. - V* / ' lie THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES - ' ' JK \ ' THE AUSTRALIAN ABROAD. BRANCHES FROM THE MAIN ROUTES ROUND THE WORLD. BY JAMES KINGSTON, (" J. H." of the " Melbourne Argus.") DOMESTIC LIFE IN CHINA. HontJon : SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEA RLE, AND RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 18/9. \_All rights reserved. ] " The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself ; Yea, all which it inherit." SHAKESPERE. OS 507 PREFACE. THE following notes of travel are the outcome of a long holiday taken by an Anglo- Australian, who, after twenty-five years of active occupation in Melbourne, was enabled to indulge his long-cherished desire of making a tour of the globe. Without companions, save those whom he found by the way, and un- assisted by guide-books, he travelled through most of the principal countries in each of the world's five divisions, and recorded the impressions made upon his mind by all that he saw and heard while they were still fresh. The chapters in their present shape were actually written in the localities which they describe, and thence posted to a newspaper in Melbourne. In the columns of the Argtis they have appeared at regular intervals during the last three years. Thus written, the Author ventures to think that they convey a more faithful description of the scenes and people visited than if they had been subsequently elaborated from the rough material of a diary, assisted by reference to the works of other travellers. The kindly welcome eagerly accorded to them in their serial form by his fellow-colonists has induced him to offer them collectively to the acceptance of a larger public at home. The present volume relates to those stages of his journey which began after leaving the American Continent, 715988 vi Preface. embracing the route through Japan, China, Malasia, Sunda, Java, and Australia, to New Zealand. The illustrations have been engraved from photographs obtained at the several places selected. The remaining notes of his travels through Asia (including Ceylon, India, Syria, and Palestine), Europe (including Great Britain, Italy, &c.), America and Africa, will furnish materials for one or two succeeding volumes. Sept., 1879. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE INTRODUCTORY i CHAPTER II. THE TYCOON'S TOWN 10 CHAPTER III. THE JAPANESE SPHINX 23 CHAPTER IV. THE MIKADO'S CITY 35 CHAPTER V. AN EASTERN VENICE 45 CHAPTER VI. LIFE WITH THE JAPS 56 CHAPTER VII. THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN 70 CHAPTER VIII. A LAST LOOK AT JAPAN Si CHAPTER IX. THREE DAYS AT SHANGHAI 92 CHAPTER X. THE CHINESE PORTS 103 viii Contents. CHAPTER XI. PAGE A LOOK AT CANTON (No. i) . 114 CHAPTER XII. A LOOK AT CANTON (No. 2) 124 CHAPTER XIII. IN CHINA 134 CHAPTER XIV. IN COCHIN CHINA 145 CHAPTER XV. SINGAPORE AND THE STRAITS 155 CHAPTER XVI. IN NETHERLANDS INDIA 166 CHAPTER XVII. THE SUNDANESE CAPITAL 176 CHAPTER XVIII. BUITENZORG AND THE HlLLS 1 88 CHAPTER XIX. SANDANGLAYA TO SAMARANG (SUNDA-JAVA) . . . .198 CHAPTER XX. SOLO AND JOCKIO QAVA) 208 CHAPTER XXI. THE JAVANESE UPAS . . 219 CHAPTER XXII. THE BOER BUDDHA TEMPLE . 230 CHAPTER XXIII. SAMARANG TO SOERABAVA 240 CHAPTER XXIV. SOERABAYA TO SOMERSET (TORRES STRAITS) . . . .25! Contents. ix CHAPTER XXV. PAGE NEW SOUTH WALES : SYDNEY 266 CHAPTER XXVI. NEW SOUTH WALES : THE BLUE MOUNTAINS . . . .275 CHAPTER XXVII. SOUTH AUSTRALIA : ADELAIDE 283 CHAPTER XXVIII. NEW ZEALAND: WEST COASTING AND LANDING. . . . 290 CHAPTER XXIX. EASTWARD Ho ! ON WHEELS 300 CHAPTER XXX. CLOSE QUARTERS WITH ROYALTY 306 CHAPTER XXXI. THE "SQUARE" CITY AND PEOPLE 315 CHAPTER XXXII. THE MAORI-LAND BIRD THE MOA 325 CHAPTER XXXIII. THE MAORIES "AT HOME" TO DINNER 332 CHAPTER XXXIV. EAST COASTING, AND COACHING . 346 CHAPTER XXXV. NORTH AND SOUTH CONTRASTS (AUCKLAND DUNEDIN) . . 354 CHAPTER XXXVI. COOK'S STRAITS "THE MIDDLE PASSAGE" . . . .361 CHAPTER XXXVII. PlCTON AND THE " FRENCH PASS " 368 CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE MAORI FAMILY "IN TOWN'' 376 x Contents. CHAPTER XXXIX. PAGE IN THE RICHEST OF ALL GOLD-MlNES THE CALEDONIAN. . 388 CHAPTER XL. THE " SILVER THAMES " WITH GOLDEN BANK . . . 396 CHAPTER XLI. THE WATER-KING'S HEAD-QUARTERS 402 CHAPTER XLII. THE PAKEHA'S PROGRESS . . . 409 CHAPTER XLIII. THE MAORI'S DECLINE . . . . ... 417 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE The Boer Buddha Temple Frontispiece Japanese Waggoners .' 4 The Jinrickishaw .......... 5 Ascent to Heights (eighty-six steps) of Tokio 12 A Japanese Temple . . 17 Fusiyama 23 Dai Butsa 26 Ehmidji Castle 29 Japanese Street 33 Temple at Kioto 43 Japanese Wrestlers 51 Female Musicians (Japan) 56 Japanese Lady 61 Ladies' Outdoor Dress 62 Dress of Japanese Lady 63 Japanese Almanac .......... 82 Two Sides of a Merchant's Card 90 Tea House, Shanghai . . 99 Amoy Harbour 103 Chinese Palanquin . . . . . . . . . -US A Chinese House 117 Domestic Life (China) 128 Macao from the Bay 134 Javanese Carriage-chair 178 Javanese Musical Instruments 180 Weaving the "Batuck" 182 At Prambanan 213 xii List of Illustrations* PAGE Emperor's Residence (Soerakajarta) . . . . . .217 Native Musicians (Java) . . . 220 The " Gamelong " . 221 The Hotel Verandah (Soerabaya) . . . . . . . 244 Port Darwin 251 An Aboriginal . . . 253 A Native King . . . 254 A Native Queen 255 Native Mia-mia 257 Waterfall, Otira Gorge (New Zealand) 303 A Maori Lady . . . ...._. . . . . 306 Amelia Tanui Arahura . . . ... . . . 308 The Maori Type (Male) . . . . . . . .338 The Maori Type (Female) '. . . . . . . . 339 The Maori Type (Female) . . . . . . . . 340 Maori Dress (Male) 376 Maori Dress (Female) 377 Artistic Tattooing (i) . . . 379 Artistic Tattooing (2) 380 Maori Woman 383 The Maori and his Pipe . . . 425 General "Map OF THt AUTHOR'S ROUTE Authors rourtf BRANCHES FROM THE MAIN ROUTES ROUND THE WORLD. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. THE wharf at San Francisco has, I find, steamers of largest size leaving monthly for Japan. They lie alongside those leaving the same wharf monthly for Australia. An Australian has thus the choice of returning to his adopted country by way of Honolulu and Fiji, or by way of Japan and Singapore, at which last-named port he can monthly meet with the Torres Straits mail. There can be little question which route offers the greater attraction to the traveller. Japan is a country but sixteen years opened to the world. There are now three European settlements upon its shores. From all parts of Europe settlers have gone thither. Scarcely an Australian but can remember some one from some part of Australasia who has made Japan a home. To see how they are all doing there, and the wonders of the newly-opened country, are attractions that outweigh many other considerations. Life should not be all business, any more than all beer and skittles. Pope tells us that it "can little more supply, but just to look about us and to die." The world has accredited him with wisdom, knowledge of life and of human nature beyond that of most men. His opinions, therefore, carry B 2 The Main Routes Round the World. weight. I went accordingly to " look about " in Japan, and have to tell something of what can be seen there. The " City of Tokio," a steamship of the large size of 5500 tons register, made a pleasant passage of twenty-one days. On the voyage, the I5th of December was dropped out of the calendar, so that I never saw that birthday of mine. The coloured steward of our vessel was a sort of Uncle Tom in his opinions. He did not see, he said, how man could interfere with Providence, and take a day out of the week of seven days that the Creator had given us. It reminded me that, when the calendar was reformed in our grandfathers' days, a party in Great Britain clamoured against it on religious grounds, resolving to adhere to the "old style," and wanting back " the days taken from them" by Act of Parliament. Yokohama is our landing-place a pleasant-looking stone- built seaport, with very clean and macadamized streets. The three of them that lie parallel with the sea beach make up the white settlement. Behind those is a busy settlement of Japanese, a native town of 40,000 or so, that have come down from Yeddo, twenty miles distant, to live upon the white settlers, who had come thither to live upon them. These whites are not now more than 2000 in number at Yokohama. Looking at the fact that the town is only sixteen years old that not a building stood upon the low, flat-lying spot in 1860 it is really a surprising place to the stranger, and looks at least three times its age. On the " Bluff," to the left of the settlement, are the villa residences of the Europeans com- fortable places, surrounded with gardens, and, but that they are all bamboo-fenced, very like the villas of South Yarra. Commodore Perry came here in 1860, with the compliments of President Fillmore, and a gunboat. He presented a respectful letter to the Tycoon, and, for himself, added that he would take back only a courteous answer. The port must be opened to American traders, or the refusal taken as a declaration of war. The officials told him to go away down to Nagasaki, where the Dutch had a settlement, on the island Yokohama. 3 of Decima ; but the commodore pointed to his guns, and dropped his anchor. That resolute behaviour had its effect. The Tycoon granted him permission to land at 'Yokohama, and make a settlement there, but to come no nearer to Yeddo the London of Japan. Other countries followed suit, and got similar permission, and thus was the shut-up Japan, the Great Britain of the East, opened to the world. The miserable Dutch had, for two hundred years, had a trading settlement at Decima, and submitted there to every possible indignity for the sake of the dollars made by the small trade that the Japanese permitted them to do. Left to Dutch enterprise, Japan would have continued as closed to the world as the neighbouring Corea still is. Fortunes are no longer made quickly in the white settle- ments of Japan. A steady jog-trot trade is now done, similar to what might be done at any of the New Zealand ports. The Japanese manufactures have been hitherto works of art in metal, porcelain, cottons, and silk. These have been exported largely, and the demand has now decreased. The bronzes, vases, and curious porcelain wares have become not the curious and expensive things that they once were, and no longer pay the profits they did. The mines of Japan have not been found profitable up to the present. Japan is five- sixths hills and mountains. Sheep and cows are almost un- known in it. The hill-sides are cultivated but little. Round the base of a few are to be seen the graded rice-fields, with which the land abounds. Rice and fish are the staple of Japanese food. In fish everything is eaten the shark and octopus included. The latter, which is the great curiosity of British aquariums, is a common article in Japanese fish- markets. The drink of the country is a weak tea, taken without milk or sugar, and drunk throughout the twenty-four hours. Fires are of charcoal only, and made in square boxes lined with metal. Chopsticks are used instead of knives and forks. After the first day I bought a spoon, and used that, failing to make any progress in taking up rice curries with two penholders. B 2 4 The Main Routes Round the World. The Japanese are a small race. The men are rarely over 5ft. 4in., and the women usually under 5ft. They are the most polite, cheerful, and pleasant of people. It is easily accounted for. They eat the most easily digested of all food, and drink nought but that which cheers but not inebriates. They are strong people in the way of endurance, of which I saw notable instances. If a Victorian were to tell me that he could run forty miles say, from Melbourne to Kyneton at six miles an hour, stopping but three times, for a short half-hour each time, on the way, I should think that he JAPANESE WAGGONERS. romanced, and that he altogether over-estimated human powers if he told me that he could also drag me after him in a light hansom. Yet the Japanese do that all through Japan. They have no horses. The palanquin was the mode of con- veyance until the Japanese saw an American buggy, and the way of making light wheels and springs. Seven years ago this ingenious people made the jinrickishaw (man-power carriage), which is a cross between a perambulator and a small hansom. One man could, between the shafts of this conveyance, do the work that two had done hitherto with the The Japanese. 5 palanquin. This new pull-man car is now the national vehicle of Japan. I went forty miles with ease in one day in one of these, and the same conveyancers brought me back forty miles the next day. In these long journeys two men will go, one as an emergency man, to occasionally take a turn in the shafts, and uphill pull at a rope in tandem fashion. At first it looks objectionable to be dragged about by one's fellow-beings in place of horses. The traveller, however, gets used to everything in time, and comes to look upon whatever is as being right. Our prejudices and predilections are all THE JINRICKISHAW. accidents of birth. Our thoughts, beliefs, and tastes are of education. Travelling in Japan would be all the pleasanter if one knew the language. The little Japanese guide would be a philo- sopher and friend as well^ if he could. His knowledge of English is very limited, but he speaks it better than the Chinese, and does not invent new words that belong to neither language, as the Chinaman does in his "pigeon English." Living in Japan is very cheap indeed, and so is locomotion. For the forty miles' journey I was only charged IDS. a day, 6 The Alain Routes Round the World. and the bills of the tea-houses on the road came to a mere nothing. The tobacco-smoking of Japan is as mild a thing as the eating and drinking. It is the weakest of all tobacco to begin with. The pipe-bowl is less than a child's thimble in size. Three whiffs exhaust its contents, and that is enough smoking for three hours for a Japanese. His liver being always in good order, his ideas are so likewise. His religion is, like his eating and drinking and smoking, a mild and cheerful thing. He stops at a temple and washes his hands at a small tank in front. He then ascends the steps, prostrates himself for four minutes, mutters a formula of prayer, and advances to a wooden trough in front of the image of his deity. Into this trough he drops two or three coins of a value that go 200 to an English shilling. That done, he pulls a rope that rings a bell, and calls the attention of the gods to his donation. The service is now ended. The lavation, the prostration, and the donation have taken six minutes only. He goes away light-hearted and happy. No Scotchman who has stood or sat through a sermon of an hour long could be happier. He that " keeps the keys of all the creeds " can alone say what form of worship, of all the thousand forms extant, is the right one. I will not judge that I may not be judged. Yeddo, now called Tokio, is a fine, busy, bustling city, with goodly-sized streets, and not the narrow chinks that disfigure the cities of the Chinese. The number of the in- habitants has been much over-estimated especially by Lord Elgin. It is nothing like three millions. I doubt if it ap- proaches more than half that number, and the secretary to the resident British Minister, who had best means of know- ing, shared my doubts. The city, being mostly of wooden houses, of one or two storeys, is very liable to fires. One that occurred there on New Year's Day of the present year destroyed some thousands of buildings. It was, however, thought nothing of. Other parts of the city showed signs of similar disasters. New wood-built houses are rapidly raised to replace the burnt ones. Here and there, on the scenes of J apanese Habits. 7 these fires, stand up two-storey buildings that appear as if built of polished black slate. In these buildings, which are fire-proof, the neighbours store their valuables. They are, I was told, built of clay, coated with a cement that takes a polish. After a fire these buildings stand about dozens in .number among the surrounding blackened stumps of the burnt houses, and have a curious appearance, like to a con- course of funereal mutes scattered over a large graveyard. The Japanee is the cleanest of mankind. Cleanliness is, so to speak, more than godliness with him. Though he has no soap, he washes all over at least once a day. He worships but once a week. His candles are made of vegetable wax. He uses a cotton coverlid, well stuffed and padded, for bed covering and mattress. A sort of stereoscope case made of wood makes his pillow. He resorts to that, and so do his wife and daughters, that their carefully arranged hair may not be disarranged during sleep. No head-covering is worn by the Japanese. No nation dresses the hair so tastefully. Usually it is with the men shaved in sections. They are coming now to wear it in European fashion. They are adopt- ing all European customs. On levee day I saw the reception at the Mikado's palace in Yeddo. Every one presented had to come in European full dress. That dress does not become the Japanese figure. He looks awkward in it. His legs are too short. The tails of his claw-hammer coat drag on the ground, and the black dress trousers wrinkle up and get baggy around his feet. His European-fashioned clothes have been sent out ready made from America or England, and in no case did I notice anything approaching to a good fit. Yet he smiled and looked happy, though he could not get his heels halfway down his Wellington boots, and his hat was either too large or too small for his head. He always smiles and looks pleasant. Nothing can make him grumble, and he has not learnt to swear. He is satisfied to be paid his due, and never asks for more. As a London cabman he would be the very man that London wants. Railways, gas, schools, telegraphs, barracks, and military 8 The Main Routes Rottnd the World. drilling, directed by Europeans, are spreading throughout Japan. A Melbourne man, who had been a " super " at the Theatre Royal, was, I found, tutor at an up-country school at 2OO/. a year. He intended to stay in the country. Educated Englishmen are thus utilized by the Japs. Japan is opening all its cities and ports to the world generally. It was for some time doubtful about opening Yeddo, but that being done, everything followed. The Mikado was brought down from his sacred city of Kioto and set up in Yeddo, in place of the Tycoon, who was then and for ever abolished. Kioto is now open to the visitor. The way thither is by steamer to Kobe, a thirty hours' journey. Here a second Yokohama is seen, with a native settlement called Hiogo in its rear. A good line of rail takes one in an hour to Osaca a Japanese Venice of many hundred bridges, and the most commercial city in Japan. Some of these bridges I was told that they numbered 848 are of stone and iron, and well built, but the majority are of wood, and some of very curious build. Osaca is more surprising to the visitor than is Yeddo. Another hour's railway ride, and I am in Kioto. To get thither a passport from the British Consul was necessary. For what reason is not so very apparent, except that one is getting into the heart of the country, and is supposed to want more looking after than when on the seaboard. No traveller now requires any guard beyond his guide. He is welcomed everywhere with smiles and polite- ness. There is nothing to spend much money upon. The theatres and shows are like to what one supposes them to have been in Britain 500 years ago, in the time of the tourna- ments and the hawkings, and the jesters and the Joyous Life, before avarice had eaten into the heart of the world, and made money-making the end, aim, and object of existence. Avarice has not got hold of the Japanese as yet. He is care- less about money, so long as his daily wants are supplied. Frugal, temperate, and happy, he takes little thought for to- morrow, and none for the day after. Any overplus he may have he spends in some exhilarating amusement. Of that Nagasaki. 9 Japan shows plenty. Jugglers are at the street-corners, open- air dramas are performing in the market-places, and the Eastern story-teller sits under his umbrella and tells his tales, wherever an open space will afford him room to gather his laughing audience. I wished I could understand the farces 1 saw thus acted, and the stories I heard told. They must have been good. That was evident from the interest they created. I subscribed when the dish came round in place of the hat, for the novelty of the sight was worth paying the two-hundredth part of a shilling for. A shilling goes a long way in Japan, but one has to get one's guide to carry the coin. Five shillings' worth of copper "cash" would seriously impede one's progress. From Kobe I take steamer and pass down the inland sea for another thirty hours' journey to Nagasaki the third of the white seaboard settlements in Japan. It has more seaport characteristics than either Kobe or Yokohama, and is more of a resort for shipping in want of ship stores and repairs. For the latter purpose it has a graving-dock and other ship-repair- ing conveniences. Here is the little Decima, the wretched island on which the Dutch settlement stood, as dirty a hole as one can see anywhere. The beauty of the inland sea is some- thing surprising. It is like to Sydney harbour, stretched out for a thirty hours' steamboat journey. I don't think that any description could convey a better impression of its beauty than those few words. The white settlers at Nagasaki are less in number than those at Kobe or Yokohama, and more in a ship-chandlery and boat-building way. It has not that appearance of cleanliness and respectability which charac- terizes the two other white settlements. Its surrounding scenery is, however, far superior. In a land-locked basin, surrounded by tree-covered hills, and goodly Japanese tem- ples and well-built houses, it forms a striking picture to the traveller's eyes, and well repays a visit as indeed does every place in Japan. CHAPTER II. THE TYCOON'S TOWN. OF the characteristics of the pleasant Japanese land, the first is the Tycoon's town the London of Japan. This Jeddo, or Yeddo, is now called Tokio, " the Eastern capital." It is a town of many hundred thousand inhabitants. There is no certainty as to how many, but the number is very large. Its streets have the great blessing of good width, fine length, and well-kept roadways. There is not much to speak of in the way of side-walks, but all is smooth and clean. The working King of the Japanese, called the Tycoon, made this city his residence until late years, when the idle and mysterious other sovereign left his seclusion at Kioto, and came down to Yeddo to change its name, to govern in person, and henceforth do the Tycoon's work. The Tycoon there- upon quietly retired into private life, which he still adorns. The feudal lords of Japan, called Daimios, were then deprived of their territories, and made pensioners on the state. Their pensions are generally reduced every year. They bear the reduction as quietly as if they were Victorian civil servants. There are exceptions to all rules, and a recalcitrant Daimio stood out and fought for his own hand, causing some little trouble for the time. Generally, however, all the many won- drous revolutions made and making in Japan are quietly effected. Folks are all pleasant and complaisant there born philosophers, who seem to think that all institutions mustchange, or end, some time or other, and that there is nothing in this world much worth fretting or fighting about. They have a Tokio. 1 1 way of keeping their heads cool by wearing no covering that perhaps goes a long way in helping to an easy mind. The head is also well washed daily, and its top tastefully laid out by a barber, who has the skill of a flower-bed gardener. The bodies of the general run of Japanese are covered with a blue blouse, tied with a sash around the waist. Of all things in the world they wear mostly blue serge tights for the rest of their dress, and blue cloth shoes with thick paper soles to them. Arrayed in this attire the happy Japanee looks like to a Christmas pantomime sprite, with a mixture of blue and white hieroglyphics and heraldry stamped upon his back. Wandering about Tokio, looking at its scenes, I came upon the tombs of the Tycoons. They are situated at Shiba, the enclosed grounds of several small temples. Here was some- thing different in the way of tombs to what I had seen in other Eastern lands. Large bronze vases here stood upon blocks of granite under wooden canopies. From the little English I could get out of the Japanese boy who was with me, I could not ascertain whether it was the vase or the stone beneath it that enclosed the remains of the deceased. The effect was very good. Nothing gaudy, but something solid and appropriate seemed these tombs of the Tycoons. In their graves, as in their dwellings, the Japanese do not make any useless display. The palaces and castles of Japan are substantial but very unpretentious places. Very different are they in that respect to those of other Eastern nations. In Hindoostan the splendour of the palace is mostly equalled by that of the tomb. Near to these tombs of the Tycoons was a small temple, in which I found three of the sweetest sounding bells that were ever made. The bells of Shandon, in the church of St. Mary, at Cork, were still in my remembrance for their pleasant sound when I heard these at Shiba, which were certainly the sweeter. Atago Yama is a sort of hill in Tokio from which a splendid view of the whole city can be obtained. To get to it I had to mount one hundred very steep steps of a foot and a half high each. They were of roughly-hewn granite, and from their 1 2 The Main Routes Round the World. width and steepness reminded one unpleasantly of getting up the Pyramid of Cheops. From the tea-house on the top of this mount all Tokio can be seen. It is not a fine sight. The city stands on a dead flat. The houses are all roofed with dark-coloured tiles, and are of similar design, and destitute of chimneys. It all looks too flat and plain, and wanting in variety. A church steeple, or a few hundred of them, or bulbous domes of mosques, or graceful minarets or turrets, would have been a real relief to one's eyes. The temples have all plain-ridged roofs, are low in height, and squat-looking ASCENT TO HEIGHTS (EIGHTY-SIX STEPS). things seen from any eminence. The vastness of Tokio could be well seen from this position, but the eye failed in singling out objects that would arrest attention. For a variation from the tasteless tea, I took at the tea-house on this mount some "sakura-ya." It is a drink made of salted cherry-blossoms steeped in hot water a mild Japanese drink, no doubt, and quite an acquired taste ; one, too, that seemed likely to take some time to acquire. The River Simoda is the Thames of Tokio, and I was told runs up, in navigable size, twenty miles from the sea. From that bridge all distances are measured in and about the city, Tokio. 1 3 as they used to be in London " from where Hicks's Hall formerly stood." A good idea of the size of the teeming city could thus be obtained. To the north a line could be drawn three miles through streets and houses, and to the south for five miles. To the east a line could be extended six miles, and for four miles to the west. A goodly city, measuring nine miles by eight, but a bad one for a stranger to be lost in. My Japanese boy (Kampadgi) was so like every other Japanese boy, that on stopping to look at the wares on the different shop-boards I could not always again recognize him amongst the crowd that soon surrounded me. I had a mob around me whenever I stopped. They never tired of looking at the hairy face, the stove-pipe hat, and the European clothes. I feared several times that I had lost Kampadgi, and if I had I might have probably wandered in Tokio to this day. To avoid that trouble we handcuffed ourselves together by the wrist, and I adopted that plan henceforth. Any one who has ever been lost in a strange city, where no one could be made to under- stand a word one says, will appreciate my foresight. I got lost in Jerusalem once, and wandered, with another English- man, for two hours and jnore, vainly asking the way to Joppa Gate. When I looked at the size of Jerusalem and its form on the map, it seemed quite impossible that any one could be lost for so long in it, but the fact nevertheless remained. The name, in Syrian, that I should have said for " Joppa Gate " was something that took nearly half a day to learn. When seen on paper, no clue was afforded to the sound when spoken. The Frenchman reads " Ironmonger-lane," only as " Ereen- mongjeelarney." He fails to make Londoners understand that when asking for the place. In looking into a larger-sized building than usual, in a street leading out of the great road called " Ginza," I observed this pleasant inscription : NOTIS. No CHITS. ONE DRINK 15 CENTS. 1 4 The Main Routes Round the World. Here was English at last. I found that something similar was spoken by several of the inmates, and concluded to stay there while I was in Tokio. The " no chits " I found meant " No I O U's taken " a sort of Eastern polite way of saying " No trust." My first evening at this new lodging was disturbed by a large fire that broke out in a distant part of the city. It dis- turbed dinner very much to see the flames reddening the sky more and more, every five minutes. My host had a vein of humour in him, and was quite inanimate about fires. He had seen too many of them. I need be in no hurry to go, he said ; if I waited long enough the fire would possibly come to me ; very probably too, if the wind changed towards our quarter. Five or six thousand houses were nothing in one Tokio fire's consumption. After " chow," as Japanee calls his meals, I took a jinric- kishaw, or pull-man-car, and went to the great fire. To avoid the trouble of taking Kampadgi, and looking after him in his separate vehicle a pull- man only comfortably holds one I entrusted myself to the guidance of the centaur, only getting Kampadgi to inform him that I was bound for the fire and back again. It was about three miles or so dis- tant, and the crowd gathered thicker as I neared the place. It got soon unpleasantly thick. Half the jinrickishaws in Tokio appeared to be going to Asakusa, where the fire was. It was soon dangerous travelling in so thick a crowd. It was also unpleasant to meet every now and then a dead man carried on the shoulders of men coming from the fire. On all sides, and back and front, I was shut in by thousands upon thousands of men, women, and vehicles. The vehicles often collided. Mine was wheel-locked twice, which perhaps saved it from being thrown on one side altogether. At last the shafts and front bar of a vehicle running behind mine came through the back of it, and pitched me violently forward on to the back of my man in the shafts. We both rolled on the ground. The lantern that he carried as all these men do at night in his hand at once caught A Great Fire, 1 5 fire on its paper sides, and we had hastily to rise to avoid catching fire also from the flaming oiled paper. Merry Japanee only laughed at the disaster. He took another lantern from beneath the seat I had sat upon, lighted the can- dle, and resumed his trot. I wished very shortly that I had not gone to this fire : but, having got into it, I was, like to Macbeth, " stepped in so far that . . . returning were as tedious as go o'er." The crowd of vehicles increased, and some ran with reckless haste drawn by two men in tandem fashion. In that case, the foremost man ran six feefor more in advance of his fellow in the shafts, and pulled by a rope or a strap over one shoul- der and across the back under the other. Such a waste of power in drawing so far off from the load showed great igno- rance on Japanee's part. He ran well for all that, and shouted as he ran. This shouting added new terrors to one's troubles. It was a strange shout in an unknown tongue, and therefore bewildering. More dead men now went by on stretchers. Strangely-attired men, whom I afterwards learnt were firemen, came rushing by, having on their heads that unheard-of thing in Japan, a Head-dress. They dragged a small machine, about the size and appearance of a washing-tub, on wheels, with a churn in it. That was the Japanese fire-engine. It was only calculated to extinguish the fire in a dog-kennel or some dwell- ing of similar size. Bamboo-made ladders followed in plenty. The flames now became apparent, and soon our progress on wheels came to a deadlock. My centaur took his car into a tea-house, and I handcuffed him carefully to my wrist, to his great amusement, and went forth to thread street after street filled with crowds all looking aflame with the glare from the great fire, which reddened also the water running in the gutters. This fire at Tokio, on New Year's night, consumed 6000 wooden houses. I found that it extended over streets and cross streets for more than a mile onwards in a straight line. The earth was strewn everywhere with smoking and smoulder- ing wood ashes, reddened now and again into a glow as the 1 6 The Main Routes Round the World. wind came their way. The fireproof stores or go-downs stood out in bold black relief over the frightful scene, and looked like to giant monsters standing sentry in the fiery, infernal regions. The smoke was unbearable to the eyes, making them smart and water in a way that stopped all progress through the streets of this fire quarter. Away on every hand it looked a wilderness of flame and smoke and burning logs a painful sight to look at, and equally so to think of. Now to get away from it. The tea-house had to be found at which our carriage had been put up, and then tea was of course served to both self and centaur, and paid for with a few cents. The stuff was warm and wet, and that was all that could be said of it. It was the only thing that was to be had thereabout. My centaur again put himself in the shafts, and started homewards. Our road was lighted by the glimmer of thousands of hand lanterns that showed like to large glow-worms. It was worse returning than in going. In that going journey my vehicle was on the same way as all the others going with the tide. Now it was going half with and half against it, and centaur had often to pull up very short and make sharp turns that nearly upset him, to avoid collisions. At last, in some soft spot, he slipped up and fell flat on his back, and as the shafts dropped I pitched forward full length on to him and his prostrate lantern. We were again all on fire, or nearly so, and had to burn our hands, and my handkerchief, to extinguish the blazing paper of the lantern. This lantern was of value now, as being our last one. The other had been burnt on the downward journey. My stove-pipe hat was crushed in on the side, and presented a stranger sight than it did before to the mob of laughing Japanese around, but the centaur only laughed at our troubles, as he did before. The Japanese laugh at every th' ig. He again got between the shafts, and by midnight, or afier, I got back to No Chits' house, and to shelter. I don't think that I shall go to another fire in Japan. The timber trade ought to flourish in this land. The Japanese Temples. 