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NOTES OF A TOUR 
 
 FROM 
 
 BRINDISI TO YOKOHAMA. 
 
NOTES OF A TOUR FROM 
 
 BRINDISI TO YOKOHAMA 
 1883 1884 
 
 BY 
 
 LORD RONALD GOWER 
 
 1 \ 
 
 "Voyager, c'est apprendre." Anon. 
 
 LONDON 
 KEG AN PAUL, TRENCH 6- CO. 
 
 MDCCCLXXXV 
 
 O^iTI 
 
c^ 
 
 X^7 
 
THESE NOTES ARE DEDICATED 
 TO MY FRIEND 
 
 GOWER ROBINSON, 
 
 IN RECOLLECTION OF PLEASANT DAYS PASSED 
 TOGETHER IN JAPAN. 
 
 R. G. 
 
 M181187 
 
NOTE. 
 
 I HAVE requested my obliging publishers to 
 make this little book of pocket size, so that 
 it may perhaps be of use to travellers making 
 a similar tour. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 FROM BRINDISI TO BOMBAY I 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 FROM BOMBAY TO COLOMBO 9 
 
 CHAPTER HI, 
 
 CEYLON 42 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JAPAN . . .60 
 
NOTES OF A TOUR 
 
 FROM 
 
 BRINDISI TO YOKOHAMA, 
 
 1883-84. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM BRINDISI TO BOMBAY. 
 
 On board s.s. ''Mongolia" {P. 6^ O. Co.), 
 Nov. 13. We (an old Cambridge friend, 
 E. ff. Mathews, and myself) have had since 
 leaving Brindisi yesterday a gloriously fine 
 and calm voyage. We are now running by 
 the island of Crete. Last Sunday we looked 
 about that most intensely uninteresting town 
 of Brindisi. On Monday we had a splendid 
 day for seeing the rocky isles of Cephalonia 
 and Zante, which lay some miles to the east, 
 bathed in sunny mist. A few Anglo-Indians 
 among the passengers, also a sprinkling of 
 
, c c e ^ t - 
 
 '.Js*'. ..' ': X -fiRlNDifel TO BOMBAY. 
 
 Turks and Germans; few of the military 
 element. 
 
 Port Said was reached on the morning of 
 the 15th. There we remained till the even- 
 ing, when we steamed on to Alexandria. We 
 have decided to give up the Suez Canal 
 journey, and go by the overland route to 
 Suez ; this will give us more time in Cairo. 
 
 Porf Said, Nov. 15. I am glad to set foot 
 first in classic Alexandria, and not in this 
 wretchedly uninteresting place ; an ugly har- 
 bour, with a lighthouse and some out-build- 
 ings to keep it company. 
 
 That evening the sunset was of marvellous 
 beauty, the western sky of a deep glowing 
 orange hue, covered with fleecy safifron- 
 coloured clouds. As these glories paled, the 
 moon rose. Coming on deck before sunrise 
 next day, I found the sky of a deep purple 
 colour ; gradually the purple faded, and now, 
 before what seemed a rivalry between the 
 growing dawn and the still brilliant moon, 
 the sunrise was even more glorious than had 
 been the sunset. I certainly never remember 
 seeing as one did that day the shadows cast 
 by the two rival lights of night and day. 
 
 We landed early at Alexandria, when we 
 found three hours ample for seeing the 
 
BRINDISI TO BOMBAY. 3 
 
 place. An Egyptian, in a dark-blue uniform 
 relieved with silver lace, escorted us. Even 
 Paris immediately after the Commune had 
 no scene of more wanton and thorough de- 
 struction to show than the principal Square 
 of Alexandria. The pulverised forts are 
 eloquent of the progress of Western over 
 Eastern civilisation. Leaving Alexandria at 
 three, we reached Cairo at nine that evening. 
 Czech's {late Shepherd) Hotel. Here it is 
 as hot as on an average day in July in 
 England. This comfortable hotel is lively 
 with English officers; some wearing the 
 Egyptian fez, young E. Stuart Wortley, for 
 instance. He is A.D.C. to Sir E. Baring, and 
 has seen hard work here, not only in the 
 field, but where true courage is more neces- 
 sary, namely, in the hospitals full of cholera 
 cases. He tells me that he and his chief 
 literally walked the hospitals while the cholera 
 was at its worst three times daily. The native 
 doctors were worse than useless.^ We visited 
 the Turkish bazaar, dirty and picturesque, 
 but less so than Algiers. We have also 
 visited Boulak on donkey-back a disgust- 
 
 1 S. W. told me, a propos of these doctors, that they 
 would get as far away as possible from their patients, 
 and examine them through opera-glasses ! 
 
4 BRINDISI TO BOMBAY. 
 
 ingly dirty suburb of Cairo, but containing 
 in its museum the rarest collection of Egyp- 
 tian antiquities in the world. Founded 
 by Mariette, it contains an astounding col- 
 lection of relics of the Pharaohs kings 
 and queens by the score, and even the 
 mummy of the great Sesostris himself! My 
 first view of the Pyramids unforgettable 
 sight was from the fashionable drive, the 
 Shoubra, which is to Cairo what the Champs 
 Elysees are to Paris and Hyde Park to 
 London. Here all Cairo comes out in the 
 afternoon, in carriage, on horseback, or afoot. 
 Although the scene is gay, it has lost most 
 of its chief attractions since the reign of 
 Ismail the Magnificent. The Khedive 
 drove by in an open carriage, attended by 
 a rather seedy-looking escort. He has a soft, 
 effeminate, Frenchified type of face, and does 
 not look the man to guide this country in so 
 difficult a crisis. He is said to be fairly in- 
 telligent. The only Egyptian of high official 
 position that I came into contact with was 
 Scherif Pacha, a most agreeable, talkative old 
 " Boulvadier " type of man. He told me of 
 his fears respecting General Hicks' expedition 
 (soon to be so sadly realised) . Of the English 
 then in Cairo, I saw most of Edgar Vincent, 
 
BRINDISI TO BOMBAY. 5 
 
 newly arrived to try and set the financial 
 difficulties of the country into some order, 
 in which hard task he has been successful. 
 He occupied a room in the hotel, which he had 
 brightened by gorgeous stuffs and hangings 
 brought from Constantinople, among which 
 he looked like a young prince out of the 
 Arabian Nights. 
 
 We passed pleasant evenings at the pretty 
 little villa of the Fitzgeralds ; he a distin- 
 guished Indian officer, and his wife a daugh- 
 ter of Lord Houghton, a friend of several 
 years' standing. We visited and climbed to 
 the top of the Great Pyramid, and tried in vain 
 to discover any expression on the battered 
 face of the Sphinx, and exhausted most of 
 the sights of the place. One ascension we 
 made was an uncommon one ; this was in a 
 balloon belonging to an aeronaut of the 
 name of Simmons. Mr. Simmons was rash 
 enough to make a non-captive ascent (ours 
 had been a captive ascent) ; descended late at 
 night many miles out in the desert, and on 
 returning to fetch his balloon next day, found 
 not a trace of it. No one wishing to have 
 the best view of Cairo should fail to ascend 
 to the citadel about sundown, and watch the 
 effect from the Mameluke terrace, as the 
 
6 BRINDISI TO BOMBAY. 
 
 afterglow spreads over what I think Thackeray 
 called " one of the noblest views on earth." 
 When you have seen that, you may as well 
 leave Cairo, for there is nothing to compare 
 to it. 
 
 Being rather hurried to go on our way to 
 India, we had no time for making further 
 expeditions. In order to see anything of the 
 Nile, at least a month is required. We had 
 seen sufficient to make one wish to pass 
 an entire winter in this wonderful land, 
 the most interesting, historically, that exists. 
 After a couple of weeks at Cairo, we pur- 
 sued our journey, going by train to Suez. 
 Owing to a delay, it was quite dark when 
 we passed Tel-el-Kebir. One could only 
 dimly discern a very few tombstones placed 
 in a dreary enclosure, looking hke one of 
 those forlorn graveyards which are so 
 common in Scotland. 
 
 On board F. 6- O. s.s. '' Brindisir kX 
 noon we left Suez in a steam-launch, under 
 a blazing sun for two hours before we 
 boarded this vessel. A large warship, 
 crowded with troops, passed this morning 
 on her way to Tonquin, presaging war 
 and trouble to the French for many a 
 day to come. The long ranges of the 
 
BRINDISI TO BOMBAY. 7 
 
 Arabian hills, as the sun set, glowed with 
 a deep rosy colour, and a deeper crimson 
 reigned when the sun had disappeared the 
 afterglow which has struck all travellers in 
 the East, and which appears this 'winter to 
 be more brilliant than ordinary. Slowly 
 faded away the land of the Pharaohs; the 
 stars came out from the purple vault with a 
 brilliancy that is not to be realised unless 
 one has seen these southern latitudes -, dark- 
 ness succeeded the rich glow of the sunset, 
 and Mount Sinai was invisible in the gathered 
 gloom as we steamed down into the Red 
 Sea. Aden was reached at dawn on the 6th 
 (December). I was reminded of Hong- 
 Kong in the volcanic shape of its arid 
 hills ; the utter want of any verdure gives an 
 almost ghastly look to the place. Some nuns 
 came on board; they belong to the order 
 of the " Good Shepherd." We visited their 
 establishment at the end of the crescent- 
 shaped row of buildings which is the principal 
 feature of this town, if town Aden can be 
 called. There are five sisters in all; the 
 Superior reminded me, in manner and 
 appearance, of our Queen. They were most 
 courteous, and we could not but admire their 
 charity and devotion in toiling in so arid a 
 
8 BRINDISI TO BOMBAY. 
 
 spot as Aden. One of the sisters has been 
 here eight years. 
 
 The natives are a fine-looking race, well- 
 featured, and men of muscle, of a deep- 
 chocolate hue ; some with shorn heads : 
 some of the boys, bright, intelligent lads, 
 with sparkling eyes and fine teeth; these, 
 like at Honolulu, came out to the ship's 
 sides in their little canoes, and loudly shouted 
 for coins to be thrown in the sea, after which 
 they plunged, and never failed to catch them 
 as they sank into the water. 
 
 Between Aden and Bombay is a blank ; the 
 most intrepid journalists can have nothing 
 more interesting to note than the ship's run, 
 the books they have read, the acquaintances, 
 perhaps friendships, they have made on 
 board. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 Early on the 1 2th (January) we arrived in the 
 harbour of Bombay, and set foot on India's 
 "coral strand." Many hours were uncom- 
 fortably passed in the custom-house, where 
 no kind of order is maintained. We had an 
 invitation to stay at the Byculla Club, but 
 on finding the distance that it is from the 
 landing-place, we elected to put up at a huge 
 caravansary called Watson's, or the Esplan- 
 ade Hotel a large building, half shops, half 
 hotel, and altogether detestable. 
 
 We passed four days in Bombay, and most 
 interesting days these were. 
 
 From the Governor, Sir James Fergusson, 
 we met with great civility ; and had our stay 
 been longer, we would have accepted his kind 
 invitation to be his guests. 
 
