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MEETING THE SUN:
A ..lUEUET
ALL ROUND THE WORLD,
EGYPT, CHINA, JAi'AN AND CALIFORNIA,
INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONIES OP THE EMPEROR OP CHINA.
WILLIAM SIMPSON, F.E.G.S.,
MEMBER OF SOC. BIB. ARCH/EOLOGY; AUTHOR OF THE "CAMPAIGN IN THE EAST;"
"INDIA, ANCIENT AND MODERN;" "THE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION," ETC., ETC.
WITH ABOUT BO EELIOTYPE AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS.
BOSTON
ESTES & LAURIAT,
301 Washington Street.
1877.
PREFACE. '
There is a parental relationship between an author and
his work ; but although it is the custom, in the case of
babies, to repeat names, it is found to be very awkward
in the matter of books. " All Round the World" was
the title first selected for this volume, but it was dis
covered, although only at the last moment, that the
words had been before appropriated ; and it became
necessary, in this case, to re-christen the child, even
before it was born. Among many names " Meeting the
Sun" was suggested ; and being rather inclined to
believe in the solar myths of the East, where much of
my travelling has been, I may say that I jumped at the
phrase as an improvement on the original title. To
this title the older words have been added, as they are
descriptive ofthe whole journey.
To me it seemed that the new name was peculiarly
applicable, for as I went eastward I was every day
" Meeting the Sun." As I reached those lands from
which, as child and boy, I believed the Sun rose, I
found it still rising from a region beyond. I was
always " Meeting the Sun." When I reached what we
call in England the lands of '; the Far West," where the
Sun is supposed to go to rest," even there I was still
travelling eastward, and still " Meeting the Sun;" and
thus the new name seems to me appropriate, and the
re-christening a happy event.
CONTENTS.
chap I.
— Introductory .
PAGE
11.
— London to Venice .
9
III.
— Venice and the Adriatic
16
IV.-
—Brindisi and the Mediterranean .
. 27
V.-
—Alexandria and Egypt .
. 36
VI.-
—Suez
44
VII.
49
VIII.-
—Aden ....
. 75
IX.-
—Ceylon ....
. 80
X.-
—Penang and Singapore .
88
XI.-
—Hongkong
. 99
XII.-
—The China Seas
. 107
XIII.-
-Tientsing and the Peiho
117
XIV.-
131
XV.-
-Marriage of the Emperor of
China
. 144
XVI.-
—The Temple of Heaven .
. 175
XVII.-
—The Emperor's Assumption of
Power
. 200
XVIII.-
-The Audience Question .
. 210
XIX.-
-The Great "Wall of China .
228
XX.-
—Literature and Education in
China
. 249
XXI.-
—Chinese Civilization
. 281
XXII.-
-The Yang-tse-kiang
j
. 298
XXIIL-
-Japan .....
. 309
XXIV.-
-The Pacific
. 338
X CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
XXV.— San Francisco 347
XXVI.— The Modoc War 356
XXVI [.—The Yosemite .384
XXVIII.— Salt Lake City . 394
XXIX. — The Mammoth Caves of Kentucky .... 404
XXX.— The Atlantic 409
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Fuji-yama ........
St. Michel, with the Perron des Enconibres .
Venice ........
The Casa Virgile, Brindisi .....
Pillars at the end of the Appian AVay .
Breakwater at Alexandria .....
Lake Menzaleh, Suez Canal
Breakwater at Port Said, Suez Canal .
Poop of Peninsular and Oriental Steamer
The Holy Carpets leaving Cairo for Mecca .
Stoke-hole of the " Ellora "
Point de Galle .......
Diving Boys at Singapore . ...
Plan of Peking ......
Midnight Procession — The Bride's Chair
Imperial Marriage— The Bride's Trousseau .
The Bride's Palace, Peking
Imperial Marriage ^Procession from Imperial Palace
Palace .......
How the Chinese saw the Marriage
Midnight Procession — The Bride's Tablet, Sceptre, and
The Temple of Heaven, Peking ....
Plan of the Temple of Heaven ....
Altars of Burnt Sacrifice, Temple of Heaven, Peking
North Altar, Temple of Heaven, Peking
The House of Nails
A God out of Eepaii* ......
Froutl;
to Bride's
Seal
¦piece. page 9
1627
29 363940506674
80 98
132
144 153 155
159162
164175176 179
187 196198
xn
LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Sculptured Figures, Ming Tombs ...... 233
Great Wall of China 243
Ancient Stone Drums ...... . 250
Boys' School, Peking 254
Examination Hall, Peking . , . . . . .256
Competing Student, Examination Hall, Peking .... 257
Tablets with the Classic Books engraved, Hall of the Classics,
Peking ' . . . .261
Girls' School, Peking 264
The Peking Gazette 269
Manchoo Archers, Peking . . . . . . . .292
Chinese Pawn Shop 296
Chinese Punch .......... 306
Assassmation of General Canby and Dr. Thomas by Captain Jack . 356
Indian Scalp .......... 364
Mount Shasta 371
Warm Spring Indian .... ... 372
Medicine Flag, found in the Lava-Beds ... . 375
The Lava-Beds . 377
Modocs in the Lava- Beds ... .... 379
Captain Jack's Cave ..... . . 380
" Mainstake," Modoc Indian Woman 383
FaUen " Big Tree," Mariposa Group ... .388
MEETING THE SUN:
A JOURNEY ALL ROUND THE WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
INTBODITCTOKY.
" In the Name of God Glorious and Allemyghty, He that
wil passe over the See, to go to the City of Jerusalem, he
may go by many Weyes, bothe on See and Londe, aftre the
Contree that hee cometh fro : manye of hem comen to an
ende. But troweth not that I wil telle zou alle the
Townes and Cytees and Castelles, that Men schulle go by ;
for than scholde I make to longe a Tale : but alle only
summe Contrees and most princypalle Stedes, that Men
schulle gone thorgh, to gon the righte Way."
Such are the words with which Sir John Maundevile,
Kt., begins the first chapter of his travels. Although the
reference here is to Jerusalem only, yet in his Prologue
he states that he was born in the " Town of Seynt
Albones," and " passed the See, in the Zeer of our Lord
Jesu Christ moccxxh., in the Day of Seynt Michelle ; and
hidre to have ben longe tyme over the See, and have seyn
and gon throghe manye dyverse Londes, and many Pro-
• B
Z MEETING THE SUN.
vynces and Kingdomes and Iles, and have passed throghe
Tartarye, Percye, Ermonye, the litylle and the gret ;
throghe Lybye, Caldee, and a gret partie of Ethiope,
throghe Amazoyne, Inde the lasse and the more, a gret
partie ; and thorghe out many othere Iles, that ben abouten
Inde ; where dwellen many dyverse Folkes, and of dyverse
Maneres and Lawes, and of dyverse Schappes of Men."
That is a large portion of the world which he says he
himself visited, but he adds farther on in his " Boke " that
going all round the world was not unknown even before
his time. He says, "And therefore hathe it befallen many
tymes of o thing that I have herd cownted, when I was
zong ; how a worthie man departed somtyme from oure
contrees, for to go serche the World. And so he passed
Ynde, and the Yles bezonde Ynde, where be mo than
5000 Yles ; and so longe he wente be See and Londe, and
so enviround the World be many seysons."
As Sir John himself performed his journeyings more
than a century and a half before the time of Columbus,
one has a difficulty in accepting this last quotation. The
" Worthi Man " may perhaps have made a very long cir
cuit on the " Londe and See," but it may be doubted if
he completed the tour du monde as we understand it in
the present day. Still, if we are to receive the enumera
tion of places given by the Knyght of Seynt Albones, it
would indicate that the facilities for eastern travelling
were much greater in those early centuries than what are
generally supposed. He mentions " many Weyes " which
were practicable in his time, but the traveller in the
present day wishing to go "All Round the World"
has but few routes to choose from.
INTRODUCTORY. 6
It is an old saying that " the world is wide," yet the
practical lines for a journey of this sort are very limited.
There is the Siberian Overland Route, — leading by St.
Petersburg, Moscow, from which it goes almost straight
east through Siberia to Lake Baikal; and then there
is about a month's journey south, over the Mongolian
desert to Peking. This is a long, and a very serious
undertaking. It has been done, however ; and Mr.
Michie's account of it is a book worth reading,
entering, as it does, so fully into details. Of course
there are alternative lines tlirough Mongolia, such, for
instance, as the one lately passed over by Mr. Elias ;
but these are not likely to be traversed by any except
geographical explorers. The only other variety of the
Asian part of the route is by the Euphrates, starting
from the Syrian coast at Skenderoon, perhaps better
known as Alexandretta, and the traveller arrives at
Bombay : where he will have a variety of routes through
Indie,. When the Shah and Baron Reuter have made railways
through Persia, it may add slightly to the choice. Per
haps when Russia civilizes the whole of Central Asia,
it may open up a new route as far as China; but till
that happy period, unless the traveller is willing, and
at the same time able, to become a Dervish, or something
of that sort, like Mr. Vambery, he had better not take
the chances of risk in these regions. Many attempts
have been made to pass from India to China, and
vice versa; but as yet no one has succeeded. The
difficulties of such an enterprise are very great, not so
much from the races of people, as from the physical
b 2
MEETING THE SUN.
character of that region of the earth. These difficulties
can, however, be overcome, and in evidence of this, we
have perhaps one of the most wonderful of all the
wonderful expeditions of modern times in the journey
of the two Jesuit Missionaries, Hue and Gabet, from
Peking to Lhassa. When they were ordered to leave
the capital of the Great Lama, they wished to do so
in the direction of Calcutta, as being by far the
nearest, and at the same time the easiest, way; but
in vain. By a policy rigidly insisted upon by the
Chinese Government, no one is allowed to pass any
where along the frontiers between China and India.
When travelling in Tibet, I heard of many parties
who wished to cross the frontier in that quarter, with
the purpose only of having a few days' shooting of some
particular animal which they wanted to bring home;
but I never knew of any one who was able to gratify
his wish. One man told me that he had taken some
pieces of very bright red cloth and other tempting
bribes for the officials on the Chinese side, but it was all
to no purpose. All who have read of Major Mont-
gomerie's "Pundits," and their geographical explorations
in Tibet, will remember the care they took to disguise
themselves, and conceal the object they had in view. It
is not easy to understand why this intense jealousy
should exist, but about the fact there can be no doubt.
It was not so in the early centuries of our era. In the
seventh century Hiouen-Thsang, a Buddhist monk, visited
India. His route may have been over the north-western
extremity of the Himalayan range, for he arrived by way
of Peshawer; or perhaps he came by the line which
INTRODUCTORY. 5
Marco Polo at a later date followed, and which we know
was in those days a route for travellers and merchandize.
From Siberia to Singapore is a great distance, but
between these widely-situated points there is no place
where the Ordinary, or even an Extra-Ordinary, " Glob-
trotter" can pass.
The way round the Cape of Good Hope is not yet
quite given up; but it has fallen into disuse since the
opening of the Suez Canal. In 1859 I made the voyage
to Calcutta round the Cape in a sailing-ship ; and with
the exception of a very distant view of Madeira, we saw
no land all the way from Start Point to the sand-heads at
the mouth of the Hooghly. We did the passage in ninety
days, which was considered to be a quick voyage ; still
it is not the line which would suit Puck, whose lightning
speed we all covet so much now-a-days, when he puts his
"Girdle round about the earth in forty minutes."
Central Africa is not likely ever to be one of the
favourite routes round the world, notwithstanding the
explorations of Dr. Livingstone or Sir Samuel Baker.
The modern traveller who skims round the earth's
surface is not an Explorer ; as a rule he belongs to the
genus Tourist. He has no wish to risk his neck in
attempting to go over impassable peaks, or to die of
hunger and thirst in the burning deserts; painted
savages with heavy clubs and poisoned arrows, or
Indians with scalping-knives, are a class of society
he has no desire to mix with. Jungles with tigers
or venomous snakes he marks as places to be avoided.
His plan is to go round the world as comfortably as
G MEETING THE SUN.
possible, not diverging from those latitudes where the
best hotels are to be found. His conversation has
much to do with inquiries about accommodation in
steamers — as to size, safety, and quality of the table ;
taking first class on the railway, wliere there is one,
and furnished with every appliance for comfort whicli
the Strand or Bond Street can command.
By this class, what I would call the Direct Route will
be generally chosen, via Egypt. Till the Euphrates
Valley Bailway is made there will be no other way for
ordinary traffic. Any one wishing to reach Egypt by
the quickest means will go by the Mont Cenis Tunnel.
Speed was my object, and so I propose to take my
readers by this last route.
An invitation to a marriage is not, I think, looked
upon as a probable source of much satisfaction. People
generally go to such ceremonies as a duty, or a sort
of punishment, rather than a pleasure. There is the
chance of having to make a speech, the stiff formality
of having to meet people you do not know, and perhaps
don't want to know. There may be relatives to en
counter with whom you are not on the best of terms, or
to whom, it may be, you have not spoken for years. You
may hate the bridegroom, and will have no feeling but
that of envy at his prospects of happiness. Or, if the
bride herself may have excited the opposite feeling in
your heart, in that case the ceremonies of a funeral
would be far more desirable to attend and go through.
To proceed to Peking and be at the Emperor of China's
marriage did not present the prospect of having to
endure any of these unpleasant sensations. It implied
INTRODUCTORY. 7
a long journey ; but what ought to be an agreeable one.
It might be called a " Marriage Trip ;" but one where,
to continue the cynical tone, there would be no lady,
with band-boxes and other impedimenta to be bothered
with. During the last six or seven years I had been to a
good many parts of the world where — to use Abraham
Lincoln's phrase — history was being made, in connexion
with the Illustrated London Neivs — such as the Abyssinian
War, Jerusalem, the opening of the Suez Canal, (Ecu
menical Council at Rome, the Franco-German War, the
rule of the Commune in Paris, the opening of the Mont
Cenis Tunnel, &c, &c. Before my connexion with that
journal, I had gone through the Crimean War, which
included a visit to Circassia, and had made a sketching
tour, which occupied about three years, in India, at
the close of the Sepoy rebellion. With all these expe
riences — and much of it was oriental — I was asked if I
should like to go to Peking and see the ceremonies of the
Emperor of China's marriage. The expedition would
include anything else beside in the Flowery Land which
I might consider worth doing. A visit to Japan was
also hinted at ; and there, as I should be so nearly half
way round the globe, it might be as well to return home
by the New World, and thus put a girdle round about the
whole. The proposal was large, and the time necessary
would be long, and this came into competition with
other objects I had in view ; but the chance of seeing
the celestials and their country, Peking and the Great
Wall, Japan and the changes going on there, and to be
able to add " All Round the World " to my other travels,
8 MEETING THE SUN.
was a temptation to me in many ways, and I succumbed.
The offer was accepted. Just before leaving, a communi
cation from the Baily News reached me, that if I should
have time to send them letters from any places of
special interest on my journey, and particularly about
the marriage in Peking, they would be glad to receive
them. It was thus that I started on my journey, as a kind of
double-barrelled correspondent, or, to take an idea from
Japan, a sort of two-sworded Daimio. By hard work,
and to keep to the sporting metaphor, I may say that I
bagged both my birds. On returning home again,
friends recommended that a book should be the result ;
that the letters and pictures ought to be preserved, &c.
Well, here are the two birds preserved. I confess that
Pictures and Books of Travel seem to me, when I have
seen the people and the countries, to be all more or less
like stuffed birds ; and I am conscious that mine can be
no exception to the rule. All I can say is, that in this
preserved form the stuffing has been done to make them
as like to nature as possible.
ST. MICHEL WITH THE EERItON DES ENCOJIBRES.
CHAPTER II.
LONDON TO VENICE.
In our general experience, places get fixed in the memory
from events, and I confess to a strong susceptibility in
this way, and the Ludgate Hill Station of the London
Chatham and Dover Railway is now associated in my
mind as the starting-point of my journey round the
world. Although thus memorable, at least to me, it will
scarcely suit the pages of this book to introduce a com
plete history of the locality. It might include the life
of King Lud and the career of Sir Morton Peto, and the
whole period between.
We will pass over all this and state that on the 5th of
August, 1872 — it is as well to give dates in travelling — ¦
the night train carried me off from London. After a
busy day in Paris, seeing friends, next night found me on
the way to Macon, where I branched off vid Culoz and
Chambery to Modane. Near St. Michel a thunderstorm
bad brought down a vast mass of debris, filling up the
railway tunnel and engulfing houses, so that little more
than their roofs were visible. The passengers had to get
out and walk about a quarter of a mile to reach the train
on the other side. The mountains here are so steep
that a thunderstorm may bring down an overwhelming
mass at any time. The sketch of St. Michel, with high
peak, covered with snow in winter, and of the " Perron
10 MEETING THE SUN.
des Encombres " towering behind, will explain as well as
any description how such accidents take place.
How accurate in detail was Sterne ! He tells of his
journey here, and it would faithfully describe events as
they are at the present day. He says, " Let the wayworn
traveller vent his complaints upon the sudden turns and
dangers of your roads, your rocks, your precipices, the
difficulties of getting up, the horrors of getting down,
mountains impracticable, and cataracts which roll down
great stones from their summits, and block up his road.
The peasants had been all day at work in removing a
fragment of this kind between St. Michael and Modane."
As I walked from the one train to the other I saw them
boring a hole in a great stone at the mouth of the tunnel
in order to blast it, for it was far too large to be removed.
In Sterne's days it was a voiture, now it is a train, agreat
change ; but there is no change in the character of the
locality. I had spent Christmas Day of 1868 in St. Michel, and I
remember it as a very pleasant time. There was then a
small English colony composed of the gentlemen who
managed the Fell Railway over Mont Cenis. We went to
midnight mass on Christmas Eve in the parish church,
over the altar of which is a large figure of St. Michael,
the patron saint and godfather of the town, with scales
in his hand, showing that he is a judge, as well as
commander-in-chief of the armies of heaven. The next
evening, after dinner, the lady of the house and the
whole of our party went down to the kitchen, where the
servant-girl had collected a group of children from the
village. They were performing a rondeau, in which we
LONDON TO VENICE. 11
all joined. The words were simple enough, and interested
me. One verse will give a sufficient idea of them : —
" Combien vendez-vous les oignons, la-Mere-la-Marionnette,
Combien vendez-vous les oignons, la-Mere-la-Marion."
All through the piece the lines ended with this refrain.
As the song goes on the names of two persons present
are introduced, and the rondeau ends with their marriage
and — " Un tour de France nous ferons, la-Mere-la-Marionnette,
Un tour de France nous ferons, la-Mere-la-Marion."
I have seen a piece performed by children in Scotland
almost the same in every detail, even to the refrain at the
end of each line, wliich was " Merry-me-Tansie," probably
a French importation of past times.
The French railway ended at that date at St. Michel,
and the Fell line began. The morning after Christmas
one of the gentlemen connected with the last-named line
started with me, and we took three days to cross the
Alps at this point. The first place we stopped at was
Modane,* the French end of the tunnel, where we inspected
the process of compressing the air by which the machinery
for boring the tunnel was propelled. The ample stream
of the valley was made to drive water-wheels; these
worked the pumps which compress the air into receivers.
The air was forced into about one-sixth of its own bulk,
giving a pressure of eighty-four pounds to the square
inch — a good high pressure. This was led into the
tunnel by pipes being added as the work went on, and did
the duty of steam in working the piercing apparatus. The
main advantage of this was not so much a saving of fuel
12 MEETING THE SUN.
as the ventilation of the tunnel, a point of increasing
importance as the interior lengthened. Steam could not
have been taken by pipes two or three miles into the
tunnel, and had a boiler been used at that distance from
the mouth all the smoke and gas produced would have
had to be expelled. It being my plan to visit the tunnel
and see the process of working from the Italian side,
we did not spend much time at Mcdane. It is, however,
worth noting that the principal hotel of Modane, Hotel
du Lion d'Or, is the supposed locale where Sterne's
Sentimental Journey comes to its sudden and strange
conclusion. Any literary devotee wishing to visit this
spot would require to stay over a train, for the hotel is
at least a mile from the station.
It was beautiful crossing the top of the pass next day.
We walked the most of the way. If you want to see
scenery, this is by far the best mode of locomotion, and
almost a necessity when sketching has to be done. Being
mid- winter, it was all covered with snow. We looked in
at the hospice where Napoleon slept, and got a glass of a
delicious wine from the priest. We slept at La Grande
Croix, and, being Sunday, there were many of the villagers
in the hotel. They played loto, in which we joined. On
asking one of the girls if that was the amusement every
night, she replied, " Non, monsieur, c'est un plaisir seule
ment pour le Dimanche." The answer expressed the ideas
regarding Sunday observance in this part of the world,
and it must be recorded that they were all sober and
well-behaved, a phenomenon not to. be found in every part
of the world.
At usa Sany one with archaeological tendencies will
LONDON TO VENICE. 13
go to the cathedral and the castle, to see an arch
of the time of Ca3sar in marble, in very good pre
servation. From Susa it became my duty to visit Bardonneche, or
Bardonecchia in Italian. It was a good day's journey,
as I proposed to walk about fifteen miles, doing the
rest by diligence. The route lay up the Dora Valley,
and a beautiful valley it is. I had a seat beside the
driver of the diligence, and he talked all the way.
I was much amused with his description of a wine
produced from a vineyard he pointed out, " Un verre
de ce vin vous couperait les jambes;" one could
imagine a cannon-ball cutting your legs, but it is hard to
suppose such a result from a glass of wine. Still the
words are very expressive of a state of drunkenness. At
Bardonneche my - letters secured me access into the
tunnel. At the opening there were some offices, and I
was led into a room where the fitting costume was pro
duced. It implied the ceremony known among the
followers of the prize-ring as that of " peeling :" a pair of
trowsers (after what seemed a naval pattern), a blouse,
and then one of those hats with a long peak behind,
which one only recollects through Seymour's caricatures
of coal-heavers of a past generation ; then a blanket was
put into my hands, and I was led out where a green-
painted waggon was waiting. In this I was driven into
the tunnel. At that time the Italian end was the furthest
advanced, but there were still two or three miles of solid
granite to cut through. Nearly four miles of tunnel had to
be passed before reaching the work. I remember at last
reaching the very end, where the rods were banging away
14 MEETING THE SUN.
under the impulse of eighty-four pounds on the square
inch, and I felt that I was looking upon a much
greater "passage of the Alps" than any that had yet
taken place.
As I saw the process going on, the desire arose to be pre
sent when the first opening should appear between the two
sides. Had I been a Napoleon or a Victor Emmanuel, the
wish might have been gratified ; as it was, I realized it in
part. I was at the opening ceremonies and went through
with the first train on the 17th of September, 1871. On
that occasion the train was long and went slow, taking
forty minutes, though the distance is only about eight
miles. Last August the time was only twenty-one minutes,
and there was no smoke nor any of the disagreeables which
French authorities had prophesied ; for it must be under
stood that the Mont Cenis tunnel was wholly an Italian
enterprise, and opposed to French interests, and hence
the many myths respecting it while in progress, and even
since it has been in working order.
Turin is soon reached after passing through this new
route of the Alps, and the mails for the east now go on
vid Bologna and Ancona to Brindisi. Ever since the
late Franco-German war the line by Marseilles has ceased,
that is so far as the Peninsular and Oriental Company's
ships are concerned. The Italian Government have sub
sidized the English company to extend their line up the
Adriatic from Brindisi to Venice. In this, my last trip
I made for that port.
It takes a day by train from Turin to Venice ; but it is a
most beautiful run, with the Alps visible on your left
hand and the plains of Italy extending away on the right.
LONDON TO VENICE. 15
You have a passing glimpse of Milan, Verona, Peschiera,
and Padua. The Lago di Garda is seen to great advan
tage, for the train passes its southern shore on elevated
ground, so close that the white sails can be made out on
its blue waters ; and towns and hills extend away north
wards till they are lost in the distance.
I knew the " Poonah " would be in Venice with Captain
Methuen, her commander, and an old friend. He had
taken me on board the " Colombo," one of the same com
pany's steamers, to Balaklava in 1854. He did not sail
till next day, but it simplified one's arrangements to go
on board at once, and I was made welcome. What a size
the " Poonah " looked as she lay off the Doge's palace !
It is a question if ever a ship of that dimensions had
floated there before. I mistook her at first for an Italian
man-of-war ; but the English ensign and the P. and 0. flag
soon told me that the gondolier knew where he was going.
The " Poonah " is not the first ship ofthe Company which
has sailed from Venice, two of the company's steamers
having preceded her ; but she was regarded as performing
part of the opening ceremonies. For three days, Captain
Methuen and his officers had been receiving the people of
Venice on board, on the first two days by complimentary
tickets ; the day of my arrival was the last, and all
might come on board who liked. The ship's sides had
been besieged all day with gondolas, for such a vessel was
a novelty here. Her berths and every accommodation for
nearly two hundred passengers must be a wonder to any one
who has not seen the like before. It is a small floating city,
and a " city on the sea" are words which could scarcely
fail to be remembered by any one knowing Venice.
CHAPTER III.
VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC.
Geographical conditions seem still to have as great an
influence as they did of old. The Adriatic was a nearer
point to the East than the Gulf of Lyons, so Venice
was more eastern in character than Marseilles, and
this geographical relationship seems to act now as
it did in the past. The new contract with the
Peninsular and Oriental Company is only a sign of
many changes that will take place. The Suez Canal
has to do with the matter. Egypt of old was the
gate of the East, and now she has again got back her
lost privilege. The effects of the Suez Canal are only
beginning to manifest themselves. Along the Adriatic
it has sent a touch of new life which increases day by
day. Brindisi, the old port to the East when Rome was
in her greatness, has been wakening up to a new exis
tence, and getting itself in a condition adapted to these
latter days. Venice, not wishing to be extinct, has also
been at work, and has been dredging her lagoons to get
more depth of water, so that, if possible, she may renew
her old oriental connexion, and allow the modern levia
thans of the deep to bring again to her doors that commerce
upon which she became so wealthy. This was the com
merce of East and West which met, bringing those riches
and ideas which built temples and palaces of marble, and
whose remains are still so beautiful that she is yet famed
I y.
VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. 17
in the world. It was because the art of East and West
met here that Ruskin called his great work on Architec
ture " The Stones of Venice." St. Mark's is essen
tially a Byzantine church, but the Gothic and Renais
sance of the West is around it. In its great square
one may any day see the pigeons fed, an Eastern
practice still followed by the Mohammedans in some of
the mosques of Stamboul. It was the waters of the
Adriatic which brought together all these mixtures of
commerce, art, and customs, —
" Her daughters had their dowers
From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East
Pour'd in her lap all gems in sparkling showers,
In purple was she robed, and of her feast
Monarchs partook, and deem'd their dignity increased.
And as Vasco de Gama's discovery of the Cape of Good
Hope divorced the connexion with the East, so the Suez
Canal is to restore it, and the Adriatic and the Indian
Ocean will be more closely wedded again than ever.
From pictures and books we are all familiar with St.
Mark's, but neither of these sources of knowledge are
equal to seeing a place with one's own eyes ; and in this
case I found that both had failed to convey anything like
an adequate idea of the church. I speak more particularly
of the interior. Each step as I walked along was a source
of delight. Two other churches naturally came into my
mind, suggesting themselves by comparison with St.
Mark's. These were the Dome of the Rock, better known
as the Mosque of Omar, at Jerusalem, and St. Sophia at
Constantinople. Of the three I must confess a preference
for the Dome of the Rock. The beautiful mosaic pave
ment of St. Mark's is not so impressive as the summit of
c
18 MEETING THE SUN.
Mount Moriah, grey, and at first sight seeming as
weather-beaten as the rude crag on any hill-top. This
is the traditional thrashing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite
which David bought and sacrificed upon ; a fence all round
tells you it is no vulgar place for human feet. A silk canopy
overhangs this sacred rock, and the dome is above all, sup
ported on marble columns and piers, and encrusted with
mosaics. To my mind there is no temple in the world
to compare with this, but I feel that the influence it
has over one is due less to its architecture, which is
nevertheless fine, than to the great rough rock which
extends all over the middle of the pavement. St. Sophia
and St. Mark's are both more modern, and more closely
related in style. The first is by far the larger building,
the other being again the richer and more picturesque.
Imagine St. Mark's gutted out to fit it for a Moham
medan mosque, and what would it be as compared with
what we now see it ? Had St. Sophia remained to this
day a Christian church, the probability is that it would
have been the finest in the world, and would have justi
fied Justinian's boast at its consecration, that he had
built a grander temple for the worship of God than
Solomon himself. As it is at present it seems little better
than a large hall, with some fine old pillars of different
kinds of porphyry, supporting a number of circular boards
painted green, with texts from the Koran, having much
the look of beer-house signs about them. All the mosaics
of cherubim and seraphim are either destroyed or covered
with whitewash ; in fact, there is little or nothing left of
Justinian's grand church, whose very altar was said to have
had the wealth of a kingdom devoted to its enrichment.
VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. 19
Here we have St. Mark's, on the contrary, a perfect
Byzantine church, affected in places only by later addi
tions, but its first style left so far untouched as to form
the predominating character of the whole. It is a dark
and sombre interior, but in the gloom the mosaics and
the gold are all visible. And they light up the details of
the pictures which every step through this church brings
to the eye of an artist. The rich golden mosaic of the
roof seemed to have, as it were, a half-dead fire within it,
gleams of which came to the surface where it was touched
by the light. There are wonderful ups and downs in the
old tesselated pavement, marbles of every hue undulate
like hill and dale, suggesting many inquiries. Why has
it not been made level ? Was it so made at first ? Was
it the result of an earthquake ? Or were the waves of
the Adriatic taken as models ? The floor looks as if
made for a sailor's sea-legs to keep their footing upon, but
still quaint and more beautiful for all its irregularities.
There were two things I was specially anxious to see
in Venice, St. Mark's and Titian's " Assumption of the
Virgin." But a hasty run through the Doge's palace,
and the attractions of the old church, which kept me
lingering and looking, rendered this latter wish impracti
cable. The " Poonah" was to sail at two p.m., and passen
gers were recommended to be on board at one o'clock ;
so Titian's great picture had to be given up. I managed
to get a glimpse of the Grand Canal from the Rialto, and
then for the steamer. St. Mark's drew me in once more
on returning, to take a parting glance, and it was with
difficulty I could tear myself away.
The passage from Venice out to deep water is very
c 2
20 MEETING THE SUN.
long and narrow, quite a canal in itself, marked by
wooden poles projecting about six feet out of the water.
This channel, which must be about four miles in length,
is that which the authorities have been dredging so as to
get depth for the entrance of larger vessels, and evidently
much yet requires to be done to make it easy for such
steamers as the " Poonah" to get along. There is one
point about half a mile from the Doge's palace, where the
first sharp angle occurs. Our vessel had to stop and put
out a line to get round this angle ; and the old crazy poles,
about six or seven of them being banded together, like the
fascines we see in Roman architecture, or like the bundle
of rods in the fable, which is supposed to give strength,
but was found wanting in the present instance — bow
they creaked and shook when the tug given by our great
craft came upon them ! Another pull and they would all
have come out like a rotten tooth in the hands of a den
tist, and there was just time to get the hawser changed
to another bundle of stumps before the ship had got off
the channel. As it was she grazed the soft mud and
sent up clouds of it in the water from the screw. A
week or two of steady dredging, and this sharp angle
could be made all right. Iron buoys would also be an
improvement on the old sticks, which may have been
there ever since the Doge's barge used to float along.
After passing this turning the channel was all plain
sailing. It may be somewhere between 200 and 300 feet
wide as marked by the old stumps, and along the whole
way we met fishing and market boats coming in with
those bright orange sails with strange devices on them
which are peculiar to this locality. Some had stars, crosses,
saints, horses. Many of these sails reminded one of
VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. 21
the wing of a butterfly spread out, all were so bright in the
sun as they glided past. The officers of the " Poonah"
are justly proud of their fine ship ; but to the eye of the
primitive fishermen of the lagoons she must be a huge,
ugly, black monster in comparison with their own craft.
On the top of one of the groups of poles we saw a small
house, about the size of a large dog-house, which it very
much resembled. It was brightly painted, and my eye
soon detected a small cross, which told that it was not a
lighthouse. There were two of the sailors of the ship at
my side, and I asked them what the strange-looking
thing could be, for it looked at first sight like an American
traveller's trunk perched on the top of the piles. Jack's
reply was, " Well, I think as it may be a joss-house, sir."
This was said in no spirit of irreverence; the remark clearly
indicated- service in the China seas, and was a form of ex
pression he had picked up there. We were nearing it, and
seeing the cross, I found Jack was right in the conclusion
he meant to convey. As we passed, a very rude figure of the
virgin and child was visible ; but in a corner we could dis
tinctly see a black bottle. It was not like the wine-bottles
of the place ; it had a British-beer look about it. Jack
and his mate began a series of speculations on this object,
some of which were clearly not complimentary to the
figures within the house, nor to their character for tem
perance ; but I came to the rescue, and suggested that it
was oil, and not rum or gin which had naturally come
uppermost to the sailor mind, and in proof I referred to
a small light we had noticed within when we were opposite
the shrine. This was so satisfactory that Jack at once
gave up the rum-and-gin theory, and adopted the one I
had suggested ; and I saw that his thoughts were away
22 MEETING THE SUN.
back in the China seas again, for he expressed himself
without addressing his words directly to his mate or me.
" I wonder," he said, " what they can mean by them
lights in joss-houses ? All along China it's the same ; they
be always putting lights and burning things. " I might
have told Jack that " oblations of fire " were as old as the
Vedas; that there was a seven-branched candlestick in
Solomon's Temple; that the Jews to this day have a
" perpetual lamp " burning before the Law in the syna
gogue ; that the worshippers of Mithra of old and the
Parsees of the present day worship the sun as the Source
of Light, and fire as the Symbol of the Sun. All this
might have been explained to Jack, for his going back in his
memory to China, and putting the question he did, indi
cated more than the usual intelligence. But a command
came aft to get a hawser ready, and our conversation ended.
On looking back to the little shrine so queerly perched up,
I saw a single fisherman had stopped his boat and was
crossing himself, and no doubt uttering a Pater or an Ave.
One could not help comparing the two types of men,
and the systems they belong to. In the simple primi
tive life of these lagoons we find a mode of existence
that has gone on for centuries unchanged. The people
are not bothered with modern science, or speculations in
theology, but go on uninquiring and undoubting, full of
faith and ready to worship— let us suppose sincerely
too — whatever may be set before them. Jack, on the
other hand, comes in a ship which is a miracle of modern
science, and to enable this ship to sail where she wishes
to go science has to perform such gigantic tasks as
dividing two continents with a canal. But Jack himself
VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. 23
is not in a very satisfactory condition of mind. He has
not much knowledge, and still less faith, and does not
know, perhaps cares little, what to believe ; and as to
worship, " divine service " has long been familiarly known
in the forecastle as " divine punishment."
I should say that the sea is not the best way to approach
Venice. The islands and spits of land covered with
villages and forts extending so far out produce an appear
ance as if Venice itself were on the mainland ; and you
could not have the impression, were you not already aware
of it, that in stepping ashore at St. Mark's you were still
on an island. On coming from the mainland, on the
contrary, you see distinctly that the city is surrounded on
all sides by water, and that it is, in truth, like " a sea
Cybele fresh from Ocean." To leave, again, by the
lagoons gives one a good idea of what I may perhaps be
allowed to call the " suburbs " of Venice — that is, the
small islands and strips of land dotted with villages ; the
whole having much the aspect of a flood having surrounded
them for the moment. Poplar-trees in the distance, where
the land is below the horizon, seem standing out of the
water, and confirm the impression. Stakes everywhere
with nets upon them indicate the pursuits of the people.
Some small bits of islands, made into forts centuries ago,
are now in ruins, and in contrast to them are the more
modern earthworks, bristling with cannon. When we
got clear out to sea there was a new breakwater in course
of construction ; and far to the right we could see islands
and villages extending to the horizon, where the poplar-
trees all seemed to have taken to sea-bathing.
We got into Ancona about two in the morning,
24 MEETING THE SUN.
making the run in about ten hours ; but it was done at
slow speed. Here, again, breakwaters are being made,
and dredging-machines are at work. Ancona has less
need of them than Venice, for there is a very good harbour
formed by a bay ; but the arterial blood of the Suez Canal
is tickling every place into life, and Ancona is influenced
like other ports in this quarter. From Juvenal we learn
that the place was originally like many old towns in this
region of Greek origin. There is a fine old triumphal
arch on the quay, built by Trajan, and there is another
arch near it built by one of the Clements. From the deck
of the steamer the old cathedral can be seen on the hill to
the south of the harbour ; it is dedicated to St. Cyriacus,
and is on the old site of a temple of Venus. The line of
coast which juts into the Adriatic at Ancona was known
as the Cumerium Promontorium. When the Austrians
held Ancona for the Pope, they fortified it very strongly.
There was an old fort with works in the old style
round it ; but the Austrians adopted the detached fort
system whose merits were so well proved at Metz, and
from the deck of the ship a very good idea of such forts
can be formed. Every height round the town is crested
with one, and the leading feature of each is a large horse
shoe-formed work in the centre, which rises high towards
what one may call its salient. There is a fine new quarter
lately built in Ancona, with a large open square, which
is named after Cavour, whose statue is placed in it. I
had some hopes of time to go to Loretto, and have a look
at the Santa Casa ; but it was about twenty miles away,
and as the ship sailed at 9.30 the Holy House must wait
till another opportunity occurs to visit it.
VENICE AND THE ADRIATIC. 25
The town of Loretto can be seen as you sail past.
The domes and towers of the churches can be easily
made out. It may be worth stating that the Santa Casa
is supposed to be the actual house in which the Virgin
lived at Nazareth, and that it came to Loretto from
Kaunizza, in Dalmatia, in 1294, at which place it arrived
three years before, from the Holy Land, having been
carried off from its original site through the air in
these removals by the Angelic Powers. Tt is built
of brick, the original floor being wanting. It is said
to be twenty-seven feet and a half in length, thirteen
feet and a half high, and twelve and a half wide,
with a door in the north, and a window in the west.
These proportions are so very nearly that of a double
cube, that one may almost suppose this was the original
size. The Ark of the Covenant was not much, if at all,
different. The coffer in the great pyramid is of the
same cubical contents as the Ark of the Covenant, and
yet not quite the same proportions. So it is quite possible
that scientifically there may have been a sacred symbolism
in this old brick house ; and we must not forget that, in
ancient times, all science was religious — what a contrast
to these modern times ! — and numbers, as we learn
through Pythagoras, were particularly sacred. If this
curious relic of antiquity could be stripped of its marble
casing, and left standing alone, it would not differ much,
either in size or proportion, from the Caaba at Mecca,
which is simply a small rectangular building, standing in
the middle of a square court. This square court had at
one time 360 images ; but these images were only rude,
unsculptured stones. The Mohammedan Hadji to this day
26 MEETING THE SUN.
circumambulates the " Holy House," for he gives it the
same name as the shrine at Loretto ; and these old stones,
360 in number, point to the ancient as well as the modern
division of the circle, and also the ancient division of
the year, thus combining a mathematical as well as an
astronomical expression of numbers, telling that the
follower of Mahomet, to this day, goes round the Caaba
in imitation of the yearly course of the sun — a remnant
of the old Saba?an and universal philosophy of the time,
and the scientific portion of which even the iconoclastic
Prophet could not destroy. If these speculations are
correct — and they would be worthy of more particular
inquiry — there may after all be found something really
sacred in the Santa Casa at Loretto.