1 7 frequent fires must promote that industry. Where wood is not used, the walls are built of stones that are cut so as to lean inwardly and gravitate towards each other. No mortar seems to be used in the walls of Japanese buildings. The kites that nearly every fifth old man or boy seems to be flying are of square shape, and have two tails. Another and live kite that is seen in plenty is a dark-brown bird that hovers over all the cities of Japan, and has eaten up all the sparrows, if there were ever any about. The Tori-i, a stone gateway-like erection in front of every A JAPANESE TEMPLE. temple, is a feature of the streets of Japanese towns that one soon comes to take notice of. The word translated means " bird rest," and is a distinctive feature of Japanese temples no resemblance to which had I seen in any other Eastern land. The Great Temple of Asakusa, that was formerly one of the sights of Yeddo, is no longer to be seen there. It was a Buddhist temple, and the Sintoo religion having becr.ne the one encouraged by the Government, it was sought to turn many of the temples of Buddhism, and that of Asakusa amongst them, into the worship of Sintoo, C 1 8 The Main Routes Round the World. " the religion of the gods." Let it be recorded to the honour of the priests of Asakusa, that they would not submit to such a desecration. They burnt down their temple the finest in the city and, as martyrs, they afterwards forfeited their lives for the act. " Saiyoken " is, I find, the proper name of the house I am staying at. It is a very comfortable place for Tokio. In addition to the notice in English to which I have referred, the Japanese proprietor makes other attempts at propitiating the foreigner. Stoves are placed in the bed -rooms instead of the pans of charcoal. As, however, the stoves have no chim- neys to them, they are as bad as the open charcoal boxes, or worse. Although it is very cold, I bundle my stove outside the door of a night before going to bed. The door is of course represented by a sliding sash panel in the window- frame. I might awake alive in the morning without taking this trouble overnight, but it looked too much like an attempt at a French suicide to sleep with a stove of lighted charcoal in a closed-up room twelve feet square. I was told that it never caused any inconvenience to the Japanese, and that they often took a pot of charcoal to bed with them and placed it between their feet, in warming-pan fashion, and so slept. The top rim of the pot would keep the coverlid from touching the burning charcoal at the bottom, but such a sleeper must needs never turn or kick about. There is, perhaps, plenty of coal in Japan, if proper means were taken to find it. The everlasting hills that one sees all around wherever one goes have surely something in them ! The sterility of their exterior warrants that supposition. The Japanese, however, fall back entirely on charcoal for their fuel. Pots of it stand about everywhere. In my bed-room is the novelty of a polished steel mirror in a blackwood case, raised at the sides to save the surface from scratches. It has a handle bound round with strips of bamboo. A wooden stand is made to hold it, in which is a niched half-circle. This mirror is quite as good a reflector as the best of silvered glass. I could fancy myself an ancient Roman as I handle it, New Years Day. 1 9 but for the queer Japanese letters at the back of it. As these articles are very cheap, I invest in half a dozen small ones for presents in distant lands. The trees that meet one's eyes everywhere that I have gone are pines and firs, that seem to be taken great care of. There are a few cocoa-nut palms also to be seen, and bamboos abound everywhere, as do cherry-trees in the orchards. It is the day after New Year's Day, and a general holiday in Tokio. The lattice-work is put up on the shop-fronts. Such answers the purpose of shutters here. New clothing appears on the backs of everybody. The Japanese flag, a white ground with a red ball in the centre, is flying every- where. Boys and old men are sending up kites in hundreds. Girls are outside every second house playing at shuttlecock. Every one seems happy and contented. There are no signs of poverty or misery about, and no beggary. The sun is shining, and the sky is blue, and the air clear. As I get warm with walking, I begin to feel that it is a good thing to be alive and well. Were I able to express to Kampadgi what I want, I think I would buy a kite, and try the sensation of flying it, as I did ever so many years back, when happy as a Japanee. Crowds in market-places and at street-corners soon attract one's attention. Here, under a canopy, rapping a baton now and then, and gesticulating like a Frenchman, sits a cross- legged real Oriental story-teller on a raised bench, telling some thrilling tale, and enchaining the attention of between 100 and 200 folks who understood his language. In another place I find a similar crowd witnessing open-air theatricals by a company of strolling players. It is some farce that is per- forming, and three of the dramatis persona are all that are upon the ground at the time. It must be very amusing, from the merriment it excites ; as far as the pantomime is concerned, I can see that it is well done, and wish that I could understand more of it. The only thing that mars the appearance of the merry faces all around are the blackened teeth and shaved eye- brows of the married women. When they smile they are quite repulsive. In Victor Hugo's Les Miser ables, the reader's horror C 2 2O The Main Routes Round the World. is excited by Cosette's mother selling her two front teeth to a dentist for bread, and leaving an ugly dark hole in the front of her mouth. A double row of blackest teeth is, however, a more disgusting sight. The love of the Japanese wife for her husband must be something great to make her so sacrifice her comeliness, for the disfigurement is done to please him. How many of the women of the western world could be induced to commit such a sacrifice ? to so put an end to all hope of flirting henceforward ? Further on I came upon a juggler, who has been, all unassisted by tables, assistants, or apparatus, amusing an immense crowd. To make himself look very distinguished, he had got on some cast-off European clothes that by no means fit him. The trousers are a foot or more too long for his short legs, and much too tight around the waist. He has burst them in several places, but seems quite unconcerned about that. The coat, also, is too long in the sleeves, which are turned up nearly to the elbows. He has a bell-topper hat on, and appears to hail my appearance in a similar one as that of a brother, as he makes some allusion to me that causes a roar of laughter. Before I recover from the attention so suddenly brought upon me, he comes up and musters all his English to say, " Give me money." He would, I know, being a Japanee, be more polite if he knew other form of words. That the performances may proceed I comply with his request, and see him go on with his wonders. He appears to be able to do anything and everything in the way of sleight of hand, and has a world of ready pattering talk, like to a British cheap Jack, by which he keeps his large audience in good humour, and gets showers of coppers thrown to him. By an allusion that he makes when he comes to me again for a contribution, I perceive that he takes me for an American. I lose some faith in his powers being supernatural after that mistake, and go away to something else. This time it is to some acrobats who have erected an open- air gymnasium, and have covered up the back with rush mat- ting. Here are long bamboos at work balanced on the chests Jugglers and Acrobats. 2 1 of those who carry them, with boys thirty feet up in the air performing all kinds of break-neck things at the other end of the stick. Occasionally the boy would leave the bamboo and take a rest on a trapeze which was made to oscillate with him, while he clung to it with his feet with one foot with the back of his heels on his chin. He could no doubt have hung on by his eyebrows, but I did not witness that. Down below, top-spinning was going on, and the drawing out of a bale of cloth from the interior of a small box. Then followed the ground tumbling, and the elevation of a boy on the top of some twenty half-barrels, supported on the soles of the feet of a performer who lay upon his back. When the half-barrels, piled up one after another, reached a great height, they were kicked away from beneath the boy, who stood on the topmost one, and he then alighted, quite naturally and easily, on the soles of the feet of his fellow-performer. All these performances were to be seen for nothing. Contributions were quite voluntary, and were plentifully made. To see something that one had to pay for, I went into a sort of hall, at which twopence, or its equivalent, was charged for admission. A gong was beating at the door. The check handed to me in return for the money was made of wood, and was about the size of a bootjack. Some hieroglyphics were inscribed on it. Had there been a chance of carrying such a thing in one's bag, I would have kept the check as a curio, and cleared out the front way, and missed the performance. But the curio was too big. Such a check as that was worth twopence to handle. I gave mine to Kampadgi to carry along with his own. Such checks for a whole family would have needed a hand-barrow. The hall had no seats. I for- got that Japanese houses have no chairs or stools. I stood with the rest. The curtain had gone up, and a Japanese gentleman, in squatting attitude, was making an oration from the stage. It was impressive but not intelligible. A lady performer then came on who made a top walk across an open fan, and did other wonders, followed up by elongating her neck some ten feet, and looking down upon us in a swan-like 2 2 The Main Routes Round the World. manner from that elevation. Her hands remained in her lap as before, and she now looked down upon them as they pro- ceeded to keep half a dozen little balls in motion at once. It was a very short but a novel and entertaining performance for 2.d. With another speech from the orator we were bowed out, and the gong sounded for the entrance of a fresh batch of visitors. CHAPTER III. THE JAPANESE SPHINX. FUSIYAMA, or Fusinayama, the volcanic mountain of Japan, is to be seen from everywhere about Yokohama and Tokio. It is in winter (as I see it) covered with snow, rearing its graceful conical shape in midday sunshine and in the glow of evening sunset, with frosted silver casing and crown. With the exception of Mount Egmont, on the Northern Island of New Zealand, a more perfectly-shaped mountain it would be difficult to meet with. Its foot can be reached from Yoko- hama or Yeddo in an easy day's journey. The ascent and 24 The Main Routes Round the World. escent is usually divided by a night's rest on the mountain. The height of it I could not find any two folks to agree about. It was variously stated as being from 8000 feet to 12,000 feet. To ascend it in the winter time was an impossibility. To avoid seeing it was also impossible. It came next to the sun and moon in that respect. The traveller soon understands why this majestic mountain has so entered into the Japanese mind. In this part of the land the volcano is always in full view. At sunset it receives the last gilding rays of the setting luminary. Twice I saw it resplendent with this gilded glory. Rays of light seemed, aurora- like, to shoot out from its crown. No wonder, then, that the Japanese make it their characteristic emblem on their lacquerware, in their drawings, paintings, and printings, their inlaid work, their vases of bronze and porcelain, and in their figured silks. The mountain of Fusiyama is to the traveller in this part of Japan similarly impressive. He calls attention to its varied aspects from his fellow-traveller. It is the first thing that is looked at in the early morning, and it claims the last look from one in the starlit brightness of the night. Next to Fusiyama, the great sight of Japan is one of the works of man of many hundreds of men. It is a great work of metallic art, perhaps the greatest of such works. Very appropriate is it, therefore, in a land that is famous for such labours. It is a gigantic bronze-built Japanese sphinx-like figure, much larger than what is now to be seen of the Egyptian one. This sitting figure of Buddha has its place away in loneliness among the hills, twenty-three miles from Tokio. Its name is "Dai Butsa," which in common talk is pronounced as " Dieboots." It is one of those sights that the traveller is forbidden to leave unseen. It is the greatest of the metallic curios that Japan has to offer for one's admiration, and it was for actual sacrilegious sale but a few years back. All through the East I had seen figures of the calm, contempla- tive Buddha in all the temples, but here was one of fifty feet high to be seen an antique too, and seated in a wilderness away from temples, and as if dropped there from the clouds Dai Butsa. 2 5 in the ancient days when Vulcan and the Cyclops might have worked at the making of it. It is possible, on looking at it, to believe that they did so. The snow covered the ground, and the day looked very unpromising, but those who regard the clouds will miss seeing much on their travels. I found a companion who would join me in the cold journey, though he at first spurned the idea. A good example was, however, too much for him, so he kicked off his slippers and went for his overcoats. It was certainly nippingly cold in the open jinrickishaws. The snow soon again began to fall, and a biting wind blew it in our faces and into our perambulators. I quite envied the man in the shafts, who by running could keep himself warm, as could also the one who ran in tandem fashion in front of him. The snow had to be cleared out of the vehicles every hour of the six long ones that the journey down occupied. At those times I took exercise by running behind the vehicle for a spell when it again started. The snow, however, froze as it fell, and made walking and running very slippery work to one who had not walked on snow but once lately, at Kansas city, for a quarter of a century. The chance of getting snowed up altogether seemed imminent. The beauty of the country round about would have been most attractive in fine weather. As it was, one's face had to be covered up from snow and cold wind, and I wished Dieboots at the deuce before our journey was over, so wretchedly cold and desolated did I feel, and perhaps deserved it, running after strange gods as I was doing. The tedious journey came to an end at last. Surrounded by hills that greatly dwarf its tall appearance, we found the solitary Buddha sitting sphinx-like in the wild scene. A temple appears to have covered this majestic statue at one time, but only bits of the foundations are now left. The grand figure is of fine bronze, and is about fifty-six feet high. Its appearance altogether fascinates the spectator. The sweet, placid expression, the downcast eyes, the look of deep thought, or rather serene contemplation, that appears on the face of this figure, are things that bid you regard it, 26 The Main Routes Round the World. make you continue to gaze at it, and come back again and again to look at it, until you finally unwillingly leave it. The sight was voted between us as being a full recompense for the journey we had taken, unpleasant though that had been. The face of this figure measures ten feet from chin to fore- head. It is thirty feet in width across the shoulders. The head is covered with knots or knobs of metal of the size of DAI BUTSA. large apples to represent curls. The fine materials of which the metal is made seem to ensure it from decay. It looks quite untouched by time, and as durable as the hills that surround it. All the statues of Buddha that I had hitherto seen in those strongholds of Buddhism, Ceylon and India, were as nothing compared to this one. This really looked like something to be worshipped. It commanded admiration from Kuanon, the Goddess of Mercy. 27 the alien. There was something awe-inspiring in its gigantic size. In its look were peace, contemplation, and eternal rest the great majesty of repose. As our centaurs knelt before it and bowed their heads to the earth, we thought that they had quite sufficient cause for doing so. Had the figure stood in a building, every one would naturally uncover before it. It enforces respect, and has altogether a veritable " presence " distinctly to be felt. A mile or more from this statue of Buddha stands a temple, wood-built, dedicated to Kuanon, the Goddess of Mercy. It enshrines a gigantic full-length figure of the goddess, forty feet in height, and richly gilt. The mise- rably small temple is not one-fifth large enough to show this fine statue to advantage. Standing against its walls, one has even to bend the head far back to get a full view of it. The walls are not anywhere ten feet from the statue. Insufficient light is admitted also. The figure appears to be holding something like to a crown and sceptre in its hands. From what little could be seen of it in its dimly-lighted prison, I thought that it deserved a far finer dwelling. It would be the greatest sight in Tokio were it to be removed thither. Speaking of removals, I heard on every hand that it had been proposed by the Japanese Government, instigated by the Sintoo priests, to sell the great statue of Dai Butsa for its weight as old metal. It seemed incredible that such vandalism could have been thought of, but it is understandable when one learns that the Sintoo religion is the present ruling one in Japan. Its priests, therefore, desire to insult Buddhism to the utmost, and counselled the sale of its grandest idol. Threepence per pound was the price asked. No buyer was found to offer more than \\d. an enterprising American offered that so that no sale was effected. The figure has been made in many castings, and could be taken down and reunited. The interior can be explored by a staircase, from which I learnt its construction. As fine bronze alone, no doubt largely mixed with silver, it was well worth the price asked. I wonder if the Khedive will ever offer the sphinx for sale at so much per pound ? 28 The Main Routes Round the World. He wants money, and is parting with an obelisk to America just now. The physical endurance of the Japanese was well shown in this journey and another long one that I had, though the latter was not in the snow. The journey had been a good one on such a day, even for a strong horse and buggy. The two little Japanese fellows had got through with it apparently easy, and came in quite light-hearted. All the refreshment they had taken on the journey was a cup of tea at two way- side houses, and " chow," consisting of fish and rice, at Kamakurd. No two Europeans could have run for forty-six miles, dragging a light hansom with 1 1 st. of weight in it. Man is truly an adaptable animal. I had never seen him more like an animal than when engaged in this novel con- veyancing business. The Japanese is, however, a born con- veyancer. For untold years his forefathers ran with the heavy palanquin, here called a " Noriwon," until some happy genius, seven years back only, invented the jinrickishaw, in which the wheels take all the burden off his shoulders, and leave only half of it on his hands. Returning from Tokio to Yokohama, I take ship south- wards for Hiogo, and land at Kobe thirty hours afterwards. These ports of Japan are all similar a foreign settlement with a native town at its back. Hiogo is the native town here, and Kobe the foreign one. It is, if possible, a cleaner, brighter-looking settlement than Yokohama. Its river-side, or " bund," as it is called here, is planted with trees and flanked with grey stone buildings of two storeys. The streets are wide and well paved. Altogether, Kobe looks as bright as Bath when one sees Lansdowne-crescent on a sunshiny day. But then Bath wants the fine bay of Kobe to complete the comparison. The voyages to all places on the Japanese coast are made pretty well in sight of land. The hilly coast, dotted with small fishing-stations, is always visible, and so are the boats. These " sampans " are engaged trading or fishing, but mostly in fishing, at the little villages. The boats, with their yellow Ehmidji. 29 sides and large sails, produce a pretty effect as seen from the deck of the coasting vessels. In these little villages, half the people cultivate their rice and grain at the foot of the hills, and the other half go fishing, and all are happy, or seem so. The fish and rice together make the " chow," which is the staff of life to the Japanese. In some such way our ancestors lived before we got vitiated and smoke-dried, mistook our ways in the world, and the objects of life. A good hotel at Kobe is kept by an English widow, who conducts it with admirable attention to business and the com- EHMIDJI CASTLE. fort of her guests. With a guide supplied by her hotel, I started on a visit to the great castle of the Prince of Akashi, forty miles distant, at Ehmidji. The Castle of Ehmidji is reached at the end of a long day's ride, much of which is along the sea -shore. Its white sides can be seen upon the plain against a dark background of hills many miles before it is reached. It was night when I got there. The novelty occurred on this journey, and near to the city of Ehmidji, of crossing a river otherwise than by a bridge. 30 The Main Roiites Round the World. Bridges are the specialities of Japan. They seem to grow over the rivers naturally, so numerous are they. The river in this case had resisted embankment, and spread about all over the place, like to the rivers of New Zealand. After crossing the well-washed stones, that indicated a river's bed, for some dis- tance, I came upon the water, now making another course for itself, and had there to be ferried across. It was the only instance of a ferry I met with in Japan. In the morning I left the tea-house, in which I had formed the usual bed by spreading a padded quilt on the floor and heaping two others above it, and took my way through the town. It was a large place this town, and had grown up around three sides of the walls of the great castle. One street of it ran directly down to the sea in a straight line, a distance of fully eight miles. The streets were all wide and clean, and the place looked prosperous and comfortable quite Japan- like. I came now in view of the castle walls, surrounded by a wide moat, in which grew the lotus, covering the water with its now dead leaves. At the castle gate I was stopped by the outcoming of fifteen separate bands of soldiers for morning exercise in the neighbouring parade-ground. It was so cold standing about, and they filed out so slowly, that I wished I had stayed for breakfast before coming. When I essayed to go in, I was stopped by the sentry. My native boy was here useful, and so was my passport. It had to be taken in first and overhauled, and then I was fetched in and introduced to the potentate of the place, who appointed a body-guard for me, and passed me on. If any one will take the buildings seen on the willow-pattern plate, and multiply them to the height of 2OOft by putting walls beneath them for the first 4Oft, and then putting the buildings one on top of another, decreasing in size as they go upwards, a good idea of the Castle of Ehmidji will be obtained. The timbers of the castle are stout and strong, but very roughly finished. The doors are covered with sheet iron. Rude staircases mount from floor to floor. I counted about a dozen flights of stairs, and Akashi. 31 then lost count. No attempt at finish or fine work was any- where to be seen. The place was as plain as a barrack, and nearly as rough as a barn. Its lord and master, who had given up the revenues of Ehmidji, and now lived in Tokio on a pension, did not evidently care for luxuries, at least not in the way of a residence. The view from the summit of the Castle of Ehmidji was a sight worth seeing. On that fine, clear morning, everything was visible for miles around. The view over Ehmidji from that castle, like to the view over Tokio, was not befogged in any way by coal smoke. Let that much be said in favour of the use of the wretched pots of charcoal. From that castle- top I might, ten years or less ago, have, with permission of the Prince of Akashi, looked upon a feudal scene such as I might have looked upon in England hundreds of years ago. Round this large castle had grown up the great town. Within the castle walls I was shown the foundations of the houses in which had dwelt the hundreds of armed men, " Saumarai," who were the body-guard of their lord and daimio. They had gone now, their houses had followed them, and the great castle was a Government barrack. The prince was a pensioner, but what had become of his vast body of two-sworded fighting-men I could not learn. Providing for this large number of disbanded semi-soldiers has been one of the troubles of the Government. They are of too advanced an age to learn to run about with the perambulators, and they know nothing of agriculture or fishing. Some were perhaps among the soldiery that I had seen defile out at the gate. It was really a novel and goodly sight all around on that morning, and kept me on the castle-top much longer than I thought to be there. Shut in by hills on nearly its three sides, the whole town beneath, and the country right away to the sea in front, seemed to lie at one's feet, as it had for centuries done at the feet of the owner of this lordly place. On the way back to Kobe, I passed through the village of Akashi a small place, in which is situated another castle of the same great prince, now deserted and going to ruin. The 3 2 The Main Routes Round the World. part of it that had been used for residence is now occupied as a local school -house. The schoolmaster's English tutor had no doubt written the following notice. It appears on a board just within the castle gate: "Notice. All hountings are prohibits in the limite. hyoyoken." It is meant to warn off sportsmen. Inside this castle gate of Akashi, and at the back of it, I found steps leading to a room over the gate. Here were two big drums and an immense bronze bell of excellent sound. The sticks lay near that had, in times gone by, beaten a call to arms on these drums and this bell. My native boy ran to prevent my striking either, in fear, I suppose, that I might alarm the little township. Inside the inner moat I found most of the buildings pulled down, and the rest going to ruin a melancholy sight altogether this deserted Castle of Akashi. One of the Saumarai was here pointed out to me. On the back of his blue blouse was a white stamp about the size of a five-shilling piece. On the back of the lower orders are hieroglyphics the size of a frying-pan. Were the blouses of a whitish colour, the wearers would look, on the rear-view, like to prisoners from some gaol bearing the Government brands on their backs. The Japanese had run with the vehicle these two days eighty miles two men to each and they did not seem fatigued in any way. I had heard before of men outrunning horses, and now saw proof of it. Temples are the sights to which foreigners usually pay most attention in Japan. They are, however, but second-rate com- pared to those of India, and about on a par with the Buddhist temples of Ceylon. The bell is, however, a speciality in these Japanese temples, as is also the money-box. The first is shaped like to a pope's hat, and the latter is an oblong trough, railed over, and with slanting shelving within, that the amount of the " collection " may not be seen from the outside. A worshipper washes his hands in water from a neighbouring stone tank, and wipes them upon a blue cotton cloth suspended near to the tank. He then drinks water from the same tank in a wooden scoop, and, having thus washed his mouth and Japanese Customs. 33 hands, he mounts, the steps of the temple, pulls the rope of the bell to call the attention of his deity, and then throws his money-offering into the trough. After that he kneels, clasps his hands, and mutters a formula of prayer, for about a minute only. His worship then seems to be over for the week. The Eastern world is generally fanatically religious, but the Japanee is French in his politeness and in his religious feel- ings. The female Japanee does not seem either to be more devout than the male. The European custom of observing the seventh day is gradually being introduced in Japan, together with the European system of almanacs and time- JAPANESE STREET. keeping. Hitherto the Japanee has stolen a march on the Western world by observing as a holiday one day out of six, instead of one out of seven only. Perhaps to that is to be credited his greater jollity as a nation, and his happiness as an individual. The smooth roadways and the light-running jinrickishaws with their unshod drawers, avoid much of the clatter, rumble, and roar that offends the ear in London, New York, and other cities. In the latter city it is difficult to hear conversation in the streets. Tokio is a busy city indeed, with many thou- D 34 The Main Routes Ro^md tlie World. sands it is said fifty of these little hansoms running about, but it is not a noisy one. The Japanee is a quiet and low- voiced man. His laugh is full of fun, but not boisterous. There is no smacking of whips heard, nor any calls to horses. Nobody is run over and killed. No " bolts " occur in which a frightened horse is seen dashing through a crowded street with a rocking vehicle and its screaming occupant behind. No collisions occur, and no breakdowns. A mild cry from one centaur warns another on which side he is about to pass, and there are no blocks in the crowded streets, no^ stoppages, and no swearing of car-drivers, omnibus, and cabmen. That vehicles should be drawn by men between the shafts is not a pleasing sight to a European, but it obviates many troubles that occur in the use of horses, and one never has to fear that one's steed may be vicious or badly broken to harness. CHAPTER IV. THE MIKADO'S CITY. I WANTED a guide at Hiogo who would accompany me for a week or more on an up-country journey to Kioto, the formerly reserved city of the mysterious Mikado. This place is some seventy miles from the coast. A passport is im- peratively necessary to those who visit it. I was advised to apply at the post-office for a guide, which I did, and saw one there who was introduced as an English scholar. Next day I was waited upon by a young Japanee, who handed me the following note : " Sir, I have the honor to send you the barer as gide. Cannot say mugh for his Englis, but he as know- ledg of the plas you go too, and is best I find at present thoug not number one. Yours, &c., J. N. January, 1877." In the Japanese ideas of English, everything good is called " number one." It was the opinion of my friend, it will be seen, that the gentleman sent to me did not classify as such. My hostess of the Hiogo Hotel, a blooming widow, took all the interviewing business out of one's hands, and interrogated Minerva for such was the nearest approach I could make to my guide's name in this style : " You been long in Kobe and Hiogo, and where ?" " Been six years ; most with Nicolas and Jawbreaker." " You been to Kioto with pigeons ? " " Many time ; last time two year." " How long you take to show this pigeon Kioto ? " " Three days. I go everywhere that time." " Where will you sleep him ? " D 2 36 The Main Routes Round the World. " At naughty Maria's ! " so it sounded. " No, you take him to Marianna's. Mind that ! " I thought of Tennyson's Moated Grange at this last name, and did not like the associations that such recollection and these feminine-sounding names called up. My lady re- sumed : " You take him to buy things and you not squeeze him no commission now ! This pigeon is cousin of mine," which I was certainly not, nor anything like a pigeon either. " All right I do as you say." " How many days you take to show pigeon Osaca ? You know Osaca, boy ? " " No ; I know all about it. I take three days go every- where." " Where you sleep him at Osaca ? " " I go to Judie's, up town." More feminine-sounding names. " No ! You go to Judie's on Concession mind that ! And now, I see everything this pigeon buy ; and mind, if you let him be squeezed, I take care that you never take another one away from here. If you do well, I get you plenty others. Boys are always wanted from this hotel.''' " No ; I do well." Minerva frequently said " no " when he should have said " yes," but many of us also do that. " Now, boy, what he pay you ?" " One dollar a day and chow." " Yes likely ! Now you shan't go. A dollar a day and chow indeed ! Nicholas and Jawbreaker never gave you that for a week/' " I was told to ask a dollar a day and chow ! " " Well, I tell you to ask half a dollar a day and your chow. If you don't take that, I send one of my boys, and you can come here and work in his place at that rate ! " " No ! I go ! " And so the bargain was concluded. I could understand now how Lady Hester Stanhope had, all alone in the East, established her great authority over the native Syrians. There is something sublime in female nature My Hostess. 37 when it developes itself in the form of bounce ! My hostess had dwelt for fifteen years among the Eastern people, and had learnt to subdue them with that powerful mind and tongue of hers in a way that I could only wonder at. All the Japanese that I saw her deal with quailed before her. On my return from a visit to Ehmidji and its castle, I had asked of my centaurs who had dragged me there and back what was to pay to the four of them, and was told fifteen dollars, which seemed reasonable enough for eighty miles' work for two days and two vehicles. My hostess, however, stepped in between us. " You shall pay nothing of the sort. Did you pay for their chow ?" she said. " Yes, I paid for their meals all the way along, and for their lodging, if it was charged for. I paid four dollars." " They squeezed you, then ! it did not come to that. They must be paid a dollar a day only. That's what I pay a day when I travel." Now, my fair hostess of forty was buxom to boot, and very much heavier than myself. It looked a species of cruelty to animals, not to say men, to ask them to take 4?. a day for running forty miles between the shafts with such a load as herself behind them. I said then that I would take a middle course, and give half what was asked, and double what my hostess spoke of. " You shall do nothing of the kind. You will spoil the market for others. I will settle with them, and charge to you." " No, no ; I shall pay them what I say. They have been good fellows, and have earned their money well. It is about half what a horse and trap would have cost elsewhere.'" That would not, however, satisfy this weighty and careful woman. As she looked on at the folly I committed in paying a fair price, as things went, for the hardest day's work men ever did, she said, " All right ! If I don't take two days' ride out of those fellows for nothing, and so square it, I'm not a woman." 38 The Main Routes Round the World. She said that, too, in the presence of the men, who knew enough of her, and of English, to understand what was in store for them. They were Japanese, and therefore merely smiled. I wonder what an English or, better still, an Irish cabman would have said on such a matter. Madame would then have met her match. All throughout the East in Ceylon, India, Egypt, Syria, Japan, and China the natives are accustomed to such rough language and overbearing treatment from the English as I have narrated in this little matter. Bounce, bluster, and abuse all through. I went with Minerva to Kioto, and entered that city, which up to two years before had been as shut up and as sacred as Mecca or Medina. It was plain to see that a European, or one in European costume, as I was, was still a novelty in the place. I had a little following everywhere of those who were attracted by my outlandish appearance. It was all innocent curiosity, however. Their native politeness shamed them for it. When the crowd darkened the shop-boards, and I was forced to look up for light, not an eye would then be looking at me. Oh dear, no ! The articles round about, or the ap- pearance of the sky or the sun, were all that these people were then looking at ! Kioto was not in the best condition for a visitor at that season. Its river the Kanagawa was quite run dry. Its wide, stony bed was being used for bleaching purposes. To look at it from any of the bridges was very unsatisfactory too much like to a general washing-day appearance. The Mikado was there upon a visit, however, and holding a levee or reception, to which, as at Tokio on New Year's Day, every official was going in the regulation European dress suit and stove-pipe hat. It might have been the 5th of November, looking at the Guyish appearance presented by the majority of these folks. Scarcely the hat, coat, or boots of one of them fitted, or came near to a fit. These clothes could scarcely have been made by any Western tailors, so gro- tesquely were they fashioned. The hats were either too A Levte. 