 
 talk like courtiers who congratulate their Sovereign 
 on the loss of a province. 
 
 During the three days I passed at Washington, I 
 took my meals at a little table with a young and nice- 
 looking couple whom 1 found out to be the Governor 
 of one of the Western States with his wife. The 
 steward who, in the dining-room, directs the waiters 
 and fixes your place at table with an authority which 
 no one dreams of disputing, had placed us together, 
 which enabled us to enter into conversation. 
 
 The Governor began with the usual interrogatory. 
 
 " Allow me," he began, " to ask you an impertinent 
 question. What country do you belong to ? What 
 is your profession ? And what has brought you to this 
 great country ? What do you think of America ? It's 
 a fine country, isn't it ? a very fine country, a very 
 big country." 
 
 Now one reads in every book published on America, 
 and principally in England, that the Yankee is greedy 
 of compliments on his native land ; that he swallows 
 any amount of flattery however exaggerated, and 
 that the least criticism, even silence, provokes and
 
 in.] WASHINGTON. 37 
 
 wounds his patriotic sensibilities. This was true once, 
 but the civil war lias altered the state of things. 
 Men's minds have become matured. The enfant 
 terrible, the young scapegrace, has become a grave 
 and earnest man. He has visited Europe and has too 
 much sense, and is too clear-sighted to hug himself 
 as in old times, with the belief that he " whips all 
 creation." This is especially the case in New England, 
 which may be called the centre of the intellectual life 
 of America. The men from the Western States in the 
 masses are less enlightened. The South, formerly 
 renowned for its princely hospitality and the aristo- 
 cratic tastes of its great planters, as well as for the 
 eminent statesmen which she gave to the Republic, 
 the poor South is at present but a mutilated trunk 
 bleeding from thousands of wounds, which time alone 
 can cure ; and is therefore in an abnormal condition. 
 I shall not be able to visit her and judge for myself, 
 so that I must leave out this question in speaking of 
 America. 
 
 My Governor from the West was evidently of the 
 old school. I took great care, therefore, not to wound 
 his susceptibilities. In those conflicts between the 
 duties of politeness and the exigencies of truth (in 
 which delicate situation I often find myself), one gets 
 out of the difficulties as best one can by lavishing 
 compliments or ingeniously disguising one's mitigated 
 criticisms. I find that my audience dwell on my en- 
 thusiastic expressions and take no note of the timid 
 deprecation, or covert malice with which I strive to 
 satisfy my conscience, or stifle its voice. Moreover, I 
 have often observed that the more a stranger dwells on
 
 38 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 the favourable side of things in America, the more 
 his native listener condescends to come down to the 
 regions of truth, and to point out of his own accord, 
 what are the faults of the constitution, and the social 
 evils of the United States. 
 
 " Yes," replied the Governor, after having swallowed 
 complacently enough, a whole mouthful of my com- 
 pliments ; " yes, we are a great nation a glorious 
 country. But we are sick. We are suffering from the 
 consequences of a precocious childhood, and a too 
 sudden growth. As young men, we lived in a forcing- 
 house ; arrived at maturity, we undertook too much 
 and are now wearing ourselves out with overwork. 
 It is possible, but not probable that we shall arrive at 
 old age. The Union, I fear, has no future." 
 
 " You ask me," he continued, " for my opinion as 
 to the emancipation of the negroes. It is impossible 
 to speak with certainty ; but according to all human 
 probability, the Act of Emancipation was a sentence 
 of death to the coloured people. The negro is natur- 
 ally idle and improvident. Now that he is free, he 
 works little or not at all, and cares nothing for the 
 morrow. I allow that there are many exceptions. 
 Since the abolition of slavery, the Southern proprietors 
 of the plantations pay their negroes wages, or, which 
 is better, give them a fourth part of the produce, and 
 this system on the whole works well. But, as I said 
 before, a negro who will work and save is the excep- 
 tion. If the last cotton crop has been good, it is only 
 very partially due to the slave labourers ; they have 
 not the wish to work in them, so they can never com- 
 pete with the whites, and very soon will fall into
 
 in.] WASHINGTON. 39 
 
 poverty and misery. They are improvident and bad 
 parents. They have no idea of taking care of their 
 children. That used to be the business of the pro- 
 prietor, who, anxious to preserve and increase his 
 capital, if not from humanity at least from interest, 
 took the greatest care of his female slaves when with 
 child, and of their little ones after. Now, the mortality 
 among the latter is something frightful.- Besides, it 
 has been proved by long experience, that in the free 
 states the blacks remain numerically stationary, even 
 if they do not diminish. In the slave states oh the 
 contrary, independently of the contingent furnished 
 by the annual slave trade, the negro race increased in 
 the most astonishing degree. This fact may be ex- 
 plained by two causes. The first, the one I before 
 mentioned, namely the extreme care taken by the 
 proprietors of the nursing mothers and their infants ; 
 the second, the partiality of the black women for the 
 whites. In the Southern States, before the Abolition, 
 almost all the marriages were contracted between the 
 blacks themselves. The union of a black woman with 
 a white husband, whether illegitimate or not, was the 
 exception ; now the law makes no distinction and 
 throws no obstacle in the way, and the great influx 
 of workmen from the Northern States facilitates the 
 alliance between the blacks and the whites. Thus, 
 on the one hand, misery and sickness especially 
 among the children diminish the black population, 
 and on the other, the very few negroes who by their 
 industry have attained a good position, invariably 
 strive to marry their daughters to whites, or at least 
 to half-castes ; so that you see that both their virtues
 
 40 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP 
 
 and their vices, idleness and work, equally conspire to 
 bring about the eventual destruction of the black 
 race." 
 
 Whilst he was speaking, I asked myself, "Do the 
 negroes work or not ? " it seems to me that the whole 
 question turns upon that. But on this essential point, 
 which is, after all, one of fact, opinions are divided. 
 A statesman highly esteemed in America and the 
 representative of his country at one of the European 
 courts said to me : 
 
 " People declared and generally believed that the 
 emancipated negroes would not work. The statistics of 
 the last cotton crops prove that, under the system of 
 wages and a share in the profits, they are become 
 excellent workmen. Again, it was asserted that they 
 were hopelessly stupid ; and now we see that not 
 only are they possessed of extraordinary intelligence, 
 but that they have the greatest wish to educate 
 themselves, and to give a good education to their 
 children." 
 
 The same statesman spoke to me of the growing 
 political importance of the coloured races : 
 
 " The partizans of emancipation were afraid lest 
 the old proprietors should be enabled, by underhand 
 means, to elude the law and make this great philan- 
 thropic act a dead letter. To obviate this danger, the 
 negroes were allowed to share in the universal suffrage. 
 One of the consequences is, that, at the next election 
 for the President, they will be masters of the position 
 and that their votes will decide the question. As it is, 
 both democrats and republicans are striving to curry 
 favour with them and intriguing for their votes."
 
 in.] WASHINGTON. 41 
 
 To which I must add that President Grant fully 
 recognises their importance ; in proof of which he 
 honours them with his special protection, as the 
 constant influx of negroes at the seat of Government 
 proves. In the Southern States they have got most 
 of the power in their own hands. In South Carolina 
 the Vice-President of the Legislature is a man of 
 colour. Let us read what the New York Observer 
 says about it : 
 
 "The position of South Carolina is well nigh 
 intolerable. It arises from two causes ; first, that the 
 blacks outnumber the whites ; next, that the old 
 planters refuse to fall in with the new system, and 
 to share the government with the blacks. In this 
 way the negroes, with the help of a few recently 
 arrived whites, have the game in their own hands 
 and rule the State. Out of one hundred and 
 twenty five members of the Lower House ninety of 
 them are blacks. The proportion in the Upper is 
 the same. The greater number of these men are 
 venial and corrupt. Add to this, that the land- 
 holders in South Carolina have lost everything in 
 the late war except the actual land ; that they 
 have no ready money whatever, that the taxes are 
 continually augmenting of late years ; and that they 
 
 press cruelly on the landed proprietors " The 
 
 article then goes on to speak of the way in which 
 the public revenue is squandered. 
 
 These statements and others of the like kind are 
 confirmed by all the Southerners and contradicted 
 by most of the Northerners whom I meet. On which 
 side lies the truth ? And how to find it out ? But
 
 42 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 one fact is allowed on all sides : and that is, that the 
 blacks are, to a certain degree, the masters of the 
 whites. 
 
 In some states they rule absolutely ; in others, they 
 form the majority of the legislature ; everywhere they 
 constitute a real power this very race who, only a 
 few years ago, on this self-same spot, were considered 
 the lowest animals in creation ! One can under- 
 stand the rage, the despair, the hatred continually 
 gathering in the hearts of the whites, not so much 
 against their old slaves, as against the North, the 
 authors of all these evils. See, too, what is passing 
 in the South. At this moment, Mr. Davis is making 
 a kind of triumphal progress through the country. 
 His speeches electrify his audience. They may be 
 summed up in two words, silence and hope : which 
 means, vengeance when the hour is come. The 
 gentlemen, who are all landed proprietors, abstain 
 from voting and keep themselves in the background, 
 thus giving up the field to the negroes and emigrants 
 from the North. The Government cannot even get any 
 official agents. If they nominate any man, for 
 example, to collect the taxes or see after the revenue, 
 he is sure to resign after a few weeks, either from in- 
 timidation or because he sympathises with the Southern 
 cause. The Southern women, more impassioned and 
 more heroic than their husbands, do all they can to 
 fan the sacred fire of patriotism, which, in the eyes of 
 the law, is treason and revolt. This is the picture 
 presented to me by impartial persons, by members of 
 the diplomatic corps, and by travellers well acquainted 
 with the country and complete strangers to the two
 
 in.] WASHINGTON. 43 
 
 parties. A great deal of their information on this 
 subject is not even attempted to be denied by their 
 adversaries. But one thing which everyone admits is 
 the political preponderance of the coloured element in 
 the South at this moment. Such an anomaly cannot 
 last.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM WASHINGTON TO CHICAGO. FROM THE 
 29 TO THE 80 MAY. 
 
 Travellers in the Far West. The Miseries of a single Man. 
 Aristocratic longings in the Country of Equality. The Sus- 
 quehanna. The Juniata. Arrival at Chicago. 
 
 IN the journey from New York to the official capital 
 of the United States, there is nothing which, strikes 
 the traveller as very different from, what he meets with 
 in an ordinary European railroad. But when we 
 turn our steps towards the West, the look of our 
 fellow-travellers gradually changes. Bankers with 
 their clerks, elegantly-dressed ladies from Boston, 
 Philadelphia or Baltimore, officials from Washington, 
 all those people, in fact, whose cosmopolitan aspects 
 remind one of their like in Europe, disappear 
 from the scene. They are replaced by a lot of men 
 mostly young, bearded, ill-dressed, not over-clean, 
 armed with one or sometimes two revolvers, wearing 
 round their waists great coarse, woollen bags, which 
 are generally empty when they are starting for the 
 Far West, and as commonly full of gold on their
 
 CH. iv.] FROM WASHINGTON TO CHICAGO. 45 
 
 return. There are also a number of farmers of a 
 less equivocal appearance, and draymen who on the 
 banks of the Missouri, at Leavenworth and Kansas 
 City, are going to rejoin the caravans confided to 
 their care. These men are important personages in 
 their way. The intrepidity, the perseverance, the 
 habit of command (if it were only of the bullock- 
 drivers conducting their teams), an exuberance of 
 health, a certain brutal strength and a strong sense 
 of their own value, are all marked on their faces 
 reddened with whisky and exposure to the burning 
 winds of New Mexico and Arizona. The merchandise 
 conveyed by them to Santa Fe', Prescott, San Diego, 
 California, or by the Paso-del-norte to Chihuahua, 
 is worth many millions. These men brave every 
 hardship and danger, from Indians and desert 
 monsters, to the dreary snowdrifts of the higher 
 levels, and the terrible passage of the canones. 
 They take three, four, or five months to reach their 
 destination. From time to time only, they find a 
 halting place where they can obtain fresh pro- 
 visions. To these men (real crusaders, saving the 
 cross and the chivalry), such stations appear like 
 fairy castles, where beautiful Indians rise up to 
 wait on them, and where, during a two or three 
 days' halt, they find every earthly enjoyment of the 
 kind which they can best appreciate, which makes 
 them forget the privations of the road. When I 
 pass before a group of these men in the corner of 
 a waggon, they salute me with a friendly and yet 
 sharp and somewhat bantering look, half mixed 
 with pity : " Poor devil ! " (they think to themselves)
 
 46 A X AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 " what is he good for ? " and then giving me a silent 
 shake of the hand, let me pass on. 
 
 There are also several Germans in the train, who 
 make themselves remarkable by the boldness of their 
 voices, for the American is silent in general and only 
 speaks in a whisper. The ladies also have changed 
 their appearance. Here, as in other parts, they are 
 almost always travelling alone. But elegant toilets 
 have disappeared. 
 
 I was advised at New York to provide myself with 
 letters of introduction to the landlords of the different 
 hotels and to the station-masters of the places where 
 I meant to stop ; and in a previous journey I had 
 already found the advantage of such a precaution. 
 The train arrives at a little station where you mean 
 to sleep. There are but one or two hotels in the 
 town monster ones, it is true, containing eight or 
 twelve hundred beds. But they are always over- 
 flowing with passengers. Everyone rushes towards 
 the omnibuses which are to convey you there, others 
 run on foot alongside. As to your luggage, you 
 need not trouble your head about it, as you have 
 your " check." It is sure to be sent to you safely and 
 speedily. Now we are arrived at the inn, and behind 
 a long bench stands a gentleman of grave and majestic 
 air. We travellers are all arranged in single file before 
 him. The ladies are served first, and taken to fine 
 apartments on the first and second stories; under their 
 wing pass, likewise, their husbands, or brothers, or 
 anyone who may have the privilege of being their 
 masculine escorts. But single men are ruthlessly 
 sent up to the garrets, for which purpose a lift is
 
 iv.] FROM WASHINGTON TO CHICAGO. 47 
 
 always ready to facilitate the ascension. My turn 
 came at last, and I presented myself before the 
 Minos of the place armed with my letter of intro- 
 duction, given to me by the master of the hotel 
 where I had slept the night before. He read it 
 rapidly, looked at me for a moment with a cold 
 but keen and scrutinising glance ; then, he passes me 
 over, and sends my fellow travellers to the aerial 
 regions ; when everybody has been provided for, I 
 find myself alone, face to face, with this important 
 personage, who turns towards me his countenance, 
 visibly brightening, presses my hand warmly and 
 smiling graciously, says : " Now for us two, Baron. 
 You wish for a good room, Baron. Very well, Baron, 
 you shall have one," and he gives me the best room 
 he has to offer. 
 
 Here I cannot help making an observation which 
 nevertheless has been made hundreds of times before. 
 The American has a thirst for equality, but a mania 
 for titles. Those who can lay claim to the title of 
 Governor, Senator, Colonel, General, even if it be 
 only of the Militia., and their name is legion, are 
 always accosted by their title, and never by their 
 name. They are never weary of repeating it. To 
 him who gives it, as to him who receives it, it is felt 
 to be an equal honour. As to titles of nobility, the 
 forbidden fruit of the republican American, they 
 are pronounced with a sort of voluptuous pleasure. 
 I appeal to all those who have been in America to 
 clear me from a charge of exaggeration in this 
 matter. By a species of analogy, I might quote 
 also the naive pride of those old families who
 
 48 A R AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 descend from the first Dutch emigrants, the English 
 Puritans, or the French Huguenots. I never made 
 the acquaintance of any one of these men or 
 women, that they did not say to me immediately 
 after my introduction : " I am of a very old family. 
 My ancestors arrived in this country two hundred 
 years ago. My cousins have a seat in the House of 
 Lords ; " or else, " We descend from Huguenots- 
 men well known in the Court of France before the 
 revocation of the Edict of Nantes." And these 
 very persons, who had begun by proclaiming their 
 genealogy, were generally the most distinguished by 
 their polished manners and a first-rate education. 
 These anomalies, however strange they may seem 
 to us, are to be explained, I think, less by motives 
 of vanity, which find other and more real gratifi- 
 cation, than by the essence of human nature, which, 
 like the inanimate creation, cannot exist without 
 variety and repudiates the notion of equality. 
 
 On the railroads, too, I found my letters of intro- 
 duction invaluable, especially when travelling alone. 
 The station-master begins the acquaintance by shaking 
 my hand, calling me " Baron " half a dozen times, and 
 introducing me to the guard of the train. Then 
 comes a fresh exchange of civilities. The guard 
 gives me my title, and I call him " Mister." That's 
 the custom in the Far West they don't call one 
 another " Sir" but " Mister," without adding the 
 name ; for no one has the time to inquire, or it is 
 forgotten as soon as told. If you are a white man 
 and an American, that is enough ; for that consti- 
 tutes your superiority over the wild man of the
 
 iv.] FROM WASHINGTON TO CHICAGO. 49 
 
 desert, over the red man of. the prairie, over all the 
 other nations of the earth, Europeans included. It 
 is the species to which you belong which they con- 
 sider, not the individual. You are then " Mister" 
 which means "Master" Master of Creation. After 
 being duly presented to the guard there is one more 
 formality to be gone through, which is an equally im- 
 portant one, and that is to be introduced by the guard 
 to the man of colour. This is the waiter of the cars. 
 In this case, with a due consideration for the shade of 
 his skin, there is no sha.king of hands. In spite of 
 the emancipation, we have not yet arrived at that ! 
 They become legislators, certainly, and even vice- 
 presidents. At Washington, the seat of the central 
 government, they are allowed to loll insolently enough 
 in omnibuses and cars and public places, and only 
 to yield their places to women. But to shake hands 
 with them ! Fie ! it is not to be thought of. The 
 guard as a friend, the coloured man as a servant, 
 become invaluable to you on your journey. They 
 secure you a good place ; they manage that you 
 should avoid disagreeable or dangerous company by 
 putting you in a ladies' compartment, if only you 
 will dispense with your cigar ; above all, they will 
 reserve a " section " for you that is, a window with 
 four places, which, during the night, will be trans- 
 formed into a very comfortable bedroom. 
 
 After a detestable luncheon, taken in baste at 
 Baltimore in an " eating-house," I rush off to the 
 station of the Central Pennsylvanian Eailway for the 
 West. Thanks to the competition with other lines, 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CRAP. 
 
 one has arrived at the utmost maximum of speed. 
 Thus, at the moment in which I write, and while, 
 according to my wont, I am striving, in spite of hor- 
 rible shakings, to scribble a few notes in my journal, 
 we are rattling on at a rate of between fifty and sixty 
 miles an hour. To talk with the first-comer is one 
 of the charms of a tourist. It has this advantage 
 over reading, that you can ask questions, and don't 
 tire your eyes. Besides that, some books are tiresome ; 
 but however dull you may be, there does not exist a 
 human being out of whom you cannot extract some- 
 thing a new idea, a happy thought, some curious bit 
 of information or fresh appreciation. Sometimes, 
 certainly, one comes across hopelessly obtuse and 
 ease-hardened natures, into whom nothing can pene- 
 trate. But put even such natures on a subject which 
 interests them, and they will unbend. Ask them for 
 some detail of their own biography, for instance, and 
 be sure they will talk, if not freely, at least with 
 pleasure, and with profit to yourself, if you know 
 how to take advantage of it. Only men flying from 
 justice, or women in a doubtful position, travelling 
 under the incognito of disconsolate widows, will ever 
 consider your questions indiscreet. 
 
 In the highest society, which is almost always more 
 or less connected with men in power, frivolity and gossip, 
 those habitues of the drawing-room, arc formidable 
 rivals to serious conversation ; and when we get out 
 of the region of commonplace, the reserve which our 
 respective positions impose, or an arriere-pensee that 
 one is afraid to betray, a thousand different reasons, 
 in fact, create a barrier to a liberal exchange of ideas.
 
 iv.] FROM WASHINGTON TO CHICAGO. 51 
 
 Such conversations have to pass through the crucible 
 before producing any result. 
 
 The middle classes, on the other hand, offer a wide 
 field of observation. One learns far more from them, 
 and finds more variety, than in the higher classes ; 
 but less knowledge of the human heart and of real 
 life, for the horizon of each is necessarily limited in 
 this little world of specialities. The savant, the artist, 
 the merchant, the tradesman, as long as he talks to 
 you of the business in which he is engaged, can give 
 you some valuable information. The least interesting 
 men are commercial travellers. If they would only 
 talk of their sales or their goods ; but they will talk 
 politics. Each man tells you with the greatest freedom 
 all he thinks and feels on such questions, and each 
 man thinks and feels exactly what he has read that 
 morning in his daily paper. These men I own that 
 there are exceptions are marvellous ; they think they 
 know everything ; the prime ministers of the greatest 
 states have no secrets from them. Like sensible men, 
 unless they were glovemakers, they would hesitate to 
 give an opinion on the quality of a glove ; but in 
 diplomacy they consider themselves master-minds. 
 It is, however, among the people that one can glean 
 with the most profit. The simple confidence of a 
 peasant in our Austrian Alps, an old servant at an inn 
 in some little German or Pyrenean village, the con- 
 versation of the cure, the surgeon (the Sangrado, as 
 they call hirn), the alcalde of an old market-town in 
 the Sierra Morena, gathered together at the village 
 chemist's, in tertulia ; the chatter of the young girl 
 with classical features, and supple figure wrapt in rags, 
 
 E 2
 
 52 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 who precedes me, with the step of an empress, into 
 the depths of an Irish turf cabin ; the autobiography 
 of a workman in a factory, or of a book-keeper at his 
 desk all these, and such as these have never failed 
 to interest me. They have often struck me by the 
 grandeur and novelty of their conceptions ; they have 
 thrown a whole flood of light on obscure and difficult 
 questions, and often evoked tears of sympathy, or 
 irresistible and hearty laughter ; and even in the most 
 ordinary talk of this sort, there is almost always some 
 discovery to be made. An historian, in order to enter 
 into the spirit of the century which he is describing, 
 consults all possible contemporary authorities. In the 
 same way, a traveller, if he is to travel with advantage, 
 should listen to the people of the countries he passes 
 through, and make them talk of themselves. It is 
 the way I have always followed, and which I mean to 
 go on following, in my promenade round the world. 
 
 The train is slackening speed ; we are only running 
 at the rate of thirty or thirty-five miles an hour, that 
 is, at the ordinary rate of express trains in England. 
 "We have entered the Susquehanna valley, and the 
 Pennsylvanian Central follows its winding, serpentine 
 course through wooded glens and smiling villages, and 
 past the busy factories and picturesque cottages which 
 line the banks of this beautiful and poetical river. 
 The scenery is very varied ; here and there all traces 
 of culture or cultivation disappear. Above a thicket 
 of flowering shrubs and branching elms rises up a fir 
 wood, each coniferous specimen being different of its 
 kind, and growing tall, straight, and thin, like the
 
 iv.] FROM WASHINGTON TO CHICAGO. 53 
 
 men of the Anglo-American race. Between these 
 tapering stems, the Susquehanna, of a greenish turquoise 
 blue, dashes by, giving itself the airs of a torrent, 
 bounds against the blocks of granite which line its 
 bed, encircles them with foam, and then resuming its 
 tranquil course, as if ashamed of its powerless fury, 
 rolls on calmly and swiftly, caressing as it passes the 
 branches of wild roses which hang over its limpid 
 waters. It is a perfect type of the classical soil which 
 witnessed the first struggles between the white man 
 and the red-skin, those scenes so beautifully described 
 by Cooper. But this country saw no bloodshed ; it 
 was only the theatre of the peaceable conquests of 
 William Penn. One's imagination loves to dwell on 
 those times, already so far distant, when the Far 
 West began at the gates of Philadelphia, and of the 
 New Amsterdam, .which has since become New 
 York. To convince oneself of this fact, one has only 
 to double this little promontory. In the valley we 
 have now reached, which is wide and open, civilisation 
 unrolls its riches, its cultivated fields, its steam 
 factories, its market towns and villages, with bright 
 clean-looking villas, all built on a uniform plan, its 
 farms surrounded by plantations, the whole a picture 
 of active prosperity, and of the struggle still going on 
 between civilised man and savage nature. But go on 
 a little further, and you come back to a region which 
 is entirely uncultivated. Yes, these contrasts give a 
 peculiar character to the Susquehanna valley, and 
 make it the exact representative of the great state 
 which this river traverses from one end to the other. 
 In Pennsylvania, agricultural industry is more de-
 
 51 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 veloped than in any other state of the Union, without 
 counting the working of its mineral riches of iron 
 and coal. But in spite of the increase of its produc- 
 tions, and the constant growth of its population, three 
 parts of its territory is uncultivated for want of hands; 
 and thus, as on the enchanting banks of the Susque- 
 hanna, the noise and animation of the most active 
 industry of which modern life is capable, alternates 
 with the silence and solitude of the desert. 
 
 In the afternoon we passed by Harrisburg. Now 
 the sun is setting, flooding with a roseate light the 
 idyllic banks of the Juniata. The habitations seem 
 more numerous than on the Susquehanna. The villages 
 succeed one another more frequently, and here and 
 there, surrounded by carefully-kept gardens, peep out 
 little villas, somewhat pretentious in construction, but 
 which give one a pleasant sensation, because they 
 produce the illusion in the mind of the European 
 traveller that he is once more in the Old World. This 
 river has also its solitary spots, and they are not the 
 least beautiful. A soft and poetic melancholy per- 
 vades the whole scene. If the Susquehanna be like an 
 epic poem, the Juniata, more modest, reminds one of 
 the eclogues of Garcilaso : Coriia sin duelo lagrimas 
 corrientes. 
 
 At ten o'clock at night there is a grand commotion 
 in the cars ; everyone rushes out on the platform, to 
 exclaim, with the help of a glorious moonlight, not 
 only on the beauty of the scenery, which I thought 
 doubtful, but on the hardihood of construction of the 
 railway in that particular spot. We came into a gorge 
 of the Jack's mountain, and soon after crossed the
 
 iv.] FROM WASHINGTON TO CHICAGO. 65 
 
 Sideling Hills that is to say, a chain of the Alleghanies 
 at the meeting of the waters of the Atlantic and 
 the Gulf of Mexico. The descent makes one shiver ; 
 fortunately, it is but short. Night is coming on ; the 
 passengers prepare to try to get some sleep. In the 
 bed-carriages the arm-chairs are rapidly transformed 
 into beds. Boards separate them from one another. 
 A heavy curtain runs down the middle of the passage. 
 Each window allows for two beds, one at the top of the 
 other, unless the traveller has taken a " section," that is, 
 the whole space of one window. Under the shelter 
 of the heavy curtain, men and women, without dis- 
 tinction, put on their night things, pin a handkerchief 
 over the pillow provided by the authorities, which is 
 of doubtful cleanliness, lie down on or scramble up to 
 their beds and strive to sleep, in spite of the noise, 
 the shaking, the dust, the stifling atmosphere, and the 
 nauseous smell of this most infernal dormitory. As 
 for me, I do not mean to try even to follow the general 
 example. Although the envied possessor of a " sec- 
 tion," I make up my mind to bivouac bravely on the 
 steps of the platform. The night is beautiful ; a full 
 moon floods the whole country with silvery light. As 
 far as the eye can reach, the railroad follows a straight 
 line, which enables us to go at a fearful rate during 
 the greater part of the night. A couple of feet above 
 me, all along the sides of the rails the pebbles and 
 flints, sparkling like diamonds, look like a horizontal 
 cataract. In crossing the trestle-work bridge, the train 
 rocks and vacillates like a ship in a cross sea. But I 
 cling on to the balustrade, and comfort myself with 
 the reflection that on this line, one of the worst in the
 
 66 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 States, the greater part of the trains, nevertheless, 
 arrive at their destination. From time to time the 
 breakmen rush upon the platform, drag the wheels, 
 put on the breaks, and disappear again by slipping 
 into the next carriage. To judge by their hurry you 
 would think it was a question of life or death. The 
 guard, too, passes and re-passes, never without a 
 gracious smile or a courteous word to me, as " Now, 
 Baron," or, " Well, Baron ; you're not gone to bed." 
 Sometimes, as a variety, he says nothing, but merely 
 presses my hand. Each time I ask him : " Well, how 
 fast are we going, Mister ? " And his answer invariably 
 is : " Sixty miles an hour, Baron." 
 
 The dawn begins to break. It is getting cold. I 
 make up my mind to go back into the carriage. The 
 coloured waiters are already putting away the mat- 
 tresses. In the rotonda, a species of ante-room 
 generally attached to the bed-carriages, the passengers 
 in single file are waiting their turns before a somewhat 
 miserable washing-stand ; another is reserved for the 
 ladies. The latter, with a laudable absence of coquetry, 
 which, however, I should not recommend to any woman 
 who cares to please, appear one by one in their dress- 
 ing-gowns, carrying their chignons in their hands, and 
 find the means of making their toilette in presence of 
 the company, although I cannot say the result was 
 generally satisfactory. 
 
 At two o'clock in the morning we passed Pitts- 
 burg. At nine o'clock we breakfasted at Glastine. 
 The train sped rapidly through the somewhat scanty 
 forests of Ohio. At twelve o'clock we are at Fort 
 Wayne, and at five we arrive on the confines of
 
 iv.J FROM WASHINGTON TO CHICAGO. 57 
 
 Illinois, having traversed Indiana in all its breadth. 
 The country is one vast plain, only limited by the 
 horizon. Low undulations here and there do not 
 suffice to break the monotony of these solitary regions, 
 which are very little cultivated, and do not present a 
 single feature to charm or divert the eye. At last 
 Lake Michigan comes in sight. Looking like the 
 ocean towards the north, with its low downs and its 
 flat sandy banks, nothing can be more dreary or deso- 
 late. At six o'clock precisely, covered with dust, 
 overcome with heat, and tired to death, but without 
 any broken bones, we arrive safe and sound at the 
 Chicago terminus.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHICAGO. FROM THE SOr" MA Y TO THE 
 IST JUNE. 
 
 Appearance of Chicago. Growing importance of the German 
 element. The great Caravanserais. Economy of human 
 strength. The superiority, in the United States, of the lower 
 strata of Society. Chicago the great emporium of the West. 
 Michigan Avenue. A house on wheels. General Sheridan. 
 Manner and character of European travel The position of 
 "Woman in the family. 
 
 I ALIGHT at Sherman House, the prototype of one 
 of the great American hotels. Thanks to my letter 
 of introduction, the gentleman at the office is most 
 courteous, and gives me a charming room on the first 
 floor, with a bathroom alongside, of which the water- 
 cocks, as usual, are stopped up ; but which the negro 
 servant of the "quarter" promises to have put in 
 order for me. In the meantime, I stroll about the 
 streets. The heat is intolerable, and the first sight of 
 Chicago is not encouraging to an idle man. It was 
 the hour of closing the shops and factories. Streams 
 of workmen men, women, and children, shop-boys, 
 commercial men of all kinds passed me on foot, in
 
 CH. v.] CHICAGO. 59 
 
 omnibuses, in tramways all going in the same 
 direction that is, all making their way to their 
 homes in the quarters outside the town ; all looked 
 sad, preoccupied, and worn out with fatigue. 
 
 The streets are like all the other towns in America. 
 The houses, it is true, are built of wood ; l but they 
 imitate brick and stone. Clouds of coal smoke issue 
 from innumerable factory chimneys, gather in the 
 streets, throw dark shadows on the brilliant shop 
 fronts, and on the gorgeous gold letters of the adver- 
 tisements, which cover the fronts of the houses up to 
 the garrets, and seem to half stifle the crowd, who, 
 with bent heads, measured steps, and arms swinging 
 like the pendulum of a clock, are flying in silence from 
 the spots in which, all day long, they have laboured 
 in the sweat of their brows. Now and then, for a 
 moment, the sun breaks through the dismal black 
 curtain which human industry has cast over this 
 toiling capital : but these sudden gleams of light, so 
 far from brightening the scene, tend, on the contrary, 
 to show off its sadness. In all the great thorough- 
 fares, and as far as one can see, rise the gigantic poles 
 of the telegraphic wires. They are placed quite close 
 to one another, and end in a double bishop's cross 
 the only kind of cross which is to be seen in this city, 
 of which the God is money. 
 
 I mix with the crowd, which drags me on with it. 
 I strive to read in the faces I pass, and everywhere 
 meet with the same expression. Everyone is in a 
 
 1 A few months after my visit a fearful conflagration, as every 
 one knows, reduced three parts of this great capital of the West 
 to ashes.
 
 60 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP! 
 
 hurry, if it were only to get a few minutes sooner to 
 his home and thus economise his few hours of rest, 
 after having taken the largest possible amount of 
 work out of the long hours of labour. Everyone 
 seems to dread a rival in his neighbour. This crowd 
 is a very type of isolation. The moral atmosphere is 
 not charity, but rivalry. 
 
 Night falls, and the streets are beginning to be 
 empty. Everywhere I hear the German tongue and 
 strive to enter into conversation with some of my 
 fellow-countrymen. Not till after they have looked 
 at me with anxious rather than curious eyes, will 
 German frankness overcome Anglo-American reserve. 
 But then they unbend and answer my questions 
 gladly. Ah ! with what enthusiasm they speak of 
 the late war ! National pride and the excitement of 
 victory light up these honest, middle-class faces. The 
 wonderful success of their brethren beyond the seas 
 has come to them in the light of a revelation. It has 
 raised their moral tone, revived their energy, and 
 given birth to new aspirations in their hearts, which, 
 in the American sense, would be incompatible with the 
 constitution of the United States. Until now, of all 
 the emigrants, the Germans were those who mingled 
 the most steadily and quickly, and were almost fused 
 in fact, with the Anglo-Saxon race, which forms the 
 basis of the population of the Eastern States. I was 
 very much struck by this, last year, when I was going 
 to Niagara, Everywhere my emigrant fellow-country- 
 men of the last ten or twelve years, if they still talked 
 German to their children, were answered by them in 
 English. One sees that the third generation, with the
 
 v.J CHICAGO. Dl 
 
 exception of some of the customs of the Fatherland, 
 such as the taste for music and for beer, is completely 
 Americanised. This was the case everywhere except 
 in Pennsylvania, where the Germans form so large a 
 portion of the community, and have in consequence 
 preserved the traditions, the habits, and, though very 
 imperfectly, the language of their mother-country. 
 To-day however, under the impulse of a sudden, 
 violent, and perhaps lasting reaction, the German 
 element has emerged from its state of passive resigna- 
 tion. They have become proud of their nationality. 
 They reckon upon preserving and cultivating it. They 
 are like people who suddenly having discovered their 
 own value, are naturally disposed to exaggerate its 
 importance, to become difficult to live with, and to 
 quarrel with their friends. This is the danger which 
 is apprehended in the official circles of Washington. 
 This again is what is foreseen at New York, where I 
 even heard it asserted that the Germans had the 
 intention of forming a distinct element and consti- 
 tuting themselves into a separate political body in the 
 heart of the American confederation. For my own 
 part, I do not share in their anxiety ; I know what we 
 are. We, Germans, are enthusiastic, and people say 
 we are gifted with more imagination and logic than 
 with political sense or instincts. We are often 
 doctrinaires and we like to teach others ; but we do 
 not sin through an excess of vanity, and are not 
 disposed to exaggerate. I am afraid we are not as 
 a whole an amiable nation. We like, rather too 
 much, to think ourselves always in the right. An 
 American said to me one day, " I am myself of
 
 62 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WOULD. [CHAP. 
 
 German origin, but I can't bear the Germans. They 
 are dirty, they are cavillers and they beat their wives." l 
 Alas ! from the Atlantic to the Pacific they have this 
 reputation. But the more one advances towards the 
 west of this great continent, the more one is struck 
 by the traces they have left on their passage ; by the 
 marvellous results due to their intelligence, activity, 
 and perseverance ; by the great place they already 
 occupy in the New World ; and by the important 
 mission they seem destined to fulfil there. 
 
 Whilst indulging in these reflections, I find myself 
 passing under a whole array of flags, which the even- 
 ing breeze is gently swaying. It is the flag of the 
 German Vaterland ! I see it floating from the town 
 hall, from most of the public buildings, and from a 
 multitude of private houses. The fact is, that my 
 German brothers have just been celebrating the 
 conclusion of the peace at Versailles that is, their 
 victories. And the town council has been obliged 
 
 o 
 
 to give them its support, inasmuch as they form three 
 parts of the population of Chicago. The night is 
 dark. The ill-lit streets are completely deserted. The 
 Germans fill the Bierhauser, and while emptying 
 their stoups, amuse themselves by singing national 
 songs to discordant tunes, unworthy of a land which 
 boasts of being musical above all others. In other 
 respects, the voices are good and full, and such as 
 Germany produces ; they sing in choir, and talk ; that 
 is, everybody screams at the same time at the top of 
 his voice. 
 
 1 See Jules Froe'V>el, whose judgment is to be relied upon. 
 ("Aus America," 1857.)
 
 v.] CHICAGO. 63 
 
 As for the Americans, they are all swarming round 
 the big hotel, where everyone is free to come and go. 
 At each moment, fresh omnibuses arrive and disgorge 
 their travellers, who form directly in single file and 
 wait patiently and silently, advancing slowly, and 
 receive at last from the head-man at the office, the 
 key of the room where each is to pass the night. 
 At the same time, masses of trunks like Cyclopean 
 walls, are packed or unpacked with marvellous celerity. 
 The porters, in their shirt sleeves, handle these great 
 weights in a marvellous manner. They are all Irish ; 
 and are distinguished from the Americans by their 
 cheery ways, and by their respectful manners towards 
 the travellers. They are also remarkable for their 
 strength and Herculean dimensions. The Americans 
 cannot act as porters. They have not the physical 
 strength, and their health gives way under any excess 
 of manual labour. 
 
 A great number of billiard tables, all full of players 
 during the evening and far into the night, fill the 
 bar-room. This enormous, low, underground hall, is 
 lit all day by gas, the fumes of which mingle with the 
 exhalations from the various alcoholic drinks which 
 the barman is perpetually dispensing to the company. 
 Groups of men are always standing round this im- 
 portant functionary, whose only merit in my eyes 
 consists in his concoction of lemonade. He melts the 
 sugar in water, adds the juice of the fruit which he 
 squeezes out in an instant by means of a small press 
 like a nut-cracker, puts in three or four bits of ice 
 pure as crystal de roche, and rapidly passing the 
 liquid from a glass to a metal goblet, thereby ac-
 
 64 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 celerates the freezing process. It is the work of a 
 few moments. At last I retire to my room, without 
 taking advantage of the lift, as I have the privilege 
 of being lodged on the first floor. I light the gas 
 with some difficulty, and prepare my bath. Unfor- 
 tunately, hardly had I plunged into the tepid water, 
 than the gas went out, and escaping by the tap, which 
 had unfortunately been left open, filled my whole room 
 with a horribly mephitic smell. I rush out of my 
 bath in order to stop the mischief, and unfortunately, 
 in so doing, displace the cock. My allumettes will not 
 act, my hands are wet. I content myself with turning 
 off the gas, and strive to find my way back to my 
 bath in the dark. But alas ! in the meantime the 
 water has all run out, and there am I, without a 
 light, without a bath, without any clothes, and with 
 no possibility of finding the bell ! Besides, was an 
 American waiter ever known to answer one ? 
 The moral of this little misadventure is, that one 
 must learn everything even how to make use of 
 those thousand inventions, a.s practical as they are 
 ingenious, which constitute what is called the "com- 
 fort" of American hotels, and which have for their 
 object to economize labour, to reduce the number 
 of hotel servants to a minimum, and to make the 
 traveller independent by placing everything within 
 his reach by mechanical processes which enable him 
 to shift for himself. He is waited upon at dinner, and 
 they will clean his room and his boots : but they 
 " calculate " that he will brush his own clothes, and 
 they "guess" he will understand the gas cocks, and 
 the hot and cold-water apparatus. The hotels are all
 
 v.] CHICAGO. 66 
 
 built and furnished on the same plan. The meals are 
 abundant, but indifferently good, even if not bad. 
 Everyone eats in haste and in silence. The waiters 
 (all of the coloured race) help you with a sulky, 
 indifferent manner, unless you have been specially 
 recommended to them by the steward, to whom, if 
 you are wise, you have taken care to be presented by 
 the gentleman in the office. In that case they hope 
 for a little gratuity, smile benignly on you, even 
 become respectful, and bring you niceties which are 
 not on the menu. There are no extras, and no 
 additional expense. Everything is abundant, and the 
 ventilation is excellent ; but on the whole, life at an 
 American hotel, however practical, is thoroughly dis- 
 agreeable. 
 
 In the principal streets of Chicago, and other towns 
 of the West, strong iron rings are sunk into the pave- 
 ment all along the street. They are for fastening the 
 horses. It is their way of doing without grooms or 
 coachmen. To spare a man's strength and time, to 
 lose as little as possible of either, and to get out of 
 both as much as can be, this is essentially the 
 American maxim, of which the traces appear at 
 every turn. Everyone gives in to the notion ; or 
 rather it is a supreme law which no one can resist. 
 Before this inexorable theory, all false shame, human 
 respect, and the prejudices which in the old world 
 exclude the higher and middle classes from manual 
 labour, entirely disappear. 
 
 There is no doubt that our refined lives vanish 
 under this harsh but stimulating treatment ; and I 
 cannot fancy that a man of a certain age, accustomed 
 
 VOL. I, F
 
 66 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 to the gentleness, the elegance, and the refinements 
 of our habits, can really find pleasure in such a change 
 of existence. But even Americans who have lived a 
 long time in France, England, or Germany, when they 
 return to their own country, look back to their Euro- 
 pean lives with strong and often ineffaceable regrets. 
 
 It is the lower classes who gain the most by this 
 system, for it places at everyone's disposal, and at 
 small cost, the material and intellectual enjoyments 
 which raise the moral tone, and which in Europe are 
 the privilege only of the upper strata of society. So, 
 when the European emigrant, sprung from the dregs 
 of the people, and arrived at a state of ease and pro- 
 sperity here, returns to his native country, he is miser- 
 able, and comes back as soon as he can to America. 
 I met some Italians once in the Pacific States, acting 
 as pedlars. They had just returned from Turin. One 
 of them said to me : " There are upwards of four 
 hundred of us in the Nevada and in California, and 
 all, more or less, are doing well. Twenty-four, with 
 their boxes full of gold, returned a short time ago to 
 their native village. But they couldn't stand the life 
 there, and all, with the exception of three, came back to 
 California. This is easily explained. You see, we 
 can't associate with the gentry in Europe, and we 
 can't live with our equals there, because, without 
 knowing it, we have raised ourselves far above them. 
 We feel, therefore, like fish out of water, and so we 
 give up the dream of living in our native laud, and 
 return to America." 
 
 The morning is beautiful : the sky without a cloud,
 
 T.J CHICAGO. 67 
 
 and of that metallic blue which is peculiar to the 
 central regions of this continent. The sun is, however, 
 merciless. Even the heavy wreaths of smoke from the 
 factory chimneys cannot resist it. Man alone braves 
 it. In truth, the activity in the streets exceeds any- 
 thing I have ever seen even in the busy hives of indus- 
 try and commerce in England. The business done 
 is of a distinctly local character. There are two 
 branches of commerce which make the riches of 
 Chicago. This town, which only dates from 1855, 
 now contains three hundred thousand inhabitants. 
 Built on a marsh, it was at first horribly unhealthy. 
 This evil has been remedied by raising the houses 
 on piles by means of cranks, without having recourse 
 to steam, or deranging the inhabitants. Some houses 
 were transported bodily in that way from one end 
 of the town to the other. Chicago has become the 
 great emporium of the wheat and other grains of 
 Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the market where all 
 the population of the Western States (still called 
 " Western," though, now that California and Oregon 
 have been annexed, they should be called " Central ") 
 come to supply themselves with dry goods of all sorts 
 and kinds. By water and by rail, wheat arrives in 
 incredible quantities. Here it is that the inexhaust- 
 ible granaries of the neighbouring states become 
 matters of speculation, are bought and sold, stored 
 up in warehouses, and embarked at a favourable 
 moment, either on the boats of the lake, or on the 
 trucks of the railroad. From hence they stream to- 
 wards the Eastern States, and even to Europe. The 
 mechanical appliances which facilitate these operations, 
 
 F 2
 
 68 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 and the lifts and winches whereby these huge stores 
 are conveyed, form the pride as well as the riches 
 of the inhabitants. 
 
 The retail trade, with the innumerable pedlars who 
 come here to buy the contents of their packs, is an- 
 other source of prosperity to Chicago, and one which 
 Cincinnati and St. Louis have for a long time rivalled. 
 To-day, however, the superiority of Chicago is assured, 
 and still more firmly established from the geographical 
 position of the town. 
 
 I strive to gain the banks of the lake, hoping to 
 get a mouthful of fresh air. Vain delusion ! not a 
 breath stirs the glassy water, which, silent and im- 
 movable, reflects the sky arid the sun, and blinds one 
 with its glare. The railroad crosses the extreme end 
 of it on piles, which look like crutches. Beyond, some 
 large steamers are waiting for their cargoes. In spite 
 of the brilliant sunshine, there is something very 
 melancholy in this scene. Perhaps it is the contrast 
 between the busy life I have just left and the inhos- 
 pitable solitude which unrolls itself before me. This 
 is, in truth, one of the striking features of this con- 
 tinent. At one moment you are filled with admiration 
 at the extraordinary progress of civilization ; then you 
 go on a few steps, you turn a corner, and you fall back 
 into a state of wild and savage nature. The results 
 already obtained by the genius, the courage, and the 
 practical sense of this nation, considered by them- 
 selves, are astounding. But they shrink into nothing 
 when you see what yet remains to be done. 
 
 I find myself in a great avenue on the banks of the 
 lake, with a row of magnificent buildings on the other
 
 v.] CHICAGO. 69 
 
 side. This is the celebrated Michigan Avenue, the 
 quarter of the plutocracy of Chicago. In these 
 splendid mansions, all of wood, but plastered over, 
 and built in every imaginable style, Italian, Classic, 
 Gothic, Roman, or Elizabethan, each and all 
 surrounded by pretty gardens bright with flowers, 
 live the families of men who, in a few years, have 
 realized millions ; and who, if they have for a moment 
 lost them, begin again to make their fortunes a second 
 time. Higher up, this aristocratic avenue leaves the 
 borders of the lake and becomes a street. There are 
 houses on both sides, less grand and rich, perhaps, 
 than those in the avenue, but all bearing a look of 
 comfort, and even luxury, and built in a style of 
 pastoral architecture.. I have been walking for more 
 than an hour, and I am not yet at the end of this 
 street. You might fancy yourself in the country. 
 None but women and children are to be seen, with a 
 few private carriages, and no omnibuses. There is an 
 air of rest and idleness over the whole. Babies play 
 in the little gardens, ladies, elegantly dressed, lie on 
 the verandas, and rock themselves in armchairs, 
 holding in one hand a fan, and in- the other a novel. 
 All of a sudden a new object strikes me. It is a house 
 in the middle of the road. What a strange fancy ! 
 But no, this house moves, walks,, comes near ! Very 
 soon all doubt on the subject is at an end. Placed on 
 trestles resting on cylinders, one horse and three men, 
 by means of a capstan, do the work. I stop from 
 sheer surprise, and watch this singular phenomenon 
 pass by. It is a building of two storeys. A veranda 
 in . full flower- trembles under the slight shaking of the
 
 70 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 cylinders. The chimney smokes ; they are evidently 
 cooking. From an open window I catch the sounds 
 of a piano. An air from " La Traviata " mingles 
 with the grinding of the wheels which support this 
 ambulatory domicile. 
 
 I stop before a little house of two storeys, having 
 only three windows in front fresh, smart, and nearly 
 new. A few steps lead up to the front door, which is 
 only partially shaded by a porch. Whilst waiting for 
 the opening of the door, I am nearly stifled. What a 
 furnace ! It is at one and the same time the summer 
 of the tropics without its dampness, and of the north 
 without its cool refreshing breezes which enable you 
 to bear it. I am ushered into a drawing-room which 
 runs through the depth of the house. I find an air 
 of elegance and simplicity, and at the same time a 
 military tone which is not to be mistaken. 
 
 I am at General Sheridan's. 
 
 I had crossed the ocean with him on my return to 
 Europe, and last year I had met him at Kome. He 
 welcomed me most cordially, and I was delighted to 
 see him again. Grant, Sherman, Sheridan ! These are 
 the three stars, the three heroes who destroyed the 
 Confederation, and by their swords brought about the 
 cementing together of the two halves of the Union. 
 
 General Sheridan, of Irish origin, was brought up 
 at the military school of Westpoint. Like the greater 
 part of the scholars in that celebrated college, he unites 
 a great amount of solid knowledge with the martial 
 air and manners of a gentleman, I should almost say 
 of a European, which distinguish the officers of the 
 United States army. If, without knowing him, I
 
 v.] CHICAGO. 71 
 
 had met him in the street, judging by his appearance, 
 I should have taken him for an Austrian general. 
 
 o 
 
 He is only thirty-eight years old. By a special chance, 
 his name became immortalized at an age when the 
 greater portion of young officers are still in the lower 
 grades of the army. But one would give him at least 
 ten years more. His face, reddened and tanned and lined 
 by the care, watchfulness, and emotions of the late 
 campaign, breathes at once an air of simple modesty 
 and honest pride. His brown eyes shoot lightning, 
 and tell of the Celtic blood which flows in his veins. 
 His countenance expresses intelligence, boldness, and 
 that indomitable courage which seems to provoke 
 danger. He wears his hair cut short, and is of middle 
 height, with square shoulders and powerful limbs. 
 His detractors accuse him of cruelty, and speak of 
 him as the exterminator of the Indians ; his friends 
 simply adore him. Both one and the other talk of 
 him as a dashing officer ; in fact, one has but to look 
 at him to understand that he is the sort of man who 
 would lead on his soldiers to death or victory. His 
 command extends over three parts of the Union. It 
 stretches from the borders of Illinois to the eastern 
 slopes of the Sierra Nevada, from the frontiers of 
 Canada to those of New Mexico and Arizona. He 
 must travel for two years before he can inspect all the 
 military posts under his care. And this great captain 
 lives quietly on a little parrot-stand which he has 
 built himself, and which he is sure to sell without loss 
 should his duties to the State compel his leaving 
 Chicago, which is at present his official residence. 
 His office is in the heart of the town, on the second
 
 72 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 story of oiie of those great houses where business, 
 science, and art, elbow one another ; but where rest, 
 pleasure, and domestic happiness are fairly banished. 
 
 In th e United States, where everything is in a state 
 of mutation , nothing changes so quickly as the official 
 world. The holding of supreme power is limited to 
 four years, and never on any pretext can exceed 
 eight. When the President goes out of office, every 
 single member of every branch of the administration 
 and of the diplomatic corps, that is, upwards of forty 
 thousand functionaries and official men, are at once 
 turned adrift. The only exception is the army, because 
 it is supposed to be a stranger to politics or political 
 combinations. It is the rock in the midst of the 
 shifting sand. In its ranks, consequently, there is a 
 strong feeling of independence and of dignity, which 
 people say is very rare in civil and political circles. 
 As to what concerns Generals Sherman and Sheridan, 
 the brilliant services rendered;by them both place them 
 out of the reach of any hostile attempt. Neither the 
 President, be he who he may, nor a majority of the 
 Senate, would dare to deprive them of their respective 
 commands. Strange anomaly ! A republic where 
 nothing is stationary or independent except military 
 power. 
 
 In our long walks- on board the Scotia, the 
 general often spoke to me openly, with the clear 
 strong sense and rough but patriotic frankness of a 
 man who has no need to conceal his real feelings, 
 of the grave questions pending in his own country. 
 If he touched boldly upon its social evils, he also 
 pointed out to me the moral and material treasures,
 
 v. CHICAGO. 73 
 
 and the inexhaustible resources of his great country. 1 
 Like all public men who have really done great things-, 
 and who are not somebodys only while they occupy a 
 high position, which they may owe to a trick of fortune 
 or chance, and from whence they may some day be 
 hurled with ridicule or obloquy, Sheridan detests 
 popularity. " I have the greatest horror of popular 
 demonstrations/' he said to me. " Those very men 
 who deafen you with their cheers to-day, are capable 
 to-morrow of throwing stones and mud at you ! " 
 
 It was last year, at Queenstown, just as we touched 
 once more on European soil, that we first heard of the 
 struggle between France and Germany. Whilst we 
 were disembarking, a. telegram announced the battle of 
 Worth, of which the issue was still uncertain. General 
 Sheridan intended to join the head-quarters of the 
 Emperor Napoleon. The rapid succession of events, 
 however, and, I think, a refusal from the French 
 military authorities, decided him to, join the Prussian 
 camp, where he was received, with enthusiasm. Every- 
 one knows the fruitless efforts made by him before 
 Paris to bring about a cessation of hostilities.. After 
 that, for about six months, he visited almost all the 
 countries and all the courts of Europe, and only 
 resumed his command a few days before my arrival 
 at Chicago. This encyclopedian way of rushing all 
 over the old world in less time than it. would take us 
 to study a guide-book, is essentially American. To 
 
 1 I regret not being able to reproduce the text of our conversa- 
 tions ; but the reader will appreciate my reserve. I must impose 
 the same rule upon my self- whenever I mention the name of the 
 speaker.
 
 74 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 us it would be a bore, a useless fatigue, a positive 
 torture. But in this country, men seem to be made 
 of different stuff. Broken in to endure every kind 
 of fatigue, always hurried, even in their every-day 
 life, accustomed to think nothing of distances, to take 
 their meals in ten minutes, to rush about here, there, 
 and everywhere, the American may be called the 
 very essence of locomotion. He travels not only 
 without suffering, but without feeling fatigue. " Well 
 and good ; but then one's intellectual enjoyments the 
 study of the interesting artistic objects one sees ; the 
 historical recollections they evoke." . . . . " Nothing 
 is more simple. In the evening one reads in one's 
 guide-book what one is to see the next day." " But 
 one would be worn out with having to digest and 
 take in so many new impressions all at once." " Not 
 in the least." In the first place, these impressions are 
 often only on the surface ; and then it seems as if the 
 intellectual powers of an American are differently 
 constituted from our own. Certainly some of their 
 books of travels that I have read are singularly super- 
 ficial and vapid. It is also true that the greater 
 portion of the American travellers whom we meet 
 with in Europe are nouveaux-riches, without any 
 literary knowledge. But I have known others, who, 
 in spite of the rapidity of their pilgrimage through 
 Europe, have struck me by the fairness, and, what is 
 more remarkable, by the novelty of their appreciations 
 of what they have seen. To judge by what General 
 Sheridan told me of his Odyssey, I place him in the 
 latter category. He is, besides, a military man, and 
 has travelled and observed in that sense. The study
 
 v.] CHICAGO. 75 
 
 of a new rifle or gaiter, and a comparison between 
 different armies, have occupied and impressed him 
 more than the cupola of St. Peter's or the falls of the 
 Rhine. 
 
 A charming woman, charming both by her manners 
 and by her cultivation, with a mind well stored with 
 serious reading, and belonging to one of those old 
 Eastern States which still preserve their British 
 origin, was my daily neighbour at table, during one of 
 my voyages to America. She had just returned from 
 the " great tour " of Europe, and I delighted in making 
 her talk about it. What interested me first in her 
 was the entire absence of prejudice ; there was nothing 
 conventional about her. She had that sort of moral 
 courage which says frankly what it feels. Her judg- 
 ment may in some things have been superficial, but her 
 instincts were always just ; and her mind was specially 
 turned towards practical things. " Ah ! Austria," she 
 exclaimed ; " what a fine country ! They bothered us 
 frightfully at the custom-house on the frontiers of 
 Hungary, however. But I forgive them, for those 
 good Austrian s are such a practical people." I blushed 
 with pleasure, for I had not been used to such a com- 
 pliment. " Only look," she continued, " how well 
 they prop their telegraph wires ! And at Vienna have 
 you remarked by what a simple and ingenious process, 
 by means of little cups and a chain, they manage to 
 raise their bricks to the upper stories of their build- 
 ings ? Then, in the neighbourhood of Salzburg, I was 
 so struck by that kind of wooden stage on which the 
 peasants dry their hay," &c. 
 
 A journey to Europe is an understood social
 
 76 A It AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 necessity in America, and forms an indispensable 
 element in their education. Anyone who has a pre- 
 tension to elegance must have visited the old world. 
 Formerly, those who had fulfilled that duty took the 
 title of hadji (pilgrim) ; but the present generation would 
 ridicule such an idea. These journeys resemble the 
 " great tour" which young Englishmen of noble families 
 used to make in the seventeenth century and at the 
 beginning of the eighteenth. Women, especially, at- 
 tach immense importance to them. There are some 
 men, who, having only lately acquired large fortunes, 
 deliberately make up their minds to sacrifice 
 almost all they have gained for this object. They 
 take expensive couriers, occupy the best rooms at every 
 hotel, have magnificent horses and carriages, and buy 
 fine works of art. When they return home they are 
 well-nigh ruined. But never mind. They feel them- 
 selves ennobled by the process, satisfied with them- 
 selves, and quite ready to begin again to make their 
 fortunes ; and redescend in the social scale as butchers, 
 pedlars, waiters, or even porters, according to their 
 physical strength and ability. Young men of a serious 
 turn of mind, who think of marrying, or, as they call 
 it, " settling " in life, take pains to ascertain first of all 
 if the object of their affections has a strong wish to go 
 to Europe. I observed in one of my voyages a young 
 man who evidently avoided much intercourse with his 
 fellow -passengers, and who, sitting by himself in a 
 corner, was always looking at his watch. One day, 1 
 ventured to ask him why he was so impatient. " It is 
 not impatience," he replied ; " it is regret : " and he 
 showed me his watch. On. the dial-plate was a coloured
 
 v.] CEICAGO. 77 
 
 photograph of a young and pretty woman. " That is 
 my wife," he continued. " You think her beautiful ? 
 Well, she was so, but alas ! she is dead. I went to 
 Europe to try and divert my thoughts. I am in the 
 fur trade, and a friend of mine told me that St. 
 Petersburg was a gay town. I went there, but found 
 no distraction or pleasure ; so I am going back to 
 America as sad as I went. I always fancy I hear my 
 wife walking behind or beside me ; but when I turn 
 my head to look at her, she has disappeared. That's 
 why I can't help continually looking at my watch, 
 which holds her portrait. She loved me devotedly, 
 and she was a good wife. She prevented my doing 
 foolish things, and saying unkind things of my neigh- 
 bours, or spending my evenings in the bar-room. She 
 was a first-rate manager too, and never asked to be 
 taken to Europe. No Europe-going, no such non- 
 sense ! " He said this in a dry, matter-of-fact tone, 
 without betraying any emotion. I lost sight of him 
 during the rest of the voyage, and only met him again 
 at the moment of landing. I asked to be allowed to 
 look once more at his watch. This mark of sympathy 
 touched him. He reddened, and tears rushed un- 
 bidden into his dull, expressionless eyes. But he only 
 said, " She was very fond of me, and never spoke of 
 going to Europe." 
 
 I have now been three days at Chicago, and it seems 
 to me that I have exhausted the subject. In the Far 
 West, the towns are quickly seen and are all alike. 
 One may say the same thing of the hotels, which play 
 so great a part here, not only in the life of a traveller,
 
 78 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 but in those of the residents. A great number of 
 families, especially newly-married couples, live at 
 hotels. This method saves expense and the bothers 
 of housekeeping ; it makes also the transition easy 
 from one town to another, as such changes are so fre- 
 quent in America. But it has the inconvenience of 
 condemning the young wife to a life of idleness and 
 solitude. All day long the husband is at his office, 
 or in his counting-house. He only comes in at meal- 
 times, and devours his food with the silence and ex- 
 pedition of a starving man. Then he rushes back to 
 his treadmill. If there are any children, they go to 
 school when they are five or six years old, by them- 
 selves, both going and coming, and pass the rest of 
 their days exactly as they please, no one thinking it 
 right to interfere with their liberty. Paternal authority 
 is nil, or at any rate, is never exercised. As for 
 education, in our sense of the word, they have none ; 
 but instruction, and that a public one, is good and 
 accessible to all. These little gentlemen talk loud, 
 and are as proud and sharp as the full-grown men of 
 their nation ; the young girls at eight and nine years 
 old excel in the arts of coquetry and flirtation, and 
 promise to become "fast" young ladies. But nevertheless 
 they make good and faithful wives. If their husband 
 should be rich, they will help him to ruin himself by 
 excessive extravagance in dress ; but they will accept 
 misery with equal calmness and resignation, and fly 
 into the same follies as of old, the moment there is a 
 change in the wheel of fortune. 
 
 The " home " of the Anglo-Saxon race, so dear to 
 their hearts, is only a secondary consideration in the
 
 v.] CHICAGO. 79 
 
 lives of their cousins beyond the seas. This is easily 
 explained. In the new world, man is born to con- 
 quer. All his life is a perpetual struggle, a forced 
 rivalry from which he cannot exempt himself, a race 
 in the open field across terrible obstacles, with the 
 prospect of enormous gains if he reaches the goal. 
 He neither would nor could remain with his arms 
 folded. He must embark in something ; and once 
 embarked, he must go on and on for ever ; for if he 
 stops, those who follow him would crush him under 
 their feet. To penetrate the virgin forests, to make 
 tracks which the next generation will turn into high 
 roads ; to convert the rolling prairies into cultivated 
 lands ; to civilize the red-skins, which he does by ex- 
 terminating them; to open the way to civilization and 
 Christianity ; to conquer savage nature and create a 
 new continent for the use of man this is the mission 
 which Providence has assigned to him. His life is one 
 long campaign, a succession of never-ending fights, 
 marches, and counter-marches. In such a militant 
 existence, what place is left for the sweetness, the 
 repose, the intimacy of home or its joys ? Is he 
 happy \ Judging by his tired, sad, exhausted, anxious, 
 and often delicate and unhealthy appearance, one 
 would be inclined to doubt it. Such an excess of un- 
 interrupted labour cannot be good for any man. It 
 exhausts his physical powers, puts all intellectual 
 enjoyments out of the question, and destroys all re- 
 collection of soul. 
 
 But it is the woman who suffers the most from this 
 regime. She never sees her husband but once in the 
 day, for half an hour at most ; and in the evening,
 
 80 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 when, worn out with fatigue, he comes home to sleep. 
 She cannot lighten his burden or share his labour, 
 anxiety, and cares, for she knows nothing of his busi- 
 ness, or, for want of time, there has been little or no 
 interchange of thought between them. Even as a 
 mother, her share in the education of her children is 
 of the smallest. Her little ones, as soon as they can 
 run alone, pass their lives away from her, out of the 
 house, and really bring themselves up. They are en- 
 tirely ignorant of the obedience or respect due to their 
 parents ; but, on the other hand, they learn early to 
 do without their care or protection, and to suffice to 
 themselves. They ripen quickly, and prepare themselves 
 from their tenderest years for the fatigues and struggles 
 of the over-exciting, harsh, adventurous life which 
 awaits them. Besides all this, if she is boarding at one 
 
 ' O 
 
 of these huge caravanserais, a woman has not even the 
 resource and occupation which ordinary domestic 
 details involve. Is it as a compensation for these 
 privations that American society surrounds her with 
 privileges and attentions which are unknown in the 
 old world ? Everywhere and at all hours she may 
 appear alone in public. She may travel alone from 
 the borders of the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, or 
 the states of the Pacific. Everywhere she is the ob- 
 ject of a respectful gallantry, which might be called 
 chivalric, if it were less frivolous, and which some- 
 times becomes even grotesque and ridiculous. For 
 example, I am sitting in one of those tramway-cars 
 which cross all the principal streets of the great 
 towns. A tap of a parasol or a fan rouses me from 
 my meditations, or perhaps from sleep ; and I see
 
 v.] CHICAGO. 81 
 
 standing right in front of me a young woman, who 
 looks at me from head to foot, with an imperious, 
 haughty, and even angry expression. I wake up to the 
 situation, and hasten to give her my seat, which she 
 takes at once, without deigning to thank me, even by 
 a look or a smile. The consequence is, that I am 
 obliged to perform the rest of my journey standing 
 in a most uncomfortable position, and to hold on by 
 a leather strap, which is fastened for that purpose 
 along the roof of the carriage. One day, a young girl 
 had expelled, in a peculiarly cavalier fashion, a vener- 
 able old man from his seat, who was likewise lame. 
 At the moment of her leaving the carriage, one of 
 the travellers called her back: "Madam, you have 
 forgotten something." She turned hastily to retrace 
 her steps. "You have forgotten to thank this 
 gentleman ! " 
 
 European travellers have often spoken admiringly of 
 this gallantry. I own that I found it, on the contrary, 
 foolish and excessive ; foolish like so many other things 
 in America ; as, for example, in the hotels, the ex- 
 cessive luxury of the public rooms, where the magni- 
 ficent furniture is so little in harmony with the very 
 mixed society you meet in them. On the other hand, 
 it is the fashion to disparage American women. People 
 call them frivolous, flirting, extravagant, always run- 
 ning after pleasure. These accusations seem to me 
 unfounded and unjust. The American woman bears 
 the stamp of the position in which she is placed and 
 the atmosphere around her. As a young girl, she 
 naturally follows the inclinations of her sex, which are 
 
 VOL. i. G -
 
 82 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 not, as with us, regulated and controlled by the teach- 
 ing and example of a mother. She wishes to please, 
 and if she is naturally lively, she will become " fast ;" 
 that is, she will laugh loud, and, by smart repartees 
 and piquant looks, will endeavour to attract and retain 
 round her the greatest possible number of young men. 
 But this vulgar coquetry, however jarring to good 
 taste, rarely goes beyond a certain point. Only, beard- 
 less boy, just arrived from Europe, don't be taken in 
 by her ! Be on your guard. There is always a father, 
 a brother, or an uncle near, who, with his revolver, or 
 the bowie-knife (the Arkansas toothpick) under his arm, 
 is quite ready to ask you, with all imaginable polite- 
 ness, if your intentions be fair and honourable. 
 
 Married women in America are, as a rule, unex- 
 ceptionable. If they are too fond of dress, it is 
 generally their husbands who wish it. If they are 
 often seen abroad, it is that they have nothing to do 
 at home. If they are rather free and easy, it is that 
 such manners are allowed in society. It is after all 
 but bad taste not a sin. Their minds are generally 
 well cultivated, for they read a great deal, and that not 
 only novels, but English classic authors and encyclo- 
 pedias. And they frequent public lectures and literary 
 conversaziones which are held in all the great towns 
 of the union. Although they enjoy perfect freedom 
 and live idle lives, and are without any settled 
 occupation (far more often than the ladies of Europe), 
 their conduct is above reproach. I do not mean that 
 in great cities like New York, there may not be 
 some scandals and misunderstandings. But I do mean
 
 v.] CHICAGO. 83 
 
 that, as a whole, family life is healthy and pure, and 
 that American women are worthy of the respect and 
 consideration of which they are the objects. 1 
 
 -1 "What I have here said on family life in America applies 
 especially to the Western and Pacific States. New England, in 
 these respects, is more like Europe.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. FROM 
 THE IST TO THE 4 OF JUNE. 
 
 Mr. Pullman and his Cars. The Mississippi. Race between two 
 Trains. Omaha. The Prairies. The Valley of La Plata. 
 The Indians. A Stationmaeter Scalped. Stations on the 
 Pacific Railway. Cheyenne. The Roughs. The Life of 
 United States Officers in the Far West. Passage of the Rocky 
 Mountains. Fearful descent of Mount Wahsatch Brigham 
 Young at Ogden. Arrival in the Capital of the. Mormons. 
 
 AT Chicago I made the acquaintance of a great man. 
 Every one has heard of the Pullman cars. Those who 
 are going to travel to any great distance always try 
 to procure one, and then marvel that this philanthropic 
 vehicle has not yet been introduced on any of the 
 European lines of railways. The inventor, who is 
 just returned from Constantinople and Vienna, said to 
 me : " Europeans are not yet ripe for these kinds of 
 comforts ; they don't know how to travel ; but by 
 and bye they will understand and appreciate me." 
 
 Mr. Pullman is a man still young, with an intel- 
 ligent face, a grave air, and an imposing manner. 
 He speaks little, and that with the consciousness of
 
 CH. vi.] FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 85 
 
 his own value, as well as of the value of his time, 
 every minute of which represents so many dollars and 
 cents. By dint of study and experience, thanks also to 
 a mind fertile in expedients, and to an extraordinary 
 amount of patience, he has contrived to solve this 
 problem : i.e., how to protect the railway traveller from 
 cold and heat, from dust and shaking, and to surround 
 him with all the comforts of a well-ordered house. 
 The excessive luxury and overdone ornamentation of 
 his cars are perhaps in questionable taste ; but they 
 have the approbation of the American public. Such 
 a carriage costs from 20,000 to 25,000 dollars. Hence 
 the great additional expense for those who use them, 
 but which is compensated for by the convenience 
 and still more by the greater security for health 
 of this means of locomotion. In America, where 
 the distances are immense, people generally go 
 straight through to their destination without stop- 
 ping. From New York to New Orleans the distance 
 is upwards of 1,800 miles, and to St. Francisco 3,300 
 miles. This last journey is generally accomplished in 
 seven days and nights. One understands, therefore, 
 the necessity of Pullman's cars and the deserved 
 popularity they enjoy. In Europe, on the other hand, 
 it very rarely happens that a traveller passes more 
 than thirty -six or forty-eight hours in a train with- 
 out stopping. The extra expense is, therefore, not so 
 justifiable, and I fancy that that is the real obstacle 
 to the introduction of those carriages into our country. 
 They are in use, however, on all the great lines of the 
 union. All the plant has lately passed into the hands 
 of a company of which Mr. Pullman is the president
 
 86 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 the director, and the principal shareholder. They 
 tell me that the shares realize 12 per cent, and that 
 he is himself a millionaire. 
 
 This morning he received me at the station, and 
 placed me in one of the compartments containing a 
 state-room. This is what a little drawing-room is 
 called which is situated in the centre of the compart- 
 ment and takes up its whole breadth, saving a tiny 
 passage reserved for circulation between the two ex- 
 tremities of the carriage. 
 
 During the night, the state-room is transformed 
 into a bedroom, and in the morning into a dressing- 
 room. All the arrangements are perfect. A man who 
 excels in his profession, be it what it may, is a man 
 hors-ligne. I saw with pleasure the marks of respect 
 shown to Mr. Pullman by the workmen, officials, and 
 general public, as he solemnly conducted me through 
 the magnificent halls of the great station. It was 
 another Louis XIV. walking through the ante- 
 chambers of Versailles. If you wish to convince 
 yourself of the folly of people's dreams of equality, 
 come to America. Here, as everywhere else, there 
 are kings and princes. They have always been, and 
 always will be to the end of time. 
 
 Three lines of railway belonging to three different 
 companies run from hence to the banks of the 
 Missouri in front of Omaha. The longest route has 
 been chosen for -me. It is called the C. B. Q. R. line, 
 which, being interpreted, means Central Burlington 
 and Quincy Railroad. On these three lines, the trains 
 start and arrive almost at the same moment. It is a,
 
 vi.J FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 87 
 
 sort of race with the bell. On either side the rails 
 disappear in the horizon as they take their straight 
 course through the scarcely undulating plains of 
 Illinois. Everywhere one sees farms surrounded with 
 gardens, thin, tall trees, and fields which give the 
 traveller the delusive idea that he is in a cultivated 
 country. In reality, millions of hands are still wanted 
 before this State can be civilized. 
 
 We started early in the morning. At five o'clock 
 dinner is announced. It is served in the dining-car, 
 and is worthy of one of the best hotels in New York, 
 always excepting Prevost-House, which has no parallel 
 in the two hemispheres. These meals have but one 
 inconvenience ; but to me it is an insurmountable 
 one. The train is continually enveloped in thick 
 clouds of dust. To escape it, one is compelled to 
 close the ventilators and shut the double windows. 
 Hence a positively stifling atmosphere redolent of 
 smells of kitchen. I believe that this system of 
 dining-cars does not pay, and will probably be given 
 up. It has already been abandoned on the Pacific 
 line, and beyond the Missouri. 
 
 At seven o'clock we are passing at a foot's pace 
 across the Mississippi, on a bridge of recent and bold 
 construction. It seems to bend under our weight, and 
 gives a rolling motion to the carriages, like ships in a 
 swell at sea. This magnificent river rolls its silent 
 waters between woody, flat banks, lit up, as if by 
 magic, at this moment, by the last rays of the setting 
 sun. The extreme beauty of the scenery strikes you 
 the more from its grand simplicity. Stamped with 
 profound melancholy and savage grandeur, it is one
 
 88 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 of those scenes which remain graven for ever in the 
 memory of the traveller. Hardly have we arrived 
 on the right bank, when a turn of the road enables us 
 to look back and catch a glimpse of the bridge we 
 have just crossed. Against the flaming sky, a spider's 
 web seems to be thrown over the stream and cut 
 horizontally above. One asks oneself how it is pos- 
 sible that such a bit of filagree work can bear a whole 
 train. At this very moment a single locomotive is 
 crossing it alone, slowly, and as if hesitatingly. It 
 reminded me of Blondin on his rope, and I shut my 
 eyes involuntarily. 
 
 After a short halt at Burlington, the train flies at 
 full speed through the green and grassy prairies of the 
 young state of Iowa Here and there some fine groups 
 of trees break the monotony. Night is closing in ; but 
 in the smoking car we are a jolly set. M. B., a rich 
 banker of St. Francisco, a man of the world, whose 
 manners leave nothing to be desired, the Attorney- 
 General of Nebraska, the very type of a farmer of the 
 Far- West, who laughs, and smokes, and spits, and has 
 nothing of the bar about him, and a great manu- 
 facturer from Pennsylvania, are the principal speakers. 
 They talk of everything under the sun. Of the Alabama 
 treaty, of the discontent of the South, of President 
 Grant, of his chance at the coming elections, and, 
 without disturbing the peace of our attorney-general, 
 of the deplorable venality of the judges. One of the 
 most irritating topics is that of the tariffs. The 
 Californian banker and the owner of the Pennsyl- 
 vanian manufactories discuss it with great liveliness. 
 Each side becomes excited, but only half angry. They
 
 vi.] FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 89 
 
 like hyperbole, and use it freely. But I do not hear 
 one cutting or surly word. I have very often been 
 present at similar discussions, and, amidst the sea of 
 words, empty enough when they treat of questions of 
 theory or politics, but full of strong sound sense when 
 it is a question of practical life, I have always remarked 
 that even underneath the sarcasms which their very 
 exaggeration makes inoffensive, there pierces a fund 
 of good humour, and an absence of bitterness, which is 
 
 o ' 
 
 very rare with us between antagonistic parties. This 
 is easily explained. In this young society, which can 
 dispose of illimitable space, vital questions do not 
 exist for individuals, in this sense, that every one is 
 sure to find bread for himself and his own, and 
 runs no danger of dying of hunger. If he does not 
 succeed in the east, he goes to the north or the west. 
 In the struggle of conflicting interests I speak now of 
 the interests of individuals, not of political struggles 
 there may be shocks and reverses, but none of the 
 combatants are crushed ; no one remains on the field. 
 The worst that can happen to a man is to have to 
 choose another line than the one he had originally 
 adopted. He is free to try another. No prejudice stops 
 him, and, what is more important, there is room for 
 everybody. It follows that in wordy duels as well as 
 others, they do not fight to the death. Europe has not 
 this advantage. Prejudices, traditions, customs, laws, 
 especially competition, that terrible enemy of a youth 
 beginning his career in life, form, in our old society, 
 barriers which it is difficult, if not impossible, to over- 
 come. He who has once been shipwrecked, finds it 
 very difficult to get afloat again ; a ntan who has once
 
 90 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 sunk, cannot regain his footing or find a new road. 
 He cannot, like the men we see here every day, be one 
 day a butcher, or a waiter at an inn ; to-morrow a 
 banker ; then go back to his first starting-point, to 
 become in a year or two general of militia, a lawyer. 
 or a minister of some religious congregation. In a 
 word, in Europe it is very difficult to gain one's 
 livelihood ; competition is keener ; vital interests are 
 at stake, and the great question of "to be or not to 
 be." Can we then look upon it as strange that the 
 very desperation of the struggle makes men equally 
 violent in debate I 
 
 The night wears on. We are going from fifty to 
 sixty miles an hour ; the conversation does not flag. 
 But what a curious group we are ! There are positions 
 and costumes worthy only of the Far West. For my 
 part, I have my head encircled between a pair of great 
 jack-boots. They belong to a big man seated behind 
 me, who finds it convenient to stretch out his legs 
 above my arm-chair. He is a rich farmer from Illinois. 
 Only now and then, when his mouth is not filled with 
 tobacco smoke, does he condescend to take part in the 
 conversation ; but when he does speak, it is strongly. 
 " The republic has had its day," he exclaimed ; " what 
 we want now is a dictatorship. There are only two 
 classes of men in the States : those who pay, and those 
 who are paid the tax-payers and the government 
 functionaries. The first hate and despise the second. 
 Everything is going to the devil, and a military dic- 
 tatorship is the only thing which can put things 
 straight." On this topic every man becomes eloquent. 
 At last they agree upon the necessity of preserving the
 
 vi.] FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 91 
 
 republic. " It is indispensable," they argue, " as long 
 as we have such a mass of uncultivated land. When 
 America is more populated, then we must have a 
 military dictatorship." 
 
 This is not the first time that I hear this question 
 ventilated. I have often been surprised at the way 
 in which the form of government is discussed. The 
 actual constitution is accepted as an accomplished fact, 
 and even as a necessity, as times go. But no one seems 
 to be really in favour of a republic. Many, on the 
 contrary, are disgusted with it, and own it frankly. 
 But, on the other hand, it would be a great mistake to 
 suppose that the United States had any monarchical 
 tendencies. What they need is a strong government. 
 It is for that reason that they are always talking of a 
 military dictatorship ; not as a probable eventuality, 
 but as an impossible dream. It is quite another thing 
 if any one brings up the subject of the separation be- 
 tween North and South, that is, of the dismemberment 
 of the great American empire. Then their blood is up 
 at once the Northerners, because they are determined 
 to maintain the integrity of the union at any price, 
 and the civil war proves that they are in earnest ; and 
 the Southerners, because they are equally determined 
 to seize the first opportunity to bring about a separa- 
 tion. It is a subject which had better be avoided. 
 It gives rise to explosions of wrath on all sides, and 
 sometimes to more active measures, for it touches 
 the most vital interests of both parties, which are 
 utterly and hopelessly irreconcilable. 
 