After leaving Ancona, the views from the steamer are
very fine. You sail along the steep sides of Monte
Comero, beyond which an open prospect presents itself ;
Loretto, and other towns, extending away inland, and
the Apennines forming a blue distance. Slowly all
these are left behind, fading into haze, as the ship steers
away from land, and little else is seen till Brindisi is
neared. As there is no high land, the Forte di Mare is the
first prominent object you approach. This commands
the entrance to the port. But one is more interested in the
breakwaters to be seen around it, all of which are being
constructed with a view to making this the port for
Southern Italy, no less than the port for the East, as of
old. One is reminded of those yugas, or cycles, of the
Brahmins and Buddhists, where, after long ages, every
thing returns to the point they started from. This cycle
has come round for Brindisi.
, ~f'. :i^%^isff»fia»i^
m
CHAPTER IV.
BRINDISI AND THE MEDITERRANEAN.
Virgil died at Brundusium on his return from eastern
travel. An English translation says, —
" I sing of flocks, tillage, heroes ; Mantua gave
Me life ; Brundusium, death ; Naples, a grave.
There is an old tomb at the grotto of Posilipo, near
Naples; the "opus reticulatum" of which it is con
structed might be of Virgil's time ; and there is the Casa
Virgile at Brindisi to confirm the truth of the quotation.
On my first visit to Brindisi, in 1869, I came by train,
which brings you along close to the coast all the way
from Ancona. There are fine old towns, such as Bari,
whose walls had a fishy smell in the time of Horace,
and Trani ; and there are what may be called forests of
olive-trees. Olive-oil is the great produce of the locality,
and at Brindisi it is worth paying a visit to one of the
houses where the merchants keep this valuable commodity.
They have large cisterns like tanners' vats. I saw a man
from the country who had brought in a quantity. It
was in goat-skins, like the Hindostan mussuh, only that
the hair was inside. These were all emptied into the
vats, where it is left for months to settle and become
clear. There was but small standing-room in the place
between these cisterns, and I was warned to take care
28 MEETING THE SUN.
and not fall in — one may be fond of bathing, and yet not
care much for a dip into olive-oil. They tell of a dog
that fell in one day, but luckily was got out, dripping with
this oil, so valuable here as a substitute for butter. A
crowd hunted the poor beast with pieces of bread, rub
bing them on the animal for the oil, and eating as
they ran all through the town. Any one visiting these
places had better be careful, or the dog's fate may
be theirs. The place has a reputation for another
product, with which I became acquainted on the first
evening of my arrival. There was at that time no
grand hotel there, and I put up at an inn kept by a
Greek from Corfu. They could all speak English, and
a son of the family performed the duties of waiter. He
was a nice tall boy, but his face was so constructed that
when he opened his mouth to speak or laugh, the opera
tion shut up the eyes. He paid particular attention to
me, and we became great friends. I asked what his
name was, and he said, "Ulysse." Knowing he was
from Greece, I said, " Oh, you are Ulysses of Ithaca." He
understood the allusion ; the mouth opened with a grin,
and the eyes disappeared. " Well, Ulysses of Ithaca,
what is there for dinner to-day ?" Again the same facial
expression appeared, and guess my astonishment at the
announcement of " Ostriches, sir." It was not a joint of
ostrich, nor even a single bird ; he persisted in the plural
number. The man noted for his capacity at meal-time,
who said that a goose was too much for one person, and
not enough for two, even he might be appalled at the
prospect of a flock of ostriches for dinner. The heel of
Italy's boot is not very far from Africa, and it was not
From the Illustrated London Ni-;
COLUMNS AT THE END OF THE APPIAN WAT, BRINDISI.
BRINDISI AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. 29
impossible for supplies to come, and perhaps ostrich was
one of the rare dishes of this southern clime. Specula
tions like that went through one's mind, when dinner at
last solved the mystery. Ulysses of Ithaca came in, the
mouth open and the eyes closed, bearing a plate of oysters.
As my inability to understand him had assumed the
appearance of doubt, there was an air of triumph as he
placed the plate on the table, and said these were the
" ostriches." The Italian word for oyster is ostrica, and
Ulysse thought that he was pronouncing the English
word to me.
It is curious to find that the Gulf of Tarentum and
Britain were the two sources from which old Rome got
her supply of oysters. Tarentum is now Taranto, and
from that place the supply comes yet to Brindisi, and the
quality is such that they may be recommended. Brindisi
was Brindusium in the past. Brentision or Brundisium is
supposed to be an iEtolian word (colonists from iEtolia
being the reputed founders of the place), and to mean a
stag's head, which is to this day the arms of Brindisi.
The form of the harbour, being horned, or crescent-
shaped, is supposed to have given origin to this. The
Appian Way, which begins at Rome, ended at Brindisi.
Two columns of Cipollino marble marked its termination,
and one of these stands to the present day, almost perfect,
on a terrace close to the harbour. The capital and some
of the drums of the other column were carried off to Lecce,
to make a base for a statue of the Virgin in the market
place, and the pedestal is nearly all that is now left. The
capital of the one remaining is worthy of an inspection.
It is Corinthian in style, but with a figure introduced,
30 MEETING THE SUN.
looking like Jupiter or Serapis. Two columns with a
crown over them go along with the stag's head in the
armorial bearings of the town ; and there is a tradition
that at one time a large bronze crown surmounted these
two columns, which are yet visible from the harbour.
Perhaps the reason for this idea is that the two columns
may be found represented in old sculptures, on the walls
and other parts of the town, with a coronet still over them.
In the centre of the market-place is a fountain formed of
an ancient tazza, and it is ornamented in its centre with
a bronze representation of the pillars, and a circling
crown above them. If you drink a bottle of Brindisi
wine (and a very fair wine is to be got here), the label
will in all likelihood have on it the stag's head and horns,
with the two pillars and crown. These two columns are
so like to Jachin and Boaz, and Brindisi being an
Oriental port in ancient times, one is inclined to ask, may
there not have been some relationship ?
The Casa Virgile is close to the two columns, and no
one who has a few moments even to spare but will take a
look at the old house. I sketched it on my first visit,
and in those early days the woman who lived there did
not quite comprehend why strangers should come into
her abode. Since then I suppose she has got accustomed
to it. I have doubts as to the age of the building.
Some of the details have more the look of medievalism
about them than the classic look of old Roman Architec
ture. The round arches certainly indicate a date which
belongs to what the French call la Style Eomaine, and of
that period it may be a very early specimen. If any of it
belonged to the house where Virgil breathed his last, it is
BRINDISI AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. 31
a portion of the masonry to the right of the lower arch.
I am now, from long experience, inclined to believe that
all traditions have generally some form or another of
truth as a basis — and this may have been in all proba
bility the spot where the Roman poet ended his days, and
yet the superstructure may not be of that date. The
large stones, and more solid look of the masonry towards
the lower part, which is so different from the varied
patchwork above, helps to confirm this idea, and whether
it be or be not the house where Virgil died, it is a quaint
piece of antiquity. The fact remains, that the great poet
expired in Brindisi, and this will always throw an addi
tional interest over the place to the traveller that has
enjoyed his works.
Amongst the many antiquities of Brindisi is a
Templars' church. It is round in plan, as Templars'
churches usually are, and in a ruinous condition,
as if it had not been used as a place of worship for
centuries. The roof is gone, but there are some fine
old pillars, which no doubt belonged to some temple before
they were part of a Christian church. Fragments of
fresco adhere to the walls. When here on my first visit,
I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a very
learned, and at the same time a most agreeable man, the
Archdeacon Tarantini, who is a very celebrated archasolo-
gist, and well versed in the antiquities of Brindisi, which
he has made a special study. On my last visit I renewed
my acquaintance with the Archdeacon, and he took me to
see his last discovery. It is an ancient underground
church, or crypt, beneath the Church of St. Lucia. He
supposes it to have been one of the first Christian
32 MEETING THE SUN.
churches in Brindisi, and as old as the sixth century. It
is very small, reminding one in this respect of the chapels
of the Catacombs. Four fragments of antique marble
columns support the arched roof, and very tall capitals in
the Corinthian style connect the columns with the arches.
One of these capitals is most beautifully carved, with
much of the feeling of old Greek art about it. One would
expect to find a cross in these capitals, and not finding it,
one begins to believe that, like the fragments of columns
beneath them, they are pre-Christian. But a closer
inspection brings but four heads, heads of animals too,
all having mitres upon them, and the Archdeacon declares
that the mitre is not found in writings or pictures before
the sixth century. This agrees with the date he ascribes
to the church. The walls have been whitewashed ; but
this covering has peeled off in some places, leaving visible
many fragments of fresco paintings. These fragments of
art are very curious and valuable, as bearing on the ideas
of the Church at an early period of its history. If Taran-
tini's speculations as to date are correct, these frescoes are
three centuries older than those lately discovered in the
underground Church of St. Clementi at Rome, and
whoever has visited it will understand the importance of
the still older frescoes in Brindisi. St. Nicholas and St.
Basil can be made out; but the most interesting, and
perhaps the most ancient, is a Virgin and Child. The
Infant has the right hand in the act of benediction ; but
instead of the two forefingers and thumb being held up,
as is now the manner in the Latin Church, the thumb
seems in the picture to touch the third and fourth fingers,
leaving only the two fingers erect. I understood the
BRINDISI AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. 33
Archdeacon to say this symbolized the two natures of
Christ — the Divine and the Human ; and that the Council
of Chalcedon met to settle what was considered at that time
a heresy on this very point. The Archdeacon believes that
it was a church or oratory in itself ; but the probability is
that in later times it was the crypt of a church which stood
over it. There are evidences of passages and stairs
leading down on each side. If this were the Case, it
was a spot of great sanctity, and no doubt a much
finer church than the modern one of St. Lucia, at
present above it, whose aspect is of the most tawdry
description. The mails, which leave London on Friday evening,
reach Brindisi early on Monday morning. The whole
of this distance, vid Mont Cenis, is 1477 miles. The
" Poonah " left Venice on Friday about mid-day, and
reached Brindisi on Sunday forenoon, giving us the most
of that day and the night at that place. On Monday morn
ing we took in over 300 bags of letters, for we carried, not
only the India, but the Chinese and Australian mails,
and shortly after six o'clock were steaming away for
Alexandria. The Italian coast on the west slowly recedes, and is soon
lost to sight, but the Greek coast can be made out, and
with the help of a map, the various islands can readily be
identified. Cephalonia, with Ithaca behind, is easily dis
tinguished; then Zante and Navarino can be seen, and the
coast looks bare and rugged as you reach Cape Matapan
and Cerigo. A fine view of Crete is generally obtained, for
the steamer passes close along its western coast, which is
bold and picturesque. In the winter the peaks of Mount Ida
34 MEETING THE SUN.
are generally white with snow. I passed here in January,
1869 ; a Greek insurrection had been going on in the
island for some time, which the Turkish authorities
seemed unable to put down. At night we could see great
fires among the mountains, as if they were beacons or
signals. The Cretans have long pretended that Jupiter
was buried in their island, and they have earned in past
times a questionable reputation therefrom. Callimachus,
in his hymn to Jupiter, says, " The Cretans are ever
liars : for a tomb to thee, 0 King, the Cretans have con
structed. But thou art not dead. For thou existest
ever." It is supposed to be Epimenides which St. Paul
quoted in his Epistle to Titus, " One of themselves, even
a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars,
evil beasts, slow bellies." The tomb, however, is shown
to this day, and Captain Spratt, who surveyed the island
for the Hydrographic Department of our Navy, gives a
description of it. If, therefore, the Cretans are to be called
" liars " on this account, I fear it would lead to a great
deal of bad language, and if Callimachus had studied
what may be called "tomb worship," he might have
spoken differently of the Cretans.
After Crete no coast is visible till Alexandria is sighted,
but if there is no land to interest the traveller, let him
look over the ship's side, and watch the beautiful blue of
the sea. It is not always the same, and it can be seen
better in some places than in others. A few miles out
from Alexandria, after leaving the deep water, and before
reaching the impurities from the shore, you are in a good
position to watch for this lovely blue. At times you
could believe it to be liquid cobalt, or that mountains of
BRINDISI AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. 35
turquoise had been melted down into this ocean. Strange
to say, the cause of this effect of colour has not yet
been made quite clear. People seeing it for the first time
jump to the conclusion that it is the reflection from the
sky, but I have seen it when there was no blue in the sky
whatever, so it is not a reflected colour. I believe that
the blue colour of the Lake of Geneva presents the same
problem for explanation, and probably that also seen in a
glacier. I have always been inclined to believe that
Goethe's theory of colour would solve the difficulty, but
it does not seem to be in favour among the latest
authorities in science, so for the time being the problem
must be left in doubt. It is satisfactory, at least, to find
that, although we may not be able to explain why blue is
blue, we can still gaze into it, and derive a pleasure from
its beauty.
We got into Alexandria about 11.30 a.m., Thursday,
thus doing the trip from Brindisi in less than eighty
hours.
D 2
CHAPTER V.
ALEXANDRIA AND EGYPT.
When we arrived, in November, 1869, at Alexandria for
the ceremonies at the opening of the Suez Canal, the
first news received was that an impenetrable mass of
rock had turned up in the canal at the Serapeum ; that it
would be quite impossible to cut through it in time ; that
the canal itself, generally speaking, was a complete failure;
that Lesseps knew this all along, and that the rock
at the Serapeum would put the inauguration out of the
question. There were people from all parts of the world,
including an Empress, and an Emperor, Princes, and
great folks of all ranks ; and so Lesseps, unable to
carry on the imposture any longer, had that morning
blown out his brains with a revolver. Such was the
intelligence that first came on board our ship
when we got into Alexandria. Of course it was of
Alexandrian manufacture. Alexandria had been all
through jealous of the canal, and more particularly
so of Port Said. It was to be a rival port. Port
Said in its turn had a very free-and-easy way of talking
about Alexandria. Port Said would in a short time be
the Liverpool of Egypt; all the commerce of east and
west would meet there ; and, of course, all the commerce
of Egypt would follow. With its great breakwater, a mile
long into the sea, which would be made into a splendid
NEW BREAKWATER AT ALEXANDRIA.
From the Illustrated London News.
ALEXANDRIA AND EGYPT. 37
promenade, with cafes and music, all Egypt would come
there to enjoy the sea breeze. So that Port Said would
not only be the Liverpool, but even the Brighton of the
land of Khem. And when that time arrived, Alexandria
would relapse into forgetfulness and obscurity, the sands
of the desert would encroach upon it, and soon the page
of history alone would tell that there had ever been such
a place. Was it to be wondered that Alexandria, looking
at its upstart rival as depending on the canal for its
success, regarded both as rank impostures ? Such is the
mode in which self-interest too often judges ; and now we
see more clearly how far wrong both parties were in this
case. For, on my last visit, I found that Alexandria,
instead of relapsing, as it was predicted would be the
case, to a desert condition, is busy carrying out plans to
extend its harbour accommodation. A long breakwater
formed of artificial blocks of stone is being constructed,
so as to entirely shut out all rough weather coming from
the north-west, that being the only point of danger to
the harbour ; and when that ¦ is done, the vessels will be
able to extend their anchorage more to the west. It is
also a part of the plan to build quays with jetties, so that
the steamers can come alongside and discharge their
cargoes direct into the railway, waggons. Already the
train comes down to a temporary landing, and takes the
Peninsular and Oriental passengers, so that they do not
require to put up at an hotel for the day ; but when the
scheme is completed the steamer will herself be brought
to the quay. At present they are taken on shore by a
steam tender, but it will then be like the landing at
Dover. As to the town of Alexandria itself, instead of
38 MEETING THE SUN.
getting into a ruinous condition, what particularly asto
nished me was the amount of new building going on.
Away in the direction of the Kamleh station great num
bers of new houses have been run up. The Coptic church,
which used to stand in a garden by itself, is now sur
rounded by houses. Everywhere there are building and
constructive works going on, and from this it is pretty
evident that the success of Port Said may be accom
plished without the annihilation of Alexandria. One may
recall to these rival ports the words Uncle Toby used in
reference to himself and the fly, that there " is room in
the world for both."
Prejudices of this kind are common to human nature
everywhere. The Suez Canal was very much misunder
stood in England. It is now believed by many that it was
a political bias which led to this. But whatever the motive,
it certainly was the fact that every Englishman considered
the canal to be a delusion carried on by the French for
diplomatic reasons, and that the sands of the desert
would fill it up again as soon as it was made. In the
early part of January, 1869, I went over the canal, at
that time not finished, with a large party. We had the
Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis of Stafford, Professor
Owen, Mr. John Fowler, Dr. W. Russell, and others. M.
Lesseps, knowing that the canal was to be described with
both pen and pencil, not only came himself as a cicerone,
but brought the principal gentlemen connected with the
works, to supply every information. We were about a
week going over the whole canal, and I believe tbat the
result of this expedition was to put for the first time
before the public in this country the real facts about the
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ALEXANDBIA AND EGYPT. 39
undertaking. The sand of the desert, so far as reported
to be an obstacle to the making or filling up of the canal,
turned out to be one of the most perfect myths on record.
There was more trouble from the water than the sand.
The north end had to pass through the water of Lake
Menzaleh, and a solid bank on each side which had to be
made was one of the most difficult parts of the whole
undertaking. One of the clearest evidences that the
sand would not interfere with the desired result was that
large portions of the canal made by the Pharaohs were
still in existence, and were in use as part of the sweet-
water canal. The portions we saw were at Chaloof,
which is now one of the stations on the railway. This
canal is said by Herodotus to have been made by Neco,
the son of Psammetichus, as early as the seventh century
B.C., and Darius, the Persian, afterwards completed it.
Its length was a voyage of four days, and its width was
such that two triremes might sail abreast. It joined the
Nile near Bubastis, and was connected with the Red
Sea by means of sluices. So it was a fresh-water canal,
and the present one runs almost in its course. The old
galleys could come by this to the Nile at Bubastis, and
then reach the Mediterranean. In making it 120,000
Egyptians perished, in the time of Neco. In the
time of the caliphs it was extended up to Cairo, and
was called the " Canal of Musr Cairo," and the " Canal
of Fostat," an old name of Cairo. That portion of
it seems to have been beautifully constructed, for it
was called the " Canal lined with Marble," and the
" Pearl Canal."
In January, 1869, our party visited the bitter lakes,
40 MEETING THE SUN.
when the sluices were being made to let in the water
from the Mediterranean side. At that date " les lacs
amers " seemed a misnomer, for our party rode on horses
and donkeys over the ground, and we met camels and
goats also passing along. As far as the eye could see, all
was solid land. In November of the same year I was at
the opening ceremonies of the Suez Canal, and we sailed
over this very ground on board a large steamer. Between
the time of these two visits the place had changed from a
desert to a vast sea — a sea so vast that ships were hull-
down in the distance sailing upon it, only their funnels
and masts visible above the horizon. The transformation
seemed like enchantment, as if the wizards and genii of
the east had been at work, — but, on consideration, it
might appear doubtful whether individuals of that kind
could have wrought such transformations. Engineers
and contractors are our modern wizards and genii,
and not only the bitter lakes, but the whole Suez Canal,
is an evidence that they are far ahead of their ancient
rivals. The great breakwater at Port Said is another evidence
that it was not sand, but water, which presented the
difficulties to be overcome in constructing the canal. The
beach at the Mediterranean end is flat and shallow.
Through this the canal had to be cut till deep water was
reached ; but before doing this the breakwater was needed
to preserve it from being again filled up, because the
" Seven-mouthed Mile " brings down a great quantity of
mud, and it is carried eastward by the currents at this
part of the coast. Even the breakwater will not alto
gether stop the deposit of this mud, but it so lessens it,
ALEXANDRIA AND EGYPT. 41
that a small amount of dredging will preserve the requi
site depth. The breakwater is about a mile long, and on
the eastern side of the canal is another, which is more
than half its length. They are both formed of large
cubes of artificial stone.
Although the canal is a practical success, yet it is
doubtful whether the English mails for the east will ever
go by that route. Two days is the time ships require in its
passage ; coaling causes another delay, and Port Said
is a good ten or twelve hours' sailing farther east than
Alexandria. When all the improvements at Alexandria
are finished, and the steamer can go alongside a jetty with
the train upon it — with a steamer coaled and ready for
sailing at Suez — mails and passengers need not be over
twelve hours in the Egyptian transport.
Still it may be doubted whether overland passengers
care for this very quick despatch. After being some days
on ship, there is a desire for a change ; an hour or so on
shore is a great relief to the monotony of the vessel.
And to those who are passing for the first time there is a
desire to have a look at Pompey's Pillar and Cleopatra's
Needle. Much of the interest of the trip through Egypt
is lost now since the train goes by Zagazig instead of
Cairo. This can be obviated by staying a week, and
going on by the next steamer. In our case we were
sent through to Suez by a special train during the
night, so that very little was seen of the land of the
Pharaohs. At Zagazig I tried with a friend to get a glimpse of the
old mounds, which is all that is left of Ancient Bubastis,
but it was so very dark that my friend had to use his faith
42 MEETING THE SUN.
and accept the existence of the mounds upon the assurance
of my word. After leaving Zagazig the railway enters the
desert, but it goes by a hollow, known as the Wadi
Tomlet, also known as the Valley of the Saba Bir, or the
Seven Wells. There are speculations, and with much
appearance of truth in them, that this valley is an old
mouth of the Nile, by which a portion of its waters
reached the Red Sea. The canal of the Pharaohs went
through this valley, and it was truly enough a mouth of
the Nile, although artificial. The Seven Wells may
indicate that some of the Nile water still finds its way
underground by its old channel.
M. Lesseps told us that while engaged in the work of
the canal, he had given some attention to the line of
route taken by the Children of Israel on their departure
from Egypt, and that this valley was, in his opinion, the
way they went. I think he also supposed the passage of
the Red Sea to have taken place at the north end of the
bitter lakes. We need not doubt but it was at one time
the end of that sea. This implies a literal acceptation of
the history of the Exodus. Although I believe that it
requires a symbolical rendering to be fully understood,
yet M. Lesseps' theories had an interest to me, for the
theory which has suggested itself to my mind implies that
Sinai was a place of, perhaps yearly, pilgrimage from Egypt,
and this may have been the route taken. There are
many evidences that Sinai and its neighbourhood was a
sacred place for pilgrims in ancient times, and one of the
most striking proofs of this is that of the Wadi Mokattab,
or the "Written Valley," from the rocks on each side
being covered for miles with the names of pilgrims, many
ALEXANDRIA AND EGYPT. 43
of them in characters so old that they are not now
readable. Pilgrims still go to this day, but a religious
cycle having gone round, and the bulk of the population
in these regions being Mohammedans, Medina and Mecca
are the holy places now instead of Sinai.
CHAPTER VI.
SUEZ.
Suez has passed through many revolutions and changes,
not only of faith, but of race as well. It comes into history
as Arsinoe, from the mother of the first of the Ptolemies ;
it was also known as Cleopatris. At another period it
was called Clysma, and by some this is supposed to be the
origin of Kolzim, a name by which Suez is known to this
day. The mountains, as well as the Red Sea at this part,
have got this name attached to them. This word has also
been translated " Destruction," and applied to the fate of
Pharaoh and his hosts. Jebel Attaka, the high hill on
the west, has its name translated " Deliverance ;" and
there is the Wadi Mousa, or the Valley of Moses, some
miles farther south; all names connected with the old
history, and of interest to every traveller, no matter how
he may choose to translate the story.
My first visit to Suez was in March, 1862, on my
return from India. It seems ages ago, the place has
changed so much since that time ! Soon the Suez of
that recent date will be as lost and forgotten as the
Arsinoe and Clysma of the past. Its very site will
probably change. Since my first visit fate has often sent
me there again. There is a dirty and picturesque bazaar
very attractive to an artist, and I always look in while
passing through. During one of my visits I made the
suez. 45
acquaintance of a small colony of Jews there, and
from frequent visits to them, I at last got on such
good terms, that I learned a great deal about their
domestic affairs, much of which I fear was not quite
according to the Mosaic law. I had an amusing adventure
on one of my visits to this place with a Tartar Hadji
from the Crimea. He was on his way to perform the
Hedjaz again, and had with him two or three young
Tartars who were going for the first time. As Burton's
book was familiar to me, the idea occurred of pretending
I had also been to Mecca, and was a Hadji. I was
breaking down in my story for want of language, when a
Lascar belonging to one of the Peninsular and Oriental
Company's ships turned up among the crowd, and as he
could speak Hindostani he acted as interpreter, and my
claim to be a Hadji as having gone to Mecca was clearly
established to the satisfaction of every one present,
particularly to the delight of the old Tartar himself. It
is a great compliment to Burton's book to say, that my
knowledge of the ceremonies at Mecca, by which I was
able to pass my examination in this case, was almost
wholly derived from it.
The aspect of the desert about Suez is very striking.
The whole landscape is like a slightly-done piece of toast ;
the colour of the sea from this contrast is deeper and
brighter. When one used to come from Cairo by the train,
it brought you over the high ground to the west, and the
effect of the blue water, with no tint around it but the
buff-coloured sand, which extended as far as the eye could
reach, northwards and southwards, was peculiarly fine.
It is strange now, looking north from Suez, to see the
46 MEETING THE SUN.
masts of ships in the desert. The water of the canal is
not visible, and the rigging of a vessel seen slowly moving
along has a spectral look about it.
The hot sun acting on the air here has the tendency to
make the outlines of the landscape dance and shake, and
produce the effects of mirage ; and one is apt to suppose
that a ship seen away over miles of sand, under circum
stances like these, can only be an optical delusion — an
atmospherical effect, and not a reality. The term " ship
of the desert" applied to a camel is very expressive, and
it is generally supposed that the Arab uses these words.
It is also supposed that he talks of a ship as the " camel
of the sea " — which is likewise a good figurative phrase.
Now, in reality, the Arab uses neither of these forms of
expression. He has a generic word ; it is Merkab, and
means " the riding thing : " it is found in Chaldaic and
Hebrew as Bechab, and, strange to say, the word
" Rechabites " is derived from it, and in no sense does it
relate to abstinence from intoxicating liquors. An Arab
calls a camel " El Gimmel;" but he also says it is " El
Merkab," or the riding thing. A ship rides the waves,
and he uses the same term to it, but he never would
transpose " Jahaz," a ship, for the word " Gimmel."
It is not many years since Ruskin was expressing his
fears that cockney sportsmen might find tlieir way to the
region of Sinai. It did not then occur to him that the
snort of the locomotive and the shriek of the steam whistle
would soon be familiar sounds thereabouts ; but so it is.
The " Merkab " of the present day is the railway train.
The camel of the desert is now the iron horse ; passengers
to India, China, and Australia ride on it through the
wilderness. The real camel, of course, can be seen about
suez. 47
Suez, but it is quite possible you might pass through and
never see one ; but you could not fail to hear the voice of
its successor. It is the same iron horse which is the pro
pelling power through the Suez canal, wliere we may, to
use the supposed words of the Arabs, say that the camel
of the sea has truly become the ship of the desert.
The great sandbank at Suez had to be dug through
for the canal. The stuff thrown out formed an embank
ment, and at the end of it the Egyptian Government
have erected docks, including a graving-dock, with rail
way station and other buildings. This will probably be
the nucleus of the Suez of the future. The offices of
the canal are also on the embankment. Here also is
erected a large bust, with an inscription on the pedestal
telling that it is placed there by " La Compagnie
Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez au Lieutenant
Waghorn." It is a most fitting place for such a monu
ment, and the French deserve every credit for their taste
and judgment in its erection. Waghorn is said to have
been one of those prophets who was not honoured or
rewarded in his own country. Well, it is a great thing
for prophets to remember that there are other countries
to honour and respect them. In 1868 there was an old
hulk at Suez, painted in buff colour, to harmonize, I
suppose, with the prevailing tint of the locality. That
was the first ship of the Peninsular and Oriental Com
pany. Her name was meant to be in a sense prophetic,
it was the " Precursor," for she certainly has been the
forerunner of a goodly fleet. Every vessel that now goes
through the Suez Canal is only following the mission
which this old hulk began. Like so many others, this old
craft was Clyde-built, and of a type now extinct. There
48 MEETING THE SUN.
need be no doubt about the development theory so far as
it relates to steamboats, and the "Precursor" had long
ceased to be adapted to the new condition of things. In
her last days she was a store-ship of the Peninsular and
Oriental Company for the supply of the fleet on the Indian
side, but has now been broken up and disappeared.
The old vessel began a revolution, and has seen the
end of at least one aspect of it. What changes have
taken place in that short period ! The Indian mutiny was
a great event, and India becoming the Queen's, instead,
as of old, the property of a " Company Sahib,". was in
itself a vast revolution. Perhaps the most wonderful
revolution produced since the Peninsular and Oriental
Company have run their splendid fleet of ships has been
that in the habits and morals of the Europeans in India.
Before this line started it used to be about a six-months'
voyage round the Cape. The overland route reduced it
to a month ; and with this came many changes in India.
The domestic or home life of England was carried there
by this means, and certain old arrangements have passed
away. I have heard officers (of the grumbling kind, no
doubt) say that it is a change, but no improvement, and
they illustrate their ideas by the remark that " in the old
days we were never bothered with such things as divorce
courts." Well, that was certainly an advantage, but we
need scarcely suppose that even these grumblers would
care to go back to the old state of things ; and we must
give Lieutenant Waghorn, and the line to the East which
he originated, credit for the good which has been accom
plished in a moral as well as in a commercial sense.
CHAPTER VII.
THE RED SEA.
We were to have left Suez on Friday morning, but
cargo had to be taken out to make room for goods in
a hurry for Australia; so it was Saturday morning,
August 17th, when we left Suez. Our ship was the
" Ellora," Captain Frazer, and the " Golconda," the weekly
mail-steamer for Bombay, started about the same time.
We had scarcely left when the usual instinct for betting
commenced as to which should first cast anchor at Aden.
From the appearance of the two vessels, the odds were
against the "Ellora." When the " Golconda " reached
that place we did not learn, for we arrived, coaled, and
were off again, and she had not been seen or heard of.
The Arabs call the Red Sea Bahr-Soof, and the Gulf
of Suez they call the Sea of Kolzim ; the Coptic name
was the Sea of Sari ; and the old Hebrew name is almost
the same as the Arabic. People coming here for the first
time, and looking at the dark-blue waters, generally put
the question, "Why is this sea called Red?" There are
a number of explanations, and all seemingly doubtful.
One is that the name comes from the colour of the sand ;
but then the sand is not red — at least, there is nothing in
my colour-box with the word " red " attached to it which
has the slightest resemblance to the tint of the sands
here. Another explanation is the quantity of coral of a
E
50 MEETING THE SUN.
red tinge at the more southern end of the sea. The coral
is not visible as affecting the colour of the water, and
even if it did, it would only be in spots, and a mere frac
tion of the extent of this mass of water ; so that this is
evidently only a guess. This equally applies to the theory
which is most usually given in books, that the name
comes from a weed, or plant, which grows in the water
and yields a red colour for dyeing cloth. Father Lobo,
who visited Abyssinia more than two centuries ago, gives
minute accounts of this plant, " often eaten by me," he
says ; and he makes the word soof, or suf, to mean, as it
does in the Hebrew, "reeds" or "sedges." There is
guess-work and uncertainty on the face of all this, and it
fails to meet the case, for the Red Sea was also called the
Erythrean Sea. Now this name applied also to the
Persian Gulf and the whole Indian Ocean ; the word is
supposed to come from " eruthros," which in the Greek
means red. The sand at Suez, the coral at Bab-el-
Mandeb, or even the extraction of a dye from sea- weed,
will not satisfy any one as an explanation why such a vast
mass of water is associatedwith this particular colour. The
origin of the name here seems quite as difficult to get at
as does that of the colour itself, without the name, in the
case of the Mediterranean. This last is blue enough to
have justified a name ; but it is not so, and the Black Sea
certainly is not black. Whence its name? Calling a
sea the " Middle of the Earth " is strange ; but we know
that it was connected with certain cosmical ideas, and in
that mythic region may yet perhaps be found the reason
why black and red are given as names to two seas. The
colour of the "Yellow Sea," which will come to be
THE RED SEA. 51
noticed by-and-by, leaves no doubt as to the source from
which it got its title.
In sailing down the Gulf of Suez the land on each side
is visible. The burnt-up-looking mountains of the African
side are particularly forbidding in their aspect. On the
other side you pass the wells of Moses ; the spot can be
made out from the few palm-trees which owe their
existence to the moisture there, and beyond that all is
sand. There are mountains in the distance, and as you
get south these increase in height. At last a number
of peaks are pointed out, and you are told that Sinai is
one of them ; but I never was lucky enough in passing to
find any one on board who could identify the particular
peak. I remember on returning from the Abyssinian war
we had on board with us Alumaiyou, the son of King
Theodore, and his tutor, a Coptic priest of the Abyssinian
Church. As the pupil had to read to him two chap
ters a day from a Bible in his own language, of
course the priest was perfectly familiar with the names
of places in Scripture history. He talked about Sinai
for days before we reached it, and was most anxious
to know which particular mountain it was. He gazed
over the side of the ship, he borrowed binoculars, and
the captain's telescope was continually brought into
use, and some one at last, as an act of kindness,
pointed out a peak as the real one. The binoculars and
telescopes were brought to bear on it all the time it was
in sight. After that he became anxious about the place
where Moses crossed the Red Sea and Pharaoh came to
grief. Having obliged him greatly to his satisfaction as
to Sinai, and remembering the sailor-boy's story to his
b 2
52 MEETING THE SUN.
grandmother, we promised him a sight of the place, and
that he would see the wheels of Pharaoh's chariots at the
bottom of the water ; but a saving clause was added to
this promise, that much would depend on the state of the
water — that the slightest ripple would prevent one from
seeing the bottom. As we were to reach Suez the
following day, I feel sure that Alika Zenab added a word
or two to his prayers that night having a reference to
the wind next morning.
The strong devotional feeling of the Abyssinians
is very marked, and this was not the only case which
came under my notice ; but whoever has been to
Jerusalem may remember how they stand, or sit,
in a corner, muffled round with white, gazing at
the Holy Sepulchre. They place themselves there
for hours, motionless as if they were mummies. On
our march down from Magdala I met a man one
morning who had been a soldier of Theodore's, but had
deserted, as numbers did, towards the end of his career.
To deter others, Theodore placed all their wives and
children in a house, and set fire to it. When this man
learned of the death of his wife and two children in this
way, he renounced the world and assumed the cowl of
the monk ; and when I met him he was trying to make
his way to Jerusalem, to serve, as he expressed it, " at
the tomb of his Lord."
The Red Sea is never a particularly cool locality ; but
the month of August is noted as being the hottest in the
year, and in our case, certainly, the heat was terrible,
increasing as we went south. There are a few places in
the world where the heat is so great, that it is said there
THE RED SEA. 53
is only a sheet of brown paper between them and a certain
very hot region. Talking to one of the ship's officers I
alluded to this traditional sheet of paper, and said there
could not be much more than it where we were ; he replied
that during the most of the year it was so, but that in
the month of August the heat was so great that this
sheet of brown paper got burnt up, and we had not even
that protection from the fiery sources of our torment.
On leaving Suez it was comparatively cool, but even
there the vast extent of burning sand we could see gave
warning of the sort of ordeal that was before us.
As we go on, the desert on each side almost seems
flaming. There is the quivering of every outline from
the movement of the heated air, and a tendency at all
times to a mirage. Still, a breeze from the north keeps
the ship in a state of tolerable coolness, but there are
ominous doubts as to its chances of duration, and when
it dies away our real misery is to begin. Sleeping on
deck is the fashion, and every night increases the number
of what seems corpses laid out in rows on the poop deck.
As we near the middle of the Red Sea, the ladies find
it impossible to exist at night in the cabins below, and
they have their beds brought on deck. Wiping the
perspiration from the face and neck is the only possible
occupation. If you try to write, great drops gather and
come down with a splash as if from a thunder-cloud.
Men with bald heads seem to have a crop of pearls
always coming up through the skin. All the pores of
the body seem like perpetual fountains of water.
The sight on the forecastle is very striking at night.
There are the crew of Lascars, and the Seedy -Wallahs,
54 MEETING THE SUN.
or negroes, who do the stoking. The stewards also
take refuge on the forecastle, and it is the only place for
the second-class passengers. Among them are two
Chinese women, a Malay woman, and a group of Ayahs
from Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta. There are two Jews
from Singapore, an English groom in charge of a horse,
and a few others belonging to a better position in life,
but who cannot afford to pay first-class fare ; so it forms
a varied collection. All come on the forecastle, except a
lady or two, who do not like the thick crowding of such
a mass. In the evening the whole place gets crowded,
every inch of space is covered ; the heat is far too great
for fun, singing, or even conversation ; each lays himself
down to rest, and remains there absorbed with his own
sensations till sleep gives him repose. Wherever there is
a spot where a man can lay his body it is soon filled.
The whole looks as if some magic power had charmed
them all into rest and silence. The position of many,
nay, of nearly all, was that of extreme exhaustion ; sug
gesting, with the stillness, that it was the sleep of death.
They were more like the bodies on a battle-field, whose
sleep knows no waking. My last experience of this kind
was in the streets of Paris during the Commune, and the
death-like groups here brought back vividly its dreadful
scenes. We had the moon with us in the Red Sea, and
its light dimly shining through a vapoury sky only
helped to make the scene all the more weird-like.
On the poop the narrow mattresses from the cabins
are brought up and laid down in rows ; we all come up
in pyjamas, any further covering would be un peu de trop
in such a climate, Where all are so much alike it is
THE RED SEA. 55
difficult to make out your own particular bed ; one hears
grumbling from some fellow that he can't find his
mattress, or that it is occupied by somebody else, but
quarrelling even with the most cantankerous temper.
would be out of the question, and soon there is silence
here as on the forecastle.
A portion of the poop is fenced off for the ladies.
At Brindisi a little woman came on board with her
husband, and bearing in her arms a very small baby.
They were second-class passengers. The lady was
pretty, and the baby evidently took after its mother. It
was pretty and small to a degree. It had nice blue eyes.
Mother and baby were great favourites. As we had few
passengers on the Mediterranean side, the two were often
on the poop ; but after Suez, from the greater number of
passengers, as well as the construction of the ship, we
never saw them. At last we heard that the baby was ill,
suffering from the heat. Further inquiries told us that
it was very ill. Some of us went to see it, and found
that it had got very thin ; its blue eyes kept staring, and
took no notice of anything ; and there were fears that
the poor thing would not reach Aden. The mother had
no right to come to the poop, and sleeping on the fore
castle was impossible, even in daytime she could not go
there ; and to be confined below in a cabin was next to
death, and gave no hope for the infant. Accordingly,
there was a small conference on the poop, resulting in a
diplomatic mission to the doctor. This led to further
negotiations with the other ladies of the cabin, and the
captain, who was a good fellow, at once gave his consent to
what was wanted, and the mother and baby were sent for.