 Our first expedition was to the famed caves 
 
lo BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 of Elephanta. These are reached in a steam 
 tug, about an hour's trip from Bombay, across 
 one of the finest harbours in the world. The 
 sculptures without and within the caves are 
 most curious here as elsewhere in India. The 
 resemblance of these sculptured temples to 
 that of a far older race than the Hindoos, 
 namely, the Mexicans, is very apparent. 
 Elephanta is the great picnic resort of the 
 people of Bombay, an Indian Burnham 
 Beeches; and scenes where gods were wor- 
 shipped, and human sacrifices performed in 
 former times, are now consecrated to the 
 eating of sandwiches and lobsters, and the 
 worship of Bass and of Mumm. The native 
 town of Bombay is full of picturesque features, 
 but the buildings are generally " baroque " in 
 style. The whole scene is like some gigantic 
 fair. The Government buildings impose by 
 their size, but are not architectural triumphs. 
 Gothic may be suited to the shores of the 
 Thames, but is out of keeping in the East. 
 What interested me most here has been 
 seeing cremation as practised by the natives ; 
 also that weird form of burial, or devoural, as 
 practised by the Parsees, in the Towers of 
 Silence. The former mode of returning a 
 body to its dust is, I think, by far the most 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. ii 
 
 sensible infinitely better than our perni- 
 cious mode of burying our friends in leaden 
 coffins, which necessarily prevents, perhaps 
 for centuries, the purifying earth to come 
 together with the decaying body. Our mode 
 of burial has already caused in thousands of 
 cases pestilence in the midst of our towns 
 and villages. Remember the life of Charlotte 
 Bronte for one instance. One would have 
 thought that the very horror of putrefaction 
 would cause rational beings to transform into 
 harmless ashes the bodies of the dead ; but 
 the Church has ordained that bodies should 
 not be burnt, and we consequently keep near 
 our dwellings the decaying corpses of millions, 
 poisoning our springs, and now and again 
 giving unmistakable proofs of the folly of 
 making the living suffer, merely because 
 some eighteen hundred years ago it was 
 found necessary to stow away under ground 
 the corpses of the early followers of Christ. 
 
 A courteous Hindoo, Mr. Raghoonath 
 Narrayen, did us the honours of the Hindoo 
 cremation grounds. The cremations take 
 place within a high-walled open space, half 
 garden, half yard, close by the carriage-road 
 near the sea, a road named Rotten, probably 
 from its being used by equestrians. Some 
 
12 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 ten corpses were under process of burning ; 
 there was but little smell, and that little not 
 offensive ; and although it may sound rather 
 horrible to see so many bodies all more or 
 less reduced to ashes, there was curiously 
 little of the repugnant in the sight. Here 
 the mourners, after bearing the body within 
 the place of burning, leave it to be reduced 
 to ashes ; some generally, we were told, remain 
 as a mark of respect. To see our dearest 
 friend thus burnt must be a painful duty ; 
 but about death and what follows as regards 
 the poor human shell, there must be always 
 much that is unavoidably painful to the sur- 
 vivors. However, cremation, as carried out 
 here in the rudest and simplest form, made 
 me more strongly in favour of it than ever ; 
 and although I have but little hope of see- 
 ing such a mode of burial practised in our 
 country, I still look forward to the day when 
 some high dignitary, a Bishop for instance, 
 would at least after his death make himself of 
 some use, and have cremation practised on his 
 body, and by his shining example give coun- 
 tenance to the most civilised and sensible way 
 of returning dust to dust, ashes to ashes ! 
 
 The Parsee mode of burial is outwardly 
 more impressive ; the very name " Towers of 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 13 
 
 Silence " has something grand and eloquent 
 about it ; and these great Mamelons, placed in 
 the midst of a park-like eminence overlooking 
 the city and the sea, have a lofty air about 
 them, very different to the lowly yard where 
 the Hindoo dead are disposed of. Here, too, 
 there is a solemnity and almost melodramatic 
 effect admirably suited to the dignified and 
 singularly cultured race who carry out their 
 funeral rights with much pomp and circum- 
 stance. The mourners, clothed in long white 
 flowing robes, pass majestically along, and 
 after leaving the body within one of the 
 towers, for there are several scattered about 
 the gardens, slowly return, accompanied by 
 a little dog, who has been made to gaze into 
 the eyes of the corpse, thereby, according to 
 Parsee belief, extracting the sins of the 
 departed. Round the top of the circular 
 towers immense vultures are seated in grisly 
 rows, waiting their daily repast. 
 
 No one having time to spare should fail 
 to go to Poonah from Bombay an ex- 
 pedition of six hours by rail. The scenery 
 traversed is most beautiful the famed 
 Ghauts, with fertile valleys at their feet. The 
 Poonah Club, where we remained a couple 
 of days, is a most luxurious one. There we 
 
14 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 were received by Colonel Burnett, one of the 
 most courteous and agreeable of colonels. 
 The two days passed at Poonah were ample 
 for us to see the chief sight, viz., the Mosque 
 or Temple of Parvati, overlooking the plain 
 and battlefield of Kirkee. Priests were pray- 
 ing in miniature chapels, and chanting their 
 hymns, and around the summit of the towers 
 bright-green parrots chirped and twittered 
 as they clung gracefully on the ruined walls 
 of the old Peshwa's palace. Government 
 House is worthy of a visit, for its gardens are 
 beautiful; full of splendid roses and large 
 convolvuli. The bazaars are full of large- 
 turbaned natives. The native town is 
 divided into seven parts, each named after 
 a day in the week. The old palace of 
 the Janawadu was the scene of the public 
 executions down to the reign of Baji Rao ; 
 criminals were trampled to death by 
 elephants. There is an admirably-arranged 
 jail, containing nearly a thousand prisoners, 
 many of which make handsome carpets. 
 The caves of Karli are well worth seeing. 
 Two hours' rail brings one to the station 
 (Lanoli). Hence it is a half-hour's drive to 
 the place where the road ends, and a path 
 leads across a flat plain to the rocks contain- 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 15 
 
 ing these caverns. It was a very hot two 
 miles' walk, and at the end we had a steep 
 ascent ; but the really extraordinary appear- 
 ance of the caves amply repaid us the trouble. 
 Though not to compare in beauty of situation 
 to those of Elephanta, the Karli caves are more 
 intricate in laborious design and vaster in 
 depth and height. I believe that these rock- 
 cut temples, of whose history so little is 
 known, are the finest in India next to those 
 of Elura. While we were visiting the caves 
 an encampment of the 4th Foot had estab- 
 lished itself near the bungalow where we had 
 left our carriage. We found the officers a 
 pleasant set of young men. Colonel Stokes 
 took us over the camp. A bit of local colour 
 was a park of a dozen elephants, who seemed 
 to be enjoying their rest after their march. 
 
 Next day we returned to Bombay. Dinners 
 with the Governor at his distant house at 
 Parell, and with the most genial of officials, 
 Sir Frank Souter,i whose acquaintance no 
 
 1 I had the pleasure of meeting at Sir Frank's one 
 evening at dinner one of the most intelligent of that 
 highly-cultured race the Parsis, Mr. Dosabhai Framgi, 
 whose book on his fellow-countrymen and the tenets of 
 Zoroaster is well worth reading. I am glad to see that 
 a new and enlarged edition of this work has recently 
 {1884) been published by Messrs. Macmillan & Co, 
 
i6 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 one should fail to make when visiting 
 Bombay, and who seems as popular among 
 the natives as with Europeans, followed. On 
 the evening of the 23 rd we took the train, 
 reaching Ahmedabad early next day. The 
 speed of travelling by rail in India will be 
 judged when it takes fourteen hours to go 310 
 miles. At Ahmedabad we were received and 
 sheltered in a large bungalow by a friend (T. 
 Mackonochie), who, although but fresh from 
 Oxford, has in this district, in his quality of 
 civil servant to H.B.M., more power than any 
 lord-lieutenant of an English county. 
 
 Ahmedabad is the most interesting native 
 town we had yet seen. Here were no Euro- 
 peans to take off from the purely Indian appear- 
 ance of the dark human tide which crowded the 
 streets of this city, the second in importance 
 to that of Bombay in that province. During 
 a stay of three days at Ahmedabad we received 
 much hospitality from Mr. (Justice) Crawford 
 and his wife ; we also messed with Colonel 
 Hadow at the Artillery depot. At first it seems 
 strange to tiffin and dine daily with those 
 whom we have never known before ; but in 
 India one is welcomed by strangers as old 
 friends, and if it were only to see the best 
 side of the English character in the way of 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 17 
 
 hospitality, a visit to India would amply repay 
 one. I believe, as a rule, travellers give 
 Ahmedabad the go-by as they hurry north ; 
 but for any one interested in the art and 
 architecture of Hindustan a couple of days 
 should certainly be passed there. The town 
 itself is full of fine architectural remains ; grand 
 old towers and walls surround it; and the won- 
 drously carved stone windows of Sidi Seyzid's 
 Mosque are among the very finest, if not the 
 very most remarkable specimen of stone-car- 
 ving in India. The red sandstone has been so 
 deftly carved and cut, that it appears in these 
 windows like the finest lace work, and the design 
 of waving palm trees is as graceful as the work 
 is delicate and minute. Besides this mosque 
 there are many others of beauty and interest 
 within the town walls ; that of Shalis Bagh, 
 for instance, built about 1700 by a Guzerat 
 king ; the superb and recently restored one 
 of Muhufiz Khan ; the Jumna Musjid, with 
 its forest of columns ; the one of Rani Lipris, 
 small but beautiful; and the grandest of all, 
 that of Shah Alam, with its vast terraced front, 
 superbly carved tombs, shaded by an immense 
 single palm-tree that adds grace to the whole 
 scene. Here, too, are an interesting series of 
 tombs of the family of Ahmed Shah, and of 
 
 B 
 
i8 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 that monarch in elaborately carved alabaster. 
 These things within the town take a day to 
 visit ; but in the neighbourhood of Ahmeda- 
 bad are still more splendid memorials of the 
 former rulers of this portion of India. There 
 is a well, or rather a succession of underground 
 wells, within the most beautiful walls that one 
 can imagine ; there are seven in all, each more 
 elaborately sculptured than the former. But 
 the wonder of wonders near Ahmedabad is 
 certainly the old pleasure palace of the kings, 
 named Sarchez, built in the fifteenth century 
 by Mahmud Bagaru. This glorious old pile 
 lies some six miles west of the city. Looking 
 back on my visit to India, and after seeing 
 the far more famous structures at Delhi and 
 Agra, I return to my conviction when I stood 
 on the colossal flight of steps which lead into 
 a large lake before the palace, flanked by 
 an apparently endless row of temples and 
 palaces; that nothing in point of splendour, 
 and in the realisation of all one has dreamt 
 of the former magnificence of the Eastern 
 monarchs, can more realise those dreams 
 than this place. It is like one of Martin's 
 or Danby's pictures realised; with a back- 
 ground that would have suited the visit 
 of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, or the 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 19 
 
 revels of Sardanapalus. We had started 
 before daylight in order to pass as much of 
 the day as we could spare in exploring this 
 wondrous old palace, and in wandering 
 amidst the marble-floored halls and temples 
 where rest those that once made these de- 
 solate old halls a dream of splendour. Now 
 they are given over to dolorous creatures, and 
 echo only the ghostly laugh of the hyena as 
 the night closes around. 
 
 On the following day we went to Baroda, 
 Mackonochie coming with us and introducing 
 us to Major Howard Mellis a perfect host 
 and a most genial, who acts the part of Lieu- 
 tenant-General in that pleasant city. We 
 found a smart carriage of the Gaikwar's 
 waiting, with native coachman and footman 
 in immense red turbans. "We are here 
 most comfortably installed in a beautiful 
 bungalow belonging to Mr. Elliot, former 
 Governor to the Gaikwar. Baroda is the most 
 home-like looking place we have seen yet in 
 India; its rows of beautifully kept gardens, 
 with the neat villa-like buildings, and the 
 park-like grounds around the Residency, 
 where General Watson lives, give an almost 
 English happy village-like look to the place." 
 