 June 2nd. At nine o'clock in the morning, we pass
 
 92 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 by the Council Bluffs, or certain isolated circular 
 hills, so-called because they were the places of meeting 
 in former times between the chiefs of the wild Indians 
 and the agents of the government. A few minutes 
 later we first saw the Missouri. It winds sadly enough 
 between low, treeless banks, without any vegetation. 
 Earth and water bear the same dull, mud colour. But 
 if this great river offers few attractions to the eye, 
 we have a compensation in one of those excitements 
 which break the monotony of American railway jour- 
 neys. I have said that there are three rival lines 
 belonging to different companies. At first, they 
 run apart, then parallel to one another, till they 
 finally converge into one at the great Missouri 
 terminus. On these three lines three trains leave 
 Chicago at the same hour. A few minutes before 
 running into the station, we behold one of these 
 antagonistic trains running after us at full speed. 
 The driver of our locomotive makes it a point of 
 honour to come in first. By a special miracle we 
 dash into the station without being run into and 
 smashed to atoms by the monster behind us. By 
 another miracle we escape being plunged into the 
 river. Every one holds his breath till the danger is 
 over. The bridge not being finished, we pass over in 
 a ferry-boat to Omaha, which is on the right bank of 
 the Missouri. This town, which is only just springing 
 into existence, owes its name to a once-famous Indian 
 tribe. In 1860, it reckoned only about 2,000 inhabit- 
 ants. In succeeding years, its numbers were quad- 
 rupled. It reached its minimum (about 16,000) 
 during the making of the Pacific Railway; since which
 
 vi.] FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 93 
 
 time Ornaha has lost much of its importance and a 
 large portion of its population. 
 
 The passengers stop about two hours here. During 
 that time I walk about the station. A young French- 
 man in a blouse, with an intelligent face and horny 
 hands, who dilates on the misfortunes of his country 
 and its causes with remarkable clearness and freedom, 
 offers to be my guide. He is the first French emigrant 
 I- have met since I left the banks of the Atlantic. 
 Here I find myself in very truth on the frontiers 
 between savage nature and civilized life. Everything 
 tells of struggle and victory ; victory over the soil, 
 which has at last yielded its treasures ; over extremes 
 of climate ; and last, not least, over the former masters 
 of the soil the buffalo and the Indian. 
 
 At twelve o'clock we leave Omaha, and cross the 
 state of Nebraska from one end to the other. 
 
 The U. P. R. R., or Union Pacific Railroad, has only 
 one line, which is amply sufficient for the traffic, and 
 so we go at a very slow rate, that is, only twenty or 
 twenty-five miles an hour. There is only one departure 
 in the day. Mr. Pullman has had the courtesy to 
 telegraph ,so that a state-room compartment is reserved 
 for me. 
 
 The sky is clear and beautiful ; the country looks 
 like one vast sea. No rising ground is in sight. It 
 is like the ocean, but an ocean of every shade of lovely 
 green, brilliant and bright in the sunshine, darker and 
 tenderer in the shade. Here we are in the vast, grand 
 prairies. One seems to breathe a new life in this fresh 
 elastic, scented air. It is the very type of unlimited 
 liberty. A prisoner as I was in my railway cell, I
 
 94 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 could not help envying two horsemen whom I saw 
 galloping right across the plain, sometimes almost 
 disappearing in the long grass. What a pleasure it 
 must be to be able to ride like that without drawing 
 rein through unlimited space ! 
 
 . The railroad runs continually to the left of the 
 river Plata. On the right bank one sees the tracks 
 and ruts formed by the bullock waggons and caravans 
 which formerly were the only methods of conveyance 
 across this mighty continent. The guard pointed 
 out to me two or three black specks in the distance ; 
 they were antelopes. We did not come near them ; 
 but at Fremont, at dinner, and when we supped at 
 Great Island, we tasted the flesh of this animal. It 
 was rather hard, but very like roedeer. At Columbus, 
 which is ninety- two miles from Omaha, we were in 
 the geographical centre of the United States. 
 
 The evening is singularly clear and beautiful. The 
 sky is liquid towards the west, tender green over our 
 heads, and deep blue towards the east. The air is 
 transparent and pure beyond description. One single 
 cloud is visible, which shrouds with fantastic shapes 
 the golden disk of the setting sun ; sheet-lightning 
 dances from behind it every two minutes. At the 
 moment when the day-star sinks behind the horizontal 
 line of the prairie, a slight shower falls, and a piercing 
 cold succeeds to the burning heat of the expiring day. 
 
 June 3rd. During the night, always following the 
 borders of the Plata, we come into the land of 
 buffaloes. Here they pass and repass the river ; they 
 seek a more temperate climate in winter, and come back
 
 vi.] FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 95 
 
 again in the spring. This region extends from east to 
 west over 200 miles. But where are the troops of 
 buffaloes which travellers, with somewhat vivid 
 imaginations, describe on their way to the Pacific 1 
 They have seen them, perhaps, but only with the eyes 
 of their minds, for with the exception of two short 
 moments on their passage, the buffaloes have com- 
 pletely disappeared from the line of the railway. We 
 pass through the Wood River Valley, the scene of 
 many unknown tragedies in past times, when the 
 whites were scalped without a question, and every 
 inch of the way had to be fought for by the colonists at 
 the sword's point, with the ancient lords of the soil. 
 Later on, in the middle of the night, during a halt at 
 Willow Island, I was shown some blockhouses, either 
 crenellated or strengthened by ditches. At all the 
 stations we come upon little detachments of troqps, 
 who have the painful and often dangerous mission of 
 watching the Indians, so as to insure the safety of the 
 stations and trains. 
 
 Fortunately, at this moment, the red-skins are not 
 on the war path ; no considerable attack therefore is 
 dreaded. But woe to the traveller who, in a solitary 
 place (and here there is nothing but solitude), should 
 allow himself to be surprised ! Woe to the settler 
 who is not prepared with his revolver to defend 
 himself against a night attack ! For even in a time 
 of peace like the present, there are plenty of amateurs 
 ready to pounce on any luckless whites who may find 
 themselves unarmed on their path. If you are disposed 
 to be nervous, don't listen to what they tell you of 
 the Indians, either during your short stoppages at the
 
 9J A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 stations or in your smoking carriages. Not that you 
 need take all their stories for gospel ; but even allow- 
 ing for gross exaggerations, there is enough left to 
 make one shudder, especially when these stories are 
 told you on the very spots where they took place. A 
 pedlar, who regularly makes the journey to Montano, 
 is good enough to describe the sensation of being 
 scalped. It is afterwards that the agony is so atrocious. 
 As to the operation itself, it is the work of a moment. 
 There are very few instances where a man who has 
 been scalped survives the martyrdom. We are to see 
 a specimen, however, to-morrow, in a stationmaster 
 of one of the chief stations on the Union Railroad, and 
 the guard has promised to introduce me to this singular 
 gentleman, who has learnt to live with a cranium 
 guiltless of hair and skin. On the whole, thanks to 
 the energetic measures of General Sheridan, the road 
 is safe enough, always excepting accidents. Only you 
 must be careful not to stray from the main road ; not 
 to delay between two stations ; and not to place your- 
 self in the last carriage. 
 
 Towards morning, we arrive at North Plata city, 
 which was formerly a most flourishing town, being the 
 central point of departure for the waggons and cara- 
 vans destined for Mexico and Colorado. The comple- 
 tion of the railway has now wellnigh ruined this town, 
 and reduced its population to the tenth part of what 
 it was two years ago. At sunrise, we find ourselves 
 4,000 feet above the level of the sea ; we stop to 
 breakfast at Sidney. 
 
 All these stations are alike. They consist of a few 
 wooden houses, or sometimes merely a scaffolding with
 
 vi.] FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 87 
 
 canvas stretched over it. A few wretched ragged 
 Indians wearing the remains of a shirt or a pair of 
 trousers, which the big father, the President of the 
 Kepublic, distributes annually among them, are stand- 
 ing about and staring at the passengers with emaciated 
 dull, heavy countenances, scratching their skins and 
 their heads the very pictures of moral degradation. 
 These are what they call friendly Indians ; that is, 
 Indians who have left the war-path, and are by way 
 of being semi-civilized. The women carry their 
 children back to back on their shoulders, so that the 
 poor little creatures are forced to follow every move- 
 ment of their mothers, I have seen them washing 
 clothes in a pond, and bent so completely forward 
 that the children on their backs were turned topsy- 
 turvy. 
 
 But we have no time to lose. There are 30 minutes 
 stoppage allowed for each meal three a day. Every- 
 one rushes furiously towards the black man who 
 sounds the gong, which indicates the door of the 
 restaurant, while the locomotive lets off its steam, so 
 that the row is fearful. The passengers run to the 
 door to try who shall first seize on a chair so as to 
 make the most of their 30 minutes. The bill of fare 
 is always the same a dish of antelope meat, one or 
 two sweet dishes, and some coffee. It is good and 
 healthy food, and, considering the country we are in, 
 there is no cause for complaint. The attendants are 
 mostly young girls, who wait very well. To the 
 tremendous noise without, a complete silence has 
 succeeded the invariable silence of Americans at table. 
 Nothing is to be heard but the clatter of knives and 
 
 VOL. i. H
 
 98 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD, [CHAP. 
 
 forks. After ten minutes, everyone has done ; and 
 each man hurries out, placing a dollar in the hands of 
 the proprietor who stands at the door. The men rush 
 off to the bar-room ; the women, of whom there are 
 few, walk up and down the steps. All of a sudden 
 the guard cries out : " On board, gentlemen" and 
 when he says "All on board : " the train starts off to 
 the sound of a church bell, hung just above the 
 locomotive. 
 
 On leaving Sidney we passed through a flat country, 
 with little hillocks on the horizon. These prairies are 
 much vaunted by the agents of the Company as 
 excellent pasture land ; but I confess the soil seemed 
 to me poor, and the grass very thin. We have just 
 come into the Wyoming Territory, of which the legis- 
 lature first decreed the enfranchisement of women. 
 No other State has yet followed this example. At 12 
 o'clock we arrive at Cheyenne City, more than six 
 thousand feet above the level of the sea. This town, 
 the most important after Omaha, consisted, only four 
 years ago, of one house. Soon after, it reckoned 
 upwards of six thousand inhabitants ; but they have 
 dwindled down to three thousand since the line was 
 completed. In the first years of its existence it was, 
 like Denver and Julesburg, and other new cities in 
 this country, the rendezvous of all the roughs. Its 
 orgies were fearful, and murder and rapine were the 
 order of the day. In the language of the place, the 
 youDg rowdies dined on a man every day ; that is, 
 that there was not a night, that at the gambling tables 
 or in the low public-houses, which swarmed in the 
 town, one man or other did not come to an untimely
 
 vi. J FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 9'J 
 
 end. At last, the better disposed at Cheyenne organized 
 themselves into a vigilance committee, " and one 
 morning," writes my Great Trans-Continental Rail- 
 road Guide-book, " we saw, at a convenient height 
 above the ground, a whole row of these desperadoes, 
 hung on a cord. The warning was understood ; and 
 their companions, not fancying a halter, relapsed into 
 order. By which means Cheyenne became a perfectly 
 quiet, respectable town/' 
 
 On returning to our places in the railway carriages, 
 we met on the steps the officers of Fort Russell, 
 which is only three miles from here. They had come 
 with their ladies in some strong but very pretty 
 little carriages, with capital horses and harness. It is 
 an object for them to come now and then to meet the 
 train, and enjoy, if but for a few moments, the 
 pleasure of communication with civilised beings. A 
 fleeting pleasure certainly, but one which, with buffalo 
 hunting, constitutes their sole amusement. What a 
 life these men lead ! Look around you at the desola- 
 tion. Even in this, the finest season of the year, 
 there is nothing but sand and dry mud, and the half 
 dead grass of last year. What will it be in the 
 height of summer ? And then the frosts in winter ! 
 And yet these are highly educated gentlemen, accus- 
 tomed to all the luxuries of civilisation, having lived 
 half their lives in great capitals : and now condemned 
 to associate with none but Indians and rowdies. They 
 are certainly well rewarded ; but it is not the pay 
 that would keep them. In America, no man who 
 wishes to become rich goes in for a military life. It is 
 a feeling of duty, and the real love of their profession, 
 
 H 2
 
 100 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 which makes them endure this rough, hard life. I 
 admire them for it, and still more do I admire the 
 fact that they find wives who are heroic and devoted 
 enough to share their exile. 
 
 On leaving Cheyennes, the line ascends rapidly to 
 the summit of the Rocky Mountains. Here we are 
 at Sherman, the highest point of the Pacific Railroad, 1 
 at an elevation which no other railway in the world 
 has ever attained. The air is so dry and rarefied that 
 respiration is rather difficult. The descent, which is 
 very dangerous towards the high laud called the Park 
 of Laramie, is nevertheless effected without accident. 
 The views of the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, in the 
 midst of which we now find ourselves, are too beautiful 
 for description. Ravines and smiling valleys are inter- 
 spersed with mountains on the horizon which, in spite 
 of the extreme transparency of the atmosphere, are 
 simply lost in the infinite. Two peaks were pointed 
 out to me covered with snow Long Peak, and Pike 
 Peak, one at 70, the other at 160 miles distance. 
 Great blocks of dark granite lie around us. Here and 
 there, groups of pine and cotton- wood trees relieve the 
 savage yet grand and picturesque character of the 
 scenery. The necessity of crossing a bridge in trestle- 
 work, 120 feet high, thrown like a spider's web across 
 a ravine, and called Dalesbridge, brought me, some- 
 what unpleasantly, out of my ecstasy. At last, it is 
 safely crossed. Then to Laramie City, where we 
 arrive at 5 o'clock. Another town of wooden planks 
 and canvas ; not a tree in sight. Some big bears are 
 
 1 Eight thousand three hundred and forty- two feot above the 
 level of the sea.
 
 vi.] FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 101 
 
 fastened to posts at the gates : ragged Indians and 
 desperadoes armed to the teeth; : with s<wis of the 
 soldiers from Fort Saunders, .gather ..round ,us at the 
 station. We dine as we "breaMastecl, ' arid' iis'ivd shall 
 sup, the same women- waiters serving the same 
 antelope legs, and coffee, and the same man waiting 
 for his dollar at the door, then the everlasting, " On 
 board, gentlemen." 
 
 The country maintains a uniform character. You 
 can't forget for a moment that you are at a great 
 height. The excessive transparency of the air makes 
 the most distant mountains seem near, and the high 
 level on which we are travelling gives the appearance 
 of hillocks to the sharp peaks to our left, covered with 
 eternal snow. Here and there great rents in the 
 rock display streams of brackish water, coming from 
 no one knows where, and disappearing in unexplored 
 regions. Certainly this long journey piques more 
 than satisfies one's curiosity. At one moment the 
 line seems to bury itself in the rocks, the next the 
 eye embraces a limitless horizon. But, strange to say, 
 in this country there is no distance. It seems as if 
 you could touch everything with your hand. As to 
 the plains, they remind one of the Cainpagna of Rome, 
 minus the cupola of St. Peter's, minus the walls of 
 Belisarius, the Aqueducts and the tombs, and the 
 towns and villas peeping out in brilliant white from the 
 green foliage of the Latin and Sabine hills. At the 
 moment when the sun is going to disappear, the noise 
 of our train startles a whole troop of antelopes. They 
 fly across the rocks, leaving behind them only their 
 lengthening shadows. Passing and beautiful vision !
 
 102 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 which contrasts all the more with the silence, the 
 immobility And the .death-like character of the scene. 
 
 L -The night is horribly cold. At the 
 first dawn of day we perceive Bitter-Creek, and soon 
 after, at the foot of a tangled creviced wood, the rapid 
 and transparent waters of the Green River. Its 
 turquoise green tint justifies the name. On the left 
 bank lies a large town. But no human being is 
 visible there, no smoke comes from its chimneys, 
 death seems to hover over the whole community. 
 The fact is, its life has really departed. The making 
 of the railway gave it birth ; its completion signed 
 its death-warrant. Built only three years ago, this 
 town is now a deserted ruin. One lives and one dies 
 fast in this Far West ; or rather life is perpetually 
 changing places. Behind this mournful agglomeration 
 of abandoned homes, the resort now only of wild 
 beasts, the river runs through a savage defile, where 
 the eye cannot penetrate. High mountains covered 
 with snow close the horizon on the south-east. Their 
 noble and grand outlines, and the varied rose and 
 purple colour with which the rising sun tints their 
 peaks, reminds me of the Edomite mountains in the 
 great Arabian desert. Here we first come upon the 
 Chinese race. In all the following stations they 
 swarm ; some of them were talking with the Indians, 
 I know not in what language. Can there be an affinity 
 between the two races ? The officers who pass their 
 lives in these regions confirm this curious fact, for which 
 historical science has not yet been able to account ; 
 that the yellow immigrants can make themselves
 
 vi.] FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 103 
 
 understood by the red skins far quicker than the 
 whites. 
 
 At Aspen l the line passes the highest defile of the 
 Wahsatch Mountains. These form the western side of 
 the American high level, while the Rocky Mountains 
 form the eastern. The descent to the Salt Lake is 
 done without^ steam, merely by the weight of the 
 carriages, and although the break is put on the wheels 
 you go down at a frightful pace, and of course the 
 speed increases with the weight of the train ; ours 
 being composed of an immense number of cars and 
 trucks, I became positively giddy before we got to 
 the bottom. Add to this the curves, which are as 
 sharp as they are numerous, and the fearful precipices 
 on each side, and you will understand why most of 
 the passengers turn pale. To enable you to admire 
 the beauty of the ravines, the canones of Echo and 
 Weber, the thousand-mile tree, (so called because it 
 grows just 1,000 miles from Omaha), the Devil's Gate, 
 and other wonderfully picturesque spots, a car of 
 observation is attached to the train. It is a single 
 truck, uncovered, and without seats. Exposed to the 
 sun and the draught of the train, the traveller may 
 not only admire the beauties of nature, but also take 
 account of the extreme danger he is every moment 
 running, thanks to the defective construction and 
 extraordinary foolhardiness of this part of the line. 
 Also, I remarked that this car, though very full when 
 we left Aspen, was soon left empty. Very few of the 
 passengers had nerve enough to stand the sight. 
 
 1 Seven thousand eight hundred and thirty- five feet above the 
 level of the sea.
 
 104 A RAMBLE ROVND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 At last our speed slackened ; the glen opened out 
 and the promised land of the Mormons, the immense 
 sheet of the Salt-Lake, the green valley of the saints, 
 and their wooded hills, the whole framed by high 
 mountains, pink, light blue, and dark blue, unrolled 
 themselves before the delighted eyes of the travellers. 
 We were all dazzled by the flow of light, enchanted 
 with the beauty of the site, and astonished beyond 
 measure at the contrast with the desolate laud we had 
 so lately left behind us. 
 
 At five o'clock we came to the Ogden station, 
 situated at the northern extremity of the Salt-Lake, 
 and forming the terminus of the line called the Union 
 Pacific Railroad. From hence to Omaha, the distance 
 is 1,032 miles ; to St. Francisco, 882 miles ; while a 
 branch line, thirty-seven miles long, constructed by 
 Brigham Young, leads to the Salt-Lake city. Ogden 
 is in its Sunday best. The steps, the platform, and 
 the waiting-rooms of the station, are crowded to 
 overflowing with smart folk. We are in the heart of 
 Mormonism. The little town is to-day honoured by 
 the presence of no less a person than the great prophet 
 himself, President Brigham Young ; who has deigned 
 to visit it to-day, and preach in its tabernacle. At 
 this moment, he is going to depart. Although the 
 ordinary train starts for the Salt- Lake city in a 
 quarter of an hour, Brigham Young, with some of his 
 wives and a numerous suite, travels by special train. 
 That is quite fair. Is he not sovereign of the desert ? 
 the king of the new Jerusalem ? Standing on the 
 platform, he salutes majestically with a wave of his 
 hand the crowd of Mormons, male and female, who
 
 vi.J FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 105 
 
 take off their hats and curtsey low to the great man. It 
 was a regular court scene, such as we often see in 
 Europe at the arrival or departure of our crowned 
 heads. There was, however, a shade of difference. 
 Here nothing was factitious, nothing conventional. 
 And yet there was not a shadow of enthusiasm or 
 pleasure on those gaping faces, or in those bent bodies 
 which remained immovable even for a minute or two 
 after the prophet had disappeared ! Was it a simple 
 demonstration of respect ? or an act of etiquette ? I 
 do not think so. It seemed to me rather a mani- 
 festation of a superstitious belief, tormented, though 
 perhaps not troubled, by vague fears. It was the 
 adoration of a Supreme Being who had your fate at 
 his disposal, and to' whom you are irrevocably 
 bound ; but whom you dread far more than you 
 love. 
 
 The station-master was overflowing in civility to- 
 wards me. I had of course presented to him my 
 letter of introduction. Although he had three trains 
 to send off at one and the same moment, he found 
 time to do me a heap of little services. He changes 
 my greenbacks for gold, as they do not pass currency 
 beyond Ogden. He takes care of my luggage. He 
 pilots me through the dense though silent crowd, who 
 work violently with their elbows. He gives me many 
 curious details of the " saints ; " tells me the events of 
 the day, and even adds his own biography. No one 
 could be more obliging or more helpful. Belonging to 
 a great New York house engaged in the fur-trade, he 
 made a large fortune in an incredibly short time, and 
 as rapidly lost it. Now he has accepted this humble
 
 106 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 place to earn his bread. His wife shares his fortunes. 
 She is of a good Eastern family, young, pretty, grace- 
 ful, and determined to accept bravely the privations 
 of their new life. The home of this young couple 
 consists of one single room on a level with the rails. 
 But how beautifully " Madame " has arranged it ! How 
 she has contrived to stamp it with that taste, elegance, 
 and coquetry of a woman of the world ! There are 
 beautiful flo\vers, a comfortable armchair, a good 
 oil-painting, one or two bits of pretty Oriental china 
 brought by one of those ambulatory children of the 
 Celestial Empire. But so tiny ! so tiny ! The bed, 
 which is hung with the whitest possible curtains, fills 
 up almost half the room ! " And the noise of the 
 trains ? " " Ah ! one soon gets accustomed to that." 
 " And the flies and mosquitoes, those plagues of the 
 plain?" "But has not everybody got mosquito 
 nets ? " " Yes, certainly, but the dust, and what 
 dust ! Why it is pure alkali ! " -Well, one shuts the 
 windows." "And you are the only 'Gentiles' in 
 the place." " Quite true, but we are sufficient to 
 ourselves. And then at the hotel where we take our 
 meals, they give us a separate table " in fact, every- 
 thing is for the best. One lives on remembrance and 
 hope. They anticipate happiness in the future : and 
 bear courageously bad days, hoping for better ones 
 by and bye. 
 
 What strikes me, is the European look of this crowd 
 which throngs the steps. The station-master gives me 
 the key of the enigma. All these men dressed as 
 workmen on Sundays, all these women wearing evi- 
 dently their best gowns, are English, Norwegian, and
 
 vi.J FROM CHICAGO TO THE SALT-LAKE CITY. 107 
 
 Danes ; but the British element predominates. Wales 
 furnishes the largest contingent. After the departure 
 of the great man, all the crowd mounted sadly and 
 quickly into the railway cars. Women and babies 
 swarmed. The women looked melancholy and sub- 
 dued ; the men vulgar and insignificant. The most 
 distinguished personage in the mob was an Indian 
 warrior with a plumed head-dress, and his face all 
 begrimed with yellow ochre ; he looked at the Mor- 
 mons, who are defiling before him, from head to foot, 
 with supreme disdain. In the carriage where I have 
 installed myself, I have an opportunity of watching 
 one of the effects of polygamy. The greater part of 
 the men are travelling with two wives ; some even 
 have brought three with them ; but the youngest is 
 evidently the favourite. The husband does not trouble 
 his head about any of the others, he only talks to her 
 and buys her cakes and fruit at the station. The 
 other neglected wives, resigned to their fate, sit by, 
 with sad and cross expressions. This kind of scene is 
 perpetually being repeated. Tn fact, it is in the 
 nature of things. 
 
 We spend two whole hours in making the thirty- 
 seven miles which separates Ogden from the Mormon 
 capital. Every five minutes we stopped at some little 
 hamlet or isolated farm. The railroad follows the 
 line of the Salt-Lake, which is an immense sheet of 
 water of a dull, metallic colour. Steep rocks, em- 
 purpled by the setting sun, rise from its bed, like 
 branches of coral thrown on an imperfectly enamelled 
 dish. The country is fine, and the effects of the light 
 magical. If it were not for the golden and crimson
 
 108 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [en. vi. 
 
 tints of the sky, the extraordinary clearness and trans- 
 parency of the atmosphere, and the complete absence 
 of those vaporous clouds which hang towards evening 
 over the southern countries of Europe, one could fancy 
 oneself on the coasts of Sicily or of Andalusia. At 
 last towards night, we arrive at Salt-Lake city, and I 
 alight at the Old Townsend's, that is, at one of the 
 most abominable inns which I have ever had the 
 misfortune to meet with in the two hemispheres.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FROM THE 4 TO THE 7 TH OF JUNK 
 
 Appearance of the Town. The modern Crusaders. The Mormon 
 Theatre and Tabernacle. Townsend Hotel. The Indians and 
 Indian Agents. Douglas Camp. The Canones. Brigham 
 Young. Mormonism. 
 
 WHAT a curious town ! The houses are invisible. 
 Entirely surrounded by fruit-trees, they are hidden 
 from sight. Acacias and cotton-trees (unknown to 
 the east of the Missouri, of which the flower resembles 
 balls of cotton), form a thick green curtain stretched 
 all along what seem apparently interminable avenues. 
 As in all American towns, these avenues cross one 
 another at right angles, from north to south, and from 
 east to west. On both sides, mountain torrents roll in 
 abundant if not limpid streams. They are the great 
 treasures of the country. According to the tales of 
 the first adventurers who visited this unknown land 
 when it still formed part of Mexico, fresh-water was 
 not to be procured for love or money. If you are to 
 believe their stories, outside the Salt-Lake there was 
 nothing but pools of brackish water. But Brigham
 
 110 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CUAP. 
 
 Young has changed all this. The " Elect of God," 
 the Moses of the Mormons, has caused water to gush 
 out from the stony rock, and so conferred an ines- 
 timable blessing on the town. I wander alone, up 
 and down these silent avenues. To iny left murmurs 
 the stream ; the acacias shade my head, while the 
 cotton-trees lightly swayed by the morning breeze, 
 cover me with a shower of white flakes, like snow. 
 At times, I perceive above the tops of the trees the 
 " Twins," as the two highest peaks of the Wahsatch 
 are called, two diamonds sparkling in the sun, sus- 
 pended, as it were, in the blue sky 15,000 feet above 
 the sea. On this high level, the seasons succeed 
 one another with great regularity. After the autumn 
 rains, the storms and snow-drifts of winter; then 
 after a short season of winds and rain called spring, 
 six months of summer ; that is, a burning sun, great 
 heat and intolerable drought. The want of rain, the 
 dust, and during the last half of the hot season, the 
 flies, are the great plagues of the Valley of the Saints. 
 But now nature is spreading out all her treasures of 
 fresh, young, intoxicating beauty. I am breathing the 
 elastic mountain air, and enjoying the delicious per- 
 fume of the fields which I have unconsciously ap- 
 proached, as I have come to the extreme confines of 
 the town. For some time I had left the last houses 
 behind me. The avenues stretch on and on ; but they 
 no longer mask the houses. Spaces and plans are all 
 marked out for future saints to dress their tents. Here 
 the town is merged in the country. At a little dis- 
 tance, the new Jordan winds amidst the crevices of the 
 rocks, and reminds one of its biblical namesake.
 
 vii.J SALT-LAKE CITY. Ill 
 
 During the whole of my walk, I have only met one 
 or two women and a little group of children with 
 books and satchels on their backs, coining from school, 
 and walking quickly without talking. On their 
 little pale faces you already see the care and pre- 
 occupation of those of riper years. The sight of a 
 stranger excites their curiosity ; they scan me with a 
 searching look. Not a smile or a shadow of fun is 
 to be seen on any one of those countenances. Then 
 they pass on. Everywhere there is solitude and 
 silence. An Indian warrior from Utah, proudly 
 careering on his thin jade, passes me at a gallop. 
 His black, long, straight, shining hair, falls on his 
 shoulders from under a diadem of feathers ; his face is 
 painted yellow and red ; his features are fierce to the 
 last degree ; he is armed to the teeth, and his appear- 
 ance is really terrible. Behind him, running on foot, 
 are his two squaws, the very types of misery and 
 female degradation. 
 
 I turn my steps towards Main-Street, the principal 
 one of the town, and find myself all of a sudden in a 
 regular city of the Far West. If it were not for the 
 Indians, and for the extraordinary number of women 
 and children who, even in this busy quarter, far out- 
 number the men, one would forget that one was in the 
 centre of Mormonism. Here there are no trees. Houses 
 line each side of the street. The greater portion are 
 built of brick or rather of " adobes" which are brick 
 and mud dried in the sun ; others of wood and beams 
 covered with canvas, tell of the first immigrants. 
 The more modern buildings have some pretension to 
 architecture. In all of them, the first floor consists of
 
 112 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CIIAP. 
 
 open shops. The walls arc, without exception, covered 
 from top to bottom with gaudy advertisements. The 
 streets are thronged with bullock-waggons and car- 
 riages of every description. A stage-coach, drawn by 
 ten horses, belonging to a company well known in the 
 States, Wells, Fargo, and Co., draws a crowd and 
 increases the confusion. Formerly these coaches were 
 the only resource of the impatient traveller ; but since 
 the railroad was opened, they have nearly disappeared. 
 Porters, miners on foot or on donkey-back in a word, 
 a whole body of strong, intelligent-looking men, with 
 tanned, weather-beaten faces and brawny arms, whose 
 life is one continual fight with savage nature, and who 
 are justly termed the pioneers of civilization, jostle 
 one another in the crowded thoroughfares, all intent 
 on their respective business. The ancient masters of 
 the soil, the Utahs, of a finer and less degraded race 
 than the greater portion of the Indians on the borders, 
 mingle their warriors with the crowd. They are 
 encamped just outside the town, and come into it 
 now and then, each followed by his wives. They 
 hold their heads high and examine carefully, without 
 betraying the smallest surprise, all the wonders of 
 modern civilization. I met several in one of the 
 most elegant of the Main-Street shops. They looked at 
 everything exposed for sale very minutely, all the 
 time maintaining their air of dignity and proud in- 
 difference. The looking-glasses only put them out, 
 and then what bursts of laughter ! They could not 
 believe their eyes or cease from admiring themselves. I 
 stopped under a shed which served also as a cart-stable. 
 Men who trade between Corinne and Montana, are
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 113 
 
 dining at rough long tables : close to them their steeds, 
 fastened to iron rings, are feeding likewise, and rest- 
 ing their tired limbs. These gentlemen have just 
 arrived from Virginia City (Idaho). They have 
 traversed thousands of miles, followed the Missouri 
 up to its source, crossed and recrossed the mountain 
 chains which are as the backbone of this great 
 continent, avoided, or fought if necessary, the Indians 
 who harassed their path, and served as escort in 
 certain dangerous passes, to the stage coach which 
 runs twice a month through these desert regions. It 
 starts from Corinne, always full of passengers of both 
 sexes, but does not always arrive with all its human 
 cargo at its destination. Cold and fatigue, or, in 
 summer, excessive heat, and privations of all sorts, 
 to say nothing of the Indians, thin their numbers. 
 The dead are interred in haste along the road-side, 
 or rather in the deep ruts left by the wheels, and 
 then the rest pass on. The company I am thrown 
 among is of a varied character. I enter into con- 
 versation with two or three of them, and become very 
 much interested in th,eir stories. Their lives are 
 adventurous to the last degree : every hour has its 
 danger ; acts of violence become a duty, or a matter 
 of self-preservation; hairbreadth escapes are an or- 
 dinary element in these roving lives. Put yourself in 
 the place of these modern crusaders, compare your 
 ideas with theirs, with their tastes, and their habits, 
 and you will find that a whole abyss separates you 
 from them. It is impossible to understand or to 
 judge them fairly. Some of these men are trappers ; 
 others horse-jockeys ; others moustanyuers ; and their 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 A GAMBLE HOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 little Indian horses or mviistangs, harnessed in Mexican 
 fashion, remind one of Andalusia, or rather of Arabia. 
 Their saddles and stirrups, which, shaped like slippers, 
 protect the foot from sun and rain, are just like those 
 I saw in Morocco, and among the Arab tribes. They 
 are still in use in those parts of Spain which were the 
 longest under Moorish rule. These cavaliers wore the 
 sombrero and short jackets made at New York or 
 San Francisco, with large Spanish sashes. But the 
 blood which flows in their veins is Anglo-Saxon or 
 Celtic. Their children are of a mixed breed, having 
 mostly Indian mothers. The group I was talking to 
 was worthy of the pencil of one of the great masters 
 of the seventeenth century. Not one of these bronzed 
 faces had a commonplace or ordinary expression. 
 Strong, uncontrolled passions are reflected in these 
 countenances ; the index of bold, resolute natures, 
 sometimes vicious and cruel, oftener calm, cynical, 
 and determined. 
 
 In the forenoon, " old " Townsend took me to see 
 the tabernacle. It is a long low hall, entirely bare 
 and destitute of religious emblems, with a raised dais 
 at one end, on which were placed the arm-chairs of 
 the prophet and bishops, the whole being covered by a 
 heavy oval cupola, which is rightly compared to a dish 
 cover, such as they use in England for covering hot 
 joints. Alongside they are building a new temple, 
 which is to be an immense edifice of cut stone, in the 
 Roman style. But only the foundations are as yet 
 laid : and no one hopes or seems to wish for the new 
 tabernacle to be completed. There are scarcely any men 
 at work on it, for both money and fervour are wanting.
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. US 
 
 The theatre is far more popular. This is one of the 
 thousand schemes of Brigham Young, and the great 
 resource of the inhabitants of the Salt-Lake City. It 
 is open every night. The house is badly decorated, 
 and still worse lit. In the pit I saw groups of 
 children, who had evidently come all alone. On 
 benches and in the galleries sat a number of men in 
 blouses with their wives (two or three apiece) dressed 
 with a certain amount of care. The Prophet, who has 
 reserved for himself the best box near the stage, had 
 not, contrary to his usual custom, made his appear- 
 ance that evening ; but I saw through the curtains, 
 one of the youngest of his wives, who was very 
 graceful and pretty, and in a toilet which might be 
 called elegant. One of Brigham's own daughters, 
 Mrs. Alice Clawson, whose talent is justly appre- 
 ciated, played the principal part. She married 
 a man in easy circumstances, which, however, does 
 not prevent her accepting a good salary. The piece, 
 a sensational drama, which had a great run in 
 England some years ago, and is full of English habits 
 and institutions, contrasts singularly with the public 
 of the New Jerusalem. Society of the middle ages, 
 as painted by Shakespeare, is not wider apart than 
 is. high life in England at this moment compared 
 with the social state of the Mormons. Nevertheless, 
 the play was listened to with great attention, although 
 there was neither laughter nor clapping. I am told 
 that Brigham Young, who is himself the censor, and 
 excludes all indecent pieces, is very anxious to 
 encourage people to go to his theatre. It is in his 
 hands a kind of school of art, whereby he strives to 
 
 i 2
 
 116 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 refine the habits of a society which has been reduced 
 by circumstances, as we shall presently see, to a con- 
 dition of perpetual forced labour. 
 
 It is two o'clock the heat is terrible ; the sun is at a 
 white heat. It is the dinner-hour of the place, and the 
 guests at " old " Townsend's are waiting with no small 
 impatience. A large company is gathered in the 
 veranda. The ladies, some of them very well dressed, 
 are grouped on one side. They are almost all miners' 
 wives. Their smart recherche toilets, and the efforts 
 they make to look lady-like, contrast drolly enough 
 with the appearance of their husbands, who rush in 
 straight from their mines, covered with sweat, mud, 
 and dust. These men sit, or rather lie, on arm-chairs 
 arranged side by side in straight lines. The attitudes 
 of these gentlemen defy description. One must have 
 seen them and that can only be done in the Far 
 West. Others stand close to the door waiting for 
 the first stroke of the bell, to rush into the dining- 
 room and seize the best places. They smoke and spit, 
 but no one talks. The women sometimes whisper to 
 one another in a low voice, but conversation is evi- 
 dently considered out of place. 
 
 All this society is composed of gentiles, miners and 
 their families, commercial travellers, clerks, and govern- 
 ment agents. In consequence, the head of the establish- 
 ment, the ''gentleman" at the office, and even the 
 waiters, look at us with an evil eye, and the service 
 corresponds with their hostile feelings. This influx of 
 unbelievers irritates and frightens them. Alas ! the 
 good old times of Mormon ism are over. The masses,
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 117 
 
 perhaps, do not realize it ; but no intelligent man can 
 doubt the fact. Certainly, Mr. Townsend, the digni- 
 tary of the tabernacle, is not the model of an innkeeper. 
 He pays little or no attention to his house, and still 
 less to his guests. He leaves everything to his two 
 wives, who bear the burden and heat of the day, if 
 not civilly, at least with a patience and resignation 
 worthy of a better cause. I was really sorry for them. 
 They are a contrast to the " gentleman " at the office, 
 who will not condescend to answer any of your ques- 
 tions, and if you ask him for your key, answers you : 
 " Look for it yourself." The landlord passes his time 
 in sublime contemplation. His arm-chair is placed at 
 the extreme end of the veranda. There, lying on his 
 back, his head thrown on one side, he seems lost in 
 
 
 
 the contemplation of his feet, which are placed high 
 above his person, against the branch of a high acacia. 
 This extraordinary position is certainly not graceful, 
 but we presume it must be comfortable, as he keeps 
 in it for hours together. At last the signal is given. 
 The ladies enter first, gravely, in single file. After- 
 wards, every man runs, struggles, treads on the other's 
 toes, or fights with his elbows, one more vigorously than 
 the other. Doctor C. has fortunately taken me under 
 his protection. He is a man of mark, who, in conse- 
 quence, has a place reserved for him, and manages to 
 squeeze me in alongside. These meals have but one 
 merit, and that is to be able to be despatched in ten 
 minutes. They give you nothing but one dish of 
 hard, badly-cooked meat, and one or two cakes. For 
 dessert, you have very good wild strawberries- for 
 drink, pure water. The bar or taproom does not
 
 118 A RAMBLE POUND THE WOULD. [CHAP. 
 
 exist : the law forbids it. Nevertheless, the Mormons 
 manage to elude the commandment, and wine and 
 
 o 
 
 spirits abound in their own houses. The only happy 
 moment is the one when one can leave the dinner- 
 table with the proud satisfaction of feeling one has 
 accomplished a painful duty. 
 
 During my three days at the Salt-Lake City, Doctor 
 C. is good enough to give me his spare moments. 
 For many years he practised on the banks of Lake 
 Superior, and on the Upper Mississippi, amidst the 
 Indian tribes ; and his accounts of these races in- 
 terested me extremely. They confirmed all that had 
 been told me on this head at New York and Wash- 
 ington. It is from their perfect accordance with the 
 information I had obtained from the highest and most 
 reliable sources that I attach so much value to the 
 reminiscences and opinions of a man who has passed 
 so large a portion of his life among the red-skins. 
 
 " I abstain," he said, " from all expression of 
 opinion on the system which the Central Government, 
 together with Congress, has adopted with regard to 
 the Indians. I accept it as a fact, and I suppose, or 
 rather I am persuaded, that the President, the big 
 father of these unfortunate races, has the wish and 
 firm intention of observing the engagements entered 
 into with the different tribes. But amongst the 
 
 o 
 
 Government Indian agents there are thorough rogues. 
 They keep back, for their own use or profit, the 
 greater part of the gifts in food and clothes which 
 the Government of Washington annually sends for 
 the Indians, and which it is the business of these 
 agents to distribute. And not only do they appro-
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 119 
 
 priate a part of these objects, but what remains is re- 
 placed by articles of an inferior quality. This explains 
 the enormous fortunes which these men make in a 
 few years ; but it also explains the discontent and 
 periodical hostilities of the red-skins and their in- 
 discriminate massacres, from time to time, of the 
 whites. Things revolve for ever in the same vicious 
 circle. The Indians complain of the agents ; the 
 Government orders a commission of inquiry, and 
 commissioners accordingly are sent from Washington. 
 When they arrive here, the whole business of the 
 agents is to deceive them, in which they sometimes 
 succeed. If not, they resort to extreme measures. 
 They make the Indians look upon the intervention of 
 the commissioners as an act of hostility on the part 
 of the Government, and excite their mistrust by a 
 thousand subtle insinuations. The Indians assemble 
 in a pow-ivow and discuss the subject of war. The 
 ancients of the tribe, especially those that have been 
 at Washington, and who have come back very much 
 impressed with the power of the big father, vote for 
 peace ; but the young men who have never left their 
 native wilds, overrule these prudent counsels with loud 
 and strong cries. From this instant the war-path is 
 decided upon. Messengers are sent in different direc- 
 tions, and meetings are held at all the principal 
 stations. There is no longer any way by which the 
 commissioners can learn the truth from the chiefs 
 themselves, or understand the real cause of complaint 
 they have against the agents of the President. Some 
 weeks are spent in preparations. The white settlers, 
 to whom no alternative is left but flight, if still
 
 120 A RAMBLE ROUND THE 11'ORLlt. [CHAP. 
 
 possible, or the most horrible tortures if they remain, 
 earnestly demand troops. But the nearest fort is at 
 one, two, or sometimes three hundred miles distance. 
 Besides, are there troops numerous or well-armed 
 enough to make head against the Indians, whose 
 movements are always very imperfectly known ? 
 War breaks out then, a little war, if you please, 
 which will hardly fill a column in a newspaper. 
 But there will be a few or more white men scalped, and 
 more or less farms and stations utterly ruined. On 
 the other hand, under the head of revenge or reprisals, 
 such and such a tribe will be exterminated down to the 
 very last man. That is all. This is just what is hap- 
 pening at this very moment in Arizona, where the 
 blood of the white man has been flowing in streams, 
 homesteads have been burnt right and left, and no end 
 of misery has been the result. But the papers hardly 
 allude to the matter. It is certainly a painful fact 
 for those that have been scalped, whose wives and 
 daughters have been ravished, whose farms have been 
 utterly destroyed, and whose cattle have been carried 
 off. But sometimes misfortunes are blessings in 
 disguise ; the inquiry into the conduct of the agents 
 has been effectually stopped" 
 
 In the interior of this great continent, the fate of 
 the Indians and their relation with the Central 
 Government are the subjects of common talk. At 
 Washington, again, in official circles, this grave 
 question is for ever claiming the attention of public 
 men, who discuss it, without, however, arriving, as 
 yet, at a satisfactory solution. Alas ! the solution is 
 already given. Not only the rascality of Government
 
 TII. 1 SALT-LAKE CITY. 121 
 
 agents, but the contact with modern civilization, the 
 cross with white blood, and the introduction of alco- 
 holic drinks have sown the seeds of hopeless destruction 
 in the red-skins. In the north-western tribes, where 
 travellers and trappers abound, there is hardly such a 
 thing left as an Indian pur sang. The first generation, 
 the fruit of illicit unions between English and French 
 adventurers and Indian women, still possessed some 
 of the higher qualities possessed by both races. But 
 their children were few, and of a decidedly inferior 
 stamp. The offspring of mixed blood in the present 
 day is almost always degraded, weak, and sickly. It 
 is remarked that in proportion as the white element 
 increases in a tribe tbe black perishes. The former 
 seems to act like a slow poison, while brandy is a quick 
 one ; its ravages are fearful. The Indians are in con- 
 sequence being extinguished from a variety of causes ; 
 fatally, irrevocably, these once grand races seem 
 destined to disappear, and they do disappear. 
 
 From the very first day, I had the good fortune to 
 make the acquaintance of General Morrow, the com- 
 mander of Fort Douglas. This military post is situated 
 at three miles to the east of the city, on one of the 
 hills which form the western slope of the Wahsatch 
 mountains. It is a commanding and admirably chosen 
 position. A camp has been installed here for the last 
 nine years. At first, the commander of the little 
 garrison employed in watching not only the Indians 
 but the militia of the Prophet, had not an easy time of 
 it. Lost in that vast space, without any certain com- 
 munication with the basis of operations, and without
 
 122 .4 RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 any hope of extraneous help in time of need, he saw 
 himself driven to depend on his own resources, which, 
 in certain eventualities, were manifestly insufficient. 
 
 To-day it is no longer the same thing. The Pacific 
 Kailroad links the Douglas camp to all the forts along 
 this line and to Chicago, which is the residence of the 
 Commander-in-Chief. In a few days, therefore, a 
 sufficient number of troops might be gathered together 
 to make head against any danger, however imminent. 
 
 Towards this point, therefore, I turned my steps 
 one fine morning in a covered char-d-banc drawn by 
 two fine horses, with a young Mormon driver, whom 
 I found out to be a native of Manchester. He was a 
 mechanic by trade, but had lost his arm in a railway 
 accident, and had fallen into great poverty when one 
 of Brigham Young's missionaries found him out two 
 or three years ago, and at once engaged him for 
 the Valley of the Saints. Transformed into a coach- 
 man in spite of his one arm, he earns enough to live 
 from day to day. The carriage and horses are his 
 own property. It is true that they are not paid for ; 
 it was the President who advanced the necessary sum. 
 His debt rather worries him ; but he consoles himself 
 by the thought that almost everyone is in the same 
 boat. As to his two wives, they maintain themselves 
 and earn their own living. House rent being very 
 high in the tcwn, he has lodged them outside, one to 
 the east, the other to the west of the city. " It is 
 economical," he said, "and besides, it avoids scenes 
 of jealousy." This prudent husband was my constant 
 companion in my expeditions about the Salt-Lake City 
 and amused me very much. He was gentle, resigned,
 
 vri.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 123 
 
 and rather sad. In matters of religion he was pro- 
 foundly ignorant. Evidently, in his childhood, he 
 never had the least instruction. Now he is a believer. 
 He believes in Brigham Young. The life and actions 
 of the Prophet have already acquired a legendary 
 character in his mind. Alongside of a sober, dry, 
 prosaic reality, the marvellous occupies a large share in 
 his stories. 
 
 Our road ascends in a straight line, the gentle incline 
 leading to the camp, which crowns the summit of the 
 hill. Just before us, at pistol-shot range, a light 
 phaeton flew along, dragged by two spirited horses. 
 "That's the general, going home," said my driver. 
 " Let's try and catch him up." It was not, however, 
 till the moment when the commandant alighted at 
 the door of his house, that our horses, quite out of 
 breath, came up with him. The general held out his 
 arms to me, which were full of children's toys. He 
 is a tall man with a fine military bearing, and perfect 
 manners. In his frank open face and sympathizing 
 smile one sees gentleness allied with energy and the 
 habit of command. " I had had notice of your visit," 
 he exclaimed. " You are most welcome. Excuse my 
 not being able to shake hands with you. You see I 
 have got mine full. I have been buying some toys 
 for my little boy. He is not well, and we wanted 
 something to amuse him. Mrs. Morrow also is very 
 poorly." He made me walk into a little drawing- 
 room, simply but prettily furnished, and then ex- 
 cused himself to go and see his invalids. When, a 
 few minutes later, he appeared, his somewhat anxious 
 countenance had brightened into a joyous expression.
 
 124 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 " My little man is much better," he exclaimed, " and 
 the toys have answered their purpose. Now let us 
 make ourselves comfortable." And he began to do 
 the honours of his home, which was a pretty little 
 cottage surrounded by a veranda ; and to show me 
 some of the treasures he had collected in the course 
 of his wandering life as an officer in the United States 
 army. He had some magnificent bearskins embroi- 
 dered in different patterns, a quantity of Indian 
 dresses ornamented with feathers, bows and arrows, 
 and arms of all kinds. Many of these were trophies 
 which had been acquired in bloody fights ; others had 
 been given to him by native chiefs, who, in spite of 
 his white skin, had learnt to love him, and saw him 
 leave their country with regret. Except during the 
 late southern war, General Morrow's military career 
 had been spent entirely in countries inhabited by the 
 Indians. I encouraged him to talk, and he told me, 
 simply and modestly, some of the most remarkable 
 episodes in his life. A really brave man is always 
 simple and modest. His life was like a page of one 
 of Cooper's novels. Whilst talking he once put on the 
 Indian warrior's clothes and plumed head-dress, and 
 imitated their attitudes and war-cry. 
 
 " This cry produces a great effect," he said. " It 
 encourages the savages and frightens the whites. But 
 what really demoralises our soldiers is the sound of a 
 peculiarly shrill whistle, which every warrior wears 
 hung to his waist, and which he never ceases to blow 
 during the fight. As to their arrows, they shoot 
 infinitely faster with them than we can possibly do 
 with a revolver." As you may suppose, the good
 
 vii.J SALT-LAKE CITY. 125 
 
 general forced me to accept some of the mementoes of 
 his battles, which I shall gladly carry away with me 
 to Europe. 
 
 We both got into my carriage, and Daniel, who in 
 spite of being a Mormon, seemed to be on very good 
 terms with the general, was told to drive us to the 
 canon called " Emigration." This is the last defile in 
 the Wahsatch mountains which, after their great 
 exodus from Nauvoo, the Mormons passed before they 
 came to the promised land, the Valley of the Saints. 
 None of them visit it now without singing a hymn 
 which reminds them of that solemn moment. " Do 
 you see that block of rock ? " said my companion to 
 me. " When we come there, Daniel will begin to 
 sing, and will hold his tongue at the next," and in fact, 
 so it came pass. The Mexicans call those deep and 
 narrow gorges, or rather fissures, in the great Cordillera 
 chain of mountains, canones. This appellation has 
 survived the dominion of the old masters of this 
 country, and is a word in common use. To the eye, 
 these canones appear simply perpendicular precipices, 
 huge crevices or fissures in the rocks, here and there 
 carpeted with straggling shrubs or grass, and with 
 sharp points rising one above the other. Following 
 the narrow path, which creeps between the abyss on 
 one side and the wall of stones on the other, if your 
 nerves are steady enough to enable you to lean over 
 the side without losing your balance, you may see at 
 the very bottom of the ravine, a thin, slender line of 
 water. Here it reflects the blue sky or the setting sun ; 
 there it flows in deep dark shadow ; later on, it dis- 
 appears altogether, under a natural arch, with a dull
 
 126 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [c:i\f. 
 
 roar like a train passing through a tunnel. These are 
 the boiling waters of the mountain torrents. From 
 cascade to cascade, from one subterranean channel to 
 another, by secret passages, well known to the red- 
 skills, but which no white man has yet explored, they 
 join the great arteries of the American continent or 
 are ignominiously absorbed in one of the numerous 
 salt-lakes of the great desert. 1 It is in one of these 
 gorges, the canon called " the Emigration," that 
 Daniel has now plunged us. It is true that we only 
 see the least perilous part. Nevertheless, the road is 
 very rough, continually ascending and descending, and 
 always on the very edge of the precipice. There are 
 certain sharp turns which make one's blood run cold. 
 But the general reassures me. " In spite of his one 
 arm," he says, " this English fellow is a good coach- 
 man, and thoroughly master of his horses. Besides, 
 this is a royal road compared to the upper part of the 
 gorge or to the other cahones which the Mormons had 
 to pass. It is fair to add that many of their carriages 
 and bullock waggons rolled into the torrent." 
 
 On our way back, we stopped at the house of a 
 Bavarian brewer. He is a gentile, and laughs at the 
 Mormons. His establishment has all the look of a 
 little Munich brewery, and is the principal resort of 
 the officers and soldiers of the camp. 
 
 Now we are once more seated in the general's 
 veranda. The sun is gone down. There is not a 
 breath of air. A calm and solemn stillness seems to 
 hover over the panorama at our feet. 
 
 To our left, that is, to the east of the town, running 
 1 The Americana call these waters sinks.
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 127 
 
 from north to south and looking like a crenellated 
 wall, with here and there sharp peaks standing out 
 against the sky, as in the drop scene of a play, rises 
 the gigantic chain of the Wahsatch mountains, the 
 western base of the great uplands. Placed close 
 together, about five miles from the crest of the ridge, 
 these mountains all look to us foreshortened. The 
 eye is bewildered by the chaos of precipices and 
 ravines (the outlines of which are distinctly visible in 
 spite of the violet shadows which enshroud them), 
 and of rugged, knobby mountains w r ooded at the base, 
 bare and naked higher up, sparkling with the reflec- 
 tion of the evening light, marbled with white above, 
 and piercing the sky which floods their snowy tops 
 with rosy purple tints, culminating in two gigantic 
 diamond peaks, the " Twins ! " Oh ! those Twins ! 
 How they tower over the Valley of the Saints ! What 
 a striking sight they are ! And how this whole 
 mountain range fascinates and charms one ! 
 
 To the west, at our feet, spreads the Salt-Lake City 
 like a great river full of flowers and green, or rather 
 like an immense park rayed with lines of light ; the 
 green avenues are mingled with white specks, the 
 roofs of the houses, which themselves remain invisible. 
 The ugly, heavy, oblong cupola of the tabernacle 
 alone raises its head above the trees, which, with their 
 varied shades of green, shroud and hide all human 
 habitations. Beyond the town, the Jordan, flowing 
 now between sharp rocks, now through green and 
 smiling fields, falls gently into the lake, where its 
 short course is ended. On its right bank are a mass of 
 round, wooded hills : further on, nothing but arid rocks.
 
 128 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 Above the river, in the distance, bathed in tender 
 tints, varying from azure blue to pearly grey, the 
 rugged chain of the Oquerrah mountains stand out 
 against the flaming sky. A luminous fringe of snow 
 lies all along their tops. They are shrouded with 
 rays of vaporous light, for behind them the sun is 
 just disappearing. From Salt-Lake City to these high 
 mountains, the distance is forty miles as the crow 
 flies. 
 
 Towards the south the valley rises gradually. It is 
 rough ground, full of ravines, but carpeted with green. 
 Towards the town, and for some miles round its 
 suburbs, are a quantity of small Mormon farms, their 
 neat homesteads shaded with fine trees. Further on, 
 nature in her wildest and most savage form resumes 
 her empire. An amphitheatre of low rocks, which 
 bounds the horizon on this side, hides from sight the 
 lake of Utah, which to the Saints, is the lake of 
 Tiberias, just as their river is the Jordan, and their 
 Salt Lake the Dead Sea. In fact, if the Oquerrah 
 chain resembled more closely the mountains of Moab, 
 and were a little nearer and rounder, the analogy with 
 Palestine would be still more striking. 
 
 To the north, the great lake spreads out its slaty, 
 lustrous, metallic waters. Even at this moment when 
 the heavens are on fire, and Bengal lights are floating 
 in the air, and crossing one another in every direction, 
 and when all nature has put on a kind of festal, 
 Venetian look, this stagnant, sleepy sheet of water 
 refuses to take part in the general festivity. But the 
 sun is sinking, and the shadow from the mountains 
 is overpowering by degrees the wild, sinister lights
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 129 
 
 which flickered a few moments ago over this cursed 
 sea. A narrow line of white sand encircles it. Neither 
 tree, nor shrub, nor any human habitation breaks 
 the profound melancholy of this site. In the centre 
 of the lake rise two or three little islands, of fantastic 
 shapes and with steep, rocky sides, their summits en- 
 amelled by the setting sun. Nearer to us, on the 
 right, a little promontory stands out, half in the water 
 and half on land. This is called the Peak of Obser- 
 vation, or the Holy Mount, and is the sign of alliance 
 with the god of the Mormons. 
 
 Since the opening of the Pacific Eailway, and that, 
 in consequence, the number of visitors has daily in- 
 creased, Brigham Young has got tired of being stared 
 at, examined, and commented upon, as an object of 
 curiosity. To see him, one must be furnished with 
 letters of introduction. 
 
 My host, the " Old " Townsend before mentioned, 
 offered to present one which had been given to me at 
 New York, and to arrange an interview for me. One 
 morning accordingly, at ten o'clock, we went together 
 to the President's house. Some bishops and one or 
 two elders whom we met on the road begged to ac- 
 company us. I had to run the gauntlet of the usual 
 questions, but I did not spare them either, and they 
 answered me with very tolerable grace. They were 
 all Americans, for, as a general rule, the Americans 
 alone aspire to the higher grades of elders or bishops, 
 and are evidently better educated and better brought 
 up than the greater portion of the Mormons, three 
 parts of whom are Europeans. Simply though de- 
 cently dressed, these men bore no sign of their eccle- 
 
 VOL. i. K
 
 130 A li AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAI-. 
 
 siastical dignities. Their faces told one nothing what- 
 ever. There was no trace of fanaticism, affectation, or 
 hypocrisy about them ; still less of anything clerical. 
 Nothing betrayed the habit of meditation or prayer, 
 or even a wish to make believe anything of the kind. 
 They looked just what they were men of business, 
 farmers, shopkeepers, or commercial travellers. It 
 was impossible to be what the English call more 
 commonplace. There was only one exception the 
 Bishop of - . I never saw a more slovenly dress, 
 dirtier linen, or a more threadbare coat ; but he was, 
 on the other hand, the only one of the lot who had a 
 jolly, open countenance, and a frank, hearty laugh. 
 <f I have got three wives/' he exclaimed ; "so I am 
 
 very well off."" And your wives ? " " D n it ! " 
 
 (with a hoarse laugh) " that's their business. "- 
 " Seriously, don't you think that polygamy degrades 
 a woman?" " Not the least in the world." "Don't 
 you ever feel any scruple about it ? " " On the con- 
 trary ; I should be scrupulous if I didn't. In having 
 several wives, I am simply obeying a special com- 
 mandment of God's. I feed my children and send 
 them to school that's all that is necessary. But as 
 for the rest, you can't understand it, for you are not 
 one of the elect. Now, we are not only one of the 
 elect, but of the privileged few. God has given us 
 the privilege of inspiration, and all that we do is 
 right and well done. That's the reason we have been 
 made bishops. Inspiration is granted to a man or not, 
 as God pleases. He alone can give or refuse it." 
 
 He then entered into a confused explanation which 
 he said was a development of this theory ; but in
 
 vii.] ^ALT-LAKE CITY. 131 
 
 spite of all the trouble I gave myself to follow his 
 line of thought, it was utterly and entirely unintel- 
 ligible. It was simply nonsense, balderdash, and 
 gibberish, delivered with a kind of careless, indifferent 
 ease, like a schoolboy who is repeating a lesson by 
 heart without understanding or thinking of a single 
 word he is saying. 
 
 The most remarkable man of the company was Mr. 
 George Smith, called the historian, who must not, 
 however, be confounded with Joe Smith, the founder 
 of the sect, who was murdered. George is more 
 educated than the other dignitaries of the tabernacle, 
 and so holds the first place in the church after the 
 President, Brigham Young. He assisted the latter in 
 guiding the Saints at the time of their terrible journey 
 from the borders of the Mississippi to those of the Salt 
 Lake, and took part likewise in the works consequent 
 on the first establishment of the New Jerusalem. He 
 gave me a great deal of curious information, and 
 likewise a pamphlet which he wrote two years ago. 1 
 
 Walking very slowly, for the heat was overpowering, 
 and seeking the shade of the acacia and cotton trees, 
 which bordered the long avenue, we at last arrived 
 
 O * 
 
 before the President's house surrounded by a high 
 wall, and composed of several distinct buildings and 
 separate apartments for the use of his wives and 
 
 1 " The EISP, Progress, and Travels of the Church of Jesus 
 Christ of Latter Day Saints : being a Series of Answers to Question?, 
 including the Revelation on Celestial Marriage, and a Brief Account 
 of the Settlement of Salt- Lake Valley, with interesting Statistics," 
 by President G. A. Smith, Church Historian, &c. (Printed at 
 the JDeseret News Office, 1869.) 
 
 K 2
 
 132 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 children. A great room at one of the angles of the 
 enclosure is a school for the exclusive use of the 
 latter. We crossed the threshold and were shown into 
 the parlour, a little room simply furnished and orna- 
 mented with twelve oil paintings representing the Mor- 
 mon apostles. The first place was reserved, of course, 
 for the portrait of Joe Smith. The secretary and son- 
 in-law of the President, a little deformed youth, after 
 having offered us chairs, began to cross-question me 
 in a loud voice in the usual American way. Whilst 
 I was answering, I thought I saw a shadow behind 
 the half-open door. Twenty minutes passed in this 
 way. The conversation went on ; but the President 
 still kept us waiting. At last I got up and said : 
 " Mr. Young has doubtless his own occupations. I 
 have mine. I have nothing to say to him, and do not 
 care to wait any longer to see him. Besides, they 
 are waiting for me at Fort Douglas." At that very 
 moment, the door, which had attracted my attention, 
 opened suddenly, and Brigham Young appeared on 
 the threshold. He was dressed with great care, and 
 looked as if he had just come out of the hair-dresser's 
 hands. For some minutes he looked at me in silence ; 
 then he walked towards me in a solemn manner, only 
 answering the low bow of his people by a slight wave 
 of the hand. He had his hat on his head ; but took 
 it off hastily when he saw me deliberately putting on 
 mine ; and then, sitting down, motioned me to an 
 armchair alongside of him. The bishops and elders 
 took their places at a respectful distance. On a sign 
 to his secretary, the latter, standing before his master, 
 read my letter of introduction out loud.
 
 vn.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 133 
 
 The conversation which followed lasted nearly an 
 hour. I give the main points, which I noted down 
 in my journal as soon as I got back to the inn, and 
 was struck, while doing so, at the trouble I found in 
 seizing a single intelligible thought amidst the grand 
 phrases, and the confused and illogical statements 
 with which his conversation was interlarded. 1 
 
 "The world," he began, "is full of prejudices. A 
 man must be of a privileged caste to rise above 
 them. God gives this privilege only to His elect. 
 What they teach is the truth, for they only speak or 
 act by inspiration. Faith and work this is the sum 
 total of our task . . . the object of our religion is 
 to make the bad good, and the good better. Read 
 the Mormon book. It has been translated in all lan- 
 guages, and is sold in Main Street. You will find in 
 it a correct account of our origin and history. The 
 first Mormons emigrated in the time of King Solo- 
 mon (!) The last immigration was 600 years before 
 our Saviour (!) To-day they pour in from all sides. 
 The hour will come when they shall be spread over 
 the whole earth." 
 
 On my remarking that he, Brigham Young, seemed 
 to me to unite both temporal and spiritual powers in 
 Utah, he answered sharply : " You are quite mistaken. 
 The Mormon is free. Everything is done by com- 
 promise between the contending parties, or by arbi- 
 tration. I am not afraid of the railroads, as people 
 
 1 Mr. Young said nothing very remarkable ; nothing but what 
 he said to everybody, everywhere, and especially in his very short 
 sermons in the tabernacle. I do not, therefore, fear to commit an 
 indiscretion by giving publicity to his words.
 
 131 A li AMBLE ROUND THE WOULD. [CHAP. 
 
 fancy. We did not leave Nauvoo to fly away from 
 the gentiles. We left it simply because we were 
 turned out." 
 
 1 then, attacked him on the subject of polygamy. 
 " In Europe," I said, " you are well known. Every- 
 one appreciates the energy of a man who has made 
 his will a law to his disciples, and who has learnt 
 how to transform a desert into a garden. But on the 
 other hand, I cannot conceal from you that there is 
 but one cry of indignation against you for the poly- 
 gamy you practise and which you have introduced 
 into your community. The general opinion is that it 
 is a shame to woman and a disgrace to the century 
 in which we live." Here the audience gave an omi- 
 nous growl of dissent. The President started ; but 
 contained himself. After a few moments of silence, 
 he said, speaking in a low voice and with a slightly 
 disdainful smile : " Prejudice, prejudice, prejudice ! 
 We have the greatest of all examples the example of 
 the patriarchs. What was pleasing to God in their 
 day, why should it be proscribed now ? " He then 
 went into a long explanation of a theory which was 
 new to me, regretting that men did not imitate the 
 example of animals, and treating the subject of the 
 relations of the sexes in so confused and at the same 
 time so ambiguous a manner, that it was next to im- 
 possible to understand his meaning ; but he arrived 
 finally at the conclusion that polygamy was the only 
 effectual remedy for the great social evil of prostitu- 
 tion. Then he interrupted himself by exclaiming, 
 " As for the rest, what I do, and what I teach, I do 
 and teach by the special command of God." When I
 
 vn.) , . SALT-LAKE CITY. 135 
 
 got up to take my leave, lie took my hand, drew me 
 towards him and murmured, closing his eyes, " Bles- 
 sing, blessing, luck ! " 
 
 Brigham Young, who was born in Vermont State, 
 has just completed his seventieth year, but appears 
 much younger than lie really is. He is above the 
 middle height, holds himself very upright, and seems 
 to enjoy perfect health. His crisp, curly, light-brown 
 hair, with a tinge of red in it, carefully brushed and 
 combed, shades a broad head well placed on a pair of 
 good square shoulders. His eyes, which never look 
 you straight in the face, betray more cunning than 
 intelligence ; his mouth is thoroughly sensual ; his 
 square and almost disproportionately massive chin 
 indicates an energy which I should fancy would border 
 on cruelty. Taking it altogether, his face is one 
 which can only belong to a remarkable man. It fasci- 
 nates and repels you at the same time. One under- 
 stands how this man exercises the charm of a serpent, 
 which retains its victims by the terror it inspires, and 
 which crushes them without scruple or pity the 
 moment they strive to escape its clutches. I do not 
 say that Brigham Young is like this, I only say that 
 his exterior gives me that impression which I share 
 with all the other strangers who have described their 
 visit to the Mormon chief. Certainly one ought not 
 to judge a man by the external appearance only, or 
 after one short interview ; therefore I am only writing 
 down the effect which his appearance produced upon 
 me, and which was most unfavourable. As to his 
 manners, I find them just as little sympathetic. They 
 are wanting in simplicity, or rather they bear the
 
 136 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 stamp of affectation, one moment pompous, the next 
 familiar, now unctuous, then joking, now severe, then 
 oily, Brigham Young never for a moment forgets 
 the part he chooses to play as prophet. Before 
 intoning one of his sententious phrases, he bends 
 his head, assumes an air of majesty, and fixes his 
 eyes on the ground. When he speaks, it is slowly, 
 with a tone of authority, and an interval between 
 each word. Then suddenly he lifts his head, throws 
 it back and shows his great white teeth, and his huge 
 sensual mouth gleaming with a sinister smile. Then 
 he shuts his eyes again and lowers his voice ; that's 
 when he wishes to be funny. I own that these fits 
 of forced and unnatural gaiety did not win me in the 
 least. There was I know not what kind of grossly 
 theatrical pretence in these sudden changes from the 
 sublime to the ridiculous, from tragic effect to vulgar 
 comic ; but I suppose the ignorant public are carried 
 away by this clap- trap, and are willing to let them- 
 selves be humbugged. I remarked, too, that at such 
 times the bishops and elders all pretended to be elec- 
 trified. Judging by his exterior, his manners, and the 
 bosh he has the impudence to talk to you, Brigham 
 Young is the most audacious hypocrite under the 
 sun. But look around you ! Listen, not to what his 
 acolytes tell you, who adore him as a divinity, but 
 impartial witnesses, or rather men who have no sym- 
 pathy with him, but who know both him and his 
 works ; listen to what they will tell you of the 
 obstacles he has overcome, the dangers he has sur- 
 mounted, the wonders he has wrought, and not the 
 of these miracles is having captivated, subdued,
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKH CITY. 137 
 
 and broken the will of nearly 200,000 human beings ; 
 let all this be told you on the spot by impartial men, 
 well acquainted with the state of things, by the com- 
 mandant of the federal troops at Fort Douglas, for 
 instance, or by his officers ; by the Chief Justice, by 
 the Attorney-General, by the doctors, by those who 
 have been resident here for years, by the miners who 
 come and go ; and your disgust will give place first 
 to astonishment, and then to something bordering 
 on admiration ! admiration, not certainly for the 
 doctrines Brigham Young has inculcated, nor still less 
 for his practices, nor even for the extraordinary 
 success of his colonisation, for others besides Mormons 
 have done as much in other parts of the American 
 Continent ; nor for the motives which have actuated 
 him, and which, being unknown to us, we have not a 
 right to judge but for the talents and ability which 
 Providence has vouchsafed to this most extraordinary 
 man ; for the clear instincts of this uneducated mind, 
 for his indomitable energy, his marvellous perseve- 
 rance, and especially for the mysterious and absolute 
 power he exercises over his sect. Many books, 
 pamphlets, and innumerable articles, have been 
 written on Brigham Young, on Deseret, and on the 
 faith and practices of the Mormons. The greater 
 part of these accounts are exact enough in their 
 descriptions. Nothing can be more attractive than 
 the picture of New Jerusalem by Hep worth Dixon. 
 The portrait is exact as far as it goes. But neither 
 this author, nor any others who have written on this 
 subject, have been able to find out the secret of the 
 terrible power of this man, which has enabled him to
 
 138 A RAMBLE RQUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 establish in the centre of America a state of things 
 which politically, religiously, and socially, is a direct 
 negation of the manners, ideas, and belief of the 
 century in which we live. 
 
 Joe Smith was the founder or regenerator of the 
 Mormon sect. He gave himself out as inspired, but 
 at the same time was a thorough rogue. He did not 
 actually preach polygamy ; but if we are to believe 
 the public, he practised it without troubling himself 
 with nuptial benedictions. This little fact became, 
 after his death, .the cause of a schism in the commu- 
 nity, his widow and children swearing that Joe had 
 never been a polygamist, and Brigham Young, who 
 wanted to cite the example of his predecessor in favour 
 of polygamy, suborning false witnesses to prove that 
 the prophet Smith was a partisan to the plurality of 
 wives. 
 
 The expulsion of the Mormons from their settlements 
 on the Mississippi in Illinois, forms a most curious and 
 significant episode in the contemporary history of 
 America. Poor Joe never pretended that he had 
 anything of a prophet about him save inspiration. 
 He had been dragged fifty times before the judges 
 and had always been acquitted until at last he ended 
 his career with the honours of martyrdom. Whilst he 
 was shut up in the Carthage prison, the chief town 
 of Hancock County (Illinois), a band of men with 
 blackened faces got in and shot him and his brother 
 Hyram dead. 1 Admitted to bail, the assassins were 
 afterwards tried and acquitted. After the death of 
 the prophet, the carpenter, Brigham Young, in his 
 1 This was in June 1844.
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 139 
 
 quality of president of the twelve apostles, took the 
 whole direction of affairs into his own hands. Not- 
 withstanding the disastrous state of things he succeeded 
 in reconciling the conflicting parties and in bringing all 
 the believers into one fold, which was his own. He 
 managed to breathe a new life into the whole sect, 
 
 o * 
 
 which, on Joe's death, had been on the eve of disso- 
 lution. Nevertheless, acts of violence against them 
 continued. Their houses were burnt, their cattle driven 
 oft', and their flocks destroyed. The timid intervention 
 of the authorities produced no effect. A proclamation of 
 the sheriff of the county gives the following melancholy 
 picture of the scene of devastation: "Whilst I write, 
 the smoke rises up to heaven from the burning home- 
 steads. The people spare neither widows nor orphans/' 
 The Illinois government sent a few militia ; but their 
 commander soon told the Mormons that he was not 
 able to protect them ; that the people were determined 
 to expel them ; and that they had no alternative but 
 to expatriate themselves. Then it was that their 
 leaders determined to emigrate to the Salt Lake and 
 to send on a certain number of their body as pioneers. 
 These men, headed by Brigham Young himself, set 
 forth in the beginning of January 1846. A thousand 
 families followed in February. This was the begin- 
 ning of the great exodus. Whilst the President was 
 making his painful way across the mountains with 
 his band of pioneers, Nauvoo, the head-quarters of the 
 sect in Illinois, had to be fortified in haste and undergo 
 a regular siege. The enemies of the Mormons had 
 organized themselves into a military force, with a 
 park of artillery, and challenged them to fight on
 
 140 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 every possible occasion. At last, on the 17th of 
 September, after a bombardment which lasted several 
 days, the besieged evacuated Nauvoo and took refuge 
 on the opposite bank of the Mississippi. 
 
 The conquerors, after having pillaged the town to 
 their hearts' content, burnt the tabernacle which had 
 cost half a million of dollars, and several private houses. 
 All this took place under the very eye of the govern- 
 ment, who had, however, given fair notice to the 
 Mormons of its inability to protect them. Neverthe- 
 less, Brigham Young, after having given some of his 
 best troops to the United States, then at war with 
 Mexico the famous Mormon battalion after having 
 provisionally established the thousand families who 
 had followed him, at Florence, in the Nebraska, re- 
 turned to the banks of the Mississippi, not having 
 himself gone much further than Council-Bluffs on the 
 Missouri. He there determined to organize the emi- 
 gration of the whole remaining body. God had 
 vouchsafed a revelation to him. He had seen in a 
 dream a conical rock rising on the borders of a lake. 
 Towards this point, Ensign Peak, he, resolved to direct 
 his steps. He thought it necessary to examine the 
 spot first himself, and started this time with only 
 140 men. This was in the spring of 1847, and by 
 July he had arrived at the Salt Lake and laid the 
 foundation of the New Jerusalem. In the last days 
 of the year he came back. During this second journey 
 all his horses were carried off by the Sioux, and the 
 Prophet and his followers had to go on foot. At last 
 the moment came for the whole sect of the Mormons 
 to decamp. They were to traverse the Nebraska
 
 vir.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 141 
 
 prairies, to pass the defiles of the Rocky Mountains, 
 to cross the great American desert, that is, the high 
 lands situated between these mountains and the 
 Wahsatch chain ; and then to descend into the valley 
 of the Salt Lake, which no one, before Brigham's 
 expedition, had ever visited, saving perhaps a few 
 travellers and trappers. According to them, it was an 
 arid desert surrounding a dead sea, hemmed in by 
 rocks at the height of 12,000 or 15,000 feet, while on 
 the other side of the lake was a fresh chain of equally 
 precipitous mountains. The water was brackish and 
 undrinkable ; as for vegetation, there was literally 
 none, save some miserable tufts of sage-brush and, in 
 summer, a few wild flowers, devoured almost before 
 they could spring up by the locusts, which, with bears 
 and serpents and the wild tribes of Utah, reigned 
 supreme in these inhospitable regions. Probably the 
 information collected upon the spot by Brigham 
 Young was somewhat more encouraging : anyhow the 
 emigration was resolved upon. They started in the 
 depth of winter in a multitude of caravans men, 
 women, and children in waggons, on asses, in wheel- 
 barrows, on foot and took the road to the banks of 
 the Missouri, and from thence straight on to the 
 Rocky Mountains. The distance was upwards of 
 1,500 miles, and that through a country almost en- 
 tirely deprived of all resources. Misery, privations, 
 and mortality cruelly tried, without subduing, the 
 courage, perseverance, and fertility in expedients of 
 the Prophet, or the resignation, patience, and blind 
 faith of his followers. Since the exodus of the 
 Israelites, history has never registered a similar enter-
 
 142 A It AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 prise. At last, the few whose bones had not whitened 
 the fearful path they had trod, emerging one evening 
 from a defile which has preserved the name of Emi- 
 gration Canon, perceived at their feet the lake, 
 valley, and river, which from its analogy with the 
 Promised Land, they called the Jordan ; the whole 
 being recognisable by the conical promontory which 
 God was said to have revealed to His elect, and 
 which bore henceforth the name of Ensign Peak. 1 
 Anyhow, to have conceived the idea, to have carried 
 it out, with the loss of a great number of men, it is 
 true, but without shaking the faith or confidence of 
 a single one of the survivors, is an historical fact 
 which would suffice to immortalise the name of a 
 man, be he king, captain, or prophet. 
 
 Brigham Young unites in himself these three 
 qualities. As prophet, though taking good care not 
 to utter any prophecies, he rules over men's con- 
 sciences ; as sovereign, he exercises his power without 
 the smallest control ; as general, he has organized so 
 large and respectable a militia force, that it accounts 
 for the hesitation on the part of the central Govern- 
 ment to enforce their power of bringing this potentate 
 to respect the law of the land. 
 
 The first three years after the exodus were very 
 trying ones. George Smith, the historian, told me 
 that he and his wife, as in fact everybody else, were 
 reduced to half the food necessary for the support 
 
 1 Utah belonged then to Mexico. When ceded to the United 
 States an act of Congress established in 1850 a territorial govern- 
 ment of which Brigham Young was made first Governor. He 
 exercised these functions till 1857.
 
 vn.J ^ALT-LAKE CITY. 143 
 
 of animal life. For many weeks they lived entirely 
 upon roots. 
 