56 MEETING THE SUN.
Where I slept I could see dimly the corner where they
were, and often an anxious hand adjusting the pillow
where the little treasure lay. If it can reach Aden there
may be hope. The heat is trying to the strongest; so,
what must it be to a tender infant of five months old ?
I have now to say something about the dangers of a
voyage to India. What has been told relates to the
discomforts only at this particular season. Shipwreck
does occur, but that is at such rare intervals that it need
not be counted upon. There are other casualties of a
physical nature which may take place, but it is nothing
of that kind I have to refer to at present. India has
produced many heroes ; men who have earned such titles
as " Bravest of the Brave," Sans peur et sans reproche.
Men who have been on many a battle-field, and through
many dangers, though they may have escaped unhurt,
have yet been conquered on the deck of a Peninsular
and Oriental steamer. A voyage from Southampton to
Calcutta, or even from Brindisi to Bombay, is a long
time for ladies and gentlemen to be placed constantly
together in one another's society — people soon get
acquainted with each other on board ship. There is
nothing to do, and time has to be killed in some way.
Novel reading, or writing letters home to your friends
describing the voyage, are good, harmless occupations ;
but when you come to play at quoits, cards, and chess,
the same thing cannot be said of them. When it is seen--
that the same couple are always in the same game of
quoits, or cards, and the same game of chess, one is
apprehensive of danger. And when it reaches the point
of walking constantly together on deck, looking over the
V
THE RED SEA. 57
ship's side, to study the blue water of the Mediterranean,
or watching together the sunset on the Red Sea, the
peril is great indeed. There are so many ways of
being obliging on board ship. There is moving the
lady's chair when the sun comes round upon her ; going
down below for something she wants. There is lending
of novels ; the lady has, perhaps, forgotten some particu
lar kind of envelope, paper, pens, or ink, and your ample
store, is at her service. At Alexandria she would like
to see Pompey's pillar and Cleopatra's needle, and you of
course are also most anxious to have a look at them.
The transit through Egypt is full of situations where a
lady requires help from a gentleman. Nothing can be
more dangerous than all this ; people under such circum
stances seem to each other the most charming creatures
in the world, and the actual results are too well known.
Do not suppose that it is only giddy young things who
are thus influenced — probably they are the most liable ;
but respectable old warriors, under the novelty of the
conditions, are in the net before they know where they are.
I have seen a lady coming home with her two children,
leaving her husband in India, and there was a parting
scene at Southampton with a considerable flow of tears
in it.
There is another aspect of existence on board ship
which ought to be noticed, particularly when we are in
the Red Sea in the month of August. We may have
heard of "Hell upon Earth;" and I think that the
nearest literal realization of these words was what I ven
tured down to see in the stoke-hole of the " Ellora." The
descents of Ulysses and iEneas to the infernal regions do
58 MEETING THE SUN.
not seem, from the description, to have had anything
very uncomfortable about them. The heat certainly was
not complained of. Virgil says, —
" The gates of hell are open night and day ;
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way."
The descent to a stoke-hole cannot be told in these
words, for it is difficult. It might be called smooth, for
it is an iron stair ; but the smoothness means slipperi-
ness, and you only save yourself by holding on to a hot
iron railing till you reach the Gehenna below, where,
stumbling over a lot of coal in the darkness, you find
yourself in a region so hot, that you could easily suppose
you had just been pitched into one of the furnaces by
mistake, and that you were a part of the combustion
going on by which the steam is produced. A clanking
iron door opens, and from it comes a glare of light and
still more burning heat. With this, the living beings of
the place become visible, and they are great brawny
negroes who come principally from the coast of Zanzibar,
and whose lot it is to live in this Gehenna of Gehennas.
On deck, under an awning, which is watered on the top
every hour or so, and with every appliance we can think
of, the life is still insufferable, and what must it be down
here ? There are twelve boilers, six on each side, each
with a blazing furnace ; everything round you, even the
floor you stand upon, is iron at a burning heat. The
Hindoo ascetic goes through a torture, called the
" Panch Agni," or five fires. He sits in the centre of
four fires, and the sun overhead is the fifth. As a
torture it ought to be comparative comfort in contrast
to a stoke-hole in the Red Sea. The poor negroes,
THE RED SEA. 59
accustomed though they may have been to an African
sun, often faint at their work down here, and have to be
carried on deck, where buckets of water are dashed over
them till they come back to consciousness.
The cooks on board such a ship are not much better
off so far as temperature is concerned ; they have to be
at work by six in the morning, and before that even, to
get the morning cup of tea or coffee ready, and all day
they are boiling, baking, roasting, and frying, till the
evening, with a fire on each side of them in the galley.
The very slight breeze from the north just moves at
about the same speed as the ship, and thus the motion of
the vessel gives no ventilation. No wind at all would be
better. Captains at times stop the engines for a little, to
let this slight breath of air blow through and give a little
ventilation, and in very hot days they even turn the ship
round and sail for a quarter of an hour against the
wind. On leaving the Gulf of Suez, and passing through the
Straits of Jubal, leaving Shadwan — an island as bare as
a biscuit— on the right, land soon disappears on each
side. There are islands at times visible on the way down.
The first of these are the " Brothers," two bare rocks
just cropping np a few feet above the sea — most dan
gerous neighbourhood — for a ship might be on them in a
fog with no warning. There is a lighthouse now on one
of these. Still farther south is one of the most dan
gerous kind of places which it is possible to conceive. It
is a coral reef extending for some distance. It is no
where visible ; only the surf can be seen, and there are
only a few feet of water over it. The Arabic name is
60 MEETING THE SUN.
" Abdul Kheeson ; " but our sailors call it the " Deadleys,"
a most expressive word in this instance, which had its
origin, if I am not mistaken, in the loss of H.M.S.
" Daedalus " on this reef. There is of course a light
house here ; and I believe it is kept by four Europeans.
Three of them are always in charge, and one is away on
leave; for each has a three months' conge in the year.
It must be a curious life in such a place, for there is no
dry land; the lighthouse is perched on iron pillars, and
the waves wash under them. All supplies must be sent
from Suez, and that is a two days' sail to a steamer.
The next land visible to steamers is the island of St.
John. What this sun-burnt isle has to do with the saint,
I do not know. Patmos has a valley with one tree in it,
called the " Saint's Garden." No one could accuse this
island of having even a single bush upon it. If St. John
ever lived here, it would explain why he is always repre
sented with an eagle ; it must have been to bring supplies.
There is a peak on the island about 1000 feet high ; and
from its shape it may have been an old volcano. The track
of steamers is pretty nearly along the middle of the sea ;
and on this line Jebel Teer is the next island. This is
also an old volcano ; it seems to be a mound of ashes,
with an extinct crater or two on the top. The next is a
group of islands, with the name " Zebayer " attached to
them. There are twelve bare rocks here of various sizes.
There are a good many islands which come into view
between this and Perim, Jebel Zoogur being one of the
largest. Mooshedagerah is the small island on which the
" Alma " was lost about thirteen or fourteen years ago.
The Arabic word "Jebel" means a hill or mountain.
THE RED SEA. 61
So any island with this attached will tell something at
least of its formation.
On the mainland of Arabia, although not seen from the
ship's course, we pass a most important region* — that is
from a political and religious point of view. It is called
the " Hedjaz," and includes Mecca and Medina, associated
with the whole history of Mahomet, and now the place
of sacred pilgrimage to all his followers. Whoever visits
this, once at least in his life, acquires a great merit from
the journey, a merit giving the performer an extra title
of entrance into Paradise.
At Medina is the tomb of the prophet himself, as well
as those of Abubecker, Omar, and Fatima. There is also,
strange to say, a vacant tomb for Isa ben Maryam, Jesus
the Son of Mary. The ancient tomb-worship, a subject
already referred to, and which will be considered again
when we get to China, soon explained to me the myth
about Mahomet's coffin hanging between heaven and
earth. Historically, his coffin is said to be in Medina;
symbolically, a coffin expresses the essence of the ancient
system of religious ideas. When a man died he left this
earth and went through the grave, or the tomb, to another
world ; he passed from this world to the next. Here
men die ; in the next they live for ever. Here we are in
the world of death ; the next is the realm of life.
Hence the ancients said, Mors janua, vitce, " Death is
the gate of life." Over the door of the so-called tomb
of David at Jerusalem are the words, " This is the gate
of the garden of paradise;" and it is the usual inscrip
tion on a Mussulman saint's grave. The coffin is the
necessary way to heaven, and this is the most ancient of all
62 MEETING THE SUN.
religious ideas. In this, I 'am not considering whether
the ancients were right or wrong ; I am only explaining the
manner in which, by words or by symbols, they expressed
their faith. To the founder of a religion this symbolism
of the tomb got attached ; hence the explanation why
Mahomet's coffin is between this world and the next.
That it hangs between heaven and earth is only another,
and rather absurd, way of expressing the same idea.
Mecca is not only the cardinal point of the pilgrimage,
but it may be said to be the central point of the Moham
medan religion, and to it every Mohammedan turns his
face while in prayer. The sacred centre in Mecca is the
Kaaba, which stands in the middle of a square, formed of
colonnades and gates. It is a very small building ; in
French metres it is 15 x 13 x 12. As the floor of this
room is a few feet above the ground, its proportions must
be very nearly that of a cube. We noticed in passing that
the Santa Casa at Loretto seemed to be a double cube ;
perhaps these are only accidental coincidences, but they
are worth noting. The Kaaba has no architectural
features about it. It is a simple box built of plain
stone. The most striking feature is a black curtain,
which is placed over it as if it were a pall over a
coffin. All the traditions at Jerusalem may be found at
Mecca; and among them that of Adam's grave. The
skull at the foot of the cross symbolically indicates the
dead body of Adam; the old painters represented the
whole body in a coffin. The hand holds a chalice, and
from the wound in the side the blood flows into it — " the
blood which is the life" — and the first man becomes
again a living soul. The Mohammedans have no sacrifice
THE RED SEA. 63
in the ceremonies of tiieir religion, so that much of the
old symbolism is lost with them. Prayer and praise may
be said to include almost the whole practice of their rites,
and prayer at the tomb of a holy man is so common
that it strikes any one who travels in the East.
The Kaaba does not stand with its sides to the cardinal
points ; the door faces to the north-east. It is a very
small opening, and is some distance above the ground ;
and there are no steps, so that it reminds one of the
entrances to the round towers of Ireland. At the same
corner is the celebrated black stone, which like the
sacred rock at Jerusalem, is considered to be a veritable
portion of Paradise. As these two stones came from
heaven, they will, according to the legends attached to
each, return thither again at the last day. At the corner
of the black stone of Mecca is the celebrated well of Zem-
Zem. The "Tawaf" is considered to be an important
part of the rites, and consists of circumambulating the
Kaaba seven times. It is often performed during the
ceremonies. On the last it is repeated, kissing the stone
each time, and the final three rounds are considered as
peculiarly sacred ; first, they pour the holy water over
themselves as a bath ; and they believe that " their sins fall
from them as dust;" on the next round, they drink
this holy water, believing it to be the water of life. On
the last time, they kiss the black stone, and repeat the
following prayer : — " Oh, Allah-! I extend my hand to thee,
and great is my desire to thee ! Oh, accept thou my
supplication, and diminish my obstacles, and pity my
humiliation, and graciously grant me thy pardon." The
pilgrim having now, by these ceremonies, made himself per-
64 MEETING THE SUN.
fectly pure, puts on a dress of new and clean white cloth.
On his return home these are laid carefully away, and
preserved till his death, when they become the " white
robes " in which he is to be buried, and in which he will
appear before Allah.
As this has become an age of pilgrimages, one may be
excused for saying a word on the subject. I have myself
been to the source of the sacred Ganges, one of the most
holy places of pilgrimage in the world. There I bathed
and drank of the water, the same rite as at Mecca ; and
I was supposed by the Hindoos to have washed away all
previous sin. I believe, myself, that the ceremony may
have symbolized the washing away of all former misdeeds
on my part ; and am inclined to believe that it was from
this idea the performance originated. The Ganges flows
from under the throne of gems on which Iswarra sits ;
the water of Zem-Zem flows from under the precious
black stone at Mecca, which is worshipped even to this
day as Allah ; and the waters from both these sources
have the virtue of moral purification.
The old idea seems to have been this — certain spots,
from some cause or another, became in the minds of men
the place where the Divine Presence dwelt, or rather, the
Divine Presence was symbolized as dwelling there.
There is only a word or two of difference in the defini
tion ; but the ultimate conclusion deducible from the two
statements becomes very wide. The journey or pilgrim
age to such a sacred centre symbolized the whole journey
or pilgrimage of life. It was the voyage from this world
to the next. You passed from this into the presence of
God, or, to adhere to the symbolical definition, to reach
THE RED SEA. 65
the sacred centre, where the Divine Presence was repre
sented. As an earthly journey, it typified the spiritual
and real journey of the soul through the difficulties and
dangers of this life. To go up to the visible Jerusalem
typified the spirit's passage to the golden or invisible
city. Jerusalem is the traditional burial-place of Adam,
and the place of the Holy Sepulchre. All other places of
pilgrimage belonging to the Christian Church, be it
Roman or Greek, are founded on this, and have a sepul
chral relic. According to the Council of Trent, the altar
on which the mass is celebrated must have a portion of a
human body within it; without this, according to the
decree of the Church, it could not be the mass. The
altar is thus a tomb, and on this shrine the priest goes
through the sacrifice of the Eucharist.
. By understanding the theory of the greater pilgrimages,
we get a knowledge of the smaller. Let the place be
Sinai, Jerusalem, Mecca, or the Ganges, we find that the
journey to it is made as to the source of life. If pilgrim
ages were performed to teach the real journey of life to
this source, which I believe was the case at one time, few
would object to them. We have every reason to believe
that the ancient mysteries were only the acting of a pil
grimage. The rites as performed in modern times by the
" sons of light" do certainly contain this pilgrimage, and
its application to our behaviour in life. All this is done
without any pretence of miracle or the supernatural.
The "free and accepted" does not find himself with
science appealing against what he has been taught. He
is told rather that science is to be his study.
If pilgrimages are to be a part of our faith in the
"F
66 MEETING THE SUN.
nineteenth century, they will require to be modelled
something after this fashion, and then they will become
good and useful. Torturing the body over a long and
toilsome journey belongs to the period and to ideas of
asceticism. The modern European will not do that now.
The railway has settled that aspect of it. How long
privations and hardships will characterize the pilgrimages
of the east it will be hard to say. Screw steamers now
take the pilgrims through the canal and down the Red
Sea to Jeddah ; by the same means they come from India
vid Aden. So it maybe said that the "boiling of the
peas " has already begun.
Still the mass of them go by land to the Hedjaz. In
February, 1869, I was in Cairo when the pilgrims started.
It is a great ceremony ; the Khedive is present ; and as
the caravan starts, he says, " Go, and Allah be with you !"
On this occasion the Prince and Princess of Wales, being
in Cairo, accompanied the Khedive to witness the
departure. The great point of importance in this
caravan is tbat it takes out two carpets or coverings
for the Kaaba and the prophet's tomb at Medina. I
was at considerable pains at that time to get correct
information about it, and the following may be relied
upon as being pretty nearly correct in all its details : —
The Kisweh-el-Nebbee, or covering of the Kaaba, is
of black clotli, with a green fringe. The Kisweh-el-
Toorbeh, or covering of the prophet's tomb, has an orna
mental border of Arabic inscriptions from the Koran.
Both are made in Cairo. Two similar carpets are sent from
Constantinople, and the Sheriff of Mecca also supplies the
same number. The carpets are placed the one over the
THE RED SEA. Q7
other upon the roof of the Kaaba. When the new
carpets arrive the old ones are cut up and distributed
among the pilgrims as very sacred relics. The carpets
which form the covering of the prophet's tomb at Medina
are moved when the new ones arrive to the tomb of
Abubecker, next year to Omar's, and, after being used at
all the tombs at Medina, are returned to the place whence
they came. After mending and stitching, they serve as a
cover to the tombs of saints and holy men, till they be
come too ragged for any purpose, and they are then cut
up in bits, and these fragments are sold to the faithful,
and worn as amulets. The Cairo carpets, when ready to
send off, are . placed for a few days in the Hassaneim
mosque ; they are then removed to the Karamedan,
where they are exposed for a day to the inspection of the
faithful. Carefully folded up, they are enclosed within a
richly-embroidered canopy, and a handsome camel has
the honour of carrying them to their destination. So
holy are these carpets supposed to be, that as the pro
cession moved through the streets of Cairo the crowd
rushed madly forward to touch and kiss the cloth of the
embroidered canopy, and the guards had to use their
sticks in defence. Flags and standards of every descrip
tion are carried along with it. The men who go as
pilgrims with this caravan also carry emblems of their
various trades. I do not suppose that these emblems are
thus carried during the whole journey through the desert, I
speak only of the starting ceremonies. There is one noted
figure in this procession. He is called the Sheik-el-Gim-
mel, and he goes bareheaded, and naked to the waist, seated
on a camel. As he goes he rolls his head of black shaggy
f 2
68 MEETING THE SUN.
hair. I was told that he does this the whole way to
Mecca, and that he derives an extreme odour of sanctity
from performing the Hadj under such peculiar and
fantastic circumstances. The function is hereditary.
Another important personage is the chief sheik of the
descendants of the prophet in Cairo. This man performs
a very strange custom when the pilgrims return. The
faithful among the crowd throw themselves down on the
ground, and he rides over them, his horse walking on
their backs.
The marching and camping for such a long distance
has to be done according to something like military dis
cipline, and consequently, after passing out of Cano, the
pilgrims encamp for a day or so, to be organized for
the journey. Their route is through the desert, and
they pass Suez to the north, at Chaloof, now a station
on the railway. They then cross the Sinaitic Peninsula,
thus suggesting the resemblance to the Exodus. From
the head of the Gulf of Akaba they proceed southward to
Medina and Mecca.
If Mecca is the burial-place of Adam, Eve rests not far
away. Her tomb is at Jeddah, which is the port of
Mecca on the Red Sea. I met an officer belonging to the
Egyptian Government, who had visited it, and gave me a
slight description of it. If our first mother's size was
anything like that of her tomb, her children are now
miserably degenerated creatures. The tomb is about
sixty or seventy feet long. There is an enclosure all
round, with some buildings used as mosques. In the
centre is a building with a dome, and in it what is
called the Umbilicus. One could wish that we had
THE RED SEA. 69
more details of this monument. The difficulty here
is, to assign a reason why the umbilicus is at Jeddah,
for Mecca is the true centre — " the point within a circle."
It was so before Mahomet's time, for the Hindoos are
said to have come to it as a place of pilgrimage in
those past ages, and since the days of the prophet it has
been the centre to which all have turned in prayer.
Jerusalem was the same. Synagogues to this day are
built, so that the worshipper prays to it; and it was
called the "Terras Umbilicus." The place pointed out now
in Jerusalem as the centre of the earth is a vase in
the middle of the Greek Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Within this vase is a round umbilical-looking knob, which
is also called Adam's skull. All this is easily understood,
but Eve's tomb at Jeddah is not quite so clear. The only
suggestion I can make, and it is only given as such, is,
that as the place is a seaport, it may be some old form of
the boat symbolism, which was always feminine in its
aspect. But let us wait. If an artist, with a pencil and
a sketch-book in his pocket, could land and give us the
necessary details it might be all cleared up.
Farther south, on the western side of the Red Sea,
is Massowah; and south of that still is Annesley Bay,
where our troops landed for the Abyssinian Expe
dition. Here was the old port of Adulis, from which
comes the word "Zoulla," the name used during the war.
This had been at one time a city of some importance, but
scarcely a vestige of it is now visible. . Our engineers,
under Captain Goodfellow, excavated, and came upon the
foundations of a Christian church. When our ships
arrived they were a wonder to the people, and, more than
70 MEETING THE SUN.
all, the elephants astonished them. We may judge of
the present and past state of civilization in this quarter
by the fact that at one time Axum was the capital of
Abyssinia, and had a fleet which commanded the Bahar
Soof, or Red Sea, and carried conquest all round its
shores. There is still at Axum a chief called the " Bahar-
Negus," or King of the Sea; but for ages past he has
not had a ship to command, nor an inch of sea coast to
defend. It is curious also that the Abyssinians have a
tradition of a war which is called the " War of the
Elephants," and however strange these animals may
be to these people in the present day, Nonnosus, an
envoy of Justinian, went to Abyssinia, by way of
Adulis, and reports having seen 5000 wild elephants
on his route. From Ethiopia, or Abyssinia, came the
Queen of Sheba, and her journey must have been near to
this. As she brought camels with her, the probability is
that her route was by land, and not by sea. But her
reputation as the origin of the whole Abyssinian nation
is so suspiciously mythic, we had better leave her till
her real position, either in history or mythology, be
comes a settled question.
Abyssinia was at one time a great country, and so
was Arabia, but frankincense and myrrh alone could not
have been the source of this greatness; but whatever
its source may have been will probably now soon be
known. The Suez Canal has opened the sluices of a
new life; and the capabilities of the countries on each
side of the Erythrean Sea will now be ascertained.
Abyssinia is ruled over by a number of feudal chiefs,
each fighting against the others; and King Theodore
THE RED SEA. 71
was only a more than ordinary successful chief. He
exhausted himself in the conquest, and not in the
improvement of his country. What is wanted there
is order. The Red Sea is now one of the highways
of the world ; and the policeman, either as a ship-of-
war, or a regiment of soldiers, from one or more of
the strong powers, will keep order at no distant time
along both shores — that is, if commerce of herself is
not able to accomplish the task.
Perim is a long low island. There are some buildings
around the lighthouse, and a few Sepoys may be made
out with a glass in passing. A bazaar, a necessary
accompaniment of native Indian troops, can be distin
guished, and the British flag may be also seen keep
ing guard at Bab-el-Mandeb, or the gate of the Red
Sea. Bab-el-Mandeb means the Gate of Tears. To us it
was the Gate of Rejoicing ; but then we were coming out
and not entering the Red Sea. Strong men were looking
used up by the heat, weaker men were giving way, and
many were knocked over. Stewards were getting scarce
at the table ; even the Lascars were breaking down.
Children, all spotted with prickly heat, cried, and knew
not what was wrong with them. One tender infant,
already mentioned, hung, for a day or so, between this
world and the next. The animals on board all felt it.
A horse looked moist and damp, and showed signs of
heat at the nose. The fowls ceased to cackle ; the geese
and ducks were quiet ; even in the pig-house there was
complete prostration. About six or seven young grunters
lay huddled on one another gasping. As we sailed out
72 MEETING THE SUN.
by the Gate of Tears it was almost a perfect calm, not
a ripple on the water, only a slight undulation of the
surface. This lasted for about a mile or so, when a
breath of wind wafted past us, cool and refreshing.
This increased to a mild breeze, and we felt that it
came from quite another source than that which had
been scorching us np in the Red Sea. It was, in
fact, a stray puff of the monsoon. Nothing could have
been more grateful. It was like the elixir of life, for all
revived under its magic influence. Man, woman, and
child, bird and beast recovered, and soon became some
thing like their former selves again.
We passed Perim about eleven a.m. on the 22nd of
August, and got into Aden about 8.30 p.m. I went on
shore with the captain, to see the agent, Mr. Chapman,
and it was after twelve before we returned. It was a
delightful relief to be out of the Red Sea. On our
return I found my mattress all ready, and when I got
into my night-dress, and came on deck, I went down
the ladder to lave my feet in the sea, in the pale
moonlight. This was so pleasant that the idea occurred
to me, why not jump in altogether ? A second after I was
striking out. Under such circumstances it was difficult
to find an object to make for ; but I had watched the
screw all down the Red Sea, and seen the bright wake it
left behind, so I made for it, as a sort of old friend ; but
the screw was having its rest, like everything and every
body, and little could be seen in the dark. I was told
next morning that the sharks and I might have had a
supper together, but that never occurred to me when I
tumbled into the water.
THE RED SEA. 7'S
We got under weigh about two a.m. on Friday, the 23rd
of August.
The political importance of Aden is likely to be much
greater than the commercial. It is the real key to the
Red Sea. Perim is only a sentry-box. The Straits are
about seventeen miles wide, and Perim is about two miles
from Ras Bab-el-Mandeb, on the Arabian coast. Bat
teries could easily command this channel, but the thirteen
or fourteen miles on the western side cannot be stopped
by any guns yet invented, and there is no lack of depth
of water in that passage ; in many places it has not been
fathomed. To command the Red Sea a fleet is necessary,
and Aden is its harbour of shelter. What Gibraltar is to
the Mediterranean, Aden is to the Red Sea; and by
commanding that sea we command the Suez Canal. It
will thus be evident that in proportion to the success of
the canal, and its importance to the commerce of the
east and west, Aden must acquire a corresponding
political value. Whoever holds Aden, holds the key of
the Suez Canal, and of the commerce between Europe
and Asia. The French, foreseeing all this, wished, when
they first started the canal, to get possession of Perim ;
and the story is told that a French man-of-war, coming
round to occupy it, went into one of our ports in India —
it was either Madras or Bombay — and the object of its
voyage having been discovered, the governor at once sent
off a small gun-brig to Perim, and when the Frenchman
arrived he found the British flag was already in pos
session. This was only a few years ago, and most
people will remember the talk it occasioned in the papers
at the time. Since then the French have built a house
74
MEETING THE SUN.
on the Arabian side, and tried to keep up the appearance
of having a possession. This house can be easily seen by
any one passing the Straits. It is a very harmless-
looking place, but it indicates the importance of the
locality and the value of the interests involved. This
possession never can be of any danger to us with Aden
in our hands.
STOKE-HOLE OF TIIE " ELLOKA.1
CHAPTER VIII.
ADEN.
Aden is said, from some legend or another, to have been
the Garden of Paradise. How this could have originated
it is difficult to conceive, for it is a huge mass of volcanic
remains, a " cinder heap," of pumice-stone and lava; stuff
like the refuse of a furnace, suggesting gehenna rather than
paradise. It certainly is not the source of any river — in
truth, its remarkable peculiarity is a total absence of
water. This state of things applies to the past. It is
more Eden-like now, for it really can boast of water,
derived from one of the condensers which were at Annes-
ley Bay during the Abyssinian War, and the demand
is such that it is kept constantly at work. It is said that
at times there is no rain for years, but that must be
rather an exaggeration ; as the place, however, is a bare
mass of rock, the rain, when it does come, runs into
the sea as it would from the roof of a house, and tanks
were therefore made to collect and preserve it, which are
said to contain eighteen or twenty months' supply. These
tanks are one of the sights at Aden : they are on the
eastern side of the Peninsula, where the cantonments are
fixed. Having seen Aden in. 1862, I have been much
struck with the great increase of the place since that time,
especially on the western side, where the vessels anchor.
On my first visit there was little else than an hotel, the
76 MEETING THE SUN.
Peninsular and Oriental Company's offices, and a great
pile of coal ; now there is a line of buildings all along
the shore, with winding roads and paths to houses and
barracks all over the side of the hill. The Suez Canal
brings vessels into Aden to coal, but there is little or no
other trade at present ; its commerce was at one time very
great, but it has all gone. It is said that in former times
there was a population of about 30,000 inhabitants, but
the few Arabs, Jews, and Somalis, with a sprinkling of
Banias from India, who now constitute the population, are
not a twentieth of that number. It is evidently increasing
again, and if the commerce of Arabia could be tempted
to this outlet, it would become a very important place.
The port dues, till lately, were high, and this caused the
Arabs to take their produce to Mocha, Hodeidah, Jeddah,
and other ports on the Red Sea, where steamers now call
for cargo ; the authorities, however, have now reduced
the rates at Aden, in the hope of bringing back the old
trade. Coffee is produced, but that is all sent to Mocha ;
honey and wax, and gums and spices of many kinds, also
form part of the produce. The dry country on each side
of the Gulf of Aden is the original source from which
frankincense comes ; it has produced a supply from the
earliest times to the present day. The Queen of Sheba
brought spices among her presents, which came from this
country, and their excellence is shown by the statement
that, "neither was there any such spice as the Queen of
Sheba gave to Solomon."
The monsoon, in the Arabian Gulf, begins to blow
about the end of May or the beginning of June, and it
lasts till September. It is caused by the flow — as it
ADEN. 77
may be called — of the cold air, condensed in the
Antarctic Circle, into the regions in which the air is
rarefied by the intense heat of India, Arabia, and
other places. The line of its greatest force is north
along the coast of Africa, — wliich tends eastward to
Cape Guardafui. A branch stream of it passes between
Cape Guardafui and the Island of Socotra, and dies
away when it reaches the Arabian coast; but some of
it turns west along the Gulf of Aden, and it was this
side stream of the monsoon which welcomed us as we left
the Red Sea. After passing Socotra, the main force of
the moonsoon goes nearly straight east, trending only
slightly to the north. The monsoon blows, generally
speaking, from Africa to India, as far south as the Line,
but in a milder form than in the course just indicated.
It blows strongest in May or June when it begins, and it
carries moisture with it which causes what are called the
" Rains " in India. The greatest rainfall is at Mahaba-
leshwar, on the Western Ghats, for that is in the direct
line of the greatest force of the current of air. In passing
through the main line of the monsoon at this season we
had only what the sailors called a " slight gale," and as we
got south towards Ceylon it softened down. After Sep
tember there is a rarefaction of the atmosphere in South
Africa ; and the cold season coming on in India sends
the wind back in exactly the same line that it came.
This is called the north-east monsoon, but it never
comes with the force of the other. The word mon
soon is derived from the Arab word mousum, and means
season, as applied to the periods when the winds
blow.
78 MEETING THE SUN.
The phosphorescence of the Indian Ocean is at times
very wonderful. What struck me here, as different from
other parts of the sea, was the appearance of bulbs of
light, some of them on the surface, bright and flashing ;
others were more or less deep in the water, but still
luminous. They suggested the idea that they were stars
which had fallen down and been drowned. The officers
of the " Ellora" tell me of strange phenomena sometimes
visible on these seas. They have seen the surface covered
for miles with what seemed the spawn of fish, and at other
times the whole surface of the ocean was milky white, or
like the froth upon beer. They could give no suggestion
as to what it was, or the cause which produced it.
The steamer in sailing from Aden to Point-de-Galle
generally passes near to the Island of Minicoy. This is
one of the Laccadive Islands, which, with the Maldives,
form a long chain of spots on the map, extending for
about 600 miles north and south. They are a series of
coral reefs, and are so low in the water that in the distance
one of these islands seems only to be a group of cocoa-
nut trees growing out of the sea. They are nearly all
inhabited, and the natives are anything but savages. They
have a regular government, with a sultan, high priest,
and judges, and send every year an embassy to Ceylon
to do homage to the British Government. The people
are mostly sailors, and said to be good ones too. They
build ships, and can even repair and make sextants, and
have schools for teaching navigation in some of the
islands. They send a considerable amount of exports to
India, one of the principal items being cowries, or the
shells which are used in the bazaars of India as small
ADEN. 79
change ; for there are many articles required by the mild
Hindoo for which a pie, or farthing, is too large a coin.
If Ireland had been one of the Laccadives or the Maldives
the cure for her difficulties proposed once by a noted poli
tician might have had a chance of being realized, for one
of these islands about seven or eight years ago entirely
disappeared. It sank into the ocean.
CHAPTER IX.
CEYLON.
A Highland woman was once asked what she would call
her son, and she said, " Donald, Mactaggart, Archie, Mac-
nab, Roderick, Malcom, Ian, Dhu, Dugal, Macpherson,
Campbell, and that wull pe a praw strong name." If,
according to this Celtic expression of ideas, names are a
source of strength, then Ceylon is well fortified, and its
titles are almost too much to repeat. Milton alludes to
Ceylon in " Paradise Regained :" —
" From India and the golden Chersonese,
And utmost Indian isle, Taprobane."
It is a most unmusical couplet, but Taprobane is the old
classical name of Ceylon. According to Barthelemy
Saint-Hilaire Ceylon had the Indian name of Tamrapanna.
E. Burnouf shows that this word was the origin of the
Greek name of Taprobane. An article in Blackwood, in
Nov., 1843, expressed doubts on this; but Pliny quotes
Onesicritus, who, under that name, alludes to its ele
phants, and Eratosthenes mentions its pearls, and these
are at this day words which are associated with Ceylon.
It is the supposed Ophir and Tarshish of Scripture.
With the Arabian voyagers it was Serendib, with the
Malays it was Lanka-poora. " Poora " is derived from
the Sanskrit, and means " City." It is the Tewa-Lanka
1
¦
m4<mmm&
CEYLON. 81
of the Siamese ; Seho, or Teho, with the Burmese ; Elangey
in the Tamil language of Southern India. With the
Singhalese as well as the Hindus it is yet known as
Lanka, the word by which it is understood to be referred
to in the " Ramayana." The Portuguese seem to have
repeated the Greek name ; they called it Seilan, and the
Greeks put it as Haki^r}- From this come the words
Seylan and Selindib, and our word Ceylon. Amongst
its poetic names it is the " Pearliform Island," and
the " Pearl-drop on the Brow of India." The modern
word " Singhalese " is from the old Sanskrit Singha, a
lion. Ceylon, with its mountains and well-wooded hills, its
fertile green valleys, with waterfalls and winding rivers,
its ample vegetation and flowers — a spot where all is
beautiful — might well have the tradition attached to
it that it was the Garden of Paradise. At least one
could not raise the objections which naturally arise to
the mind against such a cinder-heap as Aden. Still,
the footmark on Adam's Peak — the highest mountain
in the island — is said to have been made when Adam
was turned out of Paradise, and came down from
the Seventh Heaven to Ceylon. This is the Maho
medan tradition. Lane, in a note to the 2nd chapter
of the Koran, states, " The Mohammedans say that,
when they were cast down from Paradise, Adam fell
on the Isle of Ceylon, or Serendib, and Eve near Joddah
(the port of Mecca) in Arabia ; and that after a separation
of two hundred years Adam was, on his repentance, con
ducted by the angel Gabriel to a mountain near Mecca,
where he found and knew his wife — the mountain being
82 MEETING THE SUN.
thence named Arafat — and that he afterwards retired with
her to Ceylon."
The Buddhists claim the footprint on the summit as
tbat of Buddha ; and they call the mountain Samanella,
a word derived from one of the many names of Buddha.
The Hindoos, again, claim the footmark as belonging
to their gods, and make it the mark of Siva's foot. Here
we have an ample supply of opposing traditions ; but, as
all the forms of faith seem to claim this mountain, the
natural conclusion is that it must have been very sacred
in the past. Another tradition is, that Ceylon was the
Ophir and Tarshish of Solomon's time. It is still cele
brated for its precious stones, although the dealers in
these articles at Point de Galle are, perhaps, more famous
now-a-days for selling gems whose origin has a closer
connexion with Birmingham than with Ceylon. Cat's-
eye is the noted stone of the island, but rubies, amethysts,
sapphires, and topazes are found. The chief town in the
district where the stones are got is called Rutnapura, or
the City of Gems. The dealers in jewellery, tortoise-shell
work, porcupine quill boxes, &c, complain of a falling off
in their business on account of the Calcutta passengers
going direct by the Bombay railway as the quickest route
to or from England. The Suez Canal will do much for
Ceylon. Of all Indian ports, Bombay must derive the
greatest advantage from the Canal ; but the geographical
position of Ceylon will enable her to reap almost equal
benefit from it. Coffee planting has so increased
within the last few years that it overshadows all the
other branches of industry, and the coffee bean is now
the real pearl of Ceylon ; its value is far above that of
CEYLON. 83
rubies or sapphires. Notwithstanding this, however,
coffee cultivation only began here about forty years ago,
and it has had many vicissitudes ; but at no period has
it ever been so prosperous and progressive as at present.
A rise in labour and in the general cost of production is,
however, one of its difficulties just now. The value of
native labour has risen within the last ten years, so much
so that everything has increased in price to a very great
extent. This increase in the value of materials and
labour thus causes a difficulty at the present moment
common alike to East and West.
The last legend is, that if Adam had been turned out of
the Seventh Heaven, and come down to Ceylon in the
present day, he would most certainly have turned coffee-
planter. Between Ceylon and the mainland is the Gulf of
Manaar. There are a series of small islands and sunken
rocks near its eastern end, called by the Mahomedans and
Europeans "Adam's Bridge," and by the Hindoos named
after Rama. The water is very shallow all along the line
of this mythic bridge, so that only very small craft can
pass. At its northern end, at a place known as the
Pamben Channel, the Government has for years back
been making efforts to deepen it, and to a certain extent
they have succeeded, but more is required to let large
vessels through. The Gulf of Manaar is best known
from its being the place where the oysters are found
producing pearls for India and the rest of the world.
" For them the Ceylon diver held his breath,
And went all naked to the hungry shark ;
For them his ears gush'd blood."
G 2
84 MEETING THE SUN.
For a number of years back the pearl-fishing has
almost ceased. This has been owing to the destruction
of the oysters by a more powerful dweller in these depths,
who seems to have a Cleopatra-like taste for dining upon
pearls. He has been described to me as a torpedo fish ; but,
whatever the species, he has a powerful set of instruments,
by which he can crush or open the oysters and extract
fish, pearls and all. So great have been his ravages that
the fishing will not now make any profitable return, and
it has been all but abandoned. The Government has
engaged a naturalist to study the subject, with a view to
circumvent this pearl- devouring monster.
From a Tamil invasion of Ceylon there are a number
of Hindoos in the island ; but the greater number of its
people are Buddhists ; and one of the prominent aspects
of this religion is the worship of relics. The Latin and
Greek Churches are not more devoted to fragments of
saints' bodies than the followers of the Great Teacher.
When Sakya Muni, one of the names under which
Buddha appeared in India, died, seven kings came
with armies to fight for his remains. After it was burnt
they agreed to divide the ashes among them, and
each king took his portion to his own country, and
temples were built over them. One of the teeth was
secreted, and after many adventures it came to Ceylon,
where it still remains. It is needless to say that there
are doubts as to its being the tooth of Buddha. It is even
doubted whether it is a tooth at all. Some say it is a bit
of ivory, others that it is the tooth of a large monkey or
wild animal. It certainly is too large for an ordinary
man's tooth. I asked a man at Galle how large it was,
CEYLON. 85
but he would not tell me about it till he saw that I had
no intention of turning the matter into ridicule ; he then
held up his forefinger, and said it was half the length of
that. Be it what it may, it is most sacredly preserved in
the Temple of Maligawa, at Kandy, and only brought out
for exhibition on solemn occasions. It is the Palladium
of Ceylon, and as such it is carefully protected by our
Government. There are a number of ancient dagopas, or Buddhist
relic-holders, in Ceylon. One of these, the Jaytavana-
rama Dagopa, at Anuradhapura, is 245 feet high ; another
at the same place, called the Abayagiri Dagopa, is 236
feet in height. Many of these buildings have been in
creased in size by kings building a new dagopa round the
old one, as a work of merit. They are merely round,
dome-shaped constructions, with a central cell to hold
the relic. " The Mahawanso," translated by Turnour,
describes the erection of one of these dagopas. In the
ceremony at the commencement of the work, the king
calls for the architect, and asks, " In what form dost
thou intend to construct this dagopa ? " The architect
produces a golden basin full of water, and, throwing a few
drops on the surface, he makes a bell-shaped bubble, and,
pointing to it, says, " In this form do I propose to build
the dagopa." The bell-shaped bubble on water exactly
represents the general form of these monuments ; and the
manner in which the architect produces his " plans " con
trasts very curiously with our " competitive designs " for
public buildings at the present day. There are some other
old constructions in Ceylon which are of interest to the
legislator as well as to the archaBologist, as indicating
86 MEETING THE SUN.
what was done in past times for the agriculture of the
island. These are "bunds," or dams. They are said to
be of immense antiquity, and of very great size — in some
cases the dam converts a whole valley into a lake or vast
reservoir of water, which was thus preserved and applied
to irrigation. The construction of these old works are
megalithic, and are now mostly ruinous heaps, and quite
out of repair. Still, they tell what was considered to be
necessary in ancient times. It is the same idea which
our Government is now trying to carry out in India; it
is doing all it can to supply the means of irrigation by
public works. In India this is done — and better done —
more by canals than by tanks, for a canal serves the
purpose of inland navigation as well.