39 small or too large, and were only balanced on the head in the first case, or padded up with paper in the second. Nearly all of them had been crushed in some way, and their rims were stuck up or bent down, or levelled all round in a stiff out- standing circle a fearful and wonderful sight in the way of hats. The coats were mostly too long, and the tails trailed at the wearers' heels. In the cases in which the coat was short, it mostly came up too high in the neck. The waist was, in that case, somewhere between the shoulders, and bursting at the seams. The trousers were never turned up at the feet when too long, but worn in folds and ridges about the leg, from the knee downwards. When too short, it was equally ridiculous to see the wearer's comical appearance, especially when he could not get his heels down in his boots. That was very often the case, and a trouble that the trouser legs, when too long, helped often to conceal. Scarcely a pair of these leg coverings but what had burst somewhere before or behind Nothing, however not even misfitting boots troubles the serenity of a Japanese ! He smiled at me as I smiled at him ; and when he bowed, I could not but do the same in return, and wish that the Mikado had ordered the clothes for these folks when he issued the order for the wearing of them. It was really a shame to put people so ready to please and be pleased into such uncomfortable misfits as they had been, by necessity, forced thus to wear. The Japanese figures, male and female, are not adapted for showing European costumes to advantage, but that does not trouble them. Plenty of time was given to study the appearance of the folks of Kioto on that day. The police, which the Japanese have adopted in imitation of European fashions, kept nearly all the crossings barred on the line of road along which their Majesties were to pass. The Empress was to be there also, but I could not hear the proper title of this feminine Mikado. I noticed that those going about in levte dress were allowed by the police to pass through the barriers, so that I pinned up, with Minerva's help, the half part of the tails of a frock 4O The Main Routes Roimd the World. coat, and then looked in regulation dress costume, and passed muster, and so onwards. Like to most Japanese cities, this up-country capital stands on a small plain shut in by adjacent hills. It looks almost imprisoned by the surrounding heights. They give it a walled-in and oppressed appearance. Lying there among the hills, all shut in, as it appears to be, it was the very city for the dwelling of the mysterious Mikado the hereditary King of Japan, who reigned but did not govern whose kingly functions were exercised solely by the working king, the Tycoon down at Yeddo. The Mikado's palace here, now untenanted, called Goshio, is an unpretending place compared with some of the daimios' castles. His semi-sacred character was, I suppose, sufficient protection to him. Goshio would otherwise have stood but a very sorry chance if built to resist an attack. Minerva, away from my hostess's feminine influence, which had oppressed him down at Kobe, reasserted his right of judgment, and took me to Nackamarya's house. It was, I found, a tea-house at the foot of the hill, and had the blessing about it of a boy who spoke a little English. The landlord with the long name could only bow me a welcome. The boy brought me, whilst waiting for a mid-day meal, the quaintest of guide-books among the hundred or so that I had happened upon in my travels. This guide-book to Kioto was by a Japanese who had got hold of a little English, and had also got a little of wood engraving done to help it out. The price of the book was a dollar, but had it been more, the price had not parted me from such a gem as this queerest of guide-books ! Each page is headed with a rough woodcut, which occupies half of it. The balance of the page is funny letter-press, in language the like of which is worth sampling. Take the page headed "Biwa," the cut at the top of which is meant to represent a lake- side. This pretty chapter is as follows (the only punctua- tion is in the long dashes between some of the words, as copied) : A Guide-book. 41 " BIWA. " Biwa the lake in the east of Kioto is a very nice lake with many fine views all round The beauties of the lake are eight in number First the strange fir tree in Karasaki Second the view of the flying down of wild geese Third Awatsu Fourth the moon lighting night in autumn in Ishiyama and Fifth the evening in Sheta Sixth the boats sailing to Yabashe. Seventh the snow mountain, Hira, evening sight. Eight If you go to the Mediera you will see nearly all of them." The book and the city it illustrates are well matched. It would be a shame to publish any other guide-book to Kioto in place of it. I copy further from it another chapter the heading to which is a woodcut of an enormous tree : " KARASAKI. " The firtree in Karasaki, as I said before, is one of the eight remarkable things round the lake The tree is grown near the shore of the lake, and its branches are spreading far over the water It is said that the tree is at least two or three hundred years old. The rain dropping from branch to branch, and at last in the water, makes a peticular sound.'' The chapter on Sheta and Ishiyama is also as good as any. The woodcut heading it represents a long wooden bridge : " SHETA AND ISHIYAMA. " The bridge Sheta which crosses the outlet of the lake is a most famous and large one The sight of the evening is very pretty and many visit it when the sun is set The finest scene is when the wind blows and the sun shines The waves of this lake then look very pretty like silver The temple Ishiyama stands on the hill near the outlet of the lake and the lower part of it can be best looked over from here The place is visited in the autumn by many people who pass a moonlight night." 42 The Main Routes Round the World. In Kioto I found a bird of the duck species, the drake of which is more prettily feathered than any bird I have seen. It is difficult to believe that it has feathers, so closely do they lie, and so fantastically are they cut and shaped by nature. I thought at first that the bird had surely been covered with fancifully cut paper, and then painted and lacquered up. This bird is called the Oshee Tori as nearly as I could get to the sound. My inquiries for a stuffed one were numerous, but I failed to obtain it. It was swimming about with its mean-looking and plain-feathered ducks in a pond at a small menagerie. In the background of that place I came also upon a sad sight. It was a young Australian kangaroo that had gone stone blind. The poor thing was in bad condition, its bones being all too prominent. I fed it with some cut turnips, and fondled it with that feeling which one Australian exile must naturally feel for another. What misfortune had drifted the poor wretch from the green plains of pleasant Australia to this out-of-the-way corner of the world ? Why had its eyesight gone ? In the cold air of the winter weather here among the bleak hills it was visibly shivering, equally with myself. It stood up to take the cut turnips I offered, and held my hand with its little hand-like fore-paws as if it would detain me. It was the only Australian that I met with in that city of Kioto, and it is characteristic of travelling Australians to greet each other gleesomely. The Mikado and his wife came at last in a closed English brougham drawn by two horses, and driven by a coachman dressed as he would be in an English city. The Japanese might have thought it grand, but it looked to me very shabby this plain turn-out, with its coachman and two out- riders in European costume, where nearly everybody else was orientally dressed. A British consul might have made such a modest appearance on a special day, but for the Mikado to visit his old stronghold in such style was very disappointing to me. The English do not travel to see English fashions reproduced in second-hand sort. The temples of this Kioto divide honours with those at Japanese Cemeteries. 43 Nikko, in the north of Japan. There is much of sameness about them, and great want of height and impressiveness. In the eyes of the Japanese they are of course sublime. Near to one of them I came upon something more interesting a large cemetery, fenced in as an English one would be. The cemeteries of Japan are very like those of Europe. Each grave has its grave-stone. The stones have their inscrip- tions also cut into them. If would look almost as if space was economized in a country where all available land is cultivated, by reducing the length of these graves .to about TEMPLE AT KIOTO. 4 ft. only. Of that length only a flat stone is laid upon each grave. On the centre is then placed upright a stone of 4 ft. high by I ft. side measurement. The thin head-stones seen in English graveyards are not used here. Some of these graves are fenced in with wooden palings, and by each of them stands a stone vase of narrow form, in the mouth of which a sprig of some evergreen was always apparent. The appearance of these graves and their short coverings lead one to the idea that the dead are interred in a sitting pos- ture. To protect the inscriptions from the weather, many of 44 The Main Routes Round the World. these little monuments had domed caps to the top of the upright stone, from which the rain would drain off clear of the writing beneath. This cemetery stood near to the Kiomesya Temple. The Japanese doorways are made to suit folks of not more than 5 ft. 8 in., and these not with stove-pipe hats on. I was continually getting mine knocked off whilst in Japan. The Japanee is short. He wears no hat, and shaves the crown of his head, or parts of it. I would have abandoned my British hat in favour of the fashion of the country, had a head- dress existed. The blue rag, with hieroglyphics on it, which the lower orders wear on holidays, does not look well with European costume. It wants the blue blouse to match with it, and the brown Japanese face. Some fine lacquer-work and some lovely thin egg-shell china were for sale at Kioto. Had my luggage afforded room for it, I felt that I had purchasing inclination to any extent in the rich and rare things to be seen around one. It was quite the city for a man to come to with a wife of good taste he having a good purse to back it. About a dozen well-filled packing-cases would be the result ; one of them of large size, to hold the famous fire-screens that these Japanese make, and which at Kioto are to be seen in best form. In the neighbourhood of Kioto I was shown the measured ground about a mile in extent in which unfaithful wives are doomed to walk between a guard of soldiers until they can walk no more until the pricking of spears will no longer goad them onwards or move them upwards when they fall, there to lie and die of hunger, thirst, and over-exertion a sad sight to any single man. CHAPTER V. AN EASTERN VENICE. OSACA lying midway between Kioto and the port of Hiogo is a city of bridges. They number, it is said, 840. It is the Venice of Japan, and yet Venice only in the way of water not of gondolas. The pull-man car maintains its supre- macy. The traffic on the endless waters is restricted to merchandise. Minerva my boy guide has a patriotic feeling, and takes me to that native hotel (Judie's) which is situated in the city, and it is, I find, a large two-story tea-house with a splendid water frontage. If I don't like it, I am to go to that other Judie's, which is in the foreign settlement of Osaca, called the Concession. It is a dark night, and I have to walk through unlighted streets for two miles or more before I reach this tea-house. It is a cold and freezing night too ; my upstairs room overlooks a river on one side, and a square courtyard, with leafless trees in it, on the other. I cannot get warmth from the square box with the charcoal in it. The bedroom, with this box and nothing else for its furniture, looks cold, and indeed feels so. I go to bed to forget all about it, and am soon in the solace of sleep, for which the long walk and the cold night well provided. All is different when daylight comes, and the morning sun glamours and gilds everything. The balcony overhanging the river affords fine views of wide water. On an island to the right are some hospital buildings of neat appearance. River craft and coasting boats are passing on their way, pro- 46 77ie Main Routes Round the World. pelled by hand labour, or trusting to their queer-looking sails. I can see three bridges from this position two of wood and one of stone. The piers are substantial, but the arches too narrow and numerous to suit English taste. Japanese boats, however, make their way through all difficulties. They could otherwise never get into or out of the crowded state in which they lie on some parts of these Osaca rivers. To enable large vessels to get to their destinations, some of these bridges have a swing or a turnstile on one of the central supports that is easily opened and closed. I hang about on some of these Osaca bridges with ceaseless gaze on the scenes before, behind, and around me. The rivers of Osaca, called the Cowa and the Ajacowa, divide into many branches, forming forks and islands which builders have been busy upon. No land is wasted in Japan. The seas, the mountains, and the rivers take up so much space that the Japanese have to be economical with that little of level earth that is left to them. Economical they are, and nurse and nourish and improve their patches of land as they do their families. From the bridge that crosses to the foreign quarter, " The Concession," some good water views are to be had. The grand water view is, however, from the great bridge called the " Tinsinbash," or some similarly sounding name. It is the greatest bridge of the 840. From its sides, dividing streams are to be seen either way. The great river here parts itself into two streams, each seemingly little less large than itself. Each of these is spanned by many bridges. The setting sun was on the waters when I looked upon the scene from this bridge. I went again next day to see the same sight at high noon, but found that the view of the previous evening, seen by the setting sun, had been by far the finest one. Wide, clean waters, filled with craft of novel form, are here to be seen flanked by the queer-looking water-side houses of the Japanese merchants. The view that the tra- veller obtains at sunset at this bridge of Tinsinbash is one that will be retained without effort, and recalled always Osaca. 47 with pleasure. I stayed over next day to see its grandeur again. I wander from this bridge towards the next one, that has midway for support an island or an artificially-made and stone-faced central earthwork. That is planted with trees and shrubs, and has a picturesque appearance. A fine view of the greater and undivided bridge of Tinsinbash is obtained from this one, which appears to be the most expensively- built of all the bridges of Osaca. The ironworker has had his share in this bridge work. Several of those I saw were of his construction. From the bridges I pass on, with Minerva's help, to the Sinsidori the leading street of Osaca. To get thither I go through a highly respectable-looking street, in which are some broad-faced buildings, with large open doors, and no- thing exhibited in front. I cannot understand from Minerva what these places are. He endeavours to prevent my entering them. I must not go in, he says. He has, however, said that so often at other interesting places, that I immediately resolve on going in, and do so. The buildings prove to be Japanese banks. The clerks are squatting on the floors, but a large outer counter acts as a barrier between them and the customer. They bow a welcome to me as I look about the place. Minerva must have been brought up to look upon it as wrong to go into any place whereinto business had not called him. He stayed my progress also into a large building, which turned out to be a gigantic general store a sort of Japanese " Stewart's " of New York where everybody, one hundred at least, seemed very glad to see me, as a probably large customer. The Sinsidori of Osaca is quite a Cheapside in respect of width and length and traffic. The absence of glass to the shop windows, and of a side-walk, is, of course, a difference, and so is the absence of tall houses, omnibuses, and horses. All, however, is bustle and business with the bare-headed and blue-bloused crowd. Everything that a body can want is for sale here, save milk, butter, soap, beef, mutton, and beer, and 48 The Main Routes Round the World. a few such like superfluities of life. Any Englishman walk- ing this street may say, as he may say indeed in any of the leading streets of the world, " How much there is there that I don't want ! " It all looks so useful, and much of it so pretty, that it is almost a pity that one can do without any of it. Brown, a mercantile man from New Zealand, who is passing through Osaca with me, observes, " If I were not gone out of business, and retired from its bother, I could purchase in this city, and ship to Australia and New Zealand for 5oo/. what would sell there for 15007." My unmercantile ideas had some hazy notion of this kind in all the cities I had passed through in Japan. The same sort of things are seemingly imported by everybody into those two countries Brown had named. The markets must be glutted and clogged with such wares. Here in Japan are all new articles to tempt the best class of buyers, and those are they who buy only to spend their money, and not to satisfy the mere daily wants of life. " How many other ways have you seen, Brown, by which a fortune could be made during your Japanese travel ? " " Fully half a dozen. I wish I had come here fifteen years ago, instead of going to New Zealand." We had by this time got to the street devoted to theatres and shows, a quarter of the town where theatres large as the minor ones of London are at one end of the street, and a sort of English country fair going on in full swing at the other. The theatres were entered, notwithstanding Minerva's strong objection to such intrusions, through the unfastened doors. We found them to be large, clean, theatrically-shaped places. Benches, raised one foot only from the floor, covered the lower part. A gallery (one only) ran round the three sides of the building half-way between the floor and the roof, after the fashion of an English chapel. On a seat, a foot high only, Japanee sits easier than he would on a common chair. We rest the foot only upon the floor. He prefers to rest the leg from the knee downwards, in the older fashion of the earlier nations of the earth. One empty theatre alter another was Theatres. 49 explored in this manner, no one interfering with me. The good manners of Minerva would not allow of his venturing further than the doorstep, where I always found him trem- blingly waiting my return. Outside the theatres were gorgeously-painted boards, largely lettered with announcements of the performances for the next evening. None were to take place that evening. The boards took the place of printed playbills. Japan has not got to bill-printing and sticking as yet. The walls of Osaca are not defaced by paste and placards. No men are seen sandwiched between advertising boards. The public vehicles here are undefaced by the huge advertisements that make those of England and America hateful to one's eyes. These theatrical performances are not satisfactory to the traveller. There is little to speak of in the way of scenery. The theatre and stage is lighted with candles. Exits and entrances are made from doors at the back of the stage. The music is very queer, and not pleasing to English ears, and goes on, too, strange to say, while the speakers are declaiming. After twenty minutes of such a theatrical^even- ing one feels that one is quite satisfied, and wishes to retire. The thirst for knowledge in that direction is slaked. You feel as if you had seen it before, and did not want to see it again a feeling of full satisfaction. If the theatrical part was all dumb show and noise to us foreigners, we had no such cause of complaint among the shows and showmen at the other end of Theatre Street. We were quite at home there. A wax-work exhibition first claimed attention. Coins equivalent to 2d. each were paid, and Minerva loaded up with the planks of wood, given as checks, in return. Outside the show the attraction was wax figures in motion. Inside we found that the motion was given by wooden wheels turned by hand-power. Quite a mound of machinery was made in the middle of the show by this rough mechanism. The various tableaux were arranged around this motive power, and numbered about twenty groups, equal in execution to anything to be seen at Madame E 5O The Main Routes Round the World. Tussaud's, or any other waxworks show. Not all of them were pleasing sights to European eyes. A revengeful man had destroyed another's house, and had his foot upon his prostrate victim's neck, whom he was about to brain with an uplifted door-post. He had previously plucked out the eyes of the fallen man, which lay now upon his cheeks a horrible sight ! Minerva explained, from the handbill, price one cent, that this group meant " Vengeance." Mechanism was here used to make the eyes of the destroyer roll in his head, and this was most effectively done. The next group represented two soldiers in pursuit of the man who had, in the preceding group, been seen taking revenge into his own hands. In the third group Nemesis had overtaken him. He was here seen suffering the dread penalty of the law. Enclosed between two upright boards, the executioners were seen sawing him in half from the neck downwards. The waxwork was good. The exhibition had certainly a moral to it, and a good one, too. The machinery, in the case of the last group, moved the saw. The whole was a great sermon against murder. The finest group in this waxwork show was that of the wrestlers. It was really worth buying and exporting. The figures were full life-size the size of Japanese wrestlers, who are the biggest men of Japan. These men are fed and trained as athletes, and reserved for wrestling, as the Roman gladiators were for fighting. The Japanese training has on them a very different effect to what is outwardly produced by European training. In the Western world, the man trained is reduced in weight, and looks, when stripped, of a spare and sinewy shape. These Japanese athletes are very bulky men, with heavy limbs and stomachs. If the object has been to develope weight and bulk, it has been most successfully done. The man who is heaviest is considered, I suppose, as the most difficult one to throw. In the group now on show, two heavy men, of fully 16 st. each, are represented as publicly wrestling for a prize. A small, tightly-strapped bandage round the hips is their only covering. Close to them followed, with bent form and eager Waxwork Wrestlers. 51 eyes, the umpire whose duty it is to see that the rules of the ring are complied with, and that the fall that we see impend- ing shall be a fair one. The perspiration that is starting from every pore is well shown in the waxwork of this group, and waxwork perspiration was new to me. Good also are all the anatomical details. One man has been got upon the hip of the other, but holds fast with one foot around the other's leg, and one arm around his neck. The struggle seems to be for life itself. The features of each show strength tested to the utmost every muscle and nerve strained to bursting. It is JAPANESE WRESTLERS. all so very real, the skin so well coloured, the hair, eyes, and teeth so perfectly natural, that one waits to see the fall which is so imminent. In this case, the machinery is used to make the group revolve only. It is impossible to get away from these wrestlers under half-an-hour. If the model could be got into a portmanteau instead of requiring a ship's cabin for its conveyance, not many visitors would leave it unpurchased. Wrestling is one of the great sports of Japan. It is perhaps, therefore, less wonderful that the modeller has so well suc- ceeded in his life-like rendering of this group. E 2 5 2 Tke Main Routes Round the World. It is very cold weather, and I get gladly to the chare oal fires at one end of this waxwork show, and sit down on the raised bench to take hot tea, warm my hands, and see a theatrical performance by wax figures that will take place on the raising of the curtain opposite to me. It differed from other marionette shows in the figures being life-size, and the performance consisting of three tableaux only. The groups were raised through a trap in the stage, and disappeared through another in the roof, after the fashion in which Mar- guerite is seen leaving the stage, and the world, at the end of " Faust." What the tableaux meant I could not guess ; the playbill was silent about them, and Minerva was ignorant, and objected to ask questions to enlighten others or himself. He had nothing of the inquiring mind in him a pattern of placidity and self-satisfaction a happy Japanee. A monkey show came next, in which monkeys were to be seen doing everything that would help to illustrate the Dar- winian theory, but not more than one sees done in such sights elsewhere. Japan has not developed monkey power any further than the general European showman. It has got on about as well only with birds. The bird saloon was very crowded, as the payment was left to the option of the visitor a plan that it would be best to adopt at all places of amuse- ment. People then pay in proportion as they are pleased. The bird proprietor found the system to answer well. He got the people in crowds, and then trusted to his cleverness and that of his birds to charm the payment from his visitors' pockets. Not one left, I think, but paid something. Acrobatic shows on raised platforms and scaffolds brought up the finish of this street of amusements. As a fit conclusion to it, some enterprising Japanee had erected a tall platform, like to a fire look-out, from which, for a cent, the traveller could see Osaca as a bird does. The timbering of this structure, so to speak, was of bamboo only. It was strong enough, no doubt, but looked, at its 60 ft. level, a very light and skeleton affair to trust one's self upon. The Venice of Japan lay now all before one, clear in its smokeless air, and Worship. 53 flat-looking in its uniformity of houses, destitute of chimneys, towers, spires, turrets, or minarets, but grand, indeed, in its waters and bridges. On one part of the river, near to this perch, shipbuilding was going on to an extent that reminded one of the Clyde-side at Glasgow. The six or eight iron hulls that are there to be seen building in one builder's yard were represented here by the same number of wooden vessels, called sampans, of large size and clumsy build. They are built, however, for dwelling- houses, as well as for ordinary ship purposes. Convenience and utility are therefore studied before clipper qualities. In a distant part of this large city we saw the smoke of a fire that might grow to the size of that terribly-devastating one which I had seen at Tokio on New Year's Eve. A fire is, I should think, one of the usual features of a bird's-eye view of a Japanese city. Minerva stopped our course near to this point that he might go and pay his weekly ten minutes of worship at a neighbouring temple. Having washed his hands from a stone tank that was in front of it, and drunk a little of its water after- wards, he proceeded to pull a rope that hung in front of a sitting image. The rope pulled a bell to call the attention of the idol to what was coming. That was the deposit of some copper coin in a trough in front of the figure, and afterwards the kneeling, bowing, and muttering a prayer by Minerva, who now wiped his hands on the interior of his frock. He said that he felt better for it, and looked so. If the gift of Tokio or of Osaca were offered to one, the choice would probably be with most travellers in favour of Osaca. Its revenues may not be so large ; the Mikado does not live there, but it is a large, bustling city, and its fine rivers and multitude of bridges give it a more interesting and more picturesque appearance than any other of the cities of Japan. Its chief defect lay in its unlighted state at night. The population do not seem, as they do in Tokio, to move much about the streets after dark, carrying each his pretty lantern, nor do the shopkeepers, as in the former city, do 54 The Main Routes Round the World. evening business, and court it by hanging large lanterns, bearing their names and signs, over their doors. Minerva took me now to Judie's other house in the Conces- sion, the foreign settlement of Osaca. This settlement is a very clean and well-built place, and on a large and growing scale. The hotel here was different to the tea-house that I had stayed at on the preceding night. The rooms were better warmed, and for that reason perhaps were more favoured by mosquitoes. These little torments I hailed as Australian friends, and slapped them about on their backs as often as they gave me the opportunity. Their existence in such cold weather was probably no pleasure to them. It was certainly none to me, as the bed was curtainless. The oysters brought to me for supper at Osaca seemed to bleed, a peculiarity about oysters that I had not noticed else- where. That night Brown and myself bought lanterns that folded up, with bamboo ribs, and could be easily shut and carried in the crown of one's hat. These lanterns had handsome hiero- glyphics on them in red letters, and were altogether dandy affairs. The candles put into them were of vegetable wax, and the wick made seemingly of a rush, round which cotton had been twisted. The candles burnt well, and shed a good light through the oiled paper on the pathway, and about four feet along it, that we were treading. The lanterns were of no weight, and no inconvenience whatever. Armed with them and a walkingstick, we, much to the disgust of Minerva, who wanted to smoke and sleep, or to go and see his sweetheart, explored something of Osaca by night. How its governing powers can permit it to lie in the state of darkness it does after sundown passed our understanding. " Brown, what do you say to a gas company here ? Easy to lay the pipes, plenty of craft to bring coals up to the river side, good levels, no opposition, and no need to create the want !" The want was but too conspicuous, as Brown, in listening to my argument, had run his lantern against a post and ex- A Night Walk. 55 tinguished the candle. As he had with him a box of matches, that evil was soon remedied, and suggested a new thought. " All these matches are imported, Brown ! Labour and material are plentiful here, and yet most Japanese have to use the old flint and steel. Join a match factory to the gas one !" " That makes about ten industries that you have mentioned to-day. Make it a dozen before we get back !" It was really difficult to go about this Japanese Great Britain and not see what great wants existed that European enterprise might supply seeing also how readily all European ideas had been adopted by the people as soon as started. It was impossible to walk about thus with a Japanese lantern to lighten the darkness, and not to think of Londoners' lanterns and their whale-oil lamps in the streets fifty years ago, and then of the gas that had changed all that state of things there as it might do here. CHAPTER VI. LIFE WITH THE JAPS. THE singing and music-playing girls of Japan are quite an institution there. They are in request at all little convivial FEMALE MUSICIANS. meetings, such as I saw at the tea-houses. At these meetings in the evenings three girls generally gave their services, and added a game of forfeits to their singing and playing that caused much merry laughing. It consisted in two girls Samp.*- n /ow, Ifarxtarl ,Sr,trlr &. Rivirtgto A New Years Dinner. 57 repeating some little rhyme, and keeping time by alternately clapping their own hands and then those of each other. A failure to keep time was followed by merriment and the pay- ment of some counter or other substituted trifle as a forfeit. Occasionally an excited Japanee would drop his pipe and cup of saki, and rise and "declaim a piece," as the Americans phrase it. These tea-house convivialities are mild substitutes for English tavern evenings, with the addition of three dolls of girls sitting on the table. For "dolls" these little Japanese musicians appear to be, as they sit there in their gay-coloured dresses, with painted lower lips, powdered faces, and decorated hair that hair which the Japanese woman is so careful of, and ornaments so very tastefully. That it may not be disar- ranged, she sleeps, I was told, with her neck on a stereoscope- case-shaped " pillow," at the risk of making it stiff. Similarly, in the old time of the Georges in England, it was customary for ladies whose heads had been elaborately puffed, pasted, bolstered, and powdered up in the fashion of the period for some ball or party, to sleep the night before in an easy chair, that the head-dress might not be disarranged. The musical girls are to be easily recognized as they pass along by their superior dress and the accompanying coolie girl who carries the music and the zither. The lower class of men and women the working class are in Japan, as elsewhere in the East, called " coolies." Among the customs of the Japanese that are curious in strangers' eyes is that of planting trees on New Year's Day in front of their dwellings. The plantation is not intended to be permanent. At the end of a few days the little bush or sapling has died, and is removed. My host at the Seiyoken Hotel at Tokio celebrated New Year's Day by an extra good dinner to his lodgers and some outside friends. He is evi- dently bidding for British patronage, introducing chairs and tables, bedsteads, pillows, soap, and suchlike matters into his house. Wood ashes have been used, instead of soap, hitherto in Japan. The Japs are a cleanly folk, and bathing-houses are features of every town. In the bathing-houses the sim- 58 The Main Routes Round the World. plicity of sinless times still prevails. One bath suffices for all, and males and females bathe at the same time. By-and-by they will perhaps divide or institute bathing costumes, when they learn that such is European fashion. Very strange dishes came upon the board at our New Year's dinner. A preliminary pipe of mild tobacco was handed around. The tobacco was too mild an affair altogether to take the edge off one's appetite if intended for that purpose. The first course consisted of sweetmeats, served upon lacquered plates. The whole meal was of a Frenchified character. Balls of golden, scarlet, and green jellies were among the things in this dish ; rice, flour, and sugar made up the constituents of the other parts of it. Saki (rice spirit) and the ever-present tea were then served round. The second course consisted of soup, into which were shredded hard-boiled eggs. This was served in bowls, but without spoons. I had, however, my purchased spoon, fork, and knife, always upon me, and so escaped trouble. Then came a very strange dish. It was a collop cut from a living fish wriggling on the sideboard. The Japs are a great fish- eating folk, and this raw fish-eating is quite common. The steak cut for Bruce from the living ox, told of in his Abys- sinian travels, occurred to one's memory. The live tit-bit is supposed to be eaten with the Japanese " Soy," a sauce that makes everything palatable, but I let my portion of it pass. It is not possible to comply with all Japanese fashions at once. Time is necessary to the acquirement of taste. Cooked fish was next served, and that in great variety, including shell-fish. A sort of lime or small lemon was used as the flavouring to this dish. Then came boiled beans, with ginger roots, and some fried fish and horseradish. To follow that came boiled fish and clams, the latter cut up and served with pears. Rice, in tea-cups, followed, and then a salad, and the dishes were ended. The hot saki and tea-cups were sent round after each course. The health of our landlord was proposed in Japanese, and drunk in saki. He then rose to reply. I thought that he would never have done bowing before he began to speak. He appeared to speak very well, Japanese Dress. 