 The work of preaching among the gentiles, which 
 was begun in 1837, was taken up again with 
 renewed- fervour. But they did not make any pro- 
 selytes except in England (especially in Wales), in 
 Australia, and in a less degree, in Scandinavia. In 
 America it was an entire failure. The contingents 
 from Germany, Switzerland, and other countries, 
 where Young also sent his missionaries, are infini- 
 tesimally small. With the Chinese, Malays, Cingalese, 
 and Indians, the Mormon Bible would not go down at 
 all. Brigham Young always chose his emissaries by 
 inspiration. It has often happened to him to accost 
 a perfect stranger in the street. Following a sudden- 
 inspiration, he will tell him to start and give him 
 an apostolic mission to Europe, Australia, or to 
 the islands in the South Seas. The man thus sum- 
 moned, leaves wife, children, and business, and starts. 
 These missionaries address themselves to the poorest 
 and most ignorant class, whether in England, which 
 is a hot-bed of vice and misery, like all over-popu- 
 lated centres of civilization, or in Wales, where the 
 inhabitants, like their Irish brethren, are particularly 
 disposed to emigrate. According to the unanimous 
 testimony of persons, who during my stay at the 
 Salt-Lake City were kind enough to give me the 
 best information on this strange community, the 
 Europeans who accept the proposals of these emis- 
 saries of the Prophet, are in all respects, infinitely 
 below the lowest classes in America, whether in the 
 country or in the towns. The Mormon missionaries,
 
 144 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 therefore, never attempt to preach to the rich, or even 
 to those who are tolerably well off, neither will they 
 go near an educated man. Their proselytes are always 
 among the very poorest and the most ignorant class. 
 Their recruits spring either from those who have been 
 born in utter misery, or who have fallen into it from 
 their own faults or the fault of circumstances : men 
 who have nothing to lose, and who can but gain by 
 being dragged out of the moral and physical degra- 
 dation in which they are plunged. This is one of the 
 facts which should be borne in mind to understand 
 the great and sudden expansion of the sect. It is to 
 men such as these, that they preach, and this is their 
 doctrine : " God is a Person of flesh and blood like 
 man. He has the passions of a man, but is perfect in 
 all things. Jesus Christ was created by Him in an 
 ordinary way. The Father and the Son are alike, 
 except that the Father looks older. Man was not 
 created by God, for he exists from all eternity. He is 
 not born in sin, and is responsible only foe his own 
 acts. He sanctifies himself by marriage. There are 
 
 t/ 
 
 gods, angels, men, and spirits. There is a resurrection 
 in another world, which is but a continuation of the 
 actual existence of a man here below. God is in 
 direct communication with the Prophet : what he, the 
 Prophet, says or cloes, is said or done by inspiration. 
 The bishops also are inspired, but in a minor degree. 
 Of all religions the Mormon is the most perfect, but 
 gentiles are not necessarily damned." 
 
 Is it possible that the preaching of such doctrines 
 should touch people's hearts, strike their imaginations, 
 and attract from the worst quarters of London, from
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 145 
 
 the dockyards of Liverpool, from the agricultural 
 population of Wales, the 3,000 or 4,000 converts who 
 arrive every year on the borders of the Salt- Lake 
 City ? It is quite impossible. It is not true, as 
 certain authors have asserted, that the novelty of these 
 doctrines acts powerfully on their imaginations. It 
 might be possible if these prophets were fanatics ; 
 but theology is the last thing that troubles them. 
 They are simply men who find themselves in a state 
 of utter destitution, and want to get out of it. If 
 Brigham Young's mission ers had nothing more to 
 offer them than a continuation in another world (with 
 a God who is like themselves) of an existence as miser- 
 able as that which has fallen to their lot here, do you 
 imagine they would accept the Mormon teaching with 
 such eagerness ? Is it not more likely they would at 
 once turn their backs on the missioners ? 
 
 But these men tell them more than this. After 
 having promised them, as all religions do, eternal 
 felicity in a future state, they offer them what no 
 other religion does, the most brilliant horizon even in 
 this lower world. On the single condition of moderate 
 work they guarantee to them the enjoyment of all the 
 good things to which the heart of man can aspire, 
 which chance has only granted to the elect, and which 
 has been so obstinately refused to them hitherto. 
 
 Look at this stranger who has just crossed the 
 threshold of a humble home blessed be the day when 
 he first sets foot in the house ! After having briefly 
 recapitulated the chief articles of the Mormon faith, 
 he draws a glowing picture of their daily life : of the 
 advantages, the marvellous profits to be derived from 
 
 VOL. T. L
 
 146 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [cm p. 
 
 their speculations : he lifts, in fact, the dark curtain 
 which has hitherto hung over his auditors' sad lives, 
 
 o 
 
 puts before them an enchanting vision of future joys, 
 awakens all their covetousness, promises to satisfy 
 them to the utmost, points out to them, beyond the 
 seas, the new Jordan, the silver lakes of the Bible, the 
 hills of the New Jerusalem, the Promised Land, where 
 they will find what they have constantly endeavoured 
 to attain to, but in vain happiness ! 
 
 " Here," he exclaims, " you are nothing but slaves 
 slaves of misery, if not of a master. In the Valley 
 of the Saints, independence awaits you ; independence 
 and ease, at any rate perhaps riches. No more 
 servile subjection ; no more privations ; no more cares. 
 In this world, as in the next, your future is assured." 
 Then addressing himself to the young men among his 
 audience with that sinister smile peculiar to the 
 Prophet and his followers, he speaks of the delights 
 of the harem, and of the beauty of the young girls of 
 Deseret, promising them as many wives as they please 
 developing, in fact, the whole theory of plurality. 
 " Compare the state you are now in with what you 
 may be," he exclaims, in conclusion, " and choose ! " 
 
 How are these poor fellows to resist such brilliant 
 promises unless they should be kept back by strong 
 Christian convictions, which they have not got I 
 Besides, no sooner have they given in their adhesion, 
 than Brigham Young's bankers at once advance to 
 them the money necessary for their voyage. At New' 
 York a pass is given to them, and letters for the 
 whole of their journey ; while, unlike the majority 
 of other emigrants, they are sure to find help and
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 147 
 
 protection at the different stations marked in their 
 itinerary. 
 
 Here I must again insist on this important point, 
 which I hope the preceding lines will have abundantly 
 proved, and which is confirmed by the most impartial 
 and trustworthy evidence, namely, the fact, that the 
 proselytes who are brought into Young's sheepfold, are 
 not (with one or two very rare exceptions) attracted to 
 it by a spirit of fanaticism, by a thirst for truth, by one 
 of those extraordinary ecstasies or scruples which 
 sometimes trouble the souls of men ; but simply and 
 entirely by worldly motives, and from the very natural 
 desire of bettering their condition in life. On this 
 ground they are not to be distinguished from other 
 emigrants. No religious element has any share in 
 their conversion. 
 
 But let us follow these neophytes in their new 
 country. Here they are arrived. The bishops and elders 
 procure work for the strong ones, help for the sick, food 
 for all ; in fact, provide for their wants altogether until 
 lands can be assigned to them for cultivation. Young 
 then advances money to them to build their houses 
 bricks or adobes (bricks dried in the sun), boards, and 
 tools. The value of the land and the objects furnished 
 to the emigrants are calculated in dollars and inscribed 
 in the creditor's books. The payment is made by 
 instalments, to which is added the tithe, which is 
 a tenth of the gross rental of the farm, and which is 
 levied for the wants of the Church. 
 
 It would be too long to enter into a detail of the 
 minute arrangements by which Young thus becomes 
 the creditor of the whole community. It is enough 
 
 L 2
 
 148 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 to say that very few, if any, of the Mormons, have 
 arrived or can ever arrive at clearing off their debts. 
 They gain a livelihood by dint of working ; they may 
 even become tolerably well off, which has now become 
 more and more rare ; but it is extremely difficult to 
 save ; aud next to impossible to become rich. The 
 rarity of specie and the (almost) impossibility of 
 procuring ready money in the United States, causes a 
 fresh difficulty, and adds to the financial embarrass- 
 ments which form the normal condition of this 
 society. Until two years ago, that is, before the 
 completion of the railroad, Utah was an actual prison, 
 for there were no means of getting away from it : and so 
 it still continues, although in a minor degree. To leave 
 Utah, the Saints must pay their debts ; to pay them 
 they must sell their farms ; to sell them they must 
 find buyers with ready money, and with United States 
 money besides. Now, there is only one man in Utah 
 who is in that position, and that is Brigham Young. 
 But Brigham Young is precisely the man most inte- 
 rested in not facilitating the sales. The great secret 
 of his political and religious power consists (in a large 
 measure although not entirely, as I shall presently 
 show) in the nature of his financial relations with the 
 majority of the Mormons, who are all, more or less, 
 his debtors. Thus we see that the missioners who 
 promised independence to the emigrants, lied. The 
 Mormons not only live in utter subjection to Young, 
 but are, in fact, his prisoners. But, strange to say, the 
 emigrant, instead of independence, has found one 
 thing which he wanted in Europe when he embraced 
 the religion of the Saints, and thnt is, Faith !
 
 vn. SALT-LAKE CITY. 149 
 
 this unbeliever of yesterday, not only in the old 
 religions, but in the new, has become to-day the 
 staunchest of disciples he believes firmly, blindly, in 
 the Prophet, Brigham Young. How account for this 
 strange yet incontestable fact ? which no one has yet 
 been able to explain to me, but which everybody 
 confirms, and which besides bears the evidence of 
 truth on the very face of things ; for, to convince 
 yourself, you have only to look around you, or to talk 
 for five minutes with the first man you meet in the 
 streets of the New Jerusalem ! Let us strive to 
 elucidate this obscure but vital point ; for if one 
 could arrive at throwing some light upon it. one 
 would have got the key of the enigma and understand 
 Mormonism. 
 
 To simplify it, I will set aside for the moment the 
 influence which the railroad, which has only been 
 opened for two years, exercises and will still further 
 exercise on this strange community. I will not dwell 
 either on the still more recent discovery of the silver 
 mines in the Wahsatch mountains, and the great 
 
 ' O 
 
 influx of searchers after the precious metals which 
 was its first result. Let us confine ourselves to the 
 Mormon sect, such as it existed at the beginning 
 of 1869. 
 
 At that time Brigham Young was in the zenith of 
 his power. One may affirm, without exaggeration, 
 that in the normal condition of affairs, the Prophet, as 
 long as he is Brigham Young, is the absolute master 
 of the bodies and souls of his believers. This society, 
 in fact, only admits believers : he who begins to doubt 
 is instantly put outside the pale of the law. His
 
 150 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 goods are confiscated, he is himself obliged to fly ; 
 and as flight is impossible, he is compelled to submit, 
 to repent and do penance and to begin life again, 
 only without farm, or tools or cattle, which have 
 already been confiscated. And if it be a question of 
 real, active, dangerous heresy, why such men simply 
 disappear. Sometimes their remains are found ; 
 sometimes not. The few gentiles who are allowed to 
 live here are only tolerated ; but their existence is not 
 an enviable one. Woe be to them if they dare to 
 make love to a Mormon girl ! The offender would be 
 simply torn in pieces. This has been done more than 
 once. Add to all these things, the difficulty of getting 
 here and the impossibility of leaving the city without 
 the consent of the Prophet, and you will allow that 
 the isolation is complete. 
 
 I have said that Brigham Young is master of the 
 souls and bodies of his sect. This is to be taken 
 literally. As for souls, he disposes of their wills and 
 consciences, and even of their thoughts ; for he gives 
 them a certain direction and takes care it shall be 
 maintained. Besides, who dares to think for himself 
 in Utah ? They believe, they work, but they do not 
 think. The tabernacle on Sundays, the shop or the 
 farm during the week, the theatre and the harem 
 every night that is enough. There is no time left 
 for reflection, everything is done by inspiration. God 
 inspires and the person who is inspired is Brigham 
 Young. In every kind of business, trouble, difficulty, 
 or doubt, Brigham Young is the referee. Sometimes he 
 remains silent ; that is, when he has received no 
 inspiration ; but if he speaks, they are convinced that
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 151 
 
 they have heard the voice of God. Brigham is not 
 an incarnate god, but he acts as such. That is why 
 I say that he disposes .of the souls of men. 
 
 Now for their bodies. He concentrates in his own 
 hands the strings of all their material interests. He 
 works the whole territory, and the territory of Utah 
 is about as large as half France. He works likewise 
 the physical powers and the mental faculties of two 
 hundred thousand persons. Since the days of Pharaoh, 
 has the world ever seen a similar monopoly ? He 
 has in consequence the reputation of being the richest 
 man in the United States. People say he has a 
 fortune of upwards of twelve millions of dollars. 
 He rules the markets ; he fixes the prices of food ; he 
 makes the roads and exacts enormous tolls. After 
 having created all these different industries he works 
 them all for his own benefit. With his armed force, 
 his militia, perfectly well exercised and equipped, his 
 telegraph, which he has carried to every point of the 
 territory of Utah (the whole of which, saving 
 Corinne, is Mormon), he is master of the position ; he 
 exacts unlimited obedience and submission from his 
 own followers and makes himself feared by the 
 opposition, which as yet is very weak, while the 
 Central Government of Washington thinks it safer to 
 temporize with him for the present. Besides all this, 
 till two years ago, he had the advantage of being 
 geographically inaccessible. Add to this, a prompt 
 and summary execution of justice, in part occult 
 always surrounded with a semi-religious prestige, but 
 against which, until regular judicial authorities were 
 established in Salt-Lake City, there was no appeal,
 
 152 .1 RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 and you have a very fair picture of the unheard-of 
 powers of this one man. Is it too much to affirm 
 that he disposes of the bodies of men ? But there 
 is still another view of the question. 
 
 Brigham Young never had the reputation of a 
 saint, in the habitual sense of the word ; but none of 
 his friends or confidants foresaw, that, under pretence 
 of having received orders directly emanating from the 
 Divinity, he would dare to impose on the Mormons 
 the doctrine and practice of polygamy. 
 
 One night (in 1852) he had a revelation which, in 
 spite of his prestige, which was already great, threw 
 trouble and consternation into the minds of his docile 
 followers. He affirmed that God had inspired him 
 with a determination to return to the patriarchal life 
 and have a plurality of wives. In order to stifle any 
 opposition, he summoned all the delegates who repre- 
 sented the different Utah settlements, that is, about 
 two thousand elders, and produced a pretended 
 revelation which Joe Smith had received a year before 
 his death. Under the title of "Revelation on Celestial 
 Marriages," the historian, George Smith, has published 
 this curious document in his "Answers to Ques- 
 tions," which I have quoted above. The widow and 
 children of poor Joe declare that this document is 
 entirely apocryphal. They took care to draw it up 
 in the style of the Old Testament. Jehovah has not 
 progressed with the times. He still speaks the 
 language of Abraham, but what He says is new. 
 The following is an analysis of the principal parts 
 of this important document : 
 
 " If a man marries a woman without the interven-
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 153 
 
 tion of the Lord's anointed, he and she become angels 
 in paradise, will become the servants of the blessed, 
 and remain celibates in ceternum ; but those who 
 marry according to the law will be gods ! Joe Smith 
 is declared a descendant of Abraham. God gave his 
 commands to Abraham, and Sarah gave him Hagar. 
 Why ? Because it was the law. Hagar was the 
 mother of numerous descendants. Did Abraham sin ? 
 No. Yet Abraham had concubines who engendered 
 children. David, again, had both wives and concu- 
 bines, and he did well, for they were given to him by 
 Nathan and the other prophets, who had the power of 
 bestowing wives on the faithful. David only sinned 
 in marrying the wife of Uriah. Solomon and Moses 
 had also several wives. The woman whose husband 
 has committed adultery may marry another man, 
 provided she herself be virtuous. On this point God 
 reserves to Himself the right of revealing His will 
 to the prophet, Joe, who then will have the power of 
 blessing and authorising the marriage. If Joe remains 
 faithful to the law, God will give him, in this world, 
 houses, fields, women and children, and an eternal 
 crown hereafter. The priest who has espoused a 
 virgin may, if he will, espouse a second if the first 
 will consent ; nay, if he likes to marry ten, in virtue 
 of this law, he may do so without committing adultery. 
 If one of these wives gives herself to another man, she 
 is an adulteress, and ought to be destroyed ; for she 
 and her companions have been given to the priest to 
 multiply the human race." 
 
 With the help of this document Brigham. Young 
 obtained the consent of the Assembly. It adopted the
 
 154 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 principle of polygamy, which was declared to be a 
 duty and a privilege, which privilege could not be 
 exercised, however, without a special command of 
 God. It results from this pretended revelation made 
 to Joe Smith, that God gives or refuses the privilege 
 by the medium of His prophet, now Brigham Young, 
 who, before giving his decision, examines into the 
 merits of the case, or has it examined by his bishops. 
 On the conduct of the young woman or the young 
 man before marriage, and on other questions of the 
 same nature, Brigham, as supreme arbiter, pronounces 
 the sentence, by the special order and in the name of 
 God. And it is God who in each case makes known 
 His will to the prophet. 
 
 To sum up all I have said : by the monopoly the 
 prophet exercises on the food, the goods, and the 
 products of the soil, as well as on the labour of the 
 inhabitants, he acquires the right of meddling in the 
 most intimate family relations. Material prosperity, 
 domestic peace, and the reputation of each member of 
 a family depend solely on his good pleasure. I do not 
 wish to insinuate that Young abuses the enormous 
 powers the law gives him, which law is of his own 
 making. I put aside the question of individuals. 
 The system is monstrous, and without a parallel in 
 the history of the human race. 
 
 The higher a man advances in the 'ranks of the 
 hierarchy, the more his duty compels him to use the 
 privilege of plurality. Brigham Young, at this 
 moment, possesses sixteen wives, without counting 
 sixteen others, who are what is called sealed. Some of 
 these latter live with him in a conjugal fashion, but the
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKH CITY. 155 
 
 greater part are treated as widows or old maids, who, 
 by this means, hope to become, in a future state, what 
 they are not here below the real wives of the Prophet. 
 George Smith, the historian, has five wives ; the other 
 apostles content themselves with four. None have less 
 than three. 
 
 It is an understood thing that no one is allowed to 
 marry more wives than he can maintain ; but, in 
 reality, the wives very often maintain their husbands 
 by their work. This is especially the case with the 
 poor. If a man has two wives, each occupies a 
 separate apartment, and rarely in the same house. 
 Hence the farms are almost always composed of two or 
 three separate buildings. The woman plies her trade, 
 provides for her own wants, and, to attract the husband, 
 employs her savings in giving him a little feast from 
 time to time. The actual wives of the Prophet (not 
 the sealed ones) occupy separate apartments in the 
 Beehive, as his house is called. They are all supposed 
 to gain their own living by some species of labour, 
 they dine at the same table, and are placed under a 
 strictly bureaucratic administration. One of Young's 
 sons-in-law, who is at the same time his secretary, the 
 little hunchback who received me in the Prophet's 
 parlour, is entrusted with the supervision of this 
 department, and acquits himself of his delicate 
 functions with great order and impartiality, save for 
 the exceptional favours which the caprice of his 
 master sometimes impose on him. 
 
 Now, what is the meaning of sealing ? What is a 
 " sealed " woman "? I had neither the time nor the 
 opportunity, nor, I own, the inclination to undertake
 
 156 A RAMBLE ROVXD THE WORLD [CHAP-. 
 
 a course of Mormon theology, or to verify the confused, 
 contradictory, and probably exaggerated information 
 contained in the books and papers which treat on this 
 subject. It appears that a woman may be sealed to 
 her husband for this life and the next. A woman may 
 thus marry a dead man. It is even permitted, although 
 I do not know if it has ever been done, for a woman 
 to be sealed to two living husbands, one for this life, 
 and the other for paradise, but always with the consent 
 and intervention of the prophet or the bishops. In 
 a word, it is a system of ignorance and credulity 
 worked in favour of human lust, under the pretended 
 invocation of God. Let us turn away from so sad an 
 exhibition. 
 
 Children swarm in the Salt-Lake City. You tumble 
 over them in every direction. It is, in fact, one of the 
 characteristic traits of this town and of all the Mormon 
 settlements. They are well fed, decently dressed, and 
 are all sent to school. But the greater portion of 
 those I saw are delicate and even miserable-looking. 
 Domestic authority, like all others, is merged in that 
 of the prophet. The parents hardly know the number 
 and names of their children. The President has 
 forty-eight, without counting those that have died. 
 His last baby is five months old. One day he was 
 walking in the street, and a quarrel between two boys 
 attracted his attention. He intervened by applying 
 his cane rather sharply on one of the blusterers. 
 Having vented his wrath, he turned round to the boy 
 he had caned, and said, " Pray whose son are you ? " 
 and the child answered, blubbering, " I am President
 
 TIL] SALT-LAKE CITY. 157 
 
 Young's boy ! " In truth, it was one of the forty- 
 eight ! 
 
 Look at it which way you will, polygamy bears 
 within it the seeds of destruction : for the family 
 first of all, and for society afterwards. But its first 
 victims are the women themselves. All those I have 
 seen have a sad, timid look. In their homes they 
 have not the place due to a wife. The men avoid 
 speaking of them, and never allow them, if they can 
 help it, to appear before strangers. One would fancy 
 they were ashamed of them, or rather of themselves. 
 The wives of an Ara.b or a Turk have never known the 
 higher sphere which Christianity has conquered for 
 woman. But these poor things have fallen from the 
 place they once held : they feel themselves degraded, 
 and degradation is read on all those melancholy and 
 faded countenances. 
 
 Brigham enjoys more than royal honours, inasmuch 
 as he is worshipped, if not adored as a divinity. A 
 short time before my arrival he had completed his 
 seventieth year. On this occasion he received the ful- 
 some compliments of his Beehive, and of his apostles, 
 bishops, and elders. One of them, while haranguing 
 him, gave him the title of sovereign. "You will 
 live," he said, " to see the day when the kings of the 
 earth will come to seek your counsel." The official 
 journals eagerly published this allocution. 
 
 On Sunday Brigham preaches sometimes in his 
 Tabernacle. I did not hear him ; but according to 
 the unanimous testimonv of his hearers, these sermons 
 
 */ * 
 
 are a mixture of incoherent quotations from the Bible, 
 denunciations of persons or hateful insinuations,
 
 158 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 vulgar personalities, and unctuous or commonplace 
 phrases. His language is coarse, sometimes injurious, 
 and always stamped by the most profound ignorance. 
 He has not a shadow of natural eloquence. For a long 
 time the Prophet has chosen polygamy as the subject 
 of his homilies, so as to answer thus indirectly the 
 attacks of the American press, which, in this, is the 
 faithful echo of public opinion in the United States. 
 
 As he pretends to tolerate every form of religion, 
 he opens the Tabernacle occasionally to preachers of 
 other sects. An Anglican clergyman, on one occasion, 
 availed himself of this permission, and, putting on 
 a surplice, addressed the congregation. After him, 
 Brigham, wrapped in a bed sheet, got into the pulpit 
 amidst shouts of laughter from the audience, and 
 delivered a comic speech, which was a coarse parody 
 of the sermon they had just heard. 1 
 
 In one word, it is absolutism carried to its utmost 
 limits and personified by the head of the religion. 
 On the part of the sectarians, the most blind faith in 
 the person of the Prophet. No divine worship, for 
 the short Sunday sermons and a few occasional hymns 
 sung in the Tabernacle do not deserve that name. 
 In general, speaking of the masses, no religious feeling 
 or sentiment whatever ; or rather, the whole of their 
 religious sentiments are concentrated in a fanatical 
 worship of Brigham Young. Work and faith are pro- 
 claimed the governing principles of the sect : work, 
 manual and forced, and pushed to an extreme ; for 
 
 1 I found this fact mentioned in some book or paper. I forget 
 where. But it was confirmed to me on the spot by credible wit- 
 nesses.
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 159 
 
 besides earning their bread, they have to pay their 
 debts to the President (this excessive labour explains 
 the marvellous and rapid progress of the colony). A 
 monopoly which embraces everything and extends to 
 everything, exercised by the Prophet only. The inter- 
 vention of the latter, either personally or through the 
 medium of his bishops, in the most intimate family 
 relations and in the most private affairs, whether of 
 business or other matters : in all difficult and critical 
 moments, recourse only to one man, the oracle, Brig- 
 ham Young : and to sum up all, polygamy, declared 
 a duty and a privilege, and practised for twenty 
 years such is the essence of Mormonism. 
 
 " Labour and Faith " that is their device those 
 are the two words which are for ever in Brigham 
 Young's mouth, and which, in fact, explain these 
 strange phenomena. But what secret motives caused 
 the birth of this faith in the hearts of those who never 
 possessed anything of the sort at the time they em- 
 braced these new doctrines ? How has this trans- 
 formation been effected ? How does it happen that 
 men, who, when they left their native land, believed 
 in nothing, were hardly arrived in the Valley of the 
 Saints before they began to believe in everything 
 that is, everything which it pleases Brigham Young 
 to make them believe ? The Mormons tell you " It's 
 inspiration." But that is no explanation. That which 
 the gentiles give you is not more satisfactory. I 
 would not, however, let myself be discouraged. I 
 went on questioning, thinking, and watching, and 
 the following are the conclusions to which I at last 
 arrived :
 
 160 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 The beginnings of Mormonism are like those of 
 any other sect. With some people, spiritual needs, 
 the thirst for more supernatural help, the wish to 
 draw nearer to God, which lies at the bottom of every 
 human heart from the highest to the lowest, from 
 time to time wake up in a sudden and unexpected 
 manner. The rarer these revivals are, the more 
 violent they seem, like a mill-dam which has been 
 long closed and suddenly opened. The waters at first 
 rush out furiously ; but when they have had their 
 flow, they resume their usual calm course. This is 
 the history of the famous religious revivals. This is 
 also the origin of the greater part of the sects, espe- 
 cially in America, where everyone is so occupied with 
 material interests that they have few moments to give 
 to meditation or prayer. Moral wants, long neglected, 
 the voice of conscience so long stifled, repentance, 
 even despair, suddenly take possession of souls. They 
 ask for consolations and accept them from the first 
 comer. At such moments men always turn up, ready 
 to put themselves at the head of the movement, to 
 direct, master, and, if possible, work it for their own 
 ends. These are sometimes hypocrites, often fanatics, 
 or a mixture of the two. But the hypocrite needs the 
 light of faith ; the fanatic the light of reason. Bad 
 passions, cupidity, and sensuality mingle in the busi- 
 ness. What wonder then that they merge into the 
 absurd and the monstrous ? In imitation of other sects, 
 it is under these conditions that Mormonism was born. 
 The first founders of the sect, those who influenced 
 Joe Smith (who was looked upon as a rogue by one 
 party and a saint by the other), were certainly in
 
 vn.J SALT-LAKE CITY. 161 
 
 earnest : they were genuine fanatics. They were 
 besides Americans. They formed the moral centre 
 which afterwards received the European emigrants. 
 The great migration towards . the Salt Lake made 
 an epoch in the history of the sect. It consolidated 
 the prestige and authority of the modern Moses. 
 Amidst a thousand dangers, and fearful privations, 
 but under the guidance of this wonderful man, they 
 arrived at last, and found the spot exactly as God in 
 His vision had (it was asserted) revealed it to His 
 elect. Certainly Brigham Young must be a super- 
 natural being. If he be not a god, he is very near 
 being one. And after all, what is God ? The Mor- 
 mons do not trouble their heads with such inquiries ; 
 and besides, their Prophet has told them that man is 
 the equal of God. Certainly no one is so more than 
 Young, ft is evident it is clear everybody thinks, 
 repeats, and believes it. Woe to him who allows him- 
 self to doubt ! 
 
 Thus public opinion formed itself in the Valley of 
 the Saints, and the atmosphere thus breathed was 
 quickly imparted to the new comers. How could it 
 be otherwise \ The European emigrant had no means 
 of defence. He was poor, ignorant, and debased ; and 
 in declaring himself a Mormon, he had already re- 
 nounced the religion in which he was born. It is not 
 in the dogmas of a faith he had denied that he could 
 seek for arguments against the errors of the sect he 
 had just embraced. More than this, he has burnt his 
 ships. Henceforth, he belongs, body and soul, to the 
 President. He does, then, like everyone else. He 
 shuts his eyes and becomes a believer, that is, a 
 
 VOL. T. M
 
 162 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 believer in Brigham Young. The Welshwomen, who 
 form the great majority of the immigrants of their 
 sex, are, they say, peculiarly ignorant and super- 
 stitious. They push their husbands in this direction 
 and keep them up to it. Besides, when once you 
 have fairly embarked in this path, how in the world 
 can you get out of it, seeing that there is no other \ 
 The Prophet has always his eyes open. He watches 
 over the purity of faith of his followers : and his 
 avenging angels, the Danites, are always at hand to 
 punish the apostates. It is impossible to exaggerate the 
 importance or the influence of the set in which you 
 live : and the more exclusive such a set becomes, the 
 more powerful it is. Doctors belonging to lunatic 
 asylums have assured me that if they were to be shut 
 up in their madhouse beyond a certain time they 
 would become mad themselves. Duelling, though 
 perfectly explicable as an ordeal or as a combat 
 between individuals, is, in the modern sense, every- 
 thing that is most absurd. He who refuses a challenge 
 is dishonoured. The man who is insulted is dis- 
 honoured too : but if after the insult he receives a ball 
 or a sword-stroke from the hands of his insulter, then 
 he is considered all right. It is madness ; but except 
 the present generation in England, who have broken 
 through the prejudice and freed themselves from its 
 tyranny, it is looked upon, in the code of honour of 
 other nations, as an article of faith, although it is true, 
 varying according to different ranks and positions in 
 life. In Germany, for instance, it is unknown among 
 the people : the middle classes set little store by it ; 
 but it is ingrained in the nobility, in the army, in the
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 163 
 
 universities that is, in the classes and corporations 
 which are looked upon as privileged. He who is or 
 believes himself to be one of this privileged set, is, 
 by that very fact, separated from the rest of his 
 fellow-citizens. Become one of such or such a coterie 
 where they devote themselves to literature, painting, 
 or music. You will find in one set, for example, the 
 worship of modern music. Dare to express the least 
 doubt on the subject, or the smallest scruple, and you 
 are at once judged, condemned, and executed that is 
 excluded. If you really hold to keeping your place in 
 the temple, you must be converted, you must bow 
 down to the divinity they have chosen, and adore in 
 your turn ; which you do perhaps, at first, with a secret 
 self-reproach at your hypocrisy. But very soon, if 
 you go on burning incense at the same altar, the grace 
 of faith or conviction will come upon you, and the 
 insensible influence of those around you will over- 
 power your previous impressions : you will believe in 
 Wagner, and if you are inclined to be enthusiastic, 
 you will end by declaring you are ready to give your 
 life for the Music of the Future. This is the case with 
 the majority of men. To resist the empire of the 
 atmosphere which you breathe, especially if this atmo- 
 sphere have little or no communication with that 
 without, it needs not only fixed principles, but a true 
 clear judgment, and a certain elevation of character. 
 These qualities are rare everywhere : what wonder, 
 then, that they are found wanting in the poor cate- 
 chumens, who, deluded by the emissaries of the 
 Prophet, annually turn their steps towards the 
 
 M 2
 
 164 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CUAP. 
 
 inaccessible and hitherto hermetically-closed regions 
 of the New Jerusalem ? 
 
 It is thus alone that I can explain to myself this 
 strange phenomenon of the sudden conversion of men 
 without faith or morals, into believers I will not 
 say fervent ones, but simple and blindly devoted to 
 the person and doctrines of the Mormon chief. 
 
 Two years ago, cases of defection were very rare. 
 We have seen by what methods erring sheep were 
 brought back to the fold or disposed of altogether. 
 Since the opening of the railroad, Anglican ministers 
 and Presbyterians, have striven, without running any 
 serious risks, to devote themselves to their apostolic 
 labours in the Salt-Lake City. But it has been so 
 much lost time in the sense that the few men who 
 have declared themselves willing to leave the sect 
 have shown themselves incapable of receiving any 
 religious impressions or any moral sense. From be- 
 lieving Mormons and good workmen, as long as they 
 were kept under the iron rule of Brigham Young, they 
 became, when emancipated, frank atheists and in- 
 corrigible scamps. This fact, which has been proved 
 over and over again, has its meaning. It is a counter- 
 proof of the utter folly of the doctrine of the Saints. 
 In their teaching, the moral elements are entirely 
 wanting. Brute force does everything. Remove the 
 restraint, and you have beings fallen to the very 
 lowest scale of human degradation. 
 
 The influence of the railroad (and in consequence 
 of the discovery of the silver mines, and the influx of 
 miners in the last few months,) has already made itself 
 felt in various ways. In the first place, the Reign of
 
 vn.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 165 
 
 Terror, under which the few gentiles groaned who had 
 the courage or the resignation to settle in the Valley 
 of the Saints, has entirely disappeared. From helots 
 the Christians are become independent. They boast 
 of their strength, and carry their heads high. Very 
 soon they will become a power. The little town of 
 Corinne, founded a few years ago by the gentiles, 
 about sixty miles north-west of the Salt-Lake City, is 
 become a hot-bed of opposition, where the dissentients, 
 headed by the sons of Joe Smith, the personal enemies 
 of Brigham Young, and all those who wish to shake 
 off the yoke of the President, and at the same time 
 to evade by flight their pecuniary obligations, meet 
 together to concoct measures of resistance. Even in 
 the heart of the community the situation is much 
 modified. Emigrants who are not Mormons have 
 arrived, brought in capital, opened stores, and are 
 extending their operations every day. Everything, 
 in fact, is changed. There is no longer a talk of 
 sudden sentences and secret executions. No more 
 bodies of apostate Mormons ; no more avenging 
 angels ! The young girls themselves have taken up 
 an attitude of rebellion. They openly exclaim against 
 the practice of plurality, and swear mutually never to 
 accept polygamist husbands. Even the Beehive has 
 been invaded by a spirit of insubordination. The 
 eldest son has told his father that he does not consider 
 the children by ulterior marriages legitimate. 
 
 Mormonism is evidently on the eve of a crisis. 
 Brigham Young seems to have a presentiment of the 
 fact, and in spite of his great age, they say that he 
 seriously entertains the idea of a second exodus,
 
 166 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 either towards the deserts of Arizona, or towards one 
 of the islands of the South Seas. 
 
 At Washington they are still hesitating to tackle 
 the Mormon question ; but public ^opinion exacts more 
 and more the active and energetic intervention of the 
 Central Government. The material obstacles which 
 formerly existed have now disappeared. Nothing need 
 prevent President Grant's sending a body of troops by 
 the railroad, and putting an end to a state of things 
 which the world declares to be incompatible with 
 existing laws, and with the habits and feelings of the 
 nineteenth century. To this, the White House replies, 
 that Mormonism, deprived of all real vitality, is 
 condemned to a speedy decay : that it will disappear 
 with Brigham Young, who is already an old man- 
 that it would therefore be impolitic to hasten its dis- 
 solution, and that it would be better to let it die a 
 natural death. Such are the present dispositions of 
 the Central Government. But such is not the opinion 
 of the masses ; and everything seems to indicate that, 
 yielding at last to the force of an ever-increasing 
 pressure from without, General Grant will end by 
 bringing Brigham Young to trial, and resorting to 
 military intervention, in case, which is not very pro- 
 bable, the Prophet should appeal to his militia force 
 to maintain his rights. What will be the future then 
 of this great community ? Will it disappear with its 
 chief? I find everyone around me convinced of the 
 fact. And certainly, if events were always carried 
 to a logical conclusion, there would be no doubt 
 about it. Let us suppose then that the fact of their 
 dissolution were accomplished. What would be the
 
 vii.] SALT-LAKE CITY. 167 
 
 moral and social position of the remains of this great 
 body, which would then have lost all its vitality 1 
 It would be a society without faith or law : without 
 faith, because their belief is now centred in one 
 object alone in the person of Brigham Young, who 
 will have ceased to exist without law, for not only 
 it originated with him, but he alone can enforce its 
 observance. This sect then, founded on the moral 
 prestige and material, pitiless power of one man, what 
 will become of it when this man has disappeared ? 
 No one could replace him, even if it were possible to 
 create a second Brigham Young, or a man of the 
 same stamp, which is highly problematical. Mor- 
 monism must expire with its Prophet. No sort of 
 resurrection of the sect in its present form would be 
 possible. The force of circumstances, the establish- 
 ment of the railroad, the discovery of silver mines, the 
 influx of American citizens, the intervention of the 
 Central Government, which must take place sooner or 
 later, to say nothing of the indignation of public 
 opinion all these things would prove insuperable 
 obstacles to its resuscitation. Then the peaceable 
 Valley of the Saints might become the scene of a 
 fearful internecine struggle, and especially between 
 the children of the first wife and those of the second, 
 third, or fourth. Family ties, vitiated in their very 
 essence by the effects of polygamy, will be violently 
 torn asunder : the rights and property of each will 
 be called in question. It will not only be a fearful 
 civil war, but positive anarchy and chaos ! 
 
 I do not affirm that all this will happen : but cer- 
 tainly it would be the natural consequence, the logical
 
 168 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [cu. vii. 
 
 conclusion of the sudden and violent dissolution of 
 the state founded by Brigham Young. That is what 
 they are afraid of at Washington. At any rate, these 
 are the principal considerations brought forward by 
 those who are against the intervention of the Central 
 Government.
 
 CORINNE.FROM THE 7 TO THE 8 JUNE. 
 
 Corinne, the tjpe of a Cosmopolitan Town. A Pow-Wow on the 
 Bear River. Excursion in the Mountains. Copenhagen. 
 Definition of the word rowdy. 
 
 THE three days in the Salt-Lake City passed quickly. 
 Certainly, as far as the comforts of material life are 
 concerned, there is much to be wished for ; but what 
 is more amusing than to turn over the pages of a new 
 book full of original information and fresh thoughts, 
 to try and discover its secret sense, which is not 
 always easy, and to be seconded in the task by 
 educated persons full of sympathy in the work and 
 only too anxious to satisfy your curiosity ? 
 
 The commandant of Fort Douglas, the chief justice, 
 and the judges themselves, were good-natured enough 
 to place themselves at my disposal and to answer the 
 thousand questions I addressed to them. In the 
 evening, seated in the veranda of the hotel, I am 
 sure very soon to see the doctor arrive. He rolls his 
 arm-chair close to mine, stretches out his limbs, seeks 
 for, and at last finds, a comfortable position, according
 
 170 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 to the taste of his country, and then begins to talk 
 taking up the thread of his tale of the morning exactly 
 where he left it off, and telling me one story after 
 the other, now ludicrous, now touching, always full 
 of thrilling interest, and I fondly hope, though I dare 
 not affirm it, with a certain foundation of truth 
 running through the whole. 
 
 Sometimes, in the bright moonlight we walked in 
 the paths which led by the side of the river. But as 
 we were continually squashing great toads at every 
 step, who thought they had as much right to walk 
 there as we had, we were obliged at last to content 
 ourselves with the raised platform of the veranda. 
 Towards nine o'clock the numerous but silent com- 
 pany which gathers there after supper, retires. Only 
 the old Townsend remains. This new species of 
 Stylites, seated as in the morning, up at the end of 
 the terrace, in the same place and the same position, 
 is evidently absorbed in profound meditation. His 
 black shadow, which reminds one of an acrobat hung 
 from his trapezium head downwards, stands out 
 sharply against the curtain of green foliage in the 
 silver light of the full moon. 
 
 The good-natured head of the Ogden Station had 
 promised to come and fetch me, and he kept his word. 
 In his company I left the Mormon capital to take 
 once more the line of the Pacific Kailway. And here 
 we are at Corinne, the sworn enemy of the New 
 Jerusalem. From Rome to Carthage in three hours ! 
 All the Utah territory belongs to the Saints. Corinne 
 alone, this thorn in the flesh of Mormonism, has 
 dared to hold its own, in spite of Brigham Young,
 
 viir.] COEINNE. 171 
 
 and to act as a city of refuge to those apostates from 
 the faith of the Prophet who have been fortunate 
 enough to escape the avenging sword of the Danites. 
 This was a perilous and even a desperate task up to 
 two years ago ; but now it is easy enough, since the 
 railroad has brought them within reach and under the 
 protection of Washington. 
 
 Two notables awaited me at the station. They 
 were Jews from the banks of the Rhine, the one the 
 proprietor of the best hotel in Corinne, the other his 
 assistant. This last unites the functions of butcher, 
 of shopman for the master keeps a store for every 
 kind of article, of head-waiter, and of driver of an 
 omnibus. More than this, he aspires to the fair hand 
 of the master's daughter. All this was duly explained 
 to me whilst I was hoisted up in the char-d-banc, 
 which, driven by the young man in question, runs 
 between the station and the town. We came to a 
 full stop before the " Hotel of the Metropolis," a 
 wretched plank hut, situated in Main Street, the great 
 and only street of Corinne ; at least, the only one 
 which deserves the name. The house was full ; the 
 great hall, which serves as a shop and a store, was 
 crammed with buyers. Alongside, in the kitchen, the 
 mistress of the house, still handsome and young, with 
 the help of her daughter, was busy preparing the 
 supper. The careful toilet of the ladies strikes me : 
 I admire especially the colossal dimensions of their 
 chignons. 
 
 Before the door of the house all the important 
 personages of the place are gathered together, the 
 lawyers, the legal authorities, the larger store-keepers,
 
 172 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP 
 
 &c. The greater part of the gentlemen understand 
 and speak German. They are waiting, like me, for 
 the signal for supper, and in the meantime cross- 
 question me, de omni re scibili, and offer me their 
 services. 
 
 Some Indians of the Soshone tribe have pitched 
 their tents in a camp on the borders of the Bear River 
 not far from the town. To-morrow the chiefs hold a 
 pow-wow. They propose to take me there. On the 
 morrow also, the smart world of Corinne is going to 
 make a party to the mountains and invite me to join 
 them. It is impossible to be in greater luck ; for in 
 this country pow-wow and picnics are rare. 
 
 One gentleman, the editor of one of the two news- 
 papers of the place, presents me with the last evening 
 edition, in which I read several articles of which I 
 have the honour to be the subject. It is a summary 
 of my " Sayings and Doings in the Salt-Lake City," 
 the whole, of course, strongly impregnated with the 
 anti-Mormon spirit of the people of Corinne. I ex- 
 claim against these indiscretions, which I attribute in 
 my own mind to my friend, the doctor ; or rather, I 
 hotly deny the speeches put in my mouth, which are 
 mostly pure invention. But they hasten to reassure 
 me. "At Corinne," exclaims the newspaper- writer 
 with a kind of proud satisfaction, " you have nothing 
 to fear from the avenging angels of the Prophet. You 
 are a public man. You belong to the public. Allow 
 me to satisfy the legitimate curiosity of our readers." 
 
 The gong puts a stop to our tertulia. "Madame" 
 gives us an excellent supper. It is true one is not 
 difficult to please after having come out of the
 
 viii.] CORINNE. 173 
 
 clutches of the venerable Townsend ; and for dessert, 
 some wild strawberries, which taste of the virgin 
 forest from whence they have been culled. The meal 
 does not last ten minutes. Everyone seemed tired 
 to death and only anxious to get to bed. My ami- 
 able host has reserved his best room for me. It is 
 exactly six feet square. A thin boarding separates 
 me from my neighbours ; on one side, a Mexican 
 couple ; on the other, a great China merchant and his 
 suite. The young Mexican sings, and his wife accom- 
 panies him on a guitar. Some notes are certainly 
 rather false ; but let us not be too particular. Only, 
 how to get any sleep \ My other neighbour poisons 
 me with foetid exhalations. " John/' says my land- 
 lord ("John" is the generic name of all the children 
 of the Celestial Empire), "John smells horribly, like 
 all his countrymen. It is an odour sui generis, but 
 for you, it is a good opportunity of preparing yourself 
 for your voyage to China." 
 
 Corinne has only existed for four years. Sprung 
 out of the earth as by enchantment, this town now 
 contains upwards of two thousand inhabitants, and 
 is every day increasing in importance. It is a vic- 
 tualling centre for the advanced posts of the colonists 
 in Idaho and Montana. A coach runs twice a week from 
 hence to Virginia City and Helena, which are situated 
 at 350 and 500 miles towards the north. Notwith- 
 standing the serious dangers and terrible fatigue of 
 these journeys, these coaches or diligences are always 
 full of passengers. Various articles of consumption 
 and dry goods of all sorts are sent in waggons. The
 
 174 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 so-called " high road " is but a rough track in the soil 
 left by the wheels of previous vehicles. 
 
 The streets of Corinne are full of white men armed 
 to the teeth, miserable-looking Indians dressed in the 
 ragged shirts and trousers furnished by the Central 
 Government, and yellow Chinese with a business-like 
 air and hard intelligent faces. No town in the Far 
 West gave me so good an idea as this little place of 
 what is meant by border-life, i.e. the struggle between 
 civilization and savage men and things. Nowhere is 
 the contrast more striking between the marvellous, 
 restless, abrupt energy of the whites, the methodical 
 quiet, business-like habits, of the Chinese, and the 
 incorrigible idleness and indifference of the Redskins. 
 In his exterior manners and dress the American of 
 the frontiers is unbuttoned, coarse, and rough to the 
 last degree; the Chinese, careful, polished, and re- 
 spectable in appearance ; the Indian, the very type of 
 misery and degradation. 
 
 All commercial business is centred in Main Street. 
 The houses on both sides are nothing but boarded 
 huts. I have seen some with only canvas partitions. 
 The smartest are distinguished by a fa$ade of plates 
 of wood much higher than the roof, which gives to 
 these houses the appearance of awkwardly made drop 
 scenes in a theatre. The pavement is made of stages 
 of wood varying in height according to the taste of 
 the proprietor. As, however, they are generally full 
 of holes, I cannot say that they very much assist the 
 circulation. The lanes alongside of the huts, which 
 are generally the resort of Chinese women of bad 
 character, lead into the desert, which begins at the
 
 TIII.] CORINNE. 175 
 
 very doors of the last houses. To the south of the 
 town, I saw some slight attempt at cultivation and 
 some feeble beginnings of gardens. As for the rest, 
 there is not a tree. It is desert and nothing but 
 desert, saving a few oases, some Mormon establish- 
 ments at the foot of the rocks or perched midway. 
 Situated some miles to the north of the Salt Lake 
 and at a less distance from the Bear River and the 
 Wahsatch Mountains, which here are bare and uniform 
 in shape, Corinne is certainly one of the least pretty 
 or attractive places I have ever seen, unless perhaps 
 to those who are come to seek their fortunes. To the 
 west, a small Presbyterian church has been built ; 
 another is building, which I believe is to be Episco- 
 palian. As yet, the Catholics have neither church nor 
 priests. The white population is a mixture of all 
 nations. The Germans are the most numerous ; but 
 there are also a good many Irish. The descendants 
 of the Yankees from Pennsylvania, with the Germans, 
 form the higher class ; but taken altogether, the look 
 of the town is more Cosmopolitan than American. 
 
 Three gentlemen have just come to fetch me in a 
 light open char-d-banc, which has been hired for I 
 don't know how many dollars. We first turn our 
 steps towards the Indian camp. It is pitched on the 
 banks of the Bear River. The large number of 
 tents promises a good gathering ; in fact, several 
 chiefs accompanied by their warriors, with their 
 women and children, have arrived in the last few 
 days, and others are hourly expected. All belong to 
 the once powerful tribe of the Shoshones, now
 
 176 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 degraded and miserable. They are going to discuss 
 their grievances, draw up their complaints, and divide 
 the annual gifts of the President of the United States. 
 At the extremities of the camp the younger men are 
 placed as sentinels, women and little boys are watch- 
 ing their wild ponies (moustangs), who, scattered over 
 the sandy plain, are striving to satisfy their hunger 
 with sage bushes. Although miserably thin, these 
 little horses are of a good breed. Some of them even 
 are very handsome, and all are excessively hardy and 
 can bear any amount of fatigue. They led us to the 
 tent of the principal chief, where fourteen warriors, 
 squatted on their heels in a circle, were debating the 
 questions at issue. The chief alone rose to salute us, 
 the others remained sitting, without betraying the 
 smallest feeling of interest or curiosity. The president 
 of the assembly made me sit by his side, and the dis- 
 cussion, which had been momentarily interrupted was 
 resumed. The orators spoke slowly with deep sonorous 
 voices ; sometimes they became animated, but a look 
 of the chiefs instantly calmed their excitement. A 
 great pipe, the famous calumet so often mentioned in 
 Cooper's novels, never ceased passing from mouth to 
 mouth. At the first turn, it was not without a secret 
 fear that I saw it drawing near to me, but either from 
 delicacy or from understanding my feeling, my right- 
 hand neighbour obligingly passed it over my head to 
 the savage on my left. Shall I own it ? It was this 
 great pipe which impressed me most. It reminded me 
 of the most exciting passages in the American novels, 
 those brilliant portraits of heroes whose ferocity was 
 atoned for by acts of chivalry worthy of the Crusaders,
 
 vin.] CORINNE. 177 
 
 and whose doughty deeds have become legends which 
 still survive in the traditions of the tribes, without, 
 alas ! inspiring their degenerate sons to follow their 
 example. I examined the countenances of these men 
 one by one. Disease, brandy, and misery have de- 
 graded and debased features which in a few of them 
 still bore the stamp of the manly savage virtues of 
 their ancestors. During the debate, especially when 
 the speakers became excited, I could detect here and 
 there movements of dignity and manly pride, mingled, 
 however, with an expression of deep and indefinable 
 melancholy. It was only a momentary flash, like the 
 lightning which suddenly reveals to you the ruins of 
 a virgin forest which a tempest has destroyed. This 
 race is indeed much to be pitied. It is condemned to 
 perish, and must perish by slow degrees. The instru- 
 ments of its destruction are vice and disease. It has 
 the presentiment if not the consciousness of its im- 
 minent ruin : it knows how it has sunk, and, what is 
 worse, it equally well remembers what it has been. 
 
 " . . . Nessun maggior dolore 
 Che ricordarsi del tempo felici 
 Nella miseria ! " 
 
 On leaving the pow-wow, we turned our steps 
 towards the mountains. . Brigham City, nestled at 
 their base, surrounded by cultivated fields and 
 flowering fruit-trees, and one of the most flourishing 
 of the Mormon settlements, is Salt-Lake City in 
 miniature ; the same straight avenues crossing one 
 another at right angles, the same houses peeping out 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [(HAP. 
 
 of the thick foliage ; the same tabernacle and theatre, 
 and one or two other large buildings which by their 
 appearance of prosperity surpass the ordinary Mormon 
 settlements. A Colonel in the army gives us fresh 
 strawberries and milk, after which we resume our 
 drive. Continually ascending a gorge between 
 great blocks of lava, carpeted here and there with 
 tufts of grass, sage-brush and shrubs, we at last 
 arrived in the heart of the Wahsatch mountains. 
 Here this noble chain is much lower. Its peaked and 
 fantastic shapes, which fascinated me so much to the 
 east of the Salt Lake, have now become rounded and 
 tame ; a scanty vegetation covers their sides. Further 
 on, by a canon which, though not picturesque, gives 
 you every facility for rolling into the abyss below, our 
 panting horses finally arrived at a high, circular valley, 
 cultivated more or less by a colony of Danes. 
 
 Copenhagen, their capital, is a group of miserable 
 huts. The inhabitants seemed to me equally miserable. 
 An old man came up to offer my companions an 
 ordinary plate full of half- ripe strawberries from his 
 garden, for which he asked and received two dollars 
 and a half. On my remarking upon the exorbitance of 
 the price, the buyer made me a reply which struck me 
 from its local character. " At Corinne," he said, " far 
 finer strawberries than these would not cost half a 
 dollar. But in this region vegetation is backward, 
 and these are the first of the season ; that is why I 
 bought them. I shall take them home to my wife, 
 and I could scarcely offer her a present which would 
 cost less." 
 
 At last we come to the rendezvous i.e. a group of
 
 viii.] CORINJHE. 179 
 
 maple-trees mixed with a few grey poplars, which 
 gave very little shade. A dozen ladies, in careful and 
 even elegant toilets, about the same number of men, 
 and fifteen or twenty children of all ages, were 
 encamped at the foot of the trees. Each party had 
 brought their own provisions, and formed a distinct 
 band. Yielding to the pressing hospitality on all 
 sides, I pass from one group to the other. After the 
 meal, the men join in a kind of drinking-bout, but 
 one drinks as one eats, in silence. The children alone 
 seem really to amuse themselves, together with an 
 Episcopal curate, a young Oxonian, fresh from Old 
 England, of whom he is the faithful and joyous repre- 
 sentative. He held in his arms a magnificent baby, 
 which he fondled like a mother. It was the very 
 type of an English baby, fat, pink and white, 
 thoroughly jolly, and the very picture of health. I 
 enter into conversation with the young papa, who has 
 good manners and is well educated. How on earth 
 can he live in a circle so different from that in which 
 he has been brought up 1 That is the secret of 
 American atmosphere. 
 
 Copenhagen, like all the Mormon establishments 
 from the most isolated to the most important, has the 
 advantage of a telegraph, with which Brigham Young 
 has endowed every town and village in his dominions. 
 One of the young gentlemen of the picnic, in coming 
 here, had a slight fall from his horse. Whilst some of 
 his friends were laughing at him, another rushed off 
 to the telegraph office, and by the time we returned to 
 Corinne, we found this little misadventure reported in 
 
 N 2
 
 180 A RAMBLE HOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 all the evening papers, with the sensational title of 
 " Narrow Escape," and certain dramatic details which 
 I need not say were purely imaginary. That is what is 
 called " sensational news," and the young man, instead 
 of Ijeing annoyed, was very much flattered. 
 
 During this busy day, I have considerably increased 
 my stock of biographies. There would be enough to write 
 a new series of Plutarch's Lives ! All the adventures 
 of these people, making allowance for exaggerations, 
 cannot be pure invention. Some facts, told soberly 
 and quietly, are evidently true ; their pretended motives, 
 however, may be received with caution. For instance, 
 when a rough fellow, after having quietly told you 
 how he despatched such and such a rival with a 
 revolver in the public-house or at the corner of a street, 
 swears that he only left the neighbourhood because it 
 was too hot, and that the climate disagreed with his 
 health, one may be allowed to doubt his veracity. But 
 the fact of the murder, or, as he calls it, the " acci- 
 dent," is probable enough. 
 
 To have certain manslaughters on your conscience, 
 committed in full day, under the eyes of your fellow- 
 citizens ; to have escaped falling into the hands of 
 justice by craft, audacity, or bribery ; to have earned, 
 in fact, a reputation for being "sharp," that is, 
 to know how to cheat all the world without ever 
 being caught out in the fact that is what constitutes 
 a true "rowdy" in the Far West, The terror of 
 parents, but the admired model of young men, and 
 universally popular among the fair sex, the rowdy is 
 not necessarily a rogue and a villain. Sometimes he
 
 viii.] CORINNE. 181 
 
 is reformed up to a certain point ; and as he possesses 
 in a supreme degree the art of making himself feared, 
 he often becomes the head man of a village, and then 
 he grows old amidst the respect and consideration of 
 a large number of his fellow-countrymen, of whom he 
 has made himself the absolute tyrant. 
 
 This is the career of a good many rowdies ; others 
 less fortunate, or less clever, close their short and 
 stormy careers hanging from a branch of a tree. 
 These are the martyrs, the others the heros of this 
 species of civilization. In another sphere, with the 
 moral sense which in them is wanting, and gifted, as 
 they often are, with really fine qualities courage, 
 energy, and intellectual and physical strength they 
 might have become valuable members of society. 
 Some of them, placed in a different position, would 
 have had their names inscribed, in the annals of the 
 republic, annals which are so rich in great deeds, and 
 so poor in great men. But such as they are, these adven- 
 turers have a reason to be ; a providential mission to 
 fulfil. To struggle with and finally conquer savage 
 nature, certain qualities are needed which have naturally 
 their corresponding defects. Look back, and you will 
 see the cradles of all civilization surrounded with giants 
 of herculean strength, ready to run every risk and to 
 shrink from neither danger nor crime to attain their 
 ends. The gods and heros of ancient Greece had 
 loose ideas enough of morals and propriety ; the 
 founders of Rome, the adelantados of Queen 
 Isabella and Charles V., the Dutch colonisers of the 
 seventeenth century, were not remarkable for con*-
 
 182 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CH. TIII. 
 
 scientious scruples, delicacy of taste, or particular 
 refinement of manners. It is only by the peculiar 
 temper of the times and place, so different from 
 our days, that we can distinguish them from the 
 backwoodsman and rowdy of the American con- 
 tinent.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FROM CORINNE TO SAN FRANCISCO. FROM THE 
 TO THE 10 OF JUNE. 
 
 The Great American Desert. The Silver Palace Cars. Ascent of 
 the Sierra Nevada. Cape Horn. Arrival at San Francisco. 
 
 June 8th. WE left Corinne this evening just 
 before sunset. At the moment we plunged into the 
 most arid part of the great American desert it was 
 night ; but a brilliant moon, as if ironically, gave 
 itself the trouble of lighting up the immense sheet of 
 alkali and sand which covers this cursed land. Here 
 and there are some black spots ; these are scanty tufts 
 of grass ; further on, even this miserable attempt at 
 vegetation disappears. There is not a drop of drink- 
 able water. A special train brings it daily to the 
 different stations along the line. At Promontory, 
 the two halves of the Pacific Railway (the Union and 
 the Central Railroad) have been joined together ; but 
 in consequence of an arrangement made between the 
 companies, Ogden has been chosen as the terminus 
 between the two lines. On the central line (between 
 Ogden and the Pacific) the Pullman cars are not in
 
 184 A E AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 use. They are very imperfectly replaced by the 
 " Silver palace " cars, which, in spite of their pompous 
 name, have no dressing-rooms, are badly ventilated, 
 and in all other respects are sadly inferior to the 
 carriage invented by the great Chicago citizen. 
 
 At Theltou, a large number of passengers left the 
 train to take the coach, which runs regularly from 
 hence to Idaho and to the settlements in the north of 
 Oregon. There are few more dangerous or fatiguing 
 journeys ; and yet these diligences are always crowded 
 with miners and their wives and children. You will 
 say, Auri sacra fames. Yes, it is the thirst for gold 
 which makes men brave these dangers and endure 
 this fatigue ; but there is still another reason ; there 
 is the instinct and the need of migration. This in- 
 stinct seems innate in the American, be he white or 
 red ; and it is caught by all those who set their foot 
 on this continent. The American is essentially nomad. 
 The Indian runs after a buffalo ; the white man after 
 gold or to gain money. One and the other must 
 live, and to live they must migrate ; even the farmer, 
 if he gets a chance of bettering himself, leaves in a 
 moment his farm and his home to begin afresh. Those 
 even who do not themselves travel, pass with the greatest 
 ease from one occupation to another. It is only another 
 kind of locomotion. Everyone is imbued with the spirit 
 of change wishes to push on to "go ahead ;" and to 
 do this they will neither draw back from any obstacle, 
 nor be deterred by any danger. And do not fancy that 
 an American is made of a different stuff from ourselves. 
 He holds to his life as much as we do, and sees no 
 fun in risking it ; but his mission is to go ahead and
 
 ix.] FROM CORINNE TO SAN FRANCISCO. 185 
 
 lie does go ahead ! He is like a doctor, who, faithful 
 to his vocation, goes to his hospital, where cholera 
 and typhus are raging, just as he did before, but who 
 would very much prefer there being no epidemic. 
 
 June 9tk. At the first glimmer of dawn, one sees 
 a change in the aspect of the country. For the last 
 hour or two we are in the Nevada territory. An 
 isolated rock rises two or three thousand feet above 
 the sand. The emigrants give it the name of " The 
 Pilot," because it is at the mouth of the great American 
 desert and points out to the caravans the road to the 
 Humboldt Kiver, where at least they can find drink- 
 able water. 
 
 Soon after, the train slowly ascends a steep bit of 
 ground which forms the margin of the dried-up desert 
 we traversed during the night. We cross the cedar 
 defile and come down into the Humboldt valley. 
 This river takes its source near the cedars and flows 
 gently towards the west. The railroad like the cara- 
 vans, of which we still see the tracks, follows it all 
 along its course that is, upwards of 350 miles. All 
 day we watch its green waters running between double 
 banks of grey willows, covered with a fine alkaline 
 dust, which fills the whole air and penetrates into 
 the noses, eyes, and ears of the unhappy travellers. 
 Everyone begins to sneeze, and some of us complain 
 of violent headache. 
 
 Further on, the country becomes less monotonous. 
 Beyond the rocks which back the river, the eye loses 
 itself in a sea of undulating plains which are com- 
 pletely barren and uncultivated. Certain peaks are
 
 186 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 seen above the horizon (appearing low only because the 
 valley here rises to a height of five or six thousand 
 feet) which are covered with snow during the greater 
 part of the year. Here, again, as in the Rocky 
 Mountains, the analogy with the Roman Campagna 
 is striking. More to the west, the ground becomes 
 again stony, and we are once more stifled with dust. 
 
 The intense heat and foetid atmosphere drive me 
 from the inside of my " palace." According to my 
 wont, I sit down on the steps of the platform and 
 there breathe freely the fresh elastic air of the high 
 level on which we are travelling. The chain of rocks 
 we perceive in the distance is rich in mineral pro- 
 ducts. At Palisade Station, an immense quantity of 
 silver ingots, forming two high walls, are waiting for 
 embarkation on the railway trucks. A huge mass of 
 money, piled up in the sun, in the heart of the desert ! 
 Certainly the prose of daily life and the poetry of the 
 " Thousand and One Nights " run very close to one 
 another in the Far West. Wherever the train stops, 
 there is a crowd of Indians and Chinese. A few white 
 men, going to or coming back from the mines, fill 
 up the strange picture, which repeats itself at every 
 station, as, between the stations, you catch glimpses 
 of the green river, the desert plain, and the snowy 
 peaks of the mountains. A monotonous picture, if 
 you will ! but of a severe and even grand beauty. 
 The greater part of the travellers are of my opinion, 
 though artists are divided on the subject. 
 
 Two or three compartments in our train are filled 
 with regular troops of the United States army. They 
 are bound for San Francisco, and from thence are to
 
 ix.] FROM COEINNE TO SAN FRANCISCO. 187 
 
 march rapidly on Arizona, where the Apaches have 
 taken the war-path. 
 
 For several weeks, a regular massacre of the 
 planters had been the order of the day. These 
 soldiers, admirably equipped and armed, look very 
 well. At one of the stations a young Chinese prisoner 
 had been entrusted to them. In passing close to 
 him, I could not help observing his mortal pallor and 
 the profound despair of his countenance. A few 
 moments later, this poor lad, either hoping to escape, 
 or wishing to commit suicide, threw himself out of 
 the window of the train. The engine was stopped, 
 but nothing was found but a mutilated corpse. What 
 struck me most was the horrible indifference with 
 which this incident was talked of. Some of my 
 fellow-passengers even made fun of it. I could not 
 conceal my indignation. "At any rate he was a 
 man ! " I exclaimed. " No, no," was the reply, " he 
 was a Chinese ! " And another added, " One China- 
 man less, and that's all. There are quite enough of 
 them in the country." Such is philanthropy in 
 California. 
 
 At one of the stations, I sent a telegram to my 
 banker at San Francisco asking him to be kind enough 
 to secure me a lodging there. One or two hours 
 later the answer was remitted to me. With the help 
 of the railway guide my correspondent had calculated 
 where the answer would be most likely to find me, 
 and the head of the telegraph office, during a few 
 minutes' stoppage at one of the stations, had been 
 clever enough to find me out in the midst of a 
 hundred other passengers. Gentlemen of the Euro-
 
 188 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 pean telegraph, would you have been able to do as 
 much ? Or, rather, would you be disposed to follow 
 such an example I 
 
 Towards evening we perceive to the south, not far 
 from the line, an immense lake or rather sea, thirty- 
 five miles long and ten broad. Into this great sheet 
 of water the Humboldt falls ; it is its " sink." We 
 are now in the great basin of the Californian desert. 
 A broad belt of land runs along the eastern slopes 
 of the Sierra Nevada and stretches from Oregon to 
 Arizona. This desert receives and absorbs in its 
 burning sands the mighty rivers and innumerable 
 watercourses from the mountains, which find no outlet, 
 because between the Wahsatch mountains and the 
 high Californian chain, the soil gradually lowers. 1 
 Notwithstanding the darkness, the crisper, keener air, 
 and the gradual slackening of our pace, tell us that 
 we are arrived at the first spurs of the Sierra Nevada. 
 
 June 10th. At one o'clock in the morning our 
 train enters California. The station is called "Verdi," 
 in honour of the great master. One of the passengers, 
 a Hamburg commercial traveller, is indignant; he 
 demands with loud cries that the station shall be 
 called "Wagner." It seems to me in questionable 
 taste to christen new and growing towns, or, as in 
 Europe, streets, with celebrated names which have no 
 connection with the locality. The illustrious person- 
 ages whom a musical engineer, a poetical architect, 
 
 1 In all about 1,100 feet. Ogden is at 4,300 feet, and Mirage 
 Station, where the ascent of the Sierra Nevada begins, 3,199 feet 
 above the level of the sea.
 
 ix.] FROM CORINNE TO SAN FRANCISCO. 189 
 
 or a philosophical municipality have thus desired to 
 honour, often find themselves strangely out of place, 
 and very often become the subjects of raillery or 
 impertinent questions, such as: "How? YOU here?" 
 or the like, which the passengers involuntarily ask 
 them. There is a reaction on this head in the United 
 States, and they are at last beginning to prefer naming 
 their new cities after the old Indian appellations of 
 the sites on which they are built. 
 
 The line, by short and sharp curves and quick 
 ascents, follows the sinuosities of the mountain, 
 plunges deeper and deeper into the forest, and at last 
 arrives at the " Summit " Station, on the very crest 
 of the Sierra, which is the highest point of its course. 1 
 On all sides rise up high granite peaks, the crenelated 
 tops of this great wall ; lower down, the gentle slopes 
 are covered with magnificent trees, and here and there, 
 are rayed with bright lines ; these are artificial torrents 
 formed by the miners, for we are now actually in 
 Eldorado. A second chain of somewhat lower moun- 
 tains prevents our looking down on the great Cali- 
 fornian plains. It is a perfect maze of hills flooded 
 at this moment by hazy blue tints merging into 
 tender green. It is no longer the same atmosphere 
 as that of the interior of the continent. No more 
 transparency, no more extraordinary supernatural 
 light effacing all distances and destroying, as it were, 
 the perfection of the scenery. It is the sky of Anda- 
 lusia, with a blue, vapoury, hazy horizon, mingling 
 
 1 7,007 feet above the level of the sea. The highest point of 
 the Central Railway, Sherman, is 8,242 feet ahove the level of 
 the sea.
 
 190 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 with the purple curtain of the mountains. In spite 
 of the name of the Sierra, there are only here and 
 there patches of snow, forgotten in some crevice 
 of the rocks and surrounded with a garland of flowers 
 of every shade and hue. The train glides swiftly 
 along the abyss or through galleries made of wooden 
 beams tightly joined together destined to protect the 
 line from the snow. These frail constructions, which 
 must be very inadequate to resist a real avalanche, 
 hide the view of the panorama at our feet ; but on 
 the other hand, they save us from seeing the preci- 
 pices into which the slightest accident might hurl 
 us. Thus we have an enjoyment but also an emo- 
 tion the less ! The lower we descend the more the 
 scene changes. One station half-way down the Sierra 
 remains for ever engraved in the mind of the traveller. 
 Nothing can be more graceful and pretty than the 
 appearance of the little town entitled " Dutch-flat." 
 Each house is surrounded with a garden. Vines 
 crawl over the walls of the cottages. Fruit trees 
 white with blossom form the fences. A profusion of 
 flowers scent the air ; while the streams running 
 through the meadows give a delicious freshness to 
 the whole. Unfortunately there are no shepherds or 
 shepherdesses to live in this earthly Paradise. Nothing 
 can well be less pastoral and less in accordance with 
 the idyllic character of the site than the race of 
 rough adventurers who dwell there. 
 
 Between Dutch-flat and Gold-run the soil is all cut 
 in trenches and furrowed with dykes. Everyone 
 knows what is meant by the hydraulic method. From 
 the top of the mountains, great columns of water are
 
 ix.] FROM CORINNE TO SAN FRANCISCO. 191 
 
 brought to bear upon a mineral strata, by which huge 
 blocks of rock, clay, and earth are detached in a few 
 seconds from their native bed, and the auriferous 
 deposit is conducted into what are called flumes, 
 where they pick out the gold. 
 
 A little lower down, the train stopped at the station 
 called Cape Horn. This part of the railroad passes 
 for being the ne plus ultra of engineering art, and 
 at the same time the most perilous, as one finds 
 oneself suspended over an abyss more than 2,000 feet 
 deep. I own, however, that this much-vaunted spot, 
 both for its beauty and its terrors, did not come up 
 to my expectations. In picturesqueness it does not 
 exceed an Alpine pass, and the conformation of the 
 ground diminishes its terrible character the engineers 
 of the Semmering and Brenner Eailways have over- 
 come greater difficulties. But what is alarming is, 
 the construction of the line, and in consequence the 
 forced and fearful speed of the trains ; forced, in this 
 sense, that it depends less on the will of the driver 
 than on the weight of the train ; and that beyond a 
 certain limit, the breaks are quite insufficient. This 
 is a danger which as yet they have not been able 
 to meet; but the engineers and drivers on these 
 Pacific lines fulfil their duties most scrupulously and 
 are, in this respect, very much in advance of their 
 brethren on the other side of the Missouri. Accidents, 
 in consequence, are rare ; though the experts say that 
 this is due less to the construction of the line than to 
 the small number of trains which pass over it and 
 the great precautions taken. But now and then bad 
 accidents do happen. Lately there was a collision
 
 192 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 between two trains, the carnages of one of which 
 were of unequal size, so that the smaller ones were 
 driven into the greater. This terrible collision, which 
 cost many lives, enriched their technical railway 
 vocabulary with a new term. They say : " Such and 
 such a train has been ' telescoped/ ' 
 
 The influx of travellers on the Pacific Railroad will 
 naturally increase with time ; but until now, it is far 
 from coming up to the expectations of the shareholders 
 or of the Washington Government, who, in granting 
 every kind of facility and immense concessions of 
 territory to both companies, was mainly actuated by 
 political considerations. They reckoned by this iron 
 ring to tighten the bond of union between the East 
 and the West, and to strengthen their hands against 
 the Southern Secessionists. Will that object be some 
 day attained ? There are many sceptics on this 
 point; but it is one of those questions which time 
 alone can solve. 
 
 We are rapidly descending. The line winds 
 through wooded banks and rushing streams ; but the 
 devastations caused by the miners spoil the view. 
 Here and there you come upon solitary huts inhabited 
 by Chinese. They look out for ground abandoned by 
 the whites : and thanks to their industry and the 
 extreme sobriety of their race, they manage to live 
 comfortably and even to save on the gleanings of 
 their predecessors. We saw a good many of them 
 at work. Seated with their feet in the water, leaning 
 forward and busily engaged in washing the gold, they 
 do not even turn their heads to see the train pass. 
 
 At last we emerge from the mountains. The great
 
 ix.] FROM CORINNE TO SAN FRANCISCO. 193 
 
 Californian plain, already yellow and parched by the 
 heat of a Mexican summer, spangled here and there 
 with magnificent oak trees, or dotted with villages 
 and little towns surrounded with green, was rolled out 
 before us like a field of cloth of gold. A transparent 
 luminous haze floating in the air, tempered the glare 
 of the day and threw a veil of gauze over the glowing 
 picture. Towards the horizon, in front of us, running 
 from north to south, was a long blueish line. That is 
 the " middle " chain of mountains which traverses the 
 whole length of California. Some hours later, we 
 found ourselves amidst their gorges, which are bare at 
 the top, but covered on the sides by every description 
 of flowering shrub, whose lustrous leaves shone in the 
 sunshine in spite of the thick layer of dust which 
 dimmed their brightness. The river rushed and 
 foamed almost under our carriage-wheels. Then we 
 came to another plain, bounded to the west by another 
 chain of low mountains the "Coast Range." The 
 last sensation of fear reserved for the passenger who 
 has crossed the great American Continent in the way 
 I have described, is while passing over a succession of 
 frail bridges made of trestle-work, thrown over the 
 marshes and the American river close to Sacramento 
 City. 
 
 A little grey cloud is pointed out to us on the 
 horizon. That is San Francisco ; not the town, 
 which is invisible ; but the grey, cold fog which 
 envelopes it during the summer months. We are, 
 then, just at the end of our long journey. The 
 passengers, all of a sudden, 'seem to be in a fever of 
 impatience. At last, towards five o'clock, in the 
 
 VOL. i. o
 
 194 A P. AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 afternoon, the train stops at a little distance from 
 Oakland, close to the bay, and just in front of the 
 town of San Francisco. Here the scene suddenly 
 changes. The sun is darkened, the sky has become 
 black and foggy, thick clouds shroud the tops of the 
 mountains which surround the gulf. Of San Francisco 
 itself one sees nothing save the great ships anchored 
 in the harbour, and the houses of the lower town. 
 It is like a curtain in a play which is just rising and 
 showing only the feet of the actors. The air has 
 suddenly become extremely cold, an icy wind blows 
 from the north-west. From twenty- eight or thirty 
 degrees of Ke'aumur, we have come down to three or 
 four degrees below zero. In less than ten minutes 
 we have passed from the dog- day heat of Mexico to 
 the white frost of the North. One could fancy 
 oneself at Liverpool or Glasgow in a horrid foggy 
 day in the month of November. 
 
 From the railway carriage to the great steamer 
 which is to take us to the other side of the gulf 
 there is but a step. But this step is a positive race. 
 Everyone seizes his bag, his wife, his children, if he 
 has any, and without saying one word of good-bye 
 to the persons who have shared with him the fatigues 
 and perils of a journey from one ocean to the other, 
 he rushes towards the foot-bridge which leads 
 to the steamer. As Oakland is the residence of all 
 the elegant world of San Francisco, the immense 
 boats (real floating palaces), are always full, and 
 sometimes it is most difficult to get a place. The 
 intense cold does not allow of one's remaining on 
 deck. So the huge saloon on the first floor, warmed
 
 ix.] FROM CORINNE TO SAN FRANCISCO. 195 
 
 by great stoves, is positively crammed. The arm- 
 chairs and benches are occupied by ladies covered 
 with furs from head to foot, and mostly dressed with 
 a great deal of taste. The gentlemen wear " ponchos " 
 or hugely thick winter greatcoats. The whole 
 appearance of the company is decidedly cosmo- 
 politan. 
 
 But here am I landed on the opposite bank of the 
 gulf, carried at a quick trot across the sombre deserted 
 streets, set down at last at the " Occidental " Hotel, 
 and most comfortably installed in a pretty little 
 apartment well lit, and above all, well warmed ; for 
 excepting snow, it is winter, real winter, regularly set 
 in for the three months of June, July, and August, at 
 one or two miles only from the great semi-tropical 
 heat of a Mexican summer. 
 
 o 2
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SAW FRANCISCO. FROM TIIE 10 TO THE 13 OF 
 JUNE, AND FROM THE 22* D JUNE TO 1 ST JULY. 
 
 Its Origin. The Pioneers. The Reign of Pikes. The Vigilance 
 Committee. Commerce and Trade. Wells and Fargo. Grow- 
 ing Reaction against the Gold-diggers. Position, Climate, and 
 Appearance of San Francisco. Its Inhabitants. Its Cosmo- 
 politan Character. A German Home. The Chinese Quarter. 
 Cruel Treatment of Chinese Emigrants. Jesuit Colleges. 
 Cliff House. 
 
 AT the time of the discovery of gold the mission of 
 Dolores was nothing but a wreck. The Franciscan 
 
 O 
 
 fathers had founded it during the Spanish occupation, 1 
 but after the separation from Mexico they abandoned 
 it. Near the convent rose a presidio, that is, a little 
 fort built by order of His Catholic Majesty for the 
 protection of the mission. Under the Mexican 
 Government, a certain number of ragged soldiers still 
 mounted guard there. Now and then, a cutter would 
 furrow the solitary waters of the bay, which, like the 
 presidio, bore the name of the founder of the Order. 
 Indian huntsmen and wild beasts haunted the forests 
 
 1 In 1777.
 
 CH. x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 197 
 
 and mountains which encircled the bay, but the 
 neighbouring slopes were cultivated by the natives, 
 whom the monks of St. Francis had christianised, and 
 in a great measure, civilised likewise. In 1849, when 
 " the Californian fever " broke out in Missouri, in 
 New York, at Boston, and in all the great towns of 
 the east, and that gold-diggers were first sent to this 
 distant shore, San Francisco could not boast of more 
 than four houses deserving the name. To-day, this 
 young metropolis, the Queen-City, reckons 130,000 to 
 140,000 inhabitants. Its rapid growth is due to the 
 discovery of gold. But it is to its daily increasing 
 commerce, to the cultivation of the soil, to its agri- 
 culture, which, it is to be hoped, will soon replace 
 the working of the mines, and to its industry, still 
 in its infancy, but capable of unlimited development, 
 that it will owe its lasting and solid prosperity. 
 
 Here everything is young, nature itself is still 
 virgin ; the oldest of the houses is not twenty years 
 old, and the most venerable inhabitant is under fifty. 
 Among the last, the most remarkable patriarchs are 
 the men of " early days," the pioneers, as they 
 proudly call themselves, those who witnessed the 
 birth of this golden capital ; who when they arrived 
 lived either in one of the four solitary huts before 
 named, or slept in the open air, under the protection 
 of the guns of the Mexican Fort. These men have 
 grey hair and whitening beards, for one lives fast in 
 California, and are comparatively respectable. Their 
 ranks have been thinned ; many are dead and died 
 poor ; few have made their fortunes, and still fewer on 
 going back to their own country have been able to
 
 198 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 carry off their savings. Those that I saw did not 
 seem to me prosperous. Yet they gave up their 
 whole lives to the worship of gold, and were the first 
 to extract it from the bowels of the earth, or to brush 
 it out of the sands of the canones. Gold in abundance 
 has passed through their hands ; but somehow it did 
 not stick there. These men remind one of the old 
 lion in the fable, who has lost his teeth. Age and 
 infirmities have tempered the brilliancy of their eyes. 
 They bear the stamp of hardy adventurers ; between 
 brandy and exposure to the weather they have no 
 complexions left. Nevertheless, in spite of thread- 
 bare clothes, scanty meals, and the disgust and 
 deceptions consequent on lives which have missed 
 their mark, they do not turn misanthropes. They 
 have a kind of good-humoured, caustic authority, the 
 result of experience ; and enjoy a sort of dignity 
 which keeps them up, especially in their own eyes. 
 Are they not the first who discovered the riches of 
 the soil ? who laid the foundations and paved the 
 way for the wonders of the future ? These men have 
 an innate consciousness of their own value, which it 
 is hard to dispute. I made some of them tell me the 
 history of San Francisco. It is contemporaneous 
 history, for it only goes back twenty years, but with 
 respect to the changes these twenty years have 
 witnessed they represent centuries. And to think 
 that these men hcive sown the seed, and seen the tree 
 grow and spread and finally developeinto such magni- 
 ficence ! Certainly, it is not altogether their work 
 nothing like it. Still they have a right to lay claim 
 to its origin. It was not till I had listened to these
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 199 
 
 modern Romuluses that I understood the foundation 
 of Rome ; the ardent passions of the men who marked 
 out its boundaries, who laid the first stone, watered 
 by the blood of a brother, in the daily strifes for the 
 soil, which they fought for with each other as much 
 as with the wild beasts. I seemed to be reading over 
 again the details which the pen of Titus Livy has 
 transmitted to us while listening to the stories of 
 the founders of San Francisco, or " Frisco," as they 
 familiarly call this child of their creation. 
 