At Point de Galle — the southernmost point of Ceylon
— the pilgrim going " all round the world " has a choice
of two routes. He can go either by Madras and Cal
cutta, from whence there is a line of steamers by Birmah
to Singapore ; or by Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, New
Zealand, and San Francisco, calling at Honolulu, in the
Sandwich Islands. We got into Point de Galle on the
last day of August, and embarked the next morning,
on board the " Travancore," for China.
On coming to Point de Galle for the first time, the
traveller will be interested in the strange boats which are
peculiar to this part of the world. Seen from some
points of view they suggest the idea of a peculiar
kind of sea spider, the long pieces of wood projecting
into the water having much the appearance of the legs of
that description of insect. In constructing their craft, a
cocoa-nut tree forms the keel, and at the same time the
CEYLON. 87
bottom of the boat. A long and extremely narrow box
or bulwark is built upon it, so narrow that you can
merely get your legs in. As such a construction would
be certain to turn over, a second piece of cocoa-nut, at
the end of two curved branches of a tree, forms a float
and a balance. Both boat and counterpoise being so
narrow, no resistance is presented to the water, and they
go very fast. They have been known to go after ships
with letters, and overhaul them when far out to sea.
When under sail, and the wind gets strong, instead of
taking in a reef, one of the men goes to the end of this
outrigger, and his weight, acting like a lever, keeps the
boat steady. The Singhalese name of them is " Sipari,"
but the Lascars give them a descriptive title in
Hindostane, " Kitab-ke-kishti," or book-boats, because
the two sides are exactly like the boards which enclose
books such as those of Ceylon, Birmah, and southern
parts, where strips of palm-leaves are used to write
upon.
CHAPTER X.
PENANG AND SINGAPORE.
Penang was reached on the morning of Friday, the 6th
September. It does not, fike Aden or Ceylon, seem to
possess any traditional claims to its having been the
Garden of Eden ; and yet, from its climate and vegetation,
Penang, as well as the Malay peninsula, might be thought
to have very strong claims in this way. Rain is plentiful,
and, although so close on the line, the heat is tempered
by the humidity, and the result is a most beautiful and
luxuriant vegetation. From the sea-shore, where the
waves ripple up against green bushes, to the tops of the
hills there is a rich clothing of tropical growth. There
are palms, ferns, bread-trees, cocoa-nut-trees, nutmegs,
and the coffee grows wild. Bamboos with their willow
like foliage are plentiful, and here and there some vene
rable trunk of old growth stands up Kke a giant.
Streams of clear water are to be found running softly
among bright flowers, and one of the sights of Penang
is a waterfall of great beauty. A burn, not unlike
those on a hill-side in Wales or Scotland, comes leaping
down over rocks for about a hundred feet. There is a
dense jungle all round, but a good road has been cut
through to the foot of the waterfall, and the Hindoos
have built a small temple close to the rocks. It is an old
practice in India to select a beautiful or remarkable spot
PENANG AND SINGAPORE. 89
for a shrine. From a place near the waterfall a cast-iron
pipe conveys water to the town, about three miles away.
It is rather a sad fact that, in a beautiful climate
like this, where Nature does so much, humanity remains
so low in the scale. The butterflies and birds seem
to harmonize with nature; the wild animals seem in
keeping with the place they are in; even the snakes
are bright in their hues, and as they glide past the
eye is not offended at them. It is otherwise with man
and his habitations in these regions. He is a blot on
the fair face of nature. The miserable shed he lives in,
formed of dirty-looking pieces of wood and matting, with
a midden-heap and a cesspool at the door — mud and filth
all round* — conveys to the mind the feeling that it is
a plague-spot ; it is like the black speck on the bright
colour of the fruit, indicating rottenness within. The
little that man wants in such places is easily got, so he
becomes an idle, lazy being. No exertion is needed, and
whatever powers he may be endowed with are left
dormant. He does nothing for himself, and is helpless to
assist others. Under such conditions, his moral nature
becomes as poor and wretched as his physical state. Vice
and virtue are words without a meaning. Such is the too
common result to those who at first seem privileged to
live in a climate that can only be compared to a paradise.
It is only a repetition of the old story. Paradise was a
place with little to do and plenty to eat, and when the
break-down took place a new condition of things was
ordered. Hard labour was the command. " In the sweat
of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." Carlyle's " Gospel
of Work" has a venerable antiquity to recommend it.
90 MEETING THE SUN.
Although many of the native parts seemed to be
unhealthy and wretched, particularly about the outskirts
of the town, Penang itself is a well-kept place. There
are wide streets and an ample supply of water. Facing
the sea are the bungalows of the merchants, with large
compounds around them. There is a place with walls,
embrasures, and ditches, which is called " The Fort." It
may have served the purpose which its name implies
at one time, and even to this day it may pass for a
fort in Penang ; but I should not like to be one of its
defenders if an iron-clad or a modern gunboat were to
open fire.
There are some places which are celebrated for the
many types of men which may be seen at them. The
bridge of boats at Stamboul is very cosmopolitan.
Alexandria is good in this respect, but not equal to Con
stantinople. The great fair of Nijni-Novgorod is well
known for bringing together the whole of Russia, all the
types of Tartars, Chinamen, and every kind of humanity
from Central Asia. Peshawer is noted, again, for having
in its bazaars all the various costumes of India, mixed
with Patans, Caboolies, and the tribes of the Hindoo
Koosh. There is not a race from the Persian Gulf on
the west to the Grand Desert on the east but may be
found represented in Peshawer. Bombay is also favour
able for ethnic studies. Penang is well entitled to a
place in such a list, and it presents a mixture of types
quite different from any of those above named.
The Malay ought to be the native of the place, for
Penang is only separated from the Malay peninsula by
a mile or so of water ; but he is quite eclipsed by the
PENANG AND SINGAPORE. 91
numbers of Chinese, who seem as settled and fixed as if
the place were their own. Hindoos, principally from the
Madras Presidency, are in large numbers, and have been
settled for generations. They still follow their own
religion, but many have forgotten their native tongue.
Mahomedans are plentiful and easily recognized. There
are men of the Malay type from Birmah ; others from
Siam. Java and Sumatra have their representatives. Sin
ghalese also may be found. Add to these Europeans and
half-castes of every origin, and you have a good gallery,
as it were, wherein to study all the types of humanity
which are to be found from the Arabian to the China
Seas. With each race you find the temples of its faith. The
mosque of the Mahomedan, the joss-house of the Chinese,
and the temple of the Hindoo may be found in close
companionship in Penang. With these there is the
Church of England, and I noticed two or three Roman
Catholic churches — one dedicated to the Immaculate Con
ception. So here is a good field to study forms of faith
as well as types of men. As they all seem to live peace
ably together, we might do worse than take a lesson from
Penang. Penang is called now " Prince of Wales' Island," and
there are indications of great devotion on the part
of the Penangians to the royal family. At the water
fall there is an " Alexandra Hotel," the very name
almost making one believe he is in the vicinity of
Hyde Park Corner. It is largely decorated with pic
tures of the Prince and Princess and their children,
the Duke of Edinburgh, and other members of the royal
family. The native name of Penang is Pulo Penang,
92 MEETING THE SUN.
which is Malay, meaning the Island of Betel-nut. Any
one coming out to India, or the regions hereabout, for the
first time, is rather astonished, and disgusted to some
extent, to see almost every native with his mouth filled as
it were with blood. The first idea is that the mouth is
bleeding ; but, as there are no indications of pain, another
idea suggests itself, that he may have just left his temple,
where he has been performing some horrid idolatrous rite in
which the drinking of blood formed a part. Every person
you meet; — man, woman, or child — has his lips and teeth
glistening with a bright red juice. This is the betel-nut,
and it is simply the equivalent to our practice of smoking,
chewing, or snuffing tobacco. The betel is not unlike a
nutmeg ; it is cut into small bits ; some of these are
rolled up into a particular kind of leaf, called " pawn;"
a little wet " choonam," or lime for building, is added,
and although none of the articles are red, that is the
colour produced after they are chewed in the mouth.
This is no low, vulgar habit; it is common to all classes.
At all durbars, even at those held by the Governor-
General of India, attar of roses and pawn — named
from the leaf in which the betel-nut is wrapped up — is
given to all who attend. If you visit a native gentleman
of any rank, he will put attar of roses on your dress and
present a mouthful of pawn rolled up in gold-leaf when
you leave. The "Light of the Hareem" has always
close at hand an ample pawndan, with the pawn-leaf,
betel-nut, and lime, all prepared, and so constant is her
practice of keeping the mouth full, that a spittoon is one
of her most necessary appendages. Such is the character
of the article to which Penang owes its original name.
PENANG AND SINGAPORE. 93
Penang now receives as well as supplies similar drugs.
" Licensed Opium Shop " is a sign common in the
Bazaar; and a small black board, with " Grog Shop,"
often varied by the words " Spirits," " Ale," and
" Toddy," the last being made from the juice of the
cocoa-nut, in yellow letters on it, is also frequently to
be seen here. The places with these signs seemed
very small and dirty, and had the appearance of being
of Chinese proprietorship. They seemed to be patronized
mainly by sailors and half-castes.
Although any kind of money will pass in Penang, yet
the word " cent "is so often used that we come to the
conclusion that we are in a new monetary atmosphere.
From Penang all down the Straits of Malacca to Singa
pore and China the " dollar " is the coin, and the cent, as
one of its divisions, becomes a word of constant use. The
money-changers' shops in the Bazaar are just now full of
a new copper coinage produced by our Government for
the " Straits' Settlements," as the locality is officially
termed. Penang is celebrated for its " lawyers," but
they can only be called on to practise in courts over
which Judge Lynch presides. For a retaining fee of two
shillings I saw the services of three of these advocates
secured. The Straits of Malacca are formed by the Malay
peninsula on the east, — the " Golden Chersonese " of
the ancients ; — and the Island of Sumatra on the west.
Their navigation makes captains of ships anxious ; for
there are many sunken reefs and shoals, dangerous spots,
where a vessel gets aground, and is doomed without
a sign of warning. Instead of the light-ship at One-
94 MEETING THE SUN.
Fathom Shoal, there is to be a new light-house built on
screw piles.
The Dutch have extended their settlements from Java
into Sumatra, and our Government, it seems, have re
nounced that island on condition of their giving up all
claims on Borneo ; but in this arrangement the Dutch
are said to have the best of the bargain. Java itself
was a most valuable acquisition, for after paying all the
expenses of government in that island, including a small
army and a few vessels of war, the Dutch Government
clears three millions sterling. A steady surplus of three
millions is what few Governments can boast of. Our
Indian Government has a hard struggle to make ends
to meet, and it seldom succeeds. Why should not Sir
Richard Temple be sent down to Java to acquire the
art of getting a surplus ? If it were the result of the
system of government, it might be learned ; but it is
said to be owing to the great fertility of the island. It
is close to the line, with an ample supply of moisture, and
in many places there are, it is said, about fourteen feet
of rich virgin soil. India is a barren land in comparison
to this. In Ceylon the coffee-planters have to import
manure, so that, beautiful and fertile as that island seems,
it is nothing to Java. The Dutch have kept a watchful
eye on this source of golden eggs, and have been jealous
of strangers or travellers coming to the island. Java
was one of the many places converted by the followers
of Sakya Muni to Buddhism. No missionaries have ever
done what was accomplished by the Buddhist monks
during the first few centuries of that faith ; they did not
go in ones and twos to a locality, they sent a whole army
PENANG AND SINGAPORE. 95
of monks. The place all at once " glittered with the
yellow robes." This is the language in which the old
documents describe the' success and triumph of their
religion. In Java it succeeded well ; for the island is
yet full of architectural remains of their temples, and
the Dutch Government have been for years engaged on a
large work to illustrate them. When completed it will
form an important addition to our knowledge of Bud
dhism. The Malay peninsula, although with roads in places,
and villages and towns marked on the map, is said to
be still in large portions in a condition of primitive
jungle. The tiger, the rhinoceros, the elephant, and
other brutes are still the landed proprietors. There is a
light-house at Cape Rachada, kept by convicts, and they
are supposed to be safe enough ; for the sea is on one
side, and the jungle on the other — the latter being care
fully watched by the gentry I have just named. Before
getting to Singapore we pass the southernmost point of
the mainland of Asia. It is called Tanjong Bolus —
the first word being Malay for Cape, and the second
its local name. " From the Suez Canal to Bhering's
Straits, and from Cape Tcheliuskin to Tanjong Bolus,"
would express the length and breadth of Asia ; and
as it is a good-sounding mouthful it might come in
well into any speech on an Eastern question. The Rajah
of Johore, who visited England a year or two ago, has
his possessions on the mainland here, and he is reported
to be a favourite with the Europeans in Singapore.
Singapore is the head-quarters of what is called the
" Straits' Settlements," and it boasts of a Governor and a
96 MEETING THE SUN.
Government House. The house is a very grand edifice.
On thinking over the settlements in the Straits, and
supposing they were all united in one mass of terra
firma, it does not strike one that it would be a
remarkably large territory ; and one is therefore in
clined to inquire whether there is any principle upon
which the size of Government Houses is regulated. If
the one in Singapore is a fair standard in relation to the
space governed, fhe Government House in Calcutta ought
to have extended at least over the whole Maidan and
Choweringhee. In fact, I question if the whole island of
Singapore would be large enough for the residence of the
Governor-General of India, if it were built in relation
to size of territory, and the Straits' Settlements were
to be taken as the standard.
Singapore is really a most beautiful spot. The approach
from the sea is very fine. There is a large open bay
surrounded by islands of various sizes, all green with
foliage from the sea to their highest point. The bay,
thus protected, forms a magnificent harbour. The Penin
sular and Oriental Company have a wharf in a narrow
channel formed by one of these islands. Close to their
ground is the residence belonging to the Rajah of.
Johore ; and behind that again is a hill with a flag
staff, from whence every ship coming down the Straits
is seen and signalled. I went up to see the view, and
found that the man in charge was an old artilleryman
from the Madras service, with a few convicts from India
as assistants. The Andamans are now exclusively the
convict establishment for India, but the Straits used to
be so.
PENANG AND SINGAPORE. 97
The population of Singapore is somewhat similar to
that of Penang, but judging from the greater frequency
of " Licensed Opium Shops," the proportion of Chinese
is larger. There is also a touch of Chinese architecture
in many of the houses, showing that they are strong
enough to introduce their own builders. The streets
of Singapore are all good; so are the roads leading
out of the town, and there is a scheme for a railway
of about three miles in length, connecting the town with
the harbour, for which our Government was requested to
provide assistance, but it refused to do so, and therefore,
if the railway is to be made, the people of Singapore
must do it themselves, which, I understand, they are
well able to do.
The word Singapore is not Malay, but of Hindostan
origin. It means Lion's-town, from Singha, a lion. The
word Singhalese is from the same root.
The Malay peninsula is noted for its Fauna, and when
a Peninsular and Oriental steamer comes in, men and boys
appear with birds of every plumage for sale. Should you
sail in a boat here, and watch the bottom of the water
where it is shallow, you would see wonderful denizens of
the deep, and the natives come round with coral, shells,
and whatever is likely to sell. The air, the sea, and the
land are all rich and beautiful in their productions ;
flowers and fruits are plentiful, for here you are close
to the line. Walking-sticks seem to be largely culti
vated ; you cannot move a step without having a
bunch of them pressed upon you. You can fit your
self according to taste from the reed-like cane of the
sentimental swell to the strong shillelah-like bludgeon,
H
98 MEETING THE SUN.
which would be useful for an Irish fair or a garotting
attack. The diving boys here are very clever; they surround
a vessel as soon as she arrives, and hover round her till
under weigh again. Really they seem quite as much at
home in the water as if they had been born with fins and
scales. When a sixpence is dropped over it never reaches
the bottom ; the boys tumble in after it, and fight and
struggle below for the prize — the successful one coming
up again to the surface with an air of triumph. They
are noisy, amusing rascals, and talk a peculiar kind of
broken English. I heard one of them making an appeal,
and he tried to explain that the steamer " now go soon,
you no need sixpence any more ; throw it down ; poor
boy dive. Suppose you got sixpence in pocket ; not good
— sixpence make hole in pocket — better throw to poor
boy ; sixpence good for poor boy. Yes, throw de six
pence ; all right. All the boy go down." Thus they go
on, usually getting a coin, or perhaps a few coppers at
last, for they will dive for a penny. After a babyhood
and boyhood spent in the water, if they accumulate
enough capital, they continue life in the walking-stick and
bird line.
i
I
CHAPTER XI.
HONG KONG.
On my first visit to India, anxious friends warned me " to
take care of tigers," "and be careful about snakes," but
none of these kind counsellors said a word about mos-
quitos or prickly heat. Now, who that has been in India
troubles his head on the matter of tigers or snakes ?
But it is different with the other oriental plagues.
If a man carefully inspects his bed before laying down, it
is not the snakes, but mosquitos about which he is anxious.
Every bed in India is covered with gauze curtains as a
.defence, and should one mosquito even manage to break
this blockade it is a night's rest gone, and the poor
suffering wretch is a mass of red swollen spots the next
morning. But no defence of this kind avails against
prickly heat, from which, however, some constitutions
are exempt. The poor unfortunate who is visited with
an attack certainly feels as if clothed with misery.
Bright red spots come out all over the body ; they are
small spots, but they increase till the red becomes a
bloated mass in places. Job and his comforters is ap
propriate reading when in this' state. You feel as if you
had changed clothes with a hedgehog, and put your por
tion of the costume on outside in. Your mind naturally
recalls stories of victims rolled in barrels, with nails
tlirough the staves. As your misery goes on for days
h 2
100 MEETING THE SUN.
and weeks, you begin at last to think that you have been
metamorphosed into a pincushion as a punishment for your
sins. This is the acute form of the disease, which luckily
does not always torture to the pitch just described ; but
at all times there is a wish to use your nails, and if a
convenient post should present itself you have a constant
desire to " bless the Duke of Argyle." For about a month
now I have been thus " blessing " and wishing to die —
my comforters consoling me daily with the statement that
" prickly heat is so very healthy."
Two or three days before getting into Hong Kong
we were threatened with a typhoon. To the pas
sengers in general this was not the best of news,
but to one with a war map of red spots all over his
back, a typhoon, a cyclone, or a tornado — anything
in the shape of cool air — would be welcome. Between
Singapore and Hong Kong is the best region for
typhoons, and independently of wishes resulting from
the prickly heat, I had a desire to see one. Great pains
are taken now to get up things of this sort in theatres,
but I prefer at all times to see the real phenomenon,
and so it was with feelings of hope that I noted the baro
meter going down. We saw captain and officers busy
getting ready on board for any emergency ; sails, masts,
and yards were taken in, and everything that could
move on deck was made secure; the Law of Storms
was the subject of conversation; the speed of the
engines was reduced, and we cruised about on the watch.
Our great object was to find out the direction in which
the typhoon moved, so as to be able to dodge it, for the
central point of the storm action is very limited ; but if
HONG KONG. " 101
you allow the ship to get into its centre, and sail in its
course, you may be in it^for days, whereas, if you see
the way it is moving, it can be passed in a very short
space of time.
No typhoon came, we had very rough weather for two
or three days, and we got into Hong Kong a day after
our time — other vessels arriving later. There had been
rough weather at Hong Kong, and some slight damage
had been done to the shipping.
Typhoon is Chinese, and is formed of Phoon, wind,
and Ty, great, from which it will be seen that a typhoon
is no particular kind of storm, but only a great wind.
The region is very liable to great winds, which do much
damage to ships when caught unawares, and a fleet of
Chinese junks, after one of them, is often nothing but a
floating mass of ropes, planks, and matting. On board
the good ship " Travancore " there was not much
chance of danger of that kind, and I confess to a
regret that I had not an opportunity of describing a
good typhoon.
The view, as you sail into the harbour of Hong Kong,
is very striking, and on our entrance there was a warm
discussion among the passengers as to whether it most
resembled Aden or Gibraltar. The lion's back of the
latter place has no counterpart here, and the hills are
too green to be like Aden, but there is sufficient
resemblance to both these places to justify a comparison.
The steamer, passing round a point, enters a harbour,
with high hills on the right, and houses along the
base. Thus far the description will apply to the other
ports ahke, but in details a difference is apparent. The
102 MEETING THE SUN.
mass of shipping at Hong Kong is greater, the town is
larger and has a very fine effect. It is built up the steep
side of the hill, and from the sea the houses look as if
placed on the top of each other.
It is most surprising to be informed that this large,
well-built town had no existence thirty years ago. Only
in 1841 was the place taken possession of in the name of
her Majesty, the spot being still called " Possession
Mount." Since that date the whole town has come into
existence and is named " Victoria " — Hong Kong, from a
" Fragrant Stream," being the name of the island. The
Queen's name is most intimately associated with the
whole place; the highest point in the island is called
"Victoria Peak;" the principal street is the "Queen's
Road." In the Public Library there are copies of the
Queen's Diary, with a very affectionate inscription to the
people of Hong Kong on the fly-leaf signed " Victoria."
In another case in the library is the Duke of Edinburgh's
reply to the address presented to him while at Hong
Kong. The Town Hall is a new building, containing the public
library, a museum, theatre, concert and ball room, and
chamber of commerce. The island, principally formed
of granite, furnishes the stone used in building, so
that the houses are all strong and substantial. Hong
Kong is much better entitled to be called " The City of
Palaces " than Calcutta. Not only are the buildings
themselves finer, but the effect resulting from position is
infinitely more striking. The Government House stands
high on the face of the hill, surrounded with beautiful
trees. Away east towards the " Happy Valley," where
HONG KONG. 103
the wooded knolls are crowned with palatial houses
overlooking the town, with the harbour and shipping,
the range of hills on the mainland of China forms a
grand background to the view. Few views in the
world can equal this for variety and effect. " The
Happy Valley," as it is called, is a lovely spot about a
mile and a half from the town. The lower part is rich
in foliage of every kind, while the granite masses of rock
above, and the lofty hills give a grandeur to the beauty
below. It has been formed into a race-course. There is,
perhaps, not another race-course in the world like it;
that in Simla is the only one I can recall as bearing the
slightest resemblance to it. There is one curious incon
gruity at this spot : just behind the grand stand are the
cemeteries of the Protestants, Catholics, and Parsees. The
ground of the cemetery rises, and it has exactly the effect
of an extensive grand stand filled with monuments of
those whose race is run, but suggesting that they are
still taking a part in the contest that is going on. The
association of ideas is not a happy one, but it would now
be difficult to remedy the unseemly connexion.
So much is European in Hong Kong that it is diffi
cult for a stranger to distinguish what is really Chi
nese. One ought to wait and see a purely native town
before even attempting to judge of what comes before
one's eyes. I have heard people talking of India who had
only seen Calcutta or Bombay. This is something like
judging of a house by one of its bricks, and in the case
of Calcutta, Bombay, and Hong Kong, we can hardly say
that the brick belongs to the house. A newcomer into
a country can scarcely avoid manifesting his ignorance,
104 MEETING THE SUN.
and he is apt to arrive at hasty conclusions. Here I see
many who are pure Chinese in features and costume, but
their caste or rank I have no power of estimating.
In the harbour we have been surrounded by a large
number of the water population, and one cannot help
seeing a good deal of their manners and customs. There
is constantly a number of boats round the steamer wait
ing to be employed taking people on shore. The family
who own the boat — consisting generally of three gene
rations — all live on board of it, and they all use the
oar and help to work the boat. In most cases there
is an old woman, who is evidently the grandmother,
and does her work well; then there are babies and
children, and the average number on board is four
grown-up people and two children. Where they stow
themselves away at night is a mystery not yet solved
to my own satisfaction, for the space is very confined.
There is a loose deck which covers the main sleeping
place, at one end of which is the kitchen, and at the
other the joss-house or family altar. I persuaded
the inmates of one of these boats to lift the hatch,
that I might see the altar, and found that it occupied
the whole breadth of the boat and about two feet of
the length, which is a large expenditure of space, con
sidering the circumstances. There was one principal
figure with cups of what seemed oil and water before
it, a place for lights, food of various kinds, and plenty
of small idols or fancy figures. The family devo
tions I did not see, for the principal part of the
family were hard at work pulling me on shore. I have
seen more than one of these families at dinner, and
HONG KONG. 105
was rather astonished at the quantity and apparent
quality of the food, as well as their power of cooking so
much in such a small space. The dishes were all laid out
on the hatch or lid over the sleeping place, which formed
at the same time both table and seats. I counted five
dishes, each containing a different kind of food ; in addi
tion, there was the great dish of rice, which might be
called the piece de resistance, and also a pot with what
seemed to be soup, from which they all helped themselves.
All the food seemed not only clean, but delicate and
savoury. Each dish was composed of more than one
material, a fish and a vegetable being cooked together, or
some kind of meat and vegetable making a compound.
Every one has a small bowl and a pair of chop-sticks,
the bowl, filled with rice, being held in the hand; with
the chop-sticks he picks up morsels of the delicacies
from the platters on the table, and then pushes a lot of
rice into his mouth after them. Their cleverness with
the chop-sticks is astonishing to a stranger. An Oriental,
who eats with his fingers, cannot manipulate the morsels
or convey them to his mouth more dexterously than a
Chinaman can with his two slips of wood. An elephant
can take up a pin or the heaviest of loads with his trunk,
and the chop-sticks have this same variability of power ;
the smallest particle of food can be picked up and
carried from the dish to the mouth, and mountains of
rice can be shovelled in. Tit-bits are gathered from
corners of the dish and made into one heap, and
the whole is caught up and dipped into any sauce
with an ease that no knife and fork could surpass.
A man with his bowl held up to about a foot from
106 MEETING THE SUN.
the head, which is a favourite way of eating, and with
the two slender bits of wood in rapid action between
the bowl and the mouth, is exactly like a monster insect
with its antenna? at work. This dexterity is of course
the result of a long education, begun very early in life, for
we see very small fellows with chop-sticks in their fingers,
and no accidents resulting from their use. If there is a
baby in the family, it keeps its mouth open, and the
mother's chop-sticks act for it till it is able to use a pair
for itself.
These instruments for food struck, me very much in
contrast with former experiences in the East. The use
of the fingers for conveying food to the mouth is the
universal rule. In India, from a Coolie to a Maharajah,
from a Sudra to a Brahmin, the use of a knife, a fork, or
a spoon to eat with is altogether unknown. The chop-
stick is a development beyond this, and is common to the
whole of China, Mongolia, and Japan — a vast mass of
people. On the western side of the Himalayas chop
sticks or any such aids to eating are entirely unknown.
There is something very peculiar in this marked distinction
in habits of two races. I have no doubt but there is an
ethnic meaning underlying this difference, and its study
might help to throw light on the origin of the race.
From Hong Hong it is customary for travellers to
visit Macao and Canton ; but I learned that the
Imperial marriage would be celebrated at Peking on the
16th October, and adapted my movements accordingly.
We reached Hong Kong on the 16th September, and
left on the 18th for Shanghai.
CHAPTER XII.
THE CHINA SEAS.
From Hong Kong to Shanghai the coast is fringed with a
multitude of islands of various sizes. Some are mere
rocks of a few yards in extent, others are large and culti
vated. Fleets of fishing-boats may be seen busy at work,
and junks of all kinds are constantly knocking about.
Tales of rough weather during the north-east monsoon
are recounted on board ship, and the place where such
and such a ship was lost is pointed out as we go along.
Such tales are not very cheering to a timid landsman ;
the supposition comes naturally into his mind that we
might all be thrown upon one of those desolate rocks
before to-morrow morning, and he frames a question
or two accordingly. The inquiry no doubt will be as to
the character of the natives, and the chances of the ship
wrecked who fall into their hands. " All pirates, sir," is
the answer ; and the fate of ships and their crews becomes
a new theme for yarns, which do not tend to soothe the
feelings of the nervous. Our pilot was a good hand at
telling such narratives, and, as he must have had con
siderable experience in these seas, I will endeavour to
convey a general impression of what he said. It would
be impossible to repeat all his tales, but a slight resume
of the information he gave us will give some idea of the
state of piracy on the China coast.
108 meeting the sun.
Within the last few years, he said, a good deal has been
done to put down piracy, and so far matters are improved.
The various Powers have small gunboats all along the
coast, and should any vessel get wrecked, and her crew be
ill-treated, so soon as the news gets to Shanghai or Hong
Kong, the island is made for, and a justifiable chastise
ment is administered. As these pirates have lately had
more than one dose of this kind, they are now more care
ful in their treatment of European ships. Still it is not
above a year and a half since one was taken and carried
off close to Hong Kong. Their plan with a European
ship is to kill all the crew, as dead dogs tell no tales ;
then, after taking whatever they want from the vessel,
they set her on fire or scuttle her. With native junks
the plan is different. They seldom touch a European ship
now unless she becomes a wreck; but with junks they
are not so particular, for Chinamen do not seem to have
any energy for self-defence. This seems strange under
such circumstances, for they know the certain fate which
awaits them. The captured junk is taken to the pirates'
village, the property on board is divided, and the craft is
broken up for firewood. The crew are not maltreated,
for they never show any resistance ; they are divided
among the principal men of the gang, and are kept as
slaves to work and do the most menial of duties. Should
any gunboat visit that place — and the Chinese Government
have now some small craft for cruising about these islands
and looking after pirates — these unfortunates are con
cealed in underground places made for the purpose. A
number of men are placed beside them, with large
knives, and should any of them attempt to shout, so as to
THE CHINA SEAS. 109
call the attention of the people searching the village, they
are instantly cut to pieces. These prisoners have almost
no chance of escape, and slavery for life is their doom.
Some have been known to be ransomed, but negotiations
which are necessary for such transactions are dangerous ;
and the sharp watch which is kept now, together with the
desire to catch the pirates, makes them adverse to any
proposals of this kind.
Our pilot related one case where he managed to release
a captured junk. He had been knocking about some of
the islands south of Shanghai, and, seeing a junk in the
hands of the pirates, he bore down, and a well-directed
shot or two from a gun made them leave the junk and go
off as fast as they could in their own boats. As a sal
vage case, it was a profitable bit of business to the pilot,
but it made him a marked man among the pirates, and
one day, not long afterwards, he fell into their hands.
The head of the gang had him, as he thought, at his
mercy ; the pilot was at bay, and the pirate stood before
him with a spear, intending to exact a ransom equal to
the rescued junk, or dispose of him with the spear.
While this anxious negotiation was going on the pilot
managed to catch hold of the spear, so that he passed
inside of its point, and drawing a revolver he entirely
changed the conditions under which the treaty was being
made. He explained that any movement on the part of
the pirate or his men would lead to instant death. He
then announced to him that there was a reward offered
by Government of 500 taels for his head, dead or alive —
a piece of information not quite unknown to him — and
that, instead of paying for the released junk, these 500
110 MEETING THE SUN.
taels could now be easily earned. The pilot's vocation
taking him often about the neighbourhood of these
fellows, and taking into consideration the fact that he
might again fall into tlieir hands, he thought it as
well not to push matters to extremities, and came
to a general kind of agreement to let bygones be
bygones, and not to injure each other for the future.
The pirates, to their credit, have kept to their word,
and these very men have helped him to save both life
and property from wrecks ; and to secure their ser
vices in this way, he has been very careful to see that
they were paid a certain sum for each life and bale
of goods, the preservation of which was due to their
exertions. Supposing this story to be in the main true, so far as
it relates to the character of these pirates, it suggests
what ought to be the policy employed in putting them
down. No doubt doses of grape-shot, and burning
junks and villages, may sometimes be necessary; but
wherever it can be done, the plan of making them
help in case of wreck ought to be adopted. These
people have been wreckers and pirates for ages, and have
never known any other idea but that of plunder ; but as
soon as they find out that saving life and property is
a more paying kind of work, they will be certain to
follow it. On the Admiralty charts for this coast the
word " Piratical " is added in an underline to the name
of many of the islands. This tells of the past, and,
indeed, of the present also, but it is a condition of things
the days of which are numbered.
The " Hwang-hai," or Yellow Sea, is clearly named
THE CHINA SEAS. Ill
from its colour. There need be no uncertainty on this
point, as in the case of the Red Sea. The Yang-tse-
Kiang and Hwang-ho, or Yellow River, both send down
such large volumes of turbid water that the sea is yellow
for many miles, and beyond that a yellowish grey extends
far into the ocean, till at last it is lost in the pure water
of the deep. From the contrast of the yellow with the
dark blue beyond it, they call the latter the " Black Sea."
The yellow is the yellow of ochre, indicating that the
rivers have passed through a soil of ferruginous earth.
The water seems thick with the yellow matter in it ; so
much so is this the case that a Yankee is reported to
have said, "Call that water? Why, it's more like
what we make bricks with in our parts." After
sailing for a day or two on yellow water, I more
fully appreciated that provision of nature which has
made the whole ocean blue. Had the sea been all yel
low, like the Hwang-hai, it would have been a very dull,
monotonous affair. Such a colour is suggestive of bile
and all its associations. Yachting and sea-bathing would
have been out of the question. The fish found in such
waters are said to be poor and tasteless. No Greek brain
could have produced the myth of Aphrodite from such a
sea, and the more modern reality of the British sailor
never could have been achieved from such an origin ; but
it is easy to believe that it is the natural element of junks
and Chinamen. In looking over the Yellow Sea, which
extended in every direction to the horizon, it had much
the appearance of a desert of sand, suggesting a great
liquid Sahara; and had one been a tired traveller, it
would have betokened nothing more drinkable to the
112 MEETING THE SUN.
thirsty throat than that weary plain. The only visible
oasis was our ship ; all else was a dreary waste.
On Sunday morning, 22nd September, we were off the
Tung-sha light, which means " Eastern Sands," and
applies to the bar at the mouth of the Yang-tse. We
had to lie to for an hour or so waiting for the tide,
when we steamed on through the yellow mud. The
junks, sailing-vessels, and steamers visible going and
coming on our line, told that a port was near. At last
spots rose out of the horizon, which gradually became
trees and fields with houses and animals. After a time
we could make out trees on our starboard side, and then
at last we appreciated the fact that we were in the
estuary of a great river. The Yang-tse, the third
river in the world, is about ten or twelve miles wide
at its mouth. We sailed a few miles up it, and then
entered the tributary on which Shanghai stands, called
the Woo-Sung, and which we reached about mid-day,
being six weeks and two days since we started from
Venice; and here the Peninsular and Oriental line ends
in this direction.
Two days were spent in Shanghai waiting for a steamer
to Tientsing. There are two lines belonging to different
companies. My berth was on board the " Sin-Nan-Zing,"
a paddle-steamer, and on the Wednesday morning we
were again " ploughing " the waters, — there is a literal-
ness of truth in this word when applied to the earthy
stream of the Yang-tse, — on our way down to the
Yellow Sea. By the next morning we were in the
" Black Sea," passed the Gulf of Pechili, and very
soon found ourselves in the dirty-brown water of
THE CHINA SEAS. 113
the Peiho. At Taku the forts were being repaired,
after remaining for many years in the state in which
the French and British troops left them. Gangs of men
were carrying earth, and making them all as smooth and
fresh as if they were just constructed for the first time.
The casemates — all the embrasures are casemates — are
strong and substantial in appearance, and they are said
to be now armed with Krupp's guns. The operations at
Taku are stated to be only part of a large plan of
work going on — the meaning of which is war at no
distant date, but against whom the war is to be directed
is not as yet clearly known in these regions. Alarmists
see in it another Tientsing massacre, which will not be
confined to one town, but in every place in China where
there are foreigners a wholesale extirpation of them is
to take place. Others talk of war between China and
Japan as imminent. The Corea was formerly a part of
the Chinese Empire, but Japan now claims it, and high
words, it is said, are passing in official circles in relation
to this matter. Another theory is that Li-hoong-Chang,
the present governor of Pechili, and the ablest man at
present in the front of Chinese politics, has ambitious
plans of his own. He has been hard at work for some
time past organizing an army, and now he has one of
the best that has yet been produced in China. Accord
ing to this theory, Pekin being in Pechili, and the pos
session of this army making him master of all the
northern part of the Empire, he intends to be master of
Pekin, and consequently of the Emperor also, witliout,
however, having it in view to declare himself Emperor —
which no Chinese mandarin could be supposed to cou-
i
114 MEETING THE SUN.
template. These are the rumours which pass from
mouth to mouth in this quarter. The forts and the
guns, however, are no rumour, and there are two new
forts higher up the Peiho, one close to the right bank,
and the other about a mile from the river on the
north, said to be for defending the road from Petong,
by which the French got to the rear of the North Taku
Fort in the last war. The army is being drilled for
European tactics, and ships of war on the European
models are being built.
Li-hoong-Chang is a noted man in- this part of the
world, and is said to be a thorough-going Conservative,
as all the mandarin or governing classes are considered to
be in China — that is, they are opposed to the admission of
foreigners into the country, and to all the ideas and results
of European civilization. Railways and telegraphs are
the advanced guard of this invasion, and against these
they struggle by every power that can be brought into
play. The teaching of Confucius, to preserve the ancient
institutions, is the policy they strictly adhere to. Like
the Hebrews of old, they try to keep themselves pure from
the contact of nations around them. Their borders are
ever troubled by the Britishites, the Frankites, the
Yankites, and the Russites. The latter might be called
the Amorites, from their doings on the great river which
is their border — and the kings of all these nations are
conspiring against the peace of this Israel of Celestial
renown. As a railway is hopeless, tramways are being
talked of as a sort of thin end of the wedge, and as a still
finer point to the thin end of this wedge, a traction engine
and an omnibus have lately arrived at Tientsing. The
THE CHINA SEAS. 115
hope is that they can be run on some of the roads, and
then the Chinese will not have the graves of their
ancestors to defend against railway engineers making a
line across the country. Before they can be run, how
ever, permission must be obtained, and Li-hoong-Chang
was invited to inspect these two new "foreign devils."
Li-hoong-Chang applied no bad names to the vehicles,
but, on the contrary, after having a ride on the
traction engine, with which he seemed highly pleased,
he quoted a sentence from Confucius, the purport of
which is, that " he who smooths the way is a doer of
good." Whether this was merely politeness, or an indi
cation of a willingness to sanction any improvement that
would mend the ways of his country, is not yet known.