 As we had the honour of being presented 
 
20 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 to the Gaikwar, who struck us as being a 
 most promising young prince, it may be well 
 to add a few lines about him. Born in 1863, 
 his short history is somewhat romantic. His 
 name in full is Maharajah Sivaji Rao ; he is 
 the direct descendant, although he passed 
 his childhood in poverty, through a younger 
 son of Pilaji Rao, the founder of the family 
 of Rao. On the deposition of the late 
 Gaikwar (Mulhar Rao), in 1874, for being 
 supposed to have attempted to poison 
 Colonel Phayre, the present Gaikwar was 
 adopted by a princess of the house as her 
 son, and he has now succeeded to his an- 
 cestors' dominions. That his education has 
 been carefully undertaken is evident, and 
 the general impression is that Mr. Elliot has 
 had great success in his charge. Formerly 
 Baroda was famous for the sports and shows 
 given on certain occasions by the Gaikwar, in 
 which animals more or less wild were pitted 
 against one another, "mais on a change tout 
 cela," and instead of seeing tigers and 
 elephants attacking each other we were 
 treated by the Gaikwar to an entertainment 
 in which a German conjurer performed some 
 familiar tricks. We regretted not seeing the 
 " wild sports of the arena," but were bound 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 21 
 
 to admire the Gaikwar's humanity and the 
 softening influence of European teaching. 
 Nothing can be imagined more hideous than 
 the style of furnishing that one invariably 
 sees in the palaces of native princes in India ; ^ 
 and it is to be hoped that in an immense 
 palace now building for the Gaikwar, and 
 which is to cost some quarter of a million, 
 more taste will be shown. Of diamonds the 
 young prince has a priceless collection ; in a 
 row of brilliants, the central one is the " Star 
 of the South." He has also " ropes of pearls," 
 such as Lord Beaconsfield was so fond of 
 writing about in his novels, but until I had 
 seen those at Baroda I had not believed in. 
 
 Our visit to the Gaikwar was of interest. 
 We drove some six miles to a hideously ugly, 
 liver-coloured, barrack-like building, where, 
 until the new palace is finished, the Prince 
 resides during the summer. We were shown 
 into a small building on one side of the court- 
 yard facing the palace. In a few moments the 
 Gaikwar, with a large red umbrella borne over 
 him, and, with the exception of his head-dress, 
 in European costume, rapidly crossed the 
 yard and entered the room where we were wait- 
 
 1 Almost needless to say that what is ugly in India is 
 of English manufacture. 
 
22 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 ing. He gives one the impression of being 
 intelligent and amiable, and his expression is 
 a good one. In every way he seems a great 
 contrast to his predecessor. We were enter- 
 tained by a Mohammedan magnate at his 
 house, at the entrance of which six mounted 
 soldiers were drawn up, and we were received 
 with much ceremony. A nautch dance was 
 gone through, and anything more ungraceful 
 or hideous than the posturing and shrieking 
 of the three performers, two young and an 
 old woman, would be difficult to imagine. 
 Before leaving, our hands were smeared with 
 some evil-smelling, sticky compound and gar- 
 lands placed round our shoulders. 
 
 The state elephants we also inspected, and 
 had the honour of a ride on a gigantic brute 
 whose body was adorned with crimson and 
 golden stuffs, and a golden howdah on its 
 back. 
 
 Returning for a night to Ahmedabad, we 
 left the following evening for Jeypore, where 
 we arrived early next day, on the first of 
 the new year (1884). We called on Dr. 
 Stratton, the Resident, who lives in a plea- 
 sant villa, in the midst of an Italian-looking 
 garden, with cypresses, &c. ; and have seen 
 the Maharajah's huge palace, with its im- 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 23 
 
 mense hall, in which he holds his durbars ; 
 the stables, with four hundred horses ; also a 
 very creditable school of arts, in which native 
 talent is well displayed. Jeypore, or, as it is 
 often spelt, Jaipoor ("City of Victory"), is 
 most picturesque, with its wide straight streets, 
 its rhubarb-coloured houses and walls, and 
 its great palace towering over all ; it is full of 
 curiosities, and the elephants abound in its 
 walls. 
 
 The great lion here is the Palace of 
 Ambar, which, methinks, the French author 
 Rousselet has not over-praised in his glow- 
 ing description. Ambar is a day's ride from 
 Jeypore. You drive away early from the 
 comfortable Kaiser-i-hind Hotel for some 
 half-a-dozen miles, through a valley literally 
 covered with the ruins of ancient temples. 
 Arriving at the foot of the cliff on which the 
 castle rises, terrace over terrace, you leave the 
 carriage and mount an elephant. After pass- 
 ing under many battlemented gateways, the 
 outer-court is reached. For several hours we 
 wandered through a maze of courts and along 
 endless corridors. It is hardly an exaggera- 
 tion to say of this place, that " beside it the 
 wonders of Seville and Granada would appear 
 insignificant." I was reminded at Ambar of 
 
24 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 Heidelberg and of Ehrenbreitstein. From 
 the many coigns of vantage, one has glorious 
 prospects of the walled hills that rise at the 
 back of the castle, and of the vast plain 
 stretching for many miles, and the distant 
 hills that lie between us and Delhi. The 
 situation is grand beyond words, and days 
 might be passed here in merely going from 
 one exquisite room into another of this fairy- 
 like palace. Marble windows, an inch thick, 
 are carved through with the lightest and 
 most graceful designs; ceilings ablaze with 
 glass and gold, and huge doors of copper 
 glowing like burnished brass. An army 
 might be lodged within these courts, and 
 all Solomon's wives be stowed into these 
 inner gardens, fragrant with the perfume of 
 the orange and jasmine. 
 
 On the following day, after visiting the 
 armoury in the Palace at Jeypore (a fine 
 collection, but badly placed in little dark 
 rooms), we had another elephant ride to 
 the entrance of the Ghaut. A narrow road, 
 or rather a lane, lined on either side with 
 graceful galleries, minaret-crowned, leads 
 to the end of the valley from which the 
 wide plains, or rather desert, opens out. In 
 the far distance bold-shaped hills rise out of 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 25 
 
 a sea of desolation, looking like far-away 
 islands in a yellow sea. The gardens will 
 also repay a visit which border one side of 
 the narrow path. Jeypore is indeed well 
 worthy a few days being passed in it ; and it 
 has one of the very few really comfortable 
 inns in India. 
 
 Eleven hours' rail over a flat and unlovely 
 plain brings the traveller to Delhi. The 
 " Travellers' Bungalow " is not an uncomfort- 
 able one as bungalows go. The best general 
 view of the Historic Ridge is to be had from 
 the roof of Ludlow Castle, where Mr. Trem- 
 lett, the Resident, lives. He pointed out the 
 principal features of the places made memor- 
 able during the siege. The old palace of 
 the Delhi kings has been converted into 
 hideous barracks, but the audience chamber, 
 wherein stood the peacock throne and the 
 private apartments, the walls of which are 
 of w^hite marble, with the most graceful of 
 flower-like patterns, introduced in coloured 
 marbles like the best pietra dura work, are 
 superb. Unlike the Castle Palace of Ambar, 
 there is no fine view from the Palace of 
 Delhi, and the eye sweeps from out these 
 marble-traceried windows over an arid yellow 
 plain through which the sluggish Jumna 
 
26 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 flows. The gem of the palace buildings is 
 the Pearl Mosque, a dream in white marble. 
 There is a richness and also a simplicity in 
 this little building that nothing can describe. 
 Towering over the surrounding buildings is 
 the immense Mosque of Jumna-Musjid, the 
 most striking feature of Delhi. A month 
 might profitably be passed at Delhi in 
 examining the remains of the former 
 splendour of the Great Mughuls, who here, 
 from the beginning of the sixteenth century 
 till an end was put to their rule in the 
 Mutiny, built temple on temple, mosque upon 
 mosque, palace on palace. A circumference 
 of twenty miles encircles the ruins of this 
 Indian Rome. Imagine all these buildings 
 as they must have appeared when Aurangzeb 
 the Splendid held here his state ! Within 
 the town the finest street is the Chandui 
 Chouk (Silver Street), full of jewellers' shops 
 of the most tempting description. Of all the 
 mosques we had as yet seen none was to com- 
 pare to the Jumna-Musjid, undoubtedly one 
 of the finest and noblest buildings of the 
 East. The rich warm colour of the sand- 
 stone of which the lower portion of this 
 mosque is built contrasts admirably with the 
 pure white marble of the bulbous-shaped 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 27 
 
 domes with their gilded pinnacles flashing in 
 the sun. Ascending the minaret on the left 
 of the temple Delhi lies at your feet like 
 a huge map. As a town Delhi is not nearly 
 so picturesque as Jeypore. Every one at all 
 interested in the Mutiny will visit the Historic 
 Ridge and the Flagstaff Tower. One feels 
 when travelling in India the want of a good 
 guide to these historic scenes : the one 
 published by Murray and written by East- 
 wick is most unsatisfactory ; one is not told 
 what is worth seeing, but only confused by a 
 wearisome and endless list of places, of which 
 the spelling alone is enough to bewilder the 
 reader. As a rule it cannot matter much 
 how Mr. Eastwick chooses to spell the names 
 of Indian places ; but when he changes the 
 well-known and universal way of spelling 
 such historic places as Lucknow into 
 " Lakknau," Delhi into " Dihli," and Cawn- 
 pore into " Kanhpur," his guide becomes a 
 puzzle and a nuisance. 
 
 A long day in fact many can be profit- 
 ably passed in visiting the superb Tomb of 
 Humayan (Akbar's father) ; it is the West- 
 minster Abbey of the Mughul royal house, 
 built, like the Jumna-Musjid, of red sand- 
 stone with marble domes. Its terraces and 
 
28 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 neglected gardens cover a prodigious extent 
 of ground. It was from here that Hodson 
 took prisoners the sons of the King of Oude. 
 The drive from here to the wondrous red- 
 tower, the far-famed Kootab Minar, extends 
 for six miles through a country literally studded 
 with the tombs of kings and the remains of 
 ancient castles and towns. Before reaching 
 the Kootab visit the marble tombs and 
 mausoleums Mizamud diu Auliza the well 
 into which men and boys fling themselves 
 from a height of forty feet ; also the Tomb 
 of Safdar Jang an imitation of the Taj at 
 Agra. You will of course be expected to 
 mount the Kootab Tower ; the view from its 
 top amply repays one for the climb : it is 238 
 feet high, and rises, in five stories, from a 
 diameter of 47 to 9 feet. Authorities are in 
 doubt as to when it was built ; it is probably 
 one of the most ancient, and certainly the 
 most important single structure in Hindu- 
 stan, Beneath it are the remains of a 
 mosque, of half-Moorish, half-Hindoo archi- 
 tecture ; and rising in the centre of a 
 ruined court is the mysterious iron pillar or 
 shaft of Raja Dhava, which is supposed to 
 belong to the third or fourth century a.d. 
 It is said to be as deep below ground as it is 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 29 
 
 above. Altogether this day's sight-seeing is 
 one that leaves an impression on eye and 
 mind that is not easily forgotten. 
 