 The first five or six years of the existence of this 
 new town were years of incessant struggle ; every 
 man's hand was against his brother helium omnium 
 contra omncs. In appearance " Frisco " was like all 
 other new settlements in America ; i.e. one or two 
 streets lined with huts of wood or canvas, two or 
 three larger buildings for stores, four or five inns, or 
 rather public-houses, and besides, gambling tables 
 without end and houses of bad fame. At the mines, 
 killing toil ; in the town, perpetual orgies ; everywhere 
 strife, murders, and assassinations. Blood and absinthe 
 flowed on all sides. It was simply a hell upon earth ; 
 not the hell of Dante, but the hell imagined by the 
 two brothers Breughel one of whom painted scenes 
 of peasant debaucheries, and the other devilries which 
 only a Dutch imagination of the seventeenth century 
 could have invented. It was the acme of gross and 
 yet grotesque vice. 
 
 The first arrivals came from the only Slave state in 
 the west Missouri. The inhabitants of this state, 
 who had mostly immigrated from the south, brought 
 with them the same ideas and tastes. After having
 
 200 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 crossed the American deserts, and become the first 
 possessors of the auriferous soil, the Missouri men 
 found themselves suddenly confronted with their 
 brethren from the east. The Panama route not being 
 yet opened, the new-comera had been compelled to 
 double Cape Horn. Many had been six, eight, even 
 twelve months in a sailing ship. At the diggings 
 these men soon became formidable rivals. The anta- 
 gonism which has always existed between the Yankees 
 and the Southerners added to the heat of competition. 
 In point of morality, one was as good, or rather as bad 
 as the other. But the immigration of the Northerners 
 went on increasing, while that of the Missouri men 
 diminished. After five years of an anarchy which it is 
 almost impossible to describe, but which did not check 
 the material progress of the town, the Northerners 
 found themselves the strongest, and determined to take 
 the lead. Then they established the famous Vigilance 
 Committee. Every man who had committed a murder, 
 or even was suspected of being capable of such an 
 act, was instantly, if a Southerner, brought before the 
 Committee, and hanged on the first tree morto popo- 
 larmente, as Machiavelli would say. It was from the 
 moment of the creation of this tribunal, however 
 partial, arbitrary, and irregular its decisions may have 
 been, that we may date the beginning of a better state 
 of things. The " rowdies " of yesterday, transformed 
 into judges, took it into their heads to enforce order, 
 and everyone, in consequence, found his position 
 more supportable. 
 
 Here begins the second era, 1 The reign of " pikes," 
 1 From 1855 to 18:>G.
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 201 
 
 thanks to these summary executions, was at an end 
 for ever. The members of the Vigilance Committee 
 had the good sense to dissolve themselves, and to give 
 place to regularly constituted tribunals. Lynch-law 
 was, therefore, virtually at an end. But another 
 revolution in men's minds was being accomplished. 
 At first every new-comer had rushed off to the mines. 
 In the imagination of the first emigrants, California 
 was a quarry of pure gold, and their only business 
 was to seize and carry it off. This delusion was soon 
 dispelled, and at last men began to understand that 
 gold was to be found in other places than the diggings. 
 They likewise discovered that other occupations would 
 bring in more than gold-washing, if only they could 
 import the two things most needed in the colony- 
 capital and honesty. Men possessing both soon began 
 to arrive, and establish themselves at San Francisco. 
 After a set of adventurers, came men of business, after 
 anarchy, a tolerable guarantee for the safety of life 
 and property. There was at last order, security, and 
 probity, in the Californian sense of the words, at any 
 rate, if not in ours. Order did not exclude the 
 revolver, and precautions were needed in business 
 transactions which would astonish Wall Street and 
 the City of London. But the progress was, neverthe- 
 less, very remarkable, and as far as I can judge, it is 
 still going on. With a rapidity which can only be 
 compared to the burst of spring flowers in arctic 
 regions, an entirely new class of men came upon the 
 scene. They were mostly composed of new immi- 
 grants, bringing with them both experience and 
 capital ; and some few of the old pioneers, who,
 
 202 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 having made their fortunes at the diggings, wished to 
 return to the pale of civilisation. These were first- 
 rate men of business. They installed themselves 
 quietly in Montgomery Street, put the miners at once 
 into a secondary rank, and embarked in their specula- 
 tions with that sagacity, boldness, and promptitude 
 which ensure success. What above everything dis- 
 tinguished them were, intuition and courage. They 
 seemed to divine their business, they saw profits as in 
 a vision, and pursued their ideal with a vigour which 
 converted it into a reality. These men have become 
 great merchants. Only if you come from Europe, 
 or even from Ne\v York, and wish to do business with 
 them, remember that they are infinitely cleverer and 
 sharper than you, and that they have wider ideas than 
 yours as to what, in their trade, is illicit and what 
 is not. 
 
 These men started a number of companies and 
 private banks, which are carried on with English and 
 American capital, and whose ramifications extend to 
 London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Calcutta, and Bombay. 
 One of the most remarkable of these establishments is 
 the company of "Wells and Fargo." Its enormous 
 operations embrace the whole western side of the 
 great American continent, from the Rocky Mountains 
 to the Pacific, from the confines of British Columbia 
 in the north, to the frontiers of Mexico in the south. 
 Its agents are scattered over all this immense surface. 
 In the most remote corners of the mining districts, 
 and the primaeval forests, wherever there is a white 
 settlement, you are sure to find a neat, clean little 
 house, bearing in colossal letters the inscription of
 
 x.j SAN FRANCISCO. 203 
 
 " Wells, Fargo, and Co." This company act as bankers 
 to the planters, the backwoodsmen, the miners, and to 
 the multitude of little towns which spring up one day 
 to disappear the next, or to become important centres 
 of new districts. The transport of both letters and 
 parcels, forms, however, one of the most important 
 branches of the operations of this great company. 1 
 For this purpose, they buy stamped envelopes of the 
 post office, add their own stamp, and charge a small 
 percentage on each. The small sacrifice this involves 
 is amply compensated to the public by the regularity 
 and safety of their postal service. Until last year, 
 these operations were continually increasing ; but they 
 have been considerably reduced by the opening of the 
 great railroad. The coaches and cars of Fargo and 
 Wells no longer convey travellers to Fort Laramie or 
 Salt-Lake City. The railroad has taken all this work 
 out of their hands ; but they continue to supply all 
 the carriage roads leading to the railroads, and unite 
 the important points of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and 
 the Pacific States from Olympia to Los Angeles and 
 San Diego. One can then form some idea of the im- 
 
 t_> 
 
 portance of this company. Its capital is not derived 
 from the gold-fields. It appears to me a significant 
 
 1 In 1863, this company bought of the Government 2,000,000 
 of envelopes at 3 cents., 15,000 at 6 cents., 30,000 at 10 and 18 
 cents. ; besides 70,000 postage stamps at 3 cents., and 12,500 at 
 6 cents. I borrow these figures, which were verified on the spot, 
 from an interesting book which I have already quoted : " Across the 
 Continent." . New York, 1869 : by Samuel Bowles. This author 
 gives also fragments of a sermon which I will quote extracts 
 from later on.
 
 204 A RAMBLE ROVND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 fact, that almost all the shares of " Fargo and Wells " 
 are in the hands of New York bankers. The amount 
 of English capital embarked in these companies, and 
 in the great banks of San Francisco, becomes larger 
 every day. It is, therefore, not Californian gold which 
 feeds the commercial activity of San Francisco. This 
 gold, on the contrary, finds its way abroad, and 
 especially to England. It would be curious though 
 difficult to verify the proportion between the value 
 of precious metal exported, and the amount imported 
 from abroad. 
 
 Trade is continually on the increase. Wool manu- 
 factures hold the first rank. The numberless flocks 
 of the country supply the raw material. They boast 
 also of the perfection and strength of the machinery 
 manufactured in St. Francisco. The workshops here 
 furnish the miners with all their tools ; the import of 
 such articles has entirely ceased. Formerly they sent 
 skins to the Eastern States to be tanned, and sent back 
 in the shape of boots and shoes : now they make them 
 better here than anywhere else. Their production of 
 silk stuffs also promises well ; but their cotton goods are 
 inferior. To sum up all, we may rest assured that 
 what is already done is nothing but a beginning of 
 what will be done hereafter in this rising city. Natural 
 riches abound, and form elements for a healthy and 
 flourishing trade independent of the gold-fields. 
 Neither capital nor hands are wanting : for the 
 Chinese who swarm here are excellent workmen. In 
 woollen manufactures they are preferred to all others. 
 Generally, they reckon that one white man does the work 
 of two yellow ones : but in some factories the work-
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 205 
 
 men are entirely children of the Celestial Empire. Like 
 the commercial man,- the Californian trader is dis- 
 tinguished by largeness of views, boldness of con- 
 ception, and a natural disposition to venture large 
 means to arrive at great results. One might fancy 
 that the size of everything in nature inspires men 
 with grandiose ideas. This is one of the principal 
 charms of the country, and one of the causes which 
 bring back most of those who have lived here for 
 some time. 
 
 Its real riches, as I said before, do not consist in 
 gold, but in the fertility of the soil. If the 
 statistical information I obtained be correct, only a 
 sixth part of the available land is as yet under 
 cultivation. Its principal products will always be 
 cereals. Already the crops not only supply the 
 wants of the country, but are sufficient to export 
 flour to Japan, China, and Mexico. It is evident 
 that this exportation will increase year by year. It 
 appears to me doubtful, however, if the corn of the 
 Pacific States can ever seriously be put in competition 
 with the cereals of the inexhaustible granaries of 
 Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other central states. Their 
 natural outlet would be the Southern States of 
 America and the extreme East. The agricultural 
 pursuit which answers best here is gardening. The 
 quantity of vegetables and fruit produced from this 
 soil is something fabulous. Vine -dressing is also in- 
 creasing, and I have heard that the wine made in 
 San Francisco is really excellent, though as yet it is 
 little drunk. I do not fancy, however, that the 
 vintage of the country can ever compete with that
 
 206 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 of France One thing to be set against this extra- 
 ordinary produce is the ever-increasing price of land, 
 especially on the borders of the railway which runs 
 through the southern part of California and Oregon, 
 and unites the Bay of San Francisco with Portland. 1 
 Speculation, of course, has something to say to it ; 
 but even without this momentary augmentation, it 
 must be remembered that the value of land always 
 corresponds with the value and amount of production ; 
 and no one can deny the present brilliant results of 
 cultivation ; or think that future hopes of still more 
 surprising returns are altogether chimerical. 
 
 The more commerce, trade, and agriculture prosper 
 in this colony, the stronger is the reaction against 
 gold-digging. This question has often been discussed 
 before me. T have even heard men, who might be 
 looked upon as authorities in such matters, declare 
 that the cost absorbs the profits, and that you bury 
 in the earth as much gold as you get out of it. As 
 a proof, they cite the very small diminution in the 
 value of the precious metals, in spite of the enormous 
 quantities produced by the gold-fields of America 
 and Australia. Rut it appears to me that this fact 
 may be explained by the immense increase, during 
 the last thirty years, of all those European products 
 
 1 I purposely abstain from quoting the figures given me which 
 seem to me exaggerated. I do not wish, either, to weary my 
 readers with statistics, which have no value but when they come 
 from official sources and are scientifically grouped. I have no in- 
 tention of furnishing a complete study on the state of California. 
 I am only trying to gather together, in one clear pictnrr, the 
 varied information I received on the spot.
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 207 
 
 of which gold acts as the representative sign ; and 
 also, though in a less degree, by the constant exporta- 
 tion of money to China. 
 
 Whatever may be the cause, however, the feeling 
 against mining gains ground every day. The griev- 
 ances on this head are endless, and each man will 
 give you a fresh one of his own. To begin with ; 
 the intending gold-diggers arrive alone, without any 
 capital, without any guarantee of character or morality, 
 and generally belong to the least respectable class of 
 emigrants. When once they have set to work at the 
 mines, they naturally fall into the ways and habits 
 of those around them. As the rights of property are 
 badly defined, constant quarrels arise, among the 
 miners themselves in the first place, and then between 
 the miners and the farmers whose land runs nearest the 
 mines. The whole existence of these men is, in fact, 
 a constant protest against the fundamental conditions 
 of civilized life. As to the government, it has neither 
 the means nor the will to bring them within the pale 
 of the law. But this is not all. Experience has 
 proved that except in very rare instances, due mainly 
 to chance, individuals cannot compete with companies. 
 Sooner or later the miners are ruined, give up the 
 diggings, and become the terror of the settlers real 
 banditti and a running sore in Californian society. 
 
 On the other hand, the companies, both large and 
 small and there are upwards of three thousand of 
 them run fearful risks. Enormous gains are fre- 
 quently followed by as tremendous losses. Their 
 transactions are, in fact, nothing but a huge game of 
 chance, of which one of the characteristics is the un-
 
 208 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CIIAP. 
 
 certainty and rapidity of gain and loss. It is, there- 
 fore, a reasonable conclusion that gold-digging in all 
 its branches is a permanent source of demoralization. 
 Looking at it from an agricultural point of view, it 
 is, of course, the utter destruction of a quantity of 
 arable land which would indeed be precious, if, instead 
 of being burrowed into and destroyed, it were simply 
 cultivated. To have the least idea of the extent of 
 the devastation of the soil, you have only to visit the 
 mining districts. Wherever the hydraulic process 
 has been in operation on any large scale, the most 
 fertile land has been converted into a chaos of rock, 
 gravel, and mud. But from the very excess of the 
 evil the remedy will arise. The hour is at hand 
 when agriculture, which is developing itself with 
 giant strides, will be strong enough to dispute the 
 soil, and that victoriously, with the mining interest. 
 It will bring about a revolution which the re- 
 spectable part of the community is already earnestly 
 desiring. " Mining is a curse," are the words in 
 everyone's mouth. It would be difficult to express 
 this conviction more eloquently than was done the 
 other day by a Protestant minister preaching in San 
 Francisco. " Don't let us deceive ourselves," he ex- 
 claimed. " History has proved that society can 
 never organize itself satisfactorily on an auriferous 
 soil. Nature itself is in bad faith. It corrupts, 
 seduces, and cheats a man. It laughs at the sweat 
 of his brow. It transforms his toil into a game of 
 chance, and his word into a lie." 
 
 San Francisco turns its back to the Pacific, which, 
 in spite of its proximity, remains invisible. The
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 209 
 
 distance from the Queen-City to the ocean is never- 
 theless not more than five or six miles. The town 
 looks upon the bay, which, stretching towards the 
 south-east, disappears inland. It is an oblong basin 
 surrounded with hills wooded in some parts, and in 
 others covered with vineyards and gardens. From 
 the streets of the upper town, if only the thick 
 curtain of fog would sometimes rise, the view is as 
 unique as it is beautiful. Sometimes, but rarely, and 
 only in the early morning, the sun bursts through the 
 thick dull clouds which shroud the neighbouring 
 heights. Then, wrapped in your great-coat and shiv- 
 ering with cold, you see, as through a black frame, 
 a little bit of bright blue sky, and the smiling hill- 
 sides of Santa Clara and San Jose. You have at least 
 had the satisfaction of having had a glimpse of 
 summer. The town is built half on an artificial shore, 
 which, with incredible labour and expense, has been 
 rescued from the waters of the gulf, half on the 
 eastern slopes of the " Coast Range " mountains, that 
 great granite dyke, which running from north to south, 
 stops the waves of the Pacific. One single opening 
 has been made in it by nature, it is called the " Golden 
 Gate." Francis Drake was the first to cross its 
 threshold. It gives access to large ships, but at the 
 same time to the icy winds, charged with vapour, 
 blowing violently from the north-west, that is, from the 
 North Pole, during the three summer months, which 
 beat in rain against the rocky chain that binds the 
 coast, but afterwards, rushing through the Golden 
 Gate, ingulf themselves in the bay and accumulate 
 above San Francisco those leaden, heavy, grey clouds, 
 VOL. i. p
 
 210 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 which make winter in the midst of summer winter 
 confined to the suburbs of the town, and surrounded 
 by that tropical heat which, at this season of the year, 
 sets the plains of California almost on fire. This 
 singular contrast never ceases to strike me ; I have 
 been here for three weeks, and I have only once or 
 twice seen a few pale rays of sun, and that only for a 
 few moments. 
 
 The largest half of the town, as I have said, is 
 perched on the flank of the mountain that is, on the 
 steep incline of a granite rock covered with a thick 
 bed of gravel and sand. If the " pioneers " had 
 marked out the plan of the streets in conformity to 
 the lay of the ground, it would have been easy, by 
 taking advantage of its very irregularities, to make 
 good carriage roads and picturesque terraces. But the 
 first founders of this city were either Yankees or 
 Missouri men, who would not hear of anything but 
 straight lines and right angles. Just fancy the curve 
 of a huge wave lashed by the wind and broken into 
 a thousand little cavities. That is the look of the 
 ground. Then, as a man who is used to command 
 the elements and remove mountains, you say : " I 
 choose that these rocks and inequalities should dis- 
 appear, and be converted into plains " and so they 
 are, in your mind's eye ! Then you take a rule and 
 a square, and map out streets and avenues, and 
 " blocks " and squares, exactly after the model of all 
 other American towns. Boston is an exception but 
 Boston was built by the English. If San Francisco 
 were to be rebuilt now, it would be on a totally 
 different plan. The cosmopolitan element which
 
 x.j SAN FRANCISCO. 211 
 
 begins to prevail would have set its seal on the place. 
 But the idea of an American is simply to go ahead 
 not to be deterred by difficulties, but to attack them 
 in front, and take the bull by the horns. Thanks to 
 this bold determination, the result is marvellous, but 
 I cannot call it successful. Everyone allows that 
 nothing can well be worse than the construction of 
 San Francisco. In the streets the circulation is im- 
 peded at every turn : 'and the houses are not only 
 ugly, but positive caricatures. After having laid out 
 some straight streets and built houses on either side, 
 they found that, owing to the shape of the ground, 
 they could not be made accessible for carriages, so 
 they were compelled to lower the level of the streets 
 till they became like deep ditches ; while to get into 
 the houses, flying staircases were added, which seem 
 positively to be hung in mid-air. It reminds one of 
 the excavations and rubbish left sometimes near the 
 approach to one of our great capitals by the making 
 of a new line of railroad. Nothing can be more ugly, 
 untidy, and inconvenient. Very soon it was found 
 out that, from the nature of the soil (being chiefly 
 sand and gravel), the action of the wind on these 
 aerial habitations, perched in this way on the ledge of 
 a precipice, very seriously endangered the foundations. 
 Serious accidents were the result. More than once 
 it has happened that the "breeze" from the north- 
 west, after having undermined the foundations which 
 these excavations in the carriage-road had laid bare, 
 simply threw the houses down into the trench below. 
 The expense of all these repairs was so considerable, 
 that at last this absurd system was given up. To rise 
 
 P 2
 
 212 A RAMBLK ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 to the different levels, as the houses are built on the 
 aides of the mountain, they now make use of steps. 
 But the result is, that if you go in a carriage, you 
 have to make a tremendous round. When you look 
 up from the lower town, the eye is struck, and I 
 would almost add shocked, by the optical effect of 
 these straight lines broken by the- level of the ground. 
 Everywhere else, if you are looking at a long line of 
 avenue, the houses and trees on each side seem to be 
 lowered towards the horizon. Here, owing to the 
 extraordinary way the ground has been dealt with, 
 they ascend. One would think it was a fault in per- 
 spective ! But nature never commits such errors. It 
 is man who by his work makes her appear guilty of 
 an infraction of her laws. 
 
 The houses, with a very few rare exceptions, are all 
 built of wood. Wooden buildings placed on sand ! 
 It does not sound solid. But what is characteristic 
 of this hardy race of occupiers is the coolness with 
 which they answ r er your sinister predictions by 
 " Well, if they fall, we've only got to build them up 
 again." 
 
 Do not fancy, however, that these men are too busy 
 about making money to care for the comforts of life, 
 or that they disdain the fine arts. In the designs of 
 the new buildings occupied by the rich bankers and 
 merchants (which are all of the style which one might 
 call " American Renaissance"), I saw several attempts 
 at real beauty of form and proportion. I do not say 
 that these attempts have been always successful. 
 What I complain of is chiefly the material of which 
 they are built. To take a lot of beams and planks,
 
 x.] SAN FRAXCI8CO. 213 
 
 cover them with plaster, and give them the colour of 
 marble or cut stone, is to commit a sin against good 
 taste which any eye accustomed to study architecture 
 would at once detect. But the interior of these houses 
 is very fine, spacious, and comfortable ; they are 
 handsomely furnished without being overdone. Very 
 few knick-knacks about Californian taste disdains 
 them. But on the other hand, they possess some 
 very fine works of art. You find statues and pictures 
 which came from the best studios in Rome. The 
 Oakland Villas are deservedly admired. All those I 
 saw deserved their reputation. The house of Mr. 
 B., is worthy of a merchant prince. That of General 
 K., my pleasant companion across the Atlantic, is a 
 perfect gem of elegance and good taste. Both house 
 and garden are his own creation, and nature and art 
 have been equally lavish of their treasures. 
 
 But to come back to San Francisco. I like the 
 modest houses of smaller men, which are not without 
 their merit. Hardly ever is a little garden wanting 
 a perfect basket of roses and fuchsias. The gardens 
 of the larger proprietors, though not very extensive, 
 are admirably laid out. The mildness of the climate 
 in winter allows of a constant change of flowers, and 
 their lawns are well watered and carefully mown. 
 
 The great hotels and the public buildings are alike 
 everywhere in America. There are also some really 
 fine churches. The most sumptuous ecclesiastical 
 edifice, however, is undoubtedly the synagogue. I 
 put it first, because from its position on one of the 
 highest points of the city, it attracts the eye before 
 all the Christian churches, and attests likewise the
 
 214 A RAMBLE HOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 local importance of the Jewish element. " St. Mary's," 
 the Catholic cathedral, is a fine and noble Gothic 
 structure. " St. Ignatius' " bears the name and the 
 style of the order it represents. Besides these, there 
 are the Church of St. Francis and the convent chapels. 
 The Protestants have likewise each churches for their 
 particular sect. Nor must we forget the two joss 
 houses, or pagodas of the Chinese worshippers. 
 What seems to me significant is that all these religious 
 edifices date their construction from 1854 to 1856. 
 It was the moment of the establishment of the Vigi- 
 lance Committee. When they began to call the 
 rogues and murderers to account, the peaceable in- 
 habitants began to remember that they were Christians; 
 collections were made, and the re-establishment of 
 order coincided with the laying of the first stones of 
 the churches. The schools likewise date from the 
 same era ; but the architectural decorations of these 
 latter buildings seemed to me exaggerated and out 
 of place, 
 
 Montgomery and Market Streets form the great 
 arteries of the lower town. They intersect the com- 
 mercial and industrial quarters, and are consequently 
 always busy and thronged. The other streets are 
 more or less empty. The greater part of the rich 
 merchants live in the upper town. The uniform 
 colour of everything is dust, which fills the whole air ; 
 the shade varies from yellow ochre to pale brown, and 
 under the shadow of the summer fog-clouds to dark 
 grey. The buildings, the pavements, the macadam of 
 the streets, are of the same dingy uniform tint. A 
 sepia drawing, done on yellow paper, with the
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 215 
 
 shadows in Indian ink, could alone give you an idea 
 of the colouring. The streets are filled with sand 
 and the houses with dust. 
 
 You will say that this is not an attractive picture ! 
 but, strange to say, one has not been a week in San 
 Francisco without getting used to it. Almost all the 
 stranger residents, especially the Germans, have but 
 one dream when they first arrive, namely, to make their 
 fortunes as fast as they can, and then to return home. 
 But when the hour of departure comes, they have 
 somehow changed their minds, or rather their feelings. 
 They end by staying on ; or if they go home for a 
 short time, they generally end by coming back again. 
 This Californian life has evidently a charm which no 
 one can resist. Everything is on a large scale, and 
 everything is easy, at least in the minds of people who 
 think themselves capable of everything, which is here 
 the predominant idea. Everyone has plenty of elbow 
 room. The space is infinite, and that space belongs 
 to you. The future likewise is yours. This conviction, 
 which is thoroughly ingrained in men's minds, favours 
 their bold conceptions, guides them in moments of 
 trouble and uncertainty, cheers them in discouragement, 
 and enables them to bear up against every trial. The 
 moral atmosphere is like the air you breathe, and acts 
 upon body and soul like a glass of champagne. The 
 life you lead is the same. You are in opulence or 
 in misery. If the latter, why then, work ! You are 
 the master of your own destiny, And so they do work, 
 and speedily become rich. In the " early days," and 
 not so very long ago either, it was a common thing to 
 see gentlemen standing at the corners of the streets
 
 216 A RAMBLE KOUXD THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 offering their services as porters. You saw them 
 dressed in one of Poole's best coats, carrying sacks of 
 flour, trunks, pianos, and the like, for a dollar at a 
 time. Now, we are far removed from this exceptional 
 and primitive state of things. Everyone has found 
 his place. Hands are not wanting : only the price of 
 hand labour, which seems fabulous to us, remains the 
 same. But do not imagine that living is as dear as 
 certain travellers wish to make you believe. In the 
 very best hotels you pay three gold dollars a day that 
 is, about 17^ francs. Everything is included in this 
 charge, except wine ; there is no extra charge of any 
 sort. For that, they give you an excellent room, and 
 feed you to repletion. The cooking may not be 
 exactly according to your taste ; but the food of all 
 kinds is of the very best quality. More than this, 
 you have all the luxuries and comforts peculiar to 
 American hotels. If I want a drawing-room, I have 
 a magnificent apartment given me, thoroughly well 
 warmed, and lit (alas !) with six gas-burners, day and 
 night, for five dollars. In London, Paris, or Vienna, 
 it would cost twice as much. Miners, and people who 
 have no pretension to elegance, find excellent board 
 and lodging for half a dollar a day. This will give 
 you, without exaggeration, the average of the prices of 
 the necessaries of life. Another thing which struck me 
 very much was the rapid strides that have been made 
 in every kind of scientific appliance. In the public 
 buildings, in the counting-houses of the merchants, 
 in private houses, in public schools, in workshops, in 
 factories, everywhere, in fact, they have introduced the 
 very last and best resists of physical ancl mechanical
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 217 
 
 science. Ventilation, for instance, which is in its 
 infancy among us, is admirable here. The methods 
 of lighting, and warming, and laying on water, and 
 all other domestic arrangements, leave nothing to be 
 desired. Compare the great Pacific steamers with 
 those of the Atlantic, and you will see that in point 
 of comfort and luxury these last are terribly behind- 
 hand. New York and London are evidently distanced 
 by San Francisco. This fact would be astounding, 
 even where a desert on the one hand and an ocean on 
 the other did not completely isolate a town from the 
 rest of the civilized world. But the explanation lies 
 in this : that here everything has to be created from 
 the very beginning. There is no bad system of the 
 past to be set aside or put up with for a time. The 
 past ! Why, there is none ! That is the secret of 
 Californian life. Add to this, that money is always at 
 hand for everything. That is, one has it or not, as the 
 case may be ; but if at this moment your exchequer 
 is empty, to-morrow it will be full. So it comes 
 to the same thing ; for everyone has credit. They do 
 not, therefore, draw back before any question of ex- 
 pense. On the contrary, they take advantage of every 
 new invention which has sprung out of the speculative 
 heads of the Old World or of the States. 1 They ap- 
 propriate them at once, and introduce them on the 
 largest scale. 
 
 The climate also has its charms. It is a continual 
 spring, especially during the winter, which knows 
 neither ice nor snow. In summer, it is true, cold 
 
 * It is thus that Californians call New England, and, in general, 
 all the pastern States,
 
 218 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 fogs prevail, but that is only in the town. During 
 this season, delicate persons always leave it. To 
 escape the rigours of the months of July and August, 
 they have only to cross the gulf and take refuge at 
 Oaklands. The journey occupies less than an hour. 
 Here they find the most deliciously warm temperature 
 without any great heat, as this favoured spot is 
 situated between the foggy region of the Golden Gate 
 and the burning plains of the interior. 
 
 And here we must not forget to mention the 
 immense abundance of fish, flowers, and fruit at 
 San Francisco. They are within the reach of every- 
 body. The very sight of these treasures of nature 
 piled up in the public market-places, and on all sides, 
 rejoices one's heart. Oranges, too, are sold in immense 
 quantities. They are imported, however, from far ; 
 from the Southern States, or from Los Angeles and 
 San Diego ; but the greater portion are brought by 
 sailing ships, which take twenty or thirty days to 
 come, from Tahiti and the South Sea Islands. At 
 every step you take in the streets you are reminded 
 of the great distance which separates you from the 
 Old World. The extreme east and west meet here. 
 At San Francisco, one begins to understand that the 
 earth is round, and that extremes meet. I am takino- 
 
 o 
 
 a quiet stroll through Montgomery Street. Some 
 servants, German cooks, are returning from market. 
 The Germans are very numerous here. Sometimes one 
 hears nothing but German talked round one. A few 
 steps further on, the inexplicable sounds of the chil- 
 dren of the celestial empire fall upon my car. Two 
 of them, livid with anger, are, I suppose, abusing one
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 219 
 
 another. They don't fight with fists, for that in China 
 is a mark of respect, but with their heads, which they 
 shake furiously. Their comrades, making a ring round 
 them, are laughing heartily. What a hideous lot they 
 are ! At the corner of the street, I come upon a group 
 of Irish men and Irish women, unmistakable from 
 their dialect and peculiar characteristics. The women 
 are all tall, with black mantillas. The Mexicans have 
 not disappeared altogether : they live in a separate 
 quarter of the upper town. They are of mixed 
 blood ; but the Andalusian, that is, the Andalusian 
 type, prevails. The genuine Americans, by which I 
 mean the Yankees, are numerically small. In the 
 beginning, they were more or less the masters. They 
 are still at the head of every movement ; they ori- 
 ginate ideas ; they guide commerce ; but they are no 
 longer masters of the position. Other elements have 
 come in to dispute their ground ; first the mass of 
 stranger emigrants Irish, Germans, and Chinese ; 
 then an ever-increasing proportion of English capi- 
 talists. France is represented by certain respectable 
 commercial houses of the second order. She furnishes 
 besides to San Francisco, as to all other parts of 
 the globe, dressmakers, hairdressers, cooks, and some- 
 times actors. But French people, as a rule, do not 
 like emigration. They prefer making smaller fortunes 
 and stopping at home. The little Austrian colony 
 is composed almost exclusively of Dalmatians. Some 
 amongst them have set up in business and done very 
 well. Others are pedlars, fruitsellers, or whitesmiths. 
 These good Austrian s are a brave and peaceable race, 
 generally respected, never having any rows amongst
 
 220 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 each other, and rarely with men of other nationalities ; 
 and they give little or no trouble to our excellent 
 consul. Ah ! Monsieur Miicke, I am afraid you can't 
 say the same of me ! I know how I have abused 
 your patience, your kindness, and your time. But 
 what pleasant moments do I not owe you ! and what 
 agreeable reminiscences I shall carry away ! 
 
 Germany sends an important contingent to this 
 cosmopolitan population, important by their numbers, 
 but still more by the qualities which in all latitudes 
 distinguish her sons. They are laborious, sober, and 
 economical. They possess two virtues which are 
 wanting to the Anglo-American : they know how to 
 wait, and they content themselves with small profits. 
 They also work for a cheaper rate of remuneration, 
 and live for half the sum. 
 
 From a social point of view, they are superior to 
 their fellow-countrymen in the States. Their children 
 know and speak habitually their parents' native lan- 
 guage, and remain Germans while still becoming 
 Californians. I went one evening to a play acted by 
 a German company. The theatre, which was about 
 the size of the one at Leipsic, was crammed full. In 
 the States, as I mentioned before, the second genera- 
 tion Americanize themselves ; l but here, only walk 
 into a counting-house in Montgomery Street, and 
 you would swear you were in Bremen or Hamburg. 
 Become acquainted with any one of these families, 
 which is easy enough, for the German of San Francisco 
 is most hospitable ; a member will be charmed to take 
 you home with him, provided it be towards the end of 
 
 1 See p. 60,
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 221 
 
 the day, after he has shut up his counting-house. 
 The way is long, for we are going to the upper town ; 
 but there is the tramway, or else one goes on foot, 
 which is a capital constitutional. If it be still light, 
 you go through the Chinese quarter, which, it must be 
 owned, is not very safe after nightfall. By scrambling 
 up an endless succession of steps you reach the upper 
 regions ; and if you are exposed to all the winds of 
 heaven, at any rate you enjoy a glorious view. In 
 this part of the town, the Germans and Mexicans 
 prefer to live. You clamber up the last staircase, 
 which is a perfect ladder (having previously climbed 
 up a steep street like a trench), and then find yourself 
 in the porch of a house, where you can fancy yourself 
 at once in Germany. The mistress of the house, 
 whilst doing the honours, never takes her eye off the 
 two neat, clean, young German girls who are waiting 
 at dinner. The meal is excellent ; we have all the 
 dishes of the " Vaterland " admirably cooked. Whilst 
 one devours a Frankfort sausage, or a Westphalian 
 ham, emptying at the same time a bottle of Liebfrauen- 
 milch, one thinks of one's absent brethren, and a tear 
 glistens in the eye of more than one of the guests. 
 Wherever and whenever he may be, a German is 
 always sentimental. It seems to me that the men 
 take to the ways of the New World more than the 
 women. These remain essentially German ; they are 
 excellent managers, good musicians, and their souls 
 are full of poetic dreams hauslich, poetisch, musika- 
 lisch. They manage the house, care for and educate 
 their children, are not above putting their hands to 
 culinary occupation, and, notwithstanding all these
 
 222 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 employments, they still have moments to give 
 to Goethe and Schiller. In the evening they 
 always make time for a little music a symphony of 
 Beethoven's, played with more feeling, perhaps, than 
 brilliancy, or a lied of Schubert's, sung by one of 
 those round silvery voices which seem to be the special 
 property of German throats. The arrangement of the 
 rooms, the graceful vases of flowers in the drawing- 
 rooms, the choice pictures or engravings on the walls, 
 all bear the stamp of honest and honourable lives ; 
 maintained by labour, it is true, but ennobled and 
 embellished by a serious education and a taste for and 
 cultivation of the fine arts. 
 
 One night, rather late, I was going away from one 
 of these houses, where I had passed a most agreeable 
 evening, and being, as I thought, sure of my way 
 home, I refused the escort of my host. " Turn round 
 the Chinese quarter," was said to me on all sides, and 
 oif I started. But the night was dark ; a damp, pene- 
 trating fog added to the obscurity ; and in San Fran- 
 cisco, from Germany to China is but a step. All of a 
 sudden, I find myself in a narrow, dirty street, 
 evidently inhabited by the yellow race. I hurry my 
 steps, but in the wrong direction, and here I am in the 
 very midst of the Chinese quarter. As far as the 
 thick darkness will allow me to judge, the streets are 
 completely deserted. The lower houses are wrapped 
 in sombre shadow. Here and there red paper lanterns 
 swing from balconies equally painted red, coloured 
 lights glimmer on the wooden pavement, shine through 
 the chinks of the beams, and finally disappear. At 
 every step I stumble against the signboards, long
 
 x.J SAN FRANCISCO. 223 
 
 narrow strips of wood, suspended perpendicularly on 
 iron triangles, and blown about by the wind. The 
 sinister creaking of their hinges is mingled with dull, 
 confused noises of various kinds. Inside the houses, I 
 hear whispering, as the signboards have betrayed the 
 presence of an intruder. I descend as fast as I can. 
 In some places the darkness is complete, and I can 
 only go on by feeling. In others, momentary and 
 vivid lights, coming from God knows where, creep 
 along the wood-work of the gilt shop shutters and 
 light up some grotesque monster, or the cabalistic red 
 and black letters on one of the signboards. Further 
 on, by the pale red glare of a solitary gas-burner, I 
 begin to guess, rather than perceive, the distance I 
 have yet to go in this infernal place. The wind in- 
 creases in violence ; driven by the gusts, the clouds 
 and fog sweep down into the street and hide even the 
 stones. Seen through this misty veil, the monster 
 signs take the form of horrible-looking human beings, 
 ranged in double rows, furiously agitated or driven 
 against each other, and performing I know not what 
 satanic dance. I pass by an open door, a feeble light 
 streams from it ; I hear the sound of voices and dice ; 
 it is a gambling house. A man placed as sentinel is 
 glued to the wall. On perceiving me he rushes in to 
 give the alarm ; he took me for a police inspector. I 
 hurry on as quickly as I dare on the slippery steps. I 
 begin to see at my feet one of the broad cross streets 
 of the lower town. Already my ear is rejoicing at 
 the sound of a carriage or some belated omnibus ; a 
 hundred steps further and I shall be once more in a 
 civilized country ! At this very moment, at the
 
 224 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 corner of a blind alley, I am attacked by a band of 
 women. These harpies hang on to my clothes, seize 
 me with their horrid bony fingers, and nails like birds' 
 claws, and peer at me with faces besmeared with 
 white, red, and yellow paint, and with that peculiar 
 odour of the children of the celestial empire which is 
 certainly not a perfume. Fighting my way as best I 
 can, and digging with my elbows right and left, I at 
 last manage to rid myself of them, and followed by 
 their screams and imprecations luckily, their muti- 
 lated feet prevent their running after me I reach, at 
 last, the exit from this hell, my face streaming with 
 perspiration ; and after half an hour more I arrive 
 safely at the hospitable door of rny hotel. 
 
 The Chinese quarter, neglected and badly looked 
 after by the police, who, however, know well how to 
 keep order in the other parts of the town, is the theatre 
 of all the worst crimes committed in San Francisco ; 
 but the guilty are generally white men, fresh from the 
 mines, who go there to keep their Saturnalia, gamble 
 away their doubloons, "eat" a yellow man, and rob 
 the passers-by without distinction of colour. They 
 are the last survivors of that race of malefactors whom 
 the Vigilance Committee exterminated with so little 
 ceremony. 
 
 This disagreeable nocturnal promenade was fol- 
 lowed by several others, made, however, during the 
 day time, and in company with persons who have 
 relations with the great Chinese merchants. There 
 are between eighteen and a hundred thousand Chinese 
 emigrants in California, of whom fifteen or twenty 
 thousand reside at San Francisco. Some of them
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 225 
 
 have founded large and important commercial houses 
 here, and bear an excellent reputation. People praise 
 their honesty, their intelligence, and the facility with 
 which they at once seize and adopt the ways of 
 American and European commerce. They import 
 silk, tea, and objects of curiosity. One of the most 
 eminent is Fang-Tang. Settled here ever since the 
 first immigration of his fellow-countrymen (in 1852), 
 he has succeeded in amassing a large fortune, and 
 that by honest means. His two wives and the younger 
 children remain at Canton. From time to time, he 
 crosses the Pacific to pay them a visit. The Chinese 
 emigrants very rarely allow their families to accom- 
 pany them ; so that one only sees the least respectable of 
 their fair sex in America. However, since last year, a 
 good many of the residents have sent for their wives. 
 Fang-Tang also is disposed to bring his two better- 
 halves over, "in order," as he told me, " to set a good 
 example." The arrival of a few respectable women 
 will raise the moral tone of the Chinese colony and 
 remove its provisional character. Families will then 
 remain in the country, will increase and multiply, and 
 finally form an integral portion of the population of 
 the Pacific States. This would bring about a revolu- 
 tion rich in consequences, of which we can hardly as 
 yet measure the result. 
 
 Until now, the Chinese have been nothing but birds 
 of passage. Not one of them ever dreamt of settling 
 himself in America for life. They all come from the 
 south of the Celestial Empire, from the provinces of 
 Kwang-tung and Kwang-si ; and are of a superior 
 class to the coolies exported from Macao to Chili and 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 A E AMBLE BOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 Havanna. They are for the most part peasants in 
 easy circumstances. Some of them have a certain 
 amount of education ; others are artisans. A great 
 many bring with them a certain amount of capital ; 
 all, vigorous arms and willing hands, minds ready to 
 embrace every chance of success, and a firm deter- 
 mination to make a little fortune. All of them leave 
 their native land with the hope and intention of 
 returning there. They make provision for their re- 
 mains, in case of death, that they may be transported 
 to the village where they were born. To have their 
 bodies sent home is one of the first conditions of the 
 contracts entered into by them with the government, 
 or the companies, or the individuals who wish to 
 employ them. Also, every steamer and every sailing 
 ship bound for Hong Kong or Canton carries back 
 a large cargo of corpses. These emigrants are divided 
 into companies, of whom the presidents or heads 
 reside at San Francisco ; and these men, according 
 to what Fang-Tang tells me, have great influence over 
 their fellow-countrymen. They receive them on their 
 arrival, provide for their wants, arrange any little dis- 
 putes or quarrels among themselves so as to prevent 
 their being summoned before the American courts, and 
 exercise, with the consent of the contending parties, 
 a certain judicial power, even in criminal cases. They 
 give relief to the sick, facilitate the emigration of the 
 living and the return of the dead ; try, in a word, to 
 soften the somewhat hard lives of their countrymen. 
 Without their constant and paternal intervention, the 
 too well justified animosity of the Chinese against the 
 whites would break out in acts of open violence,
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 227 
 
 and would probably endanger the very existence of 
 the colony. I cannot find terms severe enough with 
 which to reprobate the conduct of the Calif ornians 
 towards the Chinese. These last are virtually put out 
 of the pale of the law. Before the courts, their 
 evidence is refused. Those who work at the mines 
 are taxed to the extent of four dollars a month per 
 head. At the gold diggings, the most bloody scenes 
 periodically recur. The white miners chase away the 
 Chinese, expel them from the claim they have legally 
 acquired, and kill them if they attempt to resist or 
 defend their just rights. Without the least provo- 
 cation on their part, the Chinese are constantly beaten 
 and robbed. But this is not the worst ; no notice is 
 taken of these iniquities. There is not an instance 
 of any verdict of any jury being given in their 
 favour or of any punishment being inflicted on the 
 guilty. Besides, how prove the fact ? No white 
 man will give evidence against one of his own 
 colour, when it is in favour of a Chinaman ; and 
 the Chinese themselves are not allowed as wit- 
 nesses. That rough men, given to excesses of all 
 sorts and stimulated by jealousy and the thirst for 
 gain, should allow themselves to behave in this way 
 towards a weaker race, and think every atrocity 
 permissible, is not to be wondered at. But how is 
 it possible to justify the conduct of members of the 
 legislature, judges, juries, composed of well-educated 
 men, who, perfectly aware of the important services 
 rendered by the Chinese, and which they themselves 
 are the first to profit by, are not ashamed to 
 pander in this way to the bad passions of the 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 multitude ? But, alas ! it is one of the running 
 sores of this great republic, especially since the in- 
 troduction of universal suffrage. Very often justice 
 and morality yield to mob law, and the weakest 
 goes to the wall. Fang-Tang has very often spoken 
 to me of the sad position of his people, but always 
 with a sober reserve worthy of a diplomatist of 
 the old school. "The Americans do not consider 
 us as men," he said to me one day. "This is not 
 right, not good. They would like to exterminate 
 us, like rats or any other vermin that is very bad. 
 But," he hastened to add, " there are some 
 Americans who think and speak differently, only 
 they do not dare act as they feel." 
 
 The origin of this extraordinary hatred is a ques- 
 tion of dollars and cents. The white miner receives, 
 besides his food, three, three and a half, or four 
 dollars a day. The Chinaman is not fed, and is 
 content with seventy-five cents, or one dollar, or at 
 most a dollar and a half. It is the same with every 
 other branch of industry. In the towns, the Chinese 
 act as domestic servants, and are excellent cooks and 
 washermen ; in the country they excel as gardeners. 
 The beautiful terraces which are now being made, and 
 the earth- works in different parts of the Sierra 
 Nevada, are all the result of Chinese labour. The 
 fact is they are the best workmen possible. Without 
 their concurrence, the Pacific line of railway would 
 never have been completed in so short a time. On 
 board the steamers of all the great companies, the 
 sailors (bad ones, I must own) and all the waiters and 
 stewards for the passenger service are Chinese. In
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 229 
 
 the factories likewise, they replace the white men 
 more and more. Everywhere, in fact, their competition 
 makes itself felt. The masters, and all those who are 
 in want of hands, very naturally employ them ; for 
 they are even better workmen than the whites, and 
 work for half (or less than half) the wages. And as 
 they are very numerous, and as the immigration 
 goes on increasing, their competition weighs in the 
 labour-market and begins to lower the price of the 
 white workman. This is their only crime. They are 
 forced to expiate it by being the victims of acts of 
 brutality, which arrive even at murder ; of legal 
 enactments, which are the shame and disgrace of 
 American legislators; and of decisions of juries, which 
 are as contrary to justice as to common sense. And 
 yet they hold on nothing seems to discourage them. 
 Each of the great steamers which plies monthly be- 
 tween San Francisco and Hong Kong, brings between 
 eight and twelve hundred Chinese passengers. A far 
 smaller number return home in the same ships. 
 These are emigrants who have served their time. 
 They carry away in their trunks the fruit of their* 
 long and patient toil ; in their minds, a sovereign 
 contempt for our civilization ; l and in their hearts the 
 bitterest hatred of the Christian. 
 
 The Irish, who are more numerous than either 
 Germans or Chinese, are valuable from their physical 
 strength and the multiplicity of occupations to which 
 they can turn their hands. The lowest trade is not 
 
 1 I know that this assertion will be contested by many Euro- 
 pean residents in China. But on this subject I think they are the 
 victims of illusion.
 
 230 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 despised by the vigorous sons of Erin ; but you 
 meet them in every sphere of life. The Occidental 
 Hotel presents a very fair picture of their social 
 position in California. The proprietors, men who are 
 respected and looked up to by every one for their 
 high character and the large fortunes they owe to 
 their industry, the clerks, and every one employed 
 about the place as waiters or servants, are one and 
 all Irish. They fill every grade in this vast establish- 
 ment, and fill it well. 
 
 The Anglo-American population belong, in a great 
 measure, to the Episcopal Church. This fact, which 
 is difficult to explain, deserves to be mentioned 
 from the contrast which California presents in this 
 respect to the rest of the States, where Presbyterians, 
 Methodists, and Unitarians form the majority of those 
 who are not Catholics. The Germans are mostly 
 Protestant rationalists. There are also many Jews 
 among them ; but few Catholics. 
 
 The Catholic population numbers upwards of fifty 
 thousand. All the Irish and Mexicans, and a large 
 number of the Anglo-Americans, belong to this com- 
 munion. If these statistics be correct, they form the 
 third of the San Francisco population. The priests are 
 almost all European, either Irish or the sons of Irishmen, 
 and Italians. The clergy is mainly recruited from 
 Europe, and in a small proportion from Canada. 
 America, absorbed by the pursuit of this world's goods, 
 has few vocations. It is the same with the nuns. The 
 mother superior of the great monastery of Notre Dame 
 de Namur at San Jose, told me that, to fill up the 
 vacancies caused by death or sickness in the ranks of
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 231 
 
 her saintly daughters, she is obliged to have recourse 
 to the houses of their order in Belgium, or else to go 
 herself and fetch fresh novices from France, Germany, 
 or England. 
 
 The Jesuits have two large colleges St. Ignatius 
 in San Francisco itself, and Sta. Clara in the town of 
 that name, which is situated forty miles to the south 
 of the capital. At St. Ignatius they board and lodge 
 a hundred boys, and have five hundred and fifty in 
 their day-school. At Sta. Clara the number of boarders 
 is much larger. In both houses the fathers are Italians. 
 The studies embrace the usual university classes. 
 Latin and Greek are not neglected ; but the greatest 
 attention is given to the study of the exact sciences, 
 especially mathematics, chemistry, and mechanics. 
 The pupils have much more liberty and take the ini- 
 tiative more than is allowed in similar establishments 
 in Europe. These are the only concessions made to the 
 American spirit. In all other respects they have 
 preserved the doctrines, practices, and habits of 
 European colleges. One fancies oneself once more 
 in Europe, in fact, when one has crossed the threshold 
 of one of these great and flourishing seminaries. 
 And curiously enough, it is mainly to this circum- 
 stance that they owe their great and increasing 
 popularity. A rich American merchant, a Protestant, 
 said to me: "I have placed my sons there, in the 
 first place, because the course of studies is better than 
 in any other college ; and, in the second, because the 
 young men there learn to obey and have good and 
 gentlemanly manners. When they leave it, you would 
 fancy they had come back from a voyage to Europe ! "
 
 232 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 This opinion is confirmed by universal testimony, 1 
 and by the fact that the Jesuit college in California, 
 and that of George Town, near Washington, reckon 
 among their scholars a large number of Protestants, 
 and even Jews. The prejudice so widely spread in 
 Europe against the members of the Society of Jesus is 
 utterly unknown in America. 
 
 If the Irish form here the principal Catholic ele- 
 ment, and if the Germans, representing the Reformed 
 or Protestant rationalist doctrines, are the natural-born 
 enemies of the Celts, the antagonism between the two 
 races, proverbial throughout the States, is here mitigated 
 by the intense mutual hatred of the Chinese. But 
 Irish, Germans, and Chinese seem destined to grow in 
 Californian soil, to spread and multiply, and perhaps 
 eventually to contest the actual superiority of the 
 Anglo-American race. San Francisco, consequently, 
 bears the stamp of a thoroughly cosmopolitan city. 
 The houses, streets, and public buildings may still 
 remind you of America, but the greater portion of the 
 inhabitants are born in far-distant lands. They have 
 brought with them other ideas and other customs. 
 Germans, Celts, and Mongols in presence of each 
 other ! Surely, since the great emigration of the fifth 
 century, no such contrasts were ever seen in this 
 world ! What kind of people will come out of the 
 contact of races so different in origin, religion, and 
 civilization ? How far will they amalgamate ? What 
 
 1 "Modern convents and colleges holding up the Cross. . . . 
 now offering perhaps the best education of the coast to the children 
 of our Puritan emigrants." " Across th* Continent," hy Samuel 
 Bowles, p. 277.
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 233 
 
 will be the influence, real though as yet unexplained, 
 of this rich and virgin soil on those who reclaim it 
 and bring it under cultivation ? What moral and 
 religious atmosphere will be formed around these 
 future generations ? These, and such as these, are 
 the secrets of Providence. I shall not attempt to 
 strive to divine them. 
 
 At New York, on the very first day of his arrival, 
 a stranger is taken to the Central Park ; at Wash- 
 ington, to the Capitol ; at Chicago, to the Granaries ; 
 at San Francisco, to Cliff House. These are the 
 respective great " lions " of these famous cities. For 
 my part, I give the palm to Cliff House. It is 
 impossible to see anything more strange or more 
 attractive. Saving a little cafe, of which the 
 terrace serves as an observatory, nature itself has 
 undertaken the details of the picture. The hand of 
 man has had little or nothing to do with it. M. 
 Miicke took me there in his gig, drawn by a " trotter " 
 such as America alone can produce. He tears along 
 the macadamized road in a straight line past the 
 waving heights of the Coast Chain. We have left 
 behind us the last houses in the town now the 
 cemeteries transformed into gardens. Further on, the 
 country bears the aspect of a succession of downs 
 deprived of all vegetation. Not a tree was in sight ; 
 a low curtain of black clouds hung over the sandy 
 shore and prevented our seeing the ocean. But we 
 heard its roar. The noble animal, which made the six 
 miles in I don't know how many minutes, stopped at 
 the door of a house. We went in, and passing through
 
 231 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 the building, came out into a veranda and found 
 ourselves face to face with the infinite. 
 
 The sea breaks against the natural terrace which 
 supports the house ; to the right, towards the north, 
 stretch the rugged mountains of the Coast. Range ; 
 to the left, is the shore before us, the great Pacific. 
 At a short distance three great rocks rise out of 
 the sea. The middle one is covered with sea-birds, 
 black and immovable like the stones on which they 
 are perched, and of which they seem to form part. 
 On the two other rocks are grouped some colossal 
 monsters. One is asleep the others appear to be at 
 play. Some of them are frightened and barking 
 furiously. These are the celebrated seals. They 
 abound on the innumerable reefs of the Californian 
 coast ; but the privileged inhabitants of these three 
 rocky islands enjoy the special protection of the State. 
 A law has iDeen passed to leave them undisturbed. 
 Swimming round and about the rocks are heaps of 
 these beasts, apparently sporting, pushing one another 
 and scrambling up the rock or falling down heavily 
 into the water. When wet, their coats are a dark 
 grey ; but when dried in the air, they have the tawny, 
 light brown shade of a lion. It is altogether a 
 strange, wild, fantastic scene ! Above the coast 
 is a line of fixed clouds ; towards the ocean an ever- 
 shifting curtain of fog hides the line of the 
 horizon. But your imagination pierces through this 
 veil. You contemplate in thought the vast Pacific, 
 which alone divides you from the extreme East 
 and rolls its waves from one pole to the other. To 
 complete the magic effect of this panorama another
 
 x.] SAN FRANCISCO. 235 
 
 sea monster, a huge whale, suddenly appears on 
 the scene, although he keeps himself at a prudent 
 distance. At this moment my meditations are cut 
 short. I hear a great noise, and turning round, 
 perceive a quantity of beautifully-dressed ladies and 
 smart men, all armed with telescopes, who, coming 
 out of the " kiosk/' rush towards the balustrade 
 to see the new-comer. Through the open doors 
 I distinguish tables loaded with good things and all 
 the paraphernalia of greediness. My dreams are 
 dispelled. I find myself in presence of all the 
 littlenesses of civilization and no longer alone face 
 to face with the savage grandeur of nature.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 YOSEMITE. FROM THE 13 TO THE 22 OF JUNE. 
 
 Way of Travelling. Modesto. Mariposa. The Virgin Forest. 
 The Big Trees. The Valley of Yosemite. The Falls Coul- 
 terville. 
 
 AN excursion to the Big Trees of Mariposa and the 
 Yosemite Valley is not an easy thing. Nevertheless 
 it has become the fashion with the inhabitants of 
 " Frisco." Any man who pretends to be " somebody " 
 either has made this expedition, or announces to his 
 friends that he is about to do so. I have not met 
 many people who have visited these inaccessible 
 regions : but every one tells me he is going next 
 year. As to roads, there are only tracks ; but the 
 railroad which is in process of construction, and 
 which is to unite the mining districts with the main 
 lines, will soon make them superfluous. In the mean- 
 time there is a public conveyance, always full of 
 miners, which comes and goes regularly. 
 
 For the comfort of tourists, everything has to be 
 created. One gets on as one, can. Two rival com- 
 panies have been formed to encourage the country
 
 CH. xi.] YOSEMITE. 237 
 
 propensities of the plutocrats of Montgomery Street, 
 and the roving instincts of the foreigners whom the 
 Yokohama steamers and the Pacific Eailroad bring 
 to San Francisco. Their agents go from house to 
 house, and from hotel to hotel, to expatiate on the 
 charms of this expedition, to promise you every com- 
 fort and facility, and finally to take down your name. 
 When a sufficient number of excursionists have been 
 secured, say twenty or thirty, you pay your fare : 
 relays of horses are sent on to certain ranchos ; and 
 on a certain day you start. The distance, going and 
 returning, is 440 miles. The price of the tickets, 
 partly by rail, partly in a carriage, and partly on 
 horseback, is 80 gold dollars, or 480 francs. Of all 
 ways of travelling I think it is the least agreeable. 
 One gives up one's liberty and passes ten days in the 
 most intimate relations with perfect strangers. But 
 here you have no choice. It is the only way of 
 reaching that part of the Sierra Nevada, or to travel 
 at all with any kind of comfort or safety. 
 
 June 13. We left San Francisco at four o'clock in 
 the afternoon. After shivering all day, we found 
 spring at Oakland and summer at the next stage. 
 At Lathrop we left the main line of the Central 
 Railway, and went by a side one called Visalia, be- 
 cause it is to end at this town, which is situated in 
 the south of California, between Los Angeles and San 
 Diego. Visalia will some clay be the flourishing 
 capital of the county of Tulare, which will become, 
 they say, the richest granary in the south. At this 
 moment it is a great uncultivated tract of waste land, 
 covered with forests and marshes. But here people
 
 238 A RAMBLE HOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 always talk in the future. At this moment the new 
 railway, which crosses the valley of St. Joachim in 
 all its length, stops at Modesto, twenty miles from 
 Lathrop. The hotel at this little town, and the com- 
 pany one meets there, amused me by its local colour- 
 ing. It is purely Mexican : you might be at a thousand 
 miles from San Francisco. Men in sombreros arid 
 Andalusian gaiters are talking and smoking on the 
 steps. Miners in blouses are indulging in potations at 
 the bar. Everyone is armed to the teeth. The agent 
 who directs our little caravan has the greatest diffi- 
 culty in finding places for us at the table d'hdte. 
 Then everyone seeks his little den for the night. But 
 the thin boards neither keep out the noise nor the 
 smell of tobacco and absinthe which infects the air. 
 Soon, however, the house is converted into one great 
 dormitory. To the noisy voices of the first part of 
 the evening succeed the heavy breathing and deep 
 snoring of the energetic civilizers of the West. The 
 distance from San Francisco to Modesto is 101 miles. 
 
 June 14. We are called before daylight to start in 
 two char-d-bancs named diligences ; at five o'clock we 
 are off. Our road leads straight towards the moun- 
 tains. The ground a vast plain covered with wild 
 flowers and wheat scorched and browned by the sun 
 looks like an immense dust-coloured carpet, and gives 
 to our carriages a motion like a ship at anchor in a 
 roughish sea. The fat old gentleman in front of me 
 becomes violently sea-sick. The other passengers 
 turn pale. The heat and the dust add to our dis- 
 comfort. I do not see a trace of a road. Our four
 
 XL] YOSEMITE. 239 
 
 horses drag us across the fields, and woe to us when 
 they take it into their heads to trot ! What an idea 
 of a party of pleasure ! Nevertheless there is some 
 fun in it. There are three or four grave and silent 
 Yankees, with their wives ; but there is a large family 
 party from Omaha, who form the noisy element ; 
 a young lady, the very type of the " fast girl " of the 
 period, with a lot of young men, her brother and 
 his friends, all "swells" of the Far West. There is also 
 a father and mother, but they are only accessories. I 
 cannot take as much part in their lively conversation 
 as they seem to wish, being absorbed in the care of 
 my unhappy vis-d-vis, always prostrate with sea-sick- 
 ness. At Hormitas, where we stop and dine, the 
 young lady obtains the first place in the dining-room. 
 I watch her as she installs herself comfortably in her 
 chair while her parents are in vain seeking for places 
 elsewhere. On leaving the town, one sees, through a 
 golden, glittering mist, the bluish outlines of the 
 Sierra Nevada. Very soon after, the road for here 
 there really is one winds through a little valley, on 
 each side of which rise the out-works of the great 
 mountains. Beautiful groups of oak-trees relieve the 
 eye, weary of the dust and glare. Everywhere we 
 come upon the devastation consequent on the 
 hydraulic process used by the miners. Further on, 
 we enter a thick wood. At six o'clock in the evening, 
 we arrive at Mariposa. This is one of the principal 
 head-quarters of the mining districts. Hard by is the 
 famous Fremont Concession. Here gigantic fortunes 
 have been made and lost. To-day, however, the tide 
 is low, and the look of the people is the same. Our
 
 240 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 carriage stops at a little inn kept by Germans. As a 
 fellow-countryman, the innkeeper and his better half 
 receive me with open arms. In the dining-room, a 
 group of miners and men of sinister looks seated 
 round a table are fighting for their supper with the 
 flies. The air is stifling and impregnated with horrible 
 smells. Fortunately, at seven o'clock they make us 
 continue our journey ; but this time in little carriages 
 adapted to the mountain routes. I take advantage of 
 the fact to change my companion, and luckily I fall 
 on my legs. An old gentleman with European man- 
 ners, who, at our different halting-places has often 
 watched me with a kind of compassion, takes me 
 under his protection. He is a great proprietor of 
 factories at Pittsburg in Pennsylvania. He has 
 often been in Europe. " In an evil hour," he 
 says, " he had the unhappy fancy to try the New 
 Pacific Railway : and, still greater folly ! to go and 
 see the Big Trees of Mariposa." His companions 
 are a general of the Virginian militia (a Southerner 
 and a good-looking, gentlemanly man), his son, and 
 another young man. Admitted into this pleasant 
 circle, and no longer obliged to watch over my fat 
 New Hampshire friend, or to parry the shafts of my 
 fast young lady from Omaha, I breathed more 
 freely, and was at liberty to enjoy the fresh evening 
 and the beautiful scenery at my ease. The road passes 
 through a narrow gorge covered with magnificent 
 fir-trees, and then plunges into the forest. From 
 time to time the great yellow Californian plain peeps 
 out through a clearing or between the branches of 
 the trees, whose tops are now brilliantly coloured
 
 xi.] YOSEMITE. 241 
 
 by the setting sun. But very soon the fast- 
 gathering night adds to the darkness of the forest 
 At last, at nine o'clock, some feeble rays of liglr 
 and the furious barking of a lot of big dogs tell 
 us that we have arrived at . our destination. 
 
 We are in the heart of a virgin forest at the 
 rancho of Messrs. White & Hatches, planters in. 
 easy circumstances, who are good-natured enough 
 to receive the tourists. The house has the look of 
 a cottage ; all the rooms open on the veranda. A 
 soft lamp lit up the little drawing-room, which was 
 prettily and tastefully furnished. The supper was 
 quite excellent. It is fair to add, that we were too 
 hungry to be particular. What delighted me most 
 of all, however, was the lady of the house. It 
 was impossible to be more amiable or more ladylike. 
 She had the kindness to give me up her own bed- 
 room, which was a perfect model of cleanliness and 
 elegance. The bed was hung with snowy-white 
 curtains. The furniture consisted of a bureau and 
 an arm-chair ; on a console table was a guitar and 
 some music and an open volume of Tennyson. 
 The walls of this dainty little chamber were com- 
 posed of rough planks : above the door, a Venetian 
 blind, for want of shutters and glass, (for glass is 
 a precious article in these parts,) which remains open 
 day and night ; the whole a germ of civilization 
 with a rough outside husk. From Modesto to the 
 rancho of Messrs. White & Hatches they reckon 
 eighty -four miles. 
 
 June 15. The song of the birds, whose concert 
 seems to come down straight from heaven, and the 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 A RAMBLE BOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 freshness of the early dawn penetrating through the 
 Venetian blind, woke us early. At half-past six we 
 were in the carriage. The road rises rapidly, and 
 the passengers get out and walk along the little 
 paths which have been water-courses in the rainy 
 season. The forest gets more and more dense. 
 Hardly a ray of daylight can pierce through this 
 Gothic dome supported by thousands of tall, red, 
 slender columns, which, running to a prodigious 
 height, hide their capitals under a mass of foliage. 
 The thicket swarms with animal life. The eye loses 
 itself in the black depths of the gorges. Here and 
 there, flickering lights throw an uncertain gleam on 
 the flowering shrubs, on the purple, pink and white 
 azalea blossoms, on the white graceful bells of the 
 mahogany flower and on the shining leaves of the 
 arbutus, with its velvety cups of flowers. A few 
 steps further on, the twilight yields again to the 
 night. But all of a sudden, by an invisible open- 
 ing, the sun sheds its dazzling light over the whole 
 scene. Then the forest bursts upon you in all its 
 beauty under a very shower of golden dust 
 What are these trees which, by their size, impose 
 upon the eye and charm it by their endless variety ? 
 I recognise our European oaks, our maples, our 
 larches, and many others belonging to our hemi- 
 sphere : but the varieties of firs peculiar to California 
 predominate. As to the mountains, we are in the 
 midst of them, but we cannot see them. Arrived 
 at a ridge, 1 an accidental dip in the ground enables 
 us to cast a last look on the plain, which by an 
 1 Five thousand three hundred feet above the sea.
 
 xi.J YOSEMITE. 243 
 
 optical illusion, seems to rise on the horizon like a 
 straw mat hung against a wall. A blue line marks 
 the middle chain of hills, and another, towards 
 the north-west, the Coast Range. The air is full 
 of a kind of transparent haze, by which, both earth 
 and sky are mingled into one. Towards the east, 
 at our feet, and on the side of the Sierra Nevada, 
 of which we have climbed the first spurs, are masses 
 of tree tops : above us, red trunks crowned with 
 thick verdure. There is no trace of rocks except 
 some low and rare blocks of black granite. Here, 
 as in the north, where it is crossed by the rail- 
 road, the Sierra Nevada, with its rounded summits, 
 resembles the Jura more than the Alps. 
 
 At ten o'clock we descend into a little, flat, circular 
 valley, carpeted with velvety green. The trees have 
 been cleared, saving here and there, where a magnifi- 
 cent fir has been left. Mr. Clark's rancho is the last 
 civilized spot in these regions. Here also ends the 
 carriage road, so-called. - Nothing was more striking 
 than the little house of our host compared with the 
 giants of the forest which shaded it. From this 
 planter's farm to the Big Trees is only a couple of 
 miles. But we have to wait for the arrival of the 
 people whom this morning we were lucky enough to 
 leave behind ; the " big fellow," as the guide irreve- 
 rently calls him, with his party ; and the Omaha 
 set, the young lady with her adorers, brother, and 
 parents. At last all the party are assembled, and 
 we start, well mounted on some little Indian horses 
 (moustangs), harnessed and saddled in Mexican 
 fashion. 
 
 n 2
 
 244 A RAMBLE BOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 The Big Trees of Mariposa 1 well deserve their 
 world -spread reputation. A law lately passed, and 
 voted unanimously by the legislature, shelters them 
 both from speculation and from the devastation 
 of the mining companies. Unfortunately, however, 
 it cannot protect them from the incendiary fires of 
 the Indians. But none of these trees can be cut 
 down. There are more than four hundred, which, 
 thanks to their diameter of more than 30 feet, their 
 circumference of upwards of 90 feet, and their height 
 of more than 300 feet, are honoured with the appel- 
 lation of the Big Trees. Some of them have lost 
 their crown and been in part destroyed by fire, that 
 scourge of Californian forests. Others, overthrown 
 by tempests, are lying prostrate on the soil, and are 
 already covered with those parasitic creeping plants 
 which are ever ready to crop up round these giant 
 corpses. One of these huge hollow trunks makes a 
 natural tunnel We rode through it in all its length 
 on horseback without lowering our heads. Another, 
 still standing and green, enables a horseman to enter 
 it, turn round, and go out of it by the same opening. 
 These two trees form the great attraction of the 
 tourists. Like the Kussian pilgrims in Palestine who 
 have bathed in the Jordan, the tourists, after having 
 passed on horseback through the tunnelly trunk of one 
 of these trees and the interior of the other, strong in 
 the consciousness of having done their duty, think of 
 nothing but instant departure. The greater part of 
 
 1 Discovered in 1855. They have been so often described of 
 late years that I should be afraid of wearying my readers by re- 
 peating what has been so often said before.
 
 XL] YOSEMITE. 245 
 
 these trees are marked by the inscriptions of different 
 celebrated persons. One of them bears the name of 
 Ferdinand de Lesseps. 
 
 Situated at 8,000 feet above the level of the 
 sea, the ground on which it has pleased nature to 
 create these giants is a deep hollow of the mountains 
 covered with a thick virgin forest. Each generation 
 presses upon the heels of the other, from the little 
 shoot which has hardly sprung into life, up to the 
 venerable patriarchs to whom popular opinion attri- 
 butes thousands of years. Death and infirmities spare 
 no created thing. In the same way, here, side by side 
 with vigorous life, are marks of decay and destruction. 
 In some of these trees life has evidently died out 
 gradually and naturally. But there are also younger 
 saplings which have perished from unknown causes ; 
 others which thunder, the fire of the Red Skins, or the 
 tornado, has destroyed before their time. But the 
 living form the great majority. 
 
 The Big Trees, with their smooth, dead-red 
 trunks and short, horizontal branches, are of a coni- 
 ferous race, well known in Europe. One sees speci- 
 mens in all our botanical gardens and in most of the 
 " pinetums " of private persons. The first discoverer, 
 an Englishman, gave them the name, which has stuck 
 to them in Europe, of " Wellingtonia." This name, 
 which was offensive to the Americans, was changed 
 by them into "Sequoia Gigantea" after an Indian 
 chief of Pennsylvania, who distinguished himself 
 by his kindness to the whites and by his civilized 
 habits. These " Sequoias " would have a far grander 
 effect to the eye if they were isolated, instead of
 
 246 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD, [CHAP. 
 
 being crowded with other trees, many of which 
 have attained to almost the same size. Without the 
 help of a guide, it would be difficult, if not im- 
 possible, to distinguish them from one another. The 
 great indefinable charm of this spot lies in the poetic 
 beauty of the site and the extraordinary fecundity of 
 nature. 
 
 But after poetry comes prose. Mr. Clark's little 
 house is full to overflowing. A party of excursionists, 
 who have made the journey in the contrary sense, 
 are just arrived from the Yosemite Valley, and must 
 share with us the few tiny rooms. The little parlour 
 and the steps of the veranda swarm with people. 
 No one cares to lie on the grass, which, in the forest, 
 is very unlike the lawn of civilized regions. To walk 
 in it, you must have boots ad hoc, not reckoning the 
 serpents, which are not boa-constrictors certainly, but 
 which one prefers to avoid if possible. The ladies 
 sit on the benches, the men on the floor, or leaning 
 against the beams. The " fast " young lady has 
 already taken possession of the new arrivals. By 
 glances and signs, by seductive attitudes and noisy 
 laughter, or, if necessary, by smart repartees or sar- 
 castic speeches, she knows not only how to allure, 
 but how to keep her admirers round her. It is a 
 perfect study of village coquetry and a nice specimen 
 of the gallantry of the Far West. " You are shocked," 
 says my Pittsburg friend to me ; " but don't be 
 alarmed. That young lady is perfectly aware of 
 what she is about ; and her father, who makes believe 
 to beasleep, has probably already chosen his victim, 
 and is only waiting for the moment when he shall
 
 xi.] YOXEMITE. 247 
 
 pounce down on the young man he has selected and 
 demand his intentions." 
 
 The distance from White & Hatches' rancho to that 
 of Clark is twenty-four miles ; to the Big Trees and 
 back twelve miles. 
 
 June 16. On horseback by seven o'clock in the 
 morning. A special guide, whom we have been lucky 
 enough to secure, enables us to leave the rest of the 
 caravan behind. From San Francisco our route had 
 been always in a south-easterly direction. Now we 
 turn towards the north. The road, a narrow, steep and 
 mossy path without stones, leads up by a precipitous 
 incline to the high ridge which separates us from the 
 Yosemite Valley. All round us the forest, as thick 
 and vigorous as the one we passed yesterday, spreads 
 far and wide its resinous perfume. Here and there 
 columns of smoke mount straight up to heaven. 
 Beautiful trees, half burnt by incendiary fires which 
 a heavy rain alone could quench, lean groaning 
 against immense trunks lying amidst the underwood 
 already partly calcined by the flames. Everywhere 
 there is the same diversity of age and size. In these 
 virgin forests you are born, grow, live, decay and die 
 in one huge family party. At eleven o'clock we have 
 arrived at 7,000 feet above the level of the sea. In 
 this solitary spot is a poor little hut or chalet in- 
 habitated by a planter and his family. It is called 
 "Half- Way-House," because it is half-way between 
 Clark's rancho and the entrance to the celebrated 
 valley. The heat is quite overpowering. 
 
 After a short halt, followed by a three hours' march,
 
 248 A RAMBLE BOUND THE WOULD. [CHAP. 
 
 always in the forest, and inclining constantly towards 
 the north, we arrive at the edge of a precipice. 2,000 
 feet above us, out of the depths of the mountains, 
 a silvery white thread winds its way downwards. 
 This river, or rather torrent, is La Merced. That 
 dark gorge beyond, deep, jagged, and precipitous, 
 filled with big oaks and firs, which are not far behind 
 the Big Trees of Mariposa, is the Yosemite Valley, the 
 object of our journey. The culminating point from 
 which we look down on this strange, wild scene, as 
 from an observatory, is called the Peak of Inspir- 
 ation. 
 
 In front of us, on the opposite side of the Yosemite, 
 one single immense block of square granite, with a 
 flattened summit and perpendicular flanks, rises out 
 of the valley beneath. The Mexicans gave it the 
 name of El Capitan. Further on, towards the north- 
 east, on both sides of the abyss, rise smooth vertical 
 walls of rock, diversified here and there by peaks and 
 domes, with narrow aerial terraces, out of which 
 spring giant firs. The horizon is bounded by a 
 complete wall of granite, higher than the mountains 
 which surround the valley ; and of which the top 
 appears perfectly straight. This is the highest ridge 
 of the Sierra Nevada. We make our way down by 
 a narrow, stony, steep, but not dizzy path. It skirts 
 the Peak of Inspiration, and winds through the forest. 
 From time to time, through the trees, we see the 
 boiling waters of the cascades, the noise of which fol- 
 lows us all the way. One of these, called the " Bridal 
 Fall," falls in one single column of water the height 
 of 900 feet. We took two hours to arrive on the
 
 xi.] YOSKMITE. 249 
 
 banks of the La Merced, and one hour more to gain 
 our halting-place. From Clark's rancho to Yosemite 
 there are twenty-four miles. 
 
 June 17. The Californian legislature has had the 
 happy inspiration to buy this wonderful Yosemite 
 Valley and so to exclude the miners. To preserve 
 untouched the beauties of this spot, they have given 
 up the treasures which are buried in its soil. 
 
 Three emigrants have been authorized to settle in 
 the valley. To the cultivation of their fields they add 
 the few dollars which the tourists (who, as yet, are 
 not numerous) leave in their hands. Thanks to these 
 men, one finds in this out-of-the-way spot both 
 shelter and wholesome though plain food. During 
 the hottest hours of the day one remains sitting in 
 the veranda, unless one prefers the shade of the 
 forest, which adjoins the houses. A few rustic arm- 
 chairs are placed for the convenience of travellers. 
 Just before you, the Yosemite dashes down from 
 the top of a rock 2,600 feet high. This cele- 
 brated water-fall is one of the largest, I think, in the 
 world, and is the glory of the valley. It is divided 
 into three cascades, of which the highest is 1,600 
 feet. The compression of the atmosphere caused by 
 the water-fall, and the action of the current of air due 
 to the vertical configuration of the rock, slacken the 
 fall of the foaming liquid and give it the appearance 
 of innumerable rockets from a parachute. In calm 
 weather, a noise as of thunder tempered by distance 
 mingles with the rustling of the trees. At the foot of 
 the rock the rounded blocks of granite form a kind 
 of circus. It is upon them that this mass of water
 
 250 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 dashes itself into atoms, which in their rebound fill 
 the gorge with a luminous gauzy steam. Seated in 
 the veranda, it looks like a white cloud hung just 
 above the tops of the trees. 
 
 A tourist who has come from a long distance to 
 enjoy the solitude of a virgin forest is soon weary of 
 the commonplace conversation of a set of strangers, and 
 still more of the noisy jokes of uneducated youth. Ever 
 since the morning our whole caravan has been here. 
 Divided into parties, mounted on little moustangs and 
 guided by their owners, my travelling companions have 
 started off to see what they call the lions of Yosemite 
 the different water-falls, the Mirror Lake, and the 
 rocks of the Cathedral. For myself I intend to see 
 only what interests me, and to see it alone, without 
 even a guide. The proprietor of the house pleases me 
 by his patriarchal manner Except on the subject of 
 dollars, I feel great confidence in him ; so I ask his 
 advice. " The valley," he says, " is full of serpents, 
 bears, and Indians ; but the Indians are friendly, and 
 the serpents and bears wont do you any harm unless 
 you attack them. Avoid the thick tufts of grass and 
 moss, so as not to walk on the reptiles, and go in 
 peace." 
 
 A rough bridge is thrown over the Merced. 
 The green and transparent waters of this torrent, full 
 of trout, remind me of the GrftndtraUn: the Captain 
 of the Bachenstein : the high ridge of the Sierra 
 Nevada, of the Todtengebirge seen from Aussee. It 
 is just like the Styrian Valley, only seen through a 
 magnifying glass. Aussee, it is true, has no water- 
 falls, and Yosemite no lake ; yet the resemblance is
 
 xi.] TOSEMITK 251 
 
 striking. It is the same crystal water, the same 
 contrast between the smiling vegetation of the valley 
 and the severe nakedness of the rocks which surmount 
 it. Only, here, everything is colossal. In the Swiss 
 Alps there is far less resemblance. There, above the 
 sharp rocks which inclose the torrents, smiling terraces 
 and green pastures are seen, although they may be 
 afterwards in their turn surmounted by glaciers. 
 Here there are no intermediate stages there are 
 neither green pastures nor icy peaks. The huge rocks 
 rise all in one piece from the depths of the gorge 
 up to the sky, which they cut in an almost straight 
 line. Any peaks or inequalities in their outline are 
 rare, and as they do not attain to the height of the 
 great wall on the ridge, they are not so striking. 
 The scene, therefore, is less varied. The classic 
 simplicity of their shapes contrasts with their enor- 
 mous size. The people say that in order to appre- 
 ciate the grandeur of the nave and cupola of St. 
 Peter's at Rome, you must see them many times. 
 Here the traveller feels just the same. Nature, as 
 a first-rate architect and gardener, has chosen to put 
 such harmony in the proportions of this landscape, 
 that it is only by calculating heights and distances that 
 the eye can take in the marvel. But having done so, 
 one is filled with astonishment, admiration and respect 
 for the powerful Hand which, in modelling these rocks, 
 has stamped upon them the impress of His own 
 grandeur. 
 