59 and elicited the approbation of those who understood Japanese. I could differ from him in nothing that he said. The climate of Japan is in heat and cold something like to that of Great Britain, but knows less of fogs and nothing of the east wind. The ground was covered with snow for several days at a time during my stay. The islands that make up Japan are nearly of the size and shape of those of Great Bri- tain, and the population very little larger. Religious differ- ences do not seem to have caused so much bitter misery and hatred and trouble, as is the case elsewhere. The Japanee is not a religious fanatic. There is nothing of the Hindoo or Mahometan in his nature. He will, unlike the Hindoo, eat and drink with any one, and not smash his plate after meals, nor drink out of his hands to save defiling his lips with any vessel that may have been touched by infidel fingers. He does not scowl at one of another faith with looks of hate, as does the Mahometan, nor believe that sending you quickly to your heaven will help him in getting to his own. Japanee is again like to the Frenchmen in religious matters they do not much trouble him. Neither do they trouble his wife. " A light heart and a thin pair of pants " have been men- tioned as ingredients of an Irishman's jollity. They are exactly those of the Japanee. When he wears anything on his legs beyond the blue cotton napkin that he mostly prefers to wrap them in, it is, as before observed, a closely-fitting pair of pantaloons or stage "tights" of the thinnest blue cotton. His legs are not particularly adapted to this fashion, as they are but seldom seen straight and well cut. In the case of the draymen, however, it is different, and one sees then the outline of legs that nothing could upset the owner of. It is so with the trained wrestlers here, who are wonders of muscular development. Japanee is, however, not particular about much clothing, and makes a little of it go a long way, and answer many purposes. Blue is the favourite colour with him. His blouse or sack is of blue cotton, enlivened on the back and sides with curious white circles and stripes, that give him a pie- bald appearance. His head-gear, when it is raining, is anything 60 The Main Routes Round the World. that comes handy. He prefers, however, to wear none, that he may show the elegant appearance of his half-shaved and sectioned scalp. A rudimentary tail is made out of the back hair and brought to the crown, and there tied and waxed and fastened down, pointing at you across the bald head like to a small revolver. All this is not done to be covered up and hidden. The European fashion of wearing the hair has, how- ever, been lately decreed, and in time will prevail with all, as it does now with many, and then hats and head-coverings will follow. In the way of hats, the Mikado has decreed in favour of the English chimney-pot, which, with English evening dress, is the costume only permitted at his lev/es and recep- tions. That will be the fashion that Japanee will run after, and, like to the stage Irishman, he will be seen in the next generation in a claw-hammer coat and a tall hat. He has already got the tight continuations. About his foot-coverings Japanee is very undecided and easily satisfied. It does not distress him to go barefoot, though he usually has something of a sock or sandal. A dark-blue cotton sock is the most usual wear. The sole is made of thick blue canvas or thick paper, and looks made to last about a week or two, but really lasts a month. These things fasten with hooks and eyes at the back, and are divided at the toes into two parts. One is for the great toe, and the other for what remains. So covered, the foot of Japanee appears like to a cloven hoof. His sock is one that would become well a stage Mephistophiles, and should be imported for those who at fancy dress balls are so fond of assuming that character. Was there ever a F.D.B. that had not two or three Mephistos ? This sock is varied in colour to red for children, and white for those who can afford extra outlay. The sock alone with its canvas sole is considered quite enough foot-covering by many, and even the hard-running centaurs often wear nothing else. Sandals are, however, very common. The first to be noticed as most common is of plaited straw, a mere solepiece, with a triangular-shaped loop that goes over the foot below the instep, and between the opening in the toe- Japanese Women. 61 part. In nine cases out of ten this sandal is too short for the foot, and the wearer's heel hangs over it. Another sandal is of thick wood, like to the sole of English clogs, secured over the toes in a similar way to the other. The third style is for snowy or sloppy weather, and is a patten sole mounted upon two pieces of thin wood of four inches high and standing six inches apart. This very queer-looking patten is secured in the same way as the others. Some clog soles are to be had with leather toe-pieces, but I never noticed them in use. The JAPANESE LADY. sock seemed to be considered sufficient covering for the upper part of the foot. I speak, of course, of the population as I had opportunity of noticing it out of doors. The four-inch patten support is of great advantage to the Japanee and his wife and daughters, as to European eyes the Japanee is altogether too short, and his wife and daughters particularly so. The female Japanee behaves in no way like to the females of other Eastern countries. No " yashmak " hides her face, 62 The Main Routes Round the World. nor does she hide within doors from her bridal to her burial. She does not beautify herself with henna on the finger-nails and lampblack to the eyebrows. She looks like the chubby daughter of an English country farmer, and is a buxom little round lump of a thing that one mistakes for twelve years old until told that she is eighteen or twenty. The round full faces of these girls would become women of 5 ft. 8 in., and they look out of place on little beings of 4 ft. 6 in. Figure, to speak of, the female Japanee does not pos- sess. She could not easily wear a corset, and her dress seems to be altogether planned to make her look as broad as LADIES' OUT-DOOR DRESS. she is long. A thing like to a little knapsack is worn on the small of the back outside of the sack jacket. It gives the appearance of almost a deformity, and is a strange idea of producing a hump for and in place of a Grecian bend if such be the intention of the wearer. This excrescence is made of folded cotton, or cotton-padded silk. The " kodomo," as the baby Japanee is called, is carried in a sort of hood, on the back of its mother or sister sister I generally thought, from the small size of the being carrying the baby but I am not sure that in many of these cases I did not make mistakes. Japanese Women. 63 Very neatly indeed does the female Japanee dress her hair. It always goes uncovered, and therefore the skill bestowed upon it is not hidden. There are no Japanee blondes. Jet black hair is the rule, and I saw no exception. Rosy cheeks, laughing eyes of dark-brown colour, pearly teeth, and dumpling forms make up the unmarried female Japanee. When engaged to be married, she proceeds to make herself hideous that no DRESS OF JAPANESE LADY. other man may fancy her. She succeeds beyond belief. Her white teeth are dyed a hideous black, and her pretty arched eyebrows are all plucked out with tweezers. The effect is horrible. If her intended husband was now to alter his mind, as he might reasonably do, what would become of the bride expectant ? No other suitor would be found to fancy the 64 The Main Routes Round the World. now ugly little Topsy. Such trouble must happen sometimes, and yet the disfigurement is not postponed until after mar- riage, as one would think would be best and prudent. In shopkeeping, the female Japanee, when a wife, takes a Frenchwoman's part in the business, and does all the work. With her hideously black mouth and fringeless brows she is on the shopboard all day, and her husband, when about, generally appeals to her as to the prices of everything, and the policy of accepting half the price that has been asked. The half price is generally taken, but not until the " soroban " has been consulted that is the calculating board, without which no Japanee seems to be able to tell the price of any- thing that he has to sell, or to say what six pictures of three cents each amount to in the gross. He learns no multiplication table. This board, with its twenty-one bars, on each of which slide six perforated marbles, does all his cyphering. The top- most row of the marbles is cut off from the other five rows by a bar running the whole length of the soroban. Each of the marbles in that row counts as five of the others. Calculations up to millions can be made on this wooden ready reckoner. It is made of all sizes, from that of a sideboard to that of 3 in. by I in., and is alike used by both the Chinee and the Japanee. A long schooling is necessary, however, to the working of this oracle by a foreigner. An adult white has never been known to adopt it. The Japanee is careful never to soil with his feet the fine rush-made matting that he spreads for a carpet to his house and a shop-board for his goods. He requests me to take my boots off before entering his shop. At his tea restaurants he proffers the same absurd request ; but that is not to be com- plied with. I am there to purchase as a customer, and if he will not take me as I am, I threaten to go elsewhere. It is winter weather, and I cannot stand about with cold, unbooted feet. He gives way, and I enter his tea-house. My first visit to such is memorable. There is nothing but the floor, rush- matted, for me to sit upon. I must squat like to a tailor, or a Turk, if I sit, and sit I must to have tea, and to take the " Tiffin? 65 other strange things that are given to one in these restaurants. So I sit on the matting, cross-legged at first, and then with legs to the left and then to the right, and then with straightened knees, on which I rest the cup. It is all very uncomfort- able. One of the fire-boxes is brought to me by one of the stumpy girls, who then proceeds, under my nose, to put a small frying-pan on it, into which she tumbles a mass of meat cut up to the size of dice. Some similarly cut-up vegetables are then added, and the affair is set to stew on the sticks of charcoal. While that is going on I am handed a teacupful of saki, that tastes much like to warm and weak sherry, with a pinch of salt in it. The meat is soon after turned out into a small basin, which is handed to me, together with a pair of skewers. These things are "chopsticks," and I am to feed myself with them alone. No knife, fork, or spoon is provided. I had noticed that the meat was already cut up into mouthfuls. Two other chubby-faced, stumpy girls had now come into the room, which was destitute, like to all Japanese rocms, of any article of furniture. I had to make a maiden effort to eat with chopsticks in presence of these three girls. It was dreadfully uncomfortable. The French philosopher said that " Men have mercy, but women have none," the remembrance of which gave me very little courage in my efforts to eat with those six eyes upon me. The sticks would divide widely instead of coming together. Nohow could I grab a mouthful with them out of the basin until five or six failures had been made. The maidens were waiting to change dishes and bring in a second course. Of these courses there were half a dozen to come. Had there been a napkin handy, I might have re- membered that fingers were made before forks or chopsticks, but napkin there was none ; so I had to take a stick in each hand, and then had a little better success. It was of course a dreadful breach of etiquette, but necessity knows no manners. What did I care for the moon-faced maidens that looked on me as a clumsy clown ? They would never, probably, see me more, and I this way got my " tiffin." This Indian word has been brought into use in Japan. Rice followed the meat, but F 66 The Main Routes Round the World. that I passed. Catch me trying to pick up grains of rice with two rounded skewers before three laughing girls ! A lot of other messes followed, that I more or less failed with, and then came sweet preserves and the everlasting Japanee warm- water tea. My legs fairly began to ache by this time, and I stumbled about somewhat with stiffness on getting up. For all this entertainment only is. 2d., or its equivalent, had to be paid. On the first opportunity I had, as I said before, I bought a knife, fork, and spoon, and henceforth carried them, wrapped in paper, in a side-pocket, and was done with chop- sticks. Had my stay in Japan been long, I should have had a folding-chair made, with a "practicable" table-top to it. To do at Rome as Rome does is very well to talk about, but does not apply to Japan. The Romans did not require me to eat with skewers. There are no doors to Japanese houses. Sliding sashes, glazed, so to speak, with paper, serve for doors and windows. When I had to sleep in one of these houses up the country, I found that my bed was the rush matting of the floor, my bed- clothes a quilt only, and my pillow a piece of wood the aforesaid stereoscope case. That extraordinary " pillow" quite bewildered me. I took it at first for a joke, to ask me to rest my neck on a wooden block eight inches high, and about two inches broad. To accommodate me, the top was covered with a padded roll of paper that was tied upon the block. It looked then like to a tailor's large iron goose held by a big iron holder. A stiff neck could be produced by this instru- ment after one application, supposing it possible in sleep to keep it balanced. I at last rolled an overcoat round it, and that somewhat accommodated matters. Japanee is not luxurious about his bed or his bedchamber. He withstands the cold of winter much better than the European. His house is full of draughts and emptiness, and is wholly destitute of fireside comforts. Yet he is happy. It is the privilege of the Japanee not to grumble a privilege that he rather abuses than otherwise. . How careful, too, is the Japanee in sanitary matters ! His Curios. 67 rivers and canals are all unpolluted by sewage. His land best manured of all lands is rich in verdure. The drainage matter is carefully collected, and daily removed for manuring purposes. Not a stench from sewage matter can be found in Japan save at the sewage depdts. The smell of some of the cookery is not nice to European noses, but there is nothing worse than sourkrout amongst it all. What clothes Japanee does wear he is careful to keep washed and clean, and now that he is going to wear all his hair, he ties a handkerchief round it on windy days to keep it in order. He is as careful as a Hindoo to wear a sash twisted round his loins, but it is always a plain and useful one, and not a gay shawl-like thing such as the Hindoostanee folks adopt. Yokohama, having been slow in building, is numbered by its houses only, in the European quarter. Its streets are not named in any address given. "No. 88, Yokohama" is a proper address, though it reads as strangely as "No. I, London." The new settlement can count three foreign and one native newspapers. A fortnightly mail from England, vid China, and another from France, and a monthly one from America, keep its folks well acquainted with news. One street in the town is nicknamed as " Curio Street" In that the Japanese do a thriving business with the foreigner. In looking at the contents of the shop, he is, however, liable to run against the wooden -walled wells which are here sunk in the centre of the footpath, with long bamboo-handled dippers floating twenty feet below. In Curio Street the traveller will find the wonders of native art in which the Japanese have hitherto delighted. To produce the fanciful, and not the useful, appears to have been the aim of the artist. He has succeeded to a marvel. Here are wonders in metal-work that fifty and eighty guineas are necessary to purchase for chimney-piece and sideboard ornaments. Vases of porcelain, exquisitely painted ; vases of porcelain and metal intermixed; vases of copper, inlaid with groundworks of flowers, and filled up with hardened coloured cements ; vases of all shapes, sizes, and designs, and of all metals and materials, here delight the F 2 68 The Main Routes Round the World. eye and confuse the mind of the visitor. He is shown tea ~ cups thin as egg-shell, and nearly transparent teacups with bas-reliefs upon them teacups with figures enclosed with doors teacups with a tortoise at the bottom, that floats at the top when the tea is poured in, and yet cannot be fillipped out with a spoon. China and pottery in all shapes and forms, in bewildering variety, are here on hand, and lacquered ware that one can hang over and admire for a day or a week. This is the place to buy wedding presents for one's friends the sort of things that are shown in the ante-room after the bride and bridegroom have gone forth on their tour the sort of things to send to a maiden aunt from whom one has great expectations. Here are boxes of flowers, too, that look like to pipelights, but expand into leaves and blossoms when thrown into basins of water. Here, also, are carved ivory and metallic monsters for all the mantelpieces of the lovers of the grotesque, and all old maids that love pugs and monkeys. Curio Street, Yokohama, is one of the streets of the world, and a day may be as well spent in. it as in Regent Street or Broadway, if one does but take care not to take much money along. Japan is getting lines of railway now, and steam-vessels, and has been buying cannon and rifles and revolvers. Japanee will turn his artistic labours in a practical direction for the future, and, sad to think, will produce the useful and neglect the fanciful. England is starting schools of design for the teaching of all that Japanee has known and delighted in for all the ages, and which, in the "regeneration" Japan is now so strangely undergoing, he will for the future neglect for those arts which have advanced Europe and America, if advanced they are, while he has been dozing and dreaming learning only how to be contented and happy. There is but little doubt, comparing the millions of Great Britain and those of the Japanese isles, that the greatest hap- piness of the greatest number which has been defined to be the end and aim of civilization and legislation is by no means certain to be found in Queen Victoria's kingdom as " Hart Karl." 69 against that of the Mikado. There are those who will make it a question, but there are those again in plenty who, having seen both territories, will make no question about it. " The sin of great cities," as some one has phrased it, is to be found in Japanese towns, but not in the streets. The Government, finding it irrepressible, have regulated it, and reduced it as they have done everything else to system and order. No one is tempted to vice by the sight of it in the busy thoroughfares. No pestilence walks at noonday in Japan. It must be sought in the quarter reserved for it in every city of the empire, and it is not allowed to go forth in brazen bravery to offend the modest and allure the unwary. In the quarter to which it is relegated it is caged within doors, and visitors there walk the streets as they would the grounds of a zoological garden, and are fully made to feel that they tread upon dangerous ground when in the "Yoshawarroh" quarters. I have written thus of what I observed of the fashions of Japan. The subject might be extended to any length, and made quite tiresome. I may notice, as a fit conclusion to the matter, that the favourite mode of suicide the " hari kari," or disembowelling is performed mostly by those who con- ceive that they have suffered an injury, and think by their death in this form to cause remorse to the one who has injured them. Goldsmith, in one of his poems, expresses a similar notion of revenge when he tells the deserted maid that " The only art her guilt to cover, To hide her shame from every eye, To give repentance to her lover, And wring his bosom is to die." CHAPTER VII. THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. THE Inland Sea of Japan ! Who has not heard of its beauty ? Nothing in the way of sea-coast scenery that I ever expatiated upon with enthusiasm but was wet-blanketed by " Oh ! you should see the Inland Sea of Japan." Sydney harbour and its beauties had brought forth my loud admira- tion, as they bring forth that of every one who first sees them ; but the ship's captain, anxious to show his superiority to such weakness, said, " Nothing to the Inland Sea of Japan !" In the pretty harbour of Madeira I heard the same exclamation from a nil admirari fellow-passenger, whose life seemed to lie all in the past or the future. With such it is always yesterday or to-morrow, and never to-day. For the study of those is the wisdom of the proverb, " Take the good the gods provide you." It was upon this inland sea that I now embarked, upon leaving Hiogo and its seaport Kobe", to go to Nagasaki, a southern port of Japan. It was there that the first settlement of foreigners had taken place, the Dutch getting a footing there two centuries ago. It was scarcely a footing, however, for they were restricted to a small island joined to the main- land by a well-guarded bridge. Too much of interest attached to such a place to leave it unvisited, especially as the attraction of a voyage for two days down the inland sea was added to it. The " Tokio Maru " was the steamer on which I embarked, with about 200 others, mostly Japanese. It was a side- The Inland Sea. 7 1 wheeled vessel of 3000 tons, belonging to the Mitsu Bishi (three diamonds) Company, subsidized by the Government of Japan. It was Japanese midwinter, windy and freezing, with occasional gusts of sleet and snow. The captain's seat at the table was always vacant. The intricacies of the passage demanded all his care, and the taking of his meals in his deck-house. The land was visible, and sometimes almost touchable, as islands studded the way down this sea for the whole length of it. There were too many of these altogether, and they were sometimes destitute of trees and bushes. The shore-line showed hills and valleys, and then valleys and hills again. The valleys were very small, but always fully populated by those who grew rice round the foot of the hills and caught fish in the waters of this sea. The fishing-boats about everywhere along shore made a prominent feature in the beauty of the scene. A great sameness about it was soon, however, observable, producing even the usual effect of monotony wearisomeness. There was too much of it alto- gether. Sydney harbour is quite large enough. Just sufficient is seen there to please to the limit of pleasure, and leave no sense of satiation. It is so also with the harbours of Rio and Cork. Every one is delighted with the drives around Galle and the delightful Ceylon scenery there to be met with cocoa-nut and banana-trees alternating with pineapple and palm. If led on to take the journey from Galle to Colombo, for seventy miles, through a road full of such delightful scenery, the delight is found to get less with every mile after the first ten. At the twentieth mile the traveller yawns, and at the thirtieth he sleeps. " This is the end of every man's desire." It was something, of course, against the enjoyment of the scene that the wind was bitterly cold, though the air was clear and the sun generally to be seen. The wind disturbed the waters too much for one's enjoyment of sea life. That state of things got worse, and on the evening of the second day the plate and dish washers had a holiday of it. No one came to dinner save the ship's officers. Others had no appetite, and at 7 p.m. the cold saloon was deserted, and miserable landsmen 72 The Main Routes Round the World. went to their beds as early as do naughty children. A hori- zontal position is best for qualmish stomachs, and warmth can be got from blankets and rugs. Those destined to misery dream of delights. It is said that the condemned criminal, whose dance upon nothing is to take place at eight o'clock the next morning, sleeps peacefully through his last night, and dreams of happy picnics and dances upon sunny slopes. I know that I dreamt of the inland sea, and of beauties thereon and thereabout that I had missed seeing by daylight. Just awakened from the long sleep that attends a cold night and an empty stomach, I was collecting the facts of my position from the fictions of dreams, when there came, in the horror of utter darkness, a grating and scrunching sound beneath one's bunk that suspended all thought, move- ment, and even breathing for the instant. Another scrunch, and then another, and the sound of the ever-going paddles ceased altogether. There was no need to inquire what had happened. That inner consciousness, from which it has been said that the German can develope the appearance of the camel that he has never seen, told me what the strange sounds meant. The " Tokio " had run upon rocks ! I have omitted the " Maru " in thus naming her, as that word is placed after each ship's name by the Japanese, and merely means " ship." The feeling that I experienced was as appalling as that of an earthquake which had once shaken me out of a sleep when up country in Java. It was not yet five o'clock, and nearly two hours to daylight. The lamps had been taken from the cabins at eleven at night, but I struck a match and looked at my watch, sitting up in the bunk to do so. As the match expired I felt my head bumped against the bottom of the bunk above me, and lay down again instead of turning out. No one else occupied the cabin. The one next to me was also empty, the season of the year being that in which much travelling is avoided by those not on business. I lay endeavouring to think what to do, but the remembrances of similar cases of running upon rocks and the dread results came uppermost, and crowded out all Upon the Rocks. 73 thoughts of action. The vessel now bumped with each wave. The waves seemed to try and lift her over the rock, and, failing in the attempt, to let the burden fall again. This bumping and thumping became soon a sickening sensation, and also rendered movement awkward, troublesome, and dangerous. I found that much as I now tried to turn out and dress. Ten months before this, when at Ceylon, I had met the survivors of the wrecked ship " Strathmore," who had been landed there after seven months of suffering upon the Crozet Islands, and were returning to their friends as from the grave. Their description of the shipwreck and their survival I had taken down and transmitted to the journals. Our disaster had occurred at a similar hour in the morning, and had been accompanied with similar sounds and movements of the ship. Thinking of that, and feeling in the darkness for articles of dress with one hand, holding on to the bunk-side with the other to steady myself, I heard footsteps coming down to- wards the cabin-door, and the voice of Allen a fellow- passenger, a shipwright going to the Chinese port of Foo- chow " Get up at once, and save what light things you can, and dress and come on deck. We have run on the rocks at the mouth of the inland sea, thirty miles from Nagasaki." The voice from out the darkness then ceased, and the foot- steps hurried away. Curses were that morning heaped upon those who take lamps and candles out of cabins and leave folks to darkness and death in such cases as ours. The cabin steward had taken away my boots, and as I trod about on the icy cold oilcloth, my feet were freezing. I found somehow waistcoat and trousers, and got on deck, where I at once fell at full length. The sleet had frozen during the night, and rendered the boards too slippery to walk upon had the ship been even level and quiet. As she lay there on the rocks, she was all on a slope of many feet from stem to stern. The stern was rising upon every wave, and thumping down again into the water. In the darkness I could at first discern nothing, but gradually came to perceive two sugarloaf-shaped rocks between which the 74 The Main Routes Round the World. " Tokio " had run, instead of going into the clear sea-room on either side. A ledge that connected the two rocks ran beneath the water, and it was upon this that the forepart of the vessel had gone, and where she stuck fast, canting over to one side in an unpleasantly perceptible manner. Scrambling down below again, I got from one of the stewards a small lantern that showed more of darkness than light, and managed to find coat and boots and head-covering. The only things that I thought of securing from the travelling- bag were thick socks and buckskin gloves that seemed now likely to be of great value. If we had to get upon the precipitous rocks on either side of the ship, it seemed to be almost a necessity to hold on to their craggy sides to keep a footing. As I looked at the other things in the bag, and saw the collection of curios from Japan, and thought of the trunkful there behind from other countries, the present state of things seemed a sorry ending indeed. Even the Mexican dollars, that in this part of the world were the only coins valued, were of no use now. They must be left behind as too weighty for the pockets of one who expected to have to jump on to rocks or into water before trouble was all over. Standing, or rather staggering, over that bag on that dark morning, with the dim lantern in one's hand, was the most miserable five minutes of life that I can now recall. If the passengers should save themselves only, their bag and baggage would then be either lost altogether or rifled by those who might succeed in getting them. A ship upon the rocks is fair game for wreckers. Had we been upon the coast of China, or of Cornwall for the matter of that, the Philistines of the sea would have been upon us shortly. Meantime through all the trouble, thump, bump, bump, thump, went the " Tokio " upon the rock's edge. How long she would thump about like that and not go to pieces was the question. The " Strathmore " had broken up in half an hour's time. The " Tokio " was a wooden vessel, well-coppered, and stood the trouble she was now in better than an iron ship would have done. The grim figure of the carpenter came The Si tiiation. 75 lantern in hand, every three minutes to the saloon, where, through a hole in the floor, he measured with foot-rule-shaped measure the depth of the water in the hold. It was good to hear of only a few inches increase at each measurement. The saloon passengers did not number more than twenty. The Japanese and Chinese, forward, made up the bulk of our number. These were, with difficulty, kept out of the saloon, into which they wished to crowd, as if more safety lay there than forward. Knots of passengers collected round any one who had a lantern, and discussed what in French phrase is called "the situation." One of them showed me a small bottle labelled " poison" that he had taken from his trunk. He had kept it, he said, for years to avoid a lingering death when hope might have gone. There seemed now a proba- bility of his wanting it. He quietly said that there was enough for two! I don't recall whether I had the good manners to thank him for such courtesy. A bluff, burly- looking Irishman from the States had another drink that he dragged me to his cabin to partake of. He seemed already to have largely taken of it himself. " Sure, man," he said, "take a glass or two of it, 'twill put spirits into you." There was no denying that two glasses of Irish whisky would put spirits into any one who drank them, but I had a stomach empty for twenty hours, and sense enough left to know that the warmth that spirits give is followed by the greater cold and prostration. I pleaded that I had had a drink already offered me, and would go back to it, and come to my hospi- table present friend for the next one. The captain had ordered the forward cargo overboard to lighten that part of the ship. That work was going on promptly, and the paddles resumed their work in reversed order to drag the ship backwards. Crates, barrels, and boxes were flying over on both sides, and being gulped down by the tossing waters. The coals were going out also in bags, buckets, and shovelfuls. The cannon a 24-pounder went overboard with a huge splash and a thundering noise that seemed to protest against such a sacrifice. Ten boxes of 76 The Main Routes Round the World. treasure were got out, and placed on the middle deck, to be the first thing cared for after the lives of the passengers. The grim phantom with the lantern and the measuring-rod came upon us oftener now, but the ship's officers and stewards sur- rounded him, and he departed in silence to report to the captain the progress of the rising water below. We were not to hear the bad news he had to tell. Daylight dawned at last. It had never seemed so long in coming, and, perhaps, never will again, to those who were on board the " Tokio " that morning. A boat was put off from the side of the ship and despatched with six rowers and a steersman to Nagasaki for help. It was a five hours' journey for them. As the provisions and bottles of water were given out, we looked on with a sort of personal interest. The same thing might be doing with ourselves in a short time if the vessel showed signs of not holding together. The state of things around could be now discerned. No landing-place was apparent upon the two rocks near to us, about 200 ft. only from the sides of the ship. If any existed, it must be upon the outer sides of these most inhospitable-looking crags. How the ship could have got into such a narrow place, with rocks ahead to warn the ship's look-out man, it seemed diffi- cult to guess at. The watch had been that of the second mate, and the blame lay between him and the Japanese pilot, who pleaded that he had set all things right and gone below to get a drink of tea. Japanese, men and women, drink tea at all hours ; they have the strange ability, too, of taking it scalding hot. The lightening of the ship still went on. Not a sail came in sight anywhere, though for the two preceding days we had seen the native sampans about in scores. The captain, who was now approachable, seemed quite calm about the state of things. " If I cannot get her off in an hour or so, you can be landed on that rock. There is standing-room on the other side." That to us who were freezing, and wanting warmth and a breakfast ! The prospect of a bleak rock with a bitingly cold wind and sea spray for long hours, until a tug could come Saved. 7 7 from Nagasaki some time in the next night ! The Irish- man, on hearing that news, went back to his whisky bottle, button-holing me on the way. " Look here, man, we must be friends now. Here's my card, and these boxes and bags have my name on them. If I don't get out of this and you do, I have written a name on the back of that card that you will write to, and tell all about it. Take a drink now. Sure I'll do the same for you if you like. Drink, me boy." It was a strange time to be taking duties upon one when the grasshopper would be a burden added to one's load of present trouble, but there was no resisting my friend and his required promise. His bottle I could stave off. I took my share of it in a couple of phials that some preceding passenger had left in the rack of the cabin. A sort of idea crept upon me, that had I finished my friend's bottle, it had been better for him, however it might have been for me. He began to get demonstrative, and to look very moist about the eyes. He said, " I niver thought, me boy, to get a watery death : shure I always hated it ! " This anti-teetotal remark was quite needless, and, in other circumstances, might have been humorous. Things were too unsettled now for smiling at anything. After four hours of work at lightening the " Tokio," the captain resolved upon a movement that had its intended effect. The forward passengers and the crew were all to be rushed aft in a body, and extra power applied to the paddles. The move was successful. We now, with gladness for which joy is no name, heard a scrunch, and then another, and then a third ! And the " Tokio " floated backwards, and was free of the rocks ! I might put a hundred or two of notes of exclamation to signify what our feelings and exclamations were upon that event. It was necessary only to keep the pumps going to get safely along. The Irishman now brought out another bottle, and insisted upon drinks round. He had never, " Niver, me boys/' had a doubt about all being right. The peaceful way in which he soon afterwards slept was, 78 The Main Routes Round the World. perhaps, due not wholly due to reaction of the nervous system. A new lease of life seemed to be given to each of us. Those used to sea troubles, perhaps, think but little of such escapes. To the landsman, however, the past four hours two of them in the darkness had been an interview with Death after the manner in which Farmer Dobson, in the old story, had seen him on his wedding-day, and got a similar reprieve. The inland sea of Japan, and especially the entrance to it, is likely to be well remembered by the passengers of the " Tokio " on that trip. Towards the afternoon we got into the harbour of Nagasaki, and found ourselves safe upon shore. The foot-plate of the vessel had been torn off, and it was necessary to keep the pumps going to keep the water down before the vessel went on the slip for repairs, and that con- venience existed fortunately at this port. Nagasaki had an especial interest for us of the " Tokio." Had it been a cinder-heap, it would have been pleasant to those who little expected a few hours before to have seen it so soon perhaps ever to have seen it. It was the land of Beulah to which we had got after passing the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Of all the settlements native and foreign that I had seen in Japan, this one was in reality the least pleasing. It is not large and clean, like to Yokohama ; nor small and well built, like to Kobe. It has a sort of common shipping-port look about it, and is troubled with many of the drawbacks of shipping ports pot-houses and mean streets. In position it is grandly situated in a bay surrounded on three points of the compass with fine hills, on the sides of which trees and rice-fields are seen, with other signs of cultivation and industry. That part of Nagasaki most attractive to the foreigner is the old Dutch settlement of Decima that is here to be seen. It is now an overcrowded and very dirty quarter, separated from the mainland by a long bridge that formerly was well guarded. The native element appears to have taken pos- Nagasaki. 