The country round Tientsing was flooded for many
miles, and in some places it looked like a great inland
sea. This took place last year also, but the inundation
was then much worse, and life and property both suffered
great loss. It is supposed the cause of this catastrophe
is that the Hwang-ho has broken its banks up country,
and that some of its waters find their way into the
Peiho. The Peiho, or North River, is celebrated for its
"bends " — something like the "Links of Forth" — many
of them so angular that steamers have to run their bow
into a cabbage-garden, and a hawser has to be carried out
and made fast on the other side before the' place can be
passed. This makes the navigation of the Peiho slow,
and gives an anxious time to the captain. His last great
difficulty is the " Everlasting Bend," and then it is pretty
plain sailing up to Tientsing. i 2
116 MEETING THE SUN.
At Taku the country is open and flat ; and what strikes
one is, that as far as the eye can see, there is a crop of
ancestral graves. They are circular mounds, like mole-
heaps, and are so thick and close that the whole country
has the appearance of being one vast burial-ground.
They recalled to me the saying of the Arabs, that, when
a man dies, " he has gone to the greater number."
CHAPTER XIII.
TIENTSING AND THE PEIHO.
Tientsing, or the " Celestial Ford," is a very large place,
and is believed by most people to have a greater popula
tion than even Peking itself. The Grand Canal joins the
Peiho at Tientsing, causing it to be a great centre of
commerce, and consequently the narrow river is in many
places impassably crowded with craft. Being one of the
open or treaty ports, there is the " settlement " or quarter
where the Europeans have their business houses. This is
first reached on coming up the river, and, as compared
with Shanghai, it contains a very small population. Ever
since the massacre, the Foreign Powers have been particu
lar not to leave the place unprotected ; hence there is a
good show of war vessels flying the English, American,
French, and Russian colours.
On my return from Peking I spent a couple of days at
Tientsing, and a friend, who kindly undertook to be my
guide, conducted me first to the scene of the massacre.
He had been in Tientsing at the time, and was familiar
with every detail. The Shanse temple was our next point
of attraction, and to one who has visited many temples
all over the world, and has made them a subject of study,
this particular one has peculiar interest. Here we find
the theatre and the temple combined, and this is a com
bination to be found all over China. The drama has long
US MEETING THE SUN.
ceased to be religious, but the Passion Play at Ammergau
may remind us that such was not always the case.
Dancing had a symbolic meaning, which it first acquired
in the temple as one of the services, and the festivals and
ceremonies which had a reference to the actions of the
deity grew at last into theatrical performances.
Among the Greeks Bacchus is said to have invented or
built the first theatre, and the rites which were gone
through in his honour are supposed to have given birth to
the drama. In the old Greek plays there were but four
performers, and it is supposed that the harlequin, clown,
pantaloon, and columbine of our modern pantomime are
only the continuation of the ancient caste of characters.
The theatre, although still connected as a building with
the temple in China, has, as in other places, ceased to give
religious performances, and I understand the pieces are
now historical and comic. There was no performance
going on when we visited the building, for the place was
all shut up. It belongs to the merchants from the province
of Shanse, living in Tientsing, who meet in it about once
a month and use the place as a club, the temple and
theatre being only necessary adjuncts. There are tables
where they eat and drink, and manage to combine friend
ship with business. A temple, a theatre, an exchange, and
a club all in one is a strange combination to our Western
ideas, but, when properly understood, it is a very good
arrangement, and no doubt exactly suits the tastes and
habits of the Shanse merchants. The place is kept in
good order, delightfully clean, with plants and flowers
all round. At Han-Kow, on the Yang-tse-Kiang, I after
wards visited a similar establishment. It belonged to the
TIENTSING AND THE PEIHO. 119
merchants of the province of Keangse. This seems to
indicate that they are more or less common all over
China. There are two Mahomedan mosques in Tientsing, and
we paid a visit to one of them. I was anxious to see if
the type of physiognomy of these people was in any way
different from the rest of the population. I thought at
first that they were less Turanian than their neighbours,
but this may have been fancy on my part: Protestants
and Roman Catholics have often to act together in China,
owing to a condition of mutual interests and dangers,
which could never happen at home ; and from a somewhat
similar cause these followers of the Prophet have the
feeling that Christians are their brothers in faith. On
this account they are always glad when any European
appears among them, and as I aired a few words of
Arabic, and talked to them of Mecca and the Kaaba,
and the Holy Well of Zem-Zem, they were delighted.
They gathered round us in quite a mob. One of the
principal men led us into a side house and produced a
copy of the Koran in Arabic, which he assumed I could
read fluently. He opened it at the first chapter, which is
called the El Futtehah, and is equivalent to the Lord's
Prayer. As he passed his finger along the line I was
able, from memory, to repeat a few of the words, and they
were all highly pleased, and I presume that they took me,
as well as my companion, a staunch Presbyterian, for
Hadjis, and faithful believers in Mahomet. When Islam
conquered Egypt and all the northern part of Africa, the
savage but brave apostles of the sword at last reached the
Atlantic, as their limit in that direction, and, dashing their
120 MEETING THE SUN.
horses into the sea, expressed their regret to Allah that
there was nothing more to conquer to the faith. Eastward
the space was greater. There were those deserts of sand
round Khiva we have heard so much of lately, and which
Vambery describes ; and after the fertile region around
Bokhara and Samarkund was passed, there remained the
terrible deserts of Tartary and Mongolia to be got over
before reaching China. The whole of India was conquered,
and then these barren tracks were crossed, and Mahome
dans are to this day found, not only at Tientsing, close to
the Pacific, but the rebellion in Yunan among the Pan-
thays is a Mahomedan movement in the very south-west
province of China.
Chinese beggars are notorious for their efforts to
excite charity. They exhibit sores and deformities,
stick pins and bits of wood into their flesh, and burn
joss-sticks on their hands and arms; but in most
cases these are tricks. They can put clay on their
arms and paint it to look like a swollen sore; and it
is by a similar process that they can afford to, or rather
seem to, put pieces of wood into their flesh. Such
practices are very easily understood ; but I could not ex
plain to myself, nor could any one solve, the mystery
of a strange device of one of these beggars to attract
attention, which we saw one morning. We found a
man lying all his length on the ground, while with
his left hand he collected the loose earth about and
stuffed it into his mouth. It was not in small quan
tities, like a pinch of snuff, but almost a handful at a
time ! We watched him in the act of mastication,
and when he had swallowed one mouthful, he stuffed
TIENTSING AND THE PEIHO. 121
in another supply. How long he had been at this,
or how long he could continue to have the appetite to
go on with such a breakfast, we did not wait to see. He
certainly swallowed about a quarter of a pound of earth
while we looked on. " Eating dirt " is an oriental phrase,
but always understood to have only a metaphorical sense ;
yet here was the reality, and one would like to have a
medical opinion as to the effect of such matter on the
internal organization.
Tientsing is inclosed by walls, square in plan, which
seems to be the case with all the towns hereabout. The
walls are very old and ruinous. There are large suburbs
all round, extending beyond the river and the Grand
Canal, the European settlement forming an extension
on the south. Although the whole area is large, yet
it is far short of that of Peking ; but then it is covered
closely with houses, which is not the case with the capital,
and it is this fact which justifies the opinion as to its
more numerous population. We were much impressed by
its teeming crowds and great traffic on the evening of our
departure. My journey to Peking was much facilitated by the
kindness of some friends, also on their way to the Capital,
who included me in their commissariat arrangements.
Mr. Howard, of Sassoon's, had engaged a boat and
a servant for me, and Mr. Giles, of the Consulate, had
my passport in order, so that I was ready to start
at any moment. My friends had adopted what is
considered the most comfortable way of doing the
journey — that is to go as far as Tung-chow by boat
on the Peiho. We sent off our small fleet of boats at
122 MEETING THE SUN.
once, so that they might get clear of the junks and past
the bridge before we joined them. Captain Nazimoff,
commanding the Russian man-of-war, had kindly pro
posed to pull us up in the evening in his gig. We all
thought afterwards that the captain let himself in for a
great deal more trouble than he had calculated upon.
There may be such an authority as a harbour-master at
Tientsing, but, judging from appearances, I should say,
No. Junks seem to go where they like and anchor as
they like — the result being a hopeless state of confusion in
which we got entangled. Innumerable times we pulled
up between rows of these antediluvian-looking Chinese
junks, and found ourselves in a cul de sac. This was
wearisome, but our nerves were more than once tried
by the risk of two great junks coming together and
crushing our frail gig, squeezing our bodies into a
jelly, and depositing us in this state at the bottom of
the Peiho. Captain Nazimoff' s strong fellows struggled
well through all this, but it was getting dark, and as we
found one of our own boats in the confused mass, we
objected to let our friend trouble himself any further. At
last we got him to turn back, but not before producing
two bottles of champagne from the stern-sheets of his
gig, and these had to be poured out as a drink-offering at
our farewell. The sunset was fading into darkness, and
we were near enough the bridge to see the masses of dark
figures moving upon it. It seemed to be a bridge of
boats, and one boat is taken out at times to let the vessels
pass. We were nearly an hour before we could get
through. The bridge was crowded with people wanting
to cross, who, in the darkness, looked like fiends from
TIENTSING AND THE PEIHO. 123
another world. Those in the boats, as they made vain
struggles to get along, howled and bawled, cursing and
swearing. Those on the bridge did the same. As we
passed, some hundred of them rushed over upon our
boat in a hurried and frantic sort of way, but fortunately
we got through without an accident.
Not far above the bridge we found the rest of our fleet.
Dinner was nearly ready — after which we soon turned in,
for we were to make a start early in the morning. We
had each a boat — a long, fiat craft, with a house nearly
all its length. The fore-part of this house is for the
passengers ; the after-part for the crew. Sails are used
when the wind is favourable, but when it is ahead the
men go out and track along the bank. Next morning,
when I got up, I found the boatmen busy putting up
the masts and making everything ready for the voyage.
I thought, from the distance we had come the night before
in the dark, that we must be in the country, or at least in
the outskirts of the town, but as far as the eye could reach
there were houses along the river-side. The principal
object before us was the ruin of the Roman Catholic
Cathedral, which was burned on the day of the massacre.
We were to have a cup of tea before going off, and
while waiting for it I was asked if I had ever tasted a
Canton oyster, to which inquiry I had to give a negative
reply. " Are you aware that Canton is noted for its
oysters?" and a confession of total ignorance on this
matter had to be made. " Would you like to taste one ?"
The reply was, that I had come to China to see it and get
knowledge, and that knowledge of Canton oysters would
no doubt be valuable. I had begun to think that the
124 MEETING THE SUN.
Chinese might have some special way of cultivating
oysters — some system, perhaps, as old as the time of
Confucius — and that Canton oysters would no doubt be of
excellent flavour; but my speculations were stopped to
watch my friend's movements. A wine-glass was pro
duced, and the yolk of an egg deposited into it ; a drop
or two of water and the same of vinegar was added, then
a little salt and pepper. I was asked to shut my eyes
and swallow the contents: This I did, and were I to
trust to the dictates of my palate I should swear that it
was a veritable oyster which went smoothly down. We
had them every morning during our journey, .and I can
recommend this particular breed of oysters with con
fidence. It was some time before we got clear of the suburbs of
Tientsing. We found it nearly all flooded, houses sub
merged, others being left in a state of ruin as the waters
receded, gardens swept away, and masses of drifted wood
and stuff deposited everywhere. It suggested to one's
mind the idea that the morning after the deluge must
have left appearances something similar to this. At last
we found ourselves beyond the city and its surroundings,
and within the narrow banks of the river, which is very
canal-like in its character. Although a river in its natural
condition, yet the Peiho from Tientsing to Tung- Chow
is a portion of the Grand Canal. To what we call
"Grand Canal" the Chinese apply the name of "Yuen-
liang-ho," or " Grain-Tribute-River." It was made to
bring the tribute-rice from the provinces to Peking, and
this portion of the Peiho from Tientsing is a part of this
water-communication. As will be explained hereafter,
TIENTSING AND THE PEIHO. 125
the population of Peking is military, and not a labouring
one. Nothing comes from the capital; everything goes
into it; taxes have to be paid in kind, and have to be
transported from all parts of the empire, and hence the
name of the canal. The country here is perfectly flat,
and a railway could be constructed with the greatest ease.
I may say that there is not a single spot between
Tientsing and Peking which could possibly involve an
engineering difficulty ; but then there is a most serious
obstacle, and that is the mandarin ideas and policy.
Once bridge over this one great difficulty and any
one could plan the line in a country like this.
The Peiho is noted for its " bends." At one time you
are sailing direct for Peking, at another you are off at
right angles, and then you find yourself on a line that
would, if continued, take you straight back to Tientsing.
The sails take you sweeping along one side of the bend,
but round the next the men have to jump out with the
towing-ropes and pull against both wind and tide. We
could land and walk along the banks, and at night we
came to an anchor, for the boatmen required sleep. We
passed houses, villages, and towns on the way. At
Ho-si-woh we met Admiral Jenkins, commanding the
American squadron in Chinese waters, and his flag-
captain — Captain Baldwin — and party on their return
from Peking. Mrs. Little, of our party, being an
American lady, the admiral boarded our fleet to pay her
a visit. Afterwards we all landed, and in our walk
through the town we came upon a temple with a theatri
cal performance going on. Our entrance attracted all
eyes from the actors, and we had to beat a retreat to
126 MEETING THE SUN.
avoid being mobbed. The lady in our party seemed to
be a novel attraction which their own stage did not boast
of, and the female portion of the crowd seemed parti
cularly anxious to get a sight of her.
Although the distance is only sixty-five miles by land,
we were full five days in doing it by the river. On the
last day we saw the pagoda of Tung-Chow early, but
afternoon came before we arrived, for we had to zig
zag up to it as if it had been a fortified position.
Here we were to leave our aquatic mode of transport
and do the remainder of our journey by land. We were
fifteen miles from Peking, so it was too late to start, for
we might find the gates of the city shut, and that would
be awkward. M. Bakhmeteff, of the Russian Legation,
had come down to meet my friends, bringing a chair for
the lady, and he had also arranged quarters for us in a
temple, where we had our dinner and passed the night.
This experience gave me another aspect of Chinese
temples. In every house here you will find an altar as
one of the most prominent features, where incense is
burned and ceremonies are performed, so that the house
may be looked upon as a temple. Our experience in the
Ta-Wang-Meeaou, or Temple of the Great Prince, was
evidence that it could be used as a house and suffer
no desecration, and temples I understand are used all
over China as places of accommodation. " Beth " is the
Hebraic word for temple ; it also expressed house ; and
" bait" is the modern Arabic form, and still used in the
sense of " house."
The priest of this temple was old and blind. He had
two young priests as attendants, mere boys, who were to
TIENTSING AND THE PEIHO. 127
him instead of eyes ; one was always beside him, telling
him what was going on, and he gave the priest a minute
description of each of us as we passed. I was con
scious that my movements, with a sketch-book and pencil,
were exciting some interest ; through vicarious eyes the
blind man had knowledge of all I did. I wanted a sketch
of the old priest, and I knew from long experience what an
amount of interest that excites in the mind of an Oriental.
When I went up to him he felt me all over with his
hands, and the boys' tongues were adding details in a
very voluble manner. I wanted his portrait, but in the
first place he was taking mine. A rather ample beard
seemed, to his fingers, a point of great importance.
Many details were added by the two boys, who kept up a
constant stream of information, and I am certain that
that old priest has as perfect a picture of me in his mind
as I have of him in my sketch-book. The sketching of
him followed, and the tributary eyes watched every touch
of the pencil, reporting the same to my model; and
I believe he knows every detail of that drawing as
accurately as I do myself.
Finding he was a Buddhist priest, I wanted to ascertain
whether he knew the ancient Sanscrit Mantra, which is still
so sacred among the Lamas of Tibet, so I pronounced the
sentence to him, '"Aum Mani Padmi, Hoong." What
are called " Praying Machines," or the "Rotary Calabash"
of Carlyle, contain nothing but this Mantra, and when
understood it is not a prayer at all. It means simply
adoration to Mani, or Buddha, that is God on the lotas,
or throne — Amen. Praise, not prayer, is its true meaning.
When the old man heard these words it was like an
128 MEETING THE SUN.
electric shock to him. It was beyond his experience that
an outer barbarian could possibly know anything of these
sacred sounds. He seemed very much interested and
pleased. I got him to repeat the words, to see if he had
the same pronunciation as I had. There was a slight
difference between us, but I claimed to be the better
authority, for I had acquired my knowledge of the
Mantra in Tibet and India, which were nearer to its
original Sanscrit source than Tung-Chow.
Next morning we were off on horses, donkeys, or
chairs, each according to his taste. The servants had
carts for themselves and the luggage. The first place of
note we came to was Pa-li-Chiaou, or Eight-mile Bridge.
This was the scene of one of the engagements when the
allied French and English troops forced their way to
Peking in 1860 ; and from the name of this bridge the
Due de Palikao derives his title. I heard of such phrases
as "Due de Pillage," and " Count de Massacre," as titles
which his conduct had earned for him at the time. How
far the honorary rank conveyed by these terms was
justified by deeds I know not, but I was in Paris in the
last days of August, 1870, when this same worthy
announced that the city would illuminate if it knew all
that he knew. A day or so afterwards the news of Sedan
came, and we all remember the result.
All the way from Tung-Chow to Peking there is a road,
paved with large slabs of granite, which is two or three
centuries old, and, judging by appearances, one would
suppose it had never been repaired since its first con
struction. It is about twenty feet wide; each slab
is about two feet broad, and from three to eiofit or
TIENTSING AND THE PEIHO. 129
nine feet in length. A splendid piece of work it
must have been when new and in good condition,
but now it is in complete ruin; the rain has washed
away the earth from the sides, and the stones have
tumbled down; and wheels passing along for centuries
have made deep ruts, which are now chasms, dan
gerous for horses and pedestrians. Even in this state
there is a large traffic on the road. The chief means of con
veyance in this region is a wheelbarrow of a peculiar make ;
and it is absolutely necessary to have a man in advance,
who guides the wheels past the ruts. Should it get into
one, unloading the barrow is the only means of extrication.
It may be noticed that all the roads about Peking are
in a similar condition to what is described here. Every
thing which might be called the Public Works Depart
ment seems as if left to ruin and decay. Orientals never
were noted as road-makers ; a track made by those who
passed along is all that is understood by a road in the
East. Where a road was really constructed, the idea of
keeping it in repair never seemed to have been thought
of, notwithstanding a statement relative to the very road
in a narrative of Lord Macartney's embassy, which left
England in 1792, by W. Winterbotham. He describes
the road from "Tong-Tchew" to Peking as "a foot-
pavement of uncommon breadth and beauty," and as
being " kept in perfect repair by labourers regularly
disposed, and constantly employed."
The traffic along this road, and also upon the rough
ground on each side of it, is immense, and in this respect
it has more the appearance of a street in a city than that
of a country road. The number of tombs along each
K
130 MEETING THE SUN.
side suggests a comparison of it with the Via Appia.
In some parts these tombs quite lined the side of the
road, and thus formed a perfect counterpart to the old
Roman way.
About half-way we rested and lunched at one of these
places of the dead, and soon afterwards the high walls of
Peking came in sight. A populous suburb at last takes
the place of the tombs, and after being much stared at as
we pass along, we got to the Chi-ho-Mun, or Gate of Chi-
ho, and under its high arch we pass, and are " in small-
eyed China's crockery- ware metropolis."
CHAPTER XIV.
PEKING.
One wonders upon what authority Byron used the phrase
" crockery- ware " as descriptive of Peking. The Imperial
palace and some of the temples are roofed with glazed
tiles, and there are a few Pailos, or ornamental gateways,
inlaid with what we now call Majolica. To such the
word " crockery-ware " would be applicable, and probably
some account of these places suggested the epithet ; but
as a general description of China's metropolis it is de
cidedly misleading. Imagine about sixteen square miles
of tumble-down bricks, dirty earthen tiles, dusty or muddy
thoroughfares, open stagnant sewers, and unlimited filth
of every kind lying about, and you have a general and
very correct idea of Peking. When you have looked at
the great wall of the city from the outside, and passed
through the high archway, which is impressive from its
size, you expect to find a place of corresponding import
ance within ; but, on the contrary, you see only the
beginning of a street, with low, one-storied miserable
houses, in no way different from the villages you have
passed on the way. It was certainly disappointing, but
I hoped as we went along that we might see something
better. Our progress did not realize these hopes. There
were the same unswept dirty streets, or lanes, with dull
walls on each side — the same low, mean houses. If we
K 2
132 MEETING THE SUN.
came to one of the wider streets it seemed to be only an
ampler space for filth. Here and there were large open
spaces, where houses had stood. Nothing but mounds of
bricks and tiles remained, from which dogs barked at
us. Even where there are houses of anything approach
ing the better class, they are enclosed within walls, and
out of sight, so that the very worst impression is pro
duced upon one passing through the streets of Peking.
The idea which formed itself in my mind was, that,
although the capital city, it was only in reality an
extended village. The temples, monasteries, and similar
buildings are only spots in this vast unsightly region, and
do not affect the general conclusion. The Imperial palace
is certainly an exception ; but as it is within high walls,
and no one is allowed to enter, it did not influence my
impressions. The plan of Peking reminds one of the New Jerusalem,
and yet one cannot see how any connexion between
them could arise. " The city lieth four-square, and the
length is as large as the breadth," and "had a wall great
and high." In both cases the walls face each to a point
in the compass. In the number of gates the resemblance
ceases, tor Peking has as one of its titles, " City of the Nine
Gates." To one accustomed to study plans of churches
the eye is struck with the threefold division of the city —
the Imperial palace, or " Prohibited City," set apart in the
centre, as if it were the sanctum sanctorum of a temple.
No doubt this is only accidental, but as the plan of the
city dates back to the days of Kublai Khan, or the thir
teenth century, there is no saying what amount of sym
bolism he may not have brought from the more western
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A. Temple of Heaven.
B. Temple of Agriculture.
C. T'ien-ling-ssu, a Buddhist Monastery, with old Pagoda.
D. Po-yung-Kwan, Tauist Temple.
E. Temple of the Moon.
F. Hei-ssu, Lama Temple.
G. Hwang- ssu, Lama Temple.
H. Jih-tau, Temple.
I. Tung-Ho-Kung, Lama Temple. [attached to this Temple.
J. Wen-Miao, the Confucian Temple. The Hall of the Classics is
K. Ti-Wang-Miao, Imperial Confucian Temple.
L. Pai-ta-ssu, Buddhist Temple.
M. Hu-po-ssu, Buddhist Temple.
N. Jih-tou, Temple.
O. Bride's Palace. The dotted line from this will show the line of
the Midnight Procession to South Gate of the Imperial Palace.
P. Mei-Shan, Artificial Hill of Coal.
Q. London Missionary Society.
E. Examination Hall.
S. Kuang-hsiang-t'ai, Observatory. [Bearing Nations.
T. Quarter of the Foreign Legations, and Ambassadors of the Tribute
IT. Mahomedan Mosque.
V. Pen-tang, French Ecclesiastical Mission.
W. White Ming Pagoda.
X. Eussian Mission.
Y. Eussian Cemetery.
Z. Drum Tower.
1. Ta-Ching-Mun. '
2. Si-hua-Mun.
3. How-Mun.
4. Yung-hua-Mun. .
5. Chien-Mun.
6. Shun-chih-Mun.
7. Ping-tzu-Mun.
8. Si-chih-Mun.
9. Te-sheng-Mun.
10. Anting-Mun.
11. Tung-chih-Mun.
12. Chih-ho-Mun.
13. Hai-te-Mun.
14. Tung-Pien-Mun.
15. Sha-huo-Mun.
16. Cheang-tzu-Mun.
17. Tung-ting-Mun.
18. Nan-si-Mun.
19. Hang-yi-Mun.
20. Si-pien-Mun.
Note. — The scale of this Plan is too small to give all the streets. Only a
few of the wider thoroughfares are indicated.
>The Four Gates of the Imperial City.
The Nine Gates of the Tartar City.
\ Seven Gates of the Chinese City.
PEKING. 133
parts of the Bast. A confirmation of what is here
guessed at may be found in Gutzlaff's book. He says,
" They have endeavoured to model their government
after nature, and the laws of the visible heavens. Even
their military standards and royal palaces are supposed
to have resemblance to celestial objects."
It may be as well to state that the population of
Peking proper is Tartar or Manchoo ; that is, it belongs
to the same race as the dynasty, and is not to be con
fused with the Chinese population, which lives in a sepa
rate walled city on the south side. These Manchoos are
a military body, drilled, armed, and organized accordingly.
As the arms are the bow and arrow, the military model
on which they are formed may be said to be rather
archaic ; but that does not affect the original idea upon
which the city was planned. They constitute an army, a
living bulwark, round the Emperor in his palace. They
are the equivalent to what in Europe would be called
the guard. It was to feed these unproductive soldiers
that the Grand Canal, or the " Grain-Tribute-River," was
made. They are paid and fed out of the Imperial
resources, and have certain drills and exercises to go
through, which are their only occupation. They amuse
themselves with pigeons and birds, almost every man
carrying a bird about with him on a stick, or in a
cage ; and they have flocks of pigeons with whistles
attached to them, so that when they fly through the
air, the whistles sound. I speak from experience when
I add that, if a "Foreign Devil" should try to use a
sketch-book in the streets of Peking, he will find this
idle population to be his worst enemy. Pigeons, birds,
134 MEETING THE SUN.
and everything is forgotten for the moment, and a most
unmanageable mob is the result.
Like some god surrounded by the celestial hosts,
throned "in dignity, and thus secluded from contact
with the powers of evil, the deified Emperor of China,
encircled by his protecting army of Manchoos, seems
defended against all outward danger or influence from
his enemies. The abstract and mythical ideas of old are
repeated in this sacred monarch, who in his secluded
position is said to as " lonely as a god." The ancestral
tablets of the deceased Emperors of the dynasty are
placed together with those of the Deity in the Temple of
Heaven, making them as it were the equals of God, with
whom they are worshipped. That his palace should be
looked upon as a sort of celestial abode, or third heaven,
is what one might expect from the conditions of the case,
and the high-sounding names given to each part of it proves
that such is the case. The outer south gate of all palaces
and houses is a place of honour and importance ; in the
Imperial palace it is called the Ta-Ching-Mun, which
seems to be a high-sounding title capable of various
meanings, as "Front Gate," " Gate of the Dynasty;" but
it may be rendered also " Bright," or " Refulgent," and
it is also named the " Great Pure Gate." It is, by this
gate only that the Emperor enters or leaves his residence.
Having passed this, you are within the walls of the
palace, and then come a succession of gates and halls of
a very celestial character, if we may judge by their names.
The first is the Tien-Ngan-Mun, or " Gate of Heavenly
Peace;" then follows the Tuan-Mun, or "Gate of
Order;" after that the Wu-Mun, or "Gate of the
PEKING. 135
Mid-day Sun; and beyond this is reached the T'ai-Ho-
Mun, or "Gate of Great Felicity." This last leads to
the T'ai-Ho-Tien, or " Hall of Great Felicity," — or more
correctly, " Heaven of Great Felicity," — and also to the
Pao-Ho-Tien. The word Tien indicates that this is
another " Heaven," or " Hall of Secure Felicity."
Beyond this is another gate called the Chien- Ching-
Mun, or "Gate of Steadfast Purity;" and this leads to
the Chien-Ching-Kung, or " Palace of Steadfast Purity ;"
and here are the apartments occupied by the Emperor.
Experiences of the streets of Peking, or of its pig-tailed
Tartar population, would not be likely to suggest that
the one was planned, or the other organized, from any
thing that could be called a heavenly model. But the
description just given will show that the capital city of
the Celestials is not without a design, and that too,
seemingly, of a very ancient symbolical character, point
ing to the old idea of the invisible and the visible
Jerusalems. All these gates and halls are upon the axis of a line
running north and south. This is the case with all
palaces, Yamuns, or official residences, houses, and
temples in China. The buildings attached to the great
tomb of Yung-Lo — the most important of the Ming tombs
— are also arranged on the same plan, showing a con
tinuity of idea carried through each. The popular way
of understanding this arrangement is that it has a re
ference to the Fung-Shui, a very peculiar deification of
wind and water, which occupies a large place in the
common superstitions of this country. The cold wind
(and in Peking in winter it is a biting, frosty wind) comes
136 MEETING THE SUN.
from the north. The solid wall, with no door or
entrance on that side, is a safeguard against this. From
the south, on the contrary, the warmth of the sun is felt ;
and hence the House, the House of the Dead, and the
Temple, are all made so as to face this genial part of the
heavens. The Christian Church is built with a reference
to the rising sun ; and the Temple of Solomon was the
same, although, strangely enough, instead of placing
the altar on the east, the entrance opened out so that
the sun's rays would shine in as he rose. The plan of
the Chinese temples suggests that they had a reference to
the sun in his meridian glory, his highest point of power
and influence.
On the north of the palace there is an artificial hill
about 150 feet high, of which I shall have to speak
again when describing the Ming tombs. It is said to
have been formed of coal from the northern provinces ;
and is hence called the Mei-Shan, or " Coal Hill." The
earth from the pools and ditches round the city was
heaped upon it ; and, being planted with trees and having
pagodas and shrines erected on prominent points, it
becomes a striking object in the city. This, it would
seem, was a common practice with the Chinese. Lieut. -
Gen. Twemlow, in " Notes on Ethnography," says, —
" The Chinese stored coal in fortresses for the use of
the besieged, by making mounds, covering the coal or
•charcoal with soil, so as to make ornamental walks and
terraces." As I am describing palaces, it may be as well here to
say something about the British Legation in Peking, as
it is an old palace ; and it will be of interest to many to
PEKING. 137
have an account of the first ground occupied by her
Majesty's representative in the Chinese capital. The
spots selected by the Chinese authorities for the Foreign
Legations give us a curious glimpse into the ideas and
shifts of the mandarin class. Men of ancient family,
whose rank and position have been established through
centuries, are supposed to have a high feeling, and a
liberty of action which is denied to stuck-up parvenus.
Among the dynasties in this world, surely there are none
that could better afford to be above smallness than that
of which the Emperor of China is the head ; and yet in
all our transactions with this Power, we find it acting
under the very meanest of motives. No advertising
shopman ever took more unfair advantage of his rivals,
or condescended to more questionable shifts, than the
officials of the Son of Heaven have practised. Does the
Emperor of China need to be advertised, as if he were a
quack pill? When English oflicers were captured in
1860, they were placed in cages, and taken about as
evidence of the greatness and glory of the Chinese
Government, and of its triumph over the outer barbarians.
This advertising policy is nothing new with Chinese
officials. In 1793, when Lord Macartney's mission was
on its way to Peking, . with presents from the King of
England to the Emperor, he went up the Peiho from
Tientsing, — the route at that date as it is to this day.
Native boats were supplied by the mandarins appointed to
attend on the embassy ; and on Lord Macartney's boat
was placed a flag with the words in Chinese characters : —
" Ambassador bearing tribute from the country of Eng
land." The full meaning of this will be understood
138 MEETING THE SUN.
when it is explained that the Son of Heaven admits of no
equal on earth ; and this has also to be remembered when
the story of the Imperial marriage is told. China is
bounded by almost impassable deserts and mountains on
the west and north, where no great Power existed to con
test her supremacy. On the seaboard is Japan, Formosa,
and the Loo-Choo Islands. The people of the Corea
seem to have preserved a kind of independence, or rather
a modified dependency on China. All these countries
were at one time under Chinese control, but these were
the Powers with which China had to deal, and they
were called the " Tribute-bearing Countries." In this
enumeration I have forgotten to include the Mongols,
who are a kindred people ; but at this day these tribute-
bearers are reduced to the Mongols, the Coreans, and the
Loo-Choos — at least, these were the only people who
brought tribute and presents on the occasion of the
Imperial marriage. Well ! when in 1860 the Residence in
Peking was forced upon the Chinese Government at the
point of the bayonet, and places to live in were required,
the locality selected was in the quarter where the Mongols,
the Coreans, and the Loo-Choos put up on their annual
visits; and by this most miserable dodge, the Western
Powers appeared to the people among the " Tribute
Bearers " to the Son of Heaven. What the flag was
intended to advertise on Lord Macartney's boat was
here accomplished in another way ; and the difference
of dates indicates a traditional policy underlying each
event. As I had brought letters to Mr. Wade, our Minister at
Peking, and to others of the Legation, I got quarters
PEKING. 139
there, and was most kindly attended to during my stay.
As one of the " Tribute-Bearing Nations," I had brought
my pencil and sketch-book as an offering to the Imperial
marriage. As to how it could be employed, no one
could tell me. The Imperial palace was surrounded by
high walls, concealing everything from the view; and
as to asking for permission to see any of the ceremonies,
that was quite out of the question. As I had been
honoured by Royal Commissions for pictures on former
occasions, I had made an application before leaving Eng
land for one in connexion with the Imperial marriage;
and it might have been granted had our Court not been
perfectly informed as to the exclusive ideas which do
minated at Peking ; and the refusal, under the circum
stances, was justifiable and necessary. Letters from the
Tsung-Li-Yamun, or Board of the Foreign Office at
Peking, had been sent out to each of the Legations,
requesting that all connected with them would remain
within their walls, and not endeavour to see anything of
the nuptials. I was asked to sign a document to the
effect that I would not intrude myself upon the scene.
As I had come all the way from London with this special
object, it was not likely that I should stultify my character
by a promise of that kind, but on the contrary, I con
sidered myself at liberty to use any amount of stratagems,
treasons, or plots, for the accomplishment of my design ;
and how I succeeded by a sort of midnight ambush will
be told in its own place.
The British Legation is known to the Chinese as the
" Ta-Ying-Kwo-Foo." Ta is " Great," Ting a con
traction of Tinghili or England, Kwo is country, and Foo
140 MEETING THE SUN.
a palace. As it will give a good idea of the way in
which foreign languages become transformed when repro
duced by the Chinese, the names of the other Legations
are here added. The Russian is called " Ta-Go-Kwo-
Foo." Go is in this case derived from Muscov. The
Prussian is " Ta-Poo-Kwo-Foo." The Chinese cannot
or do not pronounce the letter r, hence Poo has to do
duty for Proo. " Ta-Mei-Kwo-Foo " is the American.
This peculiar way of distorting language has made it
most difficult to identify words and names of places of
other countries which have found their way into Chinese
literature. The British Legation was originally the palace of the
Duke Leeang, the representative descendant of one of the
thirty-three sons of the second Emperor of the dynasty ;
so that the proprietor is a member of the Imperial
Family,* — a sixth or seventh cousin of the reigning
Emperor. At the time of the Convention of 1860, he
was absent as commandant of a distant garrison ; and,
as Lord Elgin was about to leave Peking, he, with the
assistance of some of the chief authorities, managed
to get a lease of the house. The rental agreed upon
was 1000 taels, or a little over 300Z. a year. There
is a high wall surrounding the ground, which encloses
about three acres ; and, according to the theory of
European International LaAv, it is British soil. The
palace may be described as a miniature of the great
Imperial palace, the halls being fewer in number and
smaller in size ; they are all arranged on a line running
north and south. Some of the rooms are fitted up as
offices, and Mr. Wade and his family occupy those
PEKING. 141
toward the northern end. The hall at the extreme end,
which would no doubt have some such name as " The
Place of Serene Felicity," is fitted up as the principal
drawing-room, and contains a large portrait in oil of her
Majesty. There are other residences for the accom
modation of the secretaries, interpreters, and officials
connected with the Legation. At the north-west corner
there are some buildings known as the " Students'
Quarters." Young gentlemen coming out for the
Chinese Consular Service have first to learn the lan
guage. This they do in Peking, and it requires two or
three years' study under native teachers. The students
have a very good library of Chinese and Asiatic works of
reference. There is a small number of attendants of a
semi-military character who take charge of the Legation,
and act as escort to the Minister when necessary. The
whole forms a large population — in fact, a small nation in
itself — confined within these three acres of British soil.
As there are no amusements or attractions in Peking for
Europeans, they have had to find them among them
selves. There is a reading-room, a billiard-room, a
theatre, a fives' court, a bowling-alley, and a skating-
pond for the winter. Matches with each other, and
with the members of the o'ther Legations are got up ;
dinners and other social entertainments are also frequent,
and thus life is made tolerable to those whose fate it is
to live in this far-away land. Fortunately the best
feelings exist amongst the members of the various
Legations, and the intercourse resulting from it helps
much to make a dull life pleasant. As they are all
quartered close together in the same locality, it makes
142 MEETING THE SUN.
this intercourse easy, and for this benefit they ought
to be grateful to the Chinese authorities, and forgive
the motives which brought them all so near among
the " Tribute-Bearing Nations."
Up to 1865, some buildings on the southern side of
the Legation were used for the hospital in connexion with
the London Missionary Society, at that time under the
charge of Dr. Lockhart; but as it was found necessary
to get more accommodation for the staff, Sir R. Alcock
knocked down the wall and included the buildings. The
hospital was removed to another part of the city, where
it is still active, and doing good work, under the charge
of Dr. Dudgeon.
Mr. T. F. Wade, C.B., our present Minister at Peking,
is a well-known Chinese scholar, and one, too, of the
highest repute. His knowledge of the language, and of
the thousands of characters in which it is expressed, is
unequalled by any other man living. This is admitted
even by the Chinese literati themselves, who confess that
even they have not a scholar to compare to him.
Will such bodies as comets or planets, moving in space,
ever come in contact ? This question has often been
mooted ; but I do know that wanderers, who move about
from duty or pleasure on this globe of ours, do often
meet, and that in the most out-of-the-way corners of space.
In Paris, during the Commune, Mr. E. B. Malet, C.B.,
had charge of our embassy, and as that was the only
post-office by which letters could be sent to England, I
was brought a good deal in contact with him. From
that point our comet-like orbits separated, and our paths
through space lost each other till they met again in
PEKING. 143
the British Legation at Peking. At both points of
contact I have only memories of service and kindnesses
most freely rendered, and which ought to be gratefully
acknowledged. The following list of names which belong to Peking
may be worth giving. Pe-king is Pe, " north," and
king, " capital." A pre-existing city was called " the
capital of the kingdom of Yen ;" during the Kin dynasty
it was known as the " Western Residence." In a.d.
1151 it was made the Court, and called the " Central
Residence." Kublai Khan continued this name, when he
fixed his Court there in 1264. The ordinary name
is Ta-tu, or "Great Residence." "Northern" and
" Southern City " is used to distinguish the Tartar from
the Chinese portions, which are also known as " within
the walls " and " without the walls." The Tartar city is
also called King-Cheng, or " Capital City." The Mongols
gave it the name also of Khan-palik, or " City of the
Khan." This word became Cambalu.
CHAPTER XV.
MARRIAGE OP THE EMPEROR OE CHINA,
The young Emperor of China is about seventeen or
eighteen years of age. It is a custom of this country,
however, for every one to add a year to his age, and the
Emperor has the privilege of adding two ; so that,
nominally, he is nineteen or twenty. He was a boy of
about seven when his father died. On the approach of
the allied French and English troops upon Peking, in
1860, the late Emperor announced that he would go off
to Mongolia on a hunting excursion. It was a usual
thing for the Emperors of China to do this in ordinary
circumstances, but it seemed a strange resolution with
an enemy at the gates of the capital. This led to the
supposition that the chasseur himself was being chasse.