 I crossed a smooth greensward, and found myself 
 in a thicket, where I already felt the fine rain which 
 the evening breeze brought from the neighbouring
 
 252 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD, [CHAP. 
 
 cataract. Some half-naked Indians were watering 
 their moustangs in the river. Another group sur- 
 rounded a man who was distinguished by a more 
 careful toilet. He wore a pair of trousers and a 
 police cap : only he had forgotten his shirt. This 
 was " Captain John," the chief of one of the most 
 miserable tribes in America. He was holding a pistol 
 in his hand and aiming at a huge bird, which was 
 sitting quietly at a little distance off on the branch 
 of a fir-tree. The captain fired and missed. He 
 was evidently put out. His subordinates looked at 
 one another and laughed in their sleeves. Human 
 nature is the same all over the world. 
 
 The approach to the Yosemite Falls is not an easy 
 one. It was only by jumping from block to block, 
 by scrambling on the slippery moss, and by crawling 
 painfully through the fissures of the bare rock that 
 I found myself at last, soaked through with spray, 
 on the edge of an abyss hollowed out by the action 
 of the water and hidden from view through a thick 
 cloud of foam. There was nothing new, perhaps, in 
 the sight. But the profound solitude and the savage 
 grandeur of the scenery give to this spot a character 
 peculiarly its own. From where I was standing one 
 only saw the lowest fall and the upper part of the 
 highest: the middle one was hidden by its rocky basin. 
 To get up there would be impossible. No one but 
 a chamois could attempt it. 
 
 The soft shadows which for the last hour had 
 shrouded the valley, began to creep along the crenel- 
 lated wall which bounds the horizon before I could 
 tear myself away from the contemplation of a
 
 XL] YOSEMITE. 253 
 
 spectacle so monotonous and yet so varied at the 
 same time. Bright zig-zag lines of water, sparkling 
 on a sheet of dark green, would stop, as if hesitating, 
 in the air, and then dash down the abyss, to be 
 instantly replaced by other columns, following the 
 same impulse, obeying the same laws, meeting with 
 the same obstacles, and sharing the same fate like 
 a silver ribbon of fine tissue on which the same 
 design is ever produced and yet each of these 
 separate streams had its individuality. I watched 
 millions of them tearing along down the steep rock 
 no two were absolutely alike. 
 
 My descent from the waterfall was accomplished 
 without accident. Followed by the dull roar of the 
 cataract I again came to the thicket. But it was 
 now pitch dark. How shall I ever find my way ? 
 There are plenty of paths ; but they all lead to a 
 river clear as crystal too wide to jump across too 
 deep to be forded. No signs of any other way out. 
 The night wears on and I make up my mind to sleep 
 out of doors. But what is that sinister whistling 1 
 Is it a serpent ? I listen breathlessly. There is a 
 strange rustling among the leaves. Some heavy object 
 is drawing near me through the overhanging branches. 
 Great God ! Can it be a bear ? My only weapon 
 is a parasol. At this moment, bursts of laughter and 
 a ringing voice which is familiar to me break upon 
 the silence. I follow the direction of the sounds, and 
 making my way through the bushes, fall into the 
 path, leave the thicket, and find myself face to face 
 with the fast young lady and her joyous escort. 
 
 June 18. The Sunday rest makes itself felt even
 
 254 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 in the heart of the Sierra Nevada. There is 110 
 church certainly ; but the master of the house, the 
 mulatto he has engaged as waiter, the farm servants, 
 and some Indian " helps " have all put on their 
 Sunday clothes, and are lounging on the arm-chairs 
 of the veranda. The guests manage as best they 
 can, sitting on the ground or stretched on the hard 
 beds of their cells. ID spite of the heat 24 
 Reaumur, and not a breath of air I follow the 
 course of La Merced. The valley gradually narrows. 
 A fresh gorge, which is like a succession of little 
 terraces, opens out to the south-east. It is by these 
 steps that from cascade to cascade a powerful torrent 
 falls into the valley. One of these falls, known uuder 
 the name of the Nerval Fall, is the object of my 
 walk four hours going and returning. The character 
 of the country is always the same : great blocks of 
 shining granite, reddened in parts by the moss, and 
 shaded everywhere by gigantic trees. The grass is 
 carpeted with flowers : but these minor details are 
 lost in the magnificent and grand scenery around. 
 The eye travels beyond them, or rather cannot be 
 seduced by minor beauties. Involuntarily it rises 
 to the tapering domes of the forest and, looking 
 beyond and above them, stops half terrified before 
 the grandiose aspect of those mountain Titans, who 
 seem with one bound to reach up to heaven. There 
 is little or no variety in the elements of the scenery, 
 which are continually repeating themselves without 
 ever becoming monotonous. The beauty lies in the 
 simplicity of the outlines and in their supernatural 
 grandeur. As to colours, the artist would only need
 
 xi.] YOSEMITK 255 
 
 three or four for his palette. Blue, for the California!! 
 sky, that is, a tint of deep blue powdered with gold ; 
 light grey for the rocks, with coldish tones bordering 
 on yellow. Sometimes shades of light blue flickering 
 over the shining cliffs in vertical lines. These are 
 the reflections of the sky on the polished surface of 
 the granite. The vegetation of an intense green, and 
 of every imaginable shade. There is neither the clear 
 transparency of the higher levels of America, nor the 
 vaporous tints which make the beauty of our Southern 
 skies beyond the seas. One would fancy that the 
 Master who created this wonderful picture had for- 
 gotten or disdained to put in the last touches. 
 
 June 19. In the night a heavy storm cooled the 
 air, which is very rare at this time of year. This 
 morning, however, it is again very hot. Gusts of 
 wind from time to time come tearing down the valley, 
 driving before them the clouds of spray, and bowing 
 the heads of the giants of the forest. The roaring of 
 the wind mingles with the sighing of the oak and 
 maple trees and. the whistling of the pines and cedars. 
 The clouds chase one another across the sky with 
 marvellous rapidity. Sometimes tliere is a lull like that 
 in the pulse of a fever patient. The great Yosemite 
 cataract is really sublime. The wind has filled the 
 vertical trench it has hollowed out of the rock, and so 
 dislodged this column of water 1,600 feet high, which, 
 flying from the storm, spreads itself into space like 
 the gauze dress of a ballet-dancer. At five o'clock in 
 the evening, the storm has sufficiently abated to enable 
 us to take a ride. It was delicious to feel the soft 
 showers on one's face from the branches of the trees,
 
 256 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 and to breathe the resinous air of the forest. Nature, 
 regenerated by the rain after a long drought, seemed 
 to have just come out of her bath ; everything was 
 joyous and fresh. Our little moustangs canter gaily 
 across the prairies which skirt the right bank of La 
 Merced. Then we turn into a narrow path which 
 winds round the edge of the abyss, and requires 
 steady heads and sure-footed steeds. The Virginian 
 general and I, who are both used to such roads, get 
 on without any difficulty, but the rest of the party 
 and the guide (the latter not without certain male- 
 dictions on the "old fellow" who retarded our 
 march) remained behind to help our Pittsburg friend 
 over the most perilous places. 
 
 Nothing could be more beautiful or picturesque 
 than La Merced, at our feet, surmounted by the 
 Peak of Inspiration. Two distinct roads lead into 
 the Yosemite Valley : one, to the south, by which 
 we first came, and which at this moment we can 
 follow with the eye from the edge of the great pre- 
 cipice down to the spot where it enters the forest ; 
 the other, in which we now find ourselves, escalades 
 the valley towards the north The ascent took two 
 hours. A little hut in the heart of the forest served 
 as a resting-place. This spot is called Cr can's Flat, 
 after the hardy colonist who has made it his home. 
 The elevation is 6,500 feet above the sea. The cold 
 was intense. Night was coming on, and the largest 
 portion of our party had not yet made their appearance. 
 Has some accidct happened \ We begin to get 
 anxious. The storm bursts forth afresh amidst tor- 
 rents of rain, At last, about midnight, our luck-
 
 XL] YOSEMITE. 257 
 
 less excursionists turn up, the ladies more dead 
 than alive, exhausted with fatigue, soaked to the 
 skin, and cursing the weather, the place, and the 
 whole human race. 
 
 June 20.' Although we are only going to make 
 a very short day's journey, the signal of departure 
 is given at four o'clock in the morning. "Why?" 
 I ask our guide. "Because Mr. Coulter will have 
 it so," was the reply. Now Mr. Coulter is the 
 arranger of all these excursions, one of the Califor- 
 nian pioneers, the founder of the town where we 
 are to pass the following night, and which on the 
 map is marked " Coulterville." Like his foundation, 
 this great man has had his ups and downs. To- 
 day both are at their lowest ebb. The town is fall- 
 ing into ruins, and Mr. Coulter, as a last resource, 
 keeps horses to let out to the tourists whom, from 
 time to time, he can pick up at San Francisco. 
 A carriage sent by him is waiting for us a few 
 miles from Crean's Flat, at the spot where the road 
 becomes possible for a carriage. We are on one 
 of the great spurs of the Sierra Nevada. The road, 
 by following the sinuosities of the ridge, gives the 
 coachman, whose seat I share, an opportunity of 
 showing off his powers of driving. With him, 
 boldness, not to say rashness, is greater than skill, 
 and in spite of the nature of the ground, we go 
 like the wind. At every moment I expect to roll 
 into the ravine. The works on this road 
 (which is being made up to the Yosemite Valley) 
 are executed by Chinese labourers. We came upon 
 
 VOL. i. s
 
 258 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP 
 
 several groups of them who were doing their busi- 
 ness admirably. These children of the Celestial 
 Empire had good, intelligent countenances, and the 
 appearance of men above their condition in life. 
 
 At two o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at 
 our destination, that is, at a little dirty inn kept 
 by a German couple. What have become of the 
 great hotels which once were the glory of Coulter- 
 ville ? Deserted streets full of filth and mud, houses 
 half fallen down and abandoned, such is the picture 
 presented by this once flourishing city and such 
 are the alternations in a miner's life. One solitary 
 building struck me by its look of prosperity. This 
 was the counting-house of Wells, Fargo, & Co. 
 The agent gave me a brief history of the town. 
 He is a Yankee by birth. His statements are clear 
 and to the point. He takes a practical view of 
 everything, but only looks to the exigencies of the 
 day. He does not go to the bottom of things : 
 and in this respect is a very fair specimen of the 
 ordinary Anglo- American mind. 
 
 I continue my walk through the town, always pur- 
 sued by Mr. Coulter's agents. Two steps from the inn 
 is a church ; a little further on a cemetery, divided 
 according to the faith of each section. To judge by 
 the extent of this necropolis, one must allow that 
 Coulterville has more dead than living inhabitants. 
 The Catholic cemetery is distinguished by its crosses. 
 There are about a dozen tombs of Italians, containing 
 their remains and those of their wives and children. 
 On some of these sepulchres verses are engraved. A 
 husband weeps for the loss of his young wife in a
 
 XL] YOSEMITE. 259 
 
 sonnet worthy of Petrarch. The rhymes might be 
 improved, but the feeling is there all the same. I met 
 several Italians also in the town. Some are engaged 
 at the mines, others keep a shop, but all are dying 
 of hunger, and cursing the day when they left 
 their homes in Piedmont and Lombardy to come to 
 this place. I go and visit one of these mines, but the 
 fearful heat drives me back to the shade of my hotel, 
 for all about the town they have cut down the trees. 
 
 The wife of the inn-keeper, a Bavarian miner, and 
 
 a perfect plague of flies keep me company. Complaints 
 
 and maledictions alternate with short bursts of gaiety 
 
 inspired by a hope of a return of good fortune. The 
 
 woman said : "We live upon the miners who dine here 
 
 every day ; when they can't pay us, we must still feed 
 
 them. If we didn't, it would make them furious (and 
 
 it's not a wise thing to enrage a miner) ; and besides, 
 
 if they were to die of hunger or go away, we should 
 
 be ruined just the same." " How are we to pay you," 
 
 the miner says, " when we haven't got our wages ? 
 
 My companions and I are all in the same boat. The 
 
 owners of the claim engaged to give us three dollars a 
 
 day besides our food : for six weeks we've not had a 
 
 farthing. If we give up working, they will be ruined 
 
 themselves, and we shall lose all the money they 
 
 owe us." So it goes on. Everyone here is over 
 
 head and ears in debt, tossed about between despair 
 
 and illusion ; and condemned all his life to the fate 
 
 of a gambler. 
 
 In the dining-room, the father of the landlord, with 
 the authority which great age gives in our German 
 villages, is talking to a group of men, who, covered 
 
 s 2
 
 260 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 with sweat and dirt, are just returned from the dig- 
 gings. They will sup with us in precisely the same 
 state. They take up all the chairs and benches whicli 
 run round the room. The excursionists remain humbly 
 standing. These strange manners, so incomprehensible 
 to new-comers, have ceased to shock me. One gets 
 accustomed to everything. What every one seems to 
 take as a matter of course, one ends by submitting 
 to, without even thinking of resistance. In these 
 savage regions, those who are by way of representing 
 civilization do not generally shine in point of educa- 
 tion. They have only brought with them into the 
 forest or to the mines strong arms, (often) remarkable 
 intelligence, courage, perseverance, and above all, a 
 thirst for equality. To prove this, more than to satisfy 
 it, they pretend to be your superiors. Those who 
 depend upon them follow their example, and have a 
 like pretension towards their masters. What is the 
 result ? How are men to be happy living in a narrow 
 circle and constantly goaded on by the wish to be 
 the equals of all the world ? Their whole lives are a 
 series of bitter deceptions and aspirations which can 
 never be realized. The consequence is that they all 
 look out of humour and sad. You see things which 
 simply would be thought impossible if you had not 
 witnessed them yourself. For instance, the general 
 rule in the Sierra Nevada is that your grooms, your 
 coachmen, your bullock-drivers, your servants all dine 
 first. They have precisely the same food as the travel- 
 lers, and are served at the same table. Their masters 
 stand patiently behind them till their servants' dinner 
 is over. Everywhere these men affect the most absurd
 
 xi.] YOSEMITE. 261 
 
 superiority. Their insolence would be really insup- 
 portable if there were not a comic side to it. Some- 
 times, however, this pride is but a mask. It does not 
 resist the temptation of a dollar adroitly slipped into 
 the hand of one of these " gentlemen." Having done 
 this, not only do their countenances relax and they 
 vouchsafe an agreeable smile, but they will push 
 affability so far as to bring you some water to your 
 room, brush your coat, and blacken your boots. 
 During this expedition, the travellers were obliged to 
 make their ablutions in public, and in the open air, 
 passing one after another under a cock placed at the 
 side of a rustic well ; and if they wanted either their 
 clothes or their shoes cleaned they had to do it for 
 themselves. I asked my Pittsburg friend why he 
 didn't do like me. In reply, he merely coloured and 
 looked at the tyrants of the place in silence. What 
 strikes me most, certainly, is less the insolence of the 
 miners and servants than the respectful, linkable atti- 
 tude of my companions. Amongst them are men 
 who, by social position as well as education, belong, 
 in the Eastern States, from whence they come, and 
 certainly in Europe, to the upper classes of society. 
 When we are alone or only amongst ourselves, they 
 talk openly enough of the infamous treatment to 
 which we are subjected. But in presence of the 
 sovereign of the rancho and his vassals, prudence 
 prevails over impatience or natural indignation. Not 
 only do they hold their tongues, but they do so with 
 a gracious smile. They are more than loyal subjects ; 
 they are devout courtiers of the powers that be. If 
 I notice this curious fact, it is certainly not from a
 
 262 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 wish to find fault, nor to add to the number of 
 criticisms, often both stupid and unjust, which one 
 reads upon America and American life. Each of us, 
 camped in any little town of the Sierra Nevada, or in 
 no matter what other forest of the Far West, would 
 do the same. I give these examples to prove that, in 
 America as elsewhere, unlimited individual liberty and 
 social equality are a chimera; and that in the way of sub- 
 mission and etiquette, a petty village king is more ex- 
 acting than the greatest monarch of old Europe. From 
 Yosemite to Coulterville there are forty-seven miles. 
 
 June 21. We are called again at four o'clock. The 
 farm-servants and our coachmen breakfast first, as 
 usual. Behind the chair of each of the servants a 
 traveller is patiently standing ; he is watching for the 
 moment when the place will be free and he can take 
 possession of it. After the servants have finished 
 their breakfast quite at their ease and they take their 
 time about it one of the coachmen gets up and 
 turning round to us, says, brutally : " Now, eat fast." 
 Another adds : " We'll give you ten minutes. Those 
 who are not ready then will be left behind." 
 
 Mr. Coulter settles where each of us is to sit. I 
 have my place assigned to me next to the coachman. 
 He is the grandson of a German, and can speak the 
 language of his ancestors. Whilst his horses are trot- 
 ting along at the rate of eight miles an hour, he tells 
 me his history. He is the proprietor of two pairs of 
 horses and gains a hundred dollars a month. To live, 
 with a wife and two children, costs him, he says, six 
 or seven hundred dollars a year.
 
 XL] YUSEMITE. 263 
 
 Twenty miles from Coulterville we come down info 
 the plain, scorched, yellow and desolate as before, 
 saving a few fine evergreen oaks scattered here and 
 there. For several hours we follow the course of the 
 Tolomini ; the vegetation on its banks is luxurious. 
 This river is called the Tagus between Abrantes and 
 Santarem. Looking -back we saw the last of the 
 Sierra Nevada range, the grand, imposing rounded 
 masses of rock, wooded at the base, reminding me of 
 the western flanks of the Lebanon. 
 
 The sun is merciless, and I begin to ask myself how 
 I can possibly bear the heat of its rays much longer. 
 Fortunately, at each stage, a good Samaritan, for half 
 a dollar, condescends to throw some cold water on my 
 head. Thanks to this preventive treatment, I arrive 
 in the evening at Modesto station alive and even in 
 good condition, and an hour after, by the railroad, at 
 Lathrop, where we spent the night in an excellent 
 hotel. To-morrow, by twelve o'clock, we hope to 
 have once more returned to San Francisco. The 
 distance from Coulterville to Modesto is forty-eight 
 miles ; from Modesto to San Francisco, 101 miles. 
 
 Thus ended my excursion in the Virgin Forests of 
 the Sierra Nevada. Although full of charm, novelty, 
 and interest, this little journey, in consequence of the 
 provisional nature of the present arrangements (which 
 soon, however, will be brought to perfection), pre- 
 supposes both good health and great patience. If 
 you listen to your San Francisco friends, it is simply 
 a pleasant walk, which every one advises you to take 
 especially those who have not tried it.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. FROM THE 1^ TO 
 THE 25 OF JULY. 
 
 Departure from the Golden Gate. Dismal appearance of San 
 Francisco from the Sea. The Pacific Mail Company. The 
 China. Monotony of the Passage. Reflections on the United 
 States. Landing at Yokohama. 
 
 July 1. At twelve o'clock precisely, the China 
 leaves the pier of the Pacific Mail Company. The 
 departing friends wring the hands of those they love 
 for the last time, and then hurry on board. At one 
 o'clock we have crossed the Golden Gate. Seen from 
 the sea, San Francisco offers the strangest and least 
 attractive aspect possible : sandy hills divided into 
 straight lines by large un paved streets, both streets 
 and hills seeming to rise perpendicularly from the 
 ^ea, brown wooden houses, yellow sand, and a pale 
 blue sky bordering on grey, with flakes of mist giving 
 the look of a torn gauze veil over the whole. The 
 rocky galleries of the coast extend to the north and 
 south. But even here brown and yellow tints 
 prevail. Thick heavy clouds shroud the tops of the
 
 CH. xii.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 2C5 
 
 mountains as with a baldachino. Cliff House with 
 its three rocks (the sporting-place of the seals and 
 birds) is the last peep of land visible from the deck 
 of the China. Beyond and around us the Pacific 
 spreads its green billows, over which dark shadows 
 are creeping. The sea line and the Farallone Islands 
 are invisible. The fog which awaits us has already 
 hidden them from sight. One or two more turns of 
 the wheel and we are surrounded by it. Nothing 
 could be sadder or more lugubrious than our de- 
 parture. 
 
 July 2. Weather splendid ; wind north-east. 
 The crisp waves intensely blue, with darker purplish 
 shades. Gigantic gulls follow the wake of the ship, 
 and flutter above the deck. In the deep clear sea, 
 great flat fish are swarming, called by the sailors 
 " Portuguese men-of-war." This name probably 
 dates from the time when Great Britain usurped 
 the supremacy of the seas. The ships of Vasco da 
 Gama and his companions were not models of con- 
 struction, but they had heroes on board. That which 
 was then a term of derision reminds navigators of 
 to-day of the fallen greatness of a once chivalrous 
 nation. 
 
 July 3. The line of steamers which runs 
 between San Francisco and Hong Kong, touching 
 at Yokohama, is of recent creation. If a three years' 
 experience allows one to form a deliberate judgment, 
 then the problem, so long considered chimerical, 
 as to whether they would be able to go across the vast
 
 2C6 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 Pacific with paddle-wheel steamers, seems to have 
 been successfully solved by the American company. 
 But there is only one departure a month ; and thirty- 
 six or forty passages (going and returning) are not 
 enough, perhaps, to give a positive result. However 
 it may be, as yet they have had no accident whatever. 
 The boats start and arrive with as much regularity as 
 a railway train. It is with a certainty which makes 
 one shudder, that, on the 1st of each month, at the 
 moment of quitting the Californian shores, the officers 
 on board say to the passengers : " On the 24th, 
 at nine o'clock in the morning, you will land at 
 Yokohama," One of their steamers, it is true, only 
 five days after leaving San Francisco, had something 
 the matter with her machinery, and could only go 
 with one wheel. Nevertheless, the captain had the 
 rashness to go on and the good luck to arrive at the 
 port of Yokohama after only nine days' delay, having 
 used up all his coal and being terribly straitened as 
 to provisions. Another steamer was on the eve of 
 perishing on the Japanese coast in a typhoon. The 
 question is, are there really sufficient guarantees given 
 by the company for the safety of the passengers and 
 merchandise embarked in these vessels ? On this 
 point opinions differ. English and French naval and 
 military officers and commercial men of San Francisco 
 whom I have heard discussing the question, positively 
 affirm the contrary. American sailors, however, on 
 the other hand, pretend that no navigation can be 
 attended with less danger, and that no ships are better 
 calculated to brave any which may exist. 
 
 The objectors advance the following reasons : the
 
 xii.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 207 
 
 Pacific Mail Steamship Company receives an annual 
 subsidy from the Washington Government of five 
 hundred thousand dollars (more than two millions 
 and a half of francs). This subsidy is insufficient, 
 because compared to the expenses the traffic and 
 the number of first-class passengers are small. To 
 cover the outgoings, which are enormous, the com- 
 pany, which is compelled to despatch a steamer on 
 the 1st of every month from San Francisco, and 011 
 the 12th from Hong Kong, is obliged to reduce the 
 number of officers and men to the minimum of 
 what is strictly necessary. The companies of the 
 Transatlantic European lines and the French Mes- 
 sageries employ at least double the number. As 
 to the boats and material, the difference is in the 
 same proportion. The American company does the 
 whole service with only four boats, each of which, 
 going and coming, must traverse the enormous dis- 
 tance of fourteen thousand four hundred miles (60 
 to a degree). The result is, that these boats wear 
 out very quickly ; and that when in harbour, the 
 very short time during which they are at anchor does 
 not allow of a proper inspection of the machinery, 
 or even of indispensable repairs; so that in this re- 
 spect, there is always great risk. More than this, 
 to reduce the expense, the whole crew, saving the 
 officers and engineers, are Chinamen. Well, the 
 Chinese are second-rate sailors : in bad weather they 
 lose their heads, and in cases of real danger they 
 are wanting in both courage and discipline. The 
 servants on board are equally Chinamen. To which 
 must be added the large number of passengers of
 
 268 A RAMBLE HOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 this nation, especially in the vessels coming from 
 Hong Kong. The white passengers are compara- 
 tively few. In certain eventualities this state of 
 things might give rise to grave difficulties. From 
 San Francisco to Yokohama the run is 5000 miles 
 without a break, or any possibility of putting in 
 to a port in case of accidents or running short of 
 provisions. They are therefore compelled to lay 
 in an enormous quantity of coal in case of any 
 delay in the passage arising either from accident or 
 bad weather. The consequence is that these boats 
 for the first few days are terribly overloaded and 
 unwieldy. They lack buoyancy, an essential quality 
 in the gales which in certain seasons prevail on the 
 Californian coast, and which blow during almost the 
 whole year off the shores of Japan. But there are 
 still graver considerations worthy of the serious 
 attention of the central government and of the 
 company. They refer to the construction of these 
 ships. They are all paddle-wheel boats of 5000 
 tons, which can only go by steam. Their masts are 
 small and weak, and they are obliged to be so, for 
 the solution has not yet been found of the problem 
 of how to proportion sailing to steam power, in 
 steamers of that size bound for such enormous dis- 
 tances. It is true, that steamers run directly from 
 England to Australia. But they are, in reality, sailing 
 ships, which take advantage of the trade winds and 
 currents ; and only when those fail, or in a dead 
 calm, have recourse to steam. The screw is but an 
 auxiliary : the sails are the essential. These pas- 
 sages then are accomplished under the most favourable
 
 xii.] HAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 269 
 
 auspices. But these conditions are entirely wanting 
 in the Pacific boats. First, from the fault of construc- 
 tion which I have already pointed out. But this is 
 not all The Pacific has none of the advantages of 
 which the skippers know how to avail themselves 
 in the Australian waters. In the North Pacific there 
 are neither trade winds nor regular currents. In these 
 waters, the winds generally blow in a circle on the 
 line invariably followed by these steamers in summer 
 (the 36th degree), because it is the straightest and 
 shortest ; the east wind prevails ; while 80 or 100 
 miles further north, the wind blows furiously from 
 the west. The sailing vessels which trade between 
 the Pacific states in Asia, and, in exchange for tea, 
 carry to Japan corn and flour and wood for build- 
 ing purposes from the Calif ornian and Oregon forests, 
 always take a northern couise to escape the calms 
 further south. This accounts for the fact that you 
 never see a sail from the deck of any of the com- 
 pany's steamers. 
 
 To sum up all the means at the disposal of the 
 company are insufficient for their task ; the dispropor- 
 tion between the white and Chinese element is a grave 
 inconvenience ; and lastly, and this is the main point, 
 to carry on this service regularly, by steam power 
 alone, you must have enormous boats overloaded with 
 coal ; for in case of accident to the machinery, or a 
 falling short of fuel, their sails would be utterly 
 useless. Looking at the nature of the boats at the 
 disposal of the company, however good they may be 
 as mere steamers, it would be infinitely wiser to divide 
 the passage in half and put in at Honolulu. The
 
 270 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 voyage would certainly be a little longer, but the 
 risks run would be reduced to a minimum. To 
 compel these steamers to cross the whole Pacific in 
 one run, is to ignore the rules of prudence and court 
 disaster. 
 
 To this the Americans answer : the means of the 
 company are amply sufficient. Their boats are allowed 
 by every one to be models of perfection. They wear 
 out less quickly than the steamers of the Atlantic 
 companies because they go slower, their regulation 
 speed being only 240 miles in the twenty-four hours, 
 while the boats of the Cunard and other companies 
 make 300. There is sufficient time allowed at the 
 two ends for the necessary inspection, cleaning, and 
 repairs. On all the waters of the globe you will not 
 find ships better kept or better appointed. The service 
 is not reduced to a minimum. There are no super- 
 fluous hands, it is true, no mass of waste paper, or red 
 tapism, or distinctions of rank or etiquette beyond 
 what is absolutely necessary. The captain does not 
 fancy himself an admiral or a commodore. After 
 having given his instructions to his chief officer, he 
 is not above visiting himself three or four times a 
 day (according to his instructions) the machinery, the 
 kitchens, the cabins of the passengers, everything, 
 in fact, down to the hold. Compared to your Euro- 
 pean lines, it is true, every officer does double work ; 
 but then he is paid double. Our system has all the 
 advantages of simplicity ; and in case of danger, 
 offers greater security than yours ; for every one of 
 our agents has a sense of responsibility, and does not 
 think himself too fine a gentleman to do things
 
 xii.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 271 
 
 himself, nor leave everything to his subordinates ; for 
 the very simple reason that he has not as many at his 
 disposal. The crew is composed of Chinese ; and it 
 is true that a Chinese sailor is not worth a white one. 
 But in point of discipline, we prefer them infinitely 
 to the American or European sailors who hang about 
 the Pacific ports. These belong, as everyone knows, 
 to the very dregs of the population. They are mostly 
 quarrellers and drunkards, who, the moment we cast 
 anchor, break their engagement and make off. The 
 Chinese sailors, on the contrary, are noted for their 
 gentleness, submission, and obedience. We have never 
 had an instance with them of any row or insubordi- 
 nation. As to the passengers of this nation, the 
 arrangement of their cabins is such that in case of a 
 mutiny, we could put them at once under lock and 
 key. They are not armed ; and the captain, in case 
 of need, has always plenty of revolvers to distribute 
 among his white passengers, who, on setting foot on 
 deck, promise to place themselves under his orders, if 
 necessary. Besides, for the reasons we have before 
 mentioned, the ships of all the great English houses 
 at Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Calcutta are manned 
 with Chinese or Malays. The pretended danger, 
 therefore, caused by the preponderance of the Chinese 
 element, is a chimera. 
 
 But now to come to your great objection the con- 
 struction of our ships. It is true that steam is the 
 essential element, and it necessarily must be so when 
 it is a question of traversing such immense spaces 
 with the regularity of a clock. It is also true that 
 with us the sails are but accessories, and it would be
 
 272 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP 
 
 better if we could make more use of them ; but, as it 
 is, in case of any derangement of the machinery, they 
 are invaluable. Our small masts are then replaced 
 by bigger ones. Each boat is furnished with a double 
 supply. You may see them lying on the deck. There- 
 fore even supposing that it were impossible to work 
 the ship even with one wheel, one would always have 
 the chance of reaching either Yokohama or San 
 Francisco, or at any rate of keeping afloat in our 
 usual course long enough to be helped or picked up 
 by one of our own boats. For remember, our service 
 is done with such regularity and such nautical preci- 
 sion, that, unless in very rare instances, caused by 
 thick fogs, the steamers from San Francisco and Japan, 
 meet regularly at a certain point in the ocean on a 
 day and hour calculated and known beforehand. As 
 to provisions, they are always amply supplied. And 
 as to coal, it is not correct to state that our boats are 
 overloaded on leaving the port. They are always, on 
 the contrary, carefully organized in this respect. At 
 sea one must always contend with the uncertainties of 
 the elements it is the case with every species of 
 navigation. But, in reality, there is only one enemy 
 we really fear, and that is, fire. The most minute 
 and ingenious precautions are taken to guard against 
 it, which we recommend to other companies. You 
 might well take a leaf out of oar book ! But what 
 is better than all our arguments is the experience of 
 more than forty voyages ; that is, eighty times crossing 
 the Pacific, with all the dangers of the Chinese and 
 Japanese waters. In the last three years, our boats 
 have made more than six hundred thousand miles.
 
 xii.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 273 
 
 They have all come back safely to the Golden Gate 
 without the loss of one man or one case." l 
 
 There is the for and against. Who is right ? It is 
 not for the ignorant to decide. Well, we'll persevere, 
 come what may. And, as we are fairly off, let us 
 persuade ourselves that the Company is right, and that 
 
 1 This proud appeal to a short but brilliant past has since 
 been cruelly contradicted. On the 24th of August, 1872, between 
 11 and 12 o'clock at night, in the roadstead of Yokohama, the 
 America, the glory of the Company, just after having accomplished 
 her eleventh voyage, was burnt to the water's edge. The China 
 brought the sad news to San Francisco. The enquiry into the 
 cause of the disaster threw no light on the subject. By the 
 testimony of eye-witnesses, it appears that in less than seven 
 minutes after the first flames were perceived, the whole ship, 
 from prow to poop, was one sheet of flame. At the last moment, 
 the captain, terribly burnt, threw himself into the sea and was 
 saved by the commander of the Costarica, one of the steamers of 
 the same Company. Three European passengers and more than 
 sixty Chinese, all bound for Hong Kong, were burnt or drowned. 
 The Chinese, determined not to lose their savings, dawdled 
 a little, and then threw themselves altogether on a ladder, 
 which broke with their weight. The gold found upon their 
 corpses proved that not one was returning poor to his own country. 
 The Bien Ville, hired by the Company to serve the New York and 
 Aspinwall Line, also took fire on the 15th of August near the 
 Bahama Isles. Scarcely had the crew left the ship than she blew 
 up and foundered. Out of 127 persons on board, 40 were killed. 
 
 Another steamer, bearing the name of America, was also burnt 
 a few hours after leaving the port of Nagasaki. The same sum- 
 mer, another great steamer (of which I forget the name) was 
 wrecked in the Japanese inland sea on her way from Yokohama 
 to Shanghai. These two ships did not, however, belong to the 
 "Pacific Company," which has lately increased its staff and the 
 number of its boats, as well as of its voyages, which have become 
 bi-monthly. Altogether, it is in a very flourishing condition. 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 there is no safer way of crossing the Pacific than 
 in one of their boats. Certainly, nothing can be 
 pleasauter so long as the ocean answers to its name, 
 and I suppose that is the rule in this season and in 
 this latitude. During the winter mouths the steamers 
 follow a more southerly course. The distance is then 
 increased by 200 miles. In fact, during all the year 
 one may reckon on a calm sea and a clear sky, always 
 excepting a narrow zone of 300 miles on the Cali- 
 forniaii coast and another of 500 or GOO on the 
 Japanese. Between the two, nature smiles on us 
 smiles, I must say, which rather resemble yawns. 
 Above, below, around us, everywhere, everyone sleeps 
 men, air, and sea, 
 
 July 4. The sky is pearly grey. The vessel is 
 all painted white, masts, deck-cabins, deck, tarpauling, 
 benches all are white. This deck, from poop to prow, 
 is all in one piece, and makes a famous walk. Almost 
 all the morning I am alone there. The first- class 
 passengers get up very late ; the second -class, that is, 
 the Chinese, not at all. They go to bed at San Francisco 
 and never leave their berths till they reach their 
 destination. You never see one of them on deck. 
 The sailors, having done their duty, disappear like- 
 wise. And how easy that duty is in such weather ! 
 On leaving the Golden Gate, the sails were hoisted and 
 have remained untouched ever since. The breeze is 
 just strong enough to fill them and to keep us steady. 
 The result is a complete calm. The smoke ascends up 
 to heaven in a straight line. So the sailors have a 
 fine time of it. They sleep, play, or smoke downstairs
 
 xir.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 273 
 
 with their companions. The two men at the helm 
 these two arc Americans are equally invisible, for a 
 watch-tower hides them from sight, as well as the 
 rudder and the officer of the watch. I have thus got 
 the deck of this immense ship entirely to myself. I 
 pace it from one end to the other : four hundred feet 
 backwards and forwards. The only impediment is a 
 transverse bar of iron, as high as one's head, which 
 binds in the middle the two sides of the ship. It is 
 painted white like all the rest, and is difficult to see. In 
 every position in life, there is always the worm in the 
 bud, a thorn in the flesh, or, at any rate, some dark 
 spot. On board the China the dark spot for me is that 
 detestable white bar. Not only am I perpetually 
 knocking my head against it, but it reminds me 
 unpleasantly of the frailty of human things. It is 
 very thin, and yet, if I am to believe the engineer, 
 it is tin's bar alone which, in very bad weather, 
 prevents the enormous shell of the boat from breaking 
 in half. There are moments when one's life hangs on 
 a thread : here it hangs on an iron bar. That is 
 better, perhaps, but it is not enough. 
 
 July 5. -Yesterday evening the anniversary of 
 the Declaration of Independence by the United States 
 was celebrated. The Americans spoke with case and 
 freedom, mingling little touches of somewhat common- 
 place eloquence with sallies of wit, in which they are 
 rarely at a loss. Everyone seemed suddenly to wake 
 up from the state of drowsiness in which we had been 
 plunged. 
 
 This morning the weather is more beautiful than 
 
 T 2
 
 276 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 ever. Everything is blue and gold. The sea reflects 
 the same wonderful shades of purple and blue which 
 struck me so much the second day of our passage. 
 The pendulum of the machine rises and falls with slow 
 regularity. The waves swell and break gently, like 
 the breast of a sleeper. Around me, save the murmur 
 of the wheels, and now and then the flapping of the 
 wings of the sea-gulls, which have followed us ever 
 since we left San Francisco, the silence is profound. 
 Down below it is the same. From time to time I hear 
 the sound of a guitar : it comes out of the barber's 
 shop. The artist is a mulatto. At the other end of 
 the saloon cabin, the purser is whiling away the hours 
 with a similar instrument. The passengers, shut up in 
 their cabins, or stretched on armchairs in the saloon, 
 are reading or sleeping. They only appear on deck 
 very late in the day. We are not many first- class 
 passengers ; only twenty-two in all: two English tour- 
 ists, very agreeable young men of good family ; two 
 merchants of the same nation, established at Yoko- 
 hama, one accompanied by his wife ; some Americans, 
 one a rich Boston merchant, another a young doctor, 
 who, after having practised in the Sandwich Islands, 
 is going to seek his fortune in Japan ; two Italian silk- 
 worm seekers ; and two Spaniards trafficking in human 
 flesh, who are established at Macao, and pack off 
 coolies to Chili and Havanna. During my long resi- 
 dence in Lisbon I always found a peculiar character in 
 the faces of those men who had become rich by the 
 slave-trade, and a certain particular expression which 
 was the reverse of pleasing. I found this same look 
 in 'one of these Spaniards even before I knew his
 
 xi i. J SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 277 
 
 trade. Involuntarily, the passengers, though so few, 
 divided themselves into two coteries, the Anglo- 
 Saxon and the Latin. There is also a young coloured 
 woman, a widow, with the head and face of a Madonna. 
 She is going to join her future husband, who is a hair- 
 dresser at Yokohama. She has a little girl, deaf and 
 dumb, who makes the most horrible and inarticulate 
 sounds possible. But the tenderness and indefati- 
 gable care of her mother are so touching that everyone 
 bears willingly with the presence of this afflicted 
 little creature. It is maternal love which works this 
 marvel. And then people disbelieve in miracles ! 
 
 The yellow race is represented by my friend, Fang 
 Tang, and by two other Japanese, dressed up in Euro- 
 pean costume, in which they look horrible. The one, 
 a former governor of a province, only speaks Japanese ; 
 the other, a young student, and the son of a daimio, it 
 is said, seems not to have profited much as a linguist 
 by his stay in England ; however, he managed to get 
 out the words : " England all good, Japan all bad ! " 
 This is the total result of his European education. It 
 promises him, certainly, unmixed happiness in his own 
 country. 
 
 The most interesting person amongst us, without a 
 doubt, is the old Parsee merchant of Bombay. A 
 baker by trade, but a princely baker, he produces the 
 very best bread for the European residents at Yoko- 
 hama, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Before the steamers 
 were established, his ships coasted in all the Chinese 
 and Japanese waters. He is a considerable personage. 
 His fine head, his venerable white beard, his dignified 
 manner, his extreme politeness, even the sober but
 
 278 A HAMBLE ROVND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 picturesque dress he wears, harmonise with the bent of 
 his mind, his vast experience, and his high, social posi- 
 tion. Everyone knows that, in Mussulman society, 
 merchants are the first class. Our conversations arc 
 long and easy, for he speaks English perfectly. He 
 told me that he wished to see something of European 
 civilization, and for that reason went to America. He 
 has only visited San Francisco. That was quite enough. 
 After having convinced himself that I was not an 
 American, he owned that he could not find terms 
 severe enough to speak of what he had seen. " What 
 scandals in the streets 1 The women and what 
 women ! And the men : what a lack of dignity ! 
 It is not so in my country. An Oriental loves his 
 neighbour ; he is good, obliging, decent. Never in the 
 streets of our towns will you be shocked by the sight 
 of drunkards and bad women. The American thinks 
 of nothing but himself : he is vulgar and rude to the 
 last degree, and gives himself up publicly to every 
 kind of excess." It was with positive impatience that 
 he waited for the departure of the return boat, which 
 was to enable him to escape for ever from so anti- 
 pathetic a spot. 
 
 Our captain, Captain Cobb, born in the Eastern 
 States, like all the other officers, is an excellent seaman, 
 polished in manner, and most attentive and kind to 
 the passengers. More or less, he gives the like tone 
 to his subordinates. 
 
 Mr. 0., the chief engineer, of an old and good 
 Spanish family, a native of the Canary Islands, and 
 brought up at Havanna, forms a singular contrast to 
 his Anglo-American companions. He is a mixture of
 
 xii.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 279 
 
 a caballero and an ascetic Castilian. One has only 
 to look at him to see that he is a man in a thousand. 
 Tina first impression is confirmed by his conversation. 
 Still young, he owes his place entirely to his merits. 
 His leisure moments are devoted to serious studies. 
 His cabin, which opens on one side to the deck, and 
 on the other to the machinery, is a very fair indication 
 of his turn of mind and the higher aspirations of his 
 soul. A well-chosen little library, where theological 
 and scientific works stand side by side with classical 
 authors and the writings of Donoso Cortes ; two pots 
 of plants, which his wife gave him before his departure, 
 and which, by dint of care, he has been able to keep 
 alive in spite of the deleterious effect of the sea air ; 
 and the portrait of this young lady. Can you con- 
 ceive anything like the poetic sadness and solitariness 
 of this abnormal existence "? He loves his profession, 
 it is true, and lives on good terms with his comrades. 
 But, a fervent Catholic, he passes his life with men 
 whose last thought is religion ; passionately in love 
 with his young and beautiful wife, he sees her once in 
 three months for eighteen days ; devoted to specula- 
 tive studies, he finds himself compelled, almost the 
 whole day, to watch a machine and count its 
 revolutions. 
 
 The doctor on board, a Southerner, and a man of a 
 certain age, is a philosopher. He looks at everything 
 on the worst side. His speciality is to examine the 
 reverse of the medal. His great originality and a kind 
 of caustic wit, redeemed by a fund of good humour 
 and immense experience, gives a peculiar charm to 
 his conversation. In general, the great attraction of
 
 280 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 foreign travel is to meet men of a totally different 
 stamp from yourself. Birth, education, ways of seeing 
 and acting, experience of life, everything in them is 
 different The doctor is, likewise, the librarian. Every 
 day, at a certain hour, he distributes the books you 
 ask for. There is a good collection of classical 
 English authors, and what is very useful to me, the 
 best and most recent works on China and Japan. 
 
 Do not let us forget the purser, the man who holds 
 the purse strings, an important personage for the pas- 
 sengers, and placed in a higher position in the American 
 boats than the stewards of European vessels. He is 
 a smiling, agreeable gentleman, who neither expects 
 nor will accept any "tip," and who, from time to time, 
 shakes hands with you affectionately. I like ours 
 very much, but I should like him better if he would 
 play the guitar a little loss. 
 
 The head-waiter is a native of Hamburg. He and 
 his white comrade lead an easy life. They confine 
 their labours to overlooking the Chinese men and pass 
 the rest of their time in flirting with the ladies'-maids. 
 These are the only two idlers in the service. Thirty- 
 two Chinamen do the duty of waiters, on the pas- 
 sengers and at table. Although short, they look well 
 enough with their black caps, their equally black 
 pig-tails, which go down to their heels, their dark 
 blue tunics, their large wide trousers, their gaiters or 
 white stockings, and their black felt shoes with strong 
 white soles. They form themselves into symmetrical 
 groups and do everything with method. Fancy a 
 huge cabin in which the small table of twenty-two 
 guests is lost, with all these little Chinamen fluttering
 
 xii.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 281 
 
 round them and serving them in the most respectful 
 fashion, without making any noise. The Hamburg 
 chief, idly leaning against a console, with one hand in 
 his trousers-pocket, directs, with the forefinger of the 
 other, the evolutions of his docile squadron. 
 
 * 
 
 July 6. Every day, at 11 o'clock in the morning 
 and at 8 o'clock in the evening, the captain, followed 
 by the purser, makes the rounds of the ship. In that 
 of the morning, all the cabin doors are opened, only 
 excepting those of the ladies. But the moment these 
 have gone out, the eye of Providence that is, of the 
 captain visits them with equal care. If any allumettes 
 are discovered, they are pitilessly confiscated. This 
 morning, the captain invited me to accompany him, 
 and I could convince myself with my own eyes of the 
 perfect order and discipline which reign everywhere. 
 Nothing was more tempting than that department 
 which one generally avoids, the kitchens. The head 
 cook and his assistants, all Germans, did the honours 
 of their domain. Every man was at his post, and only 
 anxious to show the visitors the most secret corners of 
 his department. It was like an examination of con- 
 science carefully made. The provision and store-rooms 
 were admirable. Everything was of the first and best 
 quality ; everything was in abundance ; everything 
 was classed and ticketed like the drugs in a chemist 
 shop. The Chinese quarter is on the lower deck. 
 We have about 800 on board. They are all in their 
 berths, smoking and talking and enjoying the rare 
 pleasure in their lives of being able to spend five 
 weeks in complete idleness. In spite of the great
 
 232 A RAMBLE ROUXD THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 number of men penned into so comparatively small a 
 space, the ventilation is so well managed that there 
 is neither closeness nor bad smells. The captain in- 
 spects every hole and corner literally everything, 
 and everywhere we found the same extraordinary 
 cleanliness. One small space is reserved for the opium- 
 caters or smokers, and we saw these victims of a fatal 
 habit, some eagerly inhaling the poison, others already 
 feeling its effects. Lying on their backs and fast asleep, 
 their deadly pale features gave them the look of corpses. 
 
 July 7. Contrary to our usual sleepy habits, we 
 are all to-day in a state of excitement and agitation. 
 The China is to come to the point where it ought to 
 meet the America, which was to leave Hong Kong 
 five-and-twenty days ago. Our topsails are rilled with 
 little Chinamen, whose eager eyes are fixed on the 
 horizon. The captain and officers are standing close 
 to the bowsprit, their telescopes pointed in the same 
 direction. Even my Spanish friend has left his engine, 
 his flower-pots, and his wife's pcitiait to gaze at the 
 blue sea slightly rippled, but, as usual, without a speck 
 of a sail. No America ! The captain's heart is in 
 his shoes ; he consults his charts, his instruments, his 
 officers, all in vain. The day passes without the 
 steamer being signalled. The dinner is silent and sad. 
 Everyone seems preoccupied, and the captain is evi- 
 dently anxious. It seems that the directors of the 
 Company make a point of their two boats meeting. 
 It is to them a proof that their captains have followed 
 the straight course, and that the San Francisco boat 
 has crossed, without any accident, a third of the Pacific.
 
 xit.] SAX FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 283 
 
 The passengers gladly avail themselves of this precious 
 opportunity to write to their friends. For the captains 
 themselves, it is a question of honour. They like to 
 show tlieir skill in this way, and their cleverness in 
 being able, despite the variable and imperfectly under- 
 stood currents of the Pacific, to make a straight course 
 across this enormous sheet of water. 
 
 July 8. At five o'clock in the morning the second 
 officer rushes into my cabin: "The America is in 
 sight ! " I throw on my clothes and tumble on deck. 
 The morning is beautiful, and this colossal steamer, the 
 largest after the Great Eastern, draws near majes- 
 tically. The usual salutes are exchanged, and the 
 America's gig brings us an extract from their log, 
 the list of the passengers, the newspapers from Hong 
 Kong, Shanghai, and Yokohama ; and, which is essen- 
 tial, takes charge of our letters for America and Europe. 
 A few moments after she resumes her course. What 
 a grand and imposing sight ! At six o'clock she has 
 already disappeared behind the horizon. At the moment 
 of meeting, w T e had run exactly 1,500 miles that 
 is half the distance between England and New York. 
 
 The Chinese and Japanese papers are very interest- 
 ing. They complain sadly of the stagnation of trade, 
 and are full of alarm at the state of things in Japan, 
 where the old feudal constitution has been virtually 
 abolished. From hence great discontent among the 
 great daimios who are making preparations for war. 
 One of them has re-established a court ceremony 
 which had fallen into disuse that of trampling the 
 cross under their feet.
 
 284 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 These are, for me, so many problems. But the 
 solution will be in the next number, that is, in Japan 
 itself, if I can only find people willing and able to give 
 me the desired information. 
 
 July 19. The list of passengers on board the 
 America is just posted up : it made me reflect. There 
 are upwards of fifty Japanese of noble family. The 
 Reformed Government of the day sends them for a 
 year, at the cost of the State, to America and Europe. 
 They are to acquire the rudiments of every kind of 
 knowledge and civilization, which they are to bring 
 back into their own country ; just as the Italian silk- 
 growers go every year to Japan to procure fresh 
 silkworms. To judge by our two young Japanese who 
 have just returned from Europe, I should venture to 
 doubt the success of the plan. The old Parsee, who 
 seems to know the " Empire of the Rising Sun " better 
 than most European residents, says to me : " The 
 Japanese are perfect children. Good children, but, old 
 or young, they are still children. Those who go to 
 Europe take with them a quantity of money ; they fall 
 into the hands of rogues and thieves, who lead them 
 into every kind of mischief, and then rob them. The 
 poor dupes come home crestfallen, with empty purses, 
 and as ignorant as they went. Look at those two 
 young men we have on board : they have learned 
 nothing, and have spent a fabulous sum. One of them, 
 the governor, owned to me that he was ruined." This 
 fact was confirmed by my friend, Fang-Tang, who is 
 an intimate friend of the functionary who has paid so 
 dearly for his thirst for knowledge. The Chinese and
 
 xii.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 285 
 
 Japanese languages, although sprung from the same 
 Mongol root, have little or no affinity. But in Japan 
 they have adopted, for centuries, the Chinese characters. 
 Persons of the two nations can thus correspond with- 
 out knowing each other's language. My two travelling 
 companions make use of this method. Seated side by 
 side, they spend hours in writing to each other, and 
 exchanging notes. What on earth can they have to 
 say to each other ? 
 
 July 10. To-day we have passed the 164th 
 degree of longitude (Greenwich). It corresponds to 
 the meridian of Vienna. In our cabin we have 21 
 degrees Reaumur. On deck, even under the awning, 
 it is still hotter. It is horribly damp besides. The 
 wind blows always from the east. Since we left San 
 Francisco the sails have not been touched. 
 
 July 11. I had a long talk to-day with a South- 
 erner. His country was, of course, the subject. They 
 were like the lamentations of the Prophets in the 
 Old Testament. I have not yet met one of his 
 countrymen who did not talk to me in the same strain, 
 but rarely have I heard the sorrow of a patriot ex- 
 pressed in language more touching or more high-minded. 
 After having described, in vivid colours, what the 
 South was before the war, he drew a picture of what 
 it had become since one great open wound. A 
 stranger who has not studied the question on the spot 
 itself ought naturally to suspend his judgment ; but 
 seeing the unanimity of the complaints, one asks one- 
 self whether men with the best will in the world, even
 
 2SO A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 with the help of time, which heals so many wounds, 
 will ever be able to remedy evils which are considered 
 incurable (under the present Government), even by the 
 sufferers themselves. I own that the reasons adduced 
 by the Northerners, who naturally do not look upon 
 things in so gloomy a light, do not reassure me at all. 
 They reckon on community of interests : but it is 
 precisely the divergence of their interests which pro- 
 duced the secession : on the influence of time, which 
 will modify the feelings of future generations ; but on 
 what are these hupes founded ? Are they not chi- 
 merical ? History shows few examples of a nation, 
 which, rightly or wrongly, think themselves op- 
 pressed, being sincerely reconciled to their oppressors. 
 She may accept her fate with resignation ; but hopes 
 and hatreds remain ; hostile aspirations and a thirst for 
 vengeance are transmitted from generation to genera- 
 tion. To this they reply : " First, that the Southerners 
 are not a separate nation ; then, although the territory 
 of the Southern States is very large, the white popu- 
 lation is comparatively small. The immigration in- 
 creases. The new arrivals are the born antagonists of 
 the ancient proprietors of the soil, that is, of our 
 enemies. They will evict them. By and by, they 
 will form the majority. The day will come when 
 they w r ill be masters. The original white population 
 will have disappeared ; anyhow it will not count. 
 Therefore there is some sense in our saying that time 
 will act in our favour." 
 
 I admit this argument. It is a solution which time 
 alone can bring, and, saving separation, it seems to 
 me the only alternative. But for the Southerners
 
 Xir.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 287 
 
 themselves it is destruction. They would perish little 
 by little, like the first inhabitants of the soil, the 
 Indians. As long as they live, they will resist the 
 existing state of things, which seems to them unendur- 
 able. It will either be smouldering hostility or a 
 declaration of open war. That being the case, I seek 
 in vain for the elements of reconciliation. 
 
 July 12. Towards the middle of last night we 
 were just half-way between San Fraucisco and Yoko- 
 hama. This morning, as usual, we counted our friends, 
 the gulls. The greater number have deserted us. 
 They went home in the wake of the America. Six 
 have remained faithful. These are intending to go 
 right across the Pacific, flying during the day round 
 and round the boat, skimming across the sea, or 
 dipping the tips of their wings in the rising waves, 
 on which they float and seem to sleep at night, only to 
 join us afresh on the morrow. 
 
 July 13. This evening we shall pass the 180th 
 degree of longitude. That is the moment for navi- 
 gators to settle their reckoning with earth and sun. 
 Friday the 14th is to be suppressed, and we are to 
 pass straight on to Saturday the 15th. For the boats 
 coming in the contrary sense, from west to east, it 
 is the reverse ; they then repeat the day of the week 
 and month. On board to-day this is the great topic 
 of 'conversation. Few understand it, and no one 
 can explain it clearly. A good many of the passengers 
 seriously regret having left one day at the bottom of 
 the Pacific.
 
 288 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 July 15. The fine weather, which has been so 
 faithful to us hitherto, has deserted us. During the 
 whole day a hot, fine rain fell without intermission. 
 In the cabins and everywhere the air is like that at the 
 mouth of a stove. The passengers begin to weary of 
 the passage and to reckon how many more days they 
 will have to spend on board. The dinners are not 
 looked upon with so much favour. There are a quan- 
 tity of dishes, certainly, but they are all very much 
 the same. There is a monotony in their very variety. 
 The water used in the kitchen, like that which you 
 drink, is sea-water distilled, which palls upon the taste 
 and disagrees with the stomach. The damp, heat, and 
 the loss of the sun are both causes of complaint. On 
 all sides I hear grumbling. The Asiatics alone preserve 
 their serenity. Towards evening the thermometer 
 falls rapidly, and the captain foretells wind. Happily 
 we are not yet in the zone of the typhoons. 
 
 July 19. The bad weather continues. Last night 
 the rolling banished sleep. To-day the monsoon blew 
 violently. It seemed to blow out of the mouth of a 
 furnace. After breakfast the captain takes me into 
 his cabin and explains our position to me that is, 
 tells me what is our best and worst chance. " The 
 monsoon is become a gale ; but it is not that he fears. 
 There are signs of a typhoon to the north-west. What 
 course shall he take ? That is the question. Perhaps 
 w r e are already in its periphery. Perhaps not. Very 
 soon we shall know. In the meantime, there is no 
 imminent danger." The navigation of the Chinese 
 and Japanese seas is a lottery. Only the bad numbers
 
 XIL] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 289 
 
 are rare. Captain Cobb talks with the calmness of 
 a physician who, on leaving his patient, only tells 
 him a portion of his malady. While following his 
 lucid explanation I forgot that we were the sick 
 man ! 
 
 At this moment the ocean was really magnificent. 
 In the boiling sea, the foam was driven horizontally 
 towards the east. The water was positively inky, with 
 here and there whitish gleams of light. The sky was 
 iron grey ; to the west a curtain of the same colour, 
 but darker. The thermometer was still falling rapidly. 
 In the air above the waves I suddenly saw a cloud of 
 white flakes. They were little bits of Joss-paper which 
 the Chinese were throwing into the sea to appease their 
 gods. I passed before the open cabin door of the en- 
 gineer ; he was watering his plants. The passengers 
 were all gathered together in the saloon. Some of them 
 were moved almost to tears. At twelve o'clock the sky 
 cleared a little and the faces brightened considerably. 
 I have often remarked that people when in danger, 
 whether real or imaginary, are like children. The 
 slightest thing will make them laugh or cry. The 
 Bombay master baker, the Chinese merchant, and the 
 two Japanese struck me by their imperturbability. 
 The first whispered in my ear : " The Company is 
 very unwise to have a Chinese crew ; the Malays are 
 much better. Chinese sailors are scared at the least 
 danger, and would be the first to make off in the life- 
 boats." Fang-Tang has an equally bad opinion of 
 his fellow-countrymen. He says to me : " Chinese 
 good men very good. Bad sailors. Very bad ! " 
 I reply : " If we go to the bottom, what will happen 
 
 VOL. i. u
 
 290 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 to Fang-Tang ? " He answers, "If good, place above ; 
 if bad, below stairs, punished." 
 
 July 20. In the middle of the night the ocean 
 suddenly calmed. The China has got out of the 
 region of the cyclone. The weather is delicious the 
 sea like glass. But at four o'clock in the afternoon 
 we suddenly find ourselves amidst colossal waves ; and 
 yet there is not a breath of wind. They tell us that 
 this was probably, yesterday, the centre of the typhoon. 
 It has exhausted itself or gone elsewhere ; but the sea 
 which it lashed into fury is still agitated, like the 
 pulse of a fever patient after the fit is over. 
 
 July 22. The days follow one another with won- 
 derful uniformity. Except the short episode of the 
 storm, these three weeks leave on my mind the im- 
 pression of a charming dream, of a fairy tale, or of 
 an imaginary walk across a great hall, all filled with 
 gold and lapis lazuli not a moment of weariness or 
 impatience. If you wish to shorten the tediousness 
 of a long voyage, divide your time properly and keep 
 to the rule you have laid down for yourself. It is the 
 only way to become accustomed to this kind of life, 
 and even to enjoy it. 
 
 In the morning, after your bath, take an hour's 
 solitary exercise on the vast deck. Then read for an 
 hour or two iu your cabin. Afterwards, if you fancy 
 it, take part in the hoop game. This is a very popular 
 amusement on board the American steamers. The 
 players try to throw some rings, formed of ends of 
 cord, into certain numbered squares which have been
 
 x:i.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 91 
 
 traced on the floor with chalk. It is much more diffi- 
 cult than one fancies. The two young Englishmen 
 beat all the rest. At five o'clock dinner, is served in 
 the great cabin. On board the China all is abundant, 
 and even copious. After the meal, the Anglo-Saxons 
 and- Latins meet in the smoking-saloon. It is the only 
 place where they talk freely. The Spaniard from 
 Macao, the dealer in coolies, has taken a philanthropic 
 turn. He sheds tears of tenderness at any moment. 
 He pretends not to be able to listen without shudder- 
 ing to the stories of his neighbour, one of the Italian 
 silk merchants, a Garibaldian hero, and, if we are 
 to believe him, a ferocious assassin of the Bourbons. 
 But in the way of marvellous tales, no one can beat 
 our young American doctor, who comes from the 
 Sandwich Islands and is going to Japan. His adven- 
 tures in the midst of the savages, and the massacres 
 in which he has shared, are belied by the gentleness 
 of his face and the modesty of his manner, but cer- 
 tainly reflect credit on the fertility of his imagination. 
 All this is amusing enough during the smoking of 
 one's cigar. But the most enchanting part of the 
 twenty-four hours is the night. Never have I seen 
 stars shine with such brilliancy. The Milky Way 
 unrols its luminous ribbon across the sky, and is re- 
 flected in the waves. Our peasants say it leads to 
 Rome. Here it leads to the Ocean Archipelago, that 
 terrestial paradise, the ideal of philosophers of the last 
 century. Fe.eding on their descriptions, we imagine 
 the natives luxuriating under the shade of the cocoa- 
 nut trees, and revelling in all the most beautiful 
 products of nature ; while chaste Naiads plunge in 
 
 u 2
 
 2)2 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 the crystalline waters and weave nva-riva wreaths 
 for their hair. But then rise up the spectres of Queen 
 Pomare and the Rev. Pritchard !. which dispel our 
 poetical dreams and bring us back to the realities of 
 life. During the first part of the night I am sure to 
 meet the chief engineer, or else he stops me as I pass 
 the door of his cabin to exchange a few words. I 
 always see Fang-Tang closeted with the Japanese 
 functionary. Both are looking at the stars, however ; 
 for the growing darkness has put an end to their talk 
 upon paper. The Parsee, too, is still up, and delays 
 seeking his berth. Sitting on his heels, he is thinking 
 and stroking his fine white beard. I take up a place 
 by his side and he gives me his ideas on every kind of 
 question from the white bread which he furnishes to 
 the English merchant-princes, down to the tortuous 
 policy of the Tsungli-Yamen and the reform of Japan. 
 Often we do not separate till the curfew bell warns 
 us of the putting out of the lights. 
 
 This is the way we have crossed the Pacific. 
 
 July 23. To-day everything is changed : the sky, 
 the climate, the feelings of the passengers, who already 
 are counting the minutes till they can land ; for only 
 a few miles now separate us from our port of disem- 
 barkation. The atmosphere, charged with vapoury 
 mists, wears no longer the same aspect. The sun 
 is paler, the sky less blue. The westerly wind brings 
 with it fantastic-shaped clouds, which still preserve 
 the outlines of the mountains from which they have 
 detached themselves. These are the first messengers sent 
 us from land. Towards twelve o'clock the fitful gusts
 
 xii.] SAN FfiANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 293 
 
 bring us others a whole cloud of dragon-flies. These 
 graceful little insects, with their slender bodies and 
 gauzy wings, seem half stunned. The storm has driven 
 them from their flowery bushes and chased them across 
 the ocean. They alight on the deck, on the cordage, 
 on the masts everywhere. But they are welcome ; 
 no one touches or harms them. The China is going to 
 bring them back to their own land again. These are 
 not the only shipwrecked passengers whom we shall 
 bring home. -On the last voyage, in the middle of the 
 Pacific, some hundreds of miles from the Niphon 
 coast, a Japanese junk, without her masts, had been 
 sighted. A boat was sent, and they found by the side 
 of five or six decomposed bodies two men who still 
 breathed. Their cockle-shell of a barque, on the way 
 from Hiogo to Yokohama, had been caught in a gale 
 which drove them out to sea, and there they had been 
 tossing about on the Pacific for nearly six months. 
 The two survivors were saved and brought to San 
 Francisco. A collection was made on board, which 
 turned out to be very large. Now the China is bring- 
 ing them home. They are on board with us. They 
 are two fine youths, and quite beside themselves with 
 joy. In a few days they will return to the parental 
 roof in the dress of English sailors, with their pockets 
 full of dollars. They will be the rich men of their 
 village. What a turn in the wheel of Fortune! 
 
 , To sum up all in a word, we have had a glorious 
 passage. The east wind, helped by steam, has brought 
 us quickly to the haven where we would be. In fact, 
 we might have landed at Yokohama yesterday or 
 to-day. But for the last forty-eight hours we have
 
 291 A It AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 slackened speed, for the orders are severe. A captain 
 who should arrive before his time, even if it were only 
 by a few hours, would be dismissed the service. I hear 
 everyone around me blaming these restrictions. I 
 own I think them wise and prudent. The following 
 are the reasons assigned : the consumption of coal 
 increases with the increase of speed, and that in a very 
 large proportion : without counting the expense, there- 
 fore, the boats would have to be overloaded at starting. 
 If the time of the passage had not been fixed, the 
 captains of the four boats would rival one another in 
 speed, to the detriment of the vessel and the machin- 
 ery. " Don't forget," they added, " that we are 
 Americans, and wish for nothing better than to go 
 ahead." Besides this, the merchants of Yokohama 
 and Hong Kong depend on receiving and expediting 
 their correspondence on a certain day, and that is only 
 possible by giving such a margin to the boats as shall 
 make allowance for the insuperable delays which now 
 and then must arise from bad weather or contrary 
 winds. On their side, the Company is anxious that 
 the steamers coming from San Francisco and Hong 
 Kong should not meet at Yokohama, because they 
 would then have to be laden and unladen at the same 
 time, and so they would need to double the requisite 
 staff of officials and coolies. Now this coincidence 
 would often happen if the Californian boat were less 
 than two-and-twenty days on the passage. Add to 
 this that the Government of Washington, which has a 
 right to interfere, as it pays the subvention, hearing that 
 the boats might shorten the run by two (Jays, would 
 perhaps be tempted to force the Company to do so, and
 
 in.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA 295 
 
 thus reduce the time originally allowed by the 
 contract. 
 
 Towards evening, a three-master hove in sight. She 
 had all her sails spread and was making for the north- 
 east. Except the America, this is the one and only 
 ship we have seen since we left San Francisco. The 
 voyage is drawing to a close. To-morrow, in leaving 
 the China, we shall say good-bye to America. Let us 
 look back for a moment and give a summary of our 
 impressions. 
 
 Yes, it is a great and glorious country. Yes, you 
 have reason to be proud of her and to give your blood, 
 if necessary, to preserve her independence. Composed 
 of such varied races, and with a soil hardly yet re- 
 claimed from savage nature, you already possess the 
 quality which is the first condition of the growth, 
 prosperity, and glory of a great people I mean 
 patriotism. The civil war, which I deplore, has 
 proved it. I am not now asking if it might not 
 have been avoided : if you, Northerners, are using 
 your victory with moderation : if you, Southerners, 
 should not take the hand of your brothers, provided 
 it be offered sincerely : if it would not be worth while 
 for the one side to renounce a portion of the advantages 
 it has gained by force of arms, and for the other, the 
 powerless hatred called forth by the remembrance of 
 irreparable wrongs : if, on both sides, you should not, 
 above all, strive for a reconciliation, if it were possible 
 to realise it. All these questions, especially the last, 
 which touches the vital interests, not only of the South, 
 but of the great republic of which it threatens the very 
 existence, I set aside. You have too recently emerged.
 
 296 A li AMBLE ROUAJ) THE WOULD. [CHAP. 
 
 from tins fratricidal struggle to be disposed to listen to 
 such counsels. Even were they addressed to you by a 
 voice of far higher authority than mine, you would 
 repudiate them. I take no count either of the dis- 
 tinction of parties. I do not understand them. For 
 me there are neither Democrats nor Republicans, only 
 Americans. I affirm that on both sides during this 
 terrible civil war, you have displayed the same virtues, 
 the same courage, the same perseverance, the same 
 self-abnegation. On this head there are neither con- 
 querors nor conquered. You all are members of one 
 family, worthy of one another a nation full of life, 
 youth, and strength, and, unless through grave errors, 
 with a glorious future before you. These same virtues 
 bear you up in another and more profitable struggle, in 
 the struggle with savage nature. With the sweat of 
 your brow you have, in less than a century, fertilised 
 more than half a great continent. Thanks to the bold- 
 ness of your conceptions and the vigour of your arms, 
 you have worked wonders. The world sees the fruit 
 of your labours, and thf. world is filled with surprise 
 and admiration. 
 
 If we, children of old Europe, we, who without 
 shutting the door on the progress which is to modify 
 our future, cling to the present, and to the logical, 
 natural continuation of the past, to our old recol- 
 lections, traditions and habits ; if we do homage to 
 y our success, obtained under the shield of institutions 
 which, on all essential points, are contrary to ours, 
 this is a proof of our impartiality ; and our praises are 
 therefore the more flattering. For do not let us 
 
 eceive ourselves America is the born antagonist of
 
 xii.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 297 
 
 Europe. I speak of the America of the United 
 States, and of Europe such as she exists, such as she 
 has been formed by the moulding of centuries ; and 
 not such as visionaries would like to fashion her, 
 either after your image or after a model of their own 
 invention. The first arrivals, the precursors of your 
 actual greatness, those who sowed the seed, were 
 discontented men. Intestine divisions and religious 
 persecutions had torn them from their homes and 
 thrown them on your shores. They brought with them 
 and implanted in the soil of their new country the 
 principle for which they had suffered and fought the 
 authority of the individual. He who possesses it is 
 free in the fullest acceptation of the term. And, as 
 in that sense, you are all free, each of you is the 
 equal of the other. Your country, then, is the classic 
 soil of liberty and equality, and it has become so from 
 the fact of being peopled by the men whom Europe 
 had expelled from its bosom. That is why you, in 
 conformity with your recent origin, and we, by a 
 totally different genesis which is lost in the night 
 of time, are antagonistic. This antagonism is more 
 apparent than real. Amongst yourselves you are 
 neither so free nor so equal as we imagine in Europe ; 
 and the old society is not so hampered or divided into 
 castes as you seem to think. But do not let us 
 discuss this question. It would lead us too far ; and 
 as to our reciprocal convictions, they would go for 
 nothing. I will content myself by saying that the 
 more I travel and the older I grow, the more I am 
 convinced that human beings and things everywhere 
 resemble one another at bottom : and that the diverg-
 
 293 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 encies are principally on the surface. I see everywhere 
 the same passions, the same aspirations, the same 
 deceptions, and the same weaknesses. It is only the 
 form which varies. 
 
 But you offer liberty and equality to everyone. 
 It is to the magic charm of these two words, more 
 than to your gold-fields, that you owe the influx of 
 your emigrants, and the enormous and ever-growing 
 increase of your population. Russia and Hungary 
 have still miles of uncultivated lands. Algeria only 
 needs and clamours for hands. But no one goes there. 
 The English emigrate to Australia, because it is 
 another England, and especially an England far more 
 like you than the mother country. The great mass 
 of emigrants, therefore, turn their steps to North 
 America. Why ? First, to find bread, an article 
 which in our over-populated Europe it is no longer 
 easy to procure ; next, to obtain liberty and equality. 
 I am not quite so sure whether you are able to offer 
 them the latter, in proportion to their dreams of those 
 two great blessings, which human nature, from its 
 cradle, has so eagerly coveted. But you certainly 
 offer them space. It is space which makes your 
 fortune and which will make theirs ; because you are 
 endowed with all the qualities necessary to work it, 
 and the Celtic and German races possess the 
 same and develop them through your teaching and 
 example. For other countries do not lack space. 
 The Pampas, for instance, and all those uncultivated 
 regions of the republics of South America, are only 
 waiting for men to develop their riches. But even 
 without the obstacle of climate, the inhabitants are
 
 xii.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 299 
 
 not up to the rugged struggle with nature, and al- 
 though they too have inscribed on their banner the 
 words " Liberty and Equality," the world is not 
 thereby taken in. Soldiers of fortune, periodically 
 defeated and replaced by rivals, equally hold in their 
 hands this pretended liberty : and equality consists 
 in submission to the will and caprices of these ephe- 
 meral masters. The emigrants, therefore, go to you. 
 They seek, as I said before, for bread, individual 
 liberty and social equality : and they find space, that 
 is liberty to work, and equality of success, if they 
 bring with them the necessary qualifications. 
 
 I said that all the world admired you. But 
 all the world does riot love you. Those amongst 
 us who judge of you from an exclusively Euro- 
 pean point of view, see in you nothing but the 
 enemies of the fundamental principles of society. The 
 more they appreciate your works and unless they are 
 blind, they cannot do otherwise than appreciate them 
 the more, in fact, they admire, the less they like you. 
 I should add, that they fear you. They dread your 
 success as a dangerous example to Europe, and they 
 try to stop, as far as they can, the invasion of your 
 ideas. But they form the minority. Your friends 
 are more numerous. These see in you the prototype 
 and the last fruits of civilization. You have all their 
 sympathy : and they have the greatest wish, if not 
 politically, which they do not always like to own, at 
 least socially, which they openly proclaim, to trans- 
 form themselves after your example. There is a third 
 class, those who are resigned : their opinion is the 
 widest spread. Although they do not like you, they
 
 300 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 are willing to submit to you : to submit to your 
 principles, your habits, your institutions. Fatally 
 but inevitably, they believe that Europe will become 
 Americanised. 
 
 As for me, I share neither these hopes nor these 
 fears. I do not believe in this pretended fatality, and 
 these are the reasons for my scepticism. 
 
 First, I maintain that these fears, these hopes, this 
 blind faith in imaginary decrees of Providence are 
 founded on an imperfect knowledge of America. In vain 
 do we devour whole libraries and read every book which 
 has ever been written or published by eminent men on 
 the United States. No sooner does one set foot on 
 your soil, than one is struck by the fundamental 
 difference existing between the reality and one's pre- 
 conceived ideas, arising from what one had read. 
 Everything is totally different from what one expects. 
 Such is the first impression of all Europeans who 
 come to your country, whether as simple visitors or as 
 residents. They come with prejudices against you 
 in one way, and for you in another ; and hardly have 
 they disembarked before they find themselves involun- 
 tarily compelled to modify both. European democrats 
 are invariably disappointed. The luxury and social 
 inequalities of New York scare them. To "those who 
 are not democrats the same sight causes a pleasant 
 surprise. The Germans, socially and politically the 
 most advanced of all the immigrants, arrive in America 
 as ardent republicans, but they very soon perceive 
 that your republic is very far from coming up to their 
 ideal. They also have found things quite different 
 from what they imagined they would be. I might
 
 xii.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 301 
 
 multiply examples of this sort. Diversity of taste 
 also enters a good deal into their judgment, and 
 there is no arguing upon differences of taste. There- 
 fore let us not dwell upon them any longer. All I wish 
 to say is, that America seen through the magnifying 
 spectacles of books, and America seen on her own 
 soil, are two different and distinct things, and that to 
 found such important calculations (as they regard the 
 entire transformation of Europe) on the idea which 
 each man has formed in his own mind of America and 
 the Americans, without personal observation or know- 
 ledge, is to give oneself up to illusions, to more or less 
 clever joking, but not to lead to any serious results. 
 
 Compared to Europe, your country is as a sheet of 
 white paper. Everything has to be begun ; everything 
 is new. In Europe one rebuilds, or restores, or modifies, 
 or adds (if one has space, which is more and more 
 rare) a wing to one's house. But unless you demolish 
 what exists, you don't rebuild the foundations ; for 
 what abounds in America is what we need most 
 space. To become American would be to presuppose 
 the entire destruction of Europe. I have too high an 
 opinion of the practical spirit of our children and of 
 the generation which will succeed them to believe in 
 so radical an overthrow. I also note with pleasure 
 that if some Europeans have taken you for a model, 
 there are very few Americans, and I have never met 
 one, who has the pretension to put himself forward as 
 an example. What would you say, gentlemen of 
 Boston or New York, if we were to propose to you to 
 do like the Calif ornian pioneers, and cut down the fine 
 oaks in your parks as they level the trees of the
 
 302 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP 
 
 virgin forests round their ranches ? You would 
 naturally reply : " That was what our ancestors did, 
 but we have got beyond that : everything in its 
 proper place and in its proper time." 
 
 There is another reason why, in spite of the ad- 
 miration you excite, you cannot serve as a model. 
 How choose as a model a thing which is incomplete ? 
 which is modified day by day by the hand of Time, 
 that indefatigable artist, and with the help which 
 Europe, and for the last twenty years, Asia, never 
 ceases to furnish ? In traversing your enormous terri- 
 tory, one finds everywhere (except in the south, which 
 is sick) the same strength, the same health, the same 
 exuberance of power; only the degrees of development 
 vary in each locality. Taken all in all, nothing is 
 complete. You are at the growing age ; you are not 
 yet fully formed. 
 
 What will you be when you have come to maturity ? 
 You do not know and no one can predict, for history 
 offers no example of such a genesis. The nations of 
 the globe and those of Europe in particular, be they 
 little or great, have a common origin, and the same 
 blood flows through the veins of each one of its 
 members. They have various nationalities ; but these 
 races live side by side, each preserving his particular 
 character. They have in common a sovereign, a 
 central power, a fixed legislation, territorial divisions 
 of provinces, and a host of minor interests ; but they 
 have kept their own respective languages and cus- 
 toms, often their religious and historic rights, and are 
 not physically amalgamated. Where such an amalgama- 
 tion has taken place, it has only been by slow degrees,
 
 xii.] SAN FR4NCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 303 
 
 the result of a process which has lasted for centuries. 
 As a general rule each nation had its religion. In 
 these days, in the greater portion of the European 
 states there is no state religion. Almost everywhere 
 the principle of liberty of conscience has been pro- 
 claimed, and an attempt is being made to introduce 
 it into their laws. But this great revolution is not 
 yet practically accomplished and we cannot yet judge 
 of its effects. 
 
 This is a picture of Europe considered with reference 
 to the origin of the nations which inhabit it, and to 
 the different races of which it is composed. 
 
 But North America offers a totally different spec- 
 tacle. In the beginning, it is true, there was a certain 
 analogy. The Anglo-Saxon element predominated. 
 The majority of the immigrants were English. The 
 Dutch, who hardly counted numerically, and the 
 French in Canada and Louisiana, were not in a posi- 
 tion to dispute the land. The Indians retired into 
 their forests as wild beasts fly before cultivated dis- 
 tricts. The English then were masters of the sea- 
 coast, and the name of " New England " was appro- 
 priately chosen and is even still, in some senses, true. 
 The descendants of the first English colonists, from 
 their numbers, could easily absorb and incorporate 
 among themselves this small number of heterogeneous 
 elements, and so form a nation in the ordinary sense 
 of the term. In the limited space they then occupied, 
 it was easy for the English to impart the language, 
 habits, and ideas of the mother country, with only the 
 modifications resulting from political separation, and 
 from the republican form of government which they
 
 304 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 had chosen as most suited to the soil. But in these 
 last thirty years, this state of things has been con- 
 siderably modified. The English immigrants, if you 
 exclude the Irish, who are of another and an antago- 
 nistic race, no longer form the majority. The Germans 
 have invaded the Western states, and increase day by 
 day towards the Pacific. Then the Chinese ! Is it 
 likely, if this influx of anti-English elements continues, 
 that the Anglo-Saxon race can, in the Far West, 
 maintain the political and social preponderance which 
 it enjoys on the borders of the Atlantic ? Would it 
 be possible for its influence to prevail on the Pacific 
 shores, and successfully oppose the ever-growing im- 
 portance of the Irish, German, and Chinese elements ? 
 This is problematical, to say the least of it. But 
 who will replace the Anglo-American ? What new 
 race will spring from this mixture of Celts, Germans, 
 and Mongols ? We cannot tell no one can we only 
 know that great changes will be the result. Have I 
 not a right to say, then, that you are not yet fully 
 grown ? 
 