79 session of this place now, and made a sort of Wapping of it. This was, then, the small beginning of the wonders that foreigners had wrought in Japan ! The Dutchman had not to be thanked for anything, however. He would have mud- dled on here for another 200 years very likely, content to do as his fathers had done make a little money by merchandise and take all the snubbing that the brief authorities for the time being liked to give to him. It was to Englishmen, as represented by their eldest son in America, that the opening of Japan trade and travel was due. Had Commodore Perry not gone to Yeddo in 1860, with his letter of introduction from President Fillmore, and his man-of-war to back up the letter, it is quite certain that the Dutch would not have gone in his place. The evil would have resulted that mere travel- lers for health or pleasure would have seen nothing of all the beauties of Japan and all the surprises that it has in store for the traveller from the Western world. That Western world, and the world generally, would have been deprived, also, of all benefit and delight that the curious merchandise and manufactures of Japan have given to them ; also the amusement that its native actors, conjurors, and acrobats have created wherever they have been seen. One walks about at Nagasaki with disgust, to think how long the Dutchman had the partial entry of this place, and never got himself better established in the land. The specialty of Nagasaki, apart from its shipwrights and wharfside business, seemed, with the Japanese, to be the manu- facture of tortoiseshell into articles of utility and ornament. Every visitor takes such things away from the place as some souvenir of a visit to this first or last port of Japan. Another port between Nagasaki and Kobe is to be shortly opened to foreign trade. It is known as Simoneseki. From the open roadstead, whence we saw it the day before entering Nagasaki, it looked a populous seaside place, with a large crowding about it of native boats. None, however, came near to the ship. The " Tokio " had merchandise to land there, and anchored for that purpose. The weather proved to be 8o The Main Routes Round the World. too rough for doing so. One of the anchors was lost and the other taken up, and the merchandise taken on to be lost about the rocks off the island of Otata for that was the locality of our shipwreck troubles in the manner I have told. There will be fine fishing for native boats about those rocks for many a day to come. Barrels, boxes, and chests will be fished up yet. Some fine day the cannon may be got up also. It is pleasant to think that of the " Tokio's " cargo that is all that the fishers may get. The sea thereabout has not in our case to give up its dead. CHAPTER VIII. A LAST LOOK AT JAPAN. " THE land of the rising sun " fades from view as I leave Nagasaki, but its memory is indelible ; its almost perfection of a climate and varied scenery of hill and dale, mountain and lake, woodland and plain ; its rich foliage and fair flowers, its hill-sides clothed with firs and pines ; all its novelties of nature and art, and its peculiarities, political and personal ; its cheerful, pleasant, and frugal people ; their cleverness of hand and simplicity of mind ; that patience and politeness which makes them more than the Frenchmen of the Eastern world in all that is pleasant in French character ! Imperilled as Japan now is by the financial troubles conse- quent on her many reforms, nothing but what is pleasing in prospect seems to lie before her. It seems impossible that a people who have given themselves so seriously to education and improvement can now sink among the nations of the world. They have proved themselves so easy to lead and to govern in their ignorant state, that in their new state of knowledge they must needs be difficult to drive, and impos- sible to enslave. Not much troubled as yet by religious dis- sensions, and not trammelled, as is India, by the inexorable laws of caste, it is not to be imagined that any other nation can subdue them, and retain over them a supremacy such as the Hindoos endure. The language of Japan, hitherto expressed in character similar to the Chinese, is quite a distinct tongue. Efforts are now in progress to express the sounds of its forty-seven G 82 The Main Routes Round the World. syllables in Roman characters, avoiding the many hundreds of semi-Chinese characters that have hitherto been required to express them. The laws of the Japanese are now in process of codification, by French assistance. The common practice of torture to enforce confession is to be forthwith abolished. The practice JAPAN 7 ESE ALMANAC. of the " hari kari " mode of suicide is also passing out of fashion. Disappointed politicians will no longer disembowel themselves. Everywhere progress is making towards Euro- pean customs. If such progress should prove to be slow, it is still in the right direction. Though my visit to Japan had been made in its winter, I Japanese Climate. 83 had seen little but blue skies and bright sunny weather. The snowstorm that I had experienced on the journey to Kama Kura, and the rough weather on the second day of the inland sea journey, had been the only exceptions to the bright and beautiful days. In such a climate, walking became a pleasure, and exercise of any kind delightful. Pleasant weather had been supplemented by cheerful companions. I had gone on all my journeys with Japanese company, of whose language I was ignorant, but whose courtesy and sympathy made me feel quite easy and confident. Their cheerfulness was contagious, I believe. Long journeys seemed to lose all tedium in such companionship. In native tea-houses, far away from English settlements, I had eaten, and drunk, and slept in novel ways that gave a zest to the appetite and soundness to repose. Cleanliness of the greatest and attention the most assiduous were to be found everywhere. The bowing politeness was not marred by extortionate after-charges. I never found it charged for in any of the ridiculously small accounts that I was called upon to discharge. If I had not found it easy at first to eat with chopsticks the French-like tit-bits that made up the meal, I had afterwards carried a pocket knife and fork that, bought long years before in a far-off land, now became of the greatest utility. Wrapped in overcoat and rug, I had found journeying in the cold but sunny days to be not unpleasant. At first it did not seem a manly thing to go into a perambulator, of larger size, and be run about with, dragged by a man as children are ; but the fashion of the country in that way soon subdues all feeling against it, and one realizes without difficulty Cowper's description of his youthful journeys in a similar manner : " And where the gardener Robin, day by day, Drew me to school along the public way ; Delighted with my bauble coach, and wrapp'd In scarlet mantle warm and velvet capp'd." There is no choice but so to travel, or to take to the lumber- G 2 84 TJie Main Routes Round the World. ing palanquin and its two bearers. In such travel in Japan, variety is fully enjoyed and all sense of danger is lost. A word (" Matti ") stays the progress of the vehicle, and one gets out to notice any matter of interest, to make any purchase, or to stretch oneself by half an hour's walking. As the floor of the jinrickishaw is only a foot and a half from the ground, the danger of an upset is out of the question. One's sense of humanity is soon satisfied by rind- ing that one wearies sooner than do those who run with us, and we call upon them to stay that we may rest. They never seem to tire. Travel is made pleasant in Japan also by its good roads and its numerous towns and villages. At all of these the tra- veller finds tea-houses, in which rush-matted rooms await his coming. These matting floors are so clean that he is expected not to tread them with boots on. Mats are brought for his seat, his feet are placed in a square hole in the floor made to accommodate them, jointly with a pot of charcoal ; a large rug is placed over both, and warmth is at once obtained by the traveller, who waits for his meal while cooking is going on. Two rugs padded with cotton make the softest of beds, and two more the warmest of covering ; another one, folded up, serves for pillow. A Sybarite might sleep in such a bed. A bath-house is ready in the morning, with the option of warm or cold water. There is no boot-cleaning certainly, and no soap, but then there is no soap to be found in French or Italian bedrooms. The traveller learns to carry that little necessary in the France of the East as he does in that of the West. In Japan, one's native company never get drunk. The peril of having a drunken driver is out of the reckoning. The tea- houses, at which a stoppage is made for drinking every two hours or so, are things for which the traveller is thankful. He joins in the drink also. It is warm and wet, and costs next to nothing. After a day or two he begins to like Japanese tea, which is as mild as French soup or English small beer mere yellowish water. Destitute of milk or sugar, it is rather Coinage. 85 insipid at first, but the taste for it is soon acquired. It is evidently invigorating by the work that one sees done upon it. It is cheering also by the mirthfulness it evolves from one's friends in the shafts. It leaves no sense of thirst or pro- stration afterwards, and is evidently, and very soon evidently too, a better drink to travel upon than beer, or wine, or spirits. For the first week or so of travel the foreigner will take a flask with him. He gradually gives that up, and finds that the natives will not share its contents with him. At last he astonishes himself by drinking tea when they do, and takes his flask home as full as he brought it out. Henceforth he leaves it behind him, but can never understand how Japanee can drink the tea in such a scalding state. There is no real trouble of any sort for the traveller in Japan. A little money goes a long way in living expenses, and in travelling and in purchasing power. The currency is so small that one soon forgets such monstrous sums as sove- reigns and half-sovereigns. A dollar is 4.$-., and in Japan is looked upon much as a pound is in the Western world. It is of no use to go out with dollars in one's pocket. Change would not always be obtained. Half-dollars, quarters, and eighths are the coins to be carried in silver, and then the smaller subdivisions, the cents, in copper. Stoppage is not made at the halfpenny, however. There is another coinage smaller than the cent or the farthing, the half-cent. That coinage is a metallic disc with a rim bit, and a square hole in the centre. It is between a halfpenny and a farthing in size. Ten pieces of this " cash," as it is called, make one cent. Cash is the old original currency of this cheap and pleasant land. When cleaned up, this cash of Japan has a neat appearance. Pretty Japanese letters and figures appear between the rim and the centre hole. This coinage is carried in strings of a hundred or two hundred and odd. The larger quantity would be a shilling's worth. One sees then the use of the central hole. The string that keeps this bank of money together goes through that. One's native guide takes care of this native money, and tells you when it is all expended. It is wonderful 86 The Main Routes Round the World. what a way it goes, this Japanese cash. There are no beggars in Japan at least I saw none. Had there been such, charity might have revelled in distributing happiness by the handful of cash. To those of a benevolent disposition, who feel the blessing that is promised to the liberal, Japan would be a most satisfactory country. Plenty, in the shape of cash, might be scattered over the smiling land with a prodigal hand, and no fear of a prodigal's fate await the happy doer. The pretty paper coinage lately introduced in Japan, and called " yen," is eclipsing the attraction of the hitherto potent Mexican dollar. The mint established at Osaca has been bought from the authorities at Hong Kong, who appear to have found the making of money for the Chinese and the foreign visitors to Hong Kong not a profitable thing. It may be found yet that the mints established in other English colonies besides that of Hong Kong will not yield a profit may, perhaps, cause a great loss. At all events, the Hong Kong people tired of money-making in that shape, and Japan has taken over the business as a national undertaking, and the Mexican dollar is now doomed in that country. The great, clumsy thing is cursed by the traveller, who has to exchange the light moneys of other countries for this cart-wheel currency, cum- bersome to the pocket and to the baggage, and only to be bought by a sacrifice of better money. The Japanese " yen " is an improvement on the United States' greenbacks. The paper is thicker, and the notes well printed in good colours, and of the size of small playing-cards, such as the Spaniards use. The notes go down as low as five cents. A pocketful of this currency is of no weight. The same amount in silver and copper would require a hand- basket or the services of a coolie. Japan has not yet got the blessing or the burden of a national debt. It is a million, perhaps two millions, in debt, to some of the foreign banks there, and will have to become further indebted before its financial affairs are put straight. Its last budget shows a big balance of expenditure as against income. The country has, however, immense borrowing Japanese Character. 87 power, and is worth a hundred Turkeys or Egypts to those who expect principal and interest from national loans. No money is wilfully fooled away in Japan, as in Egypt, on the building of splendid palaces for ladies of the seraglio. The Mikado dwells in the plainest of dwellings. That which is expended in Japan will be, as it has been, on the most useful and reproductive of works. The Japanee is honest and staunch and true in his nature, and not a mixture of a gipsy and a Maori, as is the lazy, designing, and brutal Turk. In dealing with a Japanee you are dealing with one of nature's gentlemen. For nature's gentlemen are the Japanese, made in the older fashion of the world before money-grubbing had soiled the souls of men, cankered their hearts, and driven chivalry and enjoyment of life out of their nature ! If one would know how the people of Britain lived in the days of old, when there were maypoles and morris-dancers, and caps with bells to them ; when the theatres were open to the sky, and when there were tiltings and jousts and tournaments ; when folks were educated to excel in sports and manliness, to play at quarterstaff, to wrestle, play at singlestick and fence, to tilt at the quintain, and go hawking and hunting and fishing, as the chief occupa- tion of a "joyous life," we may go to Japan, look at the Japanese, and learn all. Frugal in his habits, the Japanee has but few wants and makes no waste. He toils a little, and his wife spins for a time sufficient work to make pleasure piquant. He never saves money, takes but little thought for the morrow, and none for the day after. He seems to know nothing of care. A few yards of blue cloth make his covering, a little rice and fish are his " chow chow," taken but twice a day. The drink that " cheers but not inebriates " the everlasting tea is always at hand. Sorrow and sin seem never to trouble him. Since he kicked out the Jesuits, 200 years ago, the religion of fear has not yet got at him, and made him a fanatic or a misanthrope. His religious duties are duly and lightly observed, and he is content to let others observe theirs also. 88 The Main Routes Round tke World. His religious offerings are made in coin. He thinks that such contribution to the gods is the true basis of all other religions as it is of his. He is travelling now, and will write and tell us his knowledge of the world, when he gets it, and whether his ideas on religion have altered. All remorse is foreign to his nature, so that regret for the ejection of the Jesuits is not likely to be acknowledged by him should he ever feel it. . The Japanese may not have been willing that their happy life shut in from the world and its worldly trouble should have been disturbed ; that they should have been compelled to open their sea-doors, receive and make visits, and do busi- ness with the rest of the nations. As war, and threats of further war, made such necessary, they are trying to make improvement result from innovation. They resisted improve- ment because it was innovation ; but, having been forced to that, they wisely endeavoured to get the best return for it. As a change had to be made, this hitherto steady-going, never-changing nation has resolved to have radical changes, " to reform it altogether." In feminine language, the house of the Japanee has been turned out of windows rather than set in order. The governmental system of many hundreds or thousands of years was upset at once to begin with. The Mikado was, as the real king, brought down from his contem- plative position at Kioto and set up in Yeddo, which was then rechristened Tokio, an act equivalent to calling London or New York by a new name. The Tycoon that had reigned there as working king was set adrift altogether, and sent to pursue country amusements for the future. A representative House of Parliament was started, and the feudal system abolished. From Oriental Government to this sort of thing in a year or so was like the transformation scene in a pantomime. Change, having begun thus precipitately, goes on with a like rapidity in this new constitutional empire. Every visitor will pat the lively Japanee on the back, and wish him and his pleasant country good speed. It is certain that the visitor to Japan, especially if the visit Journey to Japan. 89 has been made in winter-time, will desire to renew the call upon this new member of the family of nations, and see it in its pleasant spring, summer, or autumn appearance also to send his friends on the visit. The visit to Japan has been made an easy one to the dweller in Great Britain since the opening of the Pacific Railway across the continent of America. A ten-day sea passage from Plymouth, or Liverpool, or Cork, lands the traveller at New York. Seven days of further travel, in sleeping cars, across the continent takes him to San Francisco. Fifteen days of steaming across the smoothest of oceans brings him to Japan. The journey across America may, and no doubt will, be protracted by visits to its cities and places of interest. No journey could well be less mo- notonous than such a one to Japan. Its summer and winter months are those of Great Britain. Leaving London in July or August, a month's pleasant excursion will land the traveller in Japan in the beginning of its autumn. Leaving London in the beginning of English winter would not be so pleasant for travelling. It would necessitate crossing America in the time that snow is apt to encumber the railway, and cold weather to make the journey an irksome one. Mercantile travellers will find a good account in a visit to Japan. No one who goes thither will quit it empty-handed. The purchases are likely to cause more anxiety for space in one's luggage than about the call made on the purse by them. The handsome Japanese screens and tasty cabinet work will tempt all visitors. So will the lacquer ware of Kioto and Osaca and the copper and bronze work to be found in other places. The vases alone, by their beauty and cheap- ness, will necessitate the purchase of an extra packing-case or two. Much may, however, in the way of Satsuma china and other porcelain rarities, be stored within these vases. The Japanese are excellent packers. Their maps and picture- books will not escape notice. The thinness of the paper and binding renders their carriage easy and inexpensive. But not only to the mercantile traveller will Japan be a land of profit. All who travel will similarly benefit by it. The The Main Rozites Round the World. artist will find in it scenes of rare natural beauty. In its scenery of mountain, lake, and glen, the pencil will find its finest field. It is the land of the picturesque. Those who seek health will find it their best resource. Japan is the land w SHIMIDZU DEALER IN TOYS, DOLLS, BAMBOO WARES U AND PICTURES. TOMINOK OJI, SHIJO, SAGARU CHO, KIOTO, JAPAN. TWO SIDES OF A MERCHANT'S CARD. of health of all climates, the nearest to perfection. Those who travel for the pleasure of seeing the world will here find a new one recently opened out. The seeker after new ideas, manners, and customs will find them all here. The lover of Attractions. 91 sport and the seeker for pleasure will find Japan the country for both. Those who wish to save money or to spend it can satisfy, in Japan, either wish. Its roads afford equally good travelling to all. On foot, with knapsack and native companion, no land could afford more delight. To those who wish to travel otherwise, the means are varied, and all equally inexpensive and satisfactory. Any one who wishes to get away from himself for a time to seek "fresh woods and pastures new " will find the newest and freshest in the land of the Rising Sun. CHAPTER IX. THREE DAYS AT SHANGHAI. ON his return journey to Australia, via America and Japan, the next port that the traveller touches at after leaving Nagasaki is Shanghai. "Far Cathay," China itself, bursts suddenly upon the stranger's eyes at this port. As regards general characteristics, Shanghai is but a smaller Calcutta. It is similar to the Indian city in the situations of its foreign and native settlements, save that in Calcutta the native town is not a walled and gated affair, as at Shanghai. A fine bay into which my Japanese steamer ran, two and a half days after leaving Nagasaki, introduces a full view of the large semi-circular Bund, or water-side street of Shanghai, and affords also a fine show of the many varieties and strange looks of the numerous Chinese sailing-craft the sort most usually seen having one tall mat-made sail of towering height and most awkward appearance to European eyes. The first sight of these queerly-rigged boats is as impressive as is the first view of the many-decked, piled-up steamers that greet one's wondering eyes in the harbour of New York. Shanghai, as far as its foreign settlement is concerned, is but the growth of about seventeen years. It numbers only 2000 or so of Europeans. Looking at the large number of substantially-built stone houses filling many streets and long suburban roads, the visitor will be apt to estimate the white folks there at a large number. Every such inhabitant would certainly seem to have one to himself. I say himself, be- cause the white female population did not count up to more Hooves and Pigtails. 93 than 300 in February, 1877. I fear that I thus point out a marriage market that may yet rob Melbourne. I can remember, too, what a matrimonial mart Calcutta once was. The native ladies will excite no jealousy. Competition by them is out of the question. I see no pretty Chinese women here. Here, in Shanghai, I first saw the famous Chinese com- pressed female foot. Those so disfigured are recognized by their wretched hobbling attempts at walking. The impression on the stranger is exactly that made by one trying to walk on one's heels only. It is most unpleasant. The foot appears to have been squeezed up, heels and all, into the ankle, and the toes only left on which to tread. These small feet, or hooves, as they really are, are luckily not common sights. The fashion never became general, like to the growing of pigtails by the men. Every Chinaman shaves nearly all his head to give strength to the back hair, which is twisted about to form the tail. To make this excrescence longer and thicker, silk is intertwisted with it. The longer the tail the more admirable. When not hanging behind, a proper pigtail should twist three times round the neck. It is finished off with a silken tassel. A Chinaman would as soon lose his life as part with this useless but, to him, highly ornamental article. You touch his honour and dignity if you touch his pigtail. A new national conveyance is soon perceptible hereabout. To every one palanquin that one sees about Shanghai there are a dozen wheelbarrows used as conveyances. To make one of these, the wheel of a common barrow should be made three times the usual size, and the seats placed on each side of it in Irish jaunting-car fashion. The vehicle has the appearance of a veritable wheelbarrow, and is wheeled in the same way. It is, of course, springless. When one passenger only is carried, it tilts to one side to preserve the equilibrium. So mean a conveyance does it look, that some courage is required with Europeans to make use of it. The palanquins are more in favour with the foreign population, who leave the barrows to the natives. Of all the vehicles that I had seen in 94 The Main Routes Round the World. the world, these appeared to be the meanest. To think of being carried on a wheelbarrow ! The settlers in this seventeen-years" old Shanghai have their history. They tell of the past, even at so short a date, and speak of it as better than the present. The halcyon days, when wealth was widely distributed, and easy to be had ! " When a hundred dollars were as easily to be got as one is now ! " " When Cokem came from Australia here with a circus company, and set up a tent there, opposite where Jannsen's Hotel stands, and made a fortune of 2o,ooo/. in a few weeks !" " When Lorara was a great man here, and made nothing of thousands ! Poor fellow, he went to poverty and Lisbon at last, and died in an asylum there ! " Such are the little recollections that crop up and come out when Shanghai folks talk. With every community it seems to be thus always yesterday or to-morrow, and never to-day, as the day of prosperity. To get to Shanghai I had passed some little distance up the Yangtze -Kiang river, and became acquainted with one cause of the greatness of China and the prosperity of its hundreds of millions. It is another America for majestic rivers. With such natural facilities for water traffic, supplemented by numberless canals, the favoured land of China grew naturally to greatness, and prospered until outside interference by Eng- land shook its stability, and has now left it, like to a great whale, floundering in shallow water, nearly helpless. This river with the long name is navigable for a thousand miles from the Yellow Sea, from which I entered it, up to Nanking. From the great river a divergence is made into the lesser Wangpo, on the passage to Shanghai, and the walled town of Woosung has to be passed on the way. From Woosung to Shanghai a railway has recently been opened the first that was made in China. The Chinese do not favour these innovations. They are not like to the Japanese in that respect. A Chinaman's conceit is something enormous ; all that does not originate with his nation is to him worthless. Since I was The Bubbling Well. 95 at Shanghai last year, this railway has been bought by the Chinese and destroyed. There are many pleasant characteristics about Shanghai in addition to its noble bay, rilled with shipping and picturesque craft of all kinds. On the crescent-shaped sand around this bay are to be seen the different divisions of the town the English quarter, the French, and the native. The range oi buildings so distributed around this bay frontage must be some three miles in extent. The population of the foreign kind is mixed up of all nations, similarly to that of the Japanese ports. The winter weather, at the time of the year I was there the beginning of February was cold, but no snow was visible, as at Japan. An overcoat was, however, a desirable addition to one's clothing. The walks and drives around Shanghai are numerous and pleasant, the Bubbling Well road particularly so. The race-course is passed on this road. It is on well-selected ground, and has a tolerable grand- stand, that is not likely, however, from the good views to be had of the racing all round, to be much patronized. The Bubbling Well is a curious wayside well of 5 ft: diameter. The water upon which one looks therein is ever bubbling in a single bubble at a time. The cause of this phenomenon is not agreed upon. Here a fine opportunity is afforded for the exercise of fancy, and the display of learning, in defining this inexhaustible and most definite of the bubbles of the day. It is of Nature's concoction. There is no humbug about it. As enduring and reliable as Niagara, this little one of Nature's water-wonders bubbles ever on and on, welling its single bubble as regularly as the beatings of the human heart or the ebb and flow of the tide. In any other country but that of Confucius, a temple would have been erected over this well, a sacred legend have been attached to it, and a large income derived from devotees ! Here, at Shanghai, the Bubble Well is a miracle wasted blushing, not unseen, but wasting its sweetness in producing no profit. At Benares it would bring in a large revenue. With a good legend attached to it, fame may yet draw the world to see it. It goes to look 96 The Main Routes Round the World. at far more trumpery things than the curious Bubbling Well of Shanghai. The native town is walled to the height of about 20 ft. The wall is surrounded by a moat. If the walls were loft, higher, the town would have much of the exterior appearance of Jerusalem. The gate by which I entered is very like to the Joppa gate of Solomon's city. Inside, also, the resem- blance to Jerusalem is kept up by the narrowness and filthiness of the streets. How different to the wide streets and clean ones of tidy Japan ! The gaudily-painted signs that are pro- truding everywhere, showing Chinese characters and hiero- glyphics, soon tell me, however, that I am not in Palestine. The city is busier than is Jerusalem, and is far more densely populated. Busy bees are all around me, and I take leave to watch their movements. Time is too precious for them to suspend their work because a stranger is looking at them. Here are all the characteristics of a Chinese town, in this old city of Shanghai, to be seen in every particular. Some of these particulars are not very pleasant. There is, to begin with, a very oppressive sense of overcrowding. One feels that at once in endeavouring to walk about the I oft. wide streets. The stones that pave them have been worn to a slippery condition by the bare feet of the million that jostle each other in their ceaseless traffic. " Million " is, by the way, a fitting term indeed when speaking of a Chinese popu- lation, they are so plentiful and so prolific. Scarcely one of the little squeezed-up shops in these crowded alleys but appears to have as much of family as of goods in it. All work seems to be done in full view of the public ; the wood- carver in his huge spectacles is busy at his minute labour at his open stall, with the noise of the multitude that pass his door, or jostle each other in front of it, ever in his .ears. Privacy does not appear to be valued. The dyer, the silk- worker, the weaver, and the miller, are all to be seen at their avocations, carried on in places in which there scarcely appears space enough to swing around their arms. The habit that we see the Chinese have in American and Australian settlements Overcrowding. 97 of overcrowding themselves has been learnt in their crowded and overcrowded native towns, and habit, we know, is stronger than nature bad habits especially so. That no time may be wasted, or money either, in going to temple-worship, a little shrine, holding the figure of Buddha or some other deity, is placed in a corner of most of these little hives of industry. The sticks of incense, at a penny a dozen, are lighted up before the image when evening comes on, so that worship goes on with business as it ought to do, all good Christians will say. Cleanliness and godliness do not go hand -in-hand in this case, however. There is reason for their not doing so. The struggle for bare existence is so hard with these people that time cannot be wasted in fetching water and much washing. What few hours can be spared from labour is too often wanted for sleep. Do I not see the sleep of the tired ones all around me ? The Chinese are not particular where they rest when nature can no longer hold out. Like dogs, they lie about on door- steps and under any shady place any out-of-the-way corner that gives them six feet by two of space. As no vehicles run about in these narrow alleys and crowded lanes, there is no danger from passing wheels. All travelling not done on foot is performed by two bare-backed men carrying a sedan chair, slung upon two bamboos, in which chair sits the traveller, carried along at a " Chinaman's trot" of between four and five miles an hour. Though these carriers have but little breath to spare from this intolerably hard labour, they have to spare some of it in shouting loudly to warn the crowd of their coming, that space may be made to let them pass with their burden. Only long practice can have given their bare feet the foothold which they unfailingly seem to have. Booted, as I was, I slipped about everywhere on the greasy and polished stones, but never was a slip made by these chair-bearers, all naked as their feet were. The native city of Shanghai must be an ancient place. It bears every mark of time about it. Its temples are black with age and decay. The smoke of the incense sticks has H 98 The Main Routes Round the World. had something to do with the blackening perhaps, but, allow- ing for that, it is still an antiquated town. It is probable that nearly all of it has been rebuilt many times. Fire is so active in these crowded Chinese cities that building is always going on to replace that which the fire has destroyed. For that purpose only is the builder seemingly required. In these crowded walled towns there has been no spare ground left for building upon. It would be difficult to find space enough to put up a pump. Most of the buildings are of brick. Wandering about with that prime necessity, a guide, in this crowded, mazy place, I pass into its temples and through its markets, and along its streets, and into this shop and that, until I come to near about the centre of the city. In Jeru- salem I should have now arrived at Solomon's Temple, or the Mosque of Omar, that at present stands on its site ; but here, at Shanghai, was " something more exquisite still," something worth Solomon's Temple twice over. It was a tea-house, in the centre of a large pool, with zigzag wooden roadways leading from the land across the water under the overhanging trees. " Only that and nothing more." What is it, then, that makes one stop and rub one's eyes and open one's mouth ? Why am I silent and standing stock- still looking at that tea-house ? The guide says nothing, and moves not. He has seen the same state of things with other travellers, and has come to understand it so far as a China- man can understand emotion and sentiment. Will one's eyes never cease staring ? It is to be feared not, for they are looking at the original of the earliest thing that British human eyes can remember seeing, at what they looked at three times a day or so, and at the time when the brain best receives lasting impressions. They have seen the scene now before them until it has been foremost of all things in the memory of the eye. It can be recalled at any time to the mind's eye by closing the outer vision, and will remain a vivid picture when memory of all other pictures and paintings, seen but now and then, have faded for I am gazing now at the original of that well-known view in the willow-pattern plate. All the rest of The Willow-pattern Plate. 99 native Shanghai is as nothing to this. Towers and palaces and gorgeous temples it has none. Its temples are rough and ugly, and dirt-begrimed ; but here, in this water and willow tea-house, Shanghai holds a shrine that makes a pilgrimage to it as excusable as any pilgrimage ever made. No traveller has ever told of it. None have brought home the slightest news about it. The source of the Nile and the locality of the North Pole have had too much of attention altogether. In point of advantage and value to the world they will confer no greater benefit when, if ever, found, than will the know- TEA-HOUSE, SHANGHAI. ledge of the whereabouts of the famous Tea Temple among the water and willows of Shanghai, with its winding, wooden approaches. To me no more a fiction, but a pleasant reality, foremost among the sights of the world, is that tea-house temple. I had thought it, as others have no doubt done, but the mere fancy of the artist, and yet the enduring nature of that million- multiplied picture might have told me that its stronghold was in the foundation of fact. The countless millions of copies of it that have circulated through the world have made it the H 2 i oo The Main Routes Round the World. best-known of pictures. How many of them have we not broken and been beaten for breaking ? Nothing approaching to it in the way of pictures has been so multiplied and dis- tributed. At Damascus, early in 1876, I was served at dinner in Dhemetri's Hotel off a willow-pattern plate. There, in the oldest city of this world, as in the mushroom town of yester- day's growth, has this nursery story of a picture found its place. It will have another place now. I do not remember that I ever saw this picture framed and glazed. That shall now be done. In circular rosewood frame it will look well. The word " Shanghai " beneath it will be all that will be necessary to recall the scene as one of the greatest surprises that awaits the traveller who seeks astonishments. I enter upon the crooked water-walk, and cross to the tea- house. Before I enter it I look around. I am in the centre of an oblong reserve of which the tea island forms the middle part. There is a piece of fenced-in grass at one end, in which a deer is browsing. The place has evidently seen better days. The water was not always of the clayey colour it is now, and the tea-house and its approaches had a gayer appearance in the days that were, and when its picture was painted for our dinner-plates. Entering this house of houses, I take a seat with the China- men who are drinking tea there, and eating curry with chop- sticks. I get some tea, and wait until its scalding-hot state has abated. It is sugarless, of course, and without milk, but what of that ? Its surroundings will make it taste like unto nectar, served as it is in that wondrous tea-house a place that my young eyes had looked upon as a paradise, and my infant fancy pictured as the great pleasure-spot of the world. I had now come to it, and, like to all the other fine things of this world that the traveller seeks, it did not improve on acquaintance. Venice looks much better in pictures than it does to the traveller's eyes. Calcutta is not a city of palaces, and very far from being so. You do not want to die after seeing Naples. The Blarney-stone is a swindle, and so is the Logan Rock. No disappointment can be greater than Ancestral Graves. 