He never returned. He is said to have led a life too
common among Oriental princes. The destruction of
his summer palace, and a treaty forced upon him by a
victorious ' enemy, were calamities which the pleasures of
the chase in Mongolia did not seem to counterbalance,
and after a slow illness he died in 1862.
The mother of the present was not the Empress of the
late Emperor, but she had to be raised to that rank when
the throne became vacant for her son. There were thus
two Empresses, — the one called the Empress of the East,
also " The Most Illustrious and Merciful Empress," and
MARRIAGE OE TUE EMPEROR OP CHINA. 145
the other the Empress of the West. This latter lady is the
mother, and is called " The Most Illustrious and Blessed
Empress." These two ladies have acted as Regents
during the minority of the young Emperor ; and public
report speaks highly of the way in which they have
performed their duties in this capacity. To them fell the
task of choosing an Empress as wife for the young
occupant of the Dragon Throne.
The manner in which the Imperial bride was selected
is as strange to our minds as any among the peculiar
customs of China. The process which wras gone through
on this occasion was not a competitive examination, and
yet it reminds one of that system ; neither can it be said
that it is the same as eliciting the best shot at
Wimbledon, and yet that came into my head when I
heard the matter explained. No young man in China,
wishing for a partner, can go about among the " small-
eyed " beauties of his country and select for himself.
Still less can an Emperor do this. Unlike a European
monarch, he acknowledges no other king or rank of his
own kind, and hence there is no prince's daughter who
can be asked for as his wife. There are princes and
princesses in China, but they belong to the Imperial
Family, and cannot intermarry. He must take his wife
from the people, and she must be a Manchoo and belong
to the Bight Banners — that is, the division of the military
population. To this class, about a year before the
marriage, an order was issued, that every girl of a
certain specified age should be sent, to the palace.
One would naturally suppose that such an order would
have been obeyed with the greatest alacrity, and that
L 2
146 MEETING THE SUN.
hearts fluttering with hope would have crowded for
ward, each trusting that such a prize might fall to her
lot. One would also imagine that such arts as were
practised for Cinderella's slipper would be largely used
to produce whatever might be considered the ideal type
of female loveliness in Peking ; that dress, ornaments,
cosmetics, and whatever could add a charm to the young
candidates would be in large demand, and freely used.
Strange to say, it was the very opposite of all this which
took place. It would seem that families do not like their
daughters to become the wife of an Emperor, not even to
become his Empress. A girl is in a sense lost to the
family when she enters the Imperial hareem ; they are kept
so secluded that the relatives seldom or never see them
again, and it brings the parents and family into a position
and prominence which is not unattended with danger.
For these reasons every plan is tried to avoid sending
children for such a competition, and every device is re
sorted to. Lameness is imitated, and deformities are
artificially produced. As this was understood at head
quarters, it was ordered that cripple and blind were all
to be forwarded; neither deafness, dumbness, nor any
deformity was to be an excuse for not appearing. The
result was that about six or seven hundred girls came to
the palace, and these were brought up before the two
Empresses in batches of ten. The two ladies minutely
inspected each candidate, spoke to them, and put ques
tions as to their families and education, and other matters
doubtless they might deem important. It would be a
curious thing to know upon what principle these ladies
acted in making this selection ; whether they had most in
MARRIAGE OP THE EMPEROR OF CHINA. 147
their minds a wife for a son, or an empress for China —
whether good looks, or a good heart and disposition, were
the chief consideration. No one seems to think intrigue
had to do with the decision. From what has been already
stated, had any intrigue been used it would have been to
escape the high honour. We must assume that the bride
was chosen entirely upon her merits.
The result of the first examination was that about fifty
or sixty young ladies were selected, and their names and
families noted, so that details could be inquired into.
One most important matter is the horoscope, which had
to be thoroughly gone into in every case to see that
it agreed properly with that of the Imperial bride
groom. This duty devolved on the Astronomical Board,
which has most important functions in connexion with
every act of an Emperor, or event of his Government.
The officers of that board are called " The Inquiring into
Heaven's Officials," and are merely astrologers, who select
lucky days, and who inquire into horoscopes to discover
the reasons of droughts, rains, and calamities of the
weather which affect mankind in the middle kingdom.
Nearly every detail of the marriage belonged to the func
tions of this board. The Emperor's horoscope, the
bride's horoscope, the proper or fortunate day for the
marriage, even the hour and minute were all matters
about which Heaven had to be questioned.
The fifty or sixty girls were again summoned to the
palace, and about one half were weeded out ; the other
half were ordered to remain for a time, so that the two
Empresses might have an opportunity of a closer study of
their dispositions and characters. I understood that they
148 MEETING THE SUN.
were for some weeks living in the palace, and at last
another reduction of the list took place. This went on
till it came down to a tie of two, and at last, by this
strange process, an Empress of China was evolved into
the history of the world.
As the Eight Banners include every rank, down even to
hucksters in the streets, such might have been the posi
tion from which the Empress made this sudden spring
into her exalted sphere. As it happened, she belonged
to a good family. At first there was a rumour that her
grandfather had been beheaded about ten or twelve
years before, and that her relations were all in disgrace
in consequence. This turned out not to have been
the fact, for the grandfather's name figured in some of
the marriage ceremonies, and the father was raised, on
account of the new relationship, to a rank corresponding
somewhat to our title of Duke. He is a literary man,
and is the only Manchoo who ever took the high prize of
Chwang-Yuen, which is the equivalent to Senior Wrangler
in our Universities, and is the highest literary rank in
China. Report has it that the young Empress is educated,
and of a literary turn herself. I heard her described as
not being particularly beautiful, even according to Chinese
ideas — a Chinese lady, who had seen her, being my
authority. She has wonderful eyes, so bright and clear
that one can look deep into them. Her manner is com
manding, and rumour ascribed conduct to her which
confirmed this character. It may be worth noting that
she has not the small feet of the Chinese, as the Manchoos
do not follow that very absurd custom.
An Emperor of China is allowed to have a large hareem,
MARRIAGE OP THE EMPEROR OP CHINA. 149
and when the Empress was chosen a further selection
was at the same time made as a commencement of the Im
perial household. Four other young ladies were elevated
to this position, and I heard them described as " second-
class wives." It seems strange to us to learn that one
of these girls stands in the relation of aunt to the
Empress. It is stated that these young ladies are much
more handsome than the Empress, indicating that she
had been selected for her abilities, while they owe their
position to their good looks.
A charming lady, endowed with almost every good
quality of mind and person, jumps up out of the dirty
streets of Peking and becomes an Empress ! Four other
lovely creatures also appear out of this Oriental city,
and suddenly become Princesses ! With this tale, as if
from the "Arabian Nights," we only want a Genie to
build a palace for them. Well, a new palace had been
constructing in the Tartar city ; it was all ready, and
appeared on the scene when wanted, just as if our friend
the Genie had produced it. In this the bride-elect and her
four companions were placed, and ladies from the Court
were appointed to teach them all the necessary details of
Court etiquette, and instruct them in all matters required
for their new sphere of life.
There is a strange bit of romance told regarding the
Emperor while this competitive examination was going
on for his bride. He had a dream, which he confided to
his mother, that he had fallen in love with a young lady,
and the lady of the dream was hunch-backed. As lame
and deformed were all ordered to the palace, a girl with
a hump-back was really found among the number, and
150 MEETING THE SUN.
the Empress took the dream as an omen that this was the
person who ought to be his wife. She was one of the
first fifty or sixty selected, and medical men were con
sulted as to the possibility of curing the deformity.
Anxious to accomplish this they tried many plans, but all
in vain. At last, it is said that a very powerful man,
described as a farrier, was sent for. He tried by force
alone to push in the hump, and the operation ended in
the death of the poor girl.
It must be remembered that during all this time the
Emperor had never seen his Imperial bride. The first
gaze can only be obtained on the night of the marriage,
when she is carried to the Imperial palace. For a lover
this would be a very hard condition of things, but
Imperial love (if the word may be used in this case) must
be a very different feeling from that which belongs to
mankind in general. One could suppose an ardent youth
placed as the Imperial bridegroom, trying to imagine what
his intended might be like, and that possibly an ideal
of her might grow up in his mind, and that something
akin to the sentiment of love might arise in his heart.
The story of the dream of the hump-backed girl would
almost justify one in giving him credit for something of
this kind. Other parts of the programme, however, render
it doubtful whether any feeling which we could dignify
with the name of love could possibly exist in the case.
The next strange detail — and each detail of this Imperial
wedding seems more startling than another — would indi
cate that the heart cannot have much to do with the
affair. It would seem that nearly a year ago, about the
time when they began to select the bride, " a teacher," or
MARRIAGE OP THE EMPEROR OP CHINA. 151
a " Professor of Matrimony " (such is the rendering of the
title, as given to me), was appointed to the Emperor.
This functionary was first stated to be an old woman,
then two old women, and at last they changed to two
young ladies, and ultimately to four. The number of
" Professors " is, I confess, doubtful, but the main fact
came to me from so many, and such varied, sources, and
was so firmly believed, that I must give it as a veritable
part of the history. The dismissal of these ladies would
take place on the event of the marriage ; but rumour states,
and it is looked upon as a most favourable omen by the
people of Peking, that the first bud in the garden of
Imperial felicity had made its appearance, and that, as a
necessary consequence, one of the Professors would be
raised on the day of the marriage to the dignity of a
" second-class wife." One feels staggered at hearing, in
this nineteenth century, of an education of this kind as a
preparation for the holy state of matrimony, but it must
again be remembered that we are among Easterns,
who belong to a system which has scarcely changed
from the times of Solomon. Still no idea can be
formed from this of the real character or feelings of
this young man. The position of the Emperor of China
is a most exceptional one. He is placed apart, and
exists under conditions which separate his life and
fate from that of all human beings on earth. Every
thing he does, and the conduct of every one about
him, is rigidly defined in a book of ceremonies. Every-
event in the Emperor's life, from his birth to his death, is
regulated by this authority, which is said to extend to as
much as two hundred volumes. Who can tell what is
152 MEETING THE SUN.
the real character of an Emperor of China ? He is so
shut out from all the world that he is called, among many
titles, the " Solitary Prince ;" and his own people describe
his isolated position by saying that he is " as lonely
as a god." State officials cannot approach him except in
a prostrate attitude, and must go through their duties
according to the dictates of this book of two hundred
volumes. Not a remark, not even a word or smile, to
express or communicate a thought or feeling is permissible.
Thus he sits apart, and has been so from his cradle. One
wonders if a soul so isolated as this from all other souls
can possibly have grown and been developed. Can a
heart so carefully kept away from contact with all other
hearts ever feel like the rest of mankind ? What he is
no one can really find out. That " divinity which doth
hedge a king " surrounds this man with a bulwark which
none can pass. A writer wanting to describe such a
character can get no materials to work from ; only his
own inner consciousness avails as a resource. No artist
desiring a sitting need come to Peking. Photographers
have tried every means, but found all to be hopeless. I
heard of one who offered to leave the camera all arranged,
so that his presence would not be required ; but the Son
of Heaven would not allow, even to the Light of Heaven,
this privilege of portraiture. It is highly probable that
there is nothing in the two hundred volumes as to how an
Emperor ought to sit when being photographed. Had he
tried to do so, the chances are that he would have looked
in two or three directions during the operation, and the
result would not have been a flattering likeness. What
he might have thought, or how the satellites about him
IJJissii
f i Pi
MARRIAGE OE THE EMPEROR OP CHINA. 153
might have acted, on seeing a lot of smudges as the
likeness of the occupant of the Dragon Throne, it is
impossible to say. My opinion is, it was a lucky thing
for the photographer that his request was not granted.
This seclusion of the Emperor has also to be carried
out in relation to the Empress, and it resulted that all
the ceremonies of the marriage were hid from the vulgar
eye. When he does go out beyond the walls of the
Great Palace, the way is cleared by guards, and not a
soul is visible. No one dare look; even the guards
have to turn their back to the line when the Son of
Heaven approaches. The extreme of Oriental seclusion
is the rule in all Imperial hareems, so that an Empress
has to be still more strictly guarded and secluded than
even an Emperor. These are curious conditions upon
which to get up ceremonies and pageants. The Unseen
is what has to be dealt with, and with it as a first
element everything had to be arranged. It is curious to
see how all this was managed, and it will be my purpose
now to describe it in detail.
In the dusty streets of Peking a line of route was
selected from the bride's Foo to the Imperial palace.
For the centre of the way the path was made even, and
sprinkled with new sand to make it yellow — the Imperial
colour. For about a week before the marriage there was
a procession every morning along the whole of this route
of what the " Foreigners" here call the bride's trousseau;
but, on inquiring further, it was explained that they were
the articles sent as presents from all parts of China ; and
as these articles are all taken to the quarters in the palace
where the Empress will for the future reside, the Scotch
154 MEETING THE SUN.
word " plenishing," which a lady here has applied to
them, describes most nearly their real character. Every
morning, shortly after daybreak, there was an extended
line of these presents carried along in charge of manda
rins, bannermen, police, Imperial porters — I don't know
the Chinese word for them — in red dresses with white
spots. These marriage gifts presented a great variety of
objects. Some were large cabinets, others small jade
dishes, chairs, goblets, vases, washhand-basin stands,
gold and silver articles of all kinds. The smaller things
were carried on yellow tables, where the articles had to
be secured. They were bound by stripes of yellow and
red silk, forming a combination of the Imperial and
Nuptial tints. To see these articles of Imperial house-
furnishing the people of Peking came out in crowds
every morning, lining both sides of the route all the
way. One morning the articles to be carried were more
precious than the others, so the procession started before
daybreak, and the sightseers who came were rather
disappointed. It was explained that this was to prevent
any accident from the roughs of Peking making a dash
and trying their hand at a game of grab. There was
another attraction for the public — the drilling of the
men to carry the bridal chair of the Empress — and this
was a most important part of the wedding. The
Imperial porters were drilled so as to be able to carry
it steadily, and to relieve each other quickly, and it
was rumoured that, as a test of the men, a vase filled
with water was placed in the chair to see if they could
carry it without spilling. Crowds came to see the chair
when the announcement was made that it was coming
MARRIAGE OE THE EMPEROR OE CHINA. 155
out, but at these times it never did come out, and always
seemed to take advantage of the public by going through
its drill when not expected.
One of the first excursions after my arrival in Peking
was to the bride's Foo. This is the palace which
appeared, as if by enchantment, Avhen the bride had been
selected. I went to it by the newly-prepared Yellow
Way, which terminated at its gates. It is the custom
to decorate the house of the bride for some days before a
marriage in China, and this, together with the procession
amidst which the bride is carried through the streets in
a chair, gives that publicity which may be considered as
the equivalent to " publishing the banns." On the gates
of the bride's Foo there was a gorgeous display of silk
of the brightest colours — red, blue, yellow, and green — all
bordered and fringed, and masses of silk tied up into
bunches and stuck all over. It could scarcely be called
a canopy; it was simply a framework supported upon
red posts, round the lower part of which yellow dragons
twisted themselves ; and on the pedestal of each was
" Shih," the Chinese character for happiness. This cha
racter was painted in bright red on everything connected
with the marriage. The form is that of two " Shihs " —
to indicate, -I presume, double bliss. Some friends from
the Legation had gone with me that morning, including
one or two of the ladies. When we first got to the place
there were a few scattered groups of Chinese about, and
they began to gather round our party. I got out a pencil
and began sharpening it. This strange performance on
my part produced a great interest among those who were
looking on. What it could mean they could not at all
156 MEETING THE SUN.
comprehend. They have no such articles as black lead
pencils among themselves. When the sketch-book came
out, the interest and excitement increased rapidly, and the
crowd began to enlarge considerably. " Foreign Devils "
are so scarce in the streets of Peking that they
are generally objects of attraction, but a Foreign Devil
with a sketch-book in his hand is a still greater wonder.
In the present case there was a She Foreign Devil with
a sketch-book — one of the ladies began to make a sketch
along with me — and this produced an overwhelming
excitement. The crowd increased enormously. Where
it all came from was a mystery. The great idle popu
lation of the capital is, I suppose, the only explanation.
The whole street, and it was one of the wide thorough
fares, filled seemingly with thousands of people, all eager
to see what we were doing. Those around who could
see were quite satisfied, but then there was a surging mass
beyond who could not, and did not comprehend what was
going on, and who became more and more restless. The
result was that they squeezed and pushed ; those nearest
were forced in on our party, and we were jostled in such
a way that sketching was impossible. One of the ladies
who could express herself fluently in Chinese expostulated
and explained, but all to no purpose. There was no
antipathy in the crowd towards us, they were perfectly
good-natured ; it was only idle curiosity to know what we
were doing. In their eagerness to get near where we
stood they were pushing and some were quarrelling among
themselves. At last our position began to get serious,
when some of the officials of the palace came out and
cleared a way by which we were able to get within a gate,
MARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR OP CHINA. 157
where we remained till the streets became clear. I have
been specially bombarded from Sebastopol on the suppo
sition that I was an Engineer officer sketching the ground
for new batteries and trenches ; 1 have gone through all
the trials of the spy-fever in the Franco-German War,
and they were trying enough ; an Italian at Brindisi
once brought out a gun to shoot me when I was sketch
ing ; and I have been pestered with crowds in the streets
in all parts of the world, but never was so completely
baffled as on this occasion in the streets of Peking, and
that, too, by a good-natured crowd. It is a great prin
ciple, when you have a duty to perform, never to own
" beat," and even here I managed to accomplish my pur
pose. The 16th of October was the day appointed for the
marriage to take place, or rather the night between the
15th and the 16th had been selected by the " inquiring-
into-the-heavens officials." It was the night of the full
moon. The son of Sirach says that " from the moon is
the sign of feasts," and quite as ancient an authority
seems to regulate matters in the capital of the Flowery
Land. In the Legation, and among the very small Euro
pean society of Peking, the question — how to see the mar
riage — was much discussed. It was clear that any chance
of seeing either the Emperor or the Empress was quite out
of the case; but if they could not be seen themselves,
surely the glitter of their greatness might be within the
reach of our vision. Even this came to be doubtful, for
along the whole length of the newly-made Yellow Way —
and it was two or three miles in length — we could notice
that barricades were being erected at the end of every
158 MEETING THE SUN.
street opening upon the route. Bamboo frames, with
curtains, were being put up to shut out any chance of a
view. On inquiry, it was stated that those who govern
in these matters — the Board of Rites and Ceremonies,
with their two hundred volumes— had no intention to let
the public see any part of the procession, and, as has been
stated, there was a special letter sent to the different Lega
tions, requesting each minister to prohibit his countrymen
from going out on the line of march on the 15th or 16th
of October. The request was laughed at in more ways
than one. One naturally asks, For what purpose is a
grand State procession got up if nobody is to see it ? A
few did see it, that I know, but no one officially. A few
dogs got on to the Yellow Way, and no one seemed to
disturb them; so they, with the police, or bannermen,
alone had the privilege of gazing on this Imperial pageant.
All these preventive arrangements, and the letters to the
Legations, made it very difficult for me to know what to
do. Two or three plans had been proposed to me for
breaking this blockade. At last I accepted an invitation
from a lady, Mrs. Edkins, whose husband is at the head
of the London Missionary Society in Peking. This lady,
from her position, had many friends in the city; she
knew of a shop on the line of route where she had hopes
of a peep, and most kindly offered to make me one of her
small party. My friend, from a long residence, could
speak the language, and that was an important point,
particularly to one who knew not a word of it. I had also
had evidence of her ability and determination, which
gave me hopes of success ; and the result proved that I
had judged correctly. But before recounting the evening
Jleliotype.
From the Illustrated London News.
PROCESSION ET.OM IMPERIAL PALACE TO BRIDE'S PALAOE.
MARRIAGE OP THE EMPEROR OF CHINA. 159
part of the story, I must tell what took place on the
15th. On the day before the wedding a tablet of gold was
sent to the bride. In an ordinary marriage this is written
with colours on red paper, and contains the names and
other particulars about the happy couple. In this case
the tablet became a document raising the bride to the high
dignity of Empress of China. With it were also sent the
Sceptre and Seal. The temple-like chair in which they
were taken is called the "Dragon Car." The appointed
officers presented these " to Ah-Lu-Te, in the name of
him who sits on the Dragon Throne, the Sceptre with
which she is to rule, and the Golden Tablet and Seal by
which she is invested with Imperial authority." On the
afternoon of the wedding-day, about four o'clock, a pro
cession with the bride's chair — it is called the " Phoenix
Chair " — left the palace. It was headed by a Mongul
Prince and Mongul chiefs in extra grand costume. The
fifth Imperial Prince, known as Tun, and a celestial ex
cellency of the name of Ling, were in full command of the
ceremonies. The Mongul Prince carried what might be
called the Chinese Pallium, or Symbol of the Emperor's
Supreme Power, in his hand ; this is understood to be
about as sacred as the Emperor himself, and gives the
highest dignity to the ceremony. Thirty white horses in
gold and yellow trappings were near the beginning. The
procession consisted principally of banners and very tall
triple umbrellas of various colours, with dragons and
phoenixes embroidered on them. There were round,
square, and heart-shaped fans on very high poles. ' ' Golden
melons " on the end of red poles formed another of the
160 MEETING THE SUN.
symbols carried. At last came the Imperial canopy, or
Yellow Dragon umbrella, which, like the Chatta of
Buddha, is a triple one. This was followed by the bride's
chair, covered all over with yellow silk, with a golden
crown-like top to it, ornamented with the dragon and the
phoenix. There was no barbaric pearl and gold about it ;
on the contrary, nothing could have been more simple and
chaste iuits decorations. So unpretending was the whole
of this procession, that I heard it compared, much to its
disadvantage, with the marriages of persons of inferior
rank. According to theory, this ceremony purported that
the bridegroom was sending the chair to bring his bride to
his house, as is the custom in all Chinese marriages. The
chair stands in front of the bride's house till she leaves,
and this is one of the principal points in a Chinese mar
riage, as it gives validity by publicity. With the invisible,
but very important, difference, that the bride is within
the chair, the procession that returns is identical with that
which conveys the chair to the bride's house. The golden
tablets were another addition, in the present case, and on
the return they were carried before the Imperial umbrella
¦ — the tablets, the umbrella, and the chair forming one
group. At the end of all a strong troop of cavalry
brought up the rear.
Brilliant yellow carts and chairs had been seen about
the palace for a few days before, and were said to be for
the ladies of the Court, but none of them appeared in the
procession that night. There were two very common
Peking carts at the end, among the cavalry, and they were
supposed to contain the bride's ordinary attendants. The
four or five second-class wives were to be taken to the
MARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR OP CHINA. 161
palace the next morning, so the chairs and carts may have
been for them and for their attendants ; but it illustrates
the laws about marriage here that they did not enter by
the south or Imperial gate, like the Empress, but by one
of the north gates. She alone has the right of entering
by the " Great Pure Gate", or " Gate of the Dynasty."
It will give some idea of Peking and a royal marriage
if I describe how I managed to get a peep at the bridal
procession. It was said that it would leave the bride's
place about twelve o'clock at midnight of the 15th, so as
to arrive at the palace before two in the morning, for after
that hour it would be unlucky. This, of course, is one of
the important matters belonging to the " inquiring-into-
the-heavens officials." Good and bad luck is their
particular department, and it is all important when it
relates to a marriage.
It turned out that the procession started about eleven,
or shortly afterwards. Our party arrived at its selected
point about nine o'clock. There were four of us — a lady,
a little girl very anxious to see the bride's chair, and an
old Chinese woman who was our guide. The shop was a
poor and wretched establishment for smoking opium. Its
miserable character was the foundation of our principal
hope of safety. It was at the corner of a narrow lane,
and had a back door in this lane which could be reached
without passing the barricade which was near the opening
into the wide street where the procession would pass.
Still the nearness of this barricade was a matter of anxiety,
but we got to the place and slipped in quite unseen. I saw
a good many people within, but they were all friendly and
devoted to my adventurous leader. We sat down in the
m 2
162 MEETING THE SUN.
back yard, because the front shop was still full of cus
tomers smoking opium. As we sipped small cups of tea,
we saw the opium smokers led out at intervals by the back
door ; and at last we were taken through to the front.
We passed a back apartment with two or three men lying
full length on mats, and busy inhaling the soothing drug.
They took no notice of us, and we passed into the front
portion of the place, which was quite dark. The windows
are made of thin paper, pasted over a framework of wood ;
and when we inserted our fingers through it, we could look
out, and saw everything as clear as a full moon would
allow. There were a very few lanterns hung out by way of
illumination. There were soldiers, or policemen — for they
are about the same in costume — scattered about doing
nothing ; and as all the shops were closed, it gave the
place a desolate look. It reminded one of the streets of
Paris during the fighting with the Commune, when shops
and windows were all shut, and not a soul was visible
except the soldiers in the street. The new-made way in
the centre of the road had that morning had a fresh
supply of gravel put on it, and it was' yellow enough to
be considered of the Imperial tint. One of the first
passers that we saw was a dog, suggesting that the
celebrated Derby dog had come over expressly to Peking
for the Emperor's marriage. The feeling was strange to
find ourselves with only a sheet of paper, and the sheet of
paper with a hole in it too, between us and this so strictly
guarded way. We could hear every word that was uttered
by the men on duty, and there were some of them sitting
just under our nose. We were taking the greatest care
to be still, and only whispering with scarce a breath of
HOW THE CHINESE SAW THE MABIUAGE.
From the Illustrated London News.
MARRIAGE OE THE EMPEROR OE CHINA. 163
sound, when to our horror we saw a bannerman approach
the door ; the door opened and he entered, his clothes
touching mine as he came in. He looked not to right
or left, but disappeared into the back shop. It was a
moment or so ere I could learn what it all meant ; but it
turned out that these men had been a long time on duty
that day, and not having their accustomed pipe of opium,
they were feeling and suffering much from its want ; and
knowing the shop this man had made a dive. The people
of the shop explained that he would not tell of us even if
he had chanced to notice that we were there, for he was
committing a crime in coming in, and he would not inform
on himself by telling about us. It turned out to be quite
as they put it, for others came in during the night, and
went out again, and they appeared to keep down their
heads as if not wishing to see or be seen in passing.
We had a peculiar illustration of Chinese character in
the conduct of one of the guardians of the street, who was
in charge of the barricade in the side lane. The crowd
seemed to trouble him, and as he called to them in a
loud voice to keep quiet, his throat became quite sore
with the exertion, and at last he appealed to them not to
torment him any more. This seemed to have the desired
effect, for he did not appear to be much troubled with the
crowd afterwards. It appeared to me to show that a Peking
mob is particularly good-natured and obliging. We had
another illustration of oui' position. Groups of mandarins
on horseback were constantly passing, and they found a
soldier, on the other side of the street from us, asleep. What
a noise they made about it ! More than a dozen people were
all talking at once, and the poor fellow, who perhaps wanted
164 MEETING THE SUN.
a smoke of opium, got a beating on the spot. What our fate
wouldhavebeen had these mandarins found us out I cannot
tell. This with the bannermen popping in for their smoke
of opium had rather a tendency to disturb our sense of
security ; yet when a mandarin came past with some horse
men to inspect the road, and see that it was well guarded,
he inquired of the men in front of us if all the people were
prevented from looking. We laughed to hear the prompt
answer, that" none dared to do so."
At last the groups of cavalry came oftener and in larger
numbers ; and at length, nearly at twelve o'clock, the head
of the procession appeared. The white horses and the
banners, the high umbrellas and fans, looked pale and
ghost-like in the dim light, for the clouds had covered the
moon as if they had heard the declaration that no one
dared to look. There was a long hiatus in the line, and
then about 200 lanterns went past, all decorated with
Chinese characters for "happiness." This was the most
effective part of the procession. Then came the golden
tablet, sceptre, and seal, followed by the Imperial umbrella
and the bride's chair, this time with the Imperial bride
within. There stood close to her chair a figure with a
burning joss-stick. The first suggestion was one, given
in fun, that it was a light for the bride's pipe, — a palpable
impossibility, for the chair was closed all round, and she
was completely muffled up in the bridal dress. It turned
out that this was one of the astronomers, or "the in-
quiring-into-the-heavens official." The joss-stick was all
marked so as to indicate portions of time, and he was
timing the procession, so as to arrive at the palace at the
" fortunate moment" which had been calculated before
hand.
Hdwfijpc. From the iLLusritw^n Loniiok Ni.ns
MIDNIGHT PROCESSION — THE BRIDE'S TABLET, SCEPTRE, AND SEAL.
MARRIAGE OP THE EMPEROR OP CHINA. 165
The whole thing was scarcely over when the door of the
opium shop was besieged by the bannermen who had just
been actors in the scene. Their desire for the soothing
drug was evidently strong ; but before the door was opened
to them, we passed through to the back part again, and,
after another cup of tea, made for our quarters. The
streets of Peking were very deserted and quiet, indicating
that few or none had been abroad, like ourselves, to get a
peep at what had been taking place.
A marriage in China is a long series of ceremonies,
which is tiresome to read, and must be still more tiresome
to go through. The principal points can be given. As
soon as the bride reaches the bridegroom's house, they
sit down together — the one trying to sit upon the other's
dress, for by that omen they each hope to have the upper
hand in then married life. They drink a cup of wine
together — the two ciips being connected by a red ribbon
— and they exchange cups while drinking. There is
drinking of tea, and numerous repetitions of eating
various kinds of food. One great feature is, that they
worship heaven and earth together, and this in the
Emperor's case never takes place with any of the second-
class wives. They also worship their ancestors. What
with the eating and drinking, visiting relations, and being
visited, the festival lasts for many days. An Imperial
marriage is essentially the same ; with only such variations
in detail as necessarily result from the rank and position
of the parties.
Emperors in China are generally married before they
come to the throne, a circumstance which made the
present event an exceptional case. The last was that of
Kanghi, which took place in 1674. The marriage of an
166 MEETING THE SUN.
Emperor, and that of the heir to the throne, cannot be the
same in details. The two Regent Empresses was another
exceptional feature demanding distinct rites. Their rank
in the State, especially the position of one of them, as
Empress -Mother, demanded from the young bridegroom
that reverential homage which is due to ancestors. The
Regent Empresses did not "kotow" to the Emperor and
his bride ; on the contrary, the newly-married couple had
to " kotow " to the two Regents. It may be here men
tioned that the kotoiv is the mark of obeisance due to the
Imperial Majesty of China. The young man was Em
peror, but at the time of the marriage he was not the
acting power.
A day or so before the marriage three princes went
to the Temple of Heaven, presenting there, at the altar,
incense, sacrifices, and costly offerings ; at the same time
informing Heaven that he who sits on the Dragon Throne
was about to " marry Ah-Lu-Te, the wise, virtuous, and
accomplished daughter of the family of Chung, duke and
member of the Hanlin." Other princes performed a simi
lar ceremony at the Temple of the Earth. This was to
inform Old Mother Earth of the event, for another cere
mony was gone through to make it known to " all under
Heaven." The Imperial Ancestral Temple was also
visited by one of the princes and attendants, with incense
and sacrificial offerings, to inform the ancestors of the
Emperor that he was about to take unto himself a wife.
The Golden Tablet is called" the Permission," because
it denotes that the Empress-Dowager and the Empress-
Mother " allow " the Emperor to marry Ah-Lu-Te. When
taken to the bride's palace and about to be read, a
MARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR OE CHINA. 167
master of the ceremonies exclaims, " Listen to the will of
Heaven !" We of the West say that " marriages are made
in heaven ;" and no doubt, according to Chinese ideas, this
particular one received special attention. The Dragon
is the symbol of the Emperor; and the Phoenix that
of the Empress, and from this the whole ceremonial
is called in official language " The Union of the
Dragon and the Phoenix." The two vessels which held
the wine used on the occasion were of gold, and called
the " Dragon Flagons." The word " Dragon " is linked to
almost everything connected with the Emperor, and it
consequently figures largely at the marriage along with
the Phoenix. There is the " Phoenix and the Dragon
Couch." On each corner of it were placed long pieces of
white jade, of almost priceless value, and supposed to be
talismans of a magic and mystic power. They are called
Shu-i, or " Heart's Delight," from their power of conferring
happiness and joy. " The Phoenix and Dragon Robes of
United Peace" — these were the night robes. Dragon
lamps and Dragon ornaments of every kind are about
the palace. The usual idea is that the Dragon of China
is only another form of the old serpent which comes so
mysteriously into all the ancient faiths of the world.
The Brahminical gods have much to do with it, and so like
wise has the Egyptian worship. Serpents figure on the
crown of the Pharaohs — the first King of Abyssinia,
according to tradition, was a serpent. It is not confined
to the East, or to tropical climates, which produce more
abundantly this form of life. The serpent mounds of the
New World, and Jormungand, the great Midgard serpent
of the Scandinavian legends, are proof of this. Which-
168 MEETING THE SUN.
ever way we turn, this serpent may be found. It is in
the Garden of Eden ; and as the Brazen Serpent, it was
a type of the Prince of Peace. The Phoenix does not
appear so much among the ancient ideas.
When the Phoenix Chair has entered by the " Great
Pure Gate," or " Gate of the Dynasty," and passed the
many gates and courts, with high-sounding and flowery
names, it reaches the great central court leading to the
throne-room. A herald then proclaims, " The orders of
his Sacred Majesty the Emperor are fulfilled," and accord
ing to the report, as I heard it in Peking on the present
occasion, the Empresses of the East and West then came
to receive the bride. They placed Sycee gold and silver
— that is, uncoined pieces of these metals — in each hand,
and, crossed her arms on her breast. The Empress
thus supported a vase containing wheat, maize, rice,
emeralds, sapphires, rubies, and other articles to symbo
lize all that the earth produces. She then stepped
from the chair upon a small golden saddle, and thus
entered the dwelling of her future husband. It is a
question as to whether this ceremony with the saddle
is a Mongolian or Manchu custom ; but the conclusion
seems to be that it is neither, or is equally common to
both, and that it most probably has come down from the
time when the horse was the greatest of all sacrifices, and
when everything connected with that animal had a signi
fication. In the " Mahabharata" there is a description
of the horse sacrifice. Colonel Tod, in his " History of
Rajast'han," says that " the Aswamedha, or sacrifice of
the horse (the type of the sun), practised by the children
of Yaivaswata, the ' Sun-born,' was most probably in-
MARRIAGE OP THE EMPEROR OF CHINA. 169
troduced from Scythia into the plains of Ind." Iu
Circassia I remember having met a bridal party, and
at the head of it was the bridegroom with the bride on
the pommel of the saddle before him. I learned after
wards that it was the custom of the Circassian tribes to
go through the performance of attacking the bride's house
and carrying her off on horseback. Plutarch states that
carrying off the bride by violence was a custom among
the Spartans. Among the Tartar races this carrying off
of the bride is always done on horseback. This suggests
that, as the Emperor of China could not, in keeping with
his dignity, come out and have a struggle in the streets
of Peking for his wife, the saddle at the door was
intended to symbolize the ancient customs.
It is reported that the Emperor was asleep when the
bride arrived, and that he had to be wakened, and said
the necessary prayers in rather a hurried way. The
Emperor of China gets up very early in the morning,
for he has an audience at five a.m. Under such circum
stances, an hour after midnight — the procession passed
the opium shop, where I saw it, about twelve o'clock —
is rather late to have to sit up, and he may be excused if
found napping. The ceremony of arranging the bride's
hair in the manner in which it is worn by married women
took place the next day. It consists in removing the
hair on the temples so as to make the brow have very
sharp corners on the top. The hair is also plaited in
a particular manner, and made to project out in a peculiar
way by means of silver, or, in the case of an Empress,
golden skewers. On the third day after the marriage
they both appear in very gorgeous costume, that is to say,
170 MEETING THE SUN.
in the " Dragon" and the" Phoenix" robes. The dresses
worn on this occasion were made in Peking, and were
covered with pearls and all kinds of precious stones,
and were said to cost the incredible sum of 180,000/.
each. There are some stories current, which, if true, would
indicate that the young Empress must be a person of
some decision of character. She is said to be able to
read and write her own language — accomplishments which
are not uncommon among Chinese women, and to be
well read and a high proficient in Chinese literature :
it is supposed that it was this merit which won her the
Imperial prize in the competitive contest which has already
been described. One morning, shortly after the marriage,
she was exhibiting her capability of writing to the
Emperor, and he was astonished at the beauty of the
characters which she formed. They were thus engaged
— she was making quotations from books — when an official
announced that breakfast was ready. The Empress
turned round on the attendant, and, with indignation,
asked if she was to be interrupted in the high delights of
literature by such a common-place affair as eating and
drinking. This sort of thing would seem rather melo
dramatic if it came from a young lady in England, but to
the Chinese mind it has not this look about it. They have
had literary Emperors of whom they are proud, and a
literary Empress will be quite to their taste ; and from all
that is known and heard of her she seems quite entitled
to this reputation.
There is another story told of the Empress, which is
quite in keeping with the character indicated above.
MARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR OF CHINA. 171
When her credentials — that is, the golden tablet, sceptre,
and seal — arrived, declaring her to be Empress, it became
the duty of all her relatives to kotow to her in that rank.
When her father performed this ceremony, it would have
been in keeping with the customs of the country for her to
let him off easily ; that is, she should have affected not to
wish such a manifestation from her father, and ought to
have attempted to lift him up while prostrate on the ground
before her. She showed no tendencies of this kind ; but,
on the contrary, she was every inch an Empress, rather by
her manner and action demanding, instead of prohibiting,
the obeisance of all her relatives. I do not know what
kind of garments an Emperor of China wears, but if he
has articles for the inferior extremities like those worn in
Europe, it is more than probable that this lady will very
soon attempt a trial at wearing them. She is two years
the senior of her husband — an advantage in one way, but
placing her at a great disadvantage a few years hence
with younger rivals ; but any rival had better have a care
of such a sovereign,
On the third day the Emperor held a Court, and
received the princes and high officials, when he was con
gratulated by his most loyal and loving subjects ; an
ordinance was read from his Majesty, announcing his mar
riage, desiring that it should "be known to the princes,
nobles, and rulers ofthe realm, and to all under heaven."
For a week before and a week after the marriage all
courts of justice and criminal courts were shut up, and a
pardon was granted to all criminals, even to those under
the extreme sentence of death. One of the many things
I wished to see in China was an execution, but on inquiry
172 MEETING TIIE SUN.
I was told that owing to the Emperor's marriage there
would be none during that year.
Chinese music is not very familiar to Europeans, and
yet there is a national style. It comes into most of
the Imperial ceremonies, and was introduced into every
part of the wedding. The names of the tunes are given
in the official programmes, and they are worth repeating,
for they are characteristic not only of the event but of the
Chinese mind. When the " permission " is first read to
the Emperor that he is " allowed" to marry Ah-Lu-Te,
the band plays " The Emperor triumphs." Had he won
his bride from a host of rivals, and carried her off on his
horse, this tune would have expressed something. On
the wedding-day, when he appears in his dragon robes,
" The Conqueror conies " is performed. The probability
is that these are always played on state occasions, in the
same way as " God save the Queen " is in all our royal
programmes. " Peaceful, harmonious, and tranquil,"
and " The Accomplishment of joyful bliss " were
headings of music performed. " We come for the
Phcenix" was played when the procession went for
the bride ; " Perfect Peace " was the last tune in the
list, and we hope it is meant to indicate that there
will be no curtain lectures in store for the husband in
this case.