 There remains the unsolved problem as to liberty of 
 conscience, the right of each one to adore the Supreme 
 Being according to his own fashion. Until now, this 
 system, which seems to me the only possible one under 
 existing circumstances, works well. The Catholic 
 priests whom I have seen praise the liberty they enjoy. 
 They say they would not change places with the clergy 
 of any other country in Europe. I suppose the Protestant 
 ministers think the same. But that proves nothing. 
 Life is easy here for everybody, for everyone has space. 
 To prevent a disagreeable meeting, one has only to
 
 xri.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 305 
 
 walk the other side of the street. It is wide enough 
 for everybody. On this great question of space, looked 
 upon from a religious point of view, there is no better 
 example than the history of the Mormons. They give 
 offence in New York State ; they are ill-treated, and pass 
 on to Ohio. They are not more popular there ; and, 
 rather than be expelled by force, they go and establish 
 themselves in Illinois, on the borders of the Mississippi. 
 The same fate attends them. This time they are chased 
 by artillery. They would all have been killed if they 
 had not taken flight. Fortunately, there was room for 
 everybody. They could, without disturbing anyone, 
 carry their penates elsewhere. In Utah, too, the 
 situation is becoming critical, and already they talk of 
 a fourth exodus to Arizona. This proves two things : 
 first, that in America there is room for everyone ; and 
 next that liberty of conscience is only true for the one 
 who is the strongest, and who drives away the weakest 
 with blows or fire-arms. But the day will come, 
 although it is now far off, when this illimitable space 
 will be narrowed, and when it will be difficult, by 
 flight, to escape the pursuit of those who do not share 
 your religious convictions. Therefore, even in your 
 country (let it be said in passing), the question of 
 liberty of conscience has not yet been definitively 
 settled. 
 
 To sum up all I have before said : you have the great 
 advantage of space, which is wanting in Europe ; and 
 you are at the growing age. One never can tell if the 
 man will justify the hopes entertained of the youth. 
 But such as you are I love you, and I will tell you 
 why. 
 
 VOL. i. x
 
 306 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 North America offers an unlimited field of liberty 
 to the individual. It does not only give him the oppor- 
 tunity : it forces him to employ all the faculties with 
 which God has endowed him. The arena is open as 
 soon as he enters it he must fight, and fight to the 
 death. In Europe it is just the contrary. Everyone 
 finds himself hemmed in by the narrow sphere in 
 which he is born. To get out of this groove, a man 
 must be able to rise above his equals, to make extra- 
 ordinary efforts, and to have both abilities and quali- 
 ties above the average. What with you is the rule, 
 with us is the exception. In Europe, if a man has 
 fulfilled the duties of his state, which are always more 
 or less limited by circumstances, and has obtained the 
 ordinary reward for his labour (which reward is also 
 limited by circumstances), he thinks he has amply 
 answered to the requirements of his position. Why 
 go out of the ordinary path ? Why struggle for extra- 
 ordinary objects when success is uncertain and the 
 recompense small? Looking at the enormous com- 
 petition, it is quite enough for him if he can gain 
 a respectable livelihood. I don't say there are not 
 some ambitious and restless spirits who make a noise 
 in the world ; but they are few compared to the 
 masses of whom I am speaking. Let us give an 
 example. I know a great country where manufactures 
 would be capable of immense development. But if I 
 were to exhort the principal manufacturers to augment 
 their production, to introduce this or that machinery, 
 so as to compete in the market with other countries, 
 they would reply : " What would be the use ? We 
 have a sufficient market at home." They are content
 
 XIL] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 307 
 
 with small profits : small, I mean, in comparison with 
 the immense gains they might make with a little 
 more exertion. It is less trouble and less risk to go 
 on in the old way. From this point of view, perhaps 
 they are right ; but the commerce of the nation remains 
 below that of its neighbours. 
 
 Now in America, in every sphere of human activity, 
 superhuman efforts are made. Competition, which is 
 rather a hindrance- than a stimulant, is far less ; but 
 emulation is more keen, for the results are far greater 
 and far more easy to obtain. In Europe a man works 
 to live, or, at most, to arrive at comparative ease ; here 
 he works to become rich. Everyone does not attain 
 to this, but everyone tries for it. Such supreme efforts 
 on all sides lead to extraordinary success. On the shores 
 of the Atlantic, we see towns rivalling our greatest 
 capitals in luxury, cultivation of mind, and (whatever 
 may be said by facetious travellers,) in the taste and 
 refined habits of the upper classes : in the interior, 
 prairies and virgin forests have become in a few years, 
 thanks to the energy of a handful of men, the most 
 abundant granaries on the face of the globe ; from 
 north to south, from one ocean to the other, magnificent 
 lines of railway have been constructed; 1 on the rivers, 
 steamboats like floating palaces ; even in the most 
 remote corners of this immense continent you find 
 pioneers at work, clearing the ground and paving the 
 way for fresh conquests. And if you compare these 
 wonders with the numbers of heads and arms which 
 have achieved them, your astonishment will be still 
 
 1 In 1861 the United States had 30,000 miles of railroad; in 
 1871 more than 60,000 miles. 
 
 x 2
 
 308 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 greater, so marvellous is the disproportion between the 
 one and the other. Hardly have the emigrants left our 
 crowded Old World and set foot on the soil of the great 
 American Republic, than, from the atoms they were, 
 they have become individuals, each called in his measure 
 to participate in the common work. 
 
 This miraculous transformation, leaving out other 
 causes, which I set aside, is evidently due in a large 
 measure to the political institutions which govern 
 your great nation. To convince oneself of that fact, 
 you have only to look at Canada. Except the old 
 colony of Louis XIV., which has remained almost 
 stationary in its happy, peaceful, bucolic isolation, the 
 immigrants in Canada are almost exclusively English. 
 The climate and the soil are analogous with those of the 
 states on the Atlantic shore. One might fancy, there- 
 fore, that the results obtained would be the same as 
 other English emigrants have accomplished in New 
 England.. But no. There is less energy and less 
 progress in Canada. I do not say it as a reproach. 
 Perhaps its inhabitants are all the happier for it ; but 
 taking things altogether, and in a material point of 
 view, there is an incontestable inferiority in the British 
 colony, however flourishing it may be in other ways. 
 
 I could cite many other advantages and good 
 qualities which you possess ; but I will content myself 
 with bearing witness to the absence of prejudice 
 which distinguishes you, except when the passions of 
 the day fetter your usual freedom and clearness of 
 judgment ; and to the largeness of your views, which 
 corresponds with the greatness of your territory. There 
 is nothing small, or mean, or petty about you. This
 
 xn.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 309 
 
 is, to me, one of the greatest charms of America and 
 the Americans. People who know you better and have 
 known you longer than I, tell me that you have learned 
 a great deal in the last few years, especially in the Litter 
 school of suffering and trial entailed by the Civil War ; 
 that you have ripened ; that you are less petulant, 
 less confident in yourselves, and appreciate better the 
 things which are good and wise in Europe; in a word, 
 that your mind has spread, and has become capable of 
 embracing more vast horizons. For my part, I can 
 only be grateful for the welcome that I have received 
 everywhere, and I believe there is no one that will 
 not do homage to your kind and generous hospitality. 
 
 So much that is brilliant must have its dark shadow. 
 Every mortal man is afflicted with the faults insepar- 
 able from his good qualities. And you are not exempt 
 from this infirmity. 
 
 You have obtained, and are obtaining every day, 
 enormous results ; but it is at the cost of excessive 
 labour, of a permanent tension of mind and an equally 
 permanent drain of your physical strength. This 
 excess of toil, of which I have already explained the 
 reason, seems to me the source of serious evils. It 
 must produce exhaustion, lassitude, and premature old 
 age ; it deprives those who give themselves up to it 
 first, of time, and then of the power of enjoying the 
 result of their labours. It makes gain money, the 
 principal object in life ; excludes gaiety ; entails a 
 sadness which is the natural consequence of over- 
 fatigue ; and destroys the family tie and home joys 
 To observations such as these the same answer is in- 
 variably given. "Yes, it is true; but time will modify
 
 310 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 all this. We are at the working stage. We are making 
 our fortunes later on, will come the time of enjoy- 
 ment and repose/' I do not admit the truth of this 
 reasoning. A sad and premature old age awaits men 
 who have abused their strength. It is the same with 
 individuals as with nations. 
 
 Another cause of your greatness is the unlimited 
 expansion of individual liberty. But the liberty of 
 the individual must necessarily be limited by the 
 liberty of all represented by the State. From the 
 balance of the two results their mutual guarantees. 
 In the greater part of the countries of the Old World, 
 the State claims too much and the individual obtains 
 too little. With you, the fault is just the contrary. 
 It is the conviction of most of your eminent men that 
 you grant too much to the individual and too little 
 to the State. The greater portion of the scandals and 
 abuses which we see in your country arise from that 
 source. The control of the organs of public opinion 
 is insufficient. What is wanting, is the control of an 
 admitted authority recognized by all the world. The 
 complaints one hears on all sides are founded on facts 
 of sad notoriety. I cannot do better than quote on 
 this subject a passage from a book which has just 
 come out and whose authors are your fellow-citizens : 
 
 " All commentary would weaken the value of this 
 story, which brings with it its own lesson. The facts 
 reveal to the observer the corruption of our social 
 system. No part of our organization appears healthy 
 when put to the test. The Stock Exchange is a hell. 
 The offices of our great companies are secret dens 
 where the directors plot the ruin of their shareholders.
 
 rr.J SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 311 
 
 The law is simply an engine of war for the use of 
 the bad ; party spirit is hidden under the ermine of 
 the judge ; the house of legislature is a market where 
 justice and right are put up to auction, while public 
 opinion is silent and powerless." l 
 
 Are these grave accusations exaggerated ? I do not 
 know. All I can affirm is that I have heard similar 
 complaints from everyone's mouth. The cry for reform 
 is universal. But what kind of reform ? On what 
 basis ? With what limits ? That is the difficulty. 
 The great reform by which you modified the constitution 
 left you by Washington and your first legislators, has 
 not been a success. By abolishing the census which 
 they had the wisdom to establish, and adopting universal 
 suffrage, you have more or less given up your great 
 towns to mob influence, or at any rate, to the most 
 restless, most ignorant and least respectable portion of 
 the community. You see its effects. They are less 
 sensibly felt in the West, because there everyone 
 becomes a landed proprietor and consequently, to a 
 certain degree, a Conservative. But in the towns the 
 evil is great. The corruption and venality of which 
 you complain, are, to a great extent, the result of this 
 reform. Sooner or later you will strive to mend 
 matters. You will try and retrace your steps, but this 
 is always difficult and often dangerous. But outside 
 these social questions there is the great political one 
 
 1 Chapters on Erie, and other essays, by Ch. and H. Adams. 
 Boston, 1872. See article entitled " Les Chemins-de-fer aux 
 Etats Unis," in the Revue des Deux Mondes, 1 Avril, 1872. 
 
 N.B. [The translator has been unable to [reproduce the exact 
 words of the text, not having access to the American original.]
 
 312 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 which calls for your most serious attention. From 
 the St. Lawrence to the Potomac, from the Atlantic 
 to the Missouri, there is not a man, I believe, who 
 would not give his life to maintain the integrity of the 
 Union. But to effect this, the moral conquest of the 
 South, which will not be an easy matter, must succeed 
 to the material one which has been accomplished. 
 
 The Far West, that is, the Pacific States, also call for 
 your earnest consideration. Great progress but also 
 great changes are being made there, and still greater 
 ones are preparing. There is an enormous influx of 
 strange elements, which, as I said before, will diminish 
 more and more the Anglo-American character of 
 the population. You cannot then reckon on com- 
 munity of blood, for it hardly exists, and besides, 
 two facts in the history of your country disprove its 
 power first, your separation from the mother-country, 
 and next, the insurrection in the South. Community 
 of blood ceases to be a guarantee when there is not 
 also a community of interests. You must aim, then, 
 at creating that common interest. You must make 
 the lives of your countrymen on the shores of the 
 Pacific easy, and convince them of the great and per- 
 manent advantages they owe to the Union. 
 
 This great question of maintaining the Republic in 
 all its extent is linked with another problem, which is 
 still more difficult to solve. As it is necessary to 
 secure to the individual, and to the State, that is to 
 the totality of individuals which compose it, the just 
 amount of liberty which belong to each, it is also 
 necessary to balance the autonomy of the States with 
 the legislative power of the central government. As
 
 xu.] SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 313 
 
 a counterpoise to the autonomy of the States, Washing- 
 ton does not even represent the central link between 
 the different members of the Republic. Seeing the 
 powers conferred on the President by the constitution, 
 and the influence he exercises, an influence rendered 
 all the more easy by the legion of functionaries and 
 agents whom he nominates or dismisses, and who dis- 
 
 O ' 
 
 appear with him at the end of four, or at the most, 
 eight years ; seeing also the means of action and of 
 resistance which he has at his disposal vis-d-vis the 
 central legislature, Washington represents the principle 
 of personal government. Reforms are eagerly de- 
 manded and they will be granted ; but these reforms 
 will probably be more extensive than those who now 
 clamour for them either wish or expect. It will" pro- 
 bably happen to them as it often does to an architect 
 employed in the restoration of a house. A party wall 
 between two rooms has to be rebuilt ; or an arch- 
 way to be propped up. Nothing more ; but in pro- 
 portion as the work advances, unexpected damages 
 are discovered ; and sometimes he is obliged to 
 strengthen or renew the very foundations of the 
 building. 
 
 Public opinion cries out against abuses. But one 
 must go to the bottom of the evil, and that perhaps 
 will lead you further than you intend. In under- 
 taking this arduous and delicate task, which, in your 
 patriotism, you will be sure to accomplish, your dif- 
 ficulty will be not to sacrifice the central personal 
 power to the autonomy of the States, nor the autonomy 
 of the States to the central power. In the first case, 
 you would compromise the integrity of the Republic ;
 
 314 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 in the second, you risk denaturalising the very essence 
 of your institutions and opening the doors to a 
 Csesarism, which is the very worst form of govern- 
 ment, saving anarchy, which is not a government at 
 all. As to the dream indulged in by some superficial 
 minds, not in your own country, but in Europe, that you 
 will end by establishing a monarchy, it does not 
 deserve even a passing mention. You do not possess 
 any of the necessary elements. Kings cannot be 
 extemporised. Thrones are like the giants of your 
 forests ; they want a distinct soil and are the growth 
 of centuries. 
 
 July 24. It is hardly day-light, but already the 
 passengers are gathered on the deck. Right and left, 
 land is in sight : wooded shores, grassy slopes, and 
 rich fields of a green worthy of Ireland ; while the 
 outlines of the mountains are hidden by clouds of 
 white vapour which seem to have come out of a stove. 
 Above this moving curtain is a colossal cone. Its 
 summit is shrouded in fresh clouds. It is the Fuji- 
 yama, an extinct volcano, which lifts its crater 
 fourteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. 
 On nearing the shore, the eye perceives numberless 
 little creeks, shaded with fine trees, and bordered with 
 smiling villas, while multitudes of junks, some at 
 anchor, some propelled with large oars, or with 
 gigantic sails, reminding one of the galleys of the 
 ancients, pass close to the China. Standing on the 
 deck, men, stark naked, save for a little strip of linen 
 round their loins, ply their oars, and accompany each 
 stroke with a low and measured chaunt. These supple
 
 xii.] SAN FEANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 315 
 
 bodies with their bronzed, shiny, tattooed skins, develop 
 in their athletic poses a symmetrical beauty worthy 
 of the chisel of a sculptor. 
 
 A little before eight o'clock we are in front of the 
 Bluffs of Yokohama. The steamer slowly rounds the 
 wooded promontories crowned by magnificent firs, and 
 by the flags of the British Legation and of other 
 foreign missions. A few minutes later, and we steam 
 into the harbour. It is full of sailing vessels and 
 steamers of all nations. Native junks, great and small, 
 come and go. Further on, the graceful and imposing 
 outlines of several English, French, and American 
 men-of-war stand out against the sky. Before us, a 
 long and handsome line of buildings, mingled with 
 fine trees, stretches the whole length of the quay. 
 This is the " Bund." 
 
 At eight o'clock precisely the China casts anchor. 
 A little after nine o'clock, exactly as we had been 
 promised at San Francisco, we step on the mysterious 
 shores of the " Empire of the Rising Sun." 
 
 END OF THE FIRST PART.
 
 PART II. 
 
 JAPAN.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 YOKOHAMA. FROM THE 24 TO THE 26; AND 
 FROM THE 28 OF JULY TO THE 3 RD OF A UGUST; 
 FROM THE U TH TO THE 18 OF AUGUST; AND 
 FROM THE 18 TO THE 19 OF SEPTEMBER. 1 
 
 First Impressions of a New Arrival. The Look of the Town. 
 Commercial Movements. Europeans at Yokohama. 
 
 THE impressions on arriving in Japan have been 
 described, in the last dozen years, a thousand times 
 over. The French, English, and German newspapers 
 and reviews have all painted them in more or less 
 vivid colours. There is not a commissioner nor a 
 naval cadet stationed in the harbour, who has not sent 
 a notice or an article on the subject to the head of 
 his department. There are also more serious works, 
 like that of Sir Rutherford Alcock, the official founder 
 of Yokohama, and other books, both amusing and in- 
 structive, like the clever report of Mr. Oliphant, and 
 the charming " Voyage autour du Japon " of M. 
 
 1 I have adopted the English orthography for the Japanese 
 and Chinese names, as being the heat known, the only one con- 
 secrated by use, and the least offensive to the eye.
 
 320 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 Richard Lindau. But all they have said is less than 
 what one feels on being suddenly transported to a 
 country where everything is absolutely new. One 
 cannot believe one's eyes. At every step one asks 
 oneself if it be not all a dream, a fairy tale, a story 
 of the Thousand and One Nights ; and the vision is 
 so beautiful a one that one fears every moment lest 
 it should disappear. 
 
 I will not attempt a useless description. Every- 
 one, in these days, knows that the Japanese people 
 are gentle, amiable, civil, gay, good-natured, and 
 childish ; that the men of the lower classes have skins 
 bronzed by the sun, and often tattooed red and blue 
 like the designs on the lacquer-work of their country: 
 that men of all classes have their heads shaved, saving a 
 little tail which is agreeably balanced above the occiput ; 
 that, in summer, they leave off their narrow trousers, 
 and content themselves with a simple tunic of silk or 
 cotton, according to the rank of the individual, and 
 when they are at home, with the Fundaslii. From 
 the Mikado down to the lowest coolie, this waistband 
 or sash forms the principal part of the toilet of every 
 respectable Japanese. Everyone except the merchants, 
 who are the lowest in the social scale, belong to some 
 one, not as a serf or slave, but as a member of a clan, 
 which, divided into a great many different castes, 
 forms only one great family, of which the prince or 
 daimio is the chief. He has his counsellors, his vas- 
 sals, his samurais, or knights with two swords (the 
 others having only one), his men of war, and servants 
 of all grades. Each one wears on his back and on 
 the sleeves of his tunic, the coat of arms of the prince
 
 I.] YOKOHAMA. 321 
 
 or the corporation whom lie serves, a flower or certain 
 letters inscribed in a circle. The sabres of the gentle- 
 men, their inkstands, their pipes, their purses fastened 
 to their waistbands, all this is well known. One 
 knows also, on the word of Sir Rutherford, that it is 
 not prudent, and that there is even peril of death, in 
 meeting one of these samurais when they are acting 
 as escort to their prince, or when they are coming out 
 of a house of entertainment heated by a few bumpers 
 of saJci. It is less generally known that the present 
 government is striving to put down these feudal 
 institutions. But the external appearance of the 
 country is, as yet, but little altered. As to the women, 
 all authors speak of them with delight. They are 
 not exactly beautiful, for they are wanting in regularity 
 of feature. Their cheek-bones are too prominent. 
 Their beautiful, large, brown eyes are too decidedly 
 of an almond shape, and their thick lips are wanting 
 in delicacy ; but that does not spoil them. What 
 does almost destroy their beauty is the habit of the 
 young girls, just before their marriage, of tearing out 
 their eyebrows and blackening their teeth. They take 
 these precautions as a safeguard against themselves. 
 By sacrificing their beauty and rendering themselves 
 less attractive, and consequently less exposed to se- 
 duction, they give their husbands a pledge of fidelity. 
 But they are gay, simple, and gracious, full of natural 
 distinction, and, if we are to believe the young authors 
 who have made their studies of manners in the tea- 
 shops of Yokohama, extremely easy to live with. 
 Their head-dress consists of two or three smooth 
 bands of ebony black hair, gracefully twisted and 
 VOL. i. v
 
 322 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 confined by two large pins only bad women wear 
 more. Their toilet consists of a petticoat and a 
 jacket, with a broad sash tied in a large bow behind. 
 Their shoes are boards, adroitly fastened round the 
 great toe by a thin little leather strap ; but all this 
 is well known through innumerable descriptions and 
 photographs, and even by the paintings on those 
 Japanese fans so common now in Europe. 
 
 But what no pen or pencil can ever truly render 
 is the sight of the streets, with their busy, picturesque 
 crowd of men and women smiling courteously at one 
 another, and bowing profoundly to each other ; or, if 
 it be a question of some great personage, prostrating 
 themselves on the ground ; but with an agility and a 
 dignity which takes off what might appear humiliat- 
 ing in the action, and only gives it the appearance of 
 an excess of politeness and deference. Whilst you 
 are walking down a street, of which the extreme 
 cleanliness is the first thing that strikes you, and 
 looking right and left, only regretting that you have 
 not a hundred eyes wherewith to take in all these 
 enchanting scenes, you hear the measured cry or 
 chaunt of the coolies, bearing great cases hung on long 
 bamboos, resting on their athletic shoulders. The 
 perspiration is streaming down their tattooed limbs : 
 except the linen waistband, they are entirely naked 
 at this season of the year. They also are smiling. 
 During their short halts to take breath, they chatter 
 away and exchange compliments with each other. 
 And then the houses ! You know them well. They 
 have been represented hundreds of times, and many 
 of you saw in the Paris Exhibition a real Japanese
 
 i.j YOKOHAMA. 323 
 
 house. But believe me when I say that all this does 
 not give you in the least the idea of the reality. You 
 should see these houses in Japan itself, inhabited by 
 the natives themselves. You must look at the interior, 
 which is easy enough, for the house is entirely open 
 towards the street. You should see the light and 
 shade flickering in these habitations, without furni- 
 ture, it is true, but with beautiful mattings, and a 
 view beyond of the little garden, with its dwarf trees, 
 resembling, in spite of their stunted size, the giants 
 of the forest, like children whom one has dressed up 
 and disguised as old men. Here am I, after my 
 protest and against my will, allowing myself to be 
 tempted into giving descriptions, although I have de- 
 clared them to be powerless even by far cleverer pens 
 than mine ! A thousand little problems of daily life 
 are solved before one's eyes by a people of evident 
 refinement, who feel the same wants as ourselves, but 
 who satisfy them by totally different means. It is 
 impossible not to admire a picture so charming in 
 design and colouring : but when one comes to examine 
 it closer, one finds that it is an undecipherable 
 puzzle. 
 
 We must not forget the Europeans. Yokohama 
 is the creation of the first English merchants, who 
 arrived in 1858 after the signing of the treaties, to 
 seek their fortunes in the Empire of the Rising Sun, 
 which until then- had been hermetically sealed to 
 them. Whilst the minister of Queen Victoria, Sir 
 Rutherford Alcock, was negotiating with the Siogun 
 about the territory to be conceded to the Europeans, 
 these latter, of their own authority, chose a desert 
 
 y 2
 
 324 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHA p. 
 
 shore on which to erect their houses and factories, 
 close to a fishing village called " Yokohama," or 
 " Across the Sea-Shore." This spot had the advantage 
 over that proposed by Sir Rutherford, of being more 
 accessible to ships than any other port in the Gulf of 
 Yedo. The Japanese ministers were in favour of the 
 selection, because, hemmed in by the sea on one side 
 and a marsh on the other, as well as by a river and a 
 canal, this locality seemed to them to combine all the 
 requisite conditions for being converted into a second 
 " Detsima " or prison, when a favourable opportunity 
 presented itself of ridding themselves of the strangers. 
 This after-thought did not escape Sir Rutherford ; but 
 he was compelled, at last, to yield to the wish of his 
 countrymen, and to the force of circumstances. In 
 general, the opinion is, that the security of the moment 
 will never be troubled, and people laugh at the sinister 
 previsions of the late English minister. Because, in 
 these last few years, no English resident has been 
 murdered, they feel themselves as safe as if living in 
 the Strand or in Charing Cross. I suppose that this 
 is in human nature. When it has been fine for a 
 month, a good many people will not believe in bad 
 weather. At the close of the long and happy epoch 
 of peace which divided the reigns of the two Napoleons, 
 many serious-minded, reflecting men no longer be- 
 lieved in the possibility of war. It was, they said, 
 incompatible with that degree of civilization to which 
 human nature had attained. If you doubted it, you 
 were looked upon as a visionary and even a dangerous 
 man. It is in these dispositions that I have found 
 the English residents of Yokohama. I can only fer-
 
 i.] YOKOHAMA. 325 
 
 vently hope that future events will justify these 
 optimists, and prove that the prudent Sir Rutherford 
 was in the wrong. 
 
 Hardly was the new town built than it was almost 
 entirely destroyed by fire. This was on the 20th 
 November, 1866. No trace now remains of tl is 
 disaster. It is built in the shape of a parallelogram, 
 crossed from west to east by three great arteries, 
 out of which lead streets of minor importance. 
 Along the sea-shore, parallel to the large thoroughfare, 
 stretches the Bund, which is a row of fine houses, 
 each with its little garden, either before or behind. 
 To the east is the native quarter, which spreads 
 itself out towards the north. At the entrance is 
 the palace of the Japanese governor, situated at the 
 corner of Curio Street, which is a prolongation of 
 Main Street, and contains shops where every kind 
 of bronze and lacquer- work, China vases, and other 
 curiosities are sold. At the end, a gateway and bridge, 
 carefully guarded by native troops, lead to the country 
 beyond, and to the village which gave its name to the 
 town. The road winds up a steep hill and descends 
 on a plain on the other side. A double row of houses 
 skirts this road, which at a little distance joins the 
 Tokaido, or the great royal highway of Yedo. To see 
 a perpetually moving stream of human beings of all 
 ages and conditions, one has only to take a walk 
 between Kanagawa and Kawasaki. Formerly, to do 
 this would have been an act of bravery, if not of 
 temerity ; but to-day there is no danger. This part of 
 the Tokaido will soon lose its peculiar character, how- 
 ever, for a railroad, of which the works are already
 
 328 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 far advanced, will unite the capital with Yokohama. 1 
 To the west of the European town, beyond the little 
 river, are the celebrated " bluffs," or heights, which, 
 detaching themselves from the neighbouring hills, 
 advance towards the sea : in the few last years they 
 have been covered with a number of pretty villas. 
 There is the (at this moment unoccupied) residence of 
 the English Legation, the house of the English judge, 
 and of most of the English and American residents, 
 and the legations of other foreign Governments. 
 The greater part of these buildings are surrounded 
 with magnificent trees, and enjoy a glorious view ; 
 towards the north, above the hills on that side, the 
 great volcano, Fujiyama ; towards the west and south, 
 the Pacific ; towards the east, the long, wooded pro- 
 montory, and the white line formed by the houses of 
 Kanagawa. At the foot of these bluffs is the French 
 barrack ; and on the summit, the barrack of the 
 English troops. One knows that on the occasion of 
 some troubles in the interior, the governor of the 
 town, having declared to the diplomatic agents that he 
 could no longer answer for the safety of the Europeans, 
 the French admiral, Jaures, disembarked his marines, 
 and that a regiment of the line was sent for from Hong 
 Kong. This military occupation still continues, 
 although with certain modifications ; and I own that, 
 whatever people may say, I think it is a wise pre- 
 caution. 
 
 1 One portion of this railroad was opened with great pomp on 
 the 12th June, 1872. No unlucky accident marred the solemnity, 
 except that the principal personage, the Prime Minister Sanjo, was 
 forgotten in the waiting-room !
 
 i.] YOKOHAMA. 327 
 
 The commerce of the place is centered in the lower 
 town. There are the great banks, the counting-houses 
 of the principal firms, the offices of the three Steam 
 Packet Companies, the factories and shops, (more or 
 less abundantly furnished,) and a large number of 
 public-houses. 
 
 All these establishments prove the partly successful 
 efforts that have been made to convert the newly- 
 created factory into one of the great emporiums of the 
 East. Nevertheless, symptoms of disquiet are evident. 
 It is more difficult to point out the cause. It is evident 
 that here, as in China, one is far off from the golden 
 age of sudden and fabulous profits. The influx of 
 European and American merchants, the establishment 
 of new houses, and even the competition, which is every 
 day more sensibly felt, of the Chinese them- 
 selves, to a certain degree explain this fact. There 
 are also the fluctuations inherent in all commercial 
 operations, the consequence of the late events in 
 Europe. Nevertheless, the foreign trade is decidedly 
 on the increase, though, during the last two years, the 
 English have not done so well. I hear a great many 
 complaints, and they are easily to be understood. 
 People do not exile themselves to the antipodes and 
 run the chance of the climate to work hard and gain 
 little. In that case they had better have remained at 
 home. They were attracted by the brilliant prospect 
 of great fortunes rapidly made. These illusions have 
 been dispelled, and hence the discontent. 
 
 I do not, of course, venture on an opinion upon a 
 matter which I have been unable to study deeply. 
 But I fear that the calculations and hopes of some of
 
 328 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 the foreign merchants are founded on suppositions 
 which a more accurate knowledge of the resources of 
 the country would scarcely justify. The Japanese 
 people are happy and contented with the conditions 
 in which they are placed, or rather in which they have 
 been placed until now. Misery is unknown amongst 
 them, but so also is luxury. The simplicity of their 
 habits, an extreme frugality, and the absence of those 
 wants which Europe could and would satisfy, are, it 
 appears to me, so many obstacles to a vast exchange 
 of European products with those of Japan. The tea 
 of this country is not popular with us : and since the 
 best silkworms' eggs were exported to Lombardy, the 
 Japanese silks have diminished in value. Their mines 
 remain, which perhaps conceal untold riches. But in 
 the present state of things, neither the people nor 
 the country are rich. Excepting English cottons, the 
 inhabitants have no need of European articles ; and 
 even if they had, they would have no money wherewith 
 to buy them. All this, it is true, may be changed, 
 only it will not be to-day or to-morrow. Generations 
 will come and go before these dreams can be realised. 
 The existing governments are tending towards this end 
 and advancing with giant strides. But even if the 
 nation should wish to follow, has it the power ? That 
 seems to me doubtful. The European merchants hope 
 for it, because they wish for it. They pat the reformers 
 on the back, hoping to profit by the change. But men 
 who are well versed in such matters, and have no pre- 
 conceived views or interests, fear, on the contrary, that 
 these expensive innovations will become a source of 
 impoverishment rather than of riches to the country ;
 
 I.] YOKOHAMA. 329 
 
 and that foreign trade has already attained the extreme 
 limit possible under the given circumstances. 
 
 The official documents for the year 1870, compared 
 with the preceding year, prove a notable increase in 
 foreign; trade. In round numbers, the value of the 
 imports in the five ports permitted by the treaty 
 represent upwards of thirty-one millions of dollars j 1 
 the exports more than fifteen millions ; total, forty-six 
 millions two hundred and sixty- three thousand dollars. 
 The imports of English cottons alone amount to the 
 enormous sum of seven millions of dollars ; woollen 
 stuffs to two millions. But the sum-total of the im- 
 ports of European and American merchandise is only 
 about thirteen millions ; whilst, owing to the bad 
 harvests of the two last years, more than eighteen 
 millions of dollars' worth of food were imported from 
 China in the shape of grain, rice, peas, sugar, and oil. 
 Japan paid twelve millions of dollars for rice alone. 
 Hence arose the diminution of demand for European 
 goods. 
 
 The exports are less satisfactory. The principal 
 product, which is silk, was unusually dull. The war 
 between France and Germany and the deterioration 
 of the .Japanese silk explain the stagnation of this 
 branch of trade. The export of tea, on the other hand, 
 made by private houses for American consumption 
 rose from two millions to three millions eight hundred 
 and forty-eight thousand dollars that is, about double. 
 These transactions involve a debt of sixteen millions 
 of dollars, which the country will have to pay in 
 
 1 The dollar, at par, is worth 4 francs 50 centimes in French 
 money ; and about 3s. 9<f. in English.
 
 330 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 specie. Since the new era, gold and silver have com- 
 pletely disappeared from circulation, and nothing is 
 seen but paper-money. 
 
 An analysis of official returns proves a notable 
 diminution in English trade and a slight increase in 
 the transactions with Prance. Whilst in the same 
 year the number of foreign ships has increased, the 
 English navigation has diminished. This diminution 
 is entirely in the coasting trade, which is now carried 
 on exclusively by the steamers of the P.M.S.S. Com- 
 pany. These ships in themselves represent three- 
 quarters of the navigation of America in the North 
 Pacific. 
 
 We have seen how large a share in these trans- 
 actions Mis to the Chinese. All retail business is 
 now beginning to pass through their hands. Lately, 
 the Costa Rica, one of the steamers of the Pacific 
 Company, carried from Shanghai to Yokohama 1,800 
 tons of European and Chinese merchandise, of which 
 300 only were consigned to European and American 
 merchants at Yokohama and 1,500 to Chinese houses 
 established in that port and at Nagasaki. There are 
 a good many German houses here, but they trade 
 chiefly with English capital. 
 
 As to the navigation, this is the order of the different 
 flags according to the number of their tonnage : 
 English, American, German, French and Dutch. The 
 Germans carry Swiss and English goods in preference 
 to the productions of their own country. They rarely 
 come from a German port, but they do almost all the 
 coasting trade between Yokohama, Iliogo, Nagasaki, 
 and Shanghai. Their flag waves in almost every
 
 I.] YOKOHAMA. 331 
 
 port, even in the most out-of-the-way harbours of 
 China and Japan. On land and sea, German activity 
 makes itself more and more felt. They, with the 
 Chinese, are the most formidable rivals to English 
 commerce. The French ships are far less numerous, 
 and generally come straight to and from France. 
 Their cargo is almost invariably French. In all 
 commercial transactions, however, the London and 
 Liverpool markets lay down the law. Among other 
 things they regulate the price of silks. A considerable 
 portion of the Japanese silks destined for the French 
 weavers is sent to Marseilles by the " Messageries 
 Maritimes," then across France, and so to London 
 and Liverpool, where they are bought by the Lyons 
 manufacturers. Japan will only take Birmingham 
 and Manchester goods. The Americans import flour 
 and building materials from Oregon and California. 
 In exchange they export tea, of which there is an 
 enormous consumption in the Pacific States. 
 
 In external appearance, the commercial quarter of 
 Yokohama does not certainly resemble in any way 
 the great industrial centres of Europe or America. No 
 chimneys vomiting clouds of black smoke ; no throng 
 of cabs or omnibuses ; no press of business-men 
 jostling against one another. Houses and passers-by 
 have all a quiet, respectable, and somewhat rural look. 
 The buildings, though adapted to the climate, have 
 a decidedly British stamp upon them. The principal 
 ornament of the streets are the fine trees, of which 
 the heads appear above the roofs. For two or three 
 hours in the morning and before sunset, there is a 
 slight stir in the streets from the merchants going to
 
 332 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 or returning from their counting-houses. The rest of 
 the day, all is quiet and still, save that about twelve 
 o'clock everyone goes to breakfast, and the shops and 
 offices are shut. As in India and China, the " tiffin " 
 is the principal meal ; the dinner is but a ceremony. 
 The only really busy days are those of the arrival and 
 departure of the mails. On ordinary occasions, people 
 think they have done quite enough by four o'clock, 
 and that it is then time to amuse themselves. The 
 young men leave their pens and rush off some to take 
 a ride, others to go boating. The fashion is for each 
 gentleman to carry his own canoe (which is long and 
 narrow), through the streets and launch it himself in 
 the water. Then, like all Englishmen, trained from 
 boys to every kind of athletic sport, they seize their 
 oars and start off, like an arrow from a bow. It is a 
 struggle of courage, skill, and strength. At that 
 hour the Bund begins to fill with gigs or little light 
 carriages built at Hong Kong, drawn by little Austra- 
 lian or Philippine horses, and filled with young couples 
 for here everybody is young who drive rapidly 
 towards the bluffs. They trot up the steep ascent, 
 pass the racecourse (which is never wanting in any 
 English settlement), and finally get into the "New 
 Road," as it is called, which, by wooded hills and 
 through green rice-fields and groves of bamboos, leads 
 down to the bay of Mississippi. Everywhere you meet 
 gentlemen on horseback, either mounted on the ponies 
 of the country, or bestriding some huge English charger, 
 a veteran of the last Chinese war ; English officers, 
 French sailors, or gentlemen in white clothes, with 
 solar topees on their heads, fresh from India. What adds
 
 i.] YOKOHAMA. 333 
 
 to the charm of the scene is the smiling look of the 
 country and the intense beauty, at this season, of the 
 setting sun. The sky is positively crimson, with great 
 clouds of Sevres blue ; the long promontory of Thana- 
 gawa is inundated with mother-of-pearl; and on the 
 purple and violet sea, the pale shadows of the ships 
 and junks stand out against the sky, the one rocked 
 by the swell, the others gliding across the water like 
 phantoms. 
 
 Englishmen form the great majority of the residents; 
 then come the Americans, Germans and French. 
 Italy is represented by silk-growers : they arrive 
 in summer and return in November. The ladies 
 are few. Last year Sir Harry and Lady Parkes were 
 able to get about thirty together at a ball given on 
 the Bluffs ; but that was an event which is still talked 
 of. A fete at the English club given to some English 
 officers of one of the regiments which was ordered 
 home, enabled me to admire the elegance, freshness 
 and beautiful toilets of some of these young ladies, 
 who had courage enough to dance with the ther- 
 mometer at 30 degrees of Ke'aumur. 
 
 The natives whom one meets with in the European 
 quarter are either servants or clerks. The place of 
 comprador, which is such an important one in the 
 European houses and banks, is invariably held by 
 Chinese. From year to year these men play a more 
 important part in this country. As servants they are 
 much preferred to the natives. " The Japanese have 
 adopted the civilization, religion and even the hand- 
 writing of the Chinese ; " this was told me by a man 
 who has long been resident here. Now they are
 
 334 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CH \r. 
 
 trying to imitate Europeans. They cannot help 
 copying others ; it is in their nature. Only compare 
 a Japanese and Chinese servant. The former will watch 
 the minutest habit of his master, and conform himself 
 to it with the most wonderful facility ; only he must 
 not act by his own inspiration, for he has no head. 
 The Chinese remain always Chinese. They observe 
 and copy less, but they do better when they are left 
 to follow their own imaginations. 
 
 The Japanese, provided you keep them in their 
 place and make them observe the etiquette of their 
 own country, are gentle, merry, and very affectionate 
 towards their master. If he beats them, they are not 
 the less attached ; besides, the bamboo brings with it 
 no dishonour. They are only children whom a father 
 has chastised. But if you treat them as you would 
 a European servant, they become familiar, rude, and 
 positively insupportable. The Chinaman, on the other 
 hand, can never be made to love the master he serves. 
 He is proud, vindictive, and very susceptible; but 
 always of an exquisite politeness. At the slightest 
 observation you make to him, he leaves your service, 
 either under the pretext of the illness of his mother, 
 or telling you, very respectfully, and with the peculiar 
 smile of his race when announcing disagreeable intel- 
 ligence, that there is between you and him an incom- 
 patibility of character. Having said this, nothing 
 stops him, and he leaves you. 
 
 In one of the wide streets, behind a little wall and 
 surmounted with a cross, a fine church rises at the 
 bottom of a court ; and before the porch, the statue of 
 the Blessed Virgin. On one side is a low house, the
 
 ,.] YOKOHAMA. 335 
 
 humble domicile of the apostolic delegate, Mgr. 
 Petitjean and his vicars, all belonging to the Paris 
 Foreign Missionary College. Apostolic zeal and love 
 have led them to these distant shores. The laws of 
 the country, the jealous vigilance of the Japanese 
 authorities, the hatred of Christianity (which has sur- 
 vived the transformations, operated or meditated by 
 the innovators), and the prudent counsels of the 
 foreign envoys, have hitherto placed insurmountable 
 obstacles in the way of their ministry. They are 
 pastors without flocks, save such Catholic residents as 
 have time to remember that they are Christians, and 
 the Irish and French soldiers and sailors, who never 
 forget it. Thousands of native Christians, cruelly 
 persecuted at this very moment, vainly demand the 
 religious consolations which these good fathers are 
 forbidden to bring to them. There is nothing, there- 
 fore, to be done, but to pray, to wait, to hope, and 
 to perfect themselves in the knowledge of the language, 
 manners, and history of the country ; they trust that 
 this new revision of the treaties will bring about good 
 results ; and cherish the hope, which perhaps is not 
 altogether a chimerical one, that the day is at hand 
 when Japan, open to European commerce, will be 
 equally so to the propagation of the faith. 
 
 To sum up all I have said, Yokohama is an import- 
 ant place. A great deal of work is done here, but 
 not too much. There is a good deal of activity : 
 but not that exaggerated, feverish activity which cha- 
 racterises the great centres of industry and commerce 
 in America. There is time left for rest, for rational 
 amusements, and also for the regret which everyone
 
 336 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 seems to feel for their birthplace. A new arrival 
 has not been twenty-four hours at Yokohama without 
 finding out that all the world is home-sick. They 
 work and play, it is true, each one according to his 
 own taste and means. Below the rank of gentleman 
 there is the rowdy ; for this element, though not so 
 developed as in the Far West, is not altogether 
 wanting witness the drinking-shops and billiard- 
 rooms, which are constantly filled with these noisy 
 adventurers. But all sigh for " home." Talk to them 
 of Old England and a cloud at once passes over their 
 faces. Man is thus constituted. He is always looking 
 for some happiness in the future instead of seizing 
 what is granted to him in the present. Life in these 
 distant countries fosters this disposition. Living 
 between the regret of what they have left behind 
 and the hope of what they will get, their years are 
 passed in suspense and agitation. Those who have 
 become really rich (and they are the exceptions) leave 
 with joy the exile where they have passed the best 
 years of their lives. They decide to go home they are 
 homeward bound. What music in those two words ! 
 magic words, which call forth the sighs of all those 
 who hear them. But I fancy the happiest moment 
 for these favoured mortals is the passage. It is the 
 time of illusions. Hardly have they arrived in their 
 own country, with its leaden-grey sky and murky 
 fogs, than they begin to regret the bright Japanese 
 sun, the beautiful cedars which shaded their house, 
 the quantities of servants, the work, the animation 
 in fact, all the surroundings of their Yokohama ex- 
 istence. There, at any rate they were somebody;
 
 i.] YOKOHAMA. . 337 
 
 they were at least better than a chi-fu-chi. In England 
 they find themselves nobody ! In Japan they had 
 the mal du pays they were home-sick ; in England, 
 they long, at heart, to return to Japan. 
 
 " Man never is, but always to be blest ! " 
 
 If they had to begin life over again, would they go 
 and seek their fortunes at the Antipodes ? * 
 
 i Here is the census of the European residents in Japan from 
 the report of Sir Harry Parkes, April 29th, 1871 : 782 English ; 
 229 Americans; 164 Germans; 158 French; 87 Dutch; and 166 
 Europeans of all other countries. Total, 1,586. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 YOSHIDA.FROM THE S* D TO THE 14 OF A VGUST. 
 
 Japan, saving the Trade Ports and the Towns of Yedo and Osaka, 
 always closed to Strangers. Way of Travelling in the Interior. 
 Passage of the Odawara Eiver. The Baths of 'Miyanoshita. 
 The Pilgrims of Fujiyama. The Temple of Yoshida. The 
 defile of Torisawa. Hach6ji. Return to Yokohama. 
 
 TBEATIES have not yet opened Japan. They have 
 only given European residents the liberty to reside 
 and to trade in the five ports called " of the treaties :" 
 namely, Yokohama, Hiogo (Kobe), Nagasaki, Niigata, 
 and Hakodate' ; and in the great towns of Yedo and 
 Osaka. All the rest, that is, the whole territory of 
 the empire, saving these seven points, is hermetically 
 sealed. Around each " treaty port " there are a few 
 square miles accessible to strangers. Posts on which 
 are painted in English and Japanese characters, 
 " Frontiers of the Treaty," mark the boundaries. 
 Beyond is forbidden ground. Only the heads of 
 legations and consuls-general are, by virtue of con- 
 ventions, permitted to travel into the interior. The 
 prohibition for everyone else is strictly maintained. 
 However, on the demand of the envoys, permission
 
 en. ii.] YOSHIDA. 339 
 
 is sometimes given to visit the hot springs of 
 Miyan6shita and of Atami, and to make the ascent 
 of Fujiyama. In these cases, an armed guard, whom 
 the Europeans call, I am told wrongly, yakunins (as 
 this appellation belongs to officers of a superior rank) 
 accompany the tourist, less with the object of pro- 
 tecting than of watching him. The most distant 
 points granted by these permits are Subashiri, at the 
 foot of the Fujiyama to the north-east, at about fifty 
 miles from Yokohama ; and Atami, on the sea-coast, 
 to the south-west, at about sixty miles. Whenever 
 they proceed with the revision of the treaties, 1 this 
 question of the closing of Japan will form one of the 
 most important in the negotiations. Until now, no 
 foreign legation has approached the subject officially : 
 but when sounding the views and intentions of the 
 Mikado's councillors, the answer has always been the 
 same, namely, that " As long as the samurais (military 
 men) remain armed, the shutting-up of the country 
 must be maintained, even in the interests of the 
 strangers themselves. To permit these last to travel 
 in the interior would be to expose their persons and 
 even their lives to the greatest dangers." When you 
 answer to this : " Well, why not disarm the samu- 
 rais ? " the reply is : " This is a serious business ; a 
 question of interior policy which we are not allowed 
 to discuss with the representatives of foreign powers." 
 lu this way they elude the discussion. " To disarm 
 the samurais would involve a revolution. To allow 
 strangers to travel in the interior before they were 
 disarmed, would only be to multiply assassinations. 
 1 This was done in 1873. 
 
 z 2
 
 340 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 These have all been committed in the open territory ; 
 judge what they would be if we were to authorise 
 strangers to travel in the interior ! " This argument 
 is unanswerable. 1 
 
 Is there any great danger at present in travelling in 
 the interior ? On this point, opinions are divided. 2 In 
 diplomatic circles, the fashion is to look upon every- 
 thing and everybody in Japan on the bright side. A 
 liberal ministry, which assumes friendly relations with 
 strangers, is in power. They must be coaxed, en- 
 couraged, helped, as far as possible, to carry out their 
 benevolent, civilised, and enlightened views. Certainly, 
 the list of murdered foreigners is large, and comparing 
 the number of victims with the residents, it is even 
 startling. But for some months, there have been no 
 similar attacks. If two samurais, helped by a third, 
 whom chance had brought upon the scene of action, 
 did cut to pieces two Englishmen in the service of 
 the Japanese government last January, why, those 
 fools had only themselves to thank for it, for they had 
 sent away their guards, and showed themselves at 
 night in the streets of the capital with one of the 
 women of the country. Certainly, Sir Rutherford had 
 reason to say in his book that it was not safe to meet 
 daimios travelling in the interior with their escort of 
 two-sworded knights ; that even he ran the chance of 
 a sudden and violent death. But then, you do not 
 meet daimios as often as you did formerly, for the 
 
 1 By the last advices from Japan it appears that the disarming 
 of the samurais has been effected in various parts of the empire. 
 
 2 If the last accounts are to be believed there is a notable 
 amelioration in this respect.
 
 it.] YOSHIDA. 341 
 
 reason that they generally travel in steamboats arid not 
 on land. The samurais, besides, are not so hostile as 
 they used to be. They begin to yield to the influences 
 of civilisation. 
 
 " But the terrible attack of those two fanatics in the 
 streets of Kiy6to on Sir Harry Parkes, at the very 
 moment when, surrounded by his soldiers and staff, he 
 was solemnly going to pay a visit to the Mikado in his 
 own palace ? " " Oh, that was three years ago. Things 
 have changed very much since then." In fact, to 
 believe the official talk of the legations, all danger 
 has disappeared. 
 
 The residents in Yokohama are equally confident. 
 Nevertheless, some amongst them have owned to me 
 their complete ignorance on this head. The Catholic 
 missionaries, whose information is so valuable in other 
 parts of the East, and especially in China, were not 
 able to give me any precise indications. On one point 
 alone everyone is agreed, that the people are good, 
 amiable, and benevolent. As for the two-sworded 
 gentlemen, why one had better avoid them as much as 
 one can. The rest is unknown. Many things are, in this 
 country ! A thick curtain is still drawn over it. The 
 legations of the great powers have just lifted up a little 
 corner of it ; but their means of information are limited, 
 and, saving the English minister, who is at Yedo, they 
 are all settled at Yokohama. Besides, circumstances 
 impose great reserve on the heads of departments. If 
 they were to insist too much on the dangers that might 
 be run by their fellow-countrymen who wish to pene- 
 trate into the interior, they would cause a panic in 
 the Yokohama factory, and wound the susceptibilities
 
 342 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 of the native authorities. If, on the other hand, they 
 were to enlarge on the security which Europeans now 
 enjoy in consequence of the treaty, they would in- 
 directly encourage that spirit of adventure which is 
 one of the attributes of the Anglo-Saxon, and would 
 assume the responsibility of the murders which might 
 be the result. They therefore keep silence. But as 
 I have said, confidence prevails at this moment in all 
 circles, official, diplomatic, and consular. 
 
 August 3. M. Van der Hoeven, the Netherlands 
 minister, has proposed to me to join an excursion 
 which he is about to make to Fujiyama. I hope to 
 profit by this opportunity to explore the country 
 which is hitherto so little known to the north and 
 north-east of this extinct volcano. Our party consists 
 of six ; and amongst these we have the good fortune 
 to bring with us M. Kempermann, a distinguished 
 Japanese scholar, and the interpreter of the North- 
 German Legation. Our preparations are at last made, 
 and the government orders duly conveyed by couriers 
 to the local authorities. The cook, in a cango, with 
 provisions, plate, and beds, loaded on coolie shoulders, 
 precede us : and this morning by five o'clock, in 
 magnificent weather, which, however, threatens 
 intense heat, we get into our char-d-banc. It will 
 carry us by the Tokaido or royal carriage road, which 
 begins a league from hence, down to the banks of the 
 river Odawara. From thence we shall go on horse- 
 back, on foot, or in a cango. A band of yakunins, 1 
 our guardian angels and also our watchers, mounted 
 1 Spelt ynconin by Sir R. Alcock. (Translator's Note.)
 
 ii.] YOSHIDA. 343 
 
 on little screws of horses, surround the char-d-banc. 
 Hardly had we got into this primitively-constructed 
 vehicle, than everyone, except I, who never carry any, 
 begins to examine his fire-arms. My young neigh- 
 bour pulls out of his pocket a formidable revolver. 
 The way in which he handles it makes me, for 
 the first time in my wanderings, tremble in my 
 shoes. 
 
 The Tokaido is, as usual, very animated. Travellers 
 on foot, or in cangos or norimons, men, women and 
 children, warriors with two swords, and priests with 
 shaven heads, follow one another without intermission. 
 From time to time we meet a messenger. Like the 
 greater part of the men we see, he has no clothes, 
 save the piece of linen called a pagne. He is 
 covered with a great round flat hat, miraculously 
 balanced on the top of his head, and carries on his 
 shoulder a long, thin bamboo stick. At one end is a 
 little parcel containing his despatches, at the other 
 his slender baggage. His little feet are shod with 
 straw sandals. He runs with marvellous grace and 
 agility : hardly does he touch the ground. This 
 Mercury is only a poor coolie in the pay of some 
 daimio, or of the government, or of the post-office : 
 for there is a post-office for letters, the service of 
 which is very well done. Our yakunins are fine 
 fellows. Under their black, lacquered, flat, paper hats, 
 with wide borders, and in their ample, flowing, silk 
 robes they look very well. On both sides of the 
 road there are houses, shops, and trees. The villages 
 meet. The largest is called Totska. At half-past 
 eight we arrived at Fujisawa, a town celebrated for
 
 344 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 its temple. The country is beautiful. Wooded hills 
 alternate with little valleys, which, closed towards the 
 mountains, open out to the road. Mountains, valleys, 
 gorges, all are of a brilliant green. Rice-fields cover 
 the plains : the flanks of the mountains are cultivated 
 in little terraces, stage upon stage, as well as the 
 clefts of the hills, which are shaded by magnificent 
 trees, pines, cryptomerias, Japanese laurels, and here 
 and there tufts of bamboos. 
 
 We breakfast in a great tea-house. The ne-sans 
 the young ladies, that is to say, the servants of the 
 inn, so frequently mentioned in travels in this country, 
 cluster round us. Although they are accustomed to 
 see strangers here, there is still a great crowd of 
 curious folks. At half-past nine we start again. An 
 hour later we cross the treaty frontier, and passing 
 through the suburb of Oitso, arrive at about one 
 o'clock on the banks of the river, face to face with 
 the feudal town of Odawara. 
 
 Here we left our carriage and each of us was 
 stretched on a plank, passing our fingers through 
 little holes bored for that purpose. Then four naked 
 men lifted us up, placed us on their shoulders, and 
 dashed with us into the river. It is a most strange, 
 exciting scene and a little nervous besides. In the 
 middle of the torrent, the water rose up nearly to the 
 shoulders of the bearers. Forced to yield to the 
 violence of the current, they let themselves drift, 
 fortunately without losing their footing. The shores 
 fly past us as if we were in a boat. Soon the sound 
 of the surf breaking on the sea-shore mingles with 
 the measured chant of the coolies, who while struggling
 
 II.] YOSHIDA. 315 
 
 with the waves, look at us from time to time and 
 laugh. Tossed about on these planks, we hold on 
 with all our might. At last we reach the shore and 
 are deposited on the sand. A few steps more and we 
 are in the principal street of Odawara. At the 
 entrance of the town, the mayor and his adjuncts, all 
 in official costume, receive us with due honours and 
 make great " kow-tow :" then they lead us solemnly 
 to a large tea-house, where our servants, whom we 
 had sent on the day before, had prepared the " tiffin." 
 For the last two or three years, Odawara has been 
 visited by Yokohama residents ; but the arrival of 
 white faces is still an event. A number of the in- 
 habitants of both sexes, and innumerable children, 
 ran to see us eat. After our meal was over, a man 
 appeared holding a beautiful lacquered box divided 
 into four compartments, containing red, blue, black, 
 and white sand. Throwing it on the floor, as a 
 farmer would throw his seed, he contrived to draw 
 and paint at the same time strange ornaments, flowers 
 and birds ; and at last, amidst the loud laughter of 
 the company, erotic subjects worthy of the secret 
 chamber of Pompeii. The enjoyment of the young 
 girls and women gave one a singular idea of the 
 morality of the Japanese people. But the correctness 
 of the design, and the harmony of colour of these 
 sand pictures, executed in so strange a fashion before 
 our eyes in a few seconds, were not the less admirable. 
 To me, it was a ray of light : I seemed to understand 
 all at once Japanese art. 
 
 At four o'clock we again started, but this time on 
 horseback. Until now we had gone to the west ; now
 
 346 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 our march was to be directed towards the north. The 
 road follows the right bank of the torrent, allows us a 
 glimpse of the great chdteau of one of the daimios, 
 shaded by magnificent trees, and then, becoming more 
 and more steep, winds through the mountains, which 
 are everywhere covered with an exuberant vegetation. 
 
 Nothing can be more picturesque than the little 
 village of Yumoto, situated at the foot of a gorge. 
 Here we left the Tokaido, which goes on to Kiyoto ; 
 and then, by narrow paths, on fragile bridges, 
 between rocks covered with lichens and always rising 
 higher and higher, we arrived at seven o'clock in the 
 evening at the baths of Miyanoshita. 
 
 The distance from Yokohama is fourteen ris, or 
 thirty-five English miles. 
 
 August 4 and 5. Miyanoshita, which means "above 
 the temple," consists of a temple (" Miya ") and a 
 group of houses placed one above the other, their 
 foundations resting partly on the sides of the rock, 
 partly on a narrow gorge which opens out towards the 
 north. In that direction, the eye catches the eastern 
 slopes of a fine chain of hills. All around, are 
 mountains covered with cryptomerias and every kind 
 of coniferous tree, mingled with oak and maple. 
 Everything is green save the grey roofs of the houses 
 supported by red pillars and showing, here and there, 
 moveable partitions papered white. Steps cut in the 
 granite rock serve as streets. Round the houses little 
 gardens are laid out in terraces, while limpid streams 
 form miniature cascades. Tiny oaks, tiny firs, tiny 
 cedars, dwarfed and twisted into various shapes accord-
 
 ii.] YOSHIDA. 347 
 
 ing to the taste of the country, shade them. Little 
 bridges formed of one single rock are thrown over 
 small artificial torrents. All this is in questionable and 
 somewhat infantine taste, and yet the proportions are 
 harmonious and a good deal of imagination has been 
 shown in the design. If, from your balcony, you look 
 out into the garden, you may fancy for a moment 
 you are in a fine park. But see there is a young 
 girl passing, and she is taller than the oldest cedar. 
 It is all a plaything ; but we must own, a very 
 charming one. 
 
 The mayor has lodged us in the finest apartment of 
 the finest hotel in the place, but to do so, has turned 
 out one of the native families. I detest these arbitrary 
 acts of authority, but the mischief having been done, 
 I profit by it like my neighbours. I am bound to say 
 that the dispossessed party smile at us most agreeably. 
 Our hotel is composed of several separate sets of 
 apartments, united by a long corridor. While walking 
 in it, one may study the home life of the Japanese. 
 All the world is come for the water-cure. At the end 
 of the corridor is the bath-room, where everyone 
 meets and is covered by turns with hot water or cold ; 
 then each one goes back to his room, which is more or 
 less open on all sides. There you are rubbed by blind 
 men, or, if you have a wife, she undertakes the task. 
 I saw a fat gentleman stretched on a mat, smoking 
 and reading, while his wife, crouched at his side, 
 spent whole hours passing her delicate hands backwards 
 and forwards over the shoulders of her lord and master. 
 Their daughter, a pretty girl, with her hair beautifully 
 dressed, played an instrument rather like a lute.
 
 348 A It AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 From time to time their servants crawled in on hands 
 and knees to serve fresh tea and fresh tobacco to the 
 father of the family, who was an official personage in 
 Yedo. 
 
 In another room, our yakunins, squatted in a circle 
 round some young girls, are singing and drinking said. 
 The kitchen swarms with women, cooking the dinner, 
 watching the saucepans, and cutting up into pieces 
 wretched fishes still alive. They are extremely clean, 
 and go about their work most methodically. There is 
 nothing to shock the eye. All the world laughs and 
 talks. Everyone is merry, careless and easy-going. 
 As the rooms adjoin one another, and are only divided 
 by paper partitions the greater part of which are left 
 ajar, you may peep into everything. Heads gracefully 
 dressed, and finely-moulded, with naked arms and busts 
 are seen through the half-lighted apartments. Here 
 and there a ray of sunshine darts through a chink, and 
 a golden shower of dust pierces athwart the darkness. 
 Further on, you see daylight, and in the background 
 trees, waterfalls, and here and there a few pedestrians 
 ascending and descending the steep steps cut in the 
 rock, and then disappearing in the green woods or in 
 the little houses above. 
 
 August 6. Our party was under way by six o'clock 
 in the morning. If one could only unscrew one's legs, 
 nothing would be pleasariter than a journey in a 
 cango. This kind of litter, which belongs especially to 
 the country, is an open basket, three feet long by two 
 feet high : one must deduct the thickness of the bier 
 
 O O 
 
 bamboo to which it is suspended. The roof is a poor
 
 ii.] YOSHIDA. 349 
 
 protection from the sun ; and the whole thing is so low 
 that you are obliged to lie on your back, while the 
 vicinity of the bearer before you obliges you to double 
 up your legs under you. But one makes up one's mind 
 to everything in this world, or else one must certainly 
 not come to Japan, where everything is different from 
 what it is anywhere else. 
 
 On leaving Miyanoshita, you cross the gorge, and 
 travelling constantly towards the north, traverse a fine 
 forest. After a march of two hours and a half, we 
 made a halt at the village of Sen-goku-no-hara. At 
 half-past nine we started again ; we have left the 
 shade of the wood, and it is under the burning rays 
 of a pitiless sun that we ascend the last spur of the 
 mountain chain which separates us from Fujiyama, 
 The grass, which is as high as a man, is white on one 
 side arid green on the other, which makes the mountains 
 look now pale grey, now bright green, according to 
 which way the wind blows. The path becomes 
 steeper and steeper. Behind us, a little to the west, 
 stretches a sheet of dark water between low solitary 
 banks : this is the northern extremity of Lake 
 Hakone'. At eleven o'clock, emerging from the defile, 
 we come to the crest of the mountain, which is only 
 a few feet wide, with a precipitous descent towards 
 an undulating and fertile plain covered with meadows, 
 plantations, hamlets, and villages. The light, soft green 
 of the thick Alpine grass, contrasted pleasantly with the 
 green of the foliage above our heads, which was dark in 
 the shade and silvered in the sun. On the other side of 
 the plain, towards the north-west, about four or five 
 miles off, rises, in one sheer rock, 14,000 feet above
 
 350 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 the sea, that giant of volcanos, the holy mountain of 
 the empire, Fujiyama. It reminds one of Etna seen 
 from Taormina : only its flanks are less torn, its 
 outlines less broken : and the exceptional heat of this 
 summer has melted the snow which covers it half- 
 way during the greater part of the year. 
 
 We travellers let ourselves glide along the grass. 
 In a few minutes we are in the plain. Here we 
 find all the sweet smells of spring and the fresh elastic 
 air of the Alps. 
 
 At one o'clock we arrive at the village of Gotemba 
 and halt at a picturesque tea-house. Then follows a 
 charming walk across an English park, where shade 
 and water abound. By degrees the trees disappear. 
 We have come to the steppe which encircles the base 
 of the volcano. In this lava region stands Subashiri, 
 the village where we are to pass the night. We 
 arrive there at half-past six. The distance from 
 Miyanoshita is seven ris, or seventeen miles and a 
 half. 
 
 All this day's journey has been delicious. When 
 one travels in a cango, one shaves, as it were, the very 
 soil. During the morning, when crossing the meadows, 
 the grass, moss, and flower-stems tickled my face. My 
 eyes pierced through those mysterious regions which 
 the pedestrian treads under foot, but which escape his 
 sight. It was to me like a revelation. The sun 
 sparkled amidst the shadows cast by the broad leaves. 
 I watched the bees, the butterflies, and millions of 
 little insects gliding and fluttering through the blades 
 of grass or sucking the calyx of the flowers. And 
 what flowers ! Great blue-bells gently inclining their
 
 ii.] YOSHIDA. 351 
 
 heads over magnificent pinks; exquisite lilies, blossom- 
 ing under a dome of long, thin leaves ; and an endless 
 variety of shades, and colours, and plants unknown 
 in other hemispheres. Everything smiles in this 
 country the vegetation as well as human beings. 
 Look at the poor fellows who are carrying you ! They 
 never cease chattering and laughing, though the per- 
 spiration streams down their bronzed backs. Every 
 two or three minutes they change shoulders. It is 
 the work of a second. We have each four coolies as 
 relays. In climbing the hills those who are off duty 
 help the others by pressing their hands against their 
 backs. From one ten minutes to another they relieve 
 each other, and never without a preamble of civility 
 like the following : " Your highnesses must be tired." 
 " Not at all." " Your highness makes a mistake." And 
 so on with renewed laughter and protestations ! 
 
 August 7. It is from hence, i.e. the village of Suba- 
 shiri, or by a little path more to the west of Hakone, 
 that Europeans, duly authorized, escorted and watched, 
 make the ascent of Fujiyama. At this season, native 
 pilgrims likewise throng there from every side ; but 
 their usual point of departure is from Yoshida. Beyond 
 Subashiri is the mysterious land so little known to 
 the whites. It is there, to the north-east of the 
 volcano, that the town of Yoshida is situated, so cele- 
 brated for its temple, for the holiness of its site, and 
 for the incredible number of pilgrims who, in July 
 and August, come to pray there after having made 
 the ascent of the holy mount. This place is the object 
 of my journey. As for Fujiyama itself, I am quite
 
 352 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 willing to rest satisfied with the descriptions of my 
 companions. I know very well that the pleasure will 
 not equal the fatigue. A tolerably well-kept path, 
 divided into eight stations or halting-places, where 
 you may pass the night in a hut, leads to the mouth 
 of the extinct crater. If, by an exceptional chance, 
 the sky should be clear, you enjoy an extensive though 
 rather uninteresting view. The great charm of Alpine 
 scenery, seen from a great height, consists less in the 
 extent than in the variety of the panorama. Half 
 terrified, you gaze at the deep gorges of the giant 
 mountains around you, measure the height of their 
 peaks and the depths of the chasms into which a false 
 step might plunge you ; and then, to rest your eye, 
 you cast a glance on the plain below, which, by an 
 optical delusion, seems to raise the horizon to the very 
 spot you occupy. Now this surrounding of moun- 
 tainous peaks is entirely wanting at Fujiyama. Those 
 that encircle it are not above 3,000 feet high. Seen 
 from the crater, therefore, the country below bears the 
 aspect of a large sheet of crumpled paper, generally 
 green, but here and there marked with black and 
 white lines : these are Yedo, Yokohama, and the in- 
 numerable towns, hamlets, and villages of Kuanto. 1 
 
 The preparations for the ascent have filled up the 
 whole morning. At two o'clock my friends start off. 
 At the same time (accompanied by the incomparable 
 M. Kempermann, the only one among us who has 
 the gift of native tongues), I mount my horse and 
 plunge into an unknown country. The sun is cruel, 
 
 1 A group of eight provinces. The literal translation is " The 
 east of the frontier."
 
 IT ] YOSBIDA. 353 
 
 the scenery monotonous. We follow the course of a 
 ravine, or rather a deep fent in the soil. On emerging 
 from this, we find ourselves in front of a little lake ; 
 on the horizon is a chain of mountains ; to our left, 
 the volcano. Our route lies north-north-east. On 
 arriving at the banks of the lake, we accept for a few 
 minutes the hospitality of the Mayor of Yamanonaka, 
 a little village ooquettishly buried between the slopes 
 of the wooded hill and the lake. Our arrival disturbs 
 the whole population. On all sides they run to look 
 at us, with astonishment but in silence ; then they 
 begin to laugh but a frank, gay, amiable laugh ; we 
 are evidently welcome. The last part of this short 
 day's journey was delicious. The Fujiyama threw its 
 deep shade across our path. At half-past five, after 
 having passed before the entrance of the Great Temple, 
 we arrived at the first houses of Yoshida. The Mayor 
 received us and led us to a little temple with a great 
 hotel in front, where he had retained the best rooms 
 for us. The distance from Subashiri is six ris, or 
 fifteen miles. 
 
 August 7 to 10. The town of Yoshida occupies 
 the slope of one of the spurs of the Fujiyama. The 
 great street descends in a straight line. A stream, 
 forming little cascades here and there, follows its 
 whole length. The houses, with flattened roofs, pro- 
 tected by big stones, remind one of our Alpine chalets. 
 Seen from a sufficient distance so as not to take in the 
 details, the illusion is complete. One could fancy 
 oneself in Switzerland or the Tyrol. Looking back 
 in the direction of the street, the colossal cone of the 
 
 VOL. I. A A
 
 354 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 volcano rises above the sacred woods which cover the 
 neighbouring heights. Towards the east, in the far 
 distance, is a mass of rugged rocky mountains, 
 s*ome bare, some covered with the most luxuriant 
 vegetation. 
 
 The temple hotel, where we are lodged, is an 
 immense building, containing a multitude of rooms, 
 each divided, as usual, into movable partitions. In 
 front is a great courtyard. A garden runs round one 
 side, above the wall of which one again sees Fujiyama. 
 From my lodging, which abuts on the temple, I can, 
 through the half-open sashes, perceive all that goes on 
 in this vast caravansera. I see a multitude of pilgrims, 
 some great nobles and their suite, and, in the rooms 
 adjoining the outer court, a legion of servants and 
 armed men, all wearing on their tunics the heraldic 
 devices of their masters. Beyond the court, troops of 
 pilgrims, dressed in white, and incessantly ringing a 
 small bell, never cease defiling up the long street. 
 They are just come from Fujiyama. The master of 
 the hotel, who is also the priest of the temple, puts 
 his stamp on their clothes, and thus verifies that they 
 have made the ascent of the Holy Mount. These 
 vestments are handed down from father to son, and 
 are considered precious relics. 
 
 My room, which is very vast, looks into a little court, 
 and from thence into the sanctuary. There is an altar 
 with candelabras, and in the middle the sacred mirror 
 no monsters or statues of false gods. A noble simpli- 
 city and a solemn silence reign in this spot, which is 
 consecrated to an abstract idea and free from all the 
 exterior attributes of Buddhist worship. The confused
 
 n.J YOSHIDA. 355 
 
 sounds from the street, the kitchens, and the pilgrims' 
 rooms, reach this solitude tempered by distance. 
 Magic and inexplicable lights wander in the vast 
 space, creep along the panels, pierce through the paper 
 frames, are reflected on the lacquered borders of the 
 parquet floor, and lose themselves in the depths of the 
 apartment. As in the Italian inns in the days of 
 Montaigne, men of rank hang their shields up on 
 leaving, either painted on wood or on canvas. There 
 is also a multitude of votive pictures which represent 
 the givers, surrounded by their companions, Fuji- 
 yama covered with snow, sick persons miraculously 
 restored to health, successful fights, or people mira- 
 culously escaped from thieves. Some of these pictures 
 seem to go back to the sixteenth or seventeenth cen 
 turies. The rise and fall of art and the differeno 
 of taste are distinguishable in these ex-votos, whicL 
 are mostly coarsely executed, but which, neverthe- 
 less, betray some of the deepest feelings of human 
 nature. 
 
 The innkeeper, as I have before said, is priest, or 
 rather guardian, of the temple, for, as I am assured, 
 the Sintoo religion has not got any priests in the 
 ordinary sense. The members of the present govern- 
 ment are systematically opposed to the Buddhist faith, 
 which is that of the great majority of the people. 
 The dogmas of Sintooism are well-nigh forgotten ; 
 only a few of their learned men are acquainted with 
 them. The politicians of the day have no knowledge 
 of them, and willingly confound them with the 
 doctrines of Confucius, which, in reality, are only a 
 compilation of highly moral maxims. One knows 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 A RAMBLE HOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 that the great Chinese philosopher, when questioned 
 by one of his disciples on the existence of another 
 world, replied : "I have never been there, so I know 
 nothing about it." Such is the faith of the present 
 privy council of the Mikado : and it is thus that they 
 understand Sintooi'sm, which is patronised by them, 
 and indirectly imposed on the people as the religion of 
 the state. But this interpretation must be received 
 with caution. Sintooism was certainly the old religion 
 of the country, but it gave place to Buddhism, which, 
 officially introduced into China at the beginning of 
 the first century, towards the sixth invaded and, we 
 may say, conquered Japan. The ancient faith professed 
 by the Mikados was overrun by Buddhist forms and 
 practices. As to the Sioguns, they were all Buddhists. 
 This explains the rapid growth of this religion, 
 imported from India vid China : and one under- 
 stands, too, how the dogmas and worship of the 
 old religion fell into disuse and finally were for- 
 gotten. The official Sintooi'sm of the day is simply 
 the negation of all religion and the abolition of 
 all forms of worship : it involves the destruction 
 of the Buddhist temples, which has been already 
 inaugurated by the demolition of a great part of 
 the celebrated sanctuary of Kamakura, and by the 
 confiscation with which they threaten the property of 
 the priests ; but it is not evidently the old religion of 
 the empire. In a great many temples the two forms of 
 worship have been practised simultaneously. In other?, 
 as at Yoshida and its environs, several Buddhist cere- 
 monies, pleasing to the masses, have been introduced, 
 with a certain reservation. Nowhere are the dogmas,
 
 [n. 1'OSBIDA. 357 
 
 doctrines, and ceremonies of the ancient religion really 
 preserved in their original purity. 
 
 Here and all round the base of Fujiyama, 
 Sintooism is professed, but Buddhism is more or less 
 practised. Our innkeeper priest is of a noble family : 
 he has given up wearing arms out of respect to the 
 functions of his ministry. Every afternoon he sports 
 his official costume and appears in the great temple. 
 His wife, a matron of great beauty, but wanting in 
 dignity alas ! I see her every evening the worse for 
 saki his two daughters, who act as servants in the 
 hotel, and his son, a charming boy of fifteen, compose 
 the whole family. This young samurai, armed with 
 his two swords, is very proud of himself, and likes 
 to show himself off before us in his knightly costume. 
 His good manners are an index of his high-bred 
 feelings. A little scene which took place on the re- 
 turn of my companions gave evidence of this. One 
 of them wanted to carry away an ex-voto picture as 
 a souvenir. The scruples of the hotelkeeper having 
 vanished before a splendid offer for the picture, it was 
 taken down from its nail and presented to the 
 purchaser. But they had reckoned without the young 
 samurai, who began to sob. " You have no right to 
 sell that picture," he exclaimed to his father. " It is 
 the property of the temple ; it was a gift to our 
 sanctuary, which belonged to our ancestors, and now 
 to you, but which will some day be mine ; and to let it 
 be carried off by strangers ! What a shame ! What 
 a sin 1" And then his voice was broken by emotion. 
 It is not necessary to add that the picture was put 
 back in its original place.
 
 35 A R AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 The great temple is situated at a few steps from 
 the entrance of the upper town, in the midst of a 
 sacred wood of cedars and cryptomerias more than 
 six centuries old. A long avenue formed of these 
 venerable trees and a double row of stone lanterns 
 leads from the high road to the " Fork/' that is, to 
 the entrance -gate, which is isolated, and to which the 
 ascent is by two beams slightly inclined, resting on 
 two other beams, horizontally placed one at the top of 
 the other. This portal, of which the design is cer- 
 tainly simple, and, one must own, not over-graceful, 
 as it reminds one of a gallows, is repeated in all the 
 Sintoo temples, and gives access to an oblong, paved 
 court. In the middle and facing the temple, properly 
 speaking, is a platform, raised five or six feet above the 
 ground, and covered with a heavy roof resembling a 
 wide felt hat, with the edges turned up. A [stage 
 made of trestle-work, put up for the occasion and 
 reserved for the priests, joins the platform to the 
 temple. A flight of steps leads up to it : a gallery runs 
 all along the fa9ade. Behind the gallery a hall leads 
 to the sanctuary, which is perfectly accessible to the 
 eyes of the profane, and which contains the altar and 
 candelabra, the incense-burner, and the sacred mirror 
 in which the divinity is said to be reflected. A 
 heavy roof seems to squash the sacred edifice. The 
 frieze is richly sculptured, and retains some traces of 
 gilding. In the court we admired some itchos (Salis- 
 buria adimantifolia) of a rare size and beauty, and a 
 stone basin, roofed, with a bronze water-pipe, well 
 moulded, representing a dragon-serpent. Every day in 
 the afternoon we paid a visit to the temple.
 
 ii.] YOSUIDA. 359 
 
 The evening before our departure there was a 
 great ceremony. The court was filled with people ; 
 on the wooden stage a little altar had been set up 
 and decorated with flowers, which supported the 
 mystic mirror ; and a priest, robed in ample silk folds, 
 with a helmet on his head, executed a sword dance 
 with two swords. It was a fierce struggle with an 
 invisible enemy. From being on the defensive he 
 passed to the attack : then he drew back, turned on his 
 heels, rushed forward again in pursuit of the demon, 
 and finally is supposed to have vanquished him. The 
 scene of action, which was the platform before men- 
 tioned, was not above twenty feet square. The 
 priestly warrior was, therefore, often obliged to 
 retrace his steps. His movements, which were full 
 of dignity, were regulated by the plaintive sounds 
 of a flute, together with the hoarse and lugubrious 
 beating of a big drum. The musicians were an old 
 man and a child, squatted on their heels in a corner 
 of the platform. At last, the priest retreated into the 
 interior of the temple. At this moment, half-a-dozen 
 other priests appeared at the top of the steps and 
 threw little pieces of copper money among the women 
 and children. 
 
 The second ceremony. 
 