101 that one experiences in looking at the Sphinx and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The " splendid city of Benares " that the traveller expects to see, from what he has read, does not exist. A decaying and dilapidated town is what he does see, walking and stumbling about as he does over that part of it here and there which has fallen, and lies as it fell. Nothing not even Niagara equals expectation. Why, therefore, should the willow-pattern plate tea-house be an exception ? Shanghai city closes its ancient gates sternly at 8 p.m. After that none can enter it. The native element has out- grown its protection, however, and is largely distributed around it and through the settlement generally. The Tazmaylew, or big road, is a highly picturesque street in the English part of Shanghai. It has the advantage of good width, so that the Chinese signs with which it is hung from end to end on each side show to advantage. This street leads out to the pleasant Bubbling Well road, all along which fine views are obtained of the surrounding country. Shanghai is built on the edge of the great plain of Kaing See the largest of the plains of China. It is said to be in extent 3000 miles by 12,000, and to be the very garden of the land of China. This garden of China is much bedotted with mounds of earth that are untouched and uncultivated. In many cases these mounds make up as much as a fourth of the field in which they stand. They are the graves of former pro- prietors, and are held as sacred and untouchable by the present owners. " These graves take up much of the land," I said to the kindly friend who was driving me around the country. " Oh, yes, they do indeed. Cremation would be the salva- tion of China would place so much more land in cultivation. These large graves about the fields are great drawbacks to the profits of the cultivator of the land." "Yet I suppose he would rather perish than level the ground and cultivate the spot." "He holds the grave of his ancestors as sacred as his own pigtail, and so helps to starve himself by his superstition.." IO2 The Main Routes Roitnd the World. The settlement of Shanghai appears to have a pleasant future before it. It is an increasing and prosperous place. The Chinese are not to be feared. As a nation they are the weakest of warriors, and incapable alike of aggression and defence. They need the protection of a strong power like England. It is well that a company like to the aggressive East India Company have not found a footing among them. The fate of India would have been that of China ere now. Its wonderful system of civilization and government held it together, as a nation, until its constitution was broken by the rude shocks of war made by the British in 1842, 1869, and 1872. The power of China was, by the first of these shocks, so injured that the Taeping rebellion gradually gained strength thereafter, and grew to formidable results that have desolated many populous parts of the empire, and threatened it with dissolution. China, as a nation, is as weak and defenceless now as a milch cow. To keep the nation together should be the aim of the rest of the world ; for, if it falls to pieces, its millions will take to emigration, and flood the labour-markets of the world. There is no such cheap labourer as a China- man, and none so dangerous as a competitor with Western workfolk. CHAPTER X. THE CHINESE PORTS. PASSING down to Foo-chow, a great tea-shipping place, and Amoy, a similar one, in one of the boats of Holt's line, I am taken thence to Hong Kong and landed at the smallest colony AMOY HARBOUR. that Great Britain possesses. It is, I was told, but thirty-six miles round. The extravagant salary of 5OOO/. a year is paid to its lucky governor. Time was when Melbourne was the golden thing in governorships. Looking at the thing all round, the " plum" would appear now to be Hong Kong one-twentieth the size of little Tasmania, and no bother of responsible government and playing at Parliament. 104 The Main Routes Round the World. Hong Kong is like to Madeira in the first look which the traveller gets of it a white town at the foot of a mountain. Seen at night, lighted up, it has a pretty appearance indeed to those who then approach it by its land-locked and winding harbour. To go into Hong Kong in foggy weather must be impossible. Winding about among the rocks and their narrow passages, this Gibraltar-like place is reached at last, long after the traveller has seen the flag that waves at the look-out station on the top of the o'erhanging mountain. There is no separate native town at Hong Kong, as at Shanghai. There is advantage in this to those who like to see the Chinese brought to comply with European customs and to live in wide and clean streets. Except around the water's edge, wheeled vehicles are not much used in Hong Kong. The sedan chair carried on the bamboo is the favourite form of moving about. The cold winter weather of Shanghai had been now quite left behind. At the end of January, Hong Kong was too warm for one's liking. The mosquitoes were troublesome, and all walking about out of the question. Having taken a drive out to Happy Valley to see the race- course, and declined the fatiguing journey to the flagstaff- house, the sights of Hong Kong proved to be exhausted. I walked through its native market in the early morning, and left its fine white stone houses and the green waters of its pretty bay to go by steamer, " Kui Kiang," down to Canton, by way of the wide river of the same name, called also the Pearl River. On board this boat I met with one who had made a name as an Australian vocalist and ballad-writer. For years I had missed all mention of him. In his present avocation of a " curio" collector and exporter he is well and profitably employed. Another acquaintance turned up in the tall figure of Chang, the Chinese giant, whom I had met when exhibiting himself around the world many years back. He was now seeking to establish himself in business at one of the Chinese ports, if he could resist some tempting terms to again travel in company with another Chinese giant lately found, and who is even taller than himself. I endeavoured, for the benefit of A Volcano. 105 the world, to turn the scale in favour of the tour of the Celestial giants. Traders are plenty in China " too plenty," as they express it in their attempts at English but giants of 8 ft. are scarce, and the world likes wonders. The Chinese, when they learn any French or German, speak it correctly. Not so with the English language. They mess it about in a comical manner, and make of it new words and phrases. The trouble with a Chinaman is to pronounce the letter R. With the Japanese the same trouble exists with the letter L. "American" is by the Chinese pronounced as " Melican." " Askee Melican man topside" was said to me by a Chinaman. It meant that he would ask an American on deck some question as to the value of a United States dollar that I was paying to him. Anything that implies a higher situation is " topside" in this " pidgin English." " Pidgeon (or pidgin) English," as this cackle is called, really means " business" English, the word " pidgin" being as near as a Chinaman can bring his tongue to the sound of the word " business." As the Chinese can get no nearer to English language than this childish half-and-half talk, the British trader has to adopt it also, and the result is very whimsical. Grown-up men with grey beards are heard talking to Chinamen as a child might use broken English at three years of age. On board this steamer that was taking me to Canton I noticed that all approaches to between decks were guarded with iron doors, in front of which one of the crew walked with a loaded gun. On the upper deck plenty of Chinese of a better class were left at their ease, but those taking second- class passage, and they were legion, were placed thus under guard, and within iron gates. I asked of the captain as to this state of things. " You are walking on a volcano that's all," was his reply. " See," he said, drawing a revolver from his breast pocket, " I am never without this on me." An alarming state of things certainly, which I heard this explanation of: 1 06 The Main Routes Round the World. " Only two years ago, between here and Canton, a similar lot to what I now carry raised a quarrel among themselves, and brought it upon deck, and ended it by killing the captain, my predecessor, and the crew, and taking the vessel ! " The iron gates at the foot of the stairs were now explained, and so were the men with the guns, and he that walked the quarter-deck with the drawn sword in his hand. " The Vol- cano " consisted of about a thousand Chinamen lolling about in all attitudes, smoking opium or tobacco, playing cards or dominoes, scraping at stringed instruments, singing ballads in voices like to that of a cat, telling stories to a listening crowd, or sleeping in every conceivable attitude in which humanity can get sleep. I got the iron gates opened, and walked among this crowd of possible pirates, and saw a different scene to that which I had looked upon in the work-a-day city of Shanghai. There all was industry and plodding labour. Here it was the improvement of the leisure hours in that manner most to the taste of each. Opium-smoking takes first place in the number of Chinese amusements. It is far more general than I had imagined, quite as common as was the chewing of tobacco amongst the folks of Great Britain forty years ago, and more common than snuff-taking is with Europeans at present. A veritable little cabinet of articles has to be carried about by the opium- smoker. It is as large and as full of instruments as a lady's work-box. No. I is the buffalo horn box that holds the treacley-looking stuff that is the opium about to be smoked. No. 2 is the steel skewer, with which sufficient of the opium is taken up and wound about the skewer's point. No. 3 is the little lamp now to be lighted, at which the opium will be heated. No. 4 is the bowl of the pipe, covered over all but a small hole in the centre, into which the heated opium is squeezed by the point of the skewer. No. 5 is the pipe-stem, now fixed on to the bowl. All this bother being finished, he that has taken it lies down at half-length, puts the pipe mouthpiece between his lips, and the light to the small hole in the bowl. That ignites the opium within. The smoke is Opium-smoking. 107 drawn from the bowl and passed into the mouth, and thence into the lungs, whence it is, after a second or two, expelled through the nostrils. After four or five long whiffs the opium is exhausted. The smoker will then lie quietly to enjoy the effects, or, if the dose has not been strong enough to produce them, he will prepare another one. It looks like to taking of great trouble, but " the labour we delight in physics pain." Usually one pipe suffices, and the smoker passes into half an hour's doze. As I look at him I would give something handsome for his pleasant sensations, and the gorgeous visions that he is now enjoying, but cannot bring myself to buy them at the cost he pays. In a neuralgic attack I once had to take a mild preparation of opium in the shape of a morphia pill, and I recall all the pleasant dreams of that painless night ; also the light head and the sick stomach of all the next day. Like other pleasures, it is very nice, but the day after, and its sufferings, counterbalance all the pleasure counterbalance it until the pleasure in its lightness kicks the beam against the heavy weight of the suffering on the other side. Beyond the opium-smoking vice, at a long distance, comes the gambling one. Of three average Chinamen caught at a street corner, one will smoke opium for amusement, the second will gamble, and the third will sleep. Cards and dominoes are seen everywhere among the strewn battlefield-like scene that I now am picking my way through. I have to tread on tiptoe between the arms and legs of the sleepers, and am like to a camp-follower that looks for the prize of a dead officer among the mass of dead and dying of the rank and file. The musical instruments and the singing scare me out of the place at last, and I pass through the iron gate and by its guardian, and on to upper deck again, having seen the possible pirates at all their leisurely amusements. The scenery of the fine river on which I am steaming down to Canton affords equal interest to the scenes between decks. To some it would be more interesting, but Pope was of opinion that the study of mankind is of first moment. Dr. Johnson believed also in what Fleet-street could show him against all loS The Main Routes Round the World. other scenes. On either side of the Kui Kiang, and on the islands in its midst, are forts that English guns have destroyed, now lying dismantled and deserted. Stone walls that cross hill and dale at their rear and side still stand. The useless labour and wasted work over these Chinese fortifications is a painful sight, except perhaps to the philosopher, who may regard all the works of men as coming to much the same thing at the end. Here, too, on the left side of the broad river stands Whampoa, or what remains of that once populous town. It is now a deserted water-side village, with a towering pagoda overhanging it. This building is over 200 ft. high, and has a tree growing from the summit of its tower. It is of the shape of one of the round towers of Ireland, and not of the orna- mental style that is brought to mind by the word pagoda. Vegetation is growing also on its window-sills, and wherever a creeper can get foothold or a seed dropped by a bird find mortar and moisture to aid its growth. Whampoa's good time was when no foreign vessels were allowed to pass further onwards to Canton. That state of things is done away with, and the formerly busy port may now write " Ichabod " on its landing-stage, in its deserted streets, on its empty and trembling houses, and its decaying temples and pagodas. The busy life of the Kui Kiang River begins after Whampoa is passed. Dozens of the native boats (sampans) appear on either side. These increase in number to hundreds. By the time that the anchor is dropped at Canton, the boat-life of the big river is in full view. The surface seems to be covered with water-craft of all sizes, but varying little in shape. From 500 tons down to five, and to half a ton only, these boats are seen everywhere. Those from two- tons upwards constitute the dwellings of their owners. In these floating habitations they are born, and in these they marry and live, rear a family, pass on to old age, and sit as grandfathers steering the boats that they sculled as boys. The Chinese boat-women do all the business work that comes in the way of boat life. The husband's duties appear A G^tide. 109 to be amidships, keeping the boat clear from other craft, and taking orders from his busy and barefooted better half. She picks up the pidgin English more quickly than her dull mate, and for that reason generally gets the boat licensed to herself as the owner. Preference is given to the best educated in China, even down to the boat-folk. I am sitting on board the steamer, getting a friendly Chinese scholar to write me several cards showing name and address in Chinese characters, when my shoulder is tapped, and looking up I find a smart-mannered, bright-looking woman at my side. Two or three others are also around, all desirous to assist me on shore. Says my lady, " Come, master, you go shore, you come hotel, my boat." " What hotel are you going to ? " I ask. " Rosario Hotel. Only one hotel. International Hotel fall down." Finding from the captain that this is truth, and that there is but one hotel, I take Hobson's choice in the matter, and go with my neat-looking guide. She looks to be about thirty. It is true that she is shoeless, and has on but a blue blouse ; but then her fine black hair is elegantly put up and neatly ornamented. That so assists her that she is almost good- looking. She wants to take my heavy travelling-bag, but I have not the conscience to let her do such drudgery. I gallantly take it from her hand, at which the captain laughs. He says, " She can carry it better than you can. She will think now that you are afraid to entrust it to her, and take her for a thief." It was, of course, possible that my politeness might be so misconstrued ; but I let her lead the way to her family boat, which she at once pushes out from the landing, and begins to scull across the stream. How herself and her husband ever get through the mass of boats that cover that teeming river is best known to themselves. I sit down under a circular cover- ing of bamboo, roofed with rush-made matting, and find there two little children, sitting quiet as mice, and good as gold. 1 1 o The Main Routes Round the World. They have but small room for play or mischief, and are never away from the eyes of their fond papa in the rear, and mamma in the front. At night-time this covered space of 6 ft. long by 3ft. broad serves, I suppose, for family bedroom. There is more wretchedness and misery to be seen among the Irish cotters and the peasantry of wretched Turk-governed Syria than I have seen in the boat-life of the Chinese rivers. Susan, for so she called herself, took me to an hotel, the steps of which went down below the water. It had an over- hanging balcony of wood, and was wood-built all through. There was ready escape, however, into the river in case of fire. Rosario's Hotel would not suit fastidious folk, but I was well satisfied with it for the time I stayed. On the river that I look at right and left from the balcony of the hotel, its owner tells me, 50,000 people are living, having their boats for sole residence. I find that I am now at Honam, and that Canton is on the opposite shore. There, at the left, is Shameen, the foreign settlement, in which neither hotel nor coolie is allowed. The bridges to it are guarded, that the English, French, and Ger- man residents may live in a strictly select manner. Shameen is certainly a well-laid-out and nicely-planted place, but a first-class hotel ought certainly to be built there for the con- venience of foreign visitors. All travellers have not friends there in whose houses to find a welcome. Rosario is a Portu- guese who speaks broken English. At present he enjoys a monopoly which is not to the advantage of travellers. I engage a guide for the proper exploration of Canton on the following two days. In the evening Susan comes to me of her own free will and wit as knowing the wants of the friendless traveller. " You want to see river, master. I come at eight. Take you to boat. Show you wedding party. Take you to tea- boats, and show you lots of things." " You are a jewel. You come at eight, and I'll go." Her English was not so plain as I have put it down. In fact, she had to repeat twice or thrice everything that she said, River by Moonlight. 1 1 1 but the truth generally dawned upon me at last, as it does to all of us. So that evening I am taken on board the family boat, which now in the moonlight, with a pretty paper lantern at stem and stern, looks like to a gay gondola. Susan sculls and talks, andher husband sculls and is silent. His mother, at the helm, steers and looks after her grandchildren. It all looks very novel and pleasing. In and out among the endless boats, I make way for a mile or two ; sitting down under cover is now not to be thought of. The paper lanterns give a gay and carnival look to the river scene that forces one's attention and admiration. It was so very different to anything that I had hitherto seen anywhere this scene on the Canton river by moonlight. The boat is drawn at last alongside a large one of similar build, into which I am bid to step. It is a tea or pleasure boat that I am now upon. Music is on hand, and tea and cakes and sweetmeats. Folks tired of the day's tussle on shore come to these boats in the evening to enjoy the river and the breeze, the feast of Chinese raisins, and the flow of the tea-bowl. Of that warm, insipid beverage Susan brings me a basin and a plate of sweetmeats. I en- deavour to do as others do, but find that I am not happy at the tea and sweets. The latter make the sugarless tea taste positively bitter. I try to sweeten it with them, but it by no means improves the flavour. " No saki to be got, Susan ? " I said. She asks for the rice spirit, and gets it. It is but little better than the tea ; but it is better, and Susan brings a cigar with it in her happy way of spreading bliss around. From the pleasure-boat I progress in another direction for a mile or so, until sounds of revelry come upon me in the night and the moonlight. I am drawn up alongside a still larger boat than the last one, and bid step into it. It is a wedding celebration that I have now got among. The bride is resplendent in dress and hair-dressing, but keeps her face closely covered. One of Susan's sisters is a 1 1 2 The Main Routes Round the World. bridesmaid, I suppose, for she looks almost as fine as the bride. I fear almost to shake hands with her until Susan tells me that I will be allowed that liberty with her, and also with the bride. Thanks to the saki, I suppose, I gather courage to do so. Hat in hand, I return the bows that wel- come me under the large awning, and take my seat among sixty or so of wedding guests. Prompted by Susan, my good genius of that evening, the bride uncovers her face, and brings me a tray with tea. The courtesy with which she tendered that tray quite overpowered me. My good breeding was hardly equal to returning it, and, taking the tea and getting upright again, and spilling none of it. The bride looked very nice but I scarcely ever saw a bride who did not. The tea really tasted better than other tea, because herself had brought it to me. Call it not vain. I do not err in so saying. Longfellow says that Nuremberg looked better, and its sunshine brighter, because Albert Diirer, the artist, had trodden its streets. Said Susan, now again at my side, " You thank the bride. You wish them both happy life. You give bride present." The last suggestion of this good woman was easily com- plied with ; but how to thank the bride and wish happiness to the married pair was a teazer. Not one of them but Susan probably would understand a word I said, however much I might try to " pidgin " my English. It was really distressing so much so that Susan, seeing my hesitation, increased it by getting the bride to bring me a cup of hot saki and water. I gained time by asking Susan to put sugar in it, waited until it melted, and then got the bride to stir it around with her fair finger. It did, indeed, taste sweet after that. I gave Susan the dollars to distribute ; but she brought the recipients to me that I might place them in their hands, which I did, Susan dictating what should be given, and managing the whole matter in first-rate diplomatic style a born politician. I hoped to sneak out of the speech-making, but that was A Wedding Party. 113 not for Susan. Oh, dear, no ! I was not to be thus let off. She now spoke decisively about it. The power and influence of women on such occasions is wonderful. They seem to shine then as at no other time. There is amongst them the joy over the captured husband similar to what there must be, I think, among the angels in Heaven over the sinner that repenteth. Said Susan, " You wish them good luck. You stand up and tell them so. Don't be humbug." This was not " pidgin," but plain English. The last word was scarcely applicable. If anything, I was the soft party in the business of that strange evening. Susan must have meant " fool," I think, but it mattered not. There was no help for it. Nobody there to understand me but Susan, and none to report the speech. Every speech-maker has had occasion to wish he could get off on as easy terms. I made the speech in the usual wise way of such addresses, and Susan led off a round of hand-clapping, and got others to follow it. I then got bride and bridegroom to write me their names in pencil on a card, and got Susan to give me the English equivalent sounds, and then she insisted on my shaking hands all round. I never had so good a guide anywhere in all my travels as that bare-footed boatwoman. She was made for the office of guide, and perhaps philosopher and friend as well. She took an interest in her " pidgin," and anticipated my wants, and not, like to others, left everything to be suggested and asked for. She volunteered her services, and as a volunteer was worth a dozen hirelings. CHAPTER XL A LOOK AT CANTON. I. CANTON proved to be a city well worth any trouble taken to see it. The native guide, Ah Kum, who steered me through its network intricacies, was a professional, and none the better as a guide for that reason. It was Hobson's choice, however, as my better boatwoman guide did not undertake land labour. Her domain was the water only. All the zeal that she had voluntarily showed for one's benefit was not to be bought of others, pay how one might for it. The hireling cared not for the sheep, except for fleecing him. Ah Kum was a heathen Chinee in every sense too much so altogether for the good of any one but himself. Canton was to him a certain number of show-places, to be visited and got through with as quickly as possible, and be done with and paid for. A certain number of shops and stores, at which he had credit, and from which he drew commission, were then to be visited, and pur- chases there recommended, and there only. To fight against all that sort of thing involved a continual assertion of a free- man's right, and constant squabbles with a guide who was neither philosopher nor friend, as was the zealous boatwoman of the day before. He would not walk, this guide of mine. His ankle was bad for the same reason that Talleyrand suggested that a certain diplomatist had the gout. Palanquins had, perforce, to be taken, and Canton to be viewed over the naked shoulder of a The Streets. 1 1 5 perspiring Chinaman in front, and out of two small window openings at the sides. These views around were at an eleva- tion of six feet from the ground not a height to make one giddy, but still higher than one had usually looked at things from, and therefore unnatural. The motion of the palanquin had some resemblance to that of a boat at sea, and made one's stomach feel sickish. As there was nothing but Chinese food to be had at the Canton tea-houses, the latter trouble did not much matter. Appetite was wanting for that day, had even the most tempting dishes offered. CHINESE PALANQUIN. How we pushed and squeezed our way through those ten- feet-wide streets, crowded with the millions of China ! Jostling here and there, and sometimes coming to a dead-lock alto- gether, we made our way somehow, but it was all struggling and trouble. The stones of these mercantile alleys were worn smooth and slippery by the ceaseless traffic of the surging crowd, but the barefooted bearers who carried me through it all never slipped or tripped. It would have been delightful to have walked and elbowed one's way on one's own account, as I 2 1 1 6 The Main Routes Round the World. a man should do. Then upward glances might have been given to the countless thousands of flags of oblong shape that served as signs for the shops over which they hung. Then I could have stopped to examine this or that novelty that fixed one's attention, and looked after the curiosities in the way of humanity, past which one was now hurried. A city can only be seen satisfactorily by the pedestrian. The novel industries that here and there cropped up, the singing beggars, and the awful lepers might have had one's full attention, and not been scurried past as they had to be. Having found out the word for calling a halt when wanted, the first use I made of it was at a shop in which, in a most limited space, three small bullocks were blindfolded, revolving round millstones. This was the process of grinding grain that I saw often repeated elsewhere during the day a primitive method that had probably been in use some thousands of years. A most extraordinary industry next called one's at- tention. It was a dyer's workshop, in which a man, supported by his hands between two horizontal bars, such as are seen at a gymnasium, oscillated by his feet an enormous stone of tri- angular shape. The obtuse apex rested on a roller that was rolling and pressing some silk fabric that had been newly dyed. With his feet on the upturned base, first pressing one end and then the other, he kept the roller in rapid motion his own motions being equally rapid. Only long practice could have given hinvthe knack of guiding the heavy stone so as to go within hairbreadth of slipping off the roller and never doing so. The roller slipped not from under that foot-and-a- half of stone surface that kept it going, and pressed with five hundredweight upon it. At the end of a quarter of an hour this dancing workman could, with a single movement of his foot, cant the stone on one end, and, descending upon the floor, place a further portion of the silk in position to be similarly treated to that now removed. And yet these China- men believe that they do everything more cleverly than the rest of the world ! Their conceit is of a most self-satisfactory sort. A rolling-mill of the most simple kind would do the Gambling. 1 1 7 work infinitely quicker and better than this most rudimentary method of doing it. They are, however, satisfied with their way. It suited their forefathers in countless ages past, and must therefore be the proper thing. The Chinese reverence antiquity its traditions and usages. They are the most con- servative of the nations of the world. Little mobs that were assembled where any space offered for their doing so proved, on inspection, to be around gambling tables. Nothing but copper " cash " appeared to be staked. I suggested to Ah Kum that he should try his fortune with a A CHINESE HOUSE. silver coin that was the smallest currency I had with me. He placed it on the board, but the table-keeper rejected it. He would not take so large a stake. The crowds of hurrying human beings, all on industry bent, that are to be seen in Canton give one a good idea of the dense population of this over-populated China. Canton is one of its large cities seemingly as large as Yeddo in Japan, but not covering so much ground. It is a walled city, and space is consequently economized to the utmost. A dozen 1 1 8 The Main Routes Round the World. people are to be seen in Canton in the same space that only one would be visible in at New York. The struggle for existence seems to be very desperate indeed in these Chinese cities. My thoughts about it were interrupted by a blow on the roof of the palanquin that nearly sent it off the bearers' shoulders, and caused me to clutch at its sides. The palan- quin-carriers had jostled a stalwart, blind beggar, who, in a frenzied manner, lashed out right and left with a bamboo staff that he carried. He was evidently a semi-lunatic, who else- where would have been in confinement. Looking back towards him out of the rear window of my swinging-cage, I perceived a crowd round him, and the bamboo still at work. Save for his blindness and half-nude condition, he might have represented one of the sturdy quarterstaff-carrying beggars of England's bygone days. Police of any sort do not appear to be about in Canton. The preservation of the peace seems to be left to the co-operation of the public. At one place the street was blocked up for five minutes by a mob that listened to the abuse that a furious coolie was hurling at a shop-keeper. The cause of the trouble was that copper cash, equivalent to a penny, but about a handful, nevertheless, had been paid to him for some small service that he considered worth twice that amount. It was not until his indignation and his lungs became exhausted that the stream of traffic could move on. It was rare strong abuse that he vented forth. His features and the hoarse tone of his deep bass voice told that. I saw no street fights. While listening to and watching that scene, a skinny arm was thrust within the window of my cage. In place of a hand at the end of it, an earthenware cup was strapped thereon. It was the arm of a leper, whose hand had been eaten off by disease a horrible sight. These poor creatures are not, as in some places, placed in hospitals, but wander about Canton begging rubbing shoulders, meanwhile, with the jostling crowds. The heart of the crowded city is now reached. I feel that if left in it I should remain there for all ability of getting out A Temple. 