 A Turkish or rather Indian bath taken at 
 Delhi is also a thing not easily forgotten. I 
 thought the way one was treated in a bath 
 at Cairo severe enough^ but it was nothing 
 compared to the way in. which at Delhi one 
 was twisted and turned^ now with one's feet 
 over and behind one's head, and now with 
 the operator dancing a war-dance on one's 
 chest or back. The monkeys that abound 
 in the park-like grounds near the Travellers' 
 Bungalow here are as- tame as dogs with the 
 natives ; but as soon as they see a Etsropean 
 they decamp, and ni> wonder,, as it seems 
 Tommy Atkins' habit to* threw stones as they 
 pass at the inoffensive animals. Agra is sevem 
 hours' rail from Delhi. We were comfortably 
 lodged at the Agra Club, a large and very 
 luxurious building. Naturally the first place 
 we visited was the world-famed Taj-Mahal. 
 The Ta) folly realised all that I had ex^ 
 pected of it. In its way it is absolute per- 
 fection ; perhaps, to be ratha: hypercritical, it 
 is too complete, too finished,, too perfect. 
 The gardens above which it raises its domes 
 and minarets remind one of those in the 
 
30 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 Generaliffe at Granada, and a little of some 
 of those in Oxford ; these add immensely to 
 the effect of the matchless tomb, which rises 
 in its pure white like a petrified fountain from 
 out an emerald lake. The interior as com- 
 pared to the exterior seems a little dull and 
 plain ; the minarets, too, might appear some- 
 what like glorified lighthouses in form, 
 especially at their base ; but in spite of these 
 small drawbacks, the Taj is certainly one of 
 the most marvellous creations of human eye 
 and hand, and is worth alone the journey to 
 India to see; and it will hand down the 
 name of Shah Jahan to all the ages. Below 
 the terraces elephants were refreshing them- 
 selves in the Jumna, and natives in their 
 bright-coloured dresses gave picturesqueness 
 and colour to the scene. Not so, however, the 
 European tourists, who seemed out of place 
 in so purely Oriental a scene. We were for- 
 tunate in the time of our visit to Agra, for 
 to see the Taj aright it should be visited by 
 moonlight. While we were there a full moon 
 shone in all its glory on these glowing walls, 
 which the devoted love of an emperor raised 
 to his beloved one "the Exalted of the 
 Palace " Mamtaz-i-Mahal, and where he too 
 has built up his everlasting rest. To Mr. Smith, 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 31 
 
 the head-gardener, who is a Yorkshire man by 
 birth, and has been chief of the Taj gardens 
 some dozen years, is due their beauty and 
 preservation ; when first he came here these 
 now splendid gardens were but a wilderness. 
 More than once we saw the Taj by moonlight, 
 and here are my impressions thereon: 
 
 "Last night we enjoyed that fairy-like 
 scene, the Taj by moonlight a beautiful 
 vision that beggars all description ! It made 
 one talk in a whisper for fear that the enchant- 
 ment should fade and vanish like some 
 wondrous dream. Ye gods, what beauty ! 
 The moon in her zenith, the line of fountains 
 flashing like a million diamonds, relieved 
 against the deep green of the cypress, the 
 scarlet of the bougainvillea, and the purple 
 leaves of the ponsetias ; the interior of the 
 temple all aglow, blue and red lights 
 colouring the vaulted dome, around which a 
 thousand spirits seemed to be whispering in 
 endless harmony ! " The fortress at Agra is 
 stupendous without, huge walls within, a 
 maze of palaces ; it is more striking in size 
 and situation than that of Delhi. This 
 fortress was held by the British for four 
 months during the Mutiny, while all the rest 
 of the country was overrun by the rebels. Dr. 
 
32 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 Roach, who knows every stone in the place, 
 took us over this great work of Akbar, 
 and explained everything about it ; it is now 
 under restoration, a work that appears to be 
 conscientiously done. Besides the Fortress 
 and the Taj at Agra, there are many* monu- 
 ments worthy of being thoroughly seen. 
 Crossing the pontoon bridge over the Jumna, 
 you come to another architectural marvel, the 
 Mausoleum of Edmadood Dowla; its once 
 beautiful gardens now allowed to go to decay, 
 and its fountains are dry. It is a marble 
 palace although full of tombs, the graves of 
 Persian princes. Here the inlaid work is 
 very beautiful, especially the inlaid floors, 
 which are like superb carpets, but carpets of 
 different-coloured marbles. The lower portion 
 of the towers are octagonal^ and in this detail 
 superior to those of the Taj. Akbar's tomb 
 at Sikandra, erected by his son Jehangeer, is 
 a prodigious mansoleumy and has a park of 
 splendid trees around it. At the summit of 
 the building, and in a marble pillar, standing 
 at the head of the emperor's grave, the Koh- 
 i-noor was placed. A long day, ia lact many 
 might well be passed among the ruins of 
 Fatehpoor Sikri, distant some twenty miles 
 from Agra, which was the Windsor and Ver- 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 33 
 
 sailles of Akbar. The palace is surrounded by 
 a wall five miles in circumference, and within 
 are court after court, palace beyond palace, 
 and a gigantic mosque, which Fergusson 
 styles " Akbar's Grandest." The whole place 
 is stupendously majestic. Within the centre 
 of the great mosque is the marble tomb, with 
 walls of solid marble, that reminded me in 
 their detail and perfection of the Five Sisters' 
 windows in York Minster. For hours we 
 wandered through the glorious old place, so 
 full of beauty that we felt a deep admiration 
 for the people who have left here such match- 
 less remains of a civilisation that might have 
 made Athens and ancient Rome envious. 
 
 Leaving Agra on the evening of the 12th 
 (January), we passed Cawnpore in the early 
 morning; but here we did not stay. There 
 is not much beside the melancholy relics of 
 the Mutiny to see there, ^nd Marochetti's 
 Angel, that folds her wings over the terrible 
 well, I had seen ere it left England. We 
 reached Lucknow on the following day. 
 
 ^^ Lucknow, iTfth January. We are here in 
 the cantonment, one of us in Airlie's, the 
 other in ' Joe ' Lawley's respective bungalows, 
 both belonging to the gallant loth Hussars, 
 whose mess is close by. We have been 
 
 c 
 
34 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 sight-seeing all day. The places connected 
 with the year 1857 are the lions of Lucknow. 
 Of these, the principal is the Residency, held 
 through the summer of 1857 by Henry Law- 
 rence against such terrific odds. The English 
 have done well to leave these ruins untouched ; 
 the place is eloquent of a struggle of which 
 every Englishman must always feel proud. 
 No nobler names adorn the military glory 
 of England than those so closely connected 
 with these battered walls : those of Lawrence 
 and Havelock. Lawrence died in the house 
 close by the gate of the Residency, called 
 Bailey's Guard. Other places of interest re- 
 lating to that terrible time is the Observatory, 
 where a massacre of English residents took 
 place ; the spot where Neill fell ; and the tomb 
 of Havelock in the Alumbagh garden. The 
 public buildings here are disappointing, and 
 have a theatrical and Brighton-Pavilion look 
 about them, and even the famous Chatar 
 Manzil and Kaisar Bagh palaces are tawdry, 
 although the latter cost ;^8oo,ooo. The 
 mess of the loth was a most enjoyable and 
 hospitable one ; I was rejoiced to meet there 
 an old friend "Brab." Colonel Wood and 
 the other officers showed us every attention, 
 and overflowed with hospitality. The beau- 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 35 
 
 tiful Botanic Gardens of Wingfield Park 
 should be seen by all travellers to Lucknow ; 
 the trees there are superb, and there are roses 
 in it which are wonderful. Leaving the 
 hospitable loth on the evening of the 15 th 
 (January), we reached Benares the next 
 morning. 
 
 " Claries Hotels Benares^ 16th January. 
 This is a clean and comfortable place, 
 with a show-room attached to it, full of grace- 
 ful native iron-work, vases of a hundred 
 shapes and patterns. We have visited most 
 of the temples and sights, of which by far 
 the most striking, indeed one of the most 
 impressive of any that we have seen, is the 
 view of the city from the Ganges in the 
 early morning, when the natives descend 
 the endless flight of steps which lead down 
 from the piled-up buildings and temples into 
 the sacred waters in which they lave their 
 dark forms, is a memorable sight. Here 
 one can form some idea of the strong hold 
 that this people's religion has on them in 
 this their holy Kasi or metropolis of Hin- 
 dooism. It would require a very sanguine 
 missionary to hope that even in centuries 
 to come these 'benighted Hindoos' will 
 cease to believe in the sacred efficacy of 
 
36 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 their ancient river, as it reflects the old 
 towers and spires of the temples of their 
 gods, and the blue smoke wreathing itself 
 to heaven from the funeral pyres on which 
 their dead are being consumed. It is a 
 sight one would wish to see again and 
 again, so weird and strange, and so totally 
 unlike any other scene that any country 
 but India could produce. We went out in 
 a row-boat pulled by natives, passing along 
 that wonderful succession of Ghauts crowded 
 by thousands of people, many bathing in 
 the sacred river. Old men, women, and 
 children in every conceivable coloured gar- 
 ment, were there. It out-Turnered Turner ; 
 but what a picture would he not have made 
 of this ! Above towered lofty palaces and 
 cone-shaped domed temples; the river, 
 too, seemed alive craft filled with natives, 
 bearing large straw-plaited umbrellas in 
 junk-like boats a scene that personified 
 the religious manners and habits of the East, 
 painted on a great living canvas. Return- 
 ing from the river we came across some 
 of 'the lights of the harem'; at least we 
 w^ere told that within some gorgeously 
 embroidered covered palanquins, escorted by 
 a mounted guard of wild-looking lancers, 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 37 
 
 clothed in green, and attended by some highly 
 adorned footmen carrying silver sticks, were 
 the ladies of the Rajah's harem; they had 
 been bathing in the Ganges. Most of the 
 temples at Benares are filthily dirty within ; 
 but the Monkey, and the one of the Sacred 
 Cattle, as well as that in which stands the holy 
 well, should be visited ; also the Observatory, 
 from the top of which one commands a 
 general view of the city." 
 
 A twenty hours' railway journey from Be- 
 nares lands the traveller in Calcutta. There 
 we remained a week, guests of the Viceroy 
 (Lord Ripon) at Government House, which 
 combined all the freedom of an hotel with a 
 splendid hospitality. We had arrived at an 
 interesting period. The much-abused Ilbert 
 Bill was passed while we were in Calcutta ; 
 and whatever its consequence may be, I have 
 no doubt that the measure was one which 
 Lord Ripon held to be one of justice and for 
 the good of our Indian subjects. The time 
 will come when the unpopularity among the 
 Europeans in India which on more than one 
 occasion broke out at Calcutta in disgraceful 
 displays of personal antipathy to Lord Ripon 
 will be forgotten, it is to be hoped. These 
 people behaved like insolent schoolboys to 
 
38 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 the Queen's representative, merely because 
 he had done what he considered his duty 
 toward the people of India. That it could 
 not have been a pleasant task to carry through 
 a policy under the circumstances of the 
 Viceroy all must allow ; but in spite of the 
 gross insults and even threats of personal 
 violence, Lord Ripon acted the noble part of 
 a public servant of the state, placing above 
 popularity what he considered his duty, and 
 scorning to be bullied by the vulgar threats 
 and the personal malice of a set of men who 
 found that by giving more justice to the 
 natives they would lose some of their prestige 
 and power in the country, for which their only 
 feeling is how to get out of it as much as they 
 can in order to leave it the soonest possible. 
 Calcutta, when even a guest of the Vice- 
 roy, is not an inviting place. It contains no 
 architectural wonders like those we had lately 
 visited, and owes its fulsome epithet of the 
 " City of Palaces " to as hideous a collection of 
 stuccoed buildings and public offices as is 
 our wont to build. Government House, the 
 plan of which is, I believe, taken from Lord 
 Scarsdale's great house in Derbyshire, Kedle- 
 ston, has within some handsome rooms and a 
 fine hall with a double row of stately columns. 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 39 
 
 At the end of this gallery is a gaudy 
 drawing-room, where the throne is placed. 
 Here durbars are held. We saw one of these 
 functions. A little princelet little in size if 
 not in wealth the Maharajah Charati, was 
 here received in state. His Highness 
 appeared to be about twelve years old; a 
 guard of honour was present, and a salute of 
 eleven guns was fired in his honour, and the 
 superb bodyguard, of magnificent native 
 giants, draped in scarlet, were drawn up on 
 either side of the Marble Hall, where they 
 looked most picturesque. His Excellency 
 was seated on the throne, and as the little 
 prince approached, stept forward a few paces 
 (these are counted ; so many for such a prince, 
 and so many more for one of higher rank), 
 after which both Viceroy and Maharajah 
 seated themselves, and a short conversation 
 ensued. The lad spoke tolerably fluent Eng- 
 lish, but seemed somewhat alarmed, which 
 was not to be wondered at. 
 
 The Exhibition was in full swing while we 
 remained at Calcutta, and this we visited often. 
 Exhibitions have a monotonous sameness, and 
 with the exception of the different native courts 
 and the products of the different provinces, 
 some of which were most beautiful, there was 
 
40 BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 
 
 not much of interest. Here, too, I found a 
 great-nephew, Edward Clough Taylor's boy 
 a sturdy httle chap, aged two, with much of 
 the Campbell type in his little face, and with 
 bright curly yellow locks. 
 