 A bonze appears on the threshold of the temple, 
 and then, passing across the trestle-work stage, ad- 
 vances majestically on to the platform. His gait is 
 that of a tragedian. He drags one leg after the other 
 and stops between each step. He wears a kind of 
 chasuble richly embroidered. His whole costume re- 
 minds one of our pontifical vestments. His head,
 
 360 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 which is not completely shaved for he is a Sintoo, 
 and not a Buddhist is bound with a rose-coloured 
 ribbon, of which the end, tightly tied, stands upright, 
 oscillating above the forehead. He carries a bow in 
 his hand, and on his back, fastened by a cross-belt, 
 a quiver full of arrows. A profound silence reigns in 
 the blue and flesh-coloured crowd which all crowds 
 are in Japan. One hears nothing but the monotonous 
 song of the grasshoppers and the gentle rustling of 
 the cedar branches waving in the evening breeze. 
 Thousands of eyes are fixed upon the priest : but no 
 emotion, no feeling of devotion, of recollection, or 
 even of curiosity can be traced on any of these up- 
 turned faces. Those who are near us seem to think 
 that we are more worthy objects of attention. They 
 stare at us with a half-scared look. Two white men 
 in the temple of Yoshida ! The moment the priest's 
 foot touches the platform the music recommences. 
 The flute begins playing a recitative evidently of 
 great antiquity. From time to time the great drum 
 imitates the low growl of distant thunder. The 
 bonze, after having marched round and round the 
 platform several times, always as if he walked in 
 buckskins, turns his eyes upwards, then rapidly 
 bends forward, places an arrow in his bow, aims at 
 the evil spirit he pretends to have discovered in the 
 sky, lets fly the arrow and kills him. Directly, the 
 flute sounds a hymn of triumph and of victory. The 
 priest begins his walk again, discovers a fresh spirit, 
 and exterminates him in the like manner, while the 
 music goes on expressing the different phases of the 
 fight. At last, after having delivered Yoshida from
 
 n. J YOSHIDA. 361 
 
 all these malevolent beings, the bonze intones a 
 canticle as a thanksgiving, throws some beans into 
 the air, prostrates himself before the mirror, and 
 disappears. 
 
 I have not words to paint the expression or play of 
 his face, the classical beauty of his attitudes, the 
 startling effect of the music, or the grand and mys- 
 terious simplicity of the place. The poses of the 
 performer were, as I have said, classic : but they were 
 not so only in the ordinary sense ; they reminded me 
 unmistakeably of those well-known types of Greek 
 statuary in the best times of art. The transitions from 
 one pose to another were, on the contrary, in Japanese 
 taste that is, they were abrupt, jerky, rather ex- 
 aggerated, and bordering on the ridiculous. That 
 these ceremonies date from an era far anterior to our 
 own, there is no doubt. That certain rhythmical 
 movements should be found in wood sculptures and 
 other pious statues of the Japanese, nothing can be 
 more simple : but how explain the classical purity of 
 their attitudes or their incomparable analogy with 
 Greek art \ whilst in the manufactures of the 
 country, no trace of this character can be found. 
 Could it be simply chance ? I do not admit this 
 commonplace way of explaining things which one 
 can't understand. Can Greek art, in its golden age, 
 have ever penetrated to the extreme East ? On this 
 point we have no historical data whatever. 
 
 After having thus routed the evil spirits, the bonzes 
 appeared anew on the threshold of the temple to 
 throw money among the people. Encouraged by the 
 benevolence of the spectators, we, in our turn, boldly
 
 362 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 mount the steps and exchange the usual compliments 
 with the priests. These receive us with exquisite 
 politeness, accept our humble offering, and giving us 
 some rolls of little copper money, invite us to share 
 in the distribution. Behold us then, transformed into 
 bonzes, and throwing money among some hundreds of 
 the faithful, who run, draw back, tumble down, and 
 roll over one another in the most ludicrous fashion. 
 I cannot say that this bit of burlesque was much in 
 harmony with the sacred nature of the place ! Every 
 one, including the priests, roared with laughter. 
 Amongst these I recognized the warrior hero of the 
 sword-dance, and the hunter of evil spirits. Stripped 
 of their fine clothes and without their arms, they 
 only seemed quiet, inoffensive, middle-class citizens. 
 
 After this somewhat profane entr'acte, they went 
 on with the concluding part of the ceremonies. The 
 priests assembled in the sanctuary. Seated in a circle 
 on their heels before the altar, they pass a sacred 
 vase from one to the other. The liquid it contains is 
 poured into a saucer, and each one drinks in turn. 
 They sing in parts ; then rise simultaneously, cross 
 the outer hall, where they resume their sandals, and 
 then retire. They wear white, blue, or red tunics 
 according to their rank ; the white are for those of the 
 highest grade. On their head is the coloured ribbon 
 or the black lacquered paper cap worn by men of rank 
 when they go to Court. The sun is setting behind 
 Fujiyama, lighting up with its Bengal fire the triple 
 and quadruple ranges of mountains which rise to the 
 east, which few Europeans have seen, and which we 
 hope to cross to-morrow or the day after. The sky
 
 ii.] YOSJ11DA. 2G3 
 
 is bright pink, and azure blue clouds float in the air. 
 It is only at Yokohama, and even there rarely, that I 
 have seen similar effects of light. I feel as if I were 
 in an ideal world, amidst enchanted regions, and I go 
 to sleep to dream of the strange, mysterious, and 
 poetic scenes in the great temple of Yoshida. 
 
 August 10. My companions arrived yesterday 
 from Fujiyama. They suffered terribly from the 
 heat. On the other hand, they were able to pass the 
 night at the very mouth of the crater, at 14,000 feet 
 above the ocean. Their descriptions confirm those of 
 other travellers. They distinguished Yokohama and 
 Yedo ; but the rest was only like a great carpet 
 sprinkled with white spots ; and a vast horizon of 
 sea-clouds obscured the view towards the north. We 
 are only going a short stage to-day, and are to start 
 at half-past two in the direction of the north-east. 
 Turning our backs on Fujiyama, we enter a large, 
 wide valley. The mountains are all green : single 
 rows of trees mark their outlines. In Japanese 
 scenery, the same elements are repeated ad infinitum. 
 All these heights end in sharp sides, as steep as the 
 blade of a knife. Between the two slopes there is 
 only room for a single row of trees. We pass by a 
 number of little villages, all clean, tidy, and evidently 
 prosperous. Everywhere there is the richest and 
 most careful cultivation. In the narrow plains, which 
 here and there wind between the mountains, are 
 patches of rice, and quantities of mulberry trees. The 
 road is but a path, well kept, and full of people. At 
 every turn, we meet fresh pilgrims. They walk in
 
 364 A RAMBLE ROUJS'D THE WOULD. [CHAP. 
 
 great and small bands, all dressed in the same white 
 dresses, and all ringing a bell. When rain threatens, 
 they put on their straw cloaks. Some are followed 
 by their servants. Female pilgrims are rare, but are 
 not altogether wanting. All along the road, charming 
 details abound. For instance, at the second ri, near 
 a little tea-house, a stone staircase leads to some 
 beautiful tombs shaded by a fine group of crypto- 
 merias. Further on, near the village of Tokaichiba, 
 we stop to see a foaming cascade. The wonderful 
 vegetation which surrounds it forms its principal 
 charm. 
 
 At half-past five we arrive at Yamura, a little town 
 situated in the centre of one of the great silk districts. 
 There are mulberry trees everywhere. The river 
 rushes violently across the flowery meadows and flows 
 swiftly along the edge of the rocks, covered with 
 moss, grass and trees of different kinds. Behind us, 
 between the green peaks, the crater of Fujiyama is 
 still visible. Our arrival is an event ; all the popula- 
 tion rush out of their houses, but keep at a respectful 
 distance. It is everywhere the same scene. The 
 babies cry, the children hide themselves behind their 
 mothers, the young girls fly. The men even seem 
 inclined to hold back ; the matrons only are courage- 
 ous. With them we open negotiations ; then all the 
 world becomes reassured ; and after the first moments 
 of surprise are over, we see kind and smiling faces, 
 full of good-humour, and only anxious to be of use 
 to us. They chatter and laugh, and group themselves 
 round the travellers, whom they will not leave. They 
 follow us everywhere, in fact : at our meals, and even
 
 ii.] YOSHIDA. 365 
 
 in our baths, unless we are cruel enough to shut the 
 paper partitions. They specially delight to assist at 
 our toilets. I am, of course, now speaking of the 
 lower and middle classes, and not of the nobility. 
 
 At about a quarter of an hour from the town, near 
 the river, my young companions have found a solitary 
 spot where they gladly plunge into the fresh and 
 limpid waters, when all of a sudden the whole 
 population turns out, men, women, young girls and 
 children. . By chance, our yakunins, who like to 
 amuse themselves, have escaped ; it therefore rests 
 with me to watch over the public morality. Arming 
 myself with a long bamboo, I place myself across the 
 narrow dyke which alone gives access to the bathing- 
 place. I let the men pass; but am inexorable towards 
 the fair sex. Vain hope ! At the risk of rolling into 
 the torrent below, these ladies turn my position, and 
 clamber up the slope of the pier, many of them with 
 babies on their backs : a certain number attack me in 
 front. There were some very pretty girls among them, 
 and ail were beautifully clean and neat. Their 
 little feet, shod in tiny wooden pattens, their knees 
 slightly bent, their arms stretched out and their hands 
 folded backwards (as this race alone knows how to 
 do), their heads bare, and a little thrown back, they 
 overwhelm me with a torrent of words, mixed with 
 merry little laughs, and fix their great, brown, 
 almond-shaped eyes upon me with an imploring ex- 
 pression of sweet and gentle in treaty. The grace of 
 their movements is a little spoiled by the twist of 
 their limbs ; but in this country, grotesqueness is a 
 characteristic both of men and things. Here again
 
 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 I could not help admiring the talent for imitation and 
 the conscientious exactness of the Japanese artists. I 
 have seen the same scene represented a thousand 
 times in sculpture, lacquer-work, and painting, and 
 even in the coarse pictures which you buy for a few 
 pence. At last, weary of the struggle, I yield the 
 passage, and the whole crowd of curious ladies rush 
 forward and approach as near as possible the confused 
 bathers, enjoying, at last, with ineffable delight, the 
 unheard-of, extraordinary, and fantastic appearance 
 of five men completely white. 
 
 The distance from Yoshida to Yamura is four and 
 a half ris, or about twelve miles. 
 
 August 11. Departure at five o'clock. Direction, 
 east. The valley winds between mountains 3,000 or 
 4,000 feet high. At two ris from Yamura we halted for 
 a few minutes close to a temple surrounded by a fine 
 wood. At half-past eight we arrived at the great and 
 important market town of Saru-Haschi. Here we 
 crossed a deep river embedded in the rocks. The 
 bridge, which is hung at a great height, is of a peculiar 
 construction ; the beams are placed horizontally one 
 above the other, so that each end is a little longer 
 than the other, and meet in the same way in the 
 middle of the water. This is the celebrated Monkey 
 Bridge. We had seen it represented in many of the 
 votive pictures in the temple of Yoshida. 
 
 The country is always smiling, but still keeps its 
 resemblance to the Upper Alps. Except for the 
 vegetation, one might fancy oneself in the canton 
 of Unterwalden. Everyone is struck with the analogy.
 
 ji.] YOSHIDA. 3C7 
 
 We meet a number of pilgrim bands, all singing and 
 ringing their little bells ; but nothing in their faces 
 betokens devotion. According to M. Kempermann, 
 no religious sentiment leads these thousands of men to 
 the Holy Mount. "It is a tradition a physical 
 exercise : the prayers, if any, are said mechanically. 
 Neither head nor heart are concerned." This is 
 possible, and to look at the men themselves, you would 
 say it is more than probable, but it is not certain. 
 After all, what do we know about it ? Japan has only 
 been accessible during the last few years, and only 
 now at five or six points in its whole circumference. 
 Its language is still a study. How can we read into 
 the hearts of the people 1 how explain the origin 
 and the keeping up of the innumerable temples 
 scattered over the whole empire 1 Who built them I 
 Who endowed them more or less liberally ? Evidently 
 not the people. Religious sentiments must then have 
 prevaded the upper classes at some time or other. 
 How and why, by what revolution, have these feelings 
 been lost ? Here are many problems to be solved. 
 
 Fine and flourishing villages succeed one another at 
 short intervals. This makes one of the principal 
 charms of the country. We are here among the 
 highest mountains of Kuanto : nevertheless, every- 
 where there is careful culture, neat houses, traces of 
 human activity, and of a very ancient civilization. 
 The villages themselves are all alike. A limpid 
 stream runs through the length of the principal street, 
 at an equal distance from the houses. In many places 
 it is edged with flower-beds full of enormous balsams. 
 The houses are mostly new : which proves that, quite
 
 3GS A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CUM-. 
 
 recentlj r , a typhoon, a fire, or an earthquake those 
 three scourges which, like certain epidemics, are 
 periodically reproduced have here exercised their 
 terrible ravages. 
 
 Fortunately, if Nature in her fits of anger destroys 
 buildings in a few moments, men know how to build 
 them up again in a few days. Warned of our passage, 
 the mayor and his attendants meet us at the entrance 
 of each village, make their prostrations, put them- 
 selves at the head of the column, and arriving at the 
 
 o 
 
 other end of the place, take leave of us with the 
 like ceremonial. Everywhere the people smile on 
 us without saluting but they prostrate themselves 
 before the chief of the yakunins, who, during the 
 exercise of his functions, represents to them the 
 sovereign authority of the emperor. Ask a peasant 
 in Europe what is meant by a functionary repre- 
 senting imperial power ! But in this country, the 
 lowest coolie understands it. He knows the code of 
 etiquette by heart, practises it scrupulously himself, 
 and expects that the same will be done to him. 
 
 At Saru-Haschi, we leave the great valley we have 
 followed ever since we left Yoshida. It serves as a 
 bed to a river, which, taking its rise from the little 
 lake of Yamanouaka, at the foot of Fujiyama, flows 
 first towards the north, then from Yoshida towards 
 the east, and from Saru-Haschi towards the south. 
 If my great Japanese map is right, this river falls 
 into the sea near the Oiso village (between Fujisawa 
 and Odawara). 
 
 Arrival at Torisawa at half-past nine. Departure 
 at one o'clock.
 
 ti.] YOSHIDA. 369 
 
 Here we came into a labyrinth of mountains one 
 of the most beautiful landscapes I ever saw. The 
 path, which winds up abrupt heights and follows 
 the crest of the mountains, is so narrow, that there is 
 scarcely room for one man to pass. In some places, 
 if I had been on foot, I should have gone on hands 
 and knees ; but in a cango I have no fear. One must, 
 however, have a good deal of faith in the legs of one's 
 bearers. As they change shoulders every two or three 
 minutes, the traveller finds himself hanging now over 
 an abyss to the left, now over a precipice to the right. 
 From that to Blondin's father-in-law there is but a 
 step ! But how can one feel fear, when, in the most 
 difficult and dangerous places, you see your coolies 
 laughing and talking, and exchanging civilities with 
 one another ? On both sides of the pass are pre- 
 cipices which the least false step on the part of your 
 bearers would turn into your grave. But have the 
 courage, if you do not get giddy, to look down into 
 the abyss below, clothed as it is with flowering shrubs, 
 and exquisite plants, which Nature (that great gar- 
 dener) has arranged with such wonderful taste and 
 then turn your eyes upwards to the varied peaks 
 which stand out against the sky above your head. 
 It is an ever- vary ing panorama. In all directions are 
 ranges of mountains : I counted more than a dozen. 
 
 o 
 
 It was like the ocean, lashed by a tempest, suddenly 
 petrified, and carpeted with the most luxuriant vege^ 
 tation. Nature has nothing small or petty about her. 
 She is grand and .graceful at the same time and 
 produces effects which both charm the eye and 
 
 VOL. I. B B
 
 370 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 pique the curiosity. The villages are still numerous, 
 but appear less prosperous than those we saw yester- 
 day. In several of them, we came upon a fair, or 
 religious fete that is to say, a mass of poles orna- 
 mented with flowers, papers, ribbons, and images. 
 Everywhere, crowds of pilgrims. At half-past six we 
 arrive at Uyenohara. The distance from Yamurais 
 nine and a half ris, or twenty-five miles. 
 
 August 12. Some rain fell and refreshed the air. At 
 five o'clock we started in the same easterly direction. 
 After we had crossed a large river in a ferry-boat (a 
 branch of the one we had followed the two preceding 
 days), we clambered up by a very steep defile the 
 highest mountain perfectly visible from Yedo on a 
 clear day of the chain which forms, as it were, the 
 band of Fujiyama. The country maintains its Alpine 
 character. From eleven o'clock to four we halted at 
 the village of Komakino. On leaving the tea-house 
 there, which was the prettiest I had seen, our coolies, 
 to the great detriment of our members, amuse them- 
 selves by improvising a race. In less than an hour 
 they have borne us to Hach6ji. At five o'clock in the 
 evening, in the midst of an immense crowd of people, 
 we made our solemn entry into the town. The impor- 
 tance of Hach6ji is due to its great silk trade. The 
 inhabitants seem happy and prosperous ; and the great 
 street is remarkable for the beauty and elegance of its 
 houses. The hotel where we are lodged, is large, 
 spacious, and clean. Unfortunately, having exhausted 
 our stock of wax candles, we were obliged to dine by
 
 ii.] YOSHIDA. 371 
 
 the uncertain light of the Japanese substitutes for such 
 articles, which are made of vegetable wax and give 
 more smoke than light. But look at that young girl, 
 the nesan, snuffing them with the pin which confines 
 her silky, abundant, black hair what grace, what dis- 
 tinction, and what real modesty in her manners ! My 
 young companions rave about her. 
 
 During this journey, which is drawing to a close, 
 we have all been struck with the paucity of animals. 
 We have scarcely seen a single bird, very few dogs, 
 still fewer horses, no cattle ; here and there some 
 pigs and chickens, and that is all. 
 
 The distance from Uyenohara to Hachoji is seven 
 and a half ris that is, about twenty miles. 
 
 August 13. Departure at a quarter past six o'clock. 
 The great street is still deserted : but yesterday the 
 inhabitants had stretched out in it their great yellow 
 oiled-paper umbrellas, ornamented with black inscrip- 
 tions, to dry. We have the sun in our faces. It is 
 still low, and changes the umbrellas into luminous 
 transparencies. The morning breeze makes them turn 
 on their handles. No painter could render the effect 
 produced by the simultaneous action of the direct and 
 transmitted rays of the sun : the tints of bright and 
 dead gold which flicker on the earth, light up the 
 bronzed legs of our porters and illuminate the door- 
 steps of the houses, of which the inhabitants are still 
 buried in sleep. 
 
 Ever since we left Yoshida we have been constantly 
 marching towards the east : now we turn to the south. 
 
 B B 2
 
 372 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 We entered upon a vast plain, but a. plain full of 
 little dells and breaks, shaded by magnificent trees, 
 and here and there fine thickets of bamboo. A 
 labyrinth of little palms led to a quantity of 
 smiling hamlets, literally buried in foliage. Thinking 
 that our main column was following close behind us, I 
 had left Hach6ji with only one of my travelling com- 
 panions and gone on ahead. After some hours' march, 
 however, we found out that we were quite alone, and 
 that M. Van der Hoeven had taken another route. We 
 went on, therefore, as best we could, tete-d-tete, reduced 
 to conversing with the natives by looks and signs, and 
 resigned to put up with the cooking of the country. 
 On arriving, however, at an isolated tea-house, we 
 perceived two great swords, lying, according to 
 etiquette, on the consol in the entrance-hall. Here 
 then were some samurais, those two-bladed gentlemen 
 who perpetuate so effectually in their country the 
 chivalry of the Middle Ages, but who have the 
 unfortunate habit of hacking Christians in pieces 
 whenever an occasion presents itself. Evidently there 
 could not be a better one than now. We had seated 
 ourselves before the house, and my young friend 
 improved the occasion, as usual, by taking some 
 Japanese lessons from our lovely nesans, when the 
 three knights made their appearance. They were 
 three tall, strapping fellows, with caps of light-blue 
 silk, rayed with white, and wearing on their tunics 
 the arms of the prince they served, or the " daimio," 
 as the young girls exclaimed, who hastened to bring the 
 lesson to a close, and to escape ; not without having
 
 it.] YOSHIDA. 373 
 
 been subjected to some rough embraces from our three 
 cavaliers on the way. These men, holding one 
 another's arms, stared at us insolently from head to 
 foot (for they had evidently been imbibing copious 
 libations of saki), came nearer and nearer to the place 
 where we were sitting, and evidently determined to 
 enter into conversation first and quarrel with us 
 after. I saw my companion quietly putting his hand 
 into his trousers pocket. I knew what that pocket 
 contained : it was the terrible revolver which had 
 already made me feel goose-skinny on leaving Yoko- 
 hama. If he should show it to these three bravos, 
 a scuffle was inevitable, and the issue would not be 
 doubtful. Happily, at this stage of the proceedings, 
 the master of the house intervened, and approaching 
 the samurais with every demonstration of respect, and 
 overwhelming them, with civilities, persuaded them to 
 go back into the house. At this moment our coolies, 
 warned by the prudent innkeeper, made their appear- 
 ance with the cangos. We got into them with joy, 
 and off we went at a rattling pace. At ten o'clock we 
 arrived at Tana, situated close to a fine river which, 
 according to my Japanese map, is the same whose 
 course we have followed from its rise in the little 
 lake of Yamanonaka to Saru-Haschi. We crossed it in 
 a ferry-boat, and found on the opposite bank a little 
 barque and some boatmen, who offered to take us to 
 Atsugi, the town where we were to pass the night. It 
 was a beautiful and exciting little voyage. The river 
 here forms a succession of rapids between two hedges 
 of flowering shrubs. A multitude of aquatic birds,
 
 374 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP 
 
 perched on the banks, looked at us without moving, 
 and as if stupefied. Now is the moment to make use 
 of the famous revolver. My companion thrusts his 
 hands into his trousers pocket, which does duty as an 
 arsenal, pulls out his pistol, aims at a group of great 
 white birds, fires, and misses ! The revolver won't go 
 off! Certainly, this time it is clearly proved that this 
 terrible engine of war is absolutely inoffensive and 
 not likely to do harm to anything on earth. Why did 
 I not make this happy discovery a little sooner "? Each 
 morning, on leaving our halting-place, amidst the 
 crowd of servants, people belonging to the inn, and 
 curious natives, I used to see this revolver being care- 
 lessly handled by our young traveller, and never, I own, 
 without a sinister presentiment. It was enough to 
 embitter the days of any peaceable citizen. Now I am 
 reassured, and to-morrow at this time we shall, I hope, 
 have returned to Yokohama without having shed any 
 innocent blood. 
 
 Towards six o'clock we saw, intermingled with fine 
 trees, the grey roofs of a large town : this was Atsugi. 
 We had the double satisfaction of regaining our 
 caravan and our dinner, which was only waiting to be 
 served. 
 
 The distance from Hach6ji to Atsugi is seven ris, or 
 eighteen miles. 
 
 August 14. Departure from Atsugi at half-past 
 seven. Arrival at Fujisawa at twelve o'clock. The 
 country was like the one we passed through yesterday. 
 
 A carriage conveyed us to Yokohama, where we
 
 ii.] YOSHIDA. 375 
 
 returned at seven o'clock in the evening, delighted 
 with our excursion. The distance was twelve ris, or 
 thirty miles. 1 
 
 1 As the route we followed from Subashiri has been rarely taken, 
 and, as far as I know, has never before been described, I thought 
 it might be useful to mark exactly the hours of arrival and de- 
 parture, although it is certainly an imperfect manner of calculating 
 distances. These are marked in ris on the " Guides," which you 
 can buy in every Japanese town of any size : only the ris are not 
 always the same. Everywhere, however, our coolies marched at the 
 quick pace of about five kilometres an hour.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HAKONE.FROM THE 22 AUGUST TO THE 1*? 
 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 The celebrated Tea-house of Hata. A bad Night. The Lake of 
 Hakone 1 . The love of nature and the taste for art spread 
 among the People. Spirits travelling. The Hot Springs of 
 Atami. The Holy Island of Enoshima. Daibutsu. The old 
 Residence of the Sioguns. Buddha in Disgrace. A great 
 Japanese Lady. Kanazawa. 
 
 August 22. YESTERDAY we left Yedo. My travel- 
 ling companions are Mr. Adams, the English minister, 
 and M. Satow, interpreter and secretary to the 
 legation. By the same route which I had taken in 
 going to the foot of Fujiyama, we arrived this after- 
 noon at Yomoto, where the road branches off towards 
 the north-east, on the road to Miyan6shita. "We 
 continue to follow the Tokaido, which, skirting the 
 torrent, leads us to the village of Hata, celebrated for 
 the beauty of its site, and for its famous tea-house 
 and gardens. There are always the same elements in 
 the picture ; but the use made of them by nature and 
 men vary indefinitely. Where find words to describe 
 them ? How escape repetitions ? How paint the
 
 en. in.] UAKONti. . 377 
 
 scarcely perceptible shades of difference which yet 
 make their principal charm ? In the photography of 
 Beato I do not find the least trace of resemblance. 
 How can I describe to you the beautiful wood carvings 
 of the Hata tea-house ; the lovely little cascades ; 
 the garden paths which scale the abrupt sides of the 
 mountain ; the goldfish and carp, worthy of the 
 gardens of Fontainebleau ; and last, not least, the 
 pretty nesans, who, every evening, by clapping their 
 hands, bring back the fish into a hollow of the rock to 
 preserve them from the nocturnal visitors to these 
 enchanted regions, the foxes and the jackals ? All 
 this has been told a hundred times ; but when one 
 arrives, one is both surprised and charmed, and one 
 finds that the most glowing descriptions and the most 
 successful photographs and sketches give but a poor idea 
 of the exquisite beauty of these rural scenes, which 
 are so strange and so poetical at the same time. From 
 Fujisawa to Hata eleven ris, or twenty-eight miles. 
 
 August 24. Can you conceive greater bliss than to 
 lie on a scrupulously clean matting, in a lovely little 
 room completely open to the garden, while a fine close 
 rain falls from morning till night, giving a delicious 
 freshness to the whole earth, and making you conscious 
 of a renewal of health and strength ? In addition to 
 these agreeable sensations, I have the good luck to 
 share them with men in every way distinguished and 
 congenial, and who are better acquainted than almost 
 any other Europeans with this strange country, which 
 is still such an enigma. Always ready to answer my 
 thousand and one questions, they sometimes take their
 
 378 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 turn of interrogation, and bring back my thoughts to 
 our mutual friends in that dear and far distant land 
 which we each call " home." Thus we pass the 
 day. The servants we have brought with us and the 
 masters and people of the inn only approach us with 
 bows and prostrations, more or less profound according 
 to the rank they hold. They advance on all fours, then 
 pause, with their heads stretched forward, their arms 
 leaning on the ground, and their hands turned inwards, 
 after which they squat down familiarly on their heels. 
 As their masters are likewise lying on their mats on 
 the floor, they are on the same level. However, these 
 are forms of civility, and regulated by etiquette from 
 time immemorial. In Europe, in the sixteenth century, 
 and even later, similar demonstrations were looked 
 upon as de rigueur. Persons of the same rank bowed to 
 the earth before embracing one another. Children 
 went on their knees before their parents to wish them 
 good-night. A page, although a nobleman's son, was 
 compelled to kneel when serving his master. The 
 kissing of the hand in great ceremonies is still pre- 
 served in many European Courts. But the Yokohama 
 merchants consider these demonstrations absurd and 
 unworthy of humanity, and have forbidden them to 
 their Japanese servants, who, in consequence, freed 
 from the rules and usages of their country, have become 
 rude, insolent and insupportable. It is easy to destroy 
 the forms of an ancient civilization, but it is not so easy 
 to replace them by others. 
 
 August 25. Yesterday evening, hardly had we 
 gone to bed than we were awoke by the roaring of
 
 in.] HAKONE. 379 
 
 the storm and the sinister creaking of all the beams 
 and woodwork of the house. At the same time we 
 felt some severe shocks of earthquake. It was a 
 combination of one of the most terrible typhoons which 
 had ever ravaged the provinces of Kuanto, and one 
 of those earthquakes which so frequently disturb the 
 bowels of this volcanic country. To-day the anger of 
 the elements is appeased. Hata has not suffered much, 
 being nestled in the hollow of the mountain : but 
 the idea of being squashed by the weight of the roof, 
 and the impossibility of escaping for during the night 
 the Japanese houses are shut up like a box caused us 
 some moments of anxiety. 
 
 The weather has cleared. At eight o'clock we con- 
 tinue our journey on foot. The departure from an 
 inn is always an animated scene. We pass through one 
 room after the other between a double row of inquisi- 
 tive faces. The master and mistress have received 
 from our comprador the amount of their bill, and 
 overwhelm us with compliments and blessings. The 
 nesans run after you laughing, gesticulating, and 
 wishing you a happy journey and a speedy return. 
 On the threshold of the house you have to hunt for 
 your shoes, which you have left on your arrival. There 
 you find, waiting for you, the municipal authorities, 
 the mayor and his attendants, and other functionaries, 
 who, bowing to the ground, precede and escort you to 
 the end of the village, where they take leave of you 
 with similar formalities. 
 
 We still follow the Tokaido, which is here abomi- 
 nably paved, and in some places scarcely practicable 
 for horses. The scenery is always the same. Trees
 
 A GAMBLE HOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 of great variety and beauty shaded the ground, which 
 was carpeted with flowers and long grass. After 
 having clambered up to the top of a hill we descended 
 on the Hakoiie' Lake. A colossal statue of Buddha 
 rises over the edge of the water. Behind the god is 
 an avenue of magnificent and very old cryptomerias. 
 Wooded promontories and hills covered with grass of 
 two shades, white and green, are reflected in the still 
 lake. This avenue leads to the little town of Hakone, 
 which is the object of our journey. 
 
 The distance from Hata is two ris, or five miles. 
 
 August 26. On the eastern bank of the lake is the 
 celebrated and very ancient Sintoo sanctuary known 
 under the name of Hakone'-no-jinja. Like many 
 other native temples, it has just been " purified ; " 
 that is, to the great but passive discontent of the 
 people, it has been given back to the exclusive worship 
 of Sintoo. The statues have been destroyed or carried 
 off, as well as the vases and ornaments of the Buddhist 
 gods. Hakone'-no-jinja is situated on the slope of the 
 mountain. The ascent to it is by a succession of stone 
 steps. We saw some magnificent trees and some 
 very curious and ancient pictures painted on wood 
 and hung from the cornice ; the whole, however, was 
 neglected, solitary, and abandoned ; for a people de- 
 prived of its gods are little disposed to bow before 
 the official divinities of the moment. I am not going 
 to allow myself to pass any judgment upon the matter. 
 I have not any greater partiality for the one than for the 
 other, but there are some things which are everywhere 
 alike. A wise government will think twice before
 
 in.] HAKONK 381 
 
 meddling with people's consciences. It may succeed in 
 destroying the religion of the people, which is a dismal 
 political victory after all ; but it will be a more diffi- 
 cult task to make them adopt the belief which it 
 chooses to patronize. It is, therefore, a work of 
 destruction and nothing else. 
 
 August 27. We made the tour of the lake in a 
 boat. The resemblance with the north of Scotland is 
 striking. Certainly, the sky and vegetation are very 
 different, and one would seek in vain for the cottages, 
 castles, and parks which brighten the shores of Loch 
 Lomond or Loch Katrine. The Lake of Hakone' 
 stretches its grey waters under the shadow of rounded 
 mountains, only inhabited by wild beasts. With the 
 exception of the little town itself and the temple that 
 bears its name, I did not see a single human habitation 
 along its solitary banks. Sometimes a strong gust of 
 wind drives away the clouds which settle on the 
 crater ; and then our old friend Fujiyama rises above 
 the mountains like a celestial vision which disappears 
 as soon as seen. Words cannot paint the beautiful 
 details of the picture, nor the grand and severe aspect 
 of the whole scene. 
 
 August 28. An American missionary, Dr. B., has 
 been to call upon me. For a year he has been living 
 at the port of Niigata, on the northern coast of Niphon. 
 The climate there is totally different. The cold north- 
 west winds of Manchouria blow over the place the 
 greater part of the year and chill the whole air. In 
 winter, the town is buried in snow, and the inhabitants
 
 382 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 are compelled to dig passages in order to get from one 
 house to another. In spite, however, of the abundance 
 and duration of the snow, the thermometer rarely falls 
 below zero. It is also to zero that the European and 
 American residents have been reduced. The only 
 white man left there is an English petty officer, the 
 orderly of the consul, who is at this moment absent. 
 
 I admire M. Satow. He talks with everyone, and 
 never fails to mark down in his note-book any new 
 expressions or phrases which strike him. By carefully 
 comparing these memoranda, he has learned to define 
 and fix the sense of each word. It is a mental labour 
 of every moment. There are scarcely any grammars 
 or dictionaries in the Japanese language ; or else they 
 are very incomplete attempts to teach the rudiments 
 of this strange tongue. To penetrate its spirit and 
 seize all the delicate allusions in the sentences, is the 
 great difficulty. The system followed by M. Satow 
 seems to me the only one practicable or possible to 
 discover the language of the people. 
 
 August 29. The heavy rains of the last few days 
 have destroyed the bridges, and made the royal road 
 to Yedo impracticable. As to fording the Odawara 
 river, it is not to be thought of. We shall get over 
 the difficulty by going round by Atami, from whence 
 it will be easy to get to the island of Enoshima by 
 sea, and from thence back to Yokohama. There is a 
 path which leads straight to the south-west. It is the 
 road open to those Europeans who have received the 
 permission to visit Hakone', and the hot springs of 
 Atami. We chose another road more to the west : it
 
 in.] HAKONE. 383 
 
 is a little out of the way ; but the mayor of Hakone 
 and our innkeeper recommend it to us on account of 
 the beauty of the scenery : and in these matters the 
 Japanese, even of the lowest class, are competent 
 judges. At twelve o'clock we started in our cangos, 
 and climbed up one of the mountains which surround 
 the lake, the path leading through two rows of grand 
 old cryptomerias. After half an hour's march, we 
 reached the top, and enjoyed a fairy -like view over 
 the bay of Suruga. A great tea-house which is placed 
 on the culminating point of the mountain, was full of 
 travellers and people from Kiy6to, belonging to 
 every class of society. Politics, pecuniary interests, 
 and commerce, call them to Yedo, which is become, 
 alas ! the residence of the emperor, to the great 
 detriment of their ancient and once rich and flourish- 
 ing capital. Everyone seemed enchanted with the 
 view. 
 
 The Japanese are wonderful lovers of nature. In 
 Europe a feeling for beauty has to be developed by 
 education. Our peasants will talk to you of the 
 fertility of the soil, of the abundance of water, so 
 useful for their mills, of the value of their woods, but 
 not of the picturesque charms of the country. They 
 are not perhaps entirely insensible to it : but if they 
 do feel it, it is in a vague, undefined sort of way, for 
 which they would be puzzled to account. It is not so 
 with the Japanese labourer. With him, the sense of 
 beauty is innate. Perhaps, also, he has more time to 
 cultivate it. He is not so overworked as our English 
 or German labourers. The fertility of the soil, the 
 soft rains, the warm sun, do half the business. There
 
 384 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 are many hours when he can rest, lying on his mat at 
 his cabin door, smoking his pipe, and listening to the 
 songs of his daughters, while his eyes are feasting 
 on the beautiful scenery around him, which he 
 thoroughly enjoys. If he can, he builds his house on 
 the banks of a stream : with a few big stones, placed 
 in the necessary spot, he makes a little waterfall, for 
 he loves the sound of rushing water. At the side of 
 his hut grows a little cedar. He separates some of 
 the branches, and makes them bend over the roof, 
 both for shade and beauty. This is a subject you see 
 thousands of times depicted in illuminated Japanese 
 drawings. On the other side, he plants an apricot tree 
 when it is in flower, the man and his family are in an 
 ecstasy. This extraordinary love and feeling for nature 
 is reflected in all Japanese productions. A taste for 
 the fine arts is common among the very lowest classes, 
 and to a degree which is not found in any country inn 
 Europe. In the humblest cottage you will find traces 
 of this an artificial flower, an ingenious child's toy, 
 an incense-burner, an idol, heaps of little ornamental 
 things, the only use of which is to give pleasure to 
 the eye. With us, except in the service of religion, 
 this kind of art is the privilege of the rich and of 
 people in easy circumstances. In Japan it is every- 
 one's property : and if a man be too poor to ornament 
 his hut with a picture representing the snowy cone of 
 Fujiyama, with a fine pear-tree in full flower in the 
 foreground ; or with a statue of a singer sitting on a 
 death's head ; or with a drawing of a bird mounting 
 up to the sky ; or of a butterfly settling on a rainbow ; 
 or of a beetle casting amorous glances on a turtle, who
 
 in.] HAKONE. 385. 
 
 turns away his head in disdain if, as I say, he is too 
 poor to indulge in one or other of these favourite 
 subjects, well, he will console himself by looking, with 
 an artistic eye, at the mountains near his house, 
 at his apricot tree in flower, or at his little cedar ; and 
 he will listen with delight to the music of his cascade, 
 and expect you to be delighted too. 
 
 It is really with difficulty that we tore ourselves 
 away from the contemplation of this delicious pano- 
 rama : a perfect maze of green valleys and hills sinking 
 into a plain : then the gulf with its scattered rocks : 
 beyond, low promontories stretching towards the sea 
 from north to south : above them, a chain of higher 
 mountains extending from south to north, then another 
 tier of rocks, and then another, all wooded below and 
 streaked above, as is the fashion of the country and 
 beyond the whole, the long, low waves of the great 
 Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Soon after leaving the Tokaido, we turned our steps 
 towards the south-west. The path was lost in the 
 long grass, which is of an extraordinary height and 
 thickness, -and tickles the shoulders and cheeks of our 
 coolies. At last, separating from one another, we lose 
 our way altogether. In vain the bearers send forth 
 loud cries the echoes alone answer. I find myself with 
 my men at the edge of a precipice, or rather of a 
 perpendicular declivity entirely covered with thick 
 grass. The coolies keep on bravely. Sometimes, 
 however, they miss their footing and fall. My cango 
 escapes from their hands, capsizes, and, turned into a 
 sledge, descends with fearful rapidity. Thanks to the 
 thickness of the grass, it always ends by stopping of 
 
 VOL. T. CO
 
 386 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 its own accord : it is a kind of montagne ?*wsse. For- 
 tunately, nature itself provides safeguards ; and there 
 is nothing to fear except from serpents. But if our 
 naked coolies do not mind risking themselves in the 
 tangle, the danger cannot be very great. The descent 
 is accomplished in a few moments. Here we are in a 
 deep ravine. The questiou is how we are to scramble 
 up the opposite side. To walk on this slippery grass 
 up a steep perpendicular incline, is, to me, simply 
 impossible. To attempt it even, one needs the vocation 
 of a coolie. At the very first trial, I roll ignominiously 
 down into a ditch : and the good fellows laugh till 
 they have to hold their sides. They hoist me up on 
 their shoulders, drag me up to the top, recover the 
 lost cango, and all the while laugh and chatter and 
 never for a moment lose their good-humour. At last 
 we get out of this sea of waving grass, and to my great 
 satisfaction I perceive in the distance my friend 
 Mr. Adams, hung midway over a similar incline, and 
 half rolling, half dragged, striving painfully to reach 
 the lost track which is to lead us to our destination. 
 At last we meet but now for a fresh adventure ! The 
 fatigue of carrying men across such mountains does 
 not satisfy our coolies ; they have enough energy left 
 to go a hunting. Suddenly, giving a kind of war- 
 cry, they drop their cangos and rush down the incline 
 as hard as they can go. A few minutes after, they 
 reappear with a little bear, which they had caught and 
 killed with blows of their bamboos. 
 
 At half-past four we arrived at Karinzawa, having 
 made about four ris or twelve miles. There we find 
 Satow, who, being a good walker, has arrived an hour
 
 ill.] HAKONE. . 387 
 
 before us. The mayor tells us that we are the first 
 Europeans that he and his officials have ever had 
 the honour of seeing. To judge by the effect we 
 produced, I should say this was highly probable. 
 We had a similar scene to the one I before described : 
 the babies crying, the young girls hiding, the men 
 keeping themselves in the background, and the older 
 women alone coming forward to welcome and smile at 
 us. By degrees the crowd became tamer, but we had 
 only to advance a few steps for them, to retire in all 
 directions. To have an idea of it, one must have 
 swum in a pond full of fishes. The village is small, 
 but coquettishly placed between two wooded moun- 
 tains ; a limpid stream runs through it, and its banks 
 are lined with beautiful flowers. We alighted at the 
 mayor's own house. It was a perfect gem, and with 
 an equally lovely garden. In the court, a scaffolding 
 was erected, ornamented with flowers and little flags 
 in coloured paper. It bore a cage in the shape of a 
 temple, and of which the door was open. This tempietto 
 was destined to receive the spirits of the dead, whom 
 they expect to-morrow, and who are coming back 
 from I know not what distant region of eternity. 
 
 We left Karinzawa a little before five o'clock. 
 Direction, south. We crossed a mountain by a road 
 which seemed like a tunnel, so tightly were the 
 branches of the old trees interlaced over our heads. 
 We reached the summit after half an hour's march, 
 and came down on the opposite side in fifteen 
 minutes. These mountains are the continuation of a 
 chain known by the name of Hakone'. They coast 
 the Pacific, running from east to west> forming an 
 
 o c 2
 
 388 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 almost horizontal line above, and then go sheer down 
 into the sea. From the point where we now are, these 
 long, steep promontories seem to spread themselves, 
 one behind the other, like the side scenes in a theatre ; 
 but I do not think that the imagination of the scene- 
 painters, even of the great Paris opera, ever conceived 
 such a magic decoration. At the bottom of a little 
 
 o 
 
 bay formed by two capes, exactly at our feet, we 
 perceive a long, white line : that is Atami. We 
 arrived there at half-past seven o'clock. It was pitch 
 dark when our good coolies, who never ceased 
 laughing and chattering, deposited us at the door of 
 an elegant and spacious hotel. 
 
 The distance from Hakone' is six and a half ris, or 
 rather more than sixteen miles. 
 
 August 30. Atami is agreeably situated on the 
 shores of a little bay, in front of an island, and on the 
 slope of the mountain. The streets descend rapidly 
 to the shore, and here and there are transformed into 
 staircases. A sulphurous spring attracts in the season 
 a great number of native bathers, and sometimes a 
 few of the European Yokohama residents. Every 
 three or four hours the water bursts out anew from 
 a spring which is buried among some great blocks 
 of rock. 
 
 In the inclosure close by, there is a carefully-kept 
 tomb or rather monument, erected by an English 
 traveller over the remains of his dog. The natives 
 take great care not to injure it : many of them 
 prostrate themselves before it ; for they say it is 
 always prudent to keep on good terms with the spirits
 
 in.] HAKONK 389 
 
 of the departed, even if it be but of a dog. As at 
 Hata and Hakone' the inhabitants make the most 
 beautiful little boxes and other objects in camphor 
 wood, which they offer at ridiculously low prices. 
 
 We started at nine o'clock in two boats of six oars 
 each, one of which is occupied by ourselves, and one 
 by our suite. Direction, east-north-east. On sea and 
 sky, a perfect calm. The two boats, joined by a rope, 
 keep together. The boatmen, standing on the cross 
 benches, display all the athletic beauty of their bronzed 
 bodies, leaning now forward, now backwards, and 
 regulating their strokes by a measured cry which 
 seems to harmonise admirably with their supple move- 
 ments. Some of these men are the very types of 
 masculine strength and beauty. Others would be so 
 if their le^s were not so slender. All are remarkable 
 
 o 
 
 for the smallness and fineness of their hands and feet. 
 They have only two poses, which they continually 
 repeat, but both are classic in the highest degree. One 
 must have travelled in Japan during the summer to 
 understand the Greek statuary of the golden age. 
 The great masters of Attica and Corinth, surrounded 
 by men with little or no clothes, had always before 
 their eyes the play of the muscles of the human body. 
 Our sculptors form themselves on models of which the 
 attitudes, being almost always forced, lack both truth 
 and animation. 
 
 Sometimes the cord is slackened, our boats are 
 separated, and the boatmen determine on having a race. 
 Then the men behave as if they were possessed They 
 no longer sing, they howl. From antique statues they 
 have been transformed into savages. The waves, just
 
 390 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 before so calm, are changed into masses of foam. At 
 last, exhausted by their efforts, our athletes stop, look 
 at one another, and burst out laughing. All of a 
 sudden there is a dead silence. The course is changed, 
 and noiselessly and rapidly the boats are propelled 
 close to a long black line which we see floating above 
 the water. It is a huge whale, asleep, rocked by the 
 surf. One of the boatmen rushes on the prow. There, 
 standing up to his full height, his body slightly thrown 
 backwards, his left hand pressed to his heart as if he 
 would still its beatings, he gently raises his right arm 
 above his head, and balancing the harpoon in his 
 slender fingers, prepares to lance it. Before us, at a 
 few fathoms' distance, the monster sleeps on. It is 
 really a sublime sight ! all it wants is a Phidias 
 capable of rendering its indefinable beauty. Unfortu- 
 nately, at the very last decisive moment, the giant 
 woke, and disappeared beneath the water. 
 
 In spite of these episodes, we have made some way. 
 We have been coasting along the shore, the vegetation 
 of which belongs to the tropics. Orange-trees are 
 mingled with cryptomerias. High stone walls protect 
 the gardens from the visits of the wild beasts, especially 
 of the bears, which abound in this country. Then we 
 pass successively by Idzusan, suspended midway in 
 the bay between orange and bamboo woods ; by 
 Yoshihama, another considerable maiket-tovvn ; round 
 the Cape of Madzu-no-hama, and by the mouth of 
 the Odawara river. At five o'clock in the evening, 
 we are in front of Oiso. Here the mountains stretch 
 further back, and the wooded shores become flatter. 
 Our men have been rowing for eight hours without a
 
 in.] HAKON&. 391 
 
 moment's intermission. Some haudfuls of barley (for 
 rice is reserved for the rich), with a drink of pure 
 water, is the only meal of these poor fellows. But 
 how they seem to enjoy it ! Poor ? yes, they are 
 that, certainly ; but knowing neither misery nor care, 
 they are not unhappy. 
 
 The sun was setting when the island of Enoshima 
 came in sight, its dark shadow standing out against the 
 crimson clouds. At eight o'clock we landed. As the 
 tide was low our boats could not get near the pier, so 
 our boatmen carried us on their shoulders. It was 
 a ten minutes' walk, and to judge by the way they 
 laughed, they found it charming. At last we set foot 
 in the Japanese Paradise. The night was very dark, but 
 the coloured lanterns hung on the doors of the houses, 
 lighted our way. Built on the side of a rock, and 
 wide open, the shops are as full and gay as possible ; 
 men selling fruit and vegetables, women preparing 
 great dishes of rice and fish, and bands of pilgrims hunt- 
 ing for lodgings, cross and recross the narrow street. 
 Everywhere there are festoons of flowers and flags 
 of different colours, for Enoshima, the holy isle, is 
 always mfSLe. We were conducted to the best hotel ; 
 it was full to overflowing. Music, singing, and drink- 
 ing were going on in every direction. Hardly was 
 the dinner announced when the innkeeper made his 
 appearance. After having accomplished the usual 
 duties of politeness prescribed in the ceremonial, he 
 gave us a little paper, carefully folded, containing 
 toothpicks. On the envelope was a long inscription, 
 as follows : " Imperial toothpicks. Shiraki, hotel- 
 keeper in the principal street, fifth house to the left.
 
 392 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 Imperial lodging. Abundant repasts promptly served." 
 On the other side the distances were marked from 
 Enoshima to Kamakura, Yedo and Kiydto. The word 
 " imperial" means first-rate, or super-excellent. From 
 Atami to Enoshima is sixteen ris or forty miles. 
 
 August 31. Certainly the lodging was the reverse 
 of " imperial." Hardly could we close our eyes. The 
 pilgrims, when not saying their rosaries or ringing 
 their bells, chatter frightfully. But the delicious 
 freshness of the morning makes us forget the miseries 
 of our sleepless night. We explore the little streets 
 of the town. The crowd of pilgrims is already throng- 
 ing round the stalls where they sell rosaries, votive 
 pictures, and shells of every kind. This little island 
 has been often and admirably described. It is a 
 delicious place. From one sanctuary to the other, we 
 arrive at last to the top of the rock. Some old trees 
 growing almost miraculously out of the clefts, stretch 
 their branches over the summit like a baldachino. In 
 the temples themselves, which are small and not much 
 ornamented, I found nothing particular ; but there are, 
 nevertheless, some pretty details. Among others, we 
 admired the classic design of a well, which reminded 
 one of a cistern in a Venetian palace. It is an artifi- 
 cial circular rock, full of tortoises, who hid themselves 
 as we drew near. Circular stones, kept together by a 
 hooped band, formed the stand of the fountain. The 
 upper part was carefully polished and ornamented with 
 bas-reliefs and circular subjects carved in the Byzan- 
 tine style, with here and there some inscriptions. 
 Towards the west and south the rock slopes straight
 
 in.] HAKONE. 393 
 
 down into the sea. It is like " Tiberius' Leap," in the 
 Island of Capri, only in smaller proportions. You 
 go down by a staircase cut in the rock, and if you are 
 a real pilgrim you must visit the Black Grotto, which 
 is only accessible to those who can jump on some 
 blocks of stone, which are half under water. 
 
 A natural dyke, passable at low water, unites the 
 island of Enoshima with the mainland. At this very 
 moment, long files of pilgrims are crossing over it. 
 Preferring our boat, we pass this narrow arm of the 
 sea, double a little promontory, and disembark, an hour 
 later, not far from the village of Sakan6shita. Here 
 we are within the limits of the treaty. This district, 
 one of the most picturesque of the province of Niphon, 
 is well known to the residents of Yokohama. We are to 
 visit three celebrated spots to-day : the Daibutsu, Kama- 
 kura the ancient capital of the Sioguns, and Kanazawa, 
 renowned for the beauty of its site and gardens. 
 
 The colossal bronze statue of Buddha, the Daibutsu, 
 rises near a little village surrounded by trees. The 
 conception belonged to the great Siogun, Yoritomo ; 
 but it was only fifty years after his death, towards the 
 middle of the thirteenth century, that this splendid 
 monument was placed in the spot where it is still seen. 
 The face of the god breathes perfect quiet, and an 
 ineffable sweetness. One asks oneself how it is possible 
 to produce so much effect by such simple means. 
 This great work is an irresistible proof of the perfec- 
 tion to which the founders' art had attained at so 
 distant a period. The pedestal is four feet high, the 
 statue fifty ; the circumference of the head is thirty- 
 two feet, the nose alone four feet.
 
 394 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. (CH'AP. 
 
 The air being deliciously fresh and the path 
 shady, we continued on foot across rice-fields and 
 meadows, passing by the isolated tea-house, where two 
 Englishmen, Major Baldwin and Lieutenant Bird, 
 were massacred by a bonze and a samurai with two 
 swords. The yakunins who escorted the travellers 
 either had not the time or the inclination to rush to 
 their rescue. Here we came into the long and beautiful 
 avenue which leads to Kamakura, now only a small 
 village, but formerly the flourishing residence of the 
 Sioguns. This magnificent avenue is the sole indi- 
 cation that this spot, now covered with fields and 
 woods', was once the second capital of the empire. 
 Incendiary fires seem to have utterly destroyed it. 
 Its ruin, however, made the fortune of Yedo. 
 The principal interest attached to this deserted place 
 is due to the great temple of Hachiman, founded 
 by the Siogun, Yoritomo, towards the end of the 
 twelfth century. 
 
 Yoritomo, and four centuries after him, Taiko Sama, 
 are the two prominent figures in Japanese annals. 
 Their praise is in every history, and popular legends 
 have transmitted their remembrance from generation 
 to generation. But if Yoritomo founded the temple 
 of Kamakura, it does not follow that the magnificent 
 constructions w r hich were still standing three months 
 ago w T ere of so ancient a date. Is it possible for 
 wooden buildings to resist the inclemency of the 
 seasons for seven centuries ? This is, at least, doubtful. 
 But besides, the most beautiful sanctuaries, those 
 that were dedicated to Buddha, are now lying on the 
 ground. The government of the day ordered their
 
 Hi.] HAKONE. 395 
 
 demolition. Only those buildings consecrated to the 
 state religion have been spared. We saw heaps of 
 broken columns lying pell-mell, with pillars richly 
 sculptured, lacquered, and gilt, Buddhist idols muti- 
 lated, candelabras in pieces ; one may fancy the 
 despair of the population ! The historian and the lover 
 of art deplore the destruction of such precious anti- 
 quities ; the Christian wishes to see the images of the 
 false gods superseded not by the mirror but by the 
 Cross ; politicians shrug their shoulders ; while philo- 
 sophers smile and say there is nothing new under 
 the sun. 
 
 We continue our journey by a hollow road, shaded 
 by magnificent firs. After having crossed a gorge, 
 the path widens down to the shores of an inland bay, 
 full of scattered islets, and surrounded by low hills. 
 In front of us is the town of Kanazawa. There a 
 specimen of true Japanese civility awaited us. A 
 young lady belonging to one of the great families of 
 Yedo, the chief of whom is an intimate friend of my 
 fellow-traveller's, is taking sea-baths here. Hardly 
 had she been informed of our arrival than she 
 announced her intention of paying him a visit, and 
 very soon after appeared, escorted by her old doctor. 
 She was a very beautiful woman of about eighteen, a 
 native of Kiy6to, as fair as any European, though 
 rather pale, for she is not well, and dressed with that 
 simple elegance which distinguishes ladies of high 
 rank all over the world. Her manners are graceful, 
 modest, and gracious. She makes her prostration and 
 the great kow-tow, that is, she touches the mat with 
 her beautiful forehead. After having remained on
 
 96 A RAMBLE BOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 her knees for a few moments, her arms leaning on the 
 ground and her hands turned inwards, she gets up, 
 bending her knees and leaning her hands upon them ; 
 at last she squats down on her heels, and, the above 
 necessary compliments being ended, she begins to talk. 
 My friend, as a gentleman who knows what good 
 manners are, passes in his turn through all the 
 phases of this ceremonial. I admire his courage and 
 his unconstrained action : only, how to keep one's 
 countenance ! But let him laugh best who laughs 
 last. All of a sudden, the young Japanese lady rose, 
 looked at me with the sweetest smile, and directly 
 made me a great prostration and all the rest. To 
 respond to these civilities, I am compelled to follow 
 the example of my companion, and perform, in my 
 turn, all these evolutions. The lady and her doctor, 
 who are far too civil to laugh at my awkwardness, 
 resume the conversation a somewhat commonplace 
 one, it is true, but mingled with kind words, and 
 amiable speeches and merry little laughs. No sooner 
 had she gone back to her own apartments than she 
 sent us some baskets filled with beautiful fruits and 
 every kind of sweet thing. 
 
 The distance from Enoshima to Kanazawa is five 
 ris, or twelve and a half miles. 
 
 September 1. At six o'clock we were off. At the 
 very moment we were getting into our cangos we 
 perceived our charming neighbour, who, followed by 
 her doctor, came to wish us good-bye. She only wore 
 a thin silk tunic : her little bare feet were shod with 
 wooden sandals, and she had not had the time to
 
 in.] HAKONE. 397 
 
 have her hair done ; but this nfyligS suited her to 
 perfection. 
 
 We are nearly ab the end of our expedition. After 
 five hours spent in exclamations of enthusiasm at the 
 extreme beauty of the scenery and in groans at the 
 torture which we endured from the speed of our cango- 
 bearers, we were landed safely at the door of the 
 great " International Hotel " of Yokohama just as the 
 clock struck twelve. 
 
 The distance from Kanazawa is five n's, or twelve 
 and a half miles.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ? EDO. FROM THE Zff TO THE 28 JULY; FROM 
 THE IS TO THE 22 AUGUST; AND FROM THE 
 SRD TO THE 13TS SEPTEMBER. 
 
 General Aspect. The Neighbourhoood. Visit to Sawa, the 
 Foreign Minister. German School The Sliiba and its Art 
 Treasures. Evident but inexplicable influence of Italian Taste. 
 Conversation with Iwakura, the new Minister. His plans 
 of Reform. Shops. Silks and Curiosities. The Temple 
 of Meguro. Saigo. The Sanctuaries of Ikegami. The Forty- 
 seven Ronins. Feast at Sawa's. The Palace of Hamagote'n. 
 Dinner at Iwakura's. The Prime Minister Sanjo. At the 
 Temple of Asakusa. Dramatic Art. A Japanese Vaudeville. 
 Lay Figures. Yedo at Night. 
 
 July 26 to 28. MY first visit was consecrated to 
 a general study of the great and mysterious capital of 
 Japan. Open to strangers only during the last two or 
 three years, it had been previously visited by the two 
 ambassadors, Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, and more 
 recently by travellers and residents at Yokohama. The 
 foreign legations have made it their temporary resi- 
 dence. Of the different descriptions which have been 
 written and published (and to which I do not wish to 
 add another), the one addressed by M. Richard Lindau,
 
 CH. iv. J YEDO. 399 
 
 in December, 1864, to the Asiatic Society of London, 
 North China Branch, is the most known, the most 
 celebrated, and the best I have read. Necessarily, 
 there are some things wanting ; as at that time a good 
 many of the temples, and among the rest, the tombs of 
 the Sioguns, the pearl and triumph of Japanese art, 
 were still inaccessible. The merit of the German 
 author is not less real ; and all the more because it 
 was far more difficult then than now to go about in 
 the streets of Yedo. 
 
 These are the notes which I have taken on the spot. 1 
 Imagine an undulating plain, bathed to the south 
 by the waters of a great gulf, bounded to the north 
 and east by a fine large river, and crossed towards the 
 south, parallel to the sea, by a chain of low hills. In 
 the centre of this plain, but perhaps a little nearer to 
 the sea, rises a circular eminence three or four miles in 
 circumference. To the north-east another row of hills 
 rises from the great river and stretches away towards 
 the west. This is the lay of the ground occupied by 
 the Japanese capital. The river is the Sumidagawa. 
 On the eminence rises the ancient castle of the Sioguns, 
 which has become of late years the residence of the 
 Mikado. That wooded hill to the north-east of the castle 
 is Ueno, which contains the temple and ancient monu- 
 ments of the former masters of Yedo. The other hill, 
 towards the south, is the celebrated Shiba, with its 
 magnificent tombs of other jSioguns. Between the 
 heights and round the low cone on which stands the 
 
 1 I give them to my reader to refresh his recollections ; but, I 
 repeat, I have no intention or pretension to write a full description 
 of this town.
 
 400 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 imperial castle, lies the town. Its limits are : to the 
 north, the Sumidagawa, which, after making a deep 
 bend, throws itself into the sea ; to the east, uneven 
 but cultivated ground ; to the south, the gulf ; and to 
 the west, little valleys covered with pines, bamboos, and 
 rice-fields, which come up to the gates of the city. To 
 the east of the river is the great suburb of Hondjo. 
 At the south-western extremity of the town is the large 
 village of Shinagawa, which is only a continuation of 
 the suburb of Tanagawa. Yedo is divided into four 
 parts : Jiro, Soto-Jiro, Midzi, and Hondjo. 
 
 Jiro is the imperial castle ; only the walls are visible. 
 Trees, three centuries old, planted by the great Taiko- 
 Sama (in 1598), hide from profane eyes a spot now 
 inhabited by the son of the gods. Green turf, which 
 always looks fresh and bright, covers the sides of the 
 mount ; a large wide ditch, at this moment full of 
 gigantic lotus-flowers, runs all round it. No mortal 
 man, save the people about the court and the great 
 dignitaries of the state, may penetrate into those sacred 
 precincts. Foreign ministers are only admitted on 
 the rare occasions when they seek an audience of 
 the emperor. 
 
 Around Jiro lies Soto-Jiro. It contains the yashkis ; 
 that is, the palaces of the great personages about the 
 court, the ministers of state, and the daimios, who, in 
 the days of the Sioguns, were compelled to reside at 
 Yedo for six months in the year. Since the fall of 
 their master they live mostly in retirement on their 
 estates. A large canal, forming an irregular circle, is 
 the limit of this part of the town. It is only towards 
 the east that it extends to the banks of the Sumida-
 
 v.] YEDO. 401 
 
 gawa. This part of Soto-Jiro is crossed by wide 
 streets and by a number of smaller ones running out of 
 the larger arteries. This is the commercial quarter, 
 rightly called by the English the " City." From the 
 beauty and elegance of its shops, and from the gay and 
 busy crowd which fills its streets from morning till 
 night, it forms a marked contrast with the rectangular 
 blocks of the palaces, the greater portion of which are 
 now shut up, and with the silence and solitude of the 
 aristocratic quarter. To the north, west and south of 
 Soto-Jiro extends the Midzi, or the town, properly so 
 called. Several high-arched bridges connect this 
 quarter with Soto-Jiro. The most celebrated is the 
 Niphon-bashi, the Bridge of Japan, so called because 
 it leads to the great imperial road which traverses the 
 island of Niphon from its southern extremity in front 
 of the island of Kiuchiu, to the northern point oppo- 
 site Hakodate', in the island of Yesso. In the interior 
 of the town this road bears the name of 0-dori (great 
 street) ; outside, that is from Yedo to Nagasaki, it is 
 called Tokaido (road to the west) ; while the northern 
 branch of it, from the capital to Hakodate, is known 
 by the appellation of Oshiu-lcaido (northern road). 
 The Tokaido, be it said in passing, is generally well 
 kept, and from Yedo to the banks of the river Oda- 
 wara it is even practicable for carriages ; but in the 
 mountains it comes to be nothing but a path, and 
 across the rocks, to steps cut in the stone, which make 
 it almost impracticable for horses. 
 
 Niphon-bashi is the geographical centre of the em- 
 pire. In the official itineraries it is from thence that 
 the distances are counted to all the Japanese towns. 
 
 VOL. i. D r>
 
 402 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 To this spot the melancholy recollections are attached 
 of the murder of M. Heusken, the secretary of the 
 United States legation. The Midzi is a mixture of 
 frequented and deserted streets, of gardens and rice- 
 fields, parks and temples, of which the finest are Asa- 
 kusa to the north-east, and Shiba to the south-west. 
 0-dori, and the other streets parallel to the sea, the 
 quarter which one crosses behind the Shiba to arrive 
 from the suburb of Takanawa to the castle, and the 
 approaches to Asakusa, are the most lively parts of the 
 Midzi. In other portions you might fancy yourself in 
 the country. On the side of Meguro, to the north of 
 Takanawa, the town loses itself in thickets and rice- 
 fields. To the south, on the sea-shore, at a short dis- 
 tance from the mouth of the great river, a new quarter 
 has been built within the last two years, called Tsukiji 
 (or the place of strangers), surrounded by canals, and 
 without trees or gardens. It is a most melancholy 
 site. There, however, the " Great Hotel " has been 
 built, in imitation of an American caravansera ; the 
 houses of the consuls, and of a few other foreigners ; 
 and last, not least, a French restaurant, which has 
 dignified its paltry shed with the grand-sounding title 
 of " Hotel de France." As yet there are no women 
 there. At a short distance to the south-west of Tsukiji 
 is the imperial country palace, with a beautiful park, 
 bathed by the waters of the Lake of Hamagotdn. To 
 the north of the Midzi is the famous Yoshiwara, 
 the quarter of the courtesans. Everyone has read 
 lying and exaggerated descriptions of this establish- 
 ment, which is partly founded and overlooked by 
 the government. Jt is asserted that, according to
 
 iv.J YEDO. 403 
 
 the ideas of this country, this horrible trade is not 
 looked upon as disgraceful ; that daughters of good 
 families are placed there by their parents, and that 
 honourable men do not hesitate to choose their wives 
 among them. Persons living at Yedo, and whose 
 witness cannot for a moment be called in question, 
 have assured me that all this is absolutely false. It 
 may happen in Japan, as in other countries, that a 
 man, yielding to his passion, will marry one of those 
 poor creatures ; but there, as elsewhere, these unhappy 
 girls are considered lost and dishonoured ; and these 
 places of prostitution are hot-beds of vice, misery, 
 disease, and often of suicide. An official man who 
 should be known publicly to frequent them, would be 
 dismissed the service and degraded without mercy. 
 
 On the left bank of the Sumidagawa stretches the 
 great suburb of Hondjo. In this neighbourhood there 
 are a great quantity of tea-houses and what are called 
 hatagoya, literally " houses of rest ; " but in reality, 
 bad houses, frequented mainly by students. Further 
 on are the great government storehouses, and several 
 palaces belonging to the daimios. A fine quay runs 
 along the river's edge. To the north live the etas (or 
 cursed race), the pariahs of Japan. 
 
 Such is the general look of Yedo. As to the prin- 
 cipal features of which this strange picture is com- 
 posed, which unrols itself as a new world before every 
 fresh visitor, I have reckoned four which repeat them- 
 selves ad infinitum ; the temples ; the yashkis, or 
 residences of the daimios: the houses of the middle 
 classes ; and the incombustible warehouses or safety- 
 places.
 
 404 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 In the temples, the Buddhist character is the most 
 often met with. Yedo is essentially a Siogun town. 
 It is they who transformed it into a capital, and 
 the Sioguns have all along practised and protected 
 Buddhism. 
 
 The yashkis are only palaces in name. They are 
 simply groups of houses of one story each, without 
 any pretensions to architecture, whitewashed, and 
 their windows fitted with black wood gratings. These 
 buildings serve as an outer wall and living-rooms 
 for the servants and suite of the master. Always 
 low and rectangular, they look like warehouses or 
 barracks. The roof is covered with black tiles bor- 
 dered with white. Black and white are the two 
 colours of Soto-Jiro. 1 
 
 The houses of the middle class have, like all similar 
 buildings in Japan, enormously heavy roofs resting on 
 pillars. They are completely open towards the street 
 and the court. During the night they are closed 
 with panels which move on slides like the scenes of a 
 theatre. If there be any partitions, they are simply 
 frames on which are stretched little squares of white 
 paper. In walking along the streets, the eye takes 
 in all the details of the interior of these houses. 
 Domestic life is entirely open to the inquisitive 
 passers-by. There is nothing to hide ; two or three 
 women, naked, at this season, down to the waist, are 
 busy with housework, cooking, &c. ; the men, entirely 
 naked, saving ihefundoshi or strip of linen round the 
 loins, are lying on the floor, smoking their pipes ; 
 
 1 I shall speak of the interior of these yashkis when describing 
 my visits to certain great personages.
 
 iv.] YEDO. 405 
 
 children are playing in the half light. A fire is 
 burning in one corner ; in the other, are the penates 
 of the house on a little altar, with a lamp, some 
 flowers, and little bits of paper fastened to small 
 sticks. On a square tray are some little cups for tea, 
 which is ready to be served at all hours of the day 
 and night. No other furniture, only a beautiful 
 matting. Everything is of the most extreme clean- 
 liness. If it be a shop, the upper story has a wooden 
 grating and a balcony, which ordinarily serves as a 
 store-room. 
 
 Last, not least, are the incombustible warehouses, 
 which are a kind of wooden tower covered with a 
 coat of cement-like stucco and painted black. The 
 windows are very small, and are closed with massive 
 iron shutters. They are houses of refuge in case of 
 fire or typhoons. Everything of value is hastily 
 placed here, and then the owners make their escape, 
 leaving the winds and the flames to do their worst. 
 These are the four great features of the town of Yedo. 
 Fancy temples rising in all directions : yashkis clus- 
 tered round the royal castle, scattered here and there 
 in the Hondjo, but very rarely seen in other parts of 
 the town ; little houses all alike and in the mercantile 
 quarter of Soto-Jiro, flanked by those round black 
 towers imagine all this, as I said before, and to 
 complete the picture, fancy the streets, which, from 
 the houses being so low, look wider than they are, 
 and which are filled with men and women of the 
 middle and lower classes (for ladies of rank rarely 
 show), a multitude of children, a fearful number of 
 blind people, and streams of norimons, cangos, and
 
 406 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 jinrikishas, and you will have a good idea of Yedo. 
 The norimons and cangos replace the palanquins. 
 The first are closed baskets ; the second open ones, 
 hung on great bamboos resting on the shoulders of 
 the coolies. The jinrikisha only came into existence 
 a year or two ago ; but there are already more than 
 20,000 in Yedo. It is a kind of carriage on two 
 wheels, prettily lacquered, covered with a white hood, 
 and drawn by a man. Its inventor has made his 
 fortune. The word means, "a carriage moved by 
 human strength." 1 A coolie goes at a little trot, and 
 makes three or four miles an hour. If you wish 
 to make use of one of these carriages, and you 
 want to avoid coming into contact with this useful 
 being, who combines the functions of coachman and 
 horse, keep tight on your seat and draw your legs 
 and feet well under you. Prepare yourself also for 
 various little incidents which happen very frequently : 
 a wheel which comes off ; the seat which sinks down ; 
 the head, which remains hanging on the front of a 
 shop. Now imagine a file of these droll conveyances 
 full of women, bonzes, singers, dancers (these last 
 always recognizable from the exaggeration of their 
 head-dress), in a word, Japanese exactly like the pic- 
 tures you have seen a thousand times painted on 
 vases, screens, or rice-paper, and you will be able, 
 without any great effort of imagination, to form a 
 just idea of this great " capital of the East." In the 
 richer quarters, where the thieves are attracted by the 
 hope of gain, there are, besides, a number of little 
 
 1 Jin, man ; rilri, strength ; tha, a corruption of the English 
 word, car.
 
 iv.] YEDO. 407 
 
 sentry-boxes and sentries, with wicket gates, which, 
 being shut at nightfall, prevent honest men from 
 going about freely, but do not hinder the sharpers. 
 As a shade to this brilliant picture, we must not forget 
 the manure-bearers. Turn your head and walk quickly, 
 but you will not altogether escape the horrible odours 
 which are emitted by these filthy streams. But, saving 
 this, there is no great town in Asia, and very few 
 even in Europe, which, on the score of cleanliness, 
 can be compared to Yedo. 
 
 It has also a look of prosperity and gaiety which 
 is pleasant to see. There are always some quarters 
 where they are celebrating the feast of some god. 
 Bamboos ornamented with artificial flowers and greasy 
 poles are raised before the temples; bonzes crowd 
 round them ; honest shopkeepers stand at their doors 
 to see the processions pass. It is an excellent pretext 
 for idleness that day ; but rice is plentiful ; people 
 are satisfied with little ; and in Japan, there is neither 
 riches nor poverty. They keep a middle line. It is 
 the happiest lot, and, unless appearances deceive me, 
 it is the condition of most of the people in this town. 
 I have seen very few beggars. There are a few on 
 the Tokaido and here and there in Yedo. But those 
 I saw seemed more to be plying a trade than to be 
 very miserable ; and they do not bother one as in 
 some countries. In the tea-houses, children are some- 
 times trained to beg, and taught to roll their big, 
 shaved heads, and do clever tricks with their little 
 hands while they sing the praises of the passers-by ; 
 but these were irresistibly comic. Poverty takes the 
 shape of caricature. In Europe the professional
 
 408 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 beggar tries to move you to compassion ; here he 
 makes you laugh. Their lamentations fall on a deaf 
 ear, for you know they are put on. But the buffoonery 
 of the poor Japanese first moves your spleen, and 
 then by a natural reaction, your heart. The idea is 
 not a bad one; it .is, at any rate, a practical, and I 
 would almost add, a profound one. 
 
 I have vainly hunted for some culminating spot 
 from whence one could look down on this immense 
 town as a whole. The lay of the ground and the 
 absence of high towers prevent your seeing anything 
 but a small portion of it at one time. From the roof 
 of the great hotel at the Tsukiji, one sees a huge 
 triangle crowned by the castle. To the north and 
 south-east, the horizon is limited by the Ueno and the 
 Shiba. Further to the south, you see the forts, run 
 up in haste (in 1854) to resist the approach of the 
 American fleet ; beyond, the promontory of Kanagawa 
 and the waters of the Gulf. Further on, the outlines 
 are almost imperceptible, earth, sea, and sky being 
 mingled together. In the Soto-Jiro quarter, near the 
 castle, there is another little hill, on which is a poorish 
 kind of tea-house. From thence you see the same 
 part of the town in a contrary sense. Look now ; 
 from north to south, to the right, the view is limited 
 by one of the palace gates and by a clump of large 
 trees ; to the left, by the heights of Ueno ; but before 
 you, that is, at your feet, a wonderful panorama is 
 unrolled, which is striking, not for its beauty so much 
 as for its strangeness and size. 
 
 I should be puzzled to describe the impression this 
 view made upon me ; but here is an analysis : an
 
 iv.] TEDO. 409 
 
 immense green carpet, with white and grey lines 
 scattered here and there and following the laws of 
 perspective, accumulating towards the edge. There 
 is neither beginning nor end. You know without 
 seeing it that behind Ueno to your left, and behind 
 the castle to your right, there is a mass of houses, 
 trees, gardens, and fields. Before you, there is the 
 same thing ; nothing that fixes the eye. If, here and 
 there, you see a heavier roof, a little higher than the 
 rest, why, you know it is a temple. Then you 
 perhaps discover the poles on which the government 
 decrees are posted up, especially those which punish 
 all those who dare to profess the Christian religion. 
 The little black towers of the warehouses are not high 
 enough to be distinguishable. The solitary buildings 
 which rise above the ordinary level of the scene, are 
 the hotel, and the custom-house, built for the govern- 
 ment by an English engineer. Saving these two 
 heterogeneous objects, the disagreeable effect of which 
 is mitigated by distance, nothing impairs the character 
 of this strange panorama. Add to this, the profound 
 silence which reigns above the town. The cries of 
 the bearers and bettos do not reach so far. The 
 sound of the temple gongs is equally dulled. As to 
 birds, there are none, I think. Sometimes a feeble 
 confused murmur reaches one's ear ; but so un- 
 like what one generally hears from a great city, that 
 it only deepens the strange, mysterious, indefinable 
 impression of the whole scene. 
 
 To the north-east of the castle is another spot, 
 noted for its beauty and for the view it affords of a 
 different side of Yedo. These are the heights of
 
 410 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 Atangoyama. Two stone staircases lead up to them. 
 Magnificent cryptomerias crown the summit, and 
 shade a picturesque tea-house. Go there towards 
 sunset The western portion of the Midzi quarter 
 stretches towards the south. Look then on the 
 opposite side, and you will see a mass of little hills 
 intermingled with valleys, covered with grass, fine 
 trees, and rice fields, the whole of the most brilliant 
 green. It is a charming contrast, which must strike 
 the eye and the imagination of the beholder. Here, a 
 huge capital there, a scene of Alpine beauty ; but 
 both one and the other are Yedo. 1 
 
 One must not come here without visiting Oji. It 
 is a place for pleasure-parties, just outside the town. 
 We do like everyone else, and, like everyone else, we 
 are quite delighted. Here you find beautiful green 
 hills, old cryptomerias, limpid streams, shade, water, 
 freshness. Charmingly pretty and graceful young 
 girls, who smile on you and bring you tea, tobacco, and 
 tay cut in pieces, cluster round you, give you a lesson 
 in the way of managing your chopsticks ; and having 
 waited till you have finished your meal, bring you a 
 little stool, prettily sculptured and lacquered, after 
 having carefully covered its cushion with a fresh sheet 
 
 1 I omit statistics, because those that I have seen in different 
 books do not inspire me with much confidence. I would only say 
 that the ground on which Yedo stands is (supposed to be) thirty - 
 six square miles, of which sixteen miles only are covered with 
 houses, and the rest with parks, gardens, and rico-fields. As to the 
 population, there is the same doubt. Some say two millions ; 
 others a million and a half. Since the fall of the Sioguns, and 
 the departure of the daimios and their servants, people say that 
 the population has fallen to eight hundred thousand.
 
 iv.] YEDO. 411 
 
 of paper. This is your pillow. You stretch yourself on 
 your mat ; and the nesan having discreetly retired, and 
 pushed together the paper partition of your apartment, 
 you take your " siesta," softly fanned by the breeze 
 which flows from a little gorge, plays with the tiny cas- 
 cade, skims over the big lotus-leaves, and finally comes 
 to caress and cool your burning cheeks. All this is 
 delicious ; but it has been very often described. As 
 for the nesans, they are only female waiters in an 
 inn, it is true, but they are dressed like ladies, and 
 have acquired their habits and language. People 
 will say that this is too favourable an opinion. But 
 contrary ones are only founded on suppositions and 
 perhaps calumnies, which have no interest but for those 
 who like to dive into disagreeable mysteries. 
 
 At twenty minutes' distance from Oji are the tea- 
 fields. I have forgotten to mark down the exact 
 name of the spot near them. A powerful stream 
 falls from a high rock. Above its foaming waters 
 some old pines form a kind of dome. There, both 
 men and women come to take douches. Alongside, 
 Japanese genius, which is essentially turned towards 
 making playthings, has invented one which has been 
 lately introduced into Europe. A water-melon, in the 
 shape of a hollow ball, lacquered with red, is placed 
 on a vertical jet of water, which comes out of a round 
 osier basin. This ball turns on itself, and, driven by 
 the force of the water at its base, rises and falls with 
 the regularity of a machine. 
 
 On returning home we passed a row of dwarf 
 cedars, artificially bent and twisted. A young and 
 pretty peasant woman met us, with one child on her
 
 412 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 back, and leading another by the hand. All of a 
 sudden, she uttered a cry of fear and distress ; her 
 beautiful features became deadly pale. We ran for- 
 ward, and sa\v a large serpent hanging to one of these 
 trees. Its head and the upper part of its body, which 
 was shiny and speckled with black, were stretched out 
 towards the poor mother, who, trembling and fasci- 
 nated, was incapable of taking flight, Our guards 
 bowed respectfully towards the reptile, who did not 
 seem to me the least scared by the advent of so many 
 men. They took care, in fact, not to molest it, for the 
 serpent is sacred. Dragons sometimes assume this 
 shape ; and the gods, as everyone knows, like to 
 disguise themselves under the form of dragons. To 
 kill a serpent, therefore, would be to expose oneself to 
 commit a fearful act of sacrilege. 
 
 August 18. I have accepted the kind hospitality 
 of Mr. Adams, and it is with joy that, on returning 
 from my different excursions, I come back to the 
 British legation at Yedo. On my arrival this 
 morning I found the judge of the English community 
 of Japan, Mr. Hannen, with his charming wife, 
 several other members of the mission, and Dr. Wheeler. 
 What a contrast between this comfortable and well- 
 ordered home, with its well-educated and agreeable 
 society, and the crowd of unknown foreigners whom I 
 had left at the hotel of Yokohama ! 
 