Almost nothing has been said about the four second-
class wives ; all the interest has been centred upon the
Empress. They were supposed to be taken into the
palace the day after the marriage, and to enter by one
of the side gates, the "Gate of the Dynasty" being
closed to them. Doors may open to let them iu, but in
MARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR OF CHINA. 173
their case do not open again to let them out. They are
now entombed for life. Should the Emperor die, that
brings no release to them. There are palaces to which
such ladies are sent, and in which they are guarded as
sacredly as when the Emperor is alive. This is no doubt
one of the reasons why there is such a strong objection
to sending girls to the palace with the chances of such a
fate before them. The four second-class wives and the
" Professor of Matrimony," who rises to this honour, are
only the beginning of the imperial establishment. It has
been stated that the full complement of the harem will be
nine second, twenty-seven third, and eighty-one fourth-
class wives. Symbolism is so strangely mixed up with
everything in the East, that nothing surprises any one
acquainted with it. To find that the number of con
cubines in a court is determined upon the same principle
as that on which a temple is constructed is certainly foreign
to all our Western notions ; yet such is the case. These
multiples of nine are all expressed in the great Temple of
Heaven, and will be explained in their own place.
All that is essential to relate has now been given about
this wonderful marriage. With such a story we feel as if
we were among the times, and witnessing the customs
described in the "Arabian Nights." It is more like the
period of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, than
the reign of Victoria the First. What Assyrian tablets
relate, is at this day the actual life in Peking. All the
ideas and philosophy upon which the Chinese system and
government are founded are supposed to be the oldest in
the world, and they have come down almost unchanged
to the present moment. It is thus that we have a
174 MEETING THE SUN.
" Sacred Person," for that is one of the titles given to
the Emperor; a divine ruler whose acts are the " Will of
Heaven," and who announces them to heaven and earth,
and to all under heaven. Even the dead are informed as
to what he is doing. The grand Oriental idea of being
supreme over everything is assumed and acted on. He
is a priest as well as a king. No one dare approach him
without the most abject homage ; prostrations due only
to a god are exacted in his presence. He is surrounded by
soothsayers, concubines, and eunuchs. His palace is a
celestial city in itself, and his soldiers around him are
armed with the primitive bow and arrow. It was some
thing to have been in the midst- of this, and to have got
even stolen glimpses of such a strange state of things. It
was like getting an actual peep back into the most ancient
times, and seeing with one's own eyes what is only read
of in books. The account of it has to be added to the
latest page of history and yet it seems of the oldest.
Chronologically it belongs to the present ; philosophically
it belongs to the past.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE TEMPLE OE HEAVEN.
The midnight procession, which is the outward and
visible sign of a Chinese marriage, took place on the
night of the 15th and morning of the 16th October, at
the time of the full moon. Here we have the old astro
logical ideas guiding events, for " the inquiring-into-the-
heavens " officials _always take the movements of the
celestial bodies as their sources of inspiration. This official
Board, as its name implies, directs every act of the Emperor
and his Court, and it was announced, by their authority,
that he would, for the first time, go to the Temple of
Heaven and there officiate as the Great High Priest, on
the 21st December, or the winter solstice according to
Chinese reckoning.
There are a number of great Imperial Temples in Peking
— the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of the Earth,
the Temple of Agriculture, and the Altars of the Sun
and Moon. The principal ceremony at the Temple of
Earth takes place at the summer solstice; that at the
Temple of Agriculture is in the spring, when the Emperor
ploughs a piece of ground and sows in it the seeds of one
or two kinds of grain. He does this as an example of
husbandry and industry to all his subjects, and a very
good and worthy example it is from a monarch to his
people. It may be worth noting that in Alabaster's N
176 MEETING THE SUN.
translation of the " Siamese Life of Buddha," it is stated
that Suddhodana, King of Kapila, and father of Buddha,
celebrated the festival of the Commencement of Sowing-
time, with Brahmins and Nobles, and 799 ploughs ;
they broke the earth and sowed the first seeds. This
is important as showing that the peculiar Imperial re
ligious festivals performed at Peking were not at former
periods isolated in that corner of the world. The Chinese
are certainly good agriculturists. I have heard them
much praised in this respect, but whether their high
efficiency is the result of following the model set by their
Emperor or not, I cannot pretend to say. The Empress
and ladies of her court have a yearly ceremony of feeding
silk-worms. This is also done as an example of industry
to the women of China, as that is supposed to be their
special occupation.
In the Temple of Heaven there are two altars, and at
the south altar only takes place the great yearly solstitial
ceremony which is penitential and sacrificial in its charac
ter. The Emperor comes to the place the night before,
drawn in a carriage by elephants, which are kept for this
occasion, and spends the night in the " Hall of Penitential
Fasting," the name indicating the character of this part
of the proceedings. Before dawn the next morning he
passes over to the altar, where a bullock is sacrificed,
the Emperor in former days killing the animal himself—
this is burnt whole in a furnace. Sheep, pigs, rabbits,
and deer are also sacrificed, and burnt in smaller furnaces
at the same place. Pieces of silk are also offered ; and
as eating and drinking figure largely in all Chinese cere
monies, they are not wanting at this, and the Emperor
PLAN OE THE TEMPLE OE HEAVEN, PEKING.
PLAN OE THE TEMPLE OE HEAVEN.
A South Altar.
B North Altar.
C Porcelain Altar of Burnt Offering.
J) Iron furnaces for burning offerings.
E High poles for lanterns.
F Enclosures with houses for the musical instruments, umbrellas,
banners, &c, connected with the ceremonies.
G- Circular enclosure with round house, where the Tablet of
Shang-ti is kept.
H Gate.
1 1 Wall separating the North from the South Altar.
J Hall of Penitential Fasting.
K High terrace with road connecting the North and South Altars,
called " The Imperial Way."
L Gate of North Altar.
M Gate-formed Hall.
N N Houses for keeping sacred vessels, musical instruments, &c.
0 Gate approached by a ramp.
P Gate with ramp leading to slaughter-house.
Q Slaughter-house.
E Porcelain Altar for burnt offerings.
S Iron furnaces for burning offerings.
T Tunnel below roadway.
U U Grove of Cypress Trees.
Note. — This is only a rough Sketch plan, and not done to scale. It
gives only the central portion, with the South and North Altars, and
buildings connected with them, which is the essential part of the
temple. This, with the Hall of Penitential Fasting, is all enclosed
in a wall, another surrounding wall embraces the whole, leaving a
large park-like space, where the bullocks, sheep, &c, used in the
sacrifices, find grazing. This last wall is about four miles all round.
N 2
THE TEMPLE OE HEAVEN. 177
has to eat " the Flesh of Happiness" as one part of the
performance. Another ceremony seems to have refer
ence to the ancient stone-worship ; for he has to offer
up a piece of valuable stone. " To Heaven alone is offered
a piece of blue jade, cylindrical in shape and a foot long,
formerly used as a symbol of authority." In this temple
he also worships Shang-ti, the Chinese Supreme Lord of
Heaven. He then worships at the tablets of his an
cestors, of whom there are eight, and their altars are
placed on each side and in front of the altar dedicated to
the Lord of Heaven. Shang-ti is the name which the Mis
sionaries have adopted, out of many, to render the word
God, on account of its being the highest name for the
Supreme Being in the Chinese language ; and it will be
seen from the above that the High Lord of Heaven alone
ranks above a dead Emperor. This is done not out of
any disrespect or irreverence, but to give a sacred impor
tance to the monarch. We have in the history of the
world other instances of similar pretensions, but this is a
good illustration of the theory in full working order at
the present day. The assumption is that the Emperor
of China and the Deity manage the affairs of the universe.
A working partnership exists between the two. In com
mercial phrase, the firm might be called " Shang-ti and
Hwang-ti, supreme rulers." The second of these names
is the title used now by the Emperor, and the " ti "
forms the assumption on his part. Shang-ti rules the
regions above, and Hwang-ti rules the world below.
China, the " Celestial," or " Middle Kingdom," as it is
called by the Chinese themselves, forms the principal
portion of this nether world. It is admitted, however,
178 MEETING THE SUN.
that there are some other nations, such as the Coreans,
the Cochin-Chinese, the Formosans, and the various
tribes represented by the Princes of Mongolia, which
are known as " Tribute Bearers " to Hwang-ti, the
tribute being payment for such ruling as is done for
them. Beyond these known nations it is allowed that
there exists on the extreme edge of the world, on
the fringe of the earth, which borders on nowhere,
some outer barbarians, who don't pay tribute, and
don't deserve any ruling. Such is a rough notion of
the business as it is supposed to be carried on by this
Celestial firm. I understand that the term "ti" was
assumed by a former Emperor not very long ago, and
that it has been always objected to by the learned who
are conversant with such matters in China. It is a title
due only to God as the Highest. Formerly the Emperor
was spoken of as Hwang- Shang ; and when some of these
barbarian nations come pretending to have Emperors,
and demand that the present title must be given to them
in official documents, they get this old cast-off one,
" Hwang-ti " being reserved for Shang-ti's partner. The
existence of any other firm in the ruling line cannot be
admitted. With the exception of putting dead Emperors into
the company of the Deity and the living Emperor into
such active partnership with him, there is nothing to
object to about the Temple of Heaven. There are no
images anywhere to suggest the slightest ideas of idolatry.
So free is it from statues or pictures that a Mahomedan
or a Presbyterian might use it as a place of worship.
To the eye of a European there is nothing about it
THE TEMPLE OE HEAVEN. 179
to suggest its ecclesiastical character. It is more like
the fanciful creation of a gardener artist, reminding
one of the gardens at Versailles or the Crystal Palace.
The circular space on the top looks as if intended for
a band to play on. It is somewhat larger than one
of the fountains in Trafalgar Square, with a pave
ment and balustrade of white marble. It stands on
two other platforms, all formed of the same material,
forming three terraces, each terrace being ascended by a
flight of nine steps, or twenty-seven in all, from the
ground to the top of the altar. There are four ascents,
one from each of the cardinal points. The whole is sur
rounded by a low wall with open marble gateways on
each side, facing the four ascents. This wall is square in
plan, and in the south-east corner is the furnace or altar
for burning the bullock, with eight other altars, smaller
and of iron, where offerings to the eight deceased ances
tors are also burned— the bullock being offered to Shang-ti
alone. The defunct Emperors being thus treated as re
tired members, or as sleeping partners in the firm, they
seem as if they had still an interest in the business and
get a share of the profits. Just at dawn, when these
furnaces are blazing, and the Emperor is on the upper
circle offering incense and prayer to the tablets of
Shang-ti and his ancestors, music is heard, and dancing
(a very ancient form of worship) is going on in some part
of the place. All the nobility of the court are on the
terrace steps behind the Emperor-Priest. The grey light
of the morning may be so far advanced as to make it
all visible, but the principal light on this scene is the
light of sacrifice. The name of the altar where the
180 MEETING THE SUN.
bullock is burned is derived from a word meaning " light-
giving." With such a scene before one, I think that
whatever might seem absurd or nonsensical in the ideas
connected with the ceremony would be forgotten at the
moment. For those who take an interest in Professor
Smyth's inquiries respecting the Great Pyramid, this
Chinese Temple ought to have special attraction.
Although round in plan and flat on the top, it may be
still described as a modification of the pyramid. Its
astronomical character is indicated by the great cere
mony at the winter solstice. The four ascents, with
approaches and gates to the four cardinal points, suggest
that an astro-geographical meaning was intended. Most
of the imperial temples of Peking have been constructed
with reference to the relations of numbers, and this is
particularly marked in the Temple of Heaven. The
number nine figures very largely in it. The ascent to
each terrace has nine steps, the whole ascent being
3 x 9 = 27. The pavement on the circular top is formed
by nine circles of marble slabs. The central circle has
nine slabs, the second is formed of eighteen, the third
of twenty-seven, and so on, each circle being a multiple
of nine, till at the outer circle it is 9x9 = 81 — a
favourite number in Chinese philosophy. It will be
remembered that these are the same figures by which the
number of second, third, and fourth-class wives of the
Emperor is determined. When we find the Altar and
the Throne surrounded by the same mystic numbers, we
may conclude that in all likelihood they are each founded
on the same idea.
In reference to this subject, Mr. Edkins, a Chinese
THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN. 181
missionary who has devoted considerable attention to the
symbolism of temples, and is a Chinese scholar of repute,
remarks in his work : —
" The same symbolism is carried through the balus
trades, the steps, and the two lower terraces of the altar.
Four flights of steps of nine each lead down to the middle
terrace, where are placed the tablets to the Spirits of the
Sun, Moon, and Stars, and the Year God, Tai-Sui. The
Sun and Stars take the east, and the Moon and Tai-Sui
the west ; the Stars are the twenty-eight constellations
of the Chinese Zodiac, borrowed by the Hindoos, soon
after the Christian era, and called by them Naksha-tras ;
the Tai-Sui is a deification of the Sixty-year Cycle. The
present year, 1869,' is the sixth year of the cycle, and is
denoted by the characters Ki-si, taken from the denary
and duodenary cycles respectively. For this year the
tablet is inscribed with these characters ; in 1870 the cha
racters Keng-wu, next in order, will betaken, and so on."
Mr. Edkins further remarks that, —
" The balustrades have 9 x 8 = 72 pillars, and rails on
the upper terrace; on the middle terrace there are 108,
and on the lower 180. These amount in all to 360 — the
number of degrees in a circle. The pavement of the
middle terrace has in its innermost circle 90 stones, and
in its outermost 162 stones, thus reaching the double of
81, the outermost circle of the upper terrace. So again,
in the lower terrace the circles increase from 171 stones,
the innermost, to 243, or three times the square of nine for
the outermost."
1 This was published in 1869.
182 MEETING THE SUN.
These facts show the curious ideas on which this
temple is constructed. As this temple is so new to us
Europeans, and so little is known of it, I take the liberty
of drawing still further on Mr. Bdkins's knowledge to
illustrate its symbolism.
He says, in relation to the Temple of Heaven, —
" It has been an aim to use odd numbers only ; Heaven
is odd, Earth is even ; Heaven is round, Earth is square ;
*
or, to use the ultimate expression of Chinese metaphysical
thought, Heaven is Yang, Earth is Yin.2 The numbers 1,
3, 5, 7, 9, belong to Yang, Heaven ; the numbers 2, 4, 6,
8, 10, belong to Yin, Earth. In the official published
accounts of the construction of the Temple of Heaven this
is set down as the fundamental principle."
The Altar of the Earth is according to this rule a
square, and Mr. Edkins' s remarks throw light on all
these temples. He says, —
" On the north side is a double terrace, the upper sixty
feet square, and the lower 106 feet square, and both six
feet in height. The paving bricks are in multiples of six
and eight. Thirty-six and sixty-four are the favourite
numbers, for we have now come into contact with Yin,
the principle of darkness, which affects a square form and
even numbers, just as in the Temple of Heaven the Yang
principle was represented by roundness in form and odd
numbers The principal sacrifice is offered at
this altar on the day of the summer solstice. There is,
near the altar, a pit for burying a bullock. At the Altar
of Heaven, when the bullock is burnt, the Yang principle
2 " Yang " expresses the ancient idea of the male principle, and " Yin "
its dual power or complement.
THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN. 183
in the sacrifice is supposed to go upward in smoke and
flame. At that of Earth, on the contrary, when the
victim is buried, the Yin principle descends in connexion
with death and corruption."
This shows that there is something in these temples
worth studying, and which many persons will think of
more importance than their political aspect. It is
curious to note that the sacrifice through Death and
Darkness is at the one solstice, and that it ascends in
fire to heaven at the other. If I remember right,
Osiris was buried at the autumnal equinox, and raised
again from his Soros or coffin, at the vernal equinox.3
Most travellers describe the North Altar as the
" Temple of Heaven," but in reality it is only a part
of it. It is particularly imposing to a visitor from its
having a permanent building on the top platform.
The circular triple terrace, of white marble, is the
same here as at the South Altar, with the difference
that there are eight ascents instead of four. This
number has relation to the Pah-Kwah, or the Eight
Diagrams, a most ancient mystical symbol of the
Chinese. In the centre, on the top, are three marble
steps, surmounted by a circular wooden temple, which
thus forms a marked exception to the usual architecture
3 According to Mr. Edkins there is an official Chinese account of these
temples, and I believe that they are very fully described in a work by
the Jesuits ; but they are almost unknown in England, and evidently
they are worthy of a more detailed account than any we have yet had of
them. Du Halde's work contains a plan of the Temple of Heaven, but
it conveys only a rough idea of the place. I give a sketch-plan of my
own, which, although not done to a scale, is much nearer the truth than
Du Halde's.
184 MEETING THE SUN.
of this country; for almost all Chinese buildings, be
they temples, palaces, or houses, are oblong. The
Emperor comes to the North Altar in the spring to
sacrifice and pray for a good harvest.
The Altar to the Earth is on the north side of the
city. It contains shrines to the Spirits of Mountains
and Seas, in which are placed tablets to five mountains
in China, to others in Manchuria and Tartary, and also
to four seas and four lakes. The Altar to the Sun is
on the east side of Peking, and is surrounded, like the
others, by a grove of trees, and the great ceremonial
sacrifice takes place at the vernal equinox. The cere
mony at the Altar of the Moon takes place at the
autumnal equinox. This altar contains the tablets of
the seven stars of the Great Bear, of the five planets —
the later discoveries in the planetary sphere have not
yet reached Peking — of twenty-eight constellations, and
of other deifications in the stellar regions.
There are said to be three different religions in China
— the Tauist, the Confucian, and the Buddhist — but the
worship which is performed at these temples at Peking
is entirely different from any of these forms of faith.
These three forms of religion are not ignored by the
State, but that which is practised at Peking is the real
State religion, and has no resemblance to any State
religion elsewhere. It is confined to the capital, and
the Emperor is the only priest. It is an Imperial
worship, with a Deified monarch as its head.
I and some other visitors managed to find our way
into this Temple of Heaven. There is no known pro
hibition against strangers going in, but it is not the
THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN. 185
custom for people to do so, and there are no recog
nized arrangements for admittance. The chances of
any one making good an entrance depends on his power
of jumping over high walls, making a rush at a door,
and forcing himself inside. These operations combined
with the magic influence of pieces of silver, called
" Dollars," which are in use hereabouts, generally accom
plish the object. The temple is in the south part of the
Chinese town, and the ground enclosed by its outer
wall is about four miles round. Our party got over
the first wall, where the wind had gathered the sand
and dust into an inclined plane up to its top. We
jumped down the other side and found ourselves in
what seemed an extensive park, with avenues of trees.
No one was to be seen, so we walked to what appeared to
be the second wall, and made for the nearest door, but
found it all too strong for us, and the dollar influence
could not be tested from the absence of any one to try
it on. We then turned to the left and walked cautiously
towards another gateway close to a house, at the door of
which we saw two men. An open wicket-door was also
to be seen, which we approached stealthily, and at last
by a run were masters of the position. The two men
made an effort to stop us, but were too late. Putting us
out again did not seem to enter their heads ; on the
contrary, some slight allusion to a dollar caused one of
them to come as our guide, for there was still a third
wall. Whether the coincidence be intentional or not I can
not say, but the Palace in Peking is also enclosed within
a triple wall. There is a wall round the Palace; a
186 MEETING THE SUN.
second wall encloses the Imperial city ; the Tartar city
is outside that again, and the whole is enclosed by the
great wall of Peking. The Palace, like the Temple of
Heaven, and indeed all temples, palaces, and public
buildings in China, faces due south. In the centre
of the south wall of the Tartar city there is a gate called
the Chien Mun, which is never opened except when the
Emperor goes out to sacrifice. This gate is in a direct
line south from the Palace gate to the street leading to
the Temple of Heaven. All this is no doubt part of
one plan, probably astronomical, or possibly astrological,
for astrology has to do with many things in China.
Within the second wall we had on our right the Hall
of Penitential Fasting, which is a large square of build
ings, with moat, bridges, and walls round it. Our guide
led to the left through the park, and then through a thick
wood of old cypress-trees which seemed to surround the
whole of the temple and extends as far as the south
altar. Like the temples of old, it is literally in a grove.
We were seeking for a large temple and could not see
it, so completely was it hid by this dark, dense wood
of aged trees. The effect of all this was lost on our
party, who were trying to see where the gate could be
found, and to take advantage of it should it be open.
At last I saw the head of our column make a rush ; I
followed, and found myself within the third wall, and the
Temple of Heaven stood before me. This was the North
Altar, and we lost no time, for there was yet the chance,
not to be thrown away, of seeing the inside ; so another
rush soon took us up the three flights of steps, across the
top of the terrace, and, to our great satisfaction, the door
THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN. 187
was open. Our sudden appearance in the very centre of
this vast place seemed to have taken every one by surprise.
A man of pigtail nationality soon made his appearance and
began scolding very loudly, not only at us, but at the
pigtailed individuals around. He said that they would
be all beaten, and asked how we got in. " Who opened
the door?" "How could they tell?" was the answer.
They stated that it was closed, and we must have opened
it during the night. The man who came with us from
the other door said nothing, for he was held under the
magic spell of backsheesh. The potency of this began
to work upon them all except our scolding friend, who
took to shutting the doors, but before he did so, I had
noted down the main features of the interior. Although
standing on such an elaborate superstructure of marble,
the building, like almost all buildings hereabouts, is of
wood. Four very high round pillars support the central
and highest roof, which is nearly all gilt on the inside.
Twelve smaller columns sustain the second roof, which
reaches only from the four inside pillars, thus leaving
visible from within the whole height of the highest roof.
Twelve still smaller wooden columns form the outer circle
and support the lowest roof, which, like the second, only
roofs the space between the pillars which sustain it and
the circle of pillars next to them. All this woodwork is
elaborately painted and gilt. The tiles on the roofs are
all of a deep ultramarine blue. The altar to God is on
the north, and the altars to the eight deceased Emperors
are on the east and west. It was all very dirty and
dusty, and on the outside grass and weeds were grow
ing through the joints in the pavement. We saw a good
188 MEETING THE SUN.
many workmen about, putting everything in order for
the coming ceremony. We were taken to the house, to
the east of the temple, where the bullock is killed; and
then we were led through the cypress grove to houses
where the various articles used at the ceremonies are
kept. We got on the great paved way which connects
the two altars near its middle, and walked to the south
altar. The ceremony here takes place before dawn, and
there are three great poles for lanterns to give light; they
are covered with an intricate scaffolding for repairs, or
painting or renewing them in some way; but the men
are waiting till some "Heaven Interrogator" finds out
an auspicious day to begin the work. Although we had
been so lucky in getting in, we took care on leaving not
to destroy the mystic spell which belongs to the dollar ;
but we did not spoil the market by being too lavish, so
that any other European who might visit the place after
us will have a chance of success at a fair expenditure
for the sight.
Du Halde states that about the year 1700 there had
been some discussion on the Temple of Heaven between
the Jesuits and the Chinese literati. * The point seems to
have been whether it was the visible heaven, or the God
or Power of heaven, which was worshipped. Kang-hi
was Emperor, and as he was a literary man, well versed
in the Chinese books, he was asked to declare his opinion,
which appeared at the time as an edict in the Peking
Gazette. The following is the answer as given in Du
Halde :— " That it was not to the visible heaven that
sacrifices were offered, but only to the Lord and Master
of heaven, the earth, and all things; and that, for the
THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN. 189
same reason, the tablet before which those sacrifices were
offered bear this inscription, ' To Shang-ti' — that is to
say, ' To the Supreme Lord ;' that it is through respect
that none dare call Him by His proper name ; and that
they use to invoke Him by the name of ' Supreme
Heaven,' ' Bountiful Heaven,' and ' Universal Heaven,'
in the same manner as when they speak with reverence
of the Emperor they call him not by his own name, but
say, the ' Steps of his Throne,' the ' Supreme Court of
his Palace;' that these names, though different as to
terms, are yet the same, if regard be had to the signi
fication." Kang-hi is also reported to have said that
" the Principle of all things is called ' Tien,' Heaven, in a
noble and figurative style, just as the Emperor is called
'Chau-ting' from the name of his palace, which is the
place where the Imperial Majesty shines with greatest
splendour." Yung-ching, the successor of Kang-hi, also gave the
following edict, which is curious not only as an illustra
tion of Chinese philosophy, but as bearing on questions
which agitate the theological and scientific thought of
the day in Europe. There had been a drought and con
sequent famine ; the Emperor had fasted and prayed at
the Temple of Heaven. Rain had fallen, and he sent an
order all over the Empire, requesting the mandarins to
inform him of all calamities which might afflict his people.
In it he said, " There is between Tien and mankind an
intercourse of faults and punishments, of prayers and
benefits. Do your duty and avoid committing faults ; for
it is for your sins that Tien punishes us. When Tien
sends any calamity, let us watch over ourselves, mortify
o
190 MEETING THE SUN.
ourselves, correct ourselves, and pray. It is by praying
and correcting ourselves that we mollify Tien. I do not
publish this order as though I thought myself capable of
moving Heaven, but I do it the better to persuade you
that there is the intercourse I have mentioned between
Tien and men of faults and punishments, of prayers and
benefits." There is much less of pretension in this than
some of the ceremonies at the Temple of Heaven, such
as the ceremony of informing" Tien, or Heaven, which
means, according to Kang-hi, Heaven's Supreme Lord,
that the Emperor was about to be married. It is the
yearly custom for the Emperor to read at the Temple
of Heaven a list of all criminals executed during the
past twelve months, and to pray that, if any of them
have been wrongfully punished, their sins may not be
visited upon them in the next world. On this occasion
the Emperor lays aside his robes of state, appears as a
criminal himself, and as such walks from the " Hall
of Penitential Fasting."
The study of temples has always had a fascination for
me, and in my various travels I have always observed
them carefully. Everything connected with them, and
with the burial of the dead, always attracted my atten
tion. In sailing up the Pei-ho, I was struck with the
infinite number of grave-mounds which were visible in
every direction, and I find that this is the case in all the
northern part of China. These mounds vary from about
a yard in diameter to that of the sepulchral tomb of
Yung-lo, the second of the Ming dynasty, which is about
half a mile in circumference. This simple grave-mound
was the most primitive form of sepulchre. We know it
THE TEMPLE OE HEAVEN, 191
in the present day as the " Tumulus " and the " Barrow."
It became the " Cairn," or heap of stones, and this ulti
mately developed itself into the " Pyramid," or tomb
among the Egyptians. The Dagopa, which is only a
round Pyramid, and which was a tomb, or relic-holder,
for burning the body and preserving - the ashes, is the
characteristic ofthe Buddhist system. The result of my
studies has been a general conclusion that all temples
are founded upon Tomb Worship. I know that this is a
question upon which there are great varieties of opinion ;
but, after years of travel and of thought devoted to it, no
doubt remains on my own mind. During the Crimean
War I went with the expedition to Kertch : as we sailed
up the Straits of that name, I remember being struck with
what seemed gigantic mole-hills in the distance all around.
They were sepulchral tumuli, and Dr. Clarke, whose
works, although now old, are not yet quite forgotten,
describes them and thus speculates : — " In view of labour
so prodigious, as well as of expenditure so enormous, for
the purpose of inhuming a single body, customs and
superstitions are manifested which serve to illustrate the
origin of the Pyramids of Egypt, of the caverns of
Elephanta, and of the first temples of the ancient world.
In memory of the ' mighty dead,' long before there were
such edifices as temples, the simple sepulchral heap was
raised, and this became the altar upon which sacrifices
were offered." The author is here mistaken in his
reference to Elephanta. It is a Brahminical temple, and
temples of that religion are, in a sense, an exception to
the rule here laid down, yet not altogether so, when
properly understood. In India we have to do with the
o2
192 MEETING THE SUN.
Aryan ; in China it is the Turanian race, and among
them the tomb-temple theory has no exceptions. Readers
of Mr. Fergusson's writings will be familiar with their
tomb-building propensities. The theory I would suggest
is, that the Temple of Heaven in Peking is made in
imitation of a sepulchral mound. It would be important
to know if any one was buried there, or if there is any
relic of a human body deposited — a point on which I have
no information. Still, without this, if its origin has been
as here suggested, it may be considered as a symbolical
tomb, the architectural features upon it being a growth,
repeating in another way the development already de
scribed in the Pyramid and the Dagopa.
The South Altar is named in a manner to confirm this.
None of the Chinese words which signify temple are
applied to it. It is called Tien-Tan, or " Heaven's
Altar;" but in the oldest times it was called Nan-
Tan, or " South Mound," and Yuen-Kieu, or " Round
Hillock." These names seem in themselves to repeat
Dr. Clarke's words, that " the simple sepulchral heap
was raised, and this became tbe altar upon which sacrifice
was offered." Shih-Lutze, or "Altar of Sacrifice," is
another of its names. We have another confirmation of
the idea in the plan according to which it is arranged ; it
is exactly the same as appears in all the mound-graves in
the north of China. It is a square, within which is a
circle. The ordinary graves, which are so common all
over the country, such as Shanghai, where I minutely
inspected them, are formed of a square platform of earth,
and upon this is placed a mound. There are some
varieties in form, but that is the usual arrangement.
THE TEMPLE OE HEAVEN. 193
What the Chinaman thus carries out rudely for his own
grave we find exactly repeated in marble, with architec
tural forms, in the Temple of Heaven. As every China
man reads the classic books, they are all aware that the
square platform of earth is equivalent to the Yin, and
that the mound represents the Yang. In this we have
another identification, for according to Mr. Edkins the
south altar is the Yang ; that as such it is round, and has
odd numbers connected with it ; but he does not notice
that it stands upon a square enclosed platform, which is
no doubt the Yin form, and here we have the Chinese
grave principle complete.
The north is simply a repetition of the south altar.
It also stands on a square platform. The eight flights of
steps are founded on the Pah-Kwah, a figure quite as
mystical and symbolical as the Yin-Yang. The most
marked feature of difference between the two altars is the
circular house on that on the north. On a board on the
south side of it are the characters for Chi-Kien-Tien, or
" Temple of Prayer for the Year." It generally goes by
the name of Tien-Kung, or " Heaven's Palace." A more
detailed account of this temple and all the ceremonies
performed, and likewise further particulars of the other
Imperial temples in Peking, would be a valuable addition
to our information. My stay in Peking was too short to
let me do much. I have drawn upon Mr. Edkins's
account, and given the plan from my own sketches.
Rough as it is, I believe it to be much more correct than
that given by Du Halde. With the pictures it will, I
think, enable any one to form a fair idea of the place as
at present known.
194 MEETING THE SUN.
The sacred rites connected with temples have also
always much interested me. Sketch-book and pencil in
hand, I have always endeavoured to fraternise with the
priests or worshippers, and I have rarely failed in my
efforts. My object always is to find out what is the
most sacred point in the shrine, and to what the
sacredness is due. Chinese ideas on this subject seem
to be identical with those of a number of religions
which have found their way into that country, and
although each has its differences, -none of them seem
to have superseded the ancient rites of the ancestral
religion, which is tomb- worship. This they trace back
to the symbolic signification of the Yin- Yang and the
Pah-Kwah, two separate forms of the dual powers of
nature, and which are now beginning to be understood
as the basis on which all the ancient religions of the
world are founded.
The ordinary temples, or " Joss houses," in China,
seem to be simple shrines. The air, the sea, fire, water,
earth, &c, have all been deified, and the altar of these
temples is generally a table upon which is placed the
tablet, with the name of the god. The form of the
tablet is, I think, important. It is oblong, rounded
slightly at the top, exactly like one of the two tables of
stone which Moses is represented as holding in his hand.
The base on which this tablet stands is the lotus — in
fact, it is a repetition of the Padmi or Lotus-Throne of
Buddha. In front of the tablet are placed five vessels, generally
of bronze ; that in the centre is for incense, which is pre
sented by the worshippers in the form of what is known
THE TEMPLE OE HEAVEN. 195
as " Joss Sticks." These are simply long pastiles, wliich
burn for a certain length of time, and in the flowery
language of China are called " the Fragrance of an
Hour." The two vessels on each side of this are
candlesticks, and those at each end are for flowers.
I brought home a set of these vessels for a clerical
friend who is much given to the study, but not to the
practice of Ritualism, and was much astonished to hear
him say that the decisions of the Church of England
permitted exactly the same arrangement on the altar.
I visited the Lama Temple in Peking, and saw the
great figure of Maitra Buddha, the incarnation of Buddha
yet to come. It is a gigantic figure about fifty or sixty
feet high. Everything about it is purely Indian, and the
same may be said of the innumerable smaller figures of
Buddhist divinities which may be seen at this place.
The priests here all wear yellow vestments, yellow being
the distinguishing colour of the dress of one sect of
Buddhists — ao it is still that of the priests in Ceylon —
while that of another is red. The votaries of the latter
sect are to be found in Ladak and the northern parts
of the Himalays. The priests in Peking wear a very
strange-shaped yellow hat, which one could almost
believe was copied from a Greek helmet. We found
the monks very uncivil and suspicious. I tried to
make a sketch through an open window where they
were performing an elaborate service. About thirty
or forty were sitting in their yellow costume, chanting
to the accompaniment of drums, cymbals, horns, gongs,
and bells. I could see a very small boy among the
performers making faces at me, as small boys are wont
196 MEETING THE SUN.
to do everywhere, when one of the brethren came and
shut up the window in my face. This was very dif
ferent treatment from that which I met with in Tibet,
where I was always made welcome in the Lamaseries.
There the peculiar decoction of tea made with pepper,
salt, and grease in it, Avas offered to me ; and I
sketched while they went on with the service. They
taught me the proper mode of whirling the praying
cylinders, and the mantra to pronounce while doing
it. I never . passed a monastery without entering, and
never was treated with discourtesy in one of them.
I cannot say that I have brought away the same
friendly associations from the yellow-robed monks of
Peking. One day, in the streets of Peking, I heard the sound
of a sonorous bell. Turning to the direction from which
it seemed to come, I saw the bell hung from a frame on
the side of the street. Another boom succeeded, yet
no one near it was visible. On closely inspecting the
frame, I found that a piece of wood, over a foot long,
was slung in a horizontal position, and a string passed
from it, through a small hole, into a little wooden
house, which might be described as a wooden sentry-
box. This box had another very small aperture, not
many inches in size, through which a man could be
seen with the string in his hand, and which he pulled
every few minutes, so as to give one stroke to the
bell. It was explained to me that the inmate of this
almost coffin -like abode was a priest ; that he had been
in his narrow house for two years, and that he would
remain yet another twelvemonth. The object to be
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THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN. 197
attained by this curious imprisonment Avas then
explained. It seems that, just in rear of the spot, the temple had
through time got into such a condition of ruin, that it
required very considerable repairs, if not entire rebuild
ing, and that this bell booming was part of a plan for
obtaining funds for pious purposes. The priest who
devotes himself to it is walled-in, or it may be built-
up. There was an instance of this latter mode of
procedure going on at the same time in Peking, the
priest in that case being in a small brick house, all
plastered over, and the man had been so long in it
that the house had quite lost the look of a recent
structure. In the case of the wooden house, long
nails were driven through the planks, with the points
projecting on the inside, for the supposed purpose
of keeping the inmate from resting against the walls.
The only place of repose within is a board on which
he can sit, with his body in an upright position. Each
of the nails represents a sum of money, and the whole
number indicates the entire amount necessary for the
restoration of the temple. The pious and benevolent are
thus tempted to subscribe a sum represented by a nail ;
and when this is done the nail is withdrawn. Each nail
which is pulled out renders the position of the devotee
within less uncomfortable. When the money is paid,
and the nail taken out, a scrap of paper is pasted on the
spot with the name of the donor.
I looked inside, through tbe small hole, and could see a
pale unemotional countenance, of most cadaverous aspect;
the hair was long and parted in the middle, producing a
198 MEETING THE SUN.
slightly feminine appearance. His nails had grown to a
great length. I could see him indulge in one luxury,
that was a pinch of snuff. There was a small shelf
before him with some books ; now and again he gave the
string a pull, and the bell boomed forth. A friend of
mine, whose house is close at hand, confessed to a strong
temptation to subscribe as much as would extract one
nail, for the bell has gone on night and day for the last
two years. It awoke him at night, and he was tired of
it. This certainly indicates sleepless nights on the part
of the hermit in his house of nails. How he manages to
sleep, or what he ate and drank, I could not learn.
I wandered through the ruined temple behind, and
found that its decay was great ; but the most striking
feature was the condition of the gods. " Out at elbows "
could be literally applied to many of them, for the
wooden frame-work could in many cases be seen pro
jecting from that particular joint. I made a sketch of one
that seemed the most out of repair. Gods do get out
of repair in countries where even no visible representa
tions of them are made — at least, in men's minds they
do ; but when there is a material and visible construction,
which gets out of order, and grows daily the worse for
the wear, they make a very melancholy exhibition. They
have a foolish look — all the more foolish because we
remember that they have been gods, and have received
worship. It is rather sorrowful to find that a god's
existence depends upon the strength of joints, mortices,
and pegs of wood ; and here we see that divine beauty,
where it is represented by putty, paint, and gold-leaf,
may all fall off, and leave nothing but ghastliness visible.
From the Illistrated London News.
A GOD OUT OF REPAIR.
THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN. 199
The only thing I could find in the whole place, which
had the slightest approach to the Divine, was the
devotion of the poor wretch shut up like a grub in his
cocoon of nails. One could have wished that such
patience and faith had been devoted to some more
worthy object than that of re-carpentering " Gods out of
Repair."
CHAPTER XVII.
THE EMPEROE'S ASSUMPTION OF POWER.
The accession of a new sovereign to the throne of China
must be an important event, not only to China itself, but
to the whole world. We may to a certain extent estimate
its importance by comparing it Avith similar events in
Europe. A new monarch, the creation of a new Empire,
or the fall of an old one, gives matter for talk everywhere ;
diplomatic notes are flying about, and special corre
spondents are despatched to the scene of the event, while
illustrated papers are blazing with pictures of everything
connected with it ; and yet the whole of Europe put to
gether is not larger than the country Tung-chih now begins
to rule over. The generally accepted figure for the popu
lation of China, — in all likelihood an enormous exaggera
tion — is 360,000,000, which is very nearly double that of
India. With the exception of the Mohammedan rebellion
in Yunan, the Empire is at peace, and is prosperous. The
country desolated by the Taepings is returning to its former
condition ; and the production of silk, which was all but
annihilated by the war at that time, is slowly resuming
its old proportions. Foreign trade is steadily increasing,
and there is no political question of the moment to ruffle
the smooth surface of affairs. Even the Audience question,
whatever way it may be settled, will in itself be only
matter for talk. Such is the apparent condition of things
THE EMPEROR'S ASSUMPTION OF POWER. 201
under which the young Emperor begins his rule ; and yet
I should not hesitate to say that the present reign is
likely to be an era in the history of China. Changes, and
important ones too, are clearly visible a-head. Whether
these changes will be worked out by peace or by war, it
might be rash to say. In disease, the use of the knife is
often the first necessity ; but repose is the essential con
dition of cure. Such may be the case here. China has
been entirely separated from the civilization of the West.