 There was much of Oriental splendour 
 combined with English comfort at Government 
 House. One evening a ball was given in 
 the Hall of Columns. Some thousand guests 
 had been invited, but many kept away, owing, 
 it is said, to the Ilbert Bill affair. I made 
 the acquaintance of Mr. Ilbert at the ball, and 
 was surprised to see a comparatively youthful 
 man, with a pleasant expression and intellec- 
 tual head. I had expected at least an ancient, 
 grey-headed senior. What was mo^t marked 
 at this Government-House ball was the ab- 
 sence of good looks among the ladies, and 
 the very ancient ones who walked through the 
 quadrilles these the wives of judges I was 
 told, and they looked it ! 
 
 One morning with my relatives we went in 
 a steam-launch to Barrackpoor the Viceroy's 
 villa on the Hoogli some sixteen miles from 
 the city. With the exception of the grounds, 
 full of fine trees, there is but little to see at 
 Barrackpoor; the Botanical Gardens, which 
 are considered the finest in India, however, 
 
BOMBAY TO COLOMBO. 41 
 
 well deserve several visits ; there the palm 
 trees are superb. Leaving Calcutta in the 
 early dawn of the 27th of January, we reached 
 Madras three days after. Our vessel was a 
 small P. & O. steamer, the Teheran. On 
 board was the talented actress Genevieve 
 Ward, on her way to Australia for a six 
 months' engagement. The sea was as calm 
 as a lake, but the heat rather overpowering. 
 Although there was but little surf at Madras 
 we had to be landed on the backs of natives ; 
 the new pier is half destroyed. Madras was 
 preparing for the arrival of the Viceroy on 
 his way to Hyderabad. We found little to 
 take up the short time we passed on land at 
 Madras, and on the following day took leave 
 of India. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 CEYLON. 
 
 The I St of February found us halfway between 
 Madras and Colombo. On the next, the blue 
 hills of Ceylon were close on the " port bow," 
 and some of the passengers affirmed that they 
 could sniff the " spicy breezes " that blew off 
 " Ceylon's Isle," but I was not so fortunate. 
 All day we have been running in sight of 
 that lovely island. 
 
 "To them who sail 
 Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past 
 Mozambique's, off at sea north-east winds blow 
 Sabean odours from the spicy shore 
 Of Araby the Blest." 
 
 By "Araby the Blest" did Milton refer to 
 Ceylon ? Probably, as before the Portuguese 
 occupation it was under Arab rule. With 
 the exception of Majorca, Ceylon has the 
 loveliest line of hill and mountain that I 
 have seen from sea the nearer land green 
 
CEYLON. 43 
 
 as an emerald, with distant hills fading 
 into the ether. We entered the harbour of 
 Colombo on the night of the 2d February, 
 and landed next morning, rowed in by swarthy 
 natives, a finer set of men than the Indians ; 
 but wearing their hair long, with combs stuck 
 into their chignons, gives them a somewhat 
 effeminate look. 
 
 Sir Arthur Gordon, the newly appointed 
 Governor, made us at home at Queen's 
 House, as the Government House here is 
 called. His kindness and hospitality was 
 unbounded ; and under his roof we passed 
 some of the pleasantest days that we had 
 experienced since leaving England. Queen's 
 House is large, with a garden at the back 
 opening on the sea on the rocky beach. Sir 
 Arthur, who is passionately fond of swimming, 
 has had a swimming-bath cut out in the 
 rocks, which proved a most delicious bath- 
 ing place in this everlastingly hothouse-like 
 climate. It was an additional pleasure on 
 arriving here to find the late Governor, Sir 
 William Gregory, here on a visit, an old 
 acquaintance when together in the Commons. 
 He reigned here some ten years ago, an 
 universally popular Governor. It was pleasant 
 to see the warm and hearty manner in which 
 
44 CEYLON. 
 
 he was welcomed in Ceylon. It has been 
 my good fortune to know the three most 
 popular Governors of their time, all three 
 Irishmen Lord Dufferin, Sir Hercules Rob- 
 inson, and Sir William Gregory. The latter 
 was here when the Prince of Wales visited 
 Ceylon. Ceylon being the first of the Crown 
 colonies. Sir William ranked next to Lord 
 Northbrook, " a very big swell indeed," as he 
 expressed it ; " but when my time was up," he 
 said, " I returned to England, to find myself 
 only a simple Irish landlord who couldn't 
 even get his rents paid him ! " 
 
 Here, too, I met Major Knollys, who I had 
 seen at Sydney, and who, when with Sir 
 Arthur Gordon in Fiji, had greatly dis- 
 tinguished himself in the fighting there. 
 On the following day Lord and Lady Rose- 
 bery appeared, on their return journey from 
 Australia to England. They had but a day to 
 see Colombo, and another to visit Kandy, 
 and they certainly made a good use of the 
 short time allowed them. With him I paid 
 a most interesting visit to " Arabi the Egyp- 
 tian," as he always styles himself. He lives 
 in a little bungalow some three miles from 
 Queen's House, pleasantly placed among well- 
 wooded grounds, and cool from the sea 
 
CEYLON. 45 
 
 breeze. He is tall and of a dignified pre- 
 sence ; has well-shaped hands, and a remark- 
 ably good manner. We sat in a simply 
 furnished sitting-room opening out on the 
 entrance. Arabi can hardly say more than a 
 word or two in English, but we made our- 
 selves understood through a young Egyptian 
 who acts as his interpreter. He said that 
 there was no possibility of the Soudan being 
 conquered, even were the Egyptian Govern- 
 ment to be backed up by England and 
 Turkey ; that the enthusiasm of the followers 
 of the Mahdi will carry everything before 
 them; that the Egyptian troops, officered 
 by Englishmen, are considered to be outlaws 
 and outcasts by the faithful; and that the 
 probabilities are that in the end the Mahdi 
 will be able to establish himself as sovereign 
 over the Soudan. The slave trade, he affirmed 
 was and is supported by the powers that be 
 in Egypt, against the Mahdi's people. 
 
 On leaving him he said that he had not 
 passed so agreeable a time as he had done 
 with us since his arrival in Ceylon. This 
 is probably a form of Oriental civility ; but 
 civility, whether Oriental or not, is always 
 agreeable, and we were both, I think, agree- 
 ably surprised by Arabi, who is very far from 
 
46 CEYLON. 
 
 being the man that English correspondents 
 during the Egyptian campaign made him out 
 to be. He gave me the impression of having 
 the welfare of his country at heart, and as 
 far as one can judge by one interview, 
 he has more the Kossuth element in him 
 than that of a free-lance or filibuster. A 
 few days after this visit he called at Queen's 
 House, and spoke with evident gratification 
 at having been called on by Rosebery; he 
 was also full of gratitude to Sir William, whom 
 he said is his best friend. 
 
 We had arrived at an auspicious time at 
 Colombo, for an elephant kraal had been 
 organised in honour of Sir William's visit, 
 and to this the Governor invited my friend 
 and myself. An elephant kraal is not an 
 every-day or yet an every-year occurrence, 
 as it requires great time to prepare, and many 
 hundreds of men are employed in driving the 
 elephant into the kraal, and these elephant 
 drives are only given, as a rule, on the visit of 
 some great personage, and all Ceylon is agog 
 to see the sight. 
 
 We had been disappointed at not seeing 
 the wild animals at Baroda ; but we had now 
 a far more curious spectacle before us, and I 
 only regret that I am not more able to do 
 
CEYLON. 47 
 
 justice to the great elephant kraal of 1884, 
 which will long be remembered by those who 
 were fortunate enough to see it. 
 
 10th February. Since my last entry we have 
 been out in the wilderness to an elephant 
 kraal. We left Colombo early on the 5th. 
 We being the Governor, Sir William, 
 Knollys, Murray (Sir Arthur's private 
 secretary), and our two selves we drove 
 some thirty miles in a mail-cart, from the 
 box-seat of which I had a good view of the 
 splendid country we passed through. One 
 can hardly exaggerate the beauty of Ceylon, 
 and I doubt if there is any more beautiful 
 country under God's sun than it ; travellers 
 who have been both here and in Java, how- 
 ever, give the latter the palm. We passed 
 along a good road, bordered by every variety 
 of tropical plant, through forests of cocoa- 
 nut palms, and by valleys brilliantly green 
 with rice and maize; blue hills rise in the 
 distance, their sides covered with graceful 
 foliage. 
 
 At the end of our thirty-mile drive, having 
 reached a path leading through the jungle to 
 the camp, we mounted horses, and rode half- 
 a-dozen miles to our destination, a lovely 
 valley named Yogama, where an encamp- 
 
48 CEYLON. 
 
 ment of bamboo-built huts formed a right- 
 angle. In front of that destined for the 
 Governor and Sir William seven elephants 
 were drawn up in a line, and salaamed and 
 trumpeted their respects in a most polite 
 manner. Close by the camp is a stream 
 flowing into a lovely pool ; here the amphi- 
 bious Governor was soon swimming. This 
 pool is named Duhwaka, which, we are told, 
 meant in Cingalese, the pool in which you 
 must not fish. However, next day the pool 
 was fished, but with little result. 
 
 Up by six next morning, but the elephants 
 were still miles away, and watching the 
 natives drawing the pool of Duhwaka took 
 up the morning. The heat was intense, and 
 even only watching this fish kraal was hot 
 work ; but a prettier sight than we saw that 
 morning I have rarely seen : hundreds of 
 natives grouped on the rocks and all around 
 the pool, in which the nets gradually ap- 
 proached one another, until the moment 
 came when, with great excitement, the men 
 pulled them ashore, and the fish were dis- 
 played dancing and struggling, their scales 
 glistening in the bright sunshine. 
 
 Early next morning we climbed the hill 
 before the camp, wherein lay the kraal, a 
 
CEYLON. 49 
 
 cleared space of two or three acres or so in 
 the midst of the forest, strongly palisaded all 
 round, so that not even a rush of the im- 
 prisoned elephants, an event which some- 
 times occurs, could break through this stock- 
 ade. Two rough stages commanded a view 
 over the kraal, looking like a very gigantic 
 circus ; the smaller of these stands was close to 
 the only opening in the stockade, an opening 
 some six feet in width, through which the 
 elephants are driven. Our party were shel- 
 tered by a screen of leaves. Great care 
 has to be taken that the elephants should 
 not see anything beyond the stockade. The 
 least sound or sight of anything that would 
 excite their suspicions would make them turn 
 and disappear into the jungle ; therefore for 
 several hours, and until the great fish were 
 netted, we hardly exchanged a word, and 
 never above a whisper. It was noon before 
 the approaching cries of the beaters warned 
 us that the elephants were at hand. The 
 shouting, which at first sounded like distant 
 cheering, now gathered volume, and seemed 
 to come from every side; the excitement 
 grew apace; soon the welkin rings with the 
 shouts of seven hundred natives ; there is a 
 wild stampede around, a noise of branches 
 
 D 
 
so CEYLON. 
 
 being torn and trees uprooted, and suddenly 
 below us four elephants in a desperate 
 state of excitement come tearing through 
 the jungle, and make right for the opening 
 in the stockade. 
 
 All four enter, and before long seven others 
 follow their comrades into the kraal; the 
 natives rapidly close up the entrances, and 
 to all intents and purposes these great mon- 
 archs of the forest are made captive. 
 
 The following day we returned to the 
 kraal, where the whole day was spent ; and a 
 most interesting one we passed watching the 
 captured elephants being noosed. Four 
 tame elephants were introduced into the 
 kraal, and it was a most curious sight to see 
 the intelligent way in which these four helped 
 the natives to capture their wild companions. 
 Owing, it was said, to some ill feeling between 
 two sets of the noosers, a great deal of time 
 was lost before the elephants were secured. 
 The first caught was a female, and gave much 
 play before the thick cords could be got 
 round one of her hind legs. At length this 
 was accomplished, and the second safely 
 fastened ; but by a great effort she snapped 
 the ropes and broke away. When first 
 captured her little calf had remained by its 
 
CEYLON. SI 
 
 mother's side, indignantly shrieking at the 
 proceedings ; but on finding that its mother 
 was a " captive," I regret to say the Httle one 
 left her to her fate, and rejoined the others. 
 At length the lady elephant was again caught, 
 and this time finally; and later in the day 
 another was secured. One of the most 
 curious scenes was a fight between two of 
 the tame elephants; they met in a narrow 
 way, and refused to give way to one another ; 
 at length, after a great deal of roaring and 
 pushing, one had to "throw up the sponge." 
 Considering that the vanquished beast had 
 no tusks and its opponent wore a formidable 
 pair, this was not surprising. 
 