1 1 9 that I possessed. Not a soul had I met that showed a sign of speaking English not one that I could even think of addressing in the faint hope of his doing so. Not a European costume had met my eyes. All pigtails and shaved polls, and smocks of white or blue, for the richer, and bare shoulders for the poorer class. To get into the city I had progressed for some time through outskirts as crowded as was that part within the walls. That I had reached the walls became known to me by my cage-bearers asking me to get out and scramble up some hundred rugged steps that led to their top. This wall looked very old indeed. It had not kept out the cannon-balls of the English, however fired into Canton in 1859. Marks of these troublesome things were visible in many places notably so in one of the temples, in which swings a fine bronze bell of many hundreds I was told thousands of tons weight. Out of the side of this bell a ball had knocked a piece 2 ft wide, and left the ugly ragged gap as evidence of it. The grand bell is thereby quite spoilt. A legend attaches to this bell that, if it ever rang, the city would be lost. The cannon-ball that caused it to ring on that occasion was a wonderful fulfilment of prophecy. Canton did not long stand that bombardment, which was something like throwing hot coals into a beehive. Brick, of a slaty colour, is the prevailing building material used in Canton, but some walls are visible that are wholly made up of oyster-shells a novel and not a bad material, as it seemed to me. The city wall is built of a bluish stone, much honeycombed in course of its volcanic manufacture. A halt is called by Ah Kum at the temple of the Five- hundred Genii. It is an unpretending building of one story only, but contains many halls filled with 500 sitting figures, all gilded. The gilding of the sitting figure of Prince Albert in Hyde Park was probably suggested by this show of 500 such gaudy things. These figures represent different half- length figures, on whose forms and faces the sculptor appears to have exhausted ingenuity to produce variety. No two are alike. In several cases an arm of the figure is upraised and 1 20 The Main Routes Round the World. stretched out to 5 ft. in length. None of them, however, look any worse than the Albert Memorial figure. After looking at about two or three hundred of these life-size figures, curiosity about them is satisfied, and the rest postponed. A priest of the temple, who has watched in the distance, then approaches, and 1 pay him as I should do for visiting a wax- work show. The 500 are carved in wood. They are all supposed to have special influences with the deity. A devotee can take his choice as to which is likely to do best for him. A laughing one, with three children in his lap, and one on each shoulder, looked most domestic of the number. From the temple of the Five Hundred I pass to the gaol of Canton. This place is like, I suppose, what gaols were in Europe before the efforts of Howard had called attention to their disgrace- ful state. Anything more disgusting than the gaol at Canton cannot be imagined. My squeamish guide refused to go into it. The nasty smells that came betwixt the wind and his gentility made him sick, he said. I might go in if I liked, but was likely to catch gaol fever if I did. As no prophecy was ever fulfilled in me, I regard it not, and passed through a rotten old gate into a dirty courtyard. In this place men were standing about with heavy stones chained to their feet. That, with the greater misery of utter idleness, is one of the punishments. Passing through a narrow filthy passage, I look into what appears to be an old stable, but is an apartment of about 25 ft. square. Through some holes in the wall that admit light, and some iron bars that help to keep it out, I look upon a sight that cannot be forgotten. The smell of the dungeon was very foul, and the sight more so. About fifteen men were here cooped up, each with his head thrust through a heavy wooden collar, made of several pieces of planking nailed on each other. This strange instrument of torture was about 3 ft. square, projecting over the shoulders on each side. With that on, there is no lying down for the wearer, and no rest to be had in any position. Its weight must be considerable, and its torture also. It is worn for a fortnight and three weeks at a time, and is equivalent to the The GaoL 121 British punishment of " hard labour " added to short sentences. Hard labour would be no punishment to add to a Chinaman's sentence, if of the lower orders. His whole life is made up of that. The poorer wretches crowded to the bars of this pen with outstretched hands. What good money could do them in that place I could not imagine, but they had what change I possessed. If it made them less miserable for a moment only, it was well given. In another part of the prison I found other punishments in progress. Culprits were receiving heavy blows on the face, with leathern things made like to the sole of a shoe. The jaw is frequently broken by this punishment ; but that matters not. It is left in a broken state. Others were tied in a kneeling position, and one with outstretched arms tightly bound by cords to bars of wood. I did not see the thumb- screw, or the scavenger's daughter, or the iron boot anywhere in use. The Chinaman is too conservative to adopt Euro- pean customs. A gaoler sat at a door, which I asked him to open. He did so, and I walked into a quadrangle, in which about twenty men were walking, or sitting and lying about. Their cells were all around. They were not bound or ironed in any way. I thought that it might be the hospital or lunatic ward that I had got into, and went out to inquire from the guide, who was playing with his toothpick outside. I learned that this was the condemned cell. He said, "Those men you see there are not punished beyond imprisonment. They are to have their heads cut off next week ; you stop and see it. I take you to the execution ground this afternoon ! " These men were then condemned to die as we all are but these knew when 'twas to happen. I went back to see them and took them some tobacco, which Ah Kum suggested as the most likely thing wanted. Though knowing when their lives were to be ended, they all seemed quite careless about the matter. Life is not a very dear thing to a China- man in poor condition. The waiting a week for death was, I think, their chief misery. The tobacco was a rare gift for 122 The Main Routes Round the World. them. They all seemed ready to die then and there to get a share of it. Walking about among twenty condemned criminals is not an every-day occurrence. Their hands were not, however, stained with murder. People are hanged in China for things which the Insolvent Court clears them from in the Western world. I had no doubt that among these twenty were men as good as any other twenty that I had passed among anywhere. From the gaol to the temple of horrors was an appropriate progression. It is a temple fitted up to represent the punish- ments of the wicked whether here or hereafter I could not well make out. There cannot, however, be much difference. A man was represented as sandwiched between two planks, and being sawn through down the middle. That is a death still in fashion in China. Others were being mangled in their way, and that too horrible to look at. Yet this temple is more crowded with visitors than are any others. It is to be hoped that the moral lesson intended is not lost. Outside this temple a sort of fair is holden. Dentists are there draw- ing teeth in the open air, and quacks selling their nostrums. Something of that sort is required, no doubt, after the sights within the temple. They are enough to make any one feel unwell. One stall particularly attracted my attention. It was that of an astrologer, who drew horoscopes for a shilling. Ah Kum seemed to sneer at this man and his profession, but then what could a heathen Chinee know about spiritual- ism ? I paid my money, and got the mysterious paper from the mystic man. It looks all the more wonderful and weird from being in Chinese characters. I was offered a translation of it for five shillings four times its cost, but it is as well not to know one's fate. I shall keep that horoscope. Framed and glazed, it will look like one of the old needlework pieces that used to be so honoured and hung up in every house in our grandfathers' days. The ten-storied pagoda now came into sight, and its sum- mit afforded a fine sight of the city from a downward point of view. The streets looked at from thence seemed like to Ah Kum's Watch. 123 cracks in a pavement. Had I not known by rude experience that they were streets, one would not have so thought on seeing, for the first time, Canton from this point of view. It was like to a city all roofed in ; the street openings might have been mistaken for roof guttering. Near to this ten- storied pagoda, I passed a tall, old Mahomedan round tower, which has no access to the top. On the top grows a large tree that has sent its roots adown the brick sides of the tower in search of nourishment. A similar thing I had seen at Whampoa. The Tern pie of the Five Genii differs from that of the Five Hundred in this, that the five goats are shown, on which they flew through the air into Canton, there to remain for its good. The goats, I suppose, had wings ; but when their mission was ended, they were turned into five lumps of rough stone that are now deposited in front of the genii. I asked Ah Kum if he believed the legend. He answered, " Not much." He gave no reason for doubting it, and seemed to take the presence of the five stones as no evidence. He seemed to believe only in his dandy British gold watch and pencil-case. A dozen times an hour he would pull out the one or the other, and seemed surprised that I took no notice of them. At last he broke forth, " Best watch in Canton cost forty guineas. Chinamen can make anything but watches." It was not true, but still it was something to hear a China- man admit that there was something his countrymen could not do. I asked, " How did you keep time in China before you got timekeepers from other countries?" "To-morrow I take you to tower, and show you the great water-clock of Canton then you see ! " CHAPTER XII. A LOOK AT CANTON. II. AH KUM'S determination to do no walking about Canton was very vexing. I specially thought so when he brought up two palanquins next day, seemingly as a matter of course. "Is your ankle no better?" I queried. "No! cannot walk!" He said this with an immediate refer- ence to his gold watch. It was evident that the possession of that article had much to do with his general ideas. He looked at it, not to know the time, but to settle all questions generally. He walk with property like that in his possession, indeed! Ah Kum wore his finger-nails very long over an inch. In China that is done to indicate that the possessor of the fingers does no work with his hands, as the small foot indicates that the owner does no walking. When Ah Kum exhibited his watch, he took care also to show his finger-nails to the best advantage. Of this hideous deformity he was most unwar- rantably proud. I doubt if any European could get so elevated in mind on uncut finger-nails. They were always, too, a nuisance to him, interfering with all the movements of his hands. He endured it, however, for fashion's sake, as folks do the modern torture of high boot-heels. " Very well, then you will ride and I shall walk. I can see nothing when shut up in those palanquins. Send away the one you mean for my use !" This satire on his vanity did not seem to suit his feelings, Water-clock. 125 but I was strong on the subject, and the second palanquin was sent away. Being on foot, I was master of the situation for the day, and could stay where I pleased, and for long or short time using Ah Kum in his cupboard merely for reference now and then. In this style we went to see the great water- clock of Canton. It is not relied upon now, as formerly, for time-telling purposes, but it keeps its count of the minutes and hours as accurately as ever. It differed with my time only two minutes. Ah Kum had his watch out at once, and held it now altogether exposed. Such an opportunity of exhibition was not to be lost. With that watch the clock differed nothing. It was no doubt keeping correct Canton time. Its construction seemed simplicity itself. Three large barrels were set on end two of them at a height of 3 ft. each from the other. From bamboos inserted in the bung-holes, the water from the highest barrel dribbled to the next, and from that to the lower one. The head of that one was removed. In its water floated, uprightly, a graduated metallic scale like to the face of a ther- mometer on which the twenty-four hours were marked. As the water increased, this indicator marked its progress and the hour next to be reached and covered over. The upper barrel of the three held the exact quantity of water that would dribble out and into the lower one in twenty-four hours. At the expiration the water would cease to run, and the indicator be covered with water. The lower barrel would then be emptied into the upper one, and business begin again. Three patient Chinamen superintend this timekeeper and watch their hours thus drib- bling away. In former times it was death to any one of them that was found to be sleeping out of his turn. A graduated sand-glass would have been a much better article than this water-clock, but the hour-glass was not a Chinaman's idea. Of glass the Chinaman makes much. It appears to be blown in egg-shaped pieces of very large size and very thin quality. At none of the places where I saw glass-working going on were any flat sheets of it to be seen. Out of these large glass bubbles, as they appeared to be, the artisans were cutting pieces of different sizes for purposes, I think, of fan 126 The Main Routes Round the World. ornamentation and toy mirror making, when the glass should be silvered. The temple of the laughing Buddha is one of the curios of Canton. I was, however, quite full of this figure, whether with laughing face or not. I had seen Buddhas all through the East everywhere, and could draw the figure on a wooden wall with a red-hot poker with my eyes shut. After the grand Buddha figure seen at Kunakura, in Japan, in its 50 ft. high sublimity, all other Buddhist figures were insipid. No gold or silver smiths' shops were seen by me anywhere in Canton. They exist, no doubt, somewhere about the city, in places where no wares are shown to the public eye, but kept, as in most Eastern cities, locked up in boxes and drawers, and exhibited only at visitors' request. The Jade market was the personal ornament of Canton. Business is over there at ten o'clock a.m. I reached it at its busiest time, shortly before its closing for the day, and before the beginning of the festival of the Chinese New Year, when every one must look gay, or as near to it as coloured clothes and ornaments will help. Jade is a greeny- white stone of watery appearance, a sort of agate malachite or malachite agate. The Chinese set great value on this stone ; all sorts of ornaments are made of it comb-backs, rings, and earrings. A Chinese woman must be very poor indeed who has not jade earrings. Where want has really reached to that low depth, imitation glass-jade work has to be substituted. The wearer is, however, unhappy with this substitute, which to a Chinese eye is seen at once to be but imitation. A foreigner's eyes do not so soon detect it. Hundreds of shops and stalls were open in this Canton jade market, and trade seemed to be brisk. The articles were, however, in European ideas, all much too expensive. Jade is not by any means so pleasant-looking a stone as the green- stone of New Zealand. It looks a commoner thing altogether. Yet double the price asked for greenstone in New Zealand is asked in Canton for this jade stuff. When Canton was taken by the English in 1869, much of this jade was taken away as loot by the soldiers, but it failed to find favour in any but The Cemetery. 127 Chinese eyes, and brought no fortune sold, I think, for farthings elsewhere. In Canton, as throughout India and the East generally, are stalls for the sale of the betel-nut-chewing preparation. It is a compound of nut, green leaf, and a stuff called gambier, with a little lime and tobacco added. This abomination, rolled in the green leaf, is sold in balls at four for a penny, or its equi- valent. It makes a red mixture when chewed, and gives to all the men and women who use it about half the people the appearance of having a bleeding mouth. It blackens and destroys the teeth. The chewing of this stuff and the smoking of opium are sad vices of the Chinese. Tobacco-chewing, like to snuff-taking, is disappearing in Great Britain, but the Chinaman is not open to reform. He is by religion a fatalist, and would answer " che sara sara " to all arguments intended for his good. If he did not, he would probably ask for the loan of five dollars as a test of one's interest in his welfare. At the further side of the city from the river is to be found the five-storied pagoda. It stands on the ramparts, and on the highest ground within Canton. It is a stiff walk to reach it, but the view from the summit, o'er city and suburb, repays the toil. Looking outwards from the city side is to be seen a stretch of green country for miles all filled with graves. I am looking here at the cemetery of Canton. Ah Kum, with finger and long claw of a nail extended, points out to me the grave of his father referring to his watch to be quite accurate as to the locality. It cost him, this grave, he said, seventy pounds. These ancestral tombs are often visited by deceased's kith and kin. Hereabout they are shaped like three large horseshoes laid on a slope. In the middle of the second one is the door within which the coffin has been placed. A semi- circular courtyard of four feet or so across is thus left in front and below, and also above, and at the rear of the entrance. Tasty stone-work in many instances makes these graves of a very neat appearance. They satisfy one's ideas about tombs. Chinese civilization looks well in all matters connected with death and the tomb, respect to parents, and veneration of 128 TJie Main Routes Round the World. ancestry. They are ahead in those matters of all mankind. They are fond of their children, and cling to them until poverty forces them to sell their clothing. The children are not sold until all else is gone. With Ah Kum I go to a Chinese tea-house to have a mid-day meal. He tells me I shall not like it ; but I have taken many meals of that sort) more than of any other. It is tiffin time in Canton. The tea-house I go to is three stories high, and each floor is used as a restaurant. The stair- case and walls are in well-carved woods of dark colour. The house evidently has been a costly one. I am, in the DOMESTIC LIFE (CHINA), second floor, bid to sit at a little table for two in a room in which thirty or forty are similarly seated. A cup and saucer are brought to me. Tea is thrown into the cup, and hot water poured upon it. The saucer is then placed over it, and the tea left to " draw." A tray full of confectionery and sweet- meats is next brought, and I am left to choose from a dozen plates that are thus set before me. One of them proves to be eatable. " Try all things, and hold fast to that which is good," occurs to me, and I get the plate replenished. The teacup I now find to be half full of tea-leaves. The Chinese can drink Execution Ground. 129 their tea scalding hot, but I have to saucer mine, for the weather is too hot to let me hope of its speedy cooling in the cup. No milk or sugar is supplied, but I had learnt in Japan to take tea neat. I had that teacup refilled five times. Can- ton investigation is thirsty work with the thermometer at 88 of a moist heat. Everybody in the room seemed to be tobacco-smoking with pipe or cigar, eating and drinking at the same time. The repast was a light one, rice cakes and tea. I did a long afternoon's walk upon it, which testified its suitability to the climate. In these tea-houses, and in the steamboats, pleasure-boats, hotels, and elsewhere, fire-sticks are always to be found with a smouldering end to them. They are made in walking-stick lengths of some pithy matter, and look and feel like to sticks of compressed brown paper. A walking-stick length, broken up into six pieces, provides for a week's want of matches. All cigars and pipes are lighted at these sticks. Rimmel would, of course, add perfume to them, and then incense would seem to burn in all houses. As congreve matches are gradually being introduced in China, these fire-sticks may go out of use. In the flint-and-steel days of Great Britain such sticks, always burning their slow length along, would have been welcome would have saved much knuckle-knocking and probable profanity. All day has Ah Kum been anxious to take me to the exe- cution ground, which he evidently regards as something good in the way of sights. I have asked him if any one is to be decapitated there, and he has said, " Not till next week then twenty you stop." I have explained to him that the attrac- tion is not great enough ; also that an empty execution ground is only a vacant piece of ground, and to me nothing to look at. I explain to him also that I am ignorant of the great and good who may have suffered there with the vile and the bad, and that there are no associations connected with the execution ground that will people it with ghosts and make it enchanted ground to me. He listens and looks at his watch, he tickles his ear with one finger-claw, and says, K 130 The Main Routes Round the World. " Come and see the heap of skulls and bones ; all the hair sticking to some of the skulls yet ! " After that answer, further remarks were unnecessary. It closed the matter. I dropped sentimentalizing, and told Ah Kum to walk on, asking, by the way, what was the time. It so pleased him to pull out that watch that he walked on to do it, and forgot his palanquin. By constantly keeping him pull- ing out and pocketing the watch I kept him always now at my side. In that glow of happiness he forgot his ankle, or rather what he said had ailed it. He explained that he had been saving up for years to buy that watch and the pencil-case. It was one of the strange instances in which the possession seemed to give the happiness that generally only attends the pursuit. He worshipped his baubles more than his Buddha, for he told me that he never went to worship. " Send my wife and the children instead, and give them the money." After all he perhaps attended substantially to what the priests might have said was the principal part of the business. We had by this time reached the execution ground, and lo ! it was a potter's yard. Space is too valuable to be wasted in Canton. Busy artisans were here working at their wheels and moulding pitchers, jugs, and basins over the blood-stained ground. The skulls and bones of which Ah Kum had spoken were piled against the side wall. The sight of the hair attach- ments was wanting. The dogs and rats had no doubt accounted for that. " You can take any of the skulls that you fancy," said Ah Kum, for which sarcasm I retorted by ask- ing how the time went. I wanted to see the headsman's block, but was told that the decapitation was done without it, one cut generally sufficing if the kneeling criminal held his neck steady. "They always do that for their own sake," said Ah Kum. " Have you seen executions here lately ? " I asked. " No, never come to them now. There were thirty executed here a month ago." It seemed a great sacrifice until one looked at the super- abundance of humanity that exists in crowded China, and Filagree Work. 131 thought of the millions that might be well parted with for the benefit of the others. Looked at in that cynical light, this clearing away of the people in batches of thirty seemed almost one of the ways of Providence. As Chinamen and women advance in years, they become shrivelled and hideous beyond other humanity. Death must, I thought, be afraid to approach some of the ancient beings that I saw, who had for years been plainly flying the blue peter at the fore. " We will go now to the dog and rat market English people want to see that," said Ah Kum. This sneer at the select tastes of the English was not bad, but could not be overlooked. " What time will it take ? " I asked, forcing that watch to come out again. Ah Kum could not think of time, I knew, without consulting that oracle. " Take a quarter of an hour ; I show you some good things by the way." The good things consisted of some ornaments made of blue feathers, or the down of some bird of blue plumage. Some shirt-studs, so covered, were neat curios, looking as if made of blue enamel. It was of the delicate filagree work in which the Chinese excel, as also were the inlaying and tracery work on wood that I was next introduced to. The plan is worked out by perforations on paper, which is then laid upon the wood, and the paper sprinkled with a white powder well shaken over it. On the removal of the paper, the white outline of the design is seen, and the wood is then handed over to the workman to be painted in thin but strongly-sticking varnish, over which powdered colours are shaken. To decorate a tray in that style takes a workman days, and yet it sells for about a shilling, wholesale price. Labour counts for nothing in China. The material seems to be that which is only counted in reckoning cost. I resisted all Ah Kum's attempts to get me into shabby old buildings, that had been only tolerable at their best, where the grandees of the city lived. The viceregal residence, or what was equivalent to it, looked a very tawdry affair, not to say somewhat dirty. Like to the Japanese, the Chinese do K 2 132 The Main Routes Round the World. not excel in palaces or temples. One must go to India to see what the Eastern world can do in that way. A trouble had weighed upon Ah Kum's mind all day since the hour that he had seen me purchase some Chinese books. It was the common leathern purse, of English make, out of which I took the necessary cash, that fixed my Chinaman's fancy. His soul thirsted for that purse. It would match the pencil-case and the watch, and his happiness would be then trebled. He had a small, mean-looking English one that he had thought something of before. It had probably cost 6d. when made, while mine might have cost four times that amount. " I will change purses with you, Ah Kum " here his face lighted up " if you will let me cut your nails down as short as mine are." Here it darkened. " I am a gentleman," he said, " and must look like one." " But you look like to a bird of prey, or a madman, with those finger-nails. They don't become a man who carries an English watch like to yours. Besides, I want your nail-tops to take away in a lozenge-box as curios." I could see the mental struggle that was going on until we reached the dog and rat market ; but it finished in favour of the finger-nails. He looked at them several times, and decided to keep them. "You can grow a new lot at any time," I suggested in Mephistophelian manner. " I have not cut my finger-nails for years. They would take years to grow to this length again." That was so self-evident that I could not dispute it. There was no chance of doing so, as we were now with the skinned dogs, and the skinned and split rats. Shakspeare is authority for calling rats and mice " small deer " and articles of food. Here this miniature venison was in plenty. Shops after shops showed tiny carcases hanging up for sale, looking scarcely as nice as chickens and ortolans, but about the same size. The dogs looked lean, but then all the dogs of the East look so. It is very short commons with Dog and Rat Market. 133 them all their miserable life long. An Eastern dog is so sharp set at all times that he will devour anything. One of them left the mark of his teeth on my fingers in Shanghai in his eagerness to snap up a crust of bread. The loss of life is but little loss to such, and they revenge it by the poor picking that their bones must furnish to those who starved them thus in their lifetime. The rats are plumper and are classed as barn or vegetable-fed rats, and drain or carrion-fed ditto. The latter have a gamey flavour, I was told, but the former fetch the higher price. CHAPTER XIII. IN CHINA. I TAKE ship at Canton for Macao, and find myself among some 600 passengers of many nationalities, but 580 decidedly Chinese. That large majority, with the exception of about fifty, were kept between decks, as I had seen done on the MACAO, FROM THE BAY. voyage from Hong Kong to Canton, and locked out with iron- barred gates from any nearer approach to the upper deck. That upper deck held, besides the fifty Chinese allowed to be there, about twenty men whose native places were widely apart. Two of them were Armenians, three were Greeks, one was Market Morning. 135 from Portugal, and two from the Manillas. These, with Germans, Dutchmen, and Americans, made up the number that were not Mongolians. On board that boat I was the only Englishman. The most agreeable of our number were the two Armenians, polite and intelligent men, who talked English as if born to it. The great attraction of the steamer's company was, however, to be found between decks. In "Lower Canton," as that portion of the ship was termed, were some very strange sights. Three large vats of some nine feet in diameter and six feet deep were here to be seen, filled with water and large fresh-water fish. I am sure that there was as much of fish as of water in those vats. The fish were to be sold alive at the end of the voyage. The method of keeping them in that state was ingenious for Chinamen, though a European would have perhaps called it clumsy. The water was continually dipped up from the vat in a bucket which was then emptied into a barrel fixed on the vat's edge. From this barrel came a bamboo, of two inches diameter, sloping towards the water in the vat, but stopped up at that end. Two notches, of the size of a florin, cut in the bamboo within three inches of the end, sent the water that came rushing down it into the air for two feet or so. A rude fountain was thus made, and the water kept sufficiently charged with air by that means. Each vat must have held a thousand fish, some of them of ordinary cod and salmon size, and few of them smaller than herrings. Chinese labour is cheap, or three men could not have been allotted to each vat to keep this fish-fountain continually going, which they had to do. The fish were now and then gently stirred up with a long bamboo to bring the overlaid ones below up for a mouthful of fresh air. It was evidently market morning next day at Macao, for " Lower Canton " was filled with kitchen produce, all very anxiously kept in best order and freshest state. The market gardener had planted the cut celery and lettuces in moist sand, and so with the bundles of asparagus. Plenty of finery and fancy-work for the Chinese New Year was hung all around and above. The whole place looked fair-like and gay, and 1 36 The Main Roiites Round the World. more like to a stage operatic market-scene than anything in common work-a-day life. Had the men at the vats struck work and broken into a fisherman's chorus, a la Masaniello, I should not have been astonished. I walked about expecting something of the sort, but found that those not obliged to be working or watchful were opium-smoking or sleeping. Looking at the gambling going on upon deck among the superior sort of Chinese, I wondered if the governing powers there had withheld a currency from the country to help stop it. The want of any circulating medium of a reasonable sort is one of the wonders of China. The copper " cash," of which about 100 pieces make a shilling's value, is a great drawback to business as well as to gaming. It is necessary to have a coolie with you to carry the large strings loaded with this currency. About a sovereign's worth is a good heavy weight. Except for the hole made in the middle of this coin, and through which the string is passed, a large bag would be required, or a good sack, to carry many pounds' worth. I went into this gaming for an hour or two to pass away ship- time, and was nervous at the sight of the pile of money about sixpennyworth that I from time to time recklessly staked. It looked like tempting of fortune so to stake such a heap on the hazard of the die. When I did not win I doubled the stake on the number, and then the shilling's worth put down seemed quite a fortune in its size, and fairly frightened me. No luck favouring me, I doubled again, and the over- flowing pile of eight hundred and odd coins brought a good result it looked so comical that all fright fled, and I could but laugh at it. The luck turned with the odd number. On that third stake I had to take up upwards of 1700 coins. I felt that a competence was made, and that I might then and there retire for a year or two and live at ease. It was impossible, however, to ; get away from the fascination of such gaming and the new delight of handling such masses of money. As a Rothschild might feel at Monaco, staking his hundreds at roulette, I felt at this Chinese gaming. I gave up such deep " plunging," as racing-men phrase it, and took to smaller Macao. 1 3 7 stakes. The money then dribbled away in bad luck, and the banker came off the winner in the end. I must have lost as much as $s. or 6^. value before three hours had quite slipped away. One satisfaction remained. Had I have been a winner to that amount, I must have invested in a portmanteau to carry the coin, and paid porterage at the landing-place. My travelling-bag would not have held a tenth of it. Wealth of that sort brings trouble. The Hong Kong colony, as before mentioned, started a mint and coined silver and copper currency in value like to the English coins. The Chinese, I suppose, did not take to it. They object, in their conservative nature, to all innova- tions, whether improvements or not, so the Hong Kong mint was sold to the Japanese Government, who have done what China would not do, coined a national currency for the empire. When the Hong Kong currency now afloat shall be exhausted, travellers in China will find trouble. To carry about the small shoe-shaped lumps of silver weighing a pound or two, or the copper cash of the country, will be a bother that I had not to endure. The Hong Kong coinage is at present taken at all the ports, and so is the Mexican dollar. Previously to the starting of the mint, the latter coin was the circulating medium that the traveller used in the ports, but I was told that in the interior it did not always find favour. The other moneys of the world are rejected altogether. Folks with nothing particular to do and a taste for excitement would find trips in these Chinese port-steamers a pleasant variety especially in the cheap gaming. Macao is an old Portuguese settlement, about ten hours' steam from Canton, and something less from Hong Kong. It is an ancient-looking place, and picturesque in appearance. Its day has, however, gone. Trade is for some reason dying out, and decay everywhere appearing. The ruins of a fine old cathedral stand well-exposed upon an eminence in the rear of the town. Macao has, however, one matter of interest to some travellers. It contains the tomb of Camoens, the Portuguese poet that will keep the old town green in the 138 The Main Routes Round the World. world's memory when all its other claims on recollection shall be forgotten. At Macao I was bid wait aboard the steamer to see the landing of the live fish that we had brought down from Canton. Boats half-filled with fresh water came out to us. The ports of our steamer were then opened, and large funnel-shaped nets extended from these to the boats below. The fish were then ladled out from their vats in net-made scoops that held about fifty of the silvery-looking strugglers. These were turned out into the funnel net, and went helter-skelter down into it, and into the water of the boat. A few would stick fast by the fins or gills in the net- work on their way down, and remain struggling until the next flood of fifty other fish drove them along. One of the fish fell overboard from the net opening, but had scarcely reached the water ere an amphibious boat- boy plunged in and captured it. It had, I suppose, become too dazed and stunned by its late treatment to know exactly what it was about in the changed element of salt-water. Its troubles are, however, over by now. In the market-place I found that fish was the prevailing article for sale that and vegetables. The big waters of China plentifully supply the fish food of the Chinese nation. It gives them to collect it not a tenth part of the trouble that growing their rice does. Rice may be called semi-aquatic wheat. It is grown in patches of ground that are six inches or more covered with water. To keep this water on the land the fields are divided into sections of all sizes, but generally not less than about the eighth of an acre. Each patch is banked all around with earth or clay a foot and a half high and of the same breadth. That retains the water within its wall. All these rice patches are graded with great care, sloping almost imperceptibly downwards, so that if water drains away from one enclosure it passes into the next one below it. A field of forty acres will contain a hundred or more of these enclosed sloping patches. The rice, when growing, looks like to blades of grass coming up above the water of a pond. It is wet and dirty work indeed for the culti- Rice-fields. 139 vators. They work in the water and mud all day. Before the rice is sown, the ground is dug up with a spade shaped and used like an adze. At each chop at the ground made with this instrument, a splash of water occurs that bespatters the labourer with mud from head to foot He weeds the land also with his hands, and altogether does about the dirtiest agricultural work that a labourer can do. Rice is a delicate plant. It is not every field sown that yields a harvest. Three crops can be grown in a year, but not from the same land. Generally only one crop a year can be got from it. When it is no longer rice-producing, the water is drained off, and other crops sown on the dried land. It gives more trouble than wheat-growing, does this rice cultivation. One field that is sown with the grain brings up enough to transplant into, and fill, four fields. Grown from the grain, it comes up too thickly to thrive, and so is pulled up when a foot high, and tied in little sheaves. The labourers, mostly women, take these sheaves into other fields, and there, standing all day half-leg high in water and mud, they plant the rice, stalk by stalk, at a distance of four inches apart. This rice-planting looks very tedious work indeed, and the stooping attitude in which it is all done must make it irksome. The root of the young rice-plant is stuck down into the muddy bottom of the field beneath the water, and is there left to find holding-ground and flourish, or to droop and die. Trouble is not over with rice when grown and cut and garnered. It gives about twice the trouble that wheat does to unhusk it. No cereal clings with such tenacity to its shell. I carried several ears of rice about with me, forgotten, in a pocket corner for some weeks, and not one grain had left its covering. The modes of threshing it, so to speak, are many. The flail is not in fashion, but instead is generally used a short pole or club, fixed at a right angle to one end of a lever. That is made to stamp away at a small vat full of grain. The motive power for this machine is a man, who jumps on and off the short end of the lever, and so raises it and lets it fall again. The rice looks very poor, dirty stuff indeed, when 140 The Main Routes Round the World. this workman has done with it. I could scarcely believe the dirty grey-looking grains to be the rice to which we attach whiteness as chief characteristic. Many are the processes that it has to undergo before it gets to the colour by which the general public know it perhaps as many processes from its beginning to its finish as are undergone by sugar. The labourers, male and female, returning of an evening from labour along the foot-and-a-half wide walks that divide the rice patches, are a sight that arrests attention. In Indian file procession, a hundred or two of them walk two or three feet apart, their dark forms looking darker against the setting sun. They generally work unclothed, their scanty attire being carefully stacked on sticks set up on the dividing ridges. The first creek or watercourse affords them the necessary washing after their day's work. The matter of washing is so urgent that necessity really knows no law and no decency. All bathe together, and no attention is paid to the hundreds of passers-by. The hundreds of passers-by pay no attention either. The rude traveller may look once or twice at such a sight, but naked Chinese soon become no more of interest than naked flies, and are regarded much less than the auda- cious mosquito. This daring and bloodthirsty thing will in China take no denial. Harried by the heat of the day the moist heat that so enervates one a tired traveller will seek mid-day rest, but finds it not. With a flourish of their shrill trumpets, the mosquitoes are upon him by day as by night. Samson dis- posed of the Philistines that were upon him with ease. He would not have done so with the Chinese mosquitoes. It is strange that Scripture says nothing about these torments ot Eastern lands ! this thorn in the flesh and messenger from Satan that buffets one by day and night. They must have plagued the prophets, and added another to Job's many troubles that his potsherd was powerless against. They would care as little for that as they do for mosquito curtains. At these they fairly laugh. After brushing round and round the whole bed enclosure with a long feather whisk, the simple traveller Mosquitoes. 