 August 19. To-day I took a long walk in the 
 neighbourhood. It was just like an English park, 
 saving for the peculiar vegetation of Japan. There 
 is another speciality : you go out of the hotel of the 
 legation which is situated in a very gay street ; you
 
 iv.] YEDO. 413 
 
 descend a little alley which by degrees takes the look 
 of a village. A few steps further on and you find 
 yourselves in the midst of a complete solitude. Go 
 on a little further, and there you are come back into 
 a town. But even in the most frequented streets 
 you hear very little noise ; there is no pavement, no 
 carriages, hardly any horses. The straw sandals of 
 the foot passengers deaden the sound of their steps. 
 There is rarely a crowd, but even if there be one, each 
 glides on softly. The people are not taciturn far from 
 it, they chatter all day long ; but you hear more laughs 
 than words. 
 
 August 20. It is Sunday. In the little European 
 quarter at Tsukiji there is neither Catholic priest nor 
 Protestant minister ; neither church nor chapel. On 
 the other hand, in every part of the town where public 
 edicts are posted up, one may read the decrees forbid- 
 ding to the Japanese the exercise of the Christian 
 religion. The members of the present government, in 
 spite of their reforming and civilizing tendencies, 
 have, they tell me, retained their hatred of Chris- 
 tianity, and especially of the Catholic faith. The 
 free exercise of their religion is guaranteed to foreign 
 residents in treaty-ports ; but is it the same in Yedo 
 and Osaka ? Pending this question, Mgr. Petitjean, the 
 Vicar Apostolic of Japan, has done wisely, I think, not 
 to provoke hostilities by opening a chapel at Tsukiji, 
 and to reserve its solution for the time of the revision 
 of the treaties, which cannot be far distant. 
 
 I passed this afternoon with Sawa Nabuyoshi, the 
 first Foreign Minister. Although not above fifty, he 
 looks like an old man ; in Japan one lives fast. His
 
 414 A RAMBLE HOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 face is a pleasant one, frank, and open, somewhat 
 sarcastic when he is joking, but full of that good- 
 humour which wins you at first sight. He and his 
 son, a fine young fellow, are simply dressed in a silk 
 tunic. Both are distinguished by high-bred manners 
 and exquisite politeness. The room in which we are 
 sitting, with the exception of a table and some 
 chairs placed for the use of foreign diplomats, is 
 entirely without furniture. In a niche is a fine 
 Bohemian glass vase, a souvenir of the visit of our 
 mission. By the order of his father, the young man 
 brings and puts on the gala dresses of his mother, 
 laughing heartily all the time ; he also shows us some 
 beautiful embroidered stuffs in silk and gold. Sawa 
 is a man of letters, and told us many interesting 
 things on the manners, history, and antiquities of his 
 country. Trusting to the scientific turn of his mind, 
 I pleaded for permission to visit Kiy6to (Miako). 
 " What do you want to do at Kiyoto ? " he asked me 
 with an embarrassed air. "It is an old town which 
 has been very much neglected since the Mikado took 
 up his residence here, and it has been partly destroyed 
 by recent fires. If you go there, other Europeans will 
 wish to do the same. The people at Kiyoto are bad ; 
 some accident might happen to you. Don't go. 
 Besides, recollect that the fire has destroyed almost all 
 the fine new buildings/' 
 
 " I am surprised," I replied, " to hear you speak 
 thus. It is not to see the new buildings that I want to 
 go there ; it is to see and admire the most ancient and 
 beautiful temples in the empire. You who are so 
 great a connoisseur in architecture, can you deny that
 
 iv.] YE DO. 415 
 
 Kiy6to is the most interesting and the oldest town in 
 Japan ? " 
 
 This observation struck home. The minister replied, 
 smiling, " You are right. Let me have a little time 
 to think. I will try and find some arguments which 
 will influence the council to give their consent." 
 
 Sawa is a man of intelligence, and very clear- 
 sighted : he wishes for reforms and likes progress ; 
 though he is too wise to approve of the race which is 
 now the order of the day among the higher powers. 
 Still the idea of a European penetrating into the holy 
 city does not please him ; and to obtain the consent 
 of his colleagues will require all his oratorical persua- 
 tion. So strongly is the idea of the exclusion of 
 strangers engrained in men's minds ! This does not 
 prevent the government from favouring European 
 journeys, the adoption of our costumes and habits, and 
 the study of foreign languages. They have just estab- 
 lished a German school. 
 
 I went to visit it one day. There were about a 
 dozen young men and boys repeating in chorus the 
 following sentence : " The poor man wants to become 
 like the rich man." " The rich man does not want to 
 become poor." They were continually making mistakes 
 and saying, " The rich man wants to become poor." 
 The teacher, the type of a German schoolmaster, 
 cried out in severe tones: "Amarisen, amarisen" 
 (" not that, not that ! ") And then the scholars, after a 
 moment's hesitation, began again in chorus : " The- 
 poor-man-does-not-want-to- become-like- the-rich -man." 
 A fresh explosion of wrath from the master. The word 
 rich ("reech") was the stone of stumbling to them
 
 416 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 all. Nothing was more comical than to see the efforts 
 of these little throats to overcome this difficulty ! 
 These boys will perhaps forget their German probably 
 they will never learn it ; but the moral maxim incul- 
 cated, which is certainly not that of the gospel, that 
 riches are worth more than poverty, will remain 
 engraven on their minds. 
 
 August 21. I have passed the greater part of the 
 day at Shiba. It is my third visit. 
 
 Shiba contains the tombs of a great number of 
 Sioguns, besides several temples and richly endowed 
 convents. Now, the guardians of these sanctuaries, 
 the bonzes, are in part expropriated. They have been 
 given a little money and the advice to marry, which 
 is contrary to their vows. The sequestered convents 
 have been turned into barracks. This is the most 
 recent change, but will probably not be the last. 
 There are voices in the ministerial council which 
 demand the formal abolition of Buddhism, the sup- 
 pression of all the Llamaseries, and the demolition of 
 the Shiba and Kiy6to temples, which are the most 
 beautiful specimens of Japanese art. 1 At this moment 
 they exist in all their magic splendour. In the midst 
 of the court is the great temple, and at the side the 
 roof-covered stage which seems to be an essential 
 
 1 The fears on this head conceived by the Buddhists and by 
 the Europeans of Yokohama who care for works of art, have been 
 but too well justified. In June 1872 we hear from Japan that 
 the government had decided to pull down all the Shiba temples. 
 The Yokohama papers protest energetically against this act of 
 civilized vandalism.
 
 iv.] YEDO. 417 
 
 feature in every sanctuary which includes the two 
 kinds of worship. A square and graceful tower of 
 several stories rises out of a group of fine old trees. 
 There is nothing in the construction of these buildings 
 which differs from other Buddhist temples, save the 
 wonderful perfection of the sculptures, the richness of 
 the details, and the profusion of gilding. The unde- 
 finable harmony of the colours makes one forget the 
 barbarism of the architecture and the grotesque - 
 ness of the statues. Certainly they are the divinities 
 of the spot ; but it breathes also a courtly at- 
 mosphere. Involuntarily one thinks of Louis XIV.'s 
 chapel at Versailles. 
 
 The real treasures of Shiba, however, are the tombs. 
 Separated from one another by a wall, they- are built 
 all along an avenue shaded by different species of 
 pines. The age of these trees is not quite certain ; 
 but it is supposed to be towards the end of the six- 
 teenth century that Taiko-Sama had them planted. 
 
 The oldest tombs go back to the first half of the 
 seventeenth century. I have visited them all, and 
 compared them with a great deal of care. From 
 this examination I thought I could trace a gradual 
 decay of the fine arts. But I abstain from forming 
 a judgment until I have seen the great temples and 
 the castle of Kiyoto, which are equally the work of 
 Taiko-Sama. 
 
 The mausoleums of Shiba are composed of three 
 distinct elements : the outer court, the sanctuary or 
 temple, properly so called, and behind the temple, the 
 tomb. The court is separated from the great avenue 
 by a wall, which, inside, forms a covered gallery. 
 
 VOL. I. E E
 
 418 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 Beautiful open-worked sculptures in high relief serve as 
 gratings to the windows of the inclosure. They repre- 
 sent peacocks, pheasants flying in the clouds, and 
 aquatic birds swimming in the ponds. The sculptor 
 brings out the action of the birds in the most 
 
 o 
 
 wonderful manner. The brilliancy of the colouring 
 and of the gilding adds to the marvellous effect of 
 these chefs-d'ceuvre of art, where the feeling of nature 
 is controlled by the symbolic and ideal character of 
 the subject. 
 
 In the court, there is a double row of lanterns 
 sculptured in stone, as one sees in all the temples, and 
 in a great many public and private gardens. At each 
 step one is dazzled by the richness of the material, 
 the prodigality of the ornaments, the exquisite finish of 
 the details, and the solemn magnificence of the whole. 
 
 In front of the entrance is the actual temple. Here 
 everything speaks of the greatness of the defunct poten- 
 tate, of his power, his riches and his mystical faith. On 
 both sides of the door stand the idols, the invariable 
 ornaments of Buddhist temples. One, with angry 
 features and a face painted bright red, is supposed to 
 exhort you to behave properly. Another, whose face 
 is green, bids you welcome. If this explanation, 
 which was given me by a bonze, be not exact, the 
 learned must correct me. A richly - carved door, 
 ornamented with beautiful bronzes, led into the 
 interior. When we entered, the light was waning, 
 and darkness shrouded the sp ce. But by and by 
 the eye began to take in the details, and we saw the 
 richly -gilded ornaments of the beams, the sculptured 
 ledges and friezes, and behind an altar loaded with
 
 iv.] YEDO. 419 
 
 flowers, vases, and lights, the great god, Buddha, 
 the symbol of supreme insensibility, of absolute and 
 eternal quiet. 
 
 " Grato m'& il sonno o 1'esser di easso." 
 
 Chandeliers, hung from the roof, surrounded the 
 altar ; mats of the finest and most marvellous quality 
 covered the floor, which was lacquered with reddish- 
 brown at the edges. 
 
 A taste for the grotesque, and a search after the 
 beautiful, refinement and perfection in technical 
 art, fecundity of imagination, and a delicate feel- 
 ing for nature, each and all restrained by the exi- 
 gencies of Indian theogony and the holiness of the 
 spot : these are the characteristics of the marvels 
 scattered in profusion over the last abode of the 
 Sioguns. One thing puzzled me very much. : it was 
 the unmistakable and evident stamp of Italian 
 baroque taste which was shown in some of the 
 sculptures. As long as they deal with sacred subjects 
 they follow tradition ; but as soon as they pass to 
 birds, flowers, clouds, or waves, they leave the old 
 tracks, take a freer range, and produce works which 
 might have come out of the studios of Borromini or 
 Bernini. Let any one who can, explain this strange 
 fact ! Behind the temple is the tomb. It is a 
 variegated column, surrounded by a double circular 
 balustrade in sculptured stone. You go up to it by 
 steps. The effect of the whole is simple, grand, and 
 barbaric. The venerable trees of Taiko-Sama form 
 the framework. The monotonous notes of the grass- 
 hoppers do not cease for a moment : they add to the 
 
 3 E 2
 
 420 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 wild, sad, strange, and solitary character of this essen- 
 tially heroic spot. 
 
 September 3. During our excursion to Hakone, 
 the Keform Government has not stood still. It has 
 by a simple stroke of the pen abolished the hans. 
 One knows that the Japanese towns are divided into 
 three categories : the fits, of which there are only 
 three, Kiyo'to (Miako), till the year before last the 
 residence of the Mikado ; Yedo, until the fall of the 
 Sioguus their capital and residence ; and last, not 
 least, Osaka, the pearl of Japanese towns, and the 
 great emporium of the commerce of the interior. The 
 other towns are either what is called bans, that is, 
 feoffs of the daimios, who are the hereditary princes of 
 the country ; or else kens, that is, towns placed directly 
 under the authority either of the Mikado or the 
 Siogun. The edict by which the minister of the inte- 
 rior has suppressed the authority of the feudal lords 
 is an act of most important bearing on the future of 
 Japan, inasmuch as it destroys a system of which 
 the origin is lost in the night of time. It inaugurates 
 one of the most radical social and political revo- 
 lutions possible. At present, it is true, it only exists 
 on paper, and in Japan, more than anywhere else, 
 there is a long way from a decree to its execution. 
 Not to offend the daimios too seriously, they have 
 left them, instead of their feudal rights, the adminis- 
 tration of their ancient feoffs, with the title of governor 
 or delegate of the Mikado. 1 Among the Cabinet 
 
 1 A few days later, this concession was revoked, and the govern- 
 ment was withdrawn from the princes to be bestowed on function- 
 aries named by the Government.
 
 iv.J If EDO. 421 
 
 Ministers also, a change has been made. Amon to- 
 others, our old friend, Sawa, has been relieved from 
 his functions as Minister of Foreign Affairs. This 
 " grand seigneur " of the old school, a friend and 
 protector of the fine arts, and himself a very good 
 artist, renowned especially for being well versed in the 
 history and antiquities of his country, bears his 
 disgrace with and ease and dignity. He came 
 to-day with his son to dine at the Legation. He 
 was very gay, laughed heartily, and said, in speak- 
 ing of his retirement, " Very well, I shall go back to 
 my books." 
 
 September 4. Iwakura Tomomi, who has just re- 
 placed Sawa at the head of the Department for Foreign 
 Affairs, came to-day to be presented in his new capa- 
 city to the Legation. The visit, according to the 
 custom of the country, lasted some hours. I could, 
 therefore, on this occasion, make the acquaintance of 
 a personage who exercises so great an influence over 
 the destinies of Japan. Iwakura, although belonging 
 to the class of kuge, that is, the highest and oldest 
 nobility about the court, had lived at Kiyoto in 
 voluntary obscurity. The revolution of 1868 brought 
 him forward. Ever since that time he has played a 
 great part, and to-day he passes for being the most 
 important man in the empire. He told me he was 
 forty-eight years old. In Japan, as in China, the 
 question of age is the first which well-educated people 
 address to one another. His face has nothing very 
 remarkable about it, unless it be the vivacity of his 
 eyes when he speaks, and a rather sarcastic expression
 
 422 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 about the mouth. His speech is short and rather 
 dry : his manners are those of a man of the great 
 world, simple, easy, and natural. 1 A conversation 
 which was anything but common-place, gave me the 
 opportunity of drawing from the highest source, some 
 curious information on the origin, nature, and bearing 
 of the great reform which Iwakura and his friends 
 have just inaugurated. 2 
 
 I first talked to him about my great wish to see 
 Kiyoto, the capital of the east, the holy town specially 
 closed to strangers. When the English minister, 
 Sir Rutherford Alcock, crossed Niphon from Osaka to 
 Yedo, he was entreated not to enter Kiyoto and he 
 never saw it. Baron Richtofen, who has travelled so 
 much in the interior, was not more fortunate ; and 
 when, three years ago, the ministers of England, 
 France, the United States, and the Low Countries, 
 went there by the special invitation of the Mikado, 
 the presence of these diplomats was sadly signalized 
 by the bloody assault on the person and suite of Sir 
 Harry Parkes. The Legations returned to Osaka with- 
 out having had either the time or opportunity of 
 
 1 Since I was in Japan, Iwakura conceived the idea of an 
 embassy to the United States and to the great Courts of Europe, 
 of which he was to be the chief and Kido the second plenipoten- 
 tiary. During his absence the direction of affairs was confided to 
 Sango and Saigo. 
 
 2 What Iwakura said to me has since become the avowed pro- 
 gramme of his Government. He repeated it not only to the 
 members of the diplomatic corps but to all strangers who ap- 
 proached him, as he evidently wished to give his words as much 
 publicity as possible. I have therefore no scruple in giving hero 
 a resume of our conversation.
 
 rv.] YE DO. 423 
 
 visiting the principal monuments of the town. M. 
 de Brants, Secretary of Legation to the North German 
 Confederation, and some other members of the diplo- 
 matic corps, have recently made one or two short 
 excursions there ; but except these officials, and a 
 schoolmaster and an engineer, who are both in the 
 Japanese service, it seems that no European has been 
 allowed to penetrate into the town, However that may 
 be, no person has ever yet given a description of it 
 de visu. 1 Only Doctor Kaempffer, who visited it in 
 the seventeenth century, has, in his precious Japanese 
 work, given us a few pages about it. He was the 
 doctor of the Dutch factory at Detsima, and accom- 
 panied one of the embassies which this colony, once 
 in every four years, was obliged to send to Yedo. 
 During these voyages, the Dutch delegates were 
 treated as prisoners of state ; they travelled in closed 
 norimons, and did not dare leave their hotels, where 
 they were watched all through the night. Kiyoto has 
 thus remained an unknown and mysterious land, 
 which I have the greatest wish to explore. The old 
 Sawa had almost given his consent ; but he is no 
 longer in power. J addressed myself, therefore, to 
 his successor, who, already warned of my intention, 
 hastened to promise that he would try what he could 
 do to get the council to listen to my proposal. I had 
 also a still more delicate matter to negotiate with the 
 
 1 This summer (1872) there was an industrial exposition at 
 Kiyoto. Certain foreigners were allowed by favour to go there, 
 and the English papers contained a short description of this Cajntal 
 of the East. But since then, Kiyoto has been anew hermeticalty 
 sealed .
 
 424 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. '[CHAP. 
 
 new minister ; and that was my audience with the 
 Mikado. As a rule, the son of the gods must be 
 invisible to mortals. The only exception made is for 
 his servants, and, since the whites have obtained the 
 ports, the foreign ministers. He has also received the 
 admirals commanding the naval stations in the eastern 
 seas. Mr. Seward, the old United States foreign 
 minister, is the only non-official personage who has 
 ever been presented to the emperor. Nevertheless, 
 thanks to the powerful, although indirect support of 
 the English representative, I am to have my audience. 
 We then passed on to the events of the day, and to the 
 suppression of the feudal rights, which is the theme 
 of every tongue at this moment. 
 
 " The daimios," said Iwakura, " were kept in order 
 by the Sioguns. Many of them were directly under their 
 dominion. When the Siogunate was suppressed, they 
 all became entirely independent. That was intoler- 
 able. It was necessary to re-establish the power of 
 the Mikado, and that is what we have undertaken to 
 do. In three years our task will be accomplished. 
 The hans have been abolished. The daimios will not 
 even be left as governors in their old dominions. 
 We shall oblige them to come and live at Yedo 
 with their families. Able men, no matter of what 
 caste, will be made governors. The daimios will be 
 employed in the higher offices of the state, but 
 only on condition that they are capable persons. 
 The little clans will be absorbed in the larger ones, 
 and an army will he formed of the soldiers who, 
 until now, have been in the pay and under the orders 
 of the daimios alone. Our adversaries affirm that we
 
 iv.] YEDO. 425 
 
 are the enemies of the religion of the people. That 
 is not true. We have no intention of destroying 
 Buddhism. We only wish to purify the temples 
 which were formerly dedicated to Sintooism. The 
 Sioguns consecrated them irregularly to Buddha, and 
 established his worship in them, sometimes simulta- 
 neously with, but often to the exclusion of, Sintooism, 
 which has always been the official religion, that is, the 
 religion of the Mikado. As to what regards the taxes, 
 it is true that the peasants belonging to the daimios 
 were exempt whenever the harvests were bad ; and 
 that the imperial Government cannot do the same, 
 seeing that the expenses of administration are alike in 
 good or bad years. But we will try to diminish the 
 charges which weigh the most heavily on the rural 
 population, by making the merchants and labourers 
 share them, as these have hitherto been exempt from all 
 taxation." 
 
 September 5. I went this morning to visit the 
 principal shops in Yedo. In the native quarter of 
 Yokohama, goods are made expressly for the European 
 market. Here, on the contrary, the manufacturers 
 consult only the taste of their fellow-countrymen. 
 Nothing can be more interesting than to examine 
 minutely these thousand and one objects, the very use 
 of which escapes your penetration unless enlightened 
 by a resident in the country. The different members of 
 the Legations have good-naturedly acted as my guides 
 in turn. It is a real study. The great variety of 
 utensils forms an inexplicable contrast to the ex- 
 treme simplicity, or rather the extreme absence of
 
 426 A RAMBLE HOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 furniture in the houses of the rich as well as of the poor. 
 Almost all their productions attest a lively imagina- 
 tion, which delights in droll conceptions ; a great sense 
 of beauty, although sometimes spoilt by the tendency 
 to caricature; an evident desire to produce great effects 
 by small means ; the worship of inanimate nature pur- 
 posely exaggerated, and a great latitude allowed to 
 individual taste, alongside of a profound veneration 
 for traditional types and routine. Comparing the 
 objects of art, of which I will speak further on, with 
 the industrial products, I should say that the artist in 
 this country has a good deal of the artisan about him, 
 but the artisan is essentially an artist. It was the 
 same in Europe in the middle ages. 
 
 The shops where they sell toys excited my greatest 
 admiration. One asks oneself how it is possible to 
 expend so much wit, invention, and taste, to amuse 
 children, who are incapable of appreciating these real 
 chefs-d'oeuvre of art ? The answer is simple enough. 
 It is, that in this country every one spends his leisure 
 in playing like children. I have seen three genera- 
 tions a grandfather, father, and son absorbed in 
 the operation of flying a kite. Ladies of high rank, 
 who hardly ever go out of doors, spend, I am told, 
 whole hours with toys. l At this moment the fashion- 
 able game is the t6-sen-kio, or the fan game. 2 A little 
 box of light wood is placed on the mat, and on this 
 
 1 Some are strange enough, and are seen equally in the hands 
 of children and on the altars of their penates. One is the symbol 
 of fecundity, which means the prosperity of families ; but there is 
 no bad thought involved in it. 
 
 2 T6 means to strike ; sen is a fan ; kio a game.
 
 iv.] YEDO. 427 
 
 box a junk figure, covered with silk, representing a 
 butterfly, cho. The players, who are generally la- 
 .dies, squatted at a certain distance, aim and throw 
 their fans in turn, the handle of which is to carry off 
 the butterfly without upsetting the box. The losses 
 and gains are regulated by a table setting forth the 
 different methods by which the butterfly is to be 
 attained. The ladies of the Mikado, I am told, have 
 brought this game into fashion. I bought, for a very 
 small sum, a quantity of curious things, some of which 
 are really wonderful works of art. Among the rest, 
 some bronzes, paper weights representing different 
 animals, groups of tortoises, &c. In each there is a 
 vein of the comic. I saw similar groups in other 
 shops, and the same ideas, but never two alike. They 
 will not copy. It is not the same model produced 
 mechanically, but the same thought. The artisan, or 
 rather the artist, although imitating nature, introduces 
 his own idea as well. 
 
 I admired, also, the fine, delicate, beautifully clean 
 hands of the women, who packed up my purchases in 
 soft, silky paper. 
 
 We went to see two of the largest silk warehouses. 
 We went up stairs to the first story, and there found 
 ourselves in a vast room full of customers, and among 
 the rest several ladies of high rank. Everyone, men 
 and women, were sitting on their heels behind a table 
 a foot high, on which the goods were spread. There 
 were the finest crapes and the heaviest stuffs, some 
 woven in patterns, some quite plain. The colours 
 were of an extraordinary brilliancy. Were it not for 
 their great price, one would willingly employ some of
 
 428 A RAMBLE HOUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 these stuffs for curtains and hangings ; they would 
 make, besides, most beautiful vestments for churches. 
 Here they are converted into court dresses for both 
 sexes on great occasions. 
 
 It must be owned, however, that their silk manu- 
 factures are in their decadence, and it is again Europe 
 which is the cause of it. The two great centres for the 
 production of silkworms' eggs are the provinces of 
 Oshiu and Shidshiu, for which the towns of Yonesa- 
 wa, Uyeda, Chosiu, and Shimamura, serve as depots. 
 The climate is peculiarly favourable to the production 
 of eggs, which need, above everything, a dt*y air, 
 and that condition can only be obtained in Japan on 
 the high levels. Formerly, the producers of silk in 
 other parts of the empire always went to seek their 
 eggs in these two provinces. But since the disease in 
 the Lombardy silkworms brings every year Italian 
 silk-growers seeking for eggs, these last have attained 
 a fabulous price. It follows that in the south, and 
 other places where silk manufactures are carried on, 
 they have ceased to get their material from those 
 provinces, and that, in spite of their very inferior 
 quality, they content themselves with the eggs which 
 can be produced on the spot. l 
 
 After our "tiffin" we took a long and most enjoyable 
 walk on foot to Meguro, a little village to the north- 
 
 1 The English Government has given great attention to this 
 subject. Mr. Adams, with some experts, visited the principal 
 districts where the silkworms are bred. His reports on this sub- 
 ject, communicated to Parliament, give every species of informa- 
 tion, which is the more valuable as having been made on the spot. 
 See the Blue- Books on Japan of 1870 and 1871.
 
 iv.] YEDO. 429 
 
 west of Yedo, celebrated for its beautiful temple, sur- 
 rounded by fine cryptomerias and by teahouses, and 
 the habitual rendezvous of the smart world of Yedo. 
 Mr. Mitford, in his "Tales of Old Japan" gives a 
 charming account of it. This book has just appeared 
 in London, and a copy was sent to the Legation. 
 People are devouring it, and with reason, The history 
 of the 48 ronins, and the terrible scene of hari-kari, 
 at which the author assisted as a delegate from his 
 chief, will be read with interest by the great European 
 public. The other tales are perhaps too exclusively 
 Japanese to please those who have not seen the 
 country. But the little fairy tales in the second 
 volume are written with a naive simplicity and a 
 poetic charm which no one can fail to appreciate. 
 
 From Meguro we directed our steps towards an 
 elevated spot called Shinfuji, from whence we enjoyed 
 one of those idyllic views which give so peculiar a 
 character to the neighbourhood of Yedo. The features 
 are always the same an oblong valley, surrounded by 
 wooded hills, rice-fields, cryptomerias, the masseri- 
 cana and retinispora pines, on the heights and round 
 the temples, which, placed half-way, are hidden by the 
 foliage ; with cherry and plum-trees in full flower, 
 several species of laurels and maples, the acer Japonica, 
 and the Salisburia adimantifolia, which the Japanese 
 call itcho. These two species belong specially to the 
 sacred woods, and are considered essentially sacerdotal. 
 Add to this list, camellias and azaleas, and for a variety, 
 the pale-green plumes of the bamboo. Certainly there 
 are repetitions in this scenery ; but it is the most charm- 
 ing, the most sweet, and the most poetic of monotonies,
 
 430 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 To-day they will gossip finely in the teahouses of 
 Tdkei. (This is a new name just invented for the 
 capital of the east, T6 signifying east, and kei capital. 
 The smart men of the period prefer it). The unheard- 
 of event which has set every one talking is the fact 
 that a lady of high rank is going to dine at the English 
 Legation. Mr. Adams is the author of this innovation, 
 thanks to the intimate relations he has formed with 
 the notables of the country. His guests are Matsund 
 and his wife, the daughter of Uvvajima, the present 
 ambassador to China. The young lady is hardly four- 
 teen. She is very little, has beautiful large almond- 
 shaped eyes, and delicate hands and feet. If her 
 head seems large, it is from the effect of her beautiful 
 hair, which is divided into two bands, and fastened up 
 by two great tortoise-shell pins. Over her fine white 
 chemise she wears a narrow tunic of pale-grey silk. 
 A large sash, the colour of a tea-rose, incircles her 
 waist, which is very short, and ends with a huge 
 bow, which reaches nearly to her shoulders. If it 
 were not an anachronism, I should say she looked like 
 an old Dresden figure dressed in the style of the first 
 empire. I am seated next to her husband, and just 
 opposite her. Nothing can be more amusing than to 
 watch her, her bright, intelligent eyes take in everything 
 on and around the table. She wants to do just as we 
 do ; and her Japanese instincts serve her so well, that 
 by the time we have arrived at the roast she has 
 already learnt how to use her knife and fork. By 
 degrees her stiffness vanishes, and on getting up from 
 dinner her manners are as natural and naive as those 
 of a child. She walked round the drawing-room,
 
 iv.] YEDO. 431 
 
 where everything was new and strange to her, and 
 then, taking a little stool, went and sat down at her 
 husband's feet, smoking a cheroot, and apparently 
 forgetting our existence. 
 
 Matsune, in spite of some irregularities of feature, 
 is a good-looking fellow ; but, like so many of his 
 countrymen, he is undergoing a process of transforma- 
 tion. He is become European at the extremities. He 
 wears fine Parisian boots, has cut off his pig-tail, no 
 longer shaves his head, but lets his hair grow, which 
 being thick and crisp takes away his look of distinction. 
 I asked him " why he had given up the Japanese head- 
 dress." He replied " that it always gave him cold." 
 Desirous of being a liberal politician, or inclining 
 towards progress, but not daring yet openly to avow 
 his principles, he tries to swim between the two streams. 
 He is no longer a codino, and not yet a progresisto. 
 This is the case with many Japanese at this moment. 
 But you may be sure that when a man begins to cut 
 off his tail he has gone over to the cause of reform ; 
 and their number increases daily. Japan is on the 
 move. 
 
 September 6. This evening at dinner I made the 
 acquaintance of Saigo, who, from being a simple 
 samurai of the Prince of Satsuma, has become one of 
 the most influential men in the island of Kiushiu. It 
 was necessary to insure his support before attempting 
 any reforms, and to obtain, through his intermediation, 
 the support of the great clans of the south. Iwakura 
 went to fetch him from the depths of his island home, 
 won him over to approve of the new programme, and
 
 432 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD [CHAP. 
 
 then persuaded him to come and establish himself at 
 Yedo. Saigo is of a herculean stature. His eyes are 
 full of intelligence, and his features of energy. He 
 has a military air, and his manners are those of a 
 country gentleman. They say he is bored to death 
 with the court, and dying to get back to his own 
 property in the country. 
 
 September 7. Religion is at a low ebb. None but 
 women and old men go out of their houses morning 
 and evening, at sunrise and sunset, to adore the 
 beneficent luminary. As a general rule, no one prays, 
 except to obtain a favour. Wives ask the gods to 
 make their husbands faithful ; the sick plead for 
 health, young girls for a new gown, a jewel, a lover, or 
 a husband. When any one is ill, they go to the temple 
 and call the god by beating a gong or clapping their 
 hands ; they bow before the god, who appears inva- 
 riably after the third summons, adore him for a few 
 moments, put a little bit of copper money into a box, 
 and all is done. At the temple of Asakusa there is a 
 bronze god who goes to visit the sick. They rub that 
 part of his body which corresponds with the part 
 where they suffer. In fact, they have a whole heap of 
 superstitious ceremonies ; but among the upper classes 
 and the intellectual circles there is an entire absence 
 of faith or religion. That is what I hear all round 
 me, and it confirms my previous impression at Yoko- 
 hama. I have many times questioned the notables of 
 the country on the subject of their belief. They all 
 answered, laughing, that it was all folly. Only the 
 old Sawa, though smiling sarcastically, expressed him-
 
 IV.] YEDO. 433 
 
 self with a certain amount of reserve on the subject. 
 The sanctuaries of Ikegami, to the west, and at a little 
 distance from Yedo, are of great antiquity. "We went 
 there in the afternoon. I give up the attempt to 
 describe the beauty of the place. Let those who can 
 explain in what consists the wonderful charm of these 
 Japanese temples. They are, after all, always the same 
 some beautiful old trees shading a few pillars, which 
 support a heavy roof with a wide border ; and yet you 
 are in an ecstasy. It is not a question of architecture. 
 You might say they were only colossal cottages, with a 
 pigeon-house and a few perches. But what I admire 
 so much is the way in which the architect has under- 
 stood what one can and cannot do with wood ;, and 
 that he has known so well how to make use of the 
 very simplicity of the construction to introduce the 
 most effective ornament. Look at that frieze. It 
 binds together the pillars, serves as a console to the 
 beams which support the ceiling, and makes the 
 natural transition to the roof. The horizontal beams, 
 of which there is a double layer, give solidity to the 
 building, while their extremities, elegantly carved, 
 agreeably break the line of the frieze. 
 
 In a round, solitary tempietto of graceful design, 
 and of which the tender red, green, and grey shades 
 harmonized wonderfully with the dark green of the 
 cedars and ich6s around it, there was a colossal 
 statue of I know not what god. When we arrived, 
 an old bonze of venerable appearance was chanting 
 some hymns, while the faithful prostrated themselves 
 in adoration of the divinity. It was a true Japanese 
 picture ; but it would have been wanting in reality if 
 
 VOL. I. F F
 
 434 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 our yakunins, who, with their pipes in their mouths, 
 had gone into the sanctuary laughing and chattering, 
 had not openly mocked both at the priest and his 
 god. 
 
 September 8. There is no legend more popular than 
 that of the "Forty-seven Ronins." It gives us an insight 
 into a significant fact connected with feudal habits. 1 
 The roniu is generally a fallen man. Ordinarily they 
 are military men who have been dismissed by their 
 daimios. At other times they have become ronins 
 in consequence of their masters' ruin. Well, one day 
 there was a daimio, Takumi-no-kami, who, sent with a 
 message from the Mikado to the court at Yedo, was 
 there cruelly affronted by Kotsukd, one of the great 
 functionaries of the Siogun. As no one is allowed to 
 draw his sword within the precincts of the palace 
 without running the risk of death and confiscation of 
 all his goods, Takumi contained himself as long as 
 he could ; but one day, provoked beyond bearing, 
 he drew his sword and rushed upon his enemy, who 
 escaped ; while he himself, arrested and dragged be- 
 fore the tribunal, was condemned to death. His goods 
 were confiscated, his family reduced to misery, and 
 his vassals and the gentlemen of his suite became 
 ronins. Some became merchants, others took service 
 with some daimios. But Kuranosuke', his principal 
 counsellor, and forty-six other knights belonging to 
 the unfortunate Takumi-no-kami, swore to revenge 
 their master. Unfortunately, Kotsuke got wind of 
 their project, and, to insure his own safety, surrounded 
 1 This legend is supposed to date from 1727.
 
 iv.] YEDO. 435 
 
 himself continually with so formidable a guard, that, 
 unless his suspicions could be lulled, all hopes of 
 revenge would have to be abandoned. The forty-seven 
 ronins, therefore, knowing that at Kiy6to they were 
 watched by the spies of Kotsuke', separated, each 
 taking a different disguise, one as a carpenter, one as 
 a merchant, and so on. Kuranosuke himself feigned 
 to give himself up to the lowest vices. He was only 
 seen in bad houses or drinking saki. One day he was 
 found dead drunk in a stream of the street. A passer- 
 by, a man of the Satsuma clan, exclaimed, " Is not 
 that Kuranosuke, formerly the counsellor of the 
 unhappy Takumi ? Instead of avenging his master he 
 gives himself up to women and wine, Oh, the wretch ! 
 unworthy of the name of samurai ! " arid, pushing him 
 with his foot, he spat in his face. This little incident, 
 instantly reported to Kotsuke by his spies, seemed to 
 him to augur well for his future safety. But this was 
 not all. The faithful counsellor pushed his dissimula- 
 tion even to cruelty. Playing the part of a debauche, 
 he overwhelmed his wife with imprecations, and drove 
 her from his house with her children, except the 
 eldest son, who was then sixteen, and whom he kept 
 with him. At this intelligence, which was instantly 
 forwarded to Yedo, Kotsuke, believing that all danger 
 was passed, sent away the greater part of his guards. 
 The day of justice was, therefore, at hand. The coun- 
 sellor secretly left Kiyoto, and went to rejoin his 
 companions, who w r ere all gathered together at Yedo, 
 and only waiting for the signal of their chief to set to 
 work. 
 
 It was in the depth of winter that, on a cold, dark 
 
 F F 2
 
 436 A E AMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 night, and during a heavy snow-storm, the conspirators 
 met; and separating into two bands, one led by the 
 chief, the other by his son, stole silently, unperceived, 
 to the yashki of the man whose death they had sworn 
 to accomplish. They had agreed to enter the palace, 
 to shed no innocent blood, to spare such of the 
 servants as should make no resistance, and finally to 
 kill Kotsuke", and place his head on the tomb of their 
 master in the temple of Sengakuji, in the suburb of 
 Takanawa. Having accomplished this, they would 
 quietly present themselves before the judges and 
 await their sentence, which they knew must be death. 
 Such were the instructions of the head of the con- 
 spiracy, and each man swore to carry them out to the 
 letter. The high wall which surrounded the palace 
 was scaled, and the interior door forced open by 
 blows from a hammer. To prevent the neighbours 
 coming to the rescue, Kuranosuke had sent them this 
 message, " We ronins, formerly in the service of 
 Takumi-no-kami, intend this night to make our way 
 into the palace of Kotsuke'-no-Suke' to avenge our 
 master. We are neither thieves nor rogues, and no 
 harm will be done to the houses in the neighbourhood. 
 Therefore be reassured, and remain quiet." 
 
 The neighbours took very good care not to come to 
 the rescue of a man who was so little popular in the 
 quarter ; they therefore remained quiet, and let the 
 ronins have their way. 
 
 These soon penetrated into the interior of the palace. 
 A terrible struggle ensued between them and the 
 samurais of the master. Very soon all these were 
 left dying or dead : not one of the ronins had
 
 iv.] YEUO. 437 
 
 perished. The son of the chief conspirator, although 
 only sixteen, had performed prodigies of valour. But 
 where was Kotsuke' ? Vainly he was hunted for in 
 every hole and corner. Already the ronins in despair 
 were on the point of disembowelling themselves, when 
 their chief, on examining Kotsuke's bed, found it still 
 warm. It was evident that he could not be far off. 
 At last they dragged from his hiding-place an old man 
 of respectable appearance, clad in a simple tunic of 
 white silk. He was easily recognised. This was 
 Kotsuke'. The chief of the ronins went on his knees 
 before him, and after having performed the marks of 
 respect due to his rank and age, said to him, "My 
 lord, we are the followers of Takumi-no-kami. Last 
 year your grace had a quarrel with him. He was 
 forced to die, and his family was ruined. As good 
 and faithful vassals we are come this night to avenge 
 him. You must recognise the justice of our cause. 
 And now, my lord, we conjure you to perform the 
 hari-kari. 1 I will be your second ; 2 and after having 
 humbly taken up the head of your grace, I will 
 deposit it as an offering on the tomb of our lord and 
 master." But Kotsuke, pale and trembling, could not 
 make up his mind to die like a gentleman. As time 
 was precious, and help might arrive, Kuranosuke cut 
 
 1 Hari-kari, or " liara-kiru," disembowelling performed by the 
 condemned himself when of too high rank to be touched by the 
 executioner. 
 
 2 That is, "To shorten your sufferings, at the moment you rip 
 up your belly with your poniard, I will cut off your head with 
 my sabre." It is generally a member of the family or his best 
 friend who performs this last service to the prince or noble con- 
 demned to perform " hari-kari."
 
 438 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 off his head with the sword which his master had 
 made use of when compelled to disembowel himself. 
 To avoid a conflagration, the ronins, before leaving 
 the palace, took care to put out the lights and the 
 fires. Then they put the head of their victim in a 
 basket and retired. The day began to dawn. The 
 news of the events of the night had already spread 
 like wildfire through Yedo. The people crowded 
 round them, and received with cheers and acclama- 
 tions these forty-seven brave men who, covered with 
 blood and wounds, formed in procession, and marched 
 to the suburb of Takanawa. At every moment they 
 expected to be attacked by the samurais of the father- 
 in-law of their victim. But one of the eighteen great 
 princes of Japan, who was the friend and relation of 
 Takumi, had assembled his warriors in haste to defend 
 the forty-seven. As these passed before the yashki of 
 the Prince of Sandai, they were invited to enter, and 
 were served with rice and wine. Arrived at the 
 temple where the body of Takumi had been laid, they 
 washed their bleeding trophy in a fountain which 
 still exists, and then solemnly laid it on the tomb of 
 their master. Then Kuranosuke' gave all his money 
 to the priest, told him that they were all going to 
 perform hari-kari, and begged him to bury him and 
 his faithful companions by the remains of their lord. 
 The bonze shed tears of admiration and sorrow. The 
 roiiins then quietly waited for the magistrates' sum- 
 mons. After some deliberation, they were made to 
 appear before the supreme council, when it was notified 
 to them that, having been wanting in the respect due 
 to the city and the government, they were all con-
 
 iv.] YEDO. 439 
 
 demned to death. They were divided into four 
 groups, and placed under the care of four daimios. It 
 was in the houses of the latter that, in the presence of 
 the officers of the Siogun, they all disembowelled them- 
 selves. Having freely made the sacrifice of their lives 
 for one object, they finished their course with wonderful 
 intrepidity. Their bodies were carried to Sengakuji, 
 and buried near the remains of their master, Takumi ; 
 and ever since that day the people never cease to visit 
 their tombs, to ornament them with branches and 
 flowers, and to burn incense before them. Among the 
 first who presented himself was that man of the 
 Satsuma clan who had insulted Kuranosuke' when he 
 feigned to be drunk and asleep in the stream. He 
 declared he had come to make an honourable amends 
 to the holy martyr, and to expiate the fault he had 
 committed by insulting him. Saying these words, he 
 seized his poniard, opened his belly, and died. He 
 was buried in the same inclosure. 
 
 Such is the tragedy of the "faithful ronins," 1 known 
 at Yedo under the title of the " Forty-seven." They tell 
 me that in this part of Japan there is not a man or a 
 woman but knows it. The details have been trans- 
 mitted by oral tradition from generation to generation, 
 and it was probably in their popular tales that Mr. Mit- 
 ford found the elements of this simple and touching 
 story. But the principal facts rest on documents of 
 unquestionable authenticity. In the temple of Senga- 
 kuji they have preserved the clothes and arms of the 
 
 1 Sir Rutherford Alcock spells the word Lonins, but in this, 
 as in other native words, I have followed the etymology of M. de 
 Hlibner. (Translator's note.)
 
 440 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 " Forty-seven " as relics. In hunting over these things, 
 Mr. Mitford discovered some writings, which proved 
 to be a short but complete summary of the facts, and 
 the reasons which determined the ronins to avenge 
 their master. A copy of this memorandum was found 
 on the body of each of Takumi's faithful followers. 
 This is, however, a custom in this country, when men 
 are about to engage in any matter in which their lives 
 may be sacrificed. Always jealous of their honour, 
 they are very careful to put down in writing the 
 motives of their actions ; and this paper they carry 
 about with them with the utmost care. Several 
 authors who have written on Japan have mentioned 
 this bloody episode ; but the young English writer 
 before mentioned has the merit of being the first to 
 make the story really known. I 'did not like to pass 
 it over in silence, and, contrary to my habit of only 
 inscribing in my journal what I have seen or heard, I 
 have given an extract from Mr. Mitford's account. It 
 appears to me that the history of the " Forty-seven," 
 and the veneration paid to them by the people, 
 throw a curious light on the habits of thought in 
 this country, such as they were not long ago, and 
 such as they still are in the great majority of the 
 nation. In the justification of their conduct found 
 on their bodies and addressed to the manes of Takumi, 
 we find the words, "We have eaten of your bread." 
 
 This is the secret of their conduct. As faithful 
 servants and loyal knights, they w r ere bound to avenge 
 the death of their master. Then follows the justifica- 
 tion. They quote a precept from Confucius : " Thou 
 shalt not live under the same sky nor tread the same
 
 iv.] YEDO. 441 
 
 earth as the enemy of thy father or thy lord." 
 " How," they add, " could we read this verse without 
 blushing 1" Public opinion unanimously approves of 
 their act. Both people and daimios admire this 
 fidelity to a master, although carried to an extreme. 
 Only three years ago, a man, after having prayed before 
 the tomb of young Chikara, the son of Kuranosuke", 
 again disembowelled himself. The wound not being 
 mortal, he cut his throat. Why ? A paper found on 
 his body declared that he was a ronin who had wished 
 to enter the clan of the Prince de Chdshiu ; that his 
 petition had been refused ; that he would not serve 
 any other master ; and that he had, in consequence, 
 come to die and be buried by the graves of the brave. 
 This was in 1868. How, after such facts as these, 
 can one believe that the historic constitution of a 
 country, which is the growth of centuries, can sud- 
 denly fall into ruins ? that all the feelings and ideas 
 which form its groundwork and its moral basis have 
 vanished, and that, with a few decrees on rice-paper, 
 " on changer a tout cela," as Moliere's Medecin ex- 
 claims 1 
 
 To-day we went to see the spot. It is only a few 
 steps from the Legation. On going up the hill, we 
 passed by the fountain where Takumi's head was 
 washed. An inscription records the fact. Further 
 on is a small inclosure, beautifully kept. Fine trees 
 are planted round it. One sees there forty-eight little 
 tumular stones, placed vertically along the railing 
 which forms the inclosure. Little cups full of water 
 are placed before each, and it is in them that the 
 incense is burnt. Near the entrance of the inclosure
 
 442 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 rises the fine monument of the chief for whom their 
 lives were given. Little branches of trees, brought by 
 the faithful, whom the holiness of the place perpetually 
 attracts, ornamented the last resting-place of the 
 faithful " Forty-seven." 
 
 In the chapel are the wooden statues of these 
 popular heroes and their master. They are painted or 
 lacquered, armed, and represented in the midst of the 
 fight. They are real chefs-d'oeuvre of art, and remind 
 one of some of the finest Spanish sculptures of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 September 9. This evening we dined with Sawa 
 Nabuyoshi relieved, as I have already said, from his 
 official functions, but living quietly, like a philosopher, 
 a wise man, and an artist, in his beautiful yashki, 
 situated at about four miles from the Legation, and 
 not very far from the European quarter. 
 
 The invitation was for five o'clock, and not very 
 long after we arrived at the gate of honour of the 
 palace. Like all noblemen's habitations, the court- 
 yard is strewed with big pebbles, on which it is impos- 
 sible to walk without making a noise, and thus calling 
 the attention of the guards. A little path facilitates 
 the approach to the main entrance ; a second double 
 door, which is open, leads to the interior, and, like the 
 outer one, is strong and heavy armed with nails 
 and sheets of bronze or iron. Three or four servants 
 are squatted motionless on their heels opposite a screen 
 which prevents the eye from penetrating beyond. 
 Two gentlemen with double swords receive us, and 
 through narrow passages, like the approaches to a for-
 
 iv.] YEDO. 443 
 
 tress, lead us to the room on the first story, where 
 Sawa received me when I paid him my first visit. It 
 was wide open towards the garden, in which was a 
 pond surrounded with trees. In it are little bays and 
 a promontory shaded by a magnificent cedar. The 
 master of the house invited me to come up on the 
 roof to see the view of Yedo. But what struck me 
 far more was the yashki itself, thus seen in a bird's-eye 
 view. It was a perfect labyrinth of detached build- 
 ings, united by long, covered corridors, with a mass of 
 roofs of different heights and sizes, divided from each 
 other by narrow passages. To the eye it appears but 
 a confused mass of black, heavy roofs. This form 
 of construction is, however, found in all the large 
 houses and palaces. It is a pledge of safety ; or, at 
 least, it gives a last chance of escape in cases 
 (which used to be frequent) where men, actuated by 
 political rivalry or private revenge, seek the life of the 
 master, and have already managed to get into the 
 court-yard. 
 
 Sawa then led us into an adjoining room, which 
 opened into the garden. On a low table were spread 
 out, with the taste and refinement so universal among 
 the Japanese, some large sheets of paper, mixed 
 colours ready for use, paint-brushes, Indian ink, and 
 a cup of water. A young lady, the wife of one of 
 Sawa's samurais, instantly sets to work. She takes a 
 sheet of paper and fixes it by means of a great block 
 of rock-crystal. With a sure and skilful hand she 
 begins to trace the buds, flowers, and leaves of a plant. 
 Then she unites these scattered parts by the stem and 
 the branches, leaning more or less heavily on her brush ;
 
 444 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAF. 
 
 and thus, mixing the colours at the end with more or 
 less water, which is ingeniously contained in the upper 
 part, she manages, in one single touch, to put three or 
 four shades on the paper. She draws and paints at 
 one and the same time with wonderful accuracy and 
 beauty. To this we must add her extraordinary 
 rapidity of execution. In ten, five, no three minutes, 
 the sketch is done ; and certainly it is worthy of a 
 place in a screen in the most elegant boudpir. Doubt- 
 less, this proceeding is partly mechanical. The artist 
 has learned a certain number of subjects by heart, 
 which, by dint of practice, she reproduces with 
 admirable correctness. But the application she makes 
 of these elements is entirely her own. It is a sort of 
 game, played with wonderful dexterity. It puzzles 
 the spectator, leaving him as long as possible in doubt 
 as to the subject, and then surprises him by the last 
 touch which gives a form to the whole. Not to let 
 him have time to guess what is coming, the artist must 
 work quickly. So the extraordinary rapidity of the 
 execution adds greatly to the merit. 
 
 After the young lady came the turn of the good 
 old Sawa. Laughing, and handling with great skill a 
 big brush (which, by the fineness of the point would 
 certainly rival Cheriaut's), and plunging it alternately 
 in the cup and in his mouth, he ended in a few minutes 
 by producing a charming sketch of a group of horse- 
 men. He began by the head of a horse ; then went 
 on to that of the man who rode him ; then drew 
 a horse's hoof, and so on. It was impossible to 
 guess the subject of the drawing. At last, with a 
 few touches of his brush, he reunited all these scattered
 
 iv.] YEDO. 445 
 
 members, added the shadows, and so completed his 
 little chef-d'oeuvre. 
 
 The growing darkness put an end to this little 
 amusement, and our host brought us back to the other 
 room. We sat round a low table, and dinner was 
 served. Lanterns fastened to the roof, and torches 
 cleverly placed in the garden so as to reflect their light 
 in the water, added to the charm of this strange scene. 
 We are a party of six : Sawa himself ; an officer of the 
 minister of foreign affairs ; a friend of the house ; Mr. 
 Adams, Mr. Satow, and I. Sawa's son is ill, and could 
 not assist at the entertainment. The meal was com- 
 posed of a number of dishes served to each guest in a 
 little cup of porcelain as fine as a sheet of paper. 
 Most delicious chicken-soup, then entremets of eggs, 
 which rather excite our appetites than satisfy them ; 
 boiled fish, broiled fish, roast fish ; then a quantity of 
 other kinds of food of which we could not even guess 
 the nature, all seasoned with fish sauces of a delicate 
 and aromatic taste. They are too well bred to force 
 us to eat ; but our praises of such-and-such a dish are 
 received with manifest pleasure, and repeated and 
 commented upon by the three Japanese guests. The 
 wine, or the saki made, I think, with rice is 
 what I appreciate least. It is sent up in a little china 
 bottle and poured into tiny cups. We have been two 
 hours at dinner, when, according to the etiquette of 
 the country, the guests ask for rice that is the civil 
 way of begging to rise from table. The rice is served 
 on a square plateau of red lacquer, with the famous 
 Tay (the most delicate fish in Japan), and some soup 
 and other ingredients. This is the bouquet of the
 
 446 A EAMBLE HOUND TUE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 feast; and our two Japanese guests loudly express 
 their satisfaction. 
 
 During dinner, in an adjoining room, opened its 
 whole length on the side of the dining-room, and 
 mysteriously lit with little white-paper lanterns, five 
 blind men, squatted on the matting, executed various 
 pieces of music. Their instruments resembled our 
 zither, which is so popular in the Styrian mountains, 
 and a violin. Sometimes they accompanied themselves 
 with the voice. Their songs were rather monotonous, 
 but in no way disagreeable. The same phrases were 
 often repeated, united by recitatives. One would say 
 that they were seeking for melodies which they could 
 not find. The best artist played the flute, and he had 
 really a wonderful talent. All of a sudden we saw a 
 young woman, who could only be a great lady, glide 
 into the room and squat down on her heels, turning 
 her back to us all the while. It was Sawa's daughter- 
 in-law, whom he had persuaded, with great difficulty, 
 to appear before the barbarians. She played on a 
 similar instrument to that used by the blind men. 
 We were all struck by the beauty and clearness of her 
 touch. She kept time, and evidently directed the 
 other musicians. The good old Sawa was in an 
 ecstasy, and never ceased singing the praises of his 
 daughter-in-law. Unfortunately, we could only admire 
 her art and not her beauty ; for the moment the piece 
 of music was over she disappeared, without deigning 
 to come into the dining-room or to turn her face 
 once towards us. Still, it was a very charming sight 
 to see this young lady gracefully seated in front of the 
 four blind men, with her grey silk robe and bright
 
 iv.] YEDO. 447 
 
 scarlet sash, her head gently inclined over her instru- 
 ment, letting one see the outline of a prettily-rounded 
 cheek and a beautiful little ear, whilst her taper-white 
 fingers played with the strings of her lute, which 
 vibrated under her touch. 
 
 The meal being over, paper, colours, and brushes 
 were again brought, and the master of the house, with 
 
 O O ' * 
 
 the wife of the samurai, completed some other sketches, 
 which they were kind enough to add to our collec- 
 tion of drawings. 
 
 But it is half-past nine. In this country that hour 
 is looked upon as midnight. We therefore took our 
 leave ; and after having passed through innumerable 
 lobbies and ante-rooms, which were lit by great wax 
 candles fixed in bronze 'chandeliers, we arrived at the 
 courtyard, where Mr. Adams's pony-carriage was 
 waiting for us, with his orderly on horseback, the 
 Japanese guards, and the battos (or grooms) of the 
 Legation. 
 
 We have to cross a large portion of the town. It is 
 the first time that I have seen Yedo by night. Gene- 
 rally one takes care to avoid nocturnal promenades. 
 Unless for some urgent reason, it is forbidden to 
 Europeans, in the interest of their own safety, to quit 
 their own quarter after sunset. At the Legation, 
 except in cases of absolute necessity, no one goes out 
 
 JT */ ' O 
 
 at night. Even at the beginning of this year two 
 Englishmen in the service of the Japanese government 
 were badly wounded and lamed for life. It is not the 
 thieves that one has to fear, but samurais heated by 
 saki, who, at the sight of a European, feel a sudden 
 and irresistible attraction to cut him in pieces. We
 
 448 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 therefore set out with all possible precautions. The 
 English orderly, mounted on a big horse, a giant himself 
 in size, follows the carriage. Five Japanese horsemen 
 form our rear-guard. One of them leads the way at 
 the head of the procession. Every three or four 
 minutes he is relieved by one of his comrades. These 
 gentlemen are punctilious on the point of honour. 
 Every one covets the dangerous post, which is in front, 
 and not behind ; for if we are attacked it will be in 
 front. There is something of the middle ages some- 
 thing fine and chivalrous about the people of this 
 country. On both sides of the carriage run the beltos, 
 crying, "Hai ! hai ! " (Take care ! take care !) Bettos 
 and horsemen are all furnished with coloured lanterns, 
 which are great globes of paper inclosing candles. 
 The air is mild, the sky dark, with here and there a 
 solitary but brilliant star. Almost all the houses are 
 shut. Sometimes a ray of light from a coloured 
 lantern flickers across the street. There is no other 
 attempt at lighting. At the corners of the different 
 quarters of the town we see groups of armed men 
 sitting at the doors of their guard-houses. Everywhere 
 else pitch-darkness. Mr. Adams, however, drives his 
 ponies quickly on, and, without having run over a 
 single belated man or woman, who, on foot or in 
 jinrikishas, were seeking their homes, he landed us 
 safe and sound at the threshold of the Legation. 
 
 September 10. The weather is a little cooler. We 
 profit by it to visit Hamagoten, which means the 
 " palace on the shore." This Siogim castle rises on the 
 sea-shore in the midst of a fine park surrounded by a
 
 lv.] YEDO. 440 
 
 high wall. A fortified gate gives entrance to the vast 
 building. In Japan, a castle has not yet become a 
 palace. During the Duke of Edinburgh's visit, the 
 interior of this summer habitation was fitted up in 
 European fashion. At this time, although not so long 
 ago, the wind did not blow quite so strongly in favour 
 of reform and European manners. Men were still 
 asking themselves if they were to tolerate or extermi- 
 nate the whites. The revolution of 1868 was accom- 
 plished under the double cry of restoration of the 
 Mikado and expulsion of strangers. Nevertheless, pru- 
 dence required that civility should be shown to the 
 son of the Queen of England, and it was consequently 
 in his honour that a quantity of heavy, lumbering, 
 mahogany furniture was imported from Hong Kong. 
 Neither did they forget plate and glass, especially 
 for the table. When the foreign minister receives 
 the plenipotentiaries of England and other countries 
 at dinner, he borrows the furniture of Hamagote'n ; 
 and on these rare occasions the French cook of Tsukji 
 is allowed the signal honour of cooking the dinner. 
 Thanks to this artist, and to the visit of the English 
 prince, those high in office have been initiated into 
 the grave mysteries of European cuisine. They have 
 also learned to use a knife and fork, and to be able to 
 maintain their equilibrium on a chair. The H6tel de 
 France and Hamagoten will really deserve a place in 
 the history of civilisation. 
 
 In the meantime I myself prefer to the inside of 
 the castle, vulgarly Europeanised, the beautiful park 
 outside, which has remained Japanese. Magnificent 
 trees, terraces, artificial lakes, promontories, bridges 
 
 VOL. i. GO
 
 450 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 thrown over creeks, the ground artificially and 
 naturally thrown about, and between the trees, 
 the horizon of sea all this is really beautiful. 
 Everywhere, besides, there is solitude and silence. 
 
 September 11. Dinner at Iwakura's. Arriving at 
 seven o'clock at his palace of Soto-Jiro, we go through 
 the great walled court, pass before a dozen servants 
 squatted on their heels, and are introduced, as usual, 
 by the two-sworded gentlemen, to the apartment of 
 the foreign minister. With the exception of a round 
 table and four chairs placed for the occasion, the room, 
 like all those we had passed through, was completely 
 bare of furniture, saving always the little etagdre or 
 rack to receive the swords of the visitors. Soon after, 
 dinner was announced and served in European fashion. 
 I could not help admiring the tact and skill of the 
 servants. They changed the covers and plates with- 
 out making the slightest noise, and with the grace 
 and delicate care of a Sister of Charity who is giving 
 you luncheon in her convent. Dinner and conver- 
 sation were prolonged till midnight. But these five 
 hours really passed like so many minutes. Iwakura, 
 who was in a talking mood that night, expressed him- 
 self easily, briefly, and clearly. 
 
 Among other things he said : 
 
 "My great aim is to establish friendly relations with 
 foreign powers and to introduce domestic reforms. It 
 is not true that Japan has always been closed to 
 foreigners. Two causes led to this voluntary isolation 
 of the empire : first, the usurpation of the Sioguns, 
 who were 1 afraid of compromising their power by put-
 
 iv.] YEDO. 451 
 
 ting themselves in contact with the world outside : and 
 next, the rebellion of the Christians. 1 The Mikado, 
 now restored to his throne, and in the plenitude of 
 his power, has nothing to fear, like the Sioguns, from 
 the curiosity of strangers. They are welcome to ex- 
 amine into his rights, which are incontestable, and no 
 one can call them in question. 
 
 "The success of the revolution of 1868, and the 
 consent of the two great clans of Satsuma and 
 Chioshiu to sacrifice their privileges, can only be 
 accounted for by the universal veneration which the 
 Mikado enjoys. He reigns in every heart : and the 
 successful usurpation of centuries has not been able 
 to dispossess him." We then went on to speak of the 
 journeys now undertaken by the young Japanese to 
 Europe and America. I ventured to observe to the 
 minister, that it would be wiser to send men of 
 greater age and experience than so large a number 
 of uneducated youths, who were incapable of under- 
 standing the bearing of things in Europe, and who 
 besides were exposed to the dangerous seductions of 
 our large towns. Iwakura replied, " Your words are 
 those of a wise man. Nevertheless, these young men 
 do bring back new and larger ideas, which they spread 
 in their own country. On this head, such foreign 
 travel does good." He added, laughing heartily, as 
 most Japanese do, "We have the reputation of be- 
 ing great liars. These liars were the Sioguns, who 
 all wished to pass themselves off as emperors." 
 
 1 Allusion is here made to the revolt of the Christian inhabitants 
 of Arima and Shimabara (to the east of Nagasaki), who were driven 
 to desperation by the horrible cruelties of their governor in 1638. 
 
 G G 2
 
 452 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP- 
 
 It is not only to us that Iwakura speaks of his plans 
 of reform. He talks just as freely with all those who 
 come near him. 
 
 " You are afraid," he said, " or some of you fear that 
 we are not yet fit for such a task, and that if we fail, 
 the odium will fall on the foreigners. Be reassured : in 
 Europe, it is the people who choose their kings. In 
 Japan, they believe that the emperor came straight 
 down from heaven, and that all men are his slaves. 
 The princes and samurais have always looked upon the 
 Mikado as their master, to whom they owe a blind 
 obedience. This is the basis of our public rights. 
 For a long time I and my colleagues have meditated 
 the abolition of the daimios ; but it was a bold and 
 dangerous step to deprive with one blow 260 noble- 
 men of their hereditary dignities. It was impossible, 
 however, not to feel that these princes were a per- 
 manent obstacle to the reforms we wished to carry 
 out in the interior, and to the developments we hope 
 to give to our intercourse with foreigners. In con- 
 sequence, as you know, I went to the Satsumas and 
 Chioshius, and induced these important personages to 
 consent to the immediate and complete abolition of 
 the clans. The Tosas, whom I invited to join us, 
 have acceded likewise to our plans. Now we are 
 busy organizing a guard of 10,000 men, and an 
 imperial army. These three clans have already sent 
 us all their soldiers. The others will be compelled to 
 follow their example. We shall then have the means 
 of crushing any attempt at resistance. The Imperial 
 Government has now established itself at Yedo : and 
 it is here that we mean to concentrate all the branches
 
 IV.] YEDO. 453 
 
 of the public service. The rates and taxes of the 
 country will all come into this department. The 
 revenue amounts now to 12,000,000 of rios. The 
 duties received at the ports are insignificant. Our 
 task is difficult, but not impossible. We shall suc- 
 ceed. The Sioguns lied: but we will tell the truth 
 to all the world." 
 
 Iwakura's two sons are in New York : that is now 
 the fashion. All men of rank send their sons either 
 to Europe or the United States. They come back 
 wearing the European dress, and, begging their 
 pardon, like the poor soldiers, they look just like 
 monkeys. We should be quite as ridiculous if we 
 were to adopt vertical tails, or if, when walking in 
 our gardens in summer, we were to content ourselves 
 with a fan and a bit of linen round our waists. In 
 the streets of Yedo, one meets people wearing gibous 
 hats ; others, boots with elastic sides ; or paletots, 
 which have the advantage of showing the legs naked 
 up to the waist. Some of them who are dressed 
 entirely in European fashion have kept their wooden 
 patten-sandals, and their caps of lacquered paper. 
 What disfigures them all, however, is the way they try 
 to do their hair, which, being naturally coarse and 
 hard, will not divide or brush like ours, so that they 
 resort to oiling it and tying it with a ribbon. These 
 innovators still form a small minority, and excite the 
 indignation rather than the imitation of the people. 
 But they enjoy the protection of the Government, 
 hold the highest places, and think themselves, and to 
 a certain degree are, important people. Certainly, 
 nothing is more praiseworthy than an ardent desire
 
 454 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 for progress a wish to better oneself, and to adopt the 
 inventions of nations more civilized than our own. 
 But I am afraid these good impulses are often 
 badly directed; and that they may produce great 
 disturbance in men's minds, and perhaps some day a 
 strong and bloody reaction. 
 
 September 12. I paid a visit to-day to the Prime 
 Minister, Sanjo. His yashki resembled those of Sawa 
 and Iwakura. In going through the apartments I 
 saw the most beautiful specimens of old lacquered 
 screens placed before the doors, or rather before the 
 openings left between the frames of the partitions. 
 We were introduced by two little pages. The great 
 nobles, the kugds, and the daimios are served in this 
 way by children. These, at the slightest signal from 
 their master, glide softly to his feet, receive his 
 orders, and fly to accomplish them. Respect, fidelity, 
 ardour and devotion, are all symbolised in the man- 
 ners of these pages. 
 
 Sanjo received us in full court-dress a magnifi- 
 cent silk tunic, richly embroidered, with wide, stiff 
 sleeves sticking out like wings. He wore the black 
 official cap of lacquered paper, which covers only the 
 shaved part of the head, and is turned up behind. 
 The minister is about thirty- one years old. He 
 belongs to one of the most ancient families of 
 Kiyoto, and owes his position to the very active part 
 he took in the commencement of the revolution in 
 1 868, when he was one of the first to proclaim against 
 the Siogun. As Saigo, by his presence in Yedo, 
 powerfully contributes to maintain the Kinshiu clans
 
 iv.] YEDO. 455 
 
 in favourable dispositions, so Sanjo, as prime minister, 
 exercises an analogous influence on a large portion of 
 the ancient nobility. His importance arises less from 
 his personal qualities, than from his social position 
 and the name he bears. Our conversation, which was 
 interrupted by the refreshments which the pages 
 continually brought and carried away again scarcely 
 touching the mats with the points of their feet in 
 so doing was resumed after the collation : but did 
 not turn on any subjects of great interest. How- 
 ever, Sanjo said to me : "I wish you would give 
 me some advice as to the art of governing ; for I 
 fill an important post ; and as yet I have little or 
 no experience." This was only a polite phrase, no 
 doubt : *but it really expressed the actual dispositions 
 of men's minds. The same thought ran through the 
 speech of the Mikado at my audience, and was com- 
 municated to me before, in writing. They really 
 wish to learn from Europeans, and they have the 
 good sense to own it. 
 
 September 13. We are once more going to visit 
 the great temple of Asakusa, one of the marvels 
 of Yedo. We went down to the shore and embarked 
 in one of those pleasure-boats which are the fashion 
 for nocturnal excursions, and greatly patronised by 
 young men and singers. Nothing can be cleaner 
 or prettier than these little boats : only the very 
 low roof of the cabins obliges you to go in on hands 
 and knees, and when there, to squat on your heels or 
 lie flat on the mats, which fortunately are always of 
 an irreproachable cleanliness. When night falls, these
 
 456 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP 
 
 cabins are lit by lanterns hung from the ceiling. Seen 
 from the shore or from the canals of the town these 
 boats look like glow-worms fluttering on the water. 
 
 The wind was fresh, and the gulf slightly rippled. 
 To our left we saw nothing but low promontories, 
 interspersed with little creeks covered with green 
 cedars, pines, gardens, parks, of which the most 
 wooded was that of the imperial palace of Hamagote'n, 
 but not a trace of any houses. To our right, towards 
 the south) stretched the vast gulf. Behind us, disap- 
 pearing towards the west, are the wooded banks of the 
 suburb of Takanawa, surmounted by the British flag 
 flying from the English Legation. Further south are the 
 forts, detached and bathed in the sea, and the grey hills 
 of Kanagawa. The cone of Fujiyama, as usual, is draped 
 in clouds. Sometimes they are good-natured enough 
 to displace themselves, exposing now the mouth of the 
 crater, now the sides of the colossal pyramid. At 
 last, after a steady run to the east, shaving the base- 
 ment story of the American hotel, we turned suddenly 
 round to the north, and entered the mouth of the 
 great Yedo river. People compare the Sumidagawa 
 with the Thames in London ; but it seems wider from 
 the low elevation of the houses on its banks. It is at 
 the same time a gay and beautiful sight. Along its 
 banks stretch long rows of houses, interspersed with 
 magnificent trees. At anchor are a triple and some- 
 times a quadruple row of boats, of the most fantastic 
 and varied shapes. Great junks, loaded with mer- 
 chandize and provisions, their heavy sails filled with 
 the south-westerly breeze, are slowly going up the 
 river. Others are coming down rowing. This anima-
 
 iv.] YEDO. 457 
 
 tion, which, in fact, reminds one rather of the Thames, 
 is lost as we advance higher up the river. There we 
 see only a motionless sheet of water, and on both sides 
 the parks and palaces of the daimios, and here and 
 there a few tea-houses. The solitude and silence are 
 complete. One might fancy oneself in the country, 
 or anywhere but in the heart of a great capital. We 
 next pass under four great wooden bridges, which 
 join the city to the Hondjo suburb, one of which has 
 been partly destroyed by the late typhoon. 
 
 After a rapid navigation of an hour and a quarter, 
 during which we made more than ten miles, we dis- 
 embarked on the right bank of the river, and at the 
 southern part of the Midzi, but not yet at the extreme 
 end of this enormous town. We clambered up some 
 steep steps, and then found ourselves in a long, narrow 
 street with tea-houses and shops on both sides, which 
 leads straight to the great entrance of the temple. 
 We have great difficulty in making our way through 
 the dense crowd. Here a busy sale is going on of 
 votive pictures, blessed paper, and holy images, 
 mingled with some profane objects likewise, and a 
 heap of photographic views and portraits. The 
 Japanese are perfect masters of this art, which was 
 only introduced a few years ago, but which may 
 be found now in the most out-of-the-way localities, 
 where no European foot has ever trod. 
 
 We follow the lead of the crowd, and enter the 
 great doorway, called the " doorway of the princes." 
 These princes are certain gods called Ni6. Their hor- 
 rible faces, besmeared with red, make one shudder. In 
 front of the portal is a temple dedicated to the goddess
 
 458 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 Kwanon. Mr. Beato, of Yokohama, has photographed 
 it, and heaps of travellers have published descriptions 
 of it ; but neither photographs nor descriptions give 
 the faintest idea of the mystical charm of this place. 
 The sanctuary is in a half light. Gold covers the 
 altar and the back-ground of the goddess, and is lost 
 in the depths of the chapel. Flowers, strange orna- 
 ments, and grotesque statues, inspire a secret terror. 
 On the walls are hung a multitude of votive pictures, 
 some of which were nearly covered with little bits of 
 white paper, which the faithful have spit upon the 
 image. If the paper sticks to the picture, it is a sign 
 that the prayer is granted. Two tints prevail in the 
 colouring of this temple red and dark brown, 
 brightened with gold. A crowd of devotees pressed 
 round the altar of Kwanon. Their knees slightly 
 bent, their heads stretched forwards, their eyes eagerly 
 attentive and fixed on the altar, they clap their hands 
 three times. They are calling the great Buddha. At 
 the third blow the god appears. At this moment 
 they bend, or rather prostrate themselves on the 
 floor. The expression of expectation has given place 
 to one of profound recollection. They then say their 
 prayers, which is an affair of a moment, throw some 
 pieces of coin into a great cjiest divided into several 
 compartments, and retire. Others instantly replace 
 them. Stay for half-an-hour near these poor people, 
 watch the expression of their faces, the play of their 
 countenances, the fervour of their prayers, and then 
 tell me if you don't think they really are believers. 
 Doubtless their belief is the lowest superstition ; but 
 they do believe and pray ; and in praying and calling
 
 iv.] YEDO. 459 
 
 upon God they draw near to Him whom they igno- 
 rantly worship. That they may ask, one for the suc- 
 cess of a commercial transaction, another for the fidelity 
 of a husband, or a new dress, what does it signify ? 
 they believe. In this people and it is only the people 
 whom you see here a feeling of religion does exist. 
 As to persons of the upper class, they are very rarely 
 seen, and then only a few men. Women of rank 
 never appear in the temples. 
 
 After prayer comes relaxation. Their hearts have 
 been raised to God : to false gods, it is true but still 
 it has raised their thoughts for a moment. Now 
 they seem in haste to descend again into the ruts of 
 common life. From the sanctuary of the goddess they 
 pass to the tea-houses, to the drinking-houses where 
 they sell saki, to pleasure-places of all kinds, to the 
 theatres, or to the celebrated lay -figures. Establish- 
 ments for all these different diversions surround the 
 temple, and are shaded by fine trees. On my first 
 visit I assisted at one of these theatrical representa- 
 tions. The story was as follows : An old, bald man 
 keeps a mistress ; a younger one enjoys at the same 
 time the favour of the wife and of the mistress. This 
 last is jealous of the lady ; the lady of her husband ; the 
 young man of the old one ; the old man of the young 
 one. The subject, as my readers will allow, is some- 
 what loose, and the execution very free ; but the 
 intrigue is well carried on, and the actors are perfect. 
 I have seen in the Palais Eoyal many vaudevilles 
 acted with far less spirit, and with quite as equivocal 
 a tendency ; with this difference, however, that with 
 us everything is said, and here in Japan everything is
 
 460 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 done on the stage. The audience was composed 
 almost entirely of women and young girls, who 
 laughed heartily. I was assured, however, that they 
 were almost all respectable women ; but all belonged 
 to the lower classes. 
 
 We next went into the house which contained the 
 lay figures. Miraculous scenes are represented, ap- 
 paritions of gods, fights, and legendary tales. The 
 figures, which are the size of life, are made of bamboo 
 and papier-mdcJie, and dressed in silk stuffs. Each 
 group is placed by itself in a niche representing the 
 place where the event happened. The merit of these 
 figures consists in their extraordinary resemblance to 
 real life, the feeling of nature, the study and know- 
 ledge of the anatomy of the human body, and besides, 
 a wonderful facility for expressing different emotions 
 and passions, such as anger, fear, impatience, physical 
 love, &c. Even here, however, the tendency to cari- 
 cature is evident. The first intention is to impress 
 the beholder and not to amuse him. But involun- 
 tarily, and as it would seem almost without his 
 knowledge, the artist mingles humour with his tragic 
 scenes, as if he would say to you : " Don't be too 
 much touched. You are not obliged to believe all I 
 am telling you." 
 
 On our return, to avoid the sea, which has become 
 rough, and the wind, which is contrary, we thread 
 the interior canals, of which the vast net-work 
 facilitates in all weathers the communications between 
 the different parts of the town. Our boatmen take to 
 their oars, and stretched on our mats, we see the 
 shores fly past us, at our ease.
 
 iv.] YEDO. 461 
 
 The sun is already low. Floods of yellow light 
 illumine the roofs, brighten up the streets, and glance 
 on the surface of the canals, which are sometimes 
 wide and sometimes narrow. We glide before in- 
 terminable rows of houses, a few miserable huts (many 
 of which were destroyed in the last typhoon), 1 and 
 some enormous yashkis (palaces of the daimios), with 
 their lower stories painted black, the upper ones white, 
 and apparently weighed down by their heavy roofs. 
 There, as we have already said, live the nobles, the 
 chiefs of the clans, and their servants. Square, large, 
 low openings, closed with black wood gratings, serve 
 as windows. During the day you cannot see in, but 
 in the evening, when the lanterns are lit, one dis- 
 covers interior scenes worthy of a Hobbema or a 
 Meissonier. The gateways of these strong castles 
 are fixed in deep embrasures, and open with fold- 
 ing or double doors, which are of massive wood 
 with great iron or bronze nails (as at Toledo). When 
 open, they are sheltered in the interior by little pent- 
 houses which come out of the wall at right angles. 
 If the outer inclosure reminds one of our barracks, 
 the great doorway, with its coat of arms finely sculp- 
 tured, gives at once an aristocratic look to the build- 
 ing. You recognise that it is the residence of a great 
 feudal baron of olden times, transformed against his 
 will into a courtier and taking his precautions accord- 
 ingly. 2 Now we come to a less aristocratic, but more 
 
 1 The typhoon of the 24th of August destroyed several quarters 
 in Yedo and ruined entire streets. 
 
 2 We have already said that the daimios were compelled to live 
 in Yedo six months of the year.
 
 462 A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD. [CHAP. 
 
 gay and busy quarter. It is the commercial portion 
 of Soto-Jiro. All the houses belong to the middle 
 classes, and have their backs turned to the canals, and 
 their fronts, with their well-filled shops, to the street. 
 On the quays, which we glide past, and in the cross 
 streets which open on the canals, there is a busy 
 throng, but no actual crowd. Here we see jinrikishas, 
 cangos borne by coolies to the cry of "Hai! Hai!" 
 women, always slightly bent forward, and walking 
 awkwardly on their pattens ; bonzes with their heads 
 completely shaved, and dressed in wide tunics of 
 yellow and violet crape ; a great many soldiers of 
 the new imperial army, dressed more or less like 
 Europeans ; and last, not least, samurais, with their 
 two sabres passed horizontally in their waistbands, 
 and their arms resting fiercely on their haunches, like 
 men who feel and know that every one will get out 
 of their way to give them a free passage. 
 
 The air is soft, agitated, and feverish. Gently 
 rocked in our luxurious boat, we glide on and on, and 
 yet we have been on our way for more than two hours. 
 The sun sets behind a bank of clouds lined with gold. 
 Before us, the canal stretches like a broad ribbon of 
 moire-antique, the colour of mother-of-pearl. The 
 black silhouettes of other boats, and their naked boat- 
 men standing in the prow, fly past us like shadows. 
 To the left and in front of us the houses seem covered 
 with a transparent veil of Chinese ink, in which 
 purple shadows tremble. To our right, the line of 
 houses and trees, crimsoned by the magic after-glow, 
 which in these latitudes follows the setting sun, and 
 precedes the rapidly-advancing night, is, as it were,
 
 iv.] YEDO. 463 
 
 melted into a luminous halo of indescribable beauty. 
 Nevertheless, the life on the water has almost ceased. 
 While shooting under the innumerable bridges, we 
 only see two or three belated people walking quickly, 
 and seeming anxious to reach their homes before the 
 night fairly closes in. In the streets which lead to the 
 canals the lanterns are being lighted at the doors of 
 the houses. The pavement and quays are deserted. 
 Around us the solitude makes itself felt. At last we 
 row past the walls of the park of Hamagote'n, and a 
 few minutes after find ourselves in the open sea. The 
 gulf, lashed by the south-wester, makes our little boat 
 dance, but she bears on bravely ; the men redouble 
 their toil ; from creek to creek, from promontory to 
 promontory, we come at last to the landing-place, and 
 a quarter of an hour after arrive safely at the Legation. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 i UNIVERSITY OF CdtlFQRNIA LIMIARY 
 
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