 There is no cruelty in this sport, only after 
 the elephants are caught they are starved for 
 a day or two until their ferocity has left them; 
 after which, secured between two tame 
 elephants, they are brought down to the 
 plain, and become tame, it is said, in an in- 
 credibly short time. I was glad to hear that 
 the English sportsman is no longer allowed 
 to shoot these grand creatures, as he was 
 too apt to do a few years ago. Not long ago 
 one of these despicable, so-called sportsmen 
 (and probably considering himself a gentle- 
 man), deliberately maimed and wounded half 
 
52 CEYLON. 
 
 a dozen or more of these elephants. Next 
 morning the kraal camp broke up, and we 
 returned to Colombo. During our ride, 
 which formed the first portion of our return 
 as it had been the last part of our expedition 
 to Yogama, an unfortunate accident occurred. 
 Murray happened to be riding by the side of 
 Knollys, who was mounted on a vicious brute, 
 which had a disagreeable way of letting fly out 
 its heels at the other horses ; in an unlucky 
 moment Murray was struck below the knee, 
 and it was evident at once that he had been 
 badly hurt. He bore the pain most pluckily; 
 but was obliged to remain till a conveyance 
 could be got for him, and our otherwise most 
 enjoyable outing had a shadow thrown over 
 it. When we left Ceylon Murray was making 
 favourable progress, lodged in a delightful 
 little bungalow close by the Governor's House 
 at Kandy. My companion and I made a 
 pleasant end of the return journey to Col- 
 ombo in a boat, half raft, half barge, with 
 an awning, and gaily decorated with palm 
 leaves and king cocoa-nuts, that most 
 delicious of tropical fruits. In this boat, or 
 rather boats, for two canoes were joined 
 together, we were paddled by four natives 
 from a place called Kadu-wella some five 
 
CEYLON. S3 
 
 miles down stream to Colombo. A more 
 delightful mode of travelling than this can- 
 not be imagined, floating rapidly down the 
 river in the gloaming, the banks on either 
 side clothed with foliage down to the water's 
 edge. About half-way down the stream we 
 landed to see a Buddhist temple at Kalenee, 
 one of the sights of Colombo. Thanks to the 
 initiation of Sir William Gregory, there is 
 now in Colombo a most admirably arranged 
 museum, in a handsome building, in front 
 of which most appropriately is placed a 
 bronze statue of its founder by Boehm. This 
 museum contains a very complete collection 
 of the fauna of the island, as well as a large 
 selection of native antiquities. Owing to the 
 short time we could give Ceylon, I was 
 unable to visit the ruins of the once great 
 native city Anarajapoora, of which Mr. 
 Smither, a distinguished architect, had just 
 completed a detailed survey. To judge by the 
 photographs of these ruins, they are of extra- 
 ordinary interest and of vast extent. Mr. 
 Smither told me that he intended publishing 
 a work on this subject. 
 
 During the remaining week that we passed 
 at Colombo we had many opportunities of 
 seeing the strong feeling of attachment that 
 
54 CEYLON. 
 
 Sir William Gregory has obtained among the 
 people of Colombo. One evening a great 
 fite was given in his honour in a large com- 
 pound in which an immense tent used for a 
 ball-room had been erected, and in the ground 
 around a variety of performances took place 
 fireworks galore, lamps more numerous than 
 ever glowed at Vauxhall, and " devil dances," 
 in which natives attired as demons gyrated 
 with marvellous activity. Among the crowd 
 " Arabi the Egyptian," followed by a suite of 
 Egyptians, was a conspicuous figure ; but still 
 more remarkable was a group of three men 
 clothed in splendid robes, and wearing on 
 their heads the most gorgeous scarlet and 
 golden crowns, for hats they were not, and 
 caps they would not have deigned to be 
 called. These three Magi and they looked 
 uncommonly like some of the representations 
 of the Wise Men of the East I learnt 
 were some Indian merchants named Pulle. 
 Later on I was fortunate to see them chez 
 eux^ as we were kindly invited to their house 
 in order to see the ladies of the family. 
 We found the whole family gathered, and 
 were received with much cordiality ; the ladies 
 were in full dress. We were shown the way in 
 which they dress for a wedding, for visiting, 
 
CEYLON. 55 
 
 and when at home. Gorgeous beyond descrip- 
 tion was the bride's attire; but she almost 
 disappeared, so bedizened was her form with 
 jewels of silver and jewels of gold. The 
 Pulles are Roman Cathohcs; the head of the 
 family since my return sent me a coloured 
 photographed group of the whole family, a 
 pleasing souvenir of our time in Colombo. 
 
 On another day we saw an interesting 
 ceremony connected with the ancient religion 
 of the country a distribution of prizes at the 
 Widyodaya College, a Buddhist seminary 
 founded in 1873. The Governor was received 
 by a perfect galaxy of venerable shaven priests 
 in yellow robes. The chief priest produced 
 some ancient missals and rehcs, after which 
 speeches were delivered and prizes bestowed. 
 
 When it is remembered that Buddhism has 
 existed in Ceylon since the year 307 b.c. and 
 handed down in all its integrity since then, 
 one looked with more than a common interest 
 on these priests of the purest religion save 
 one that has existed a religion that unlike 
 most others has not the stain of persecution 
 on its history. The Church of Rome might 
 have had a far less tarnished past to deplore 
 had it copied the far more humane tenets of 
 Buddhism. If one had not been born a 
 
S6 CEYLON. 
 
 Christian, one would certainly have preferred 
 the faith of Buddha to any other. 
 
 What made this prize-giving at the Widyo- 
 daya College additionally interesting is the 
 fact that, although still unendowed, this college 
 has already gathered under its roof pupils not 
 only from Ceylon, but from other Buddhistic 
 countries, from Siam, from Burma and Cam- 
 bodia. Its two principal objects are that it 
 should be a training school for Buddhist 
 priests, and for the encouragement of the 
 study of Oriental literature. 
 
 Floreat Widyodaya ! 
 
 We had been fortunate in making the 
 acquaintance of the chief of the police at 
 Bombay, and again at Colombo found in 
 W. George Campbell, who is the chief of 
 the police in Ceylon, a most agreeable and 
 pleasant person. A great affection for strange 
 pets seems one of Campbell's strongest tastes. 
 On visiting his pleasant villa we found a young 
 crocodile in his bath, and one of the strangest 
 and most uncanny little creatures in his house ; 
 this was a lemur, a creature half bat, half 
 monkey, with the longest legs, that made it 
 look like a gigantic spider; but the most 
 remarkable thing about this animal was its 
 face, which looked like that of a wizened dwarf 
 
CEYLON. 57 
 
 with beautiful bright human-hke eyes. One 
 evening we were invited to a banquet given 
 in honour of Sir Wilham Gregory by Chief- 
 Justice Dias. Some of the native gentlemen 
 were attired in an odd naval-like uniform that 
 had been introduced into the colony by the 
 Dutch. I there made the acquaintance of the 
 Chief-Justice's nephews, whom I found most 
 intelligent youths ; one of these is now study- 
 ing at Cambridge. 
 
 Our stay in Ceylon ended with a visit to 
 Kandy, a two-days' expedition. Those who 
 have only seen Colombo can form no idea of 
 the wonderful beauty of Ceylon unless Kandy 
 is visited. We started at 7 a.m., reaching 
 Kandy at noon. The far-famed railway line 
 up through the hills merits its reputation. 
 Nothing indeed can be imagined much love- 
 lier than the views one gets from the train 
 over the rich valleys as one ascends in zig-zag 
 fashion the hills ; tea and coffee plantations 
 are far more beautiful than vines or olives. 
 At the station of Kandy a dozen native chiefs 
 were waiting to welcome Sir William; their 
 costume was most remarkable, with head- 
 dresses like idols, and with piles of brilliantly 
 coloured satin wound round their haunches, 
 a kind of glorified knickerbocker, doubtless 
 
58 CEYLON. 
 
 a fashion brought into this country with 
 Mynheers the Dutch. The Governor has a 
 dehghtful place at Kandy, yclept the Pavilion 
 surrounded by hilly grounds and a paradise 
 of a garden, where we found Sir Arthur, who 
 had preceded us, with Lady Gordon and his 
 A.D.C.'s. We were much delighted with a 
 glorious red flower that I never saw anywhere 
 before, named the amherstia. Sir William 
 Gregory, who is very fond of Kandy, and to 
 whose good taste and liberality when here as 
 Governor the place owes much, took us over 
 the walks at the back of the Pavilion, many 
 of which he laid out himself. The views over 
 the country from some of these are perfect 
 dreams of beauty ; and were it not for the 
 heat, which is most trying, and the snakes, 
 leeches, and other vermin, Ceylon would 
 indeed deserve to be called an earthly 
 paradise. The Buddhist temple is the great 
 show place at Kandy, but after the Indian 
 these Buddhist temples appear very insig- 
 nificant. The Kandy botanical gardens are 
 about as fine as those in Calcutta, and have 
 what the latter have not got, great clumps of 
 bamboos, some quite one hundred feet high. 
 During our stay at Ceylon we had a 
 Singalese servant to look after our things. 
 
CEYLON. 59 
 
 Should any traveller be able to get G. D. 
 Sarnalis, I can strongly recommend him, a 
 first-rate valet, quiet, obliging, and attentive 
 as it seems the Singalese in service always are 
 and decidedly honest, which is a contrast 
 to the servants one is generally obliged to put 
 up with in India. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 We left Ceylon on the 19th February in 
 the P. & O. s.s. Clyde. There we met the 
 Honourable T. R. Plunkett, with wife and 
 family ; two delightful little girls of twelve and 
 six. Mr. Plunkett was on his way to occupy 
 his new post of Ambassador at Tokio, in 
 succession to Sir Harry Parkes. In every 
 way Mr. Plunkett's is an admirable appoint- 
 ment ; he is another instance of an Irishman 
 being the right man in the right place. 
 However, being born in a country does not 
 make one a native of that country, and 
 altl^ough we can call such men as Dufferin 
 and Plunkett Irishmen, they are not really 
 Irish merely because their ancestors settled 
 in Ireland two centuries ago. The real Irish 
 are the Roman Catholic peasants that have 
 been in Erin since the times of the legendary 
 
JAPAN. 6i 
 
 St. Patrick, a race as alien from our own as 
 are the Laps or the Poles, with two hopelessly 
 irradicable feelings firmly fixed in their 
 character, a hatred of the Saxon, and a love 
 for the most idolatrous form of Christianity, 
 the Church of Rome; that curse of many 
 lands. 
 
 On the 2 2d we passed the island of 
 Acheen, and next day at noon entered the 
 harbour of Penang. Landed in sampans, 
 native boats, and drove inland to see a water- 
 fall, beautifully situated in the hills behind 
 Penang. Penang is a picturesque town, with 
 suburbs of villas each within a bright garden. 
 Many of the houses are built on piles ; but 
 whether this is as a protection against the 
 floods which are here frequent, or as a safe- 
 guard against the reptiles, I do not know. 
 