1 4 1 thinks that he has secured a bed to himself. He tucks the curtain in all round and turns down the lamp. Then he per- forms the acrobatic feat of jumping harlequin fashion through a small opening that he makes between the curtains. The mosquitoes jump after him, however, or lie in wait for him out of the way of the whisk that he has flourished around. Their shrill song of triumph soon sounds loud in the dark- ness, and slaps, instead of sleep, occupy the sleepless one until morning. Slaps are suspended only for scratchings. The mosquito always raises a mound to its memory. If all that is in this world be for our good, if whatever is, is right, it then requires a great understanding of the ways of Providence to work the mosquito into his proper place in nature. That he was created to keep the tired traveller and weary worker from his necessary sleep is not right and not good as I at present understand things. Those who would argue the matter must please first experience the ways of the Eastern mosquito. A little of such experience will go a long way. Hotel charges in China are not too economical, but the traveller must remember to pay his bill when he leaves any place for a trip that he thinks may be short, but which may exceed his idea of the time required. Happening to be away for four days, I found that the charges for food and bed to a leather bag and a walking-stick which I had left behind were the same as those charged to myself when present in the house. Henceforth, when I went abroad, I took those little things with me, and opened a fresh account on my return. One finds soap and lamp duly charged as extras in all Eastern hotel accounts. My little tour round the Chinese ports had taken me to Shanghai, Foo-chow, Amoy, Hong Kong, Whampoa, Canton, and Macao. I now took steamer from the 1 ast-named port to Cochin China, on my way to Singapore. There was great temptation to go to Manilla and see the Philippine Islands and cigar-making, but the steamer had left two hours before I reached Hong Kong, and there was not another for eight days. That nuisance, a passport, too, was an essential which 142 The Main Routes Round the World. would have taken a day to obtain, and so kept me from going had I been even earlier in port. I had therefore unwillingly to pass by the Philippines. Their cigars are, however, a prominent feature of this part of the world. Manilla cigars and cheroots are everywhere in Japan and China, and are to be had for a shilling a dozen retail. The consequence of that cheapness seems to be that every- body smokes cigars from morning till night. The bank manager sits smoking in his inner room. He rings the bell, or sends his native boy for the accountant, who comes in also smoking. The ledger-keeper will then appear, book on shoulder, pen in hand, and cigar in mouth. The " shroff" and the " comprador " are the names of the native officials who appear to do all the money-handling work of Eastern banks. What one has to receive is from their hands. The " abacus," or counting-board, is always before them, and so is the fire-stick that lights their cigars. An abstract of what is to be paid to me is handed to one of these officials, and I get what I am told is the current value of the day for my Eng- lish bank circular note. That value varies daily, and papers and telegrams have to be consulted each morning before it can be determined what I am to have for twenty English pounds paid to a banker by me in London, or Melbourne, or San Francisco. It was always with me less than the value, and never more. Only in India and Italy did I find English money at a premium. How such a valuable thing as an English 5/. bank-note should be worth only 4/. 14^. to-day, and is. more or less to-morrow, is, next to the fluctuations in the price of wool, one of the things that the traveller has got to understand. No one will regret a visit, short as mine had been, to China, if even only what part of it I saw be visited. Canton is a great city, and easy of access from either side of the world. The mail steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Company run to Hong Kong fortnightly. Alternately with them run the superior French Maritime Messageries vessels. Little Hong Kong has by these means got a weekly mail from Europe. Chinese Migration. 143 The British India Steam Navigation Company also have a fleet of steamers running in China and India, calling at twenty or so of intermediate ports each trip. From London to Hong Kong is not more than a five weeks' voyage, and from the latter port to Canton it is a pleasant five hours or so up the fine Pearl River to Canton a city of exceeding interest to European eyes. It is not for a mere visitor to vaticinate ; yet it is said that the close observer may prophesy of things not come to pass. A mere traveller on his way through the world must see much, and, by practice alone, become ready in discernment. Let me, from what I saw of the busy Chinese, venture on predic- tion. I had seen their patient industry and great organizing power in Australia. In America I had seen it also, and travelled on that Great Pacific Railway which Americans frankly avow could not have been made but for the cheap and efficient work of the Chinamen, who mainly constructed it. At Foo-chow I had noticed that they have long ago forestalled the Frenchman in oyster cultivation. The bamboo beds there constructed for oyster spat catching and growing are things that Great Britain might advantageously imitate. In industry and patient labour the Chinaman is king, and we know what levers these qualities are in moving men upwards and onwards. What is to keep the Chinaman down, now that the flood-gates of his migration have opened ? He is all over the East ! In Java he is what the Jew is in all the Western world the trader and trafficker and money-changer not the labourer. He is a practical man, the most practical of men a mud-fish that rises to no fancy flies. The Mormon evangelists utterly failed to make a single convert from among the Chinese. They similarly failed with the Jews. The Chinamen tell the Mormon missionaries that they have no time to spare to " talkee religion." It is perhaps good for them. It would be equally good also for some others that we all know of to imitate them in that matter. The Chinaman is spreading over the world. He is the laundress and navvy labourer of America, and in both he is 1 44 Th e Main Routes Roimd the World. the best of workmen. The white laundress who takes your washing from the hotels, and charges you four shillings a dozen for washing handkerchiefs, gets the Chinaman to do the work for her for sixpence. Those folk who prefer so to encourage white labour are quite satisfied with the fraud. He is the best of domestic servants the finest of all cooks. He will, by the simple laws of demand and supply, spread over the world, and compete with all white labour. In Australia he is the market-gardener, the fisherman and fishmonger combined. He is the great peddler of the country, and is becoming its general cabinet-maker. There he is merchant, banker, and gaming-house keeper. His superior civilization gives him powers of combination unknown in men of other nations. One hundred work as one. He is consequently most successful of all gold-diggers and miners. What is to stop his progress and his dispersal over the world, now that the Chinese Empire, mainly through the shakings of English assaults, is tumbling to pieces ? As the Goths and Huns overran the Old World, so it seems probable that the hundreds of millions of Chinese will flood the present one, and that at no very distant date. CHAPTER XIV. IN COCHIN CHINA BY French Messageries steamer " Meikong " I went away from Hong Kong, and, after two days at sea, passed into that great river of Cochin after which the steamer was named. Two hours and a half of progress up its winding waters, between low banks overgrown with jungle, brought me to anchorage at Saigon. The proper name of Cochin China appears by the map to be Annam. It is the adjoining land to Siam, but in the division has got the lesser-sized share of territory. The natives are called " Klings." All the lands about here are peopled by the Malays. The generic name for this quarter is Malasia. I am now passed from among the Japanese and Chinese and meet with a new people, see new characteristics, and pay in different coinage. This Saigon is a French settlement. It is 'about sixteen years old. Louis Napoleon, in 1859-60, wanted to turn the attention of the French from things in France, and to make some stir in the world. That pleases French people. When they brood too long upon their own affairs, they get trouble- some and revolutionary, and kick out their ruler as they did peaceful Louis Philippe. Making a raid upon Cochin China and a settlement on its shore were then decided upon. Later on, in his feverish rule, it became necessary to do something else, and then the Emperor came down upon Mexico, and set up Maximilian as deputy emperor there. The Americans L 146 The Main Routes Round the World. were just too busy then, fighting among themselves, to inter- fere with this French madcap movement. The principle of such doings seems to have been anything to occupy the public mind, and no matter at what cost then or thereafter. That the project would be profitable formed no part of the calculation. Well, here is the sixteen-years-settled Saigon the result of the French Cochin China movement. What it is is very soon to be seen. A Frenchified town laid out on a low, dead level flat, formed by a bend of the Meikong River. What benefit the French get by living here in the tropics, instead of in France, is not so apparent. Taking climate for climate, and balancing the loss of all society, and the living here out of the ways of the world, in an unhealthy place, the profits ought to be commensurately large. Here is to be endured a moist heat that is furiously strong at mid-day, and strong enough at all times. The low site on which the town is formed brings to it a greater share of the hot trouble from which it suffers the confined stifling air of a valley. That compressed, dull, heavy heat, that weighs upon the spirits, makes life languid and lazy, takes the backbone and stiffening out of a body, and leaves folks limp and flabby. The produce of this French possession near to the line appears to be tigers, rice, peacocks, and monkeys. The pea- cocks are just the finest in the world. The climate seems to favour the growth of feathers, as witness the legs of the well- known fowls of the country. Peacocks' feathers even at five feet long are not so marketable a thing as ostrich feathers. Cut up, they make pretty fans and whisks, but the industry does not appear to be profitably worked. Tiger-skins and claws are made marketable articles. The tiger-skin rug and carriage-mat are well known, but the claws were a novelty. They are here set in gold for earrings. I mistook them then for the semi-transparent eye-teeth of the tiger. Two claws, joined by a gold band in the centre, make a brooch. These ornaments are pretty-looking as novelties, and, while the novelty lasts, may be admired. No great exportation of them, however, seems to be made. Whether the monkevs can Saigon, 147 be skinned to profit I could not learn. They are plentiful enough and lively in their ways these undeveloped Darwinian men. As it is hot all the year round here, the pleasures of wild animal hunting do not look promising. It is impossible to wear more than a smock and trousers of thinnest material, and it is death to go abroad uncovered by an umbrella. No country would be very likely to want Saigon save for looting it. The French are pretty safe there, and likely to keep their possession, and for ever foregather with the Malays. Of the two, I incline to the idea that the latter get the best of the alliance. As to any honour and glory got by a descent upon Cochin China, and the killing of some hundreds of its semi- nude natives, to make a settlement in one corner of the land, all that can be seen only from a distance, say, as far as France. It must be focussed from afar off, as all glory generally is. Hereabout it is not so apparent. The Malays can scarcely understand this French inroad yet. They took it that they were to be killed, and perhaps eaten, as, by other warriors of darker skins, had been their previous experience. Idea they could have none that their new visitors had taken a fancy to their unlovely and malarious grilling and stewing land, and meant to come and build a town and live there, bringing stores, and provisions, and money into the country. The worst that any one could wish to any European would be to send him to Saigon, there to permanently live and to toil for a living. Nature has plainly made the place for penal almost purgatorial purposes. Hotels and cafes in the French style are to be seen in plenty, mostly on the tree-planted and shaded esplanade on the river side. Sitting outside of these, under the shade of the trees, sipping lemonade, and smoking halfpenny manillas, seems to be all that can be reasonably expected from any one in Saigon of any European at all events. I observed none that were doing anything but that. It was quite hard work enough. It is about enough of labour there to live and breathe, rise up and sit down, smoke, and talk, and sleep, or L 2 148 The Main Routes Round the World. rather to doze, for sleep is a thing impossible. All these operations are accompanied by constant use of the handker- chief to mop up the perspiration that exudes, whether you do anything or nothing. The conveyances are covered carriages, like to small broughams, called " gharries " in Hindostan. No palanquins or chairs are carried about by the Malays, as is done by their neighbours, the Japanese and Chinese. I incline to think that the Malay is not willing animal enough for such very hard work. One of these carriages carried me round the flat town and the enclosures of Government House and the Botanical Garden anything but a pleasant drive, as it proved to be too warm to get out of the vehicle to look even at the rarest flower a great drawback to collecting specimens of the plentiful flora of this tropical place. The sensitive plant grows well here. I picked off a stem with five leaves on it, that shrivelled to nothing in an instant, and nearly disap- peared in my fingers. Also a pommelo a large shaddock- shaped fruit with inside like to an orange, but bitterish my first and last pommelo. The ship was to stay two days at Saigon. It looked a wearisome time, as the place itself could be seen in a few hours, and then nothing for it but to sit about, wiping off the perspiration, and fighting the flies and mosquitoes. For the latter purpose I bought a fan, and soon began to understand why all Chinamen carried this article, as they do, stuck in the back of their necks. I had found how powerful the mosqui- toes were in China. In this low-lying Saigon they had im- proved upon their Chinese form, and were as near as possible to mosquito perfection. American mosquitoes are pretty good in their way, and much stronger in the trumpet, on the wing, and more vicious in their bite than the Australian sort ; but these Cochin China ones were as strong in comparison as are the native breed of fowls, and were, I believe, also feathered about the legs. I judged that by their weight. But sitting under a mango-tree, in swampy Saigon, fanning the mosquitoes was no work for a traveller to do. I was not Cambodia. 149 orientalized enough to lounge about the whole day doing nothing, and dozing half the time, and then doing the same thing for the whole night. I found what I wanted at last. I could explore further up country. A steamer was starting that afternoon to Cambodia, the capital of French Cochin, to return to Saigon the next even- ing. It is only sixty miles up the Meikong to this city, where lives, under French inspection, a native rajah, prince, or king. A Malay city would be more novel-looking than a low-lying waterside settlement of Frenchmen, Malays, and mosquitoes. Of my fellow-passengers on that journey there was not one who could speak English. That mattered little. It was too hot to talk. At Cambodia all the elements of a capital city are wanting save the king's palace. That is a poor affair, and likely to get poorer-looking for lack of repair. The town is not free from French intruders ; but I doubt much if they are happy there. Cambodia is so very unlike Paris about as much so as it is possible to be a dirty place of Malay huts and dirty dens, called bazaars, for sale of dirty stuff of one sort or another. Unswept streets, tropical trees, and a few lean dogs make up all that is to be seen there, save a temple or two. The Malay language, with its alphabet of twenty queer sounds, is difficult to acquire, and there is nothing to stimulate one to taking the trouble. I never saw Malay man or woman that I felt the least desire to talk to. A Malay has no gratitude, no energy, no industry, no manners of any good kind. His hand is ever extended for more, even if you pay him three times over. He never thanks you. He is thievish also, and lying is no name for the distance he can go from the truth. He is, or seems to be, naturally morose. It is his nature to be " nasty," and he can't help it. His idea of cleaning leathern boots is to rub them over with a rag and steal the laces. He then brings back the boots, and holds out his hand for money. He will swear he knows nothing of the laces, and has no blacking. He has both, but is too lazy to brush the boots, and too much given to appropriation to 1 50 The Main Routes Round the World. part with spoil. You acquire a dislike to the Malays more than to any other coloured race, and you can't help it. I have noticed that the fine-grown mosquitoes at Saigon were a feature of the place. They make features also on the visitor. One had raised a bump on my eyelid that kept the eye nearly closed for two days. It might have been worse, both might have been so served, for we become quite at the mercy of these foes at the last. It is too hot at Cochin alto- gether to go on for ever fighting the flies. I could understand there how it was that the Spartan boy kept quiet with the concealed beast gnawing at his liver. As energy dies out, the strength of endurance arises. To surfer patiently is the next best thing to fighting vigorously. " To suffer and be strong." As a seeker for artistic novelties I wandered about the Cambodian places of business, seeking to snap up any uncon- sidered trifles of that sort. The inlaying of mother-of-pearl upon woods and ivory is the speciality of Cochin. A small dark wood box so inlaid, that would have been thought value- less in artistic Japan, was here priced very high. The dealer ultimately parted with it to me for one-third of what he had asked, though he was ready to swear to each price asked being a fair one. Had I stopped longer about the town I might have got it for even less. Another purchase that I made was a ring of white metal having a tablet on it, on which was engraved nine divided and figured compartments, that might be the ten commandments compressed into nine the omitted one probably that against stealing. The ring, I was told, is a talismanic one whatever that means. It looks quaint and queer, but wants much rubbing up to keep it bright. It seems to be constructed of the metal that soup- ladles are commonly made of. Novelties were not plentiful. The cocks and hens of the country could not be so classed. The palace and gardens of the king could be seen by any one whose curiosity was superior to 110 of the thermo- meter. Mine fell below it. The name of the monarch was given to me several times ; but as I could not get it written Tonquin. 151 down, I failed to pronounce it properly. It was something like to " Chromo-Lithro." All further idea of the visit to the palace was finished up by my being told that I must go in full dress. In my innocence I thought this pleasant, as I felt greatly inclined to go about nearly nude, and that was all I could imagine Malay full dress to be. It was explained to me that it was French evening dress that was required. His Majesty wished to be honoured similarly to the dress-circle of the opera. I had to give up all thoughts of it. I could not have done it in this Cambodian climate for a dozen kings. As I thought this, I knew that I should afterwards regret it. We always regret that which we "jib" at. The regret has, however, not come yet. This mania for European dress suits is spreading over the East. The Japanese Court require it also. Travellers who think a tweed or balbriggan suit, with an Ulster, sufficient outfit, must not expect to walk about palaces much in their travels. Royalty expects to be waited upon in waiter's costume. From Cambodia, the journey up the Meikong River can be extended any distance. At the farther end of Cochin there is Tonquin (which is the real Annamite capital), but I could not hear of any inducements to go thither, had time and opportunity even allowed such a long exploration. The Ton- quin bean is to be had there, but then it is to be had else- where, and is used principally for flavouring that old- fashioned form of tobacco called snuff. It wants much temptation, indeed, to go about in Cochin ; and Tonquin and the French are at loggerheads, and gunboats. I ought doubtless to have read up all about the land previously, and so been prepared to see it with the light of knowledge, and in the halo that history might have cast around it, or any part of it. The baggy-legged birds that have familiarized Cochin to everybody are not enough to satisfy the traveller. Dorking, equally famous for fowls, is more accessible. As to all the rest, that burnt-up cinder Aden, on the Red Sea, is a very good substitute for Saigon, and much handier to the world generally. Of the two, I think Aden preferable. It 152 The Main Routes Round the World. stands upon the sea, and is, of a consequence, better placed than Saigon, on the low banks of a river. I am not sorry when the steamer starts that takes me again to Saigon. If it went across country, and out of the land at once, I should have been better satisfied. What a delightful thing I now think it must be to feel cool to live among " the thick-ribbed ice " that Shakspeare talks about ! A touch of the wind from that quarter upon this river just now would be very acceptable. Heat is scarcely the word for what one feels ! The sun burnt through one's coat, and one's skin, and into one's bones. You could feel the marrow of them frizzling. Returned to Saigon, I was told to go see there the field in which the French killed the Malays in 1859-60. I declined the trouble. A monument has been erected on this spot, bearing only a French inscription. In that manner one side is allowed to tell its own tale. An inscription on the other side of it, penned by the Malays, would give the visitor the views of both parties. That would be more satisfactory. I once remarked to one that looked battered about the head that he appeared to have been much beaten. " Yes," he said, " but you should see the other one he's got it worse." Some Chateau Roux ale attracted my attention at a large cafe in Saigon market-place a light ale that reconciled one to the exertion of getting a perspiring hand into one's pocket, and pulling it inside out in one's efforts to get the money to pay for it. That ale was light and good not bitter, and I made a memo, to remind me to inquire where Chateau Roux may be. As I am not likely to see Cochin China again willingly, let me say a grateful word. Though a French settlement, I was not asked at Saigon for a passport, nor bidden to turn out a travelling-bag by a custom-house officer two things for which I felt grateful. Repacking a bag with the thermometer at 1 1 o would have led to much perspiration, and perhaps profanity. Another blessed remembrance of Cochin is that it is not possible to spend much money there. That is a good Borneo. 153 thing to remember when the traveller takes a retrospect, and counts up the cost of travel. The heat of the climate of Cochin has somewhat soured the milk of French human nature. The famous courtesy of the nation is not conspicuous in Saigon. A sort of churlishness, not to give it a stronger term, seemed prevalent. I could both understand and excuse it. Harried by the heat, and tormented by the insects, who could be polite ? A man scratching a bump that a mosquito has lately raised is apt to mix up his language, and one gets often some of what is only intended for the insect. In the only boat that was in shore at the time for my departure, a Frenchman was going off to my steamer too, but would not let me set foot thereon, though I explained that I would pay the whole of the cost, and that there was no other boat about. " Wait for one," he said ; " I pay for this boat waiting all day. It is my boat." I did not call him a bear, but inwardly pitied him. The climate would no doubt do as much for all of us after a year or two of its liver-drying and spleen-producing effects. On leaving Saigon for Singapore, I have to pass Labuan and Sarawak. Borneo is, I find, almost an unvisited place by the traveller. It is as little favoured in that way as is its neighbour Sumatra. The Dutch have nearly the whole of both these large islands, and the Dutch do not seem to make their lands popular. I shall see, perhaps, something of the reason why when I reach Java, of which they have had snug possession for 260 years, save for the little break of six years, from 1810 to 1816, when England took possession as pro- tector against the French. Borneo and Labuan were well-known names to English ears thirty years ago, when Brooke endeavoured to get an English colony settled there in the fashion of Saigon. He got knighted for his good intentions ; and it is as well, per- haps, that they were not carried out. Saigon cannot be colonized, nor Labuan, any more than India. Europeans cannot live there. Certainly none of their children could be reared there successfully. As a visitor only for a few years 154 The Main Routes Round the World. can the emigrant make use of these tropical spots, and even then it is done at the risk of health, and to the certain shortening of life. The Dutch have not been more successful in their attempts to colonize Java and all their other pos- sessions round about here. On board of the steamers here- about I meet with the clean-shaved English-looking faces of fifty years ago before the beard and moustache fashion pre- vailed. These folk are all Dutchmen, and I am coming now down among their Eastern territory. They disappoint me as Englishmen, for whom I am always mistaking them. CHAPTER XV. SINGAPORE AND THE STRAITS. SINGAPORE is reached in two days' steaming from Saigon, and in five from Hong Kong. I am now among the Straits Settlements, made up of this Singapore and of the neigh- bouring Penang and Malacca. Singapore is head-quarters and Governor's residence. The Governor, at the time of my visit, was Sir William Jervois, in place of Sir Andrew Clarke, removed to India. His domain is scattered hereabout, and not the snug nutshell of a thing that Hong Kong is. The fine Bay of Singapore is mostly filled with shipping, the crafts there being apparently from all parts of the world. The settlement lies all around the shores of this bay, from which a grand view can be obtained, and an equally good view of the bay and shipping is to be got from the strand when one is on shore, if the sun does not nearly burn one's boots off when stopping, even for five minutes, to admire it. Singapore is as nearly as possible on the line. It is called an island, and is about twenty-four miles by fourteen in size, and constitutes the point of the Malay peninsula which is sometimes called altogether Malacca. Between it and the neighbouring Sumatra that large tropical island run the famous Malacca Straits, about which much was heard at the last election of Britain's Parliament. This Singapore point of Malacca is washed off from the mainland by a stream of a quarter of a mile or so only in width, just as Ceylon has been washed away from the continent of India. It has been only proclaimed as a British colony since April, 1867. 156 The Main Routes Round the World. At the other end of the Straits of Malacca is a similar point of Sumatra territory, called Acheen, which, with England's consent, was lately about five years ago seized upon by the Dutch, who are desirous to make it another Singapore. It is some consolation to the English traveller, who sees good things thus taken by others, and one gate of these important straits the highway from England to China so seized by another power, that the Dutch have got a hornet's nest in this Acheen. For four years the Acheenese have made it very hot indeed for their would-be owners. They would have sub- mitted quietly to the mild, kindly rule of England, that does not enslave for money-making purposes the population of any country that it rules ; but they will not have the Dutch for their masters if fighting can avail them. The stars in their courses fought against Sisera, and climatic influences fight for the plucky Acheenese. Of every hundred Dutch soldiers taken thither from Java, seventy have to be taken back sick before three months are over. Of this seventy, two-thirds die on the voyage. On the steamer that took me away from Singapore they were thrown overboard at the rate of twenty- four a day. Of the remaining thirty soldiers that stay in Acheen, the Acheenese are said to account for fully half in the guerilla warfare that these true patriots carry on. It has lasted now for four years, and cost the Dutch seventy mil- lions of guilders ! The end is as far off as ever. There is no going back, or such course would, perhaps, be adopted, for the Dutch clutch their guilders. They have five-sixths of Sumatra already, and want this Acheen to make a complete thing of it as of Java. If beaten there, then all prestige would be lost, and the quiet possession of the other part of Sumatra be endangered. A candid Dutch merchant told me that another twenty years might not see the end of it. The Dutch generally are getting to be of the same opinion, but dare not all say so. Singapore, though nearer upon the line than Saigon, is an English place, and, therefore, more endurable to the English traveller in the way of society and matters of interest. If he Singapore. 157 knows nothing about the place or its history when he lands there, he soon begins to inform himself. He sees how very often the name of " Raffles " turns up there as often as the word " lottery " does in a Dutch settlement where these anti- quated swindles are still legal. In Singapore are " Raffles- street," "Raffles-road," "Raffles Library." "Raffles "this or that is always meeting the eye. Fifty-seven years ago, Sir Stamford Raffles, then and for six previous years Governor of fair Java, handed over that gem of the east, at the bidding of his Government, again to the Dutch. He then came up to Singapore. Having buried Lady Raffles in Java, he contracted a marriage with the daughter of a rajah of Johore, on the nearest mainland. He then set up the colony of Singapore on his own account, on the land that formed his wife's portion. It was to make a settlement that he could not be required, against his opinion and advice, to give up to the Dutch. He declared the place a free port. The dreary little fishing village and tiger jungle soon increased in population under his care, and grew like to the Lord of Burleigh's village wife to noble proportions. It has now 100,000 inhabitants, 5000 of whom are Europeans. It produces nothing, this Singapore. It owes its trade and prosperity solely to its geographical position at the point of entrance to the Straits of Malacca and the China Sea. In common trade language, it is one of the best " corner stands" in the world a house of call for the large fleet of steamers and larger number of trading vessels that the busy seas about it abound with. The mail steamers to China and Cochin China of the English and French lines call here. So do the large fleet of steam-ships of the British India Company, and the thirty-six fine steam-vessels of the rich Netherlands-India Steamship Company. A busy place is Singapore, and a nice one only for salamanders. Human life to Europeans is scarcely endurable in it at any time of the twelve months. Pope sings of something that " lives along the line." Nothing of European growth could do so for long. To common sense it would seem that a cooler atmosphere would The Main Routes Round tke World. come on the sun going down, and taking its fierce, fiery glow with it. It is not so ; the nights seem to be, perversely, hotter than the days. About 8 p.m. the heat, which has lulled for two hours previously, seems to get " second wind," and re- turns to stop for the night. Sleep is out of the question. Artificial warmth may encourage sleep in cold climates, but not so in hot ones. It must be possible to get acclimatized here. Some pale, sickly-looking, full-stomached folks that I saw had existed here for years ; so that keeping vitality within one is learnt somehow. Until that is done, however, life becomes a serious matter to a European. The greatest cynic or philosopher would no longer call it a farce. As many handkerchiefs are wanted there a day as are elsewhere required for a bad case of cold in the head. One of them becomes wetted through with perspiration, after about five applications to the forehead, face, hands, and neck. Such applications are made every five minutes. It gets very monotonous work after the first few hours. The novelty wears out more quickly than some others do. The wish of Hamlet that his solid flesh would melt and thaw is here exactly realized. That's just what the said solid flesh does. The climate of Singapore would have brought the Prince of Denmark to his senses in a very short time, if the melting and thawing process would have helped in that way. His soliloquies would have turned on other matters, and had to be spoken sitting, with handkerchief in hand. A Malay boy would have had to hold Yorick's skull for him. No one who has visited Hindoostan but must see that Singapore has taken all its ideas, examples, and way of life from that land. The private houses are bungalows built within spacious compounds. The houses of business are roomy, thickly-built buildings of two storeys ; the ground one is set inwards for 10 ft., and so shaded by the roof and the pillars in front that support the upper storey. Inside the houses also, everything takes Hindoostanee fashions. The bath is a big tub placed in a back building like to a stable, and fed from outside through a bamboo funnel. By the side Eiiropean Habits. 159 of the tub stands the little bucket with which the tubber gives to himself douches of water. The large folding-doors to all the rooms have Venetian-blind-like laths, of larger size, throughout their length. The large screen that stands within this door, the bamboo chairs, Indian rush matting, and other minuti