 The view from the hills over the town and 
 harbour is not unlike that of Naples. Vesuvius 
 was represented by a large hill in Sumatra, 
 and the whitewashed town carried out the 
 resemblance. Leaving Penang the same 
 evening we rather suffered from the heat, 
 which seemed greater than any we had under- 
 gone in the Red Sea, and many of the male pas- 
 sengers passed the night on deck. Off Singa- 
 pore on the morning of the 25th. Landed, 
 
62 JAPAN. 
 
 and got rooms in Hotel de I'Europe; full 
 of French, military and civilians, drawn hither 
 by the neighbouring war in Tonquin. An 
 uninteresting town is Singapore, with wide 
 streets, having a semi-European, semi-Chinese 
 appearance. Visited the gardens of a mer- 
 chant named Wimpol; there the chief curiosity 
 are some "Victoria Regia" Hlies, growing in 
 long ditches. 
 
 ist March. We have at length entered into 
 an infinitely cooler atmosphere, a relief after 
 having been in a more or less liquid state of 
 body these last three months. Our voyage 
 since leaving Singapore on the 26th has been 
 of the calmest, although some of the ladies 
 have shown great determination in being 
 more or less ill, reclining on chairs on deck, 
 and being unable to descend for meals. We 
 have a musical set on board half-a-dozen 
 men who are said to be " bell-ringers ; " one of 
 these is a good pianist, and nightly accom- 
 panies Captain Orme Webb, who sings well, 
 and with what old Braham would have called 
 much " entusymusy." The two little Plunkett 
 girls, Nora and Nelly, are great favourites with 
 crew and passengers; it would not be easy 
 to find two nicer or better brought-up little 
 sprites than they. 
 
JAPAN. 63 
 
 2nd March. At noon we were at Hong- 
 Kong harbour, where I found myself for the 
 second time ; so that now I have been " round 
 the world," a very easy and pleasant job now- 
 a-days. We have had a capital run from Singa- 
 pore, two hours under five days, "the quickest 
 passage in a P. & O. s.s," say the initiated. 
 Our ship's gun was fired at noon, and much 
 surprised the pious Hong-Kongers, then in 
 church, for we were not expected till to- 
 morrow at earliest. As I thought when 
 here the first time, Hong-Kong is one of 
 the most beautiful harbours and places. I 
 see now no reason to change that opinion, 
 although fresh from lovely Ceylon. We got 
 rooms in the Club. Called at Government 
 House on Sir George Bowen, whom I knew 
 when Governor at Melbourne in '78. When 
 last here Pope Hennessy reigned. I showed 
 my companion "Happy Valley" and other 
 beauties of the place. Sir George is cordiality 
 itself; we dined with him and his family at 
 Government House. Sir George as vivacious 
 as ever. After passing four pleasant days at 
 Hong-Kong, we left it on the 6th (March) in 
 the Kashgar. Unluckily, a fog interfered with 
 the view of the Ly-y-Moon Passage, a beautiful 
 reach of sea and land. On the 8th we entered 
 
64 JAPAN. 
 
 Nagasaki harbour ; the fine rocky headlands 
 of Japan seemed to welcome us, and I felt 
 greater delight in landing again in Japan than 
 I can describe. There is not much to see in 
 Nagasaki; the principal curiosities are the 
 shops in Desima quarter, one of these a 
 china store (Koransha's), as large as Goode's 
 huge emporium in South Audley Street ; in 
 a temple-yard a life-size bronze horse, effec- 
 tive and spirited, not unlike some of the 
 horses from Herculaneum in the Museum at 
 Naples. Near this temple large camelha 
 trees were in full bloom, and the gay pink 
 almond blossom gladdened the eye on all 
 sides. A violent storm of rain coming on, 
 we lay all night in the harbour and steamed 
 away next morning. In the afternoon we 
 entered the narrow straits of Shimon-tseki, 
 the commencement of the inland sea. The 
 moon, just past its full, shone down on a 
 beautiful scene of hills and waters, but it was 
 not till early next day, thanks to being roused 
 at cock-crow by Captain Webb, that one 
 could form an idea of the extraordinary beauty 
 of this matchless inland sea. We were 
 threading its narrowest part. Scores of 
 islands lay all around, the mist of the early 
 morning half concealing the villages nestling at 
 
JAPAN. 65 
 
 the foot of the hills ; the sea dotted with junks, 
 looking like flights of large white butterflies. 
 On the right rose a distant range of grandly 
 shaped snow-covered mountains, the Shikolin 
 range. As the sun rose higher the mist dis- 
 appeared, and the fair scene had an air 
 of enchantment. I should strongly advise 
 travellers to get their first impressions of the 
 " Land of the Rising Sun " by approaching 
 it through this inland sea : they will then 
 understand the intense fascination that Japan 
 holds over all who have visited it a land so 
 unlike any other, so quaint, so beautiful, and 
 yet so homelike in many respects. We 
 reached Kobe in the afternoon of the 13 th 
 (March), and found most comfortable quarters 
 in the Hiogo Hotel, kept by an Englishman ; 
 not only clean, but luxurious. There is little 
 besides this good hotel to detain one at Kobe, 
 and on the day after our arrival we went on 
 to Kioto. A week or more might well be 
 passed at Kioto, but we were timed to remain 
 there but a couple of days. Here, as every- 
 where in Japan, except at Yokohama and 
 Tokio, passports are necessary ; these we got 
 from our consul, Mr. Troop. A railway is 
 open between Kobe and Kioto, a couple of 
 hours' run between the two places. From 
 
 E 
 
66 JAPAN. 
 
 the station at Kioto you have to traverse the 
 entire city in jinrikishas, the little single- 
 place carriages drawn by men, generally 
 two to each carriage. We tore along the 
 dimly-lighted streets at a great pace, by the 
 side of what seemed an interminable canal, 
 and at length up a hill, and finally were 
 pulled up at the entrance to the Ya-Ami 
 Hotel, more of a Japanese building than 
 our hotel at Kobe. The view from the 
 balconies of the hotel are very extensive, 
 and all Kioto lies below like in a panorama ; 
 at night the hundreds of lantern-lighted streets 
 look very effective. 
 
 15M March. We have had a splendid 
 day for a very pleasant expedition. Starting 
 at nine this morning in jinrikishas, we went 
 some fifteen miles to Oigowa passing 
 through the town with its densely peopled 
 streets, out into the country, along rough 
 and rutty roads, through hilly defiles, by the 
 side of clear streams, and in and out of fir- 
 wooded dales. Much of the scenery through 
 which we passed reminded me of Scotland. 
 At noon we reached our destination (Oigowa). 
 There we embarked (carriages, men, drivers 
 and all) on board a large flat-bottomed boat, 
 and soon were shooting down the river, among 
 
^ JAPAN. 67 
 
 rapids, narrowly passing in and out of rocks 
 against any of which our bark must have 
 come to signal grief. A most exhilarating 
 mode of travelling we found this rapid shoot- 
 ing, and the skill with which the boatmen 
 steer clear of the rocks is a sight to see. 
 Accidents seldom occur; but that they do 
 sometimes was proved by the broken remains 
 of one of these flat-bottomed boats which 
 had run on a rock. One of the passengers 
 was drowned. An hour of this boating brought 
 us to Arashyma, where we got luncheoned in 
 a tea-house; thence by road some seven 
 miles brought us again to Kioto. We visited 
 some shops, the silk and curio ones at Kioto 
 are celebrated, also a temple where is a huge 
 bell, said to weigh some seventeen tons. 
 
 Our next expedition on the day following 
 was marred by wet weather. The morning 
 had promised well, and as one looked over 
 the panorama of the town, the sun shining 
 on the dark-wooded, fir-clad hills, one thought 
 not of the possibility of rain ; but the rain came 
 just as we reached the shores of Lake Biwa, 
 in the town of Otsu ; and before we could get 
 more than a general view of one of the most 
 celebrated views in Japan from the Shintu 
 Temple terrace, it came down in torrents, 
 
68 JAPAN. 
 
 and view and lake disappeared in a regular 
 Scotch mist, and there was nothing for it but 
 to return to Kioto. After visiting the large 
 Buddhist Temple, said to be the largest in 
 Japan, built entirely of wood, and containing 
 magnificent halls and rooms of state for the 
 Mikado, we returned to Kobe; and the 
 following afternoon were on board the large 
 paddle-steamer belonging to the Japanese 
 company the Midgi Bitchi (Angl. Three 
 Diamonds), that runs between Shanghai and 
 Yokohama. The captains and officers of 
 this company are mostly Americans ; ours of 
 the Tokio Mart is a most agreeable one, 
 Captain Strange. Before leaving Kobe I 
 may mention that we met with much civility 
 from one of the principal European residents 
 there, Mr. Hazlewood, of the Hong-Kong 
 and Shanghai Bank. Early on the morning 
 of the 2oth we were in front of Yokohama, 
 welcomed by a gloriously bright sun, and by 
 my friend G. R. He had secured rooms 
 for us in the Club a new one since I was 
 here last in '78, a most luxurious place, 
 with large billiard rooms and bowling alleys, 
 a capital cuisiiie^ and a very genial and 
 agreeable set of members, American as well 
 as English. During the earlier part of this 
 
JAPAN. 69 
 
 my second visit to Japan (my first visit, in 
 1878, had been one of only a few hours, and 
 on this occasion I was determined to see 
 something of the country) the weather was 
 most unfavourable, and the rain would persist 
 in coming down in torrents. Here when it 
 rains the coolies who draw the jinrikishas 
 look like animated hayricks ; their heads and 
 bodies down to their bare legs are all straw- 
 covered, but whether this is waterproof in 
 such tropical-like rains as we are having I 
 cannot say. I have already alluded to the 
 great attractiveness of the " curio " shops at 
 Yokohama. I found them as tempting now as 
 when last here, and Shobei's silks, and Musi- 
 sheer's beautiful artistic things in bronze, ivory, 
 lacquer, &c. are to me at any rate irresistible. 
 The days pass all too quickly in Japan. When 
 it is wet, these shops are the great attraction 
 here; when fine, endless expeditions can be 
 made. Alone properly to see all that is to 
 be seen at Tokio would in itself take several 
 weeks. I found at Yokohama old, and made 
 fresh friends ; at Tokio, at the Embassy, were 
 the Plunketts, gradually installing themselves 
 in their new home ; and at Yokohama the 
 Club was full of good company, and the 
 evenings went gaily by, bowls being the 
 principal attraction. 
 
70 JAPAN. 
 
 So bad was the weather that it was not 
 until we had been at Yokohama a week that 
 we got a ghmpse of that peerless mountain, 
 Fujiama. 
 
 30/y^ March. A red-letter Japanese day, 
 for this morning I saw for the first time 
 glorious Fuji. G. R. and I started off early 
 for a long expedition on a splendid bright 
 morning, a cloudless blue sky, and a breeze 
 that would have exhilarated the poorest of 
 spirits. Our "ride" was a succession of 
 beautiful views and curious scenes, the 
 grandest by far the great white mountain that 
 seemed to come out bodily from heaven, 
 and to be floating hke an immense cloud, for 
 which, had my companion not pointed it out 
 to me, I should have taken it. On reaching 
 Kamakura we left our jinrikishas and visited 
 its solemn temple; the trees in the great 
 yard in front, in full pink and white blossom, 
 looking like showers of coral and pearl. We 
 had passed by "the Plains of Heaven," a 
 place deserving its name. Later we visited 
 the great bronze idol of Dyboots, a hollow 
 bronze representation, some sixty feet high, of 
 Buddha in a state of Nirvana. We returned 
 by the old Tokoito Road, along its avenue 
 of fine old fir trees. Another day we were 
 at Tokio, where we saw a wresthng match in 
 
JAPAN. 71 
 
 an open-air theatre, full of "local colour." 
 The Japanese of all sorts and conditions 
 much enjoy these sports. Except at a 
 French bathing-place, I have never seen 
 such grotesquely hideous fat men as the 
 wrestlers were ; their fat lay over and about 
 them in huge folds ; wrestling it could hardly 
 be called, as when one fat, semi-nude man 
 had pushed another off the platform, his was 
 the victory. Another pleasant visit at Tokio 
 was to Captain Hawes, head of the Japanese 
 School of Engineers ; he took me over the 
 Mikado's Gardens, more like a park than a 
 garden, containing within huge walls many 
 acres of highly ornamented grounds, ^ith a 
 race-course, a lake, and a cascade, and with 
 many pretty gazebos and tea-houses scattered 
 about. The still unfinished Japanese Club 
 we visited also, a large and very handsome 
 building, furnished in European style, and 
 with a good ball-room. After dinner at 
 Captain Hawes's,^ an old Japanese lady 
 painted in an inconceivably short time a 
 number of fruit, flower, and bird subjects with 
 infinite skill and effect. 
 
 My next outing with my friend G. R. was 
 among the hills, some fifty miles from 
 
 1 Joint author with Mr. Satow, H.M. Consul at Bur- 
 mah, of the Guide to Japan, pubhshed by Murray. 
 
72 JAPAN. 
 
 Yokohama. We tiflfined at a tea-house in the 
 village of Fujisawa, and reached Tonasawa 
 at the foot of the hills towards dark. In a 
 prettily situated spot close by the river was 
 lodged an Italian artist, Sig. San Giovanni ; 
 he has passed months there, and has made 
 some capital pictures of Japanese manners 
 and scenery. After leaving Tonasawa I tried 
 a new form of conveyance, being carried up the 
 hills in a kind of box called a "kango," sup- 
 ported by poles on the shoulders of the 
 coolies. As the darkness increased, one of 
 those men walked ahead with a flambeau 
 composed of sticks. At length our destination, 
 Kiga, was reached, a little village among the 
 hills on the edge of a rapid stream. This 
 was my first experience of a night passed in 
 a Japanese hostel ; the walls of paper, and 
 paper screens for partitions. How Carlyle 
 would have abhorred such a dwelling, where 
 every sound is heard, as if the occupants of 
 the house lived in one common room ! We 
 were up betimes next day, and walked over 
 the hills to Hakone, a glorious walk in fine 
 weather; but we got it wet, and when we 
 reached the sulphur baths of Ashinaga it 
 poured in buckets. A curious sight are these 
 baths. In a long building are a row of baths, 
 full of Japanese, male and female mingled 
 
JAPAN. 73 
 
 indiscriminately : it reminded me of the 
 public hot baths at Buda-Pesth. After 
 Ashinaga we had a long tramp across some 
 bare hills, like parts of Inverness-shire. We got 
 into Hakone thoroughly soaked, and put up 
 at a large tea-house on the shore of the lake. 
 When travelling in Japan it is necessary not 
 only to take food but one's bedding with you. 
 I found that sleeping on the floor of these 
 tea-houses was not uncomfortable, although at 
 first the want of any chairs or tables is some- 
 what a nuisance ; but after all, these little in- 
 commodities make up a good deal of the 
 novelty of seeing life in Japan. 
 
 The next day, too, was wet, but over the 
 hills we had to go to reach Atami, some six- 
 teen miles off. We crossed over an endless 
 hog's back of a mountain, from which in clear 
 weather there is said to be a fine view of the 
 sea ; but we saw nothing owing to the heavy 
 mist and rain. I should advise travellers not 
 to visit the Japanese highlands until May. 
 The descent on Atami is even on a wet day 
 a pretty sight. On the right, bold headlands 
 jut out into the sea, and lying in front is the 
 volcanic isle of Hasshima. At Atami we 
 found some friends, and shared their quarters 
 in a little tea-house. Atami is a great place 
 for invalids to come and bathe, and the 
 
74 JAPAN. 
 
 natural hot baths are in great vogue here. 
 Many of the richer Japanese have recently 
 built villas at Atami, where they come and 
 pass the bathing season. 
 
 Returning to Yokohama on the following 
 day, we skirted for upwards of four hours 
 the sea, along a road that reminded one 
 of the Corniche, and certainly as beautiful. 
 We were again in jinrikishas, and at a high 
 speed we passed by a lovely panorama the 
 hills on one side, the sea dotted with islands 
 on the other, and in and out of villages, gay 
 with the blossoming gardens, and bright with 
 the blossom of the plum and cherry trees. 
 
 At the village of Odawaru we left the 
 " man-power " carriages, and drove into Yoko- 
 hama in a trap along the Tokoido road. 
 
 Off again next day on another expedition 
 to Nikko. "Those who have not seen 
 Nikko," say the Japanese, "have not seen 
 Japan," and certainly, if time permits, a visit 
 to Nikko is one that all travellers should 
 make. My friend and I went first to Tokio, 
 where we embarked in a little tub of a steamer, 
 and where we passed the night in a cabin 
 only four feet high; so that even sitting 
 upright was a difficulty. However, like other 
 things in travelling, it was an experience, and 
 we managed to pass the night tolerably com- 
 
JAPAN. 75 
 
 fortably. Slowly we ascended the shallow 
 river, full of boats manned by men in blue 
 dresses, the banks thickly covered with bam- 
 boo and with many a village. At four 
 o'clock next morning we reached the little 
 village of Koga. There we disembarked, 
 and after breakfasting started off in jinriki- 
 shas to Nikko, a journey of fifty-five miles. 
 It took us thirteen and a half hours to do it. 
 The state of the roads from recent rains was 
 deplorable, and at places it seemed a matter 
 of impossibility that the coolies could get us 
 over them ; but these wonderfully wiry fellows 
 did their work in splendid style, each pair of 
 jinrikisha cooHes being relieved by others 
 at almost every half-dozen miles on the road. 
 We arrived at Nikko after dark ; men came 
 out with lanterns as we neared the place. 
 The finest portion of the road is when Nikko 
 is approached. An immense avenue of gigan- 
 tic cryptomerias, said to be a century and a 
 half old, look most imposing. Some of these 
 trees must be at least eighty feet in height. 
 Nikko itself is beautifully placed among pine 
 woods, and surrounded by fine hills like a bit 
 of Switzerland, or of the Engadine. (Suzuki's 
 Hotel at Nikko can be recommended.) 
 
 Temple visiting was the order of the next 
 day, and this place being the Walhalla of 
 
76 JAPAN. 
 
 Japan, its temples are not only renriarkable for 
 great beauty and elaborate decoration, but for 
 national interest, and the extreme beauty of 
 their situation. The finest temples are those 
 of Sambutsudi, with its great gilt figures of the 
 three Buddhas ; the superbly ornate group of 
 temples called Iqe-Yasu, which exceed even 
 those at Sheba in lavishness of decoration, 
 with it wondrous well and pagoda, and above 
 the mausoleum amongst huge stone pines. 
 The finest sight I thought was the view 
 looking back through the archways from 
 the courtyard of the Yashamon Temple. 
 We met near here a crowd bearing gro- 
 tesquely carved and gilded shrines up the 
 temple stairways, looking like a scene of a 
 very magnificent open-air pantomime. 
 
 Leaving Nikko early next day, we had a 
 glorious walk of eight hours over the hills to 
 Ashiwo ; splendid scenery all the time. Over 
 and over again I felt as if we had suddenly 
 come into Switzerland; even the cottages 
 with their timbered roofs covered with stones 
 strengthened this impression. 
 
 We passed that night at the village of Ashi- 
 wo, in a little inn named Ityunyu. All next 
 day we walked through a superb country skirt- 
 ing the river Wataraseyawa, a bright rushing 
 stream of a deep bottle-green colour. Near 
 
JAPAN. 77 
 
 the village of Sauri the scenery is magnificent. 
 Huge boulders of rock lay hundreds of feet 
 below us, around and over which whirled 
 and eddied and rushed the torrent. The 
 hills about here are very grand ; patches of 
 bright pink blossom, wild-cherry trees pro- 
 bably, relieving the somewhat sombre tone 
 of the fir trees. At Sauri we luncheoned on 
 some delicious little trout fresh from the river, 
 excellently well fried by Matsu our guide. 
 We got into the picturesque little village of 
 Goto, still in the highlands, by dusk, and found 
 comfortable quarters in the little inn of Tamaya, 
 with its artistically painted ceilings and (paper) 
 walls. An odious little maid disturbed our 
 slumbers at five the following morning by tear- 
 ing open the screens that here serve as walls 
 and shutters between the different rooms. 
 After this sleep was impossible, and there was 
 nothing for it but to pack up our mattresses. 
 We sped on that day many a mile in jinrikishas, 
 for now the hill country was passed and we were 
 back again in the plain. Crossing about noon 
 a wide stream in a ferry-boat, we soon after 
 reached Kumagaye, from which place the 
 rail is open to Tokio. And so ended our 
 pleasant expedition to Nikko, which I strongly 
 recommend to all those who like a good walk 
 over the hills, and can put up with the trifling 
 
78 JAPAN. 
 
 discomforts at the different tea-houses on the 
 road. 
 
 My stay in Japan was now drawing to a 
 close, and I have but Httle more to add to 
 these scattered notes of one of the pleasantest 
 journeys I have ever made. Before leaving 
 Yokohama I was invited to a garden party 
 given by the Mikado at Tokio. Japanese 
 royalty has imitated ours even in this 
 respect of giving a large party and at a 
 very trifling expense. Much as I dislike all 
 functions, I felt it would be a mistake not to go 
 to this one, and accordingly having invested 
 in a tall hat, which is as obligatory on these 
 occasions as are tights at our Queen's court, 
 I went to the capital, calling first on the 
 Plunketts at the Embassy. From thence we 
 drove through the city to a large enclosed 
 garden close by the railway station. Passing 
 through a pavilion-kind of building, one 
 entered the royal demesne, the most notice- 
 able feature there being an artificial lake 
 studded with islands connected by the main- 
 land by wooden bridges. What made the 
 gardens really beautiful were the quantity of 
 blossoming trees "summer snow," as the 
 Japanese happily call it. The deep-purple 
 brown of the maples contrasted well with the 
 white and pink blossoms. I cannot say that the 
 
JAPAN. 79 
 
 invited guests added any beauty to the scene. 
 Most of the Japanese, and all the men, 
 wore European costume, and looked like 
 mutes at a funeral. Some of the Europeans 
 wore " pot " hats, and the general look of the 
 company was decidedly dowdy. There was 
 an interminably long time to wait before His 
 Majesty deigned to appear, and when he 
 did we beheld a short and very insignificant 
 man, in a German kind of uniform, followed 
 by half-a-dozen Japanese ladies princesses ? 
 These were good enough to give some local 
 colour to the scene, being dressed in their 
 very becoming national costume. The Mikado 
 moved on slowly, like an automaton that had 
 been somewhat feebly wound up. The ladies 
 of the court had their faces thick with paint ; 
 the people gathered round them, and the 
 Mikado had some difficulty in moving along ; 
 the crowd cringing and cutowing to him, 
 seemed as much the fashion here as in our 
 own country, and I noticed the same forced 
 leer on the eager faces of those nearest to the 
 sovereign, looking as hungry for a nod as a 
 cur for a bone. 
 
 The last night I passed at Yokohama the 
 American Consul, General Van Buren, gave 
 a farewell dinner. The General himself is 
 one of the greatest human landmarks of 
 
8o JAPAN. 
 
 Yokohama, a fine specimen of the best type 
 of American, with a patriarchal head and a 
 snowy beard, but as bright in spirit and keen 
 in humour as a lad of twenty. The press 
 was represented by Mr. Brooke of the Herald^ 
 the Times of Yokohama, but without the 
 tediousness of our ponderous print ; nor must 
 I omit the Punch of Japan, conducted 
 and illustrated by Wyman. It would take 
 too long were I even to give a list of those 
 who I may still hope to meet again in the 
 " Land of the Rising Sun." On the morning 
 of the 27th of April I watched from the 
 bows of the P. & O. s.s. Oceanic Xho, "peer- 
 less mountain " fading away over the waters, 
 and fervently hoped that it was not the last 
 time my eyes would rest on Fujiama. I have 
 now but to wish all that may have read 
 these notes, in the gentle, melodious Japanese 
 language, a hearty 
 
 Sayanara. 
 
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 Hdinbiiri^h and London 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA LIBRARY