The Himalayan Mountains and the desert region of Tartary
have formed an impenetrable barrier to war and conquest
going eastward. Alexander the Great, in quest of new
worlds to conquer, reached a point perhaps not far from
Samarcand; he then retraced his steps and went south
into India. Aryan conquest and civilization at various
epochs naturally took this direction, while nothing beyond
a broken ripple of it could ever by any possibility reach
China. In this Ave have one of the reasons, if not the
main one, why that country has so long retained its
primitive condition. The invasions of China have always
been by kindred Mongols, who came in as comparative
barbarians, making little or no change in the institutions
of the country. On the contrary, they became civilized
up to the point reached by the Chinese. Now the Hima
layan range is no barrier between East and West; the
great sandy deserts of Mongolia have not to be traversed
to reach far Cathay; the ocean has become the great path
of conquest, commerce, and civilization. The most distant
East can now be reached in a floating palace with speed
and security, and with what Bailie Nicol Jarvie would have
called, " A' the comforts of the Saut market" along Avith
202 MEETING THE SUN.
you, and consequently that which had never before taken
place in the history of China has now come to pass.
The men of the West confront the men of this far-away
East. The sea has removed all that stood between them.
The most ancient form of Turanian civilization has met
the highest form of it which the Aryan race has yet
reached face to face. 'It is this which constitutes the
new epoch in the history of China; and the struggle
between these two forces must soon begin. Tung-chih's
reign, supposing it to have an average length, cannot pass
away without seeing some great changes resulting from
this new condition of things.
The ceremonial when an Emperor ascends the throne
in China is, as might be supposed, a most elaborate affair,
and no doubt figures largely in those 200 volumes which
guide every detail of imperial existence. Wishing to
know how the programme in that country resembled
a European coronation, I made various inquiries, the
result of which will show that there is little or no
resemblance between them.
As usual, the Astronomical Board have to interrogate
the heavens, not only for an auspicious day, but for the
particular fortunate moment ; and when this has come,
the first step is the presentation of a petition to the
Emperor, asking him to ascend the throne. This is, no
doubt, a mere form, but it would be interesting to know
who it is who assumes the right thus to petition, because
it seems to imply a liberty of questioning his right to
ascend the throne. The event is then proclaimed, and the
proclamation, announcing it to the whole Empire, figures
largely in the ceremonies. The Phoenix is, as we have
THE EMPEROR'S ASSUMPTION OF POWER. 203
seen, as important a heraldic figure in China as the
Dragon. It belongs to the imperial insignia, and on
this occasion a Phcenix of gold appears with the procla
mation hanging to its beak. The Emperor first worships
at the tablets of his ancestors ; after which the officer
of the Astronomical Board announces that the auspicious
moment has arrived. The Emperor then ascends a golden
chariot, elephants and guards are in attendance, and the
members of the Board of Bites are also there to guide
every movement. When the procession reaches the Great
Hall, the President of the Board of Rites kneels and
prays the Emperor to assume the sway. This he does
sitting with his face towards the south. Gongs and
music now sound through the hall, and the whole court
fall on their knees, and perform the Kow-tow — that is,
they strike their foreheads nine times on the ground.
He is now Emperor, or "Vicegerent of all under Heaven,"
and worshipped as such. The accomplished event has
then to be declared to the Universe, and the proclamation
is consequently taken from the beak of the Phcenix. The
Imperial Seal, which had been placed on a table, is applied
to the proclamation, and the President of the Board of
Rites comes forward, and, kneeling, receives it in a golden
vase. The Emperor has now finished his part of the
ceremony, and retires on his golden chariot to his
private apartments in the Palace. The proclamation is
next taken to a raised platform, from which it is read,
every one kneeling all the time. It is then returned to the
golden vase, and carried back to the golden Phoenix, from
whose bill it is again suspended. It is afterwards copied
and sent to all parts of the Empire.
204 MEETING THE SUN.
That is a very slight sketch of the ceremony, but I
believe it contains the main features of what takes place.
There is no anointing oil, or placing of a crown on the
head, and indeed scarcely any point to give it a resem
blance to our coronation ceremonies.
Here we have a bird — the Phoenix — a sort of celestial
creature, a messenger from Heaven, bearing the procla
mation, or declaration, that the " Son of Heaven " is to
reign. When an Emperor of China dies, and departs on
" the Great Journey," he " ascends on the Dragon, to be
a guest on high ;" such is the official language in which
the fact of his death is announced to Foreign Ministers
and throughout the Empire. When a new Emperor
mounts the throne, the Phoenix comes from above to
proclaim his advent. This close and constant intercom
munication with the next Avorld may seem strange to
Europeans, but we see how familiar it is to the people of
this country. We boast of our railways and our facili
ties for travelling from one country to another; but
here, when an Emperor of China dies, the great Dragon
performs the part of a special train to Heaven. We can
not telegraph beyond the narrow limits of this small globe
of ours ; but here, when a new Emperor comes to the throne,
the Phcenix appears with the latest telegraphic despatch,
or official document, from " on high," containing the
appointment. There is even a banking or money-order-
office system between this world and the next. Deceased
ancestors seem to be very poor, or in the regions which
they inhabit perhaps the prices of everything may have
gone up of late, for large remittances have to be con
tinually sent. Everywhere we can see paper imitations
THE EMPEROR'S ASSUMPTION OP POWER. 205
of Sycee silver, which are cast in ingots of the form of
an ancient shoe. The imitations are made of silvered
paper, and look exactly like the cast ingots. By burning a
number of these at an ancestral tablet an equivalent sum
is transmitted to the defunct individual. There must
be a very large quantity of these paper shoes used, if one
may judge from the supply visible in the shops. The
bullock which is burned at the winter solstice at the
Temple of Heaven is supposed to ascend to the celestial
regions ; and, if I mistake not, the Chinese believe this
of all sacrifices Avhich are consumed by fire. %
It is also stated that a copy of the proclamation, an
nouncing that he had assumed the Government, was duly
signed by the Emperor himself and burned — I should
suppose at the Temple of Heaven — so as to convey the
intelligence to the celestial regions. As this is exactly
what took place in regard to the marriage, I see no
reason to doubt it. On that occasion, the news was
sent not only to Heaven, but to Earth, to the Imperial
ancestors, and to all under Heaven. Why should not
the news that a new Emperor has ascended the throne
be sent through the same official channels of communi
cation ?
" His Majesty the Emperor was called to occupy the
throne while yet a child, and at a time when the affairs
of the Empire were in a very critical condition ; and it
being indispensable that the Princes and Ministers should
bring the affairs of the State before the Throne, we, the
Empresses, yielded to the solicitations of the Court
Ministers and assumed the Regency, at the same time
notifying that when his Majesty came of age the reins of
p
206 MEETING THE SUN.
Government Avould be handed OArer to him. For the last
eleven years we have, early and late, with much fear and
trembling, earnestly striven to discharge the duties thus
imposed on us. His Majesty the Emperor, however,
having now come of age, it is right that he should assume
the reins of Government, and, with the assistance of his
Ministers, Court and provincial, control the affairs ofthe
Empire, and thus discharge the sacred trust handed down
to him by his late Majesty (Hienfeng). The Astro
nomical Board is therefore ordered to select a propitious
day in the first moon of next year, on which his Majesty
may formally ascend the Throne (or assume control).
The ceremonies and rights to be observed on the occasion
must be settled by the Grand Council, Grand Secretaries
and Board officials, and reported to the Throne. Respect
this!" This edict by the two Empresses appeared in the Peking
Gazette shortly after the marriage, and the ceremonies
therein ordered are those whicli are appointed to be
observed when an Emperor assumes the reins of Govern
ment. The present Emperor ascended the throne in
1862, when the ceremonies already described took place.
Since that time he has sat as Emperor in the Audience
Hall, and signed documents with the " Vermilion Pencil."
During the Regency a screen was placed behind him
which covered the presence of the two Regent Em
presses, who were so placed that they could see and
hear, and dictate decisions to the young Emperor.
When they retire from their functions they will no
longer sit at the audiences; but how far they will
interfere in public affairs for the future is a matter of
THE EMPEROR'S ASSUMPTION OF POWER. 207
which no one out of the palace is likely to have any
knowledge. The two ladies have earned a good repu
tation for the ability with which they have managed
affairs during the last ten years. The Empress of the
East — that is, the Dowager Empress — is considered to
be a woman of good character, and is said to be very
amiable, and quiet in her manners, leading a retired life.
On the contrary, the Empress Mother has earned for
herself the name of being rather " fast." She is said to
be fond of company, extravagant in her manners, and
impetuous in temper. When the arrangements for the
marriage were going on, it is reported that she got into a
dreadful passion about something not being to her mind,
and took to smashing vases and other articles around
her. In this I only repeat what rumour passes from
mouth to mouth in Peking ; if unfounded, it will show
that scandal is not idle in the Court of China any more
than in the Courts of Europe.
What particular ceremonies will take place when they
retire, and leave the young Emperor to use the " Vermi
lion Pencil " alone, I did not chance to learn. Perhaps
the Li-poo, or Board of Rites, had not settled the
arrangements when I left Peking, or I might, perhaps,
have heard something of it. What with the marriage
and other ceremonies, too much work has of late been
thrown on their hands. They had been making mis
takes, and to lose your head (as we figuratively put
it) in such matters is apt to be followed here by the
operation in reality. The offence in this case was in
reference to the two Empresses, and in the all-important
matter of their titles. The Peking Gazette announced
p 2
208 MEETING THE SUN.
at the time that, in a document issued by the Board of
Rites, " Their Majesties are inadvertently styled 'Hwang-
how' instead of Hang-t'ai-how." For this deplorable
blunder the clerks and secretaries of the Board who
were guilty of the negligence, and the Grand Secretary
of State charged with the examination of such documents,
" are handed over to the Board of Civil Officers to be
dealt with." Whether this means a present of a silken
cord, or an order to breakfast upon gold-leaf — a manner
of happy despatch practised by mandarins and those who
can afford it— I could not ascertain; but itis evident that
those queer-looking characters which we are familiar with
on tea-boxes in England are most important matters in
China, when they have to do with the titles of an Em
peror or an Empress.
" The first moon of next year " — that is, this present
year — was the time given by the edict for the Astrono
mical Board to find " a propitious day;" and the 23rd of
February was the date selected. Playing-cards are plen
tiful in the middle kingdom, and one feels inclined to ask
if they were consulted in a matter of this sort. Perhaps
tea-cups and tea-leaves would be a more appropriate
omen-indicator for the official Astrological Department
of the Chinese Empire.
The character of the individual who thus began to rule
over so large a nation would, no doubt, be a subject of
much interest ; but, as has been already explained, it is
next to an impossibility to get anything like trustworthy
information. The only description of him which I heard,
and it is current among the Chinese, is, that he is rather
dull and stupid, and was very slow in learning the classic
THE EMPEROR'S ASSUMPTION OE POWER. 209
books, which all boys at school have to commit to memory,
and to which custom an Emperor would furnish no excep
tion. A Government carried on with such strict adhe
rence to ancient authorities as is the Chinese, cannot be
much affected by the personal character or the amount of
ability possessed by the sovereign. In European States
Government is controlled by a Parliament ; in China it
is controlled by authoritative traditions thousands of
years old. In both cases a similar result is produced,
which is, that the monarch of the time has but little
influence on the doings of the Government.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE AUDIENCE QUESTION.
When I arrived in China, one great subject of discussion
— not only with the local press, but with almost every
person you met — was the " Audience Question." The
Chinese Government have set their faces against rail
ways and telegraphs. The commercial community are
anxious to introduce them, and to have more free ports
opened, so that trade may be increased. They have a
vague idea that if the right of Audience without prostra
tion should be conceded, it would lead to the realization
of their wishes; hence the interest felt in its settlement
by the Europeans and Americans connected with China.
However, when I reached Peking, where I expected to
hear full particulars as to how the matter stood, and to
learn the feeling of the Chinese authorities about it, it was
rather surprising to find a total absence of all excitement
about the controversy. In the Legations it was scarcely
alluded to. In the British Legation, a new theatre and
skating-pond for the winter were the all-absorbing topics
of conversation. A billiard match between our attaches
and those of the German Legation quite snuffed out the
Imperial marriage ; and for about a week the Audience
question, or anything political, was entirely shelved.
While they are wisely keeping up their health and spirits
by such amusements, it is quite possible that Mr. Wade
THE AUDIENCE QUESTION. 211
may be in active correspondence with Prince Kuno-
on the subject, or probably is considering the right
course to pursue when the proper moment for action
arrives ; but matters of that kind are not visible to an
outsider who chances to visit Peking.
The feeling was that the French would be the most
active in pushing the matter to an issue ; and the
Minister lately sent home a paper on the subject, recom
mending that it should be pressed 'upon the Chinese
Government. The settlement of the affairs resulting from
the Tientsing Massacre would be one of their claims,
and the Russians were supposed to be backing them up.
Mr. Low, the American Minister, sent to his Government
a document expressing what he thought of the French
Minister's proposals. It is a very well written paper,
and it advises that the Audience question should not be
pressed, at least not until the Emperor should have
assumed the full power himself; and this was, no doubt,
the general feeling of the Legations on the matter. The
question is a very simple one as to its merits, and easily
understood. All the Ministers of European countries
could have an audience whenever they like, if they would
do the Ko-tow — that is, when they enter the Imperial
presence they must go down on all fours three times, and
knock their forehead nine times on the ground. It is
called also the "three bendings and the nine knockings."
This, of course, they are never likely to do. In past times
the Jesuits were received at Court, and some of them
were great favourites of former Emperors ; but they would,
no doubt, perform the Ko-tow. Lord Macartney went as
an Ambassador in 1793, and had an audience of the
212 MEETING THE SUN.
Emperor; but the ceremonies were so arranged that,
while our Ambassador did not consider that he did the
Ko-tow, the Chinese understood the contrary. In matters
of this kind the Celestials are very clever at what may be
called double-dealing to get out of difficulties ; and it was
rumoured that they had some new dodge of the same
kind, by which the Audience question was to be granted
and yet not granted at the same time. A Russian
Embassy visited Peking in 1719, and is described by
John Bell, a Scotchman, who accompanied it. They
had all to comply. Lord Amherst, who went in 1816,
would not submit to this ceremony. This Ko-tow com
prises the whole difficulty of the case — whether the Euro
pean Ambassadors will bow three times and knock their
heads nine times on the ground, or whether the Emperor
of China will receive them as a European monarch would.
It is the old question, whether the mountain will come to
Mahomet, or Mahomet go to the mountain.
There used to be the old "jooty dustoor," or Shoe
question in India. It is the custom all over that country,
and in most parts of the East, to take off the shoes on
entering a house. It is a mark of respect or reverence
as old as the days of Moses. This was the rule at all
Durbars. I have seen a cartload of the shoes of Rajahs,
Sirdars, and chiefs of all ranks, at the entrance to a
Go ven or General's Durbar. It was their custom, and
they did it as a matter of course. In the early days of
our rule in India, when officers of rank had to go on
official business to the native Princes, they also were ex
pected to take off their shoes or boots, as the case might
be; but it was not our " dustoor," or custom. It caused
THE AUDIENCE QUESTION. 213
more bickering and bad feeling at the time than even the
great mutiny produced. Think of a handsome officer, in
a splendid uniform, hoping to make a fine impression by
his figure and dazzling costume, and imagine his feelings on
being asked at the door to take off his boots and clanking
spurs and walk in, something like Nebuchadnezzar's image,
with head of gold, but feet of clay. Even with a grey
tweed suit and a wide-awake hat, the request would be
objectionable. All that is a thing of the past. If you
have to call upon a Rajah now in India, no matter in
what capacity, the " jooty dustoor" is never mentioned.
In this we can see the fate of the Audience question, and
of many other questions Avhich are talked about in China.
The one thing necessary is time. Time swallows up all
things, and it will swallow up the Ko-tow.*
* Sir John Maundeville's history of his travels is considered hy many
to he douhtful ; yet, curiously enough, he mentions the Ko-tow, and
describes its origin. Tn his account of the " Grete Chane of Chatay," he
says : — " And whan he had wonne and putt alle the Londes and Contrees,
on this half the Mount Belyan, in subieccioun, the Whyte Knyght cam
to him azen in his sleep, and seyde to him, — ' Chan, the Wille of God
inmortalle is, that thou passe the Mount Belyan ; and thou schalt wynne
the Lond, and thou schalt putten many nacyouns in subieccioun : and for
thou schalt fynde no gode passage for to go toward that Contree, go to
the Mount Belyan, that is upon the See, and knele there nine times
toward the Est, in the Worschipe of God inmortalle; and he schal
schewe the Weye to passe by.' And the Chane dide so. And anon the
See, that touched and was fast to the Mount, began to withdrawe him,
and schewed fair weye of nine fote brede large ; and so he passed with
his folk, and wan the Lond of Cathay, that is the Grettest Kyngdom of
the World. And for the nine Knelynges, and for the nine fote of Weye,
the Chane and all the men of Tartarye han the nombre nine in gret
reverence. And, therefore, who that wole make the Chane ony present,
be it of Hors, be it of Bryddes, or of Arwes, or Bowes, or of Lrute, or of
ony other thing, alweys he most make it of the nombre of nine. And so
214 MEETING THE SUN.
Whoever has seen Gerome's picture, at Versailles, of
the Emperor Napoleon receiving the Japanese Ambassa
dors, will be able to form some idea of what an Imperial
audience is in the extreme oriental parts of Asia. The
Ambassadors are crawling on all-fours, like a drove of
pigs, along the floor and up the steps of the throne
where the Emperor and Empress sit to receive them. I
suppose that Emperors are accustomed to homage, and
that a novel kind of it may be to them a fresh sensation,
like a new dish or a wine that had neArer been tasted
before; but one could wish that Napoleon had not
allowed such a ceremony to have taken place. If the
Mandarins here, who are opposed to the Audience ques
tion, had a copy of that picture, it might be used with
great effect against the French Minister if he should
press his demands on this point. The Europeans say
that the Ko-tow is degrading — if so, Avhy did the head of
the French nation allow such a thing to be done in his
presence ? The French, and all the other Ambassadors,
of course say it is not their custom to knock their heads
nine times on the ground before the SoArereigns to whom
they are sent. The Chinese tu qttoque to this would be
simple and equally logical, that it is not the custom to
thanne ben the presentes of grettere plesance to him, and more benygnely
he wil resceyven hem, than though he were presented with an 100 or
200. For hyni sSmethe the nombre of nine so holy, be cause- the
Messagre of God inmortalle devised it."
The sacredness of the number 9 did not, in all probability, originate
in Tartary, or with its Khan ; it, with other numbers, will be found to
have been sacred in other parts of the world — but Sir John Maundeville's
history is an important link. His travels fall within the period between
1322 and 1356.
THE AUDIENCE QUESTION. 215
allow any one to come into the presence of the Emperor
of China witliout doing so. He rules over a territory as
large as the whole of Europe ; and in February, when he
was to assume the full power, he would, it is said, be
declared " Vicegerent in charge of all under Heaven."
With such pretensions, if the geographical space actually
governed were a measure of power, there Avould be little
use in mooting the Audience question, unless the ambas
sadorial gold lace were willing to lick the dust of the
Imperial Palace. But even into the cloudy regions,
where the all-but-deified Emperor exists, the know-
ledge has penetrated that the Westerns haATe power
on their side, and that in every case in which this
power has been contested, a triumph in its favour has
been the result. The last war in 1860 ended by a treaty
permitting the Ministers of the European Powers to live
in the capital. An irresistible progression, or aggression
— the term is immaterial Avhen considering only the
question of results, and the causes wliich lead to them —
is evident. The governing body in China cannot be
quite unconscious of the true state of affairs, and it Avas
supposed that they were at least so far advanced as to
be prepared to have the Audience question brought up.
Some thought that it would be arranged satisfactorily,
and that railroads and telegraphs would follow at once.
Others affirmed that an audience without the Ko-tow
would never be granted except at the point of the
bayonet, and that another war would be necessary.
These last point to the armaments going on all over
the country ; to the troops which are being drilled by
Europeans in large bodies ; to the arsenals which are
216 MEETING THE SUN.
hard at work producing cannon and rifles ; to the arms
which are being brought into the country in large quanti
ties ; to the war-ships, gun-boats, &c, which are being
built; and to the ports which are being constructed.
The Taku Forts haAre been most elaborately reconstructed
— this I can vouch for, having passed them on entering
the Peiho — and armed with large foreign rifled cannon.
Such preparations, they say, can only point to one con
clusion — that there is a determination to resist the
foreigners, let it be on the Audience question, telegraphs,
railways, or the opening of more ports for commerce.
The Mandarins and the whole of the literary class are
supposed to be foreigner-haters ; and if they could, they
would drive us all into the sea, — the Tientsin massacre
being a specimen of what they desire to see done, — and
it is believed by many that they intend to repeat that
tragedy wherever there is a European in China.
It is quite certain that an attempt is being made to im
prove the military organization of the country, but I do not
suppose that it has at present any other object than that of
being ready. At the present moment eA^erything appears
peaceful in China. There is no little black cloud visible
on the horizon. Still it must be confessed that there is
nothing settled in the relations between foreigners and
the Chinese, and in the necessary changes which a tran
sition state implies, a collision might occur at any
moment. If the Chinese knew the real strength of the
Western Powers they would not be over-hasty in bringing
about a contest, but they have no means of getting infor
mation. They never travel, and they have no books or
newspapers. A deaf man in a dark room represents their
THE AUDIENCE QUESTION. 217
condition. We all recollect how little was known of the
relative condition of the French and German armies
before the late war. The people here must be still more
ignorant of such matters. It would be perfectly true to
say that the Chinese have no knowledge whatever of
Europeans. Up to the present moment we are only
visible to them at one or two isolated spots on their
outer edge. The mass of the people of China have
never seen a European. The way to realize this fact
is to travel into the interior. Does any one desire to
be a real live lion ? Then let him come to Peking,
and make a trip for a few days anywhere into the
country. When you enter a village, every man, woman,
and child comes out to see you. Should you stop
at the village to have refreshments, or to look at sights
there, the inhabitants in a body crowd round and follow
you, and every movement is Avatched and commented
upon. If you stand still, every article of your dress is
felt all over by their hands ; the seams of your coat are
minutely inspected ; your boots are criticized ; your hair,
and particularly your beard, is examined. They have
a great respect for a beard; no man under forty is
allowed to grow the hair on his chin, and few are the
hairs which take advantage of the permission on the face
of a Chinaman at this mature period. Your age and the
number of children you have are questions of high
importance. When you go into an inn in one of these
villages, there is an eye looking at you from every hole
and cranny; your eating, drinking, reading, writing,
sketching — whatever you do — is watched and reported
through the village. Even when you blow out your
218 MEETING THE SUN.
candle and go to bed, they hover round the door and
listen. It is told of an innkeeper that he closed up all
the holes except one, and that he made a good thing out
of it by charging so much a head for a sight of the
" Foreign Devils." The Prince of Wales is not more
narrowly watched or more lionized when he goes about.
It shows what perfect strangers Europeans are to the
mass of the inhabitants of this land. In Peking the
people are not quite unaccustomed to the sight of
Westerns, but they only at times see one or two in the
streets in what to them is an uncouth and fantastic
costume, Avhich is not likely to impress them with a high
notion of us. When Admiral Shadwell was in Peking,
shortly before my visit, and he was passing through the
streets with one of the gentlemen attached to the Legation,
a child at a door was heard crying to those within, -" Come
out and see this devil." The Admiral had been calling
at the other Legations, and I think had some gold lace
on. This, no doubt, attracted the child's attention to
him, but the term used is too commonly applied to be
exceptional in this case, and it is an illustration of their
notions respecting us. I had another illustration, which
came under my own observation. Walking one day in
the streets with a friend who could speak the language,
we stopped to look at a man Avho was just finishing a
kind of wheelbarrow which is peculiar to this part of the
world. Such vehicles are much used for the trans
port of goods, the state of the roads being too bad for
carts. It was well made — a substantial, good bit of
work. We were admiring it, when a man, seeing us do
so, came up and said, " Aha ! you have no such wheel-
THE AUDIENCE QUESTION. 219
barrows as that in your country." This was said -with a
good-natured looking smile ; the tone was more that of
self-satisfaction than boasting. He seemed to mean that
if we had wheelbarrows like that we should then be more
on a par with a Chinaman. We have all heard of the gig
as a test of respectability, but here is the wheelbarrow
applied as a measure of civilization. Archaeologists in
Europe know of the stone, the bronze, and the iron age
as steps in the development of man's history, but the
wheelbarrow age will be new to them. This point of
development has been reached in Peking, and the foreign
barbarians stand in admiration before it. This man's
ideas of the comparative progress of his own and other
countries must be that of all his countrymen except those
in the Treaty Ports, where we have made streets and
built houses, where steamboats and war-ships are visible,
and a few of the results of Western science and civi
lization are so patent that they cannot be unknown. Had
our friend ever visited Shanghai and seen an English
carriage and pair gliding smoothly over a level road, he
would have found that other stages of progress are
possible beyond that of the wheelbarrow. Peking is not
an open port. There is no business done in it. The
Europeans there are only those belonging to the Lega
tions and the Missionary institutions, except an occasional
" globe-trotter " like myself. When we are seen in the
streets, we are either walking, or in carts or on the ponies
of the country. These streets are in such a condition
that carriages cannot be used in them, so that we have
nothing to show in Peking by which its population can
judge of our powers.
220 MEETING THE SUN.
It is difficult to say how far the officials may be better
informed. Unless they have had appointments in other
provinces, they never travel ; their education is limited
almost to the classic works which date from the time of
Confucius. A modern traveller need not go to the Long
mans or the Murray of Peking with the result of his last
wanderings. There are no journals or newspapers, except
the Peking Gazette, and it contains the official proclama
tions only. None of the higher classes know a single
foreign language — at least the exception is so rare that it
does not invalidate the statement. Such being the case,
how can they get information ? A true knowledge of
Europe and its various peoples is an impossibility under
such circumstances. A Chinaman was once asked why
all the junks had eyes painted on their bows ? His reply
was, in that curious medley called " pigeon English,"
" Supposey ship no have eye, how can see ? Supposey
ship no can see, how can savey walkey ?" The last two
words have to be understood as meaning " know how to
go." The Chinese official mind, then, is like the junk
with no eye. So we may use the Chinaman's words, and
ask, " How can they savey walkey ?" Could they
realize the fact that the European wheelbarrow has
reached such a state of perfection that an iron road has
been made for it, that it can go at a rate of fifty miles an
hour, and that it is a good and fair test of our civilization
and power ; could they understand all this, a trial of
strength would not be so likely. The danger is that in
their eyeless condition they may get a rabble armed with
bad rifles, with no drill and useless officers, and believe
that they have got the best wheelbarrow under heaven ;
THE AUDIENCE QUESTION. 221
and it may require a great deal of trouble and cost to
undeceive them.
The Missionary bodies here have found that this total
ignorance about the Men ofthe West is one ofthe greatest
obstacles in their way, and they have just started a maga
zine which is printed in the Chinese character, and the
object of which is to give the better classes in Peking
some knowledge of what Europe really is. If all Euro
peans are looked upon as "devils" and "barbarians,"
what chances have the Missionaries of being listened to
with respect as teachers ? The answer is simple, and the
magazine is the remedy which is being tried. Articles on
the Mont Cenis Tunnel, the Suez Canal, telegraphs, and
other wonders of the West, are given. Where it is pos
sible, a rough woodcut is added, so as to give greater
reality to the description. It is much to be hoped that
this effort will succeed, for in serving their own cause the
Missionaries will help to do good in other ways where it
is much wanted.
The Tientsin massacre took place in June, 1870.
When the news reached Europe every eye was fixed
on the two armies and the contest which they had just
begun on the banks of the Rhine. The great war had
so intense an interest to the public that almost every
thing else was overlooked ; and the savage murders on the
banks of the Peiho produced little or no sensation at the
time. I went over the scenes of the massacre with a
gentleman who was in Tientsin when the events occurred.
The cathedral, as it was called, stands on the right bank
of the river, at the junction of the Grand Canal. It was
burnt ; but its empty walls still tower over the low one-
Q
222 MEETING THE SUN.
storied houses of which all Chinese towns are formed.
Within the enclosure there are thirteen graves of those
whose bodies were found. Each grave has a tall marble
slab erected by the Chinese authorities. About half a
mile further down the river, on the same side as the
cathedral, is another church, where ten Sisters of Charity
were most brutally murdered and mutilated ; five of their
bodies were never found. In the vault beneath the
church, a number of the children belonging to the school
took shelter, and were suffocated by the burning of the
building above them. All the native converts Avho could
be discovered in Tientsin were also savagely butchered.
Dead bodies were seen floating down the river for days
afterwards ; and no exact guess could be made of the
number of lives taken. A Russian gentleman and his
wife were killed, but with this exception all the Europeans
Avho suffered were French ; and an attempt has been
made to explain the affair as being wholly a quarrel
between them and the Chinese. Certainly there was a
grievance which the Chinese complained of. It related
to the ground on whicli the cathedral was built, and the
attack was directed against the French at Tientsin. On
the other hand, it is said that the extirpation of all
Europeans was intended ; and it is maintained in support
of this, that attacks and disturbances were at the moment
common all over China against foreigners. The Man
darins and Literati are said to have been the movers in
this. The most absurd rumours were put in circulation
all over the country at that time. I will give one which
was printed and widely spread just before the massacre.
The following is the translation: — "It is much to be
THE AUDIENCE QUESTION. 223
regretted that bad principles are daily spreading out like
a devouring fire, and sound ones swoon away into com
plete oblivion. Strangers are invading all round, people's
hearts are provoked at it. Just think of these rebellious
and barbarous Englishmen ; their savage country is the
seashore, the Head of their Government is a woman, and
their original race half man, half brute. They are those
whom our books call naked-worms and men-fish." From
this one would suppose the writer had been reading Dar
win's works; but this theory of the original Englishmen
is founded on the mythic animals of their classic books.
The Missionaries are a great puzzle to the people of this
country. Their object in leaving their own land and coming
so far is inconceivable to them. It is said that if they
declared that their intention in coming such a distance
was murder and robbery, the Chinese would easily under
stand and believe in their statement. In truth, the pre
tended purposes of the Missionaries are incredible to
them, and they are ready to accept any rumour as the
true explanation. Under these circumstances it was very
easy to excite the public mind. Kidnapping is a very
common crime in China, and the Missionaries of every
faith have schools, and temptations are held out for
children to attend. Along with this is the well-known fact
that the foreigners have doctors who are most skilful in
the cure of all diseases. In the Chinese Materia Medica
it is declared that the most potent medicines are made
from the eyes, heart, and the vitals of a human body.
Here, at once, was the key to the trapping of children
into the Missionary schools. The graves of some children
who had died were opened, and it Avas announced that
Q 2
224 MEETING THE SUN.
their eyes and hearts had been torn out. Great was the
excitement thus produced. To the pigtail intellect the
case was clear against the foreigners, and " Death to the
kidnappers" became the cry. The feeling was fostered by
those who were pulling the wires, other rumours were
thrown in to add to the flame, and the Tientsin massacre
was the result.
Here we have another illustration of Chinese ignorance,
and of its results. The Chinaman is said, by all who
have had experience of him, to have a keen intellect, and
to be very shrewd and sharp in his dealings. Although
he is thus acute in the ordinary affairs to which he has
been accustomed, yet the foreigners come from what is a
new world to him, with ideas and objects which are
beyond his comprehension. The painted eye of the junk
gazing blankly over the sea can penetrate quite as far as
the mental vision of the Chinaman into such matters.
Experience alone can bring knowledge, and teach him
how to deal with Europeans.
The Emperor's knowledge of Westerns can only be
guessed at from what we know of those around him.
The Mandarins and Literati are represented as a body
hating all foreigners. As all his teaching would be under
the direction of these classes, whatever feelings he may
have on the subject are likely to be someAvhat similar to
those of his guides. He is supposed never to have seen
a European. It is said that he expressed a wish to have
a look at one, and proposed that one should be kid
napped and brought into the Palace for this purpose;
but that would have been a dangerous experiment to try
in Peking, where foreigners are few, and all so well
THE AUDIENCE QUESTION. 225
known to each other. What a blessing it might have
been to the young Emperor himself, as Avell as to his
subjects, if, like our own Princes, he could have travelled
and seen a bit of the world, particularly beyond the
limits of his own territory. A little travelling would be
about the very best thing he could try;, but that is im
possible. The " Solitary Prince " must be as blind, if not
more so, than those over Avhom he rules. He is only the
painted eye on the Chinese junk of State, and it is im
possible that he can know in what direction to guide the
vessel. The treaty of 1860, which gave the right of the Foreign
Ministers to reside in Peking, was a great step in advance.
The Audience question is anticipated in it, and it stipu
lates that the British representative " shall not be called
upon to perform any ceremony derogatory to him as
representing the sovereign of an independent nation on
a footing of equality with that of China. On the other
hand, he shall use the same forms of ceremony and
respect to his Majesty the Emperor as are employed by
the ambassadors, ministers, or diplomatic agents of her
Majesty towards the sovereigns of independent and equal
European nations." This very clearly settles the forms
to be" followed in the event of an audience, but does not
bind the Emperor to give one. The right to purchase
land and buildings in Peking for the Legations wras at
once exercised by all the great powers of the West ;
and by being at the capital they are able to communicate
directly with the Chinese officials there, and thus facilitate
the transaction of business. Personal intercourse, which
has now gone on for about eleven years between the
226 MEETING THE SUN.
Ministers of so many nations and functionaries at the
head of departments in Peking, ought by this time to have
removed from the latter many of their illusions as to the
character of the foreigners. Men like Mr. Low, the
American Minister, General Vlangaly, who represents
Russia, or our own Minister, Mr. Wade, must have pro
duced some influence on the high mandarins with whom
they have come in contact. General Vlangaly is an Engi
neer officer, and was on the staff of General Todleben during
the siege of Sebastopol. As I had some slight connexion
with that memorable siege, I found it a link of acquaint
ance when I called on the General. Mr. Wade, as I have
before remarked, has the reputation of holding the first
rank in Chinese scholarship, the Chinese Literati them
selves being judges.
Since this chapter on the Audience question was written,
news has come to England that the Son of Heaven has
received the Ministers of the principal European powers
into his presence without the ceremony of the Kotow.
On the 29th of June last, at nine a.m., Mr. Wade, C.B.,
the Envoy of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Governor Low,
the American Minister, General Vlangaly, the Russian
Ambassador, the French Minister, M. de Geoffroy, and Mr.
Ferguson, the representative of Holland, were received
in the Imperial Palace. General Vlangaly, as the head
of the Diplomatic body, read in French a short address
to the Emperor; Herr Bismarck, a relative of Prince Bis
marck, translated this into Chinese, and Prince Kung
went on his knees before the Emperor, and translated it
into Manchu, which is the Court language.
Well here, we might suppose, is the end of the great
THE AUDIENCE QUESTION. 227
Audience qnestion. When the details are inquired into,
it does not seem to have been perfectly satisfactory to
our Western notions. The Peking Gazette announced
the event in the following way : — -
" The Tsungli Yamen having presented a Memorial to
the effect that the Envoys of Foreign Nations residing
in the capital have supplicated that they may have an
audience, to present letters from their Governments, we
command that the Foreign Envoys in the capital who
have letters from their respective Governments be ad
mitted to an audience."
In matters of etiquette, every word and every movement
becomes a question of importance, and it will be seen
that there is a very great difference between " suppli
cated" and " asked for," or perhaps " demanded;" and
the Times' correspondent's letter points out that " She-
Chen," a word used to characterize the Envoys of the
" Tribute-bearing-Nations," is used in the official notice,
instead of " Kingchai-Ta-chen," or Imperially Commis
sioned Minister, the phrase always used now to designate
themselves by the Representatives at Peking.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.
A trip to the Great Wall of China from Peking is an
affair of four or five days, and requires some preparations
to make it pleasant, for Chinese inns are scarcely up to
the mark of supplying all the wants of the " foreign
devils." Some friends, having made up a party, kindly
invited me to accompany them, and promised that the
" Chow-chow " (Pigeon-English for food, and in this
particular case including drinkables as well as eatables)
would be all provided. As this is one of the most
important points in such an excursion, and as I
knew I should be in agreeable society, also an important
point, I willingly accepted the invitation. A visit to
the Great Wall generally includes the Ming Tombs and
the Summer Palace, and our party had them all in the
programme. We were four gentlemen and two ladies,
and as we rode out from Peking by the Te-Sheng-
men — one of the northern gates — our appearance con
trasted so oddly with the look of the gates, the towers,
the walls, and the people around, that it is rather
difficult to say what we were like to ourselves, and still
more difficult to guess what our cavalcade appeared to the
Chinese mind. Our party was the incongruous anomaly
in the scene. My own impression was that we looked
very much like a travelling circus, or the beginning of
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 229
one of Mr. G. P. R. James's novels. A travelling circus
could not have produced a greater sensation, for at every
village there was a rush on all sides to look at the spec
tacle. The women particularly came out in numbers to
see the ladies, and they seemed to examine everything
most critically, for there was much chattering among
them. Our path was for some distance along what appeared
to be a ravine, but it was explained that it wasa " road."
It was so deep that we could only get a glimpse occa
sionally of the fields as we drove along. A connected
system of lakes formed the central part of this valley.
Here and there the lake was only of mud, and at times
the lake and mud filled up the whole breadth of the road,
so that there Avas no avoiding it, and the carts had a
number of animals attached to pull them through. We
saw one cart with four mules get so deep that it stuck,
and the mule in the shafts had fallen, and was so engulfed
in the slime that we thought he must be drowned. The
mud dries in summer, and becoming dust, is blown away
by the wind. This after many years is the cause of the
road becoming a deep ravine. The granite-paved road
from Tung-chow to Peking has been already described,
and the similarity of condition in both of these highways
shows that they are under the same system of supervision.
There is a Board of Works in Peking, but whether roads
and ways come within its province or not I cannot say.
I am told that a Mandarin may regularly draAV the neces
sary funds for keeping this particular road in repair,
and perhaps remits part of the cash to some one, who
pays a fraction of it to another person, who employs
230 MEETING THE SUN.
somebody else to write reports on its condition, whicli are
no doubt sent in to Peking to the Board of Works, de
claring that all is perfection. There are old and very fine
bridges on this road more or less in ruins. These bridges
are constructed of very large and well-hewn stones, but
they stand unconnected with the road on each side, as if
a deluge had swept past and carried the banks away. It
is only by a struggle up a steep bank of earth, and over
some of the fallen blocks of stone, that the bridge can be
reached by carts and animals. The towns along this
line are in as remarkable a condition as the roads. They
have high walls, Avith bastions like the wall at Peking ;
and the towns seem to be all perfectly square in plan —
like those of Tien-tsing and Peking. These high walls
are tumbling ; huge masses of the brickwork may be seen
which have slidden down, leaving a practicable breach
should an enemy ever appear ; but enemies are not likely
to give trouble ; even friends avoid them. There is a
system which is known here by the word " squeezing,"
and is said to be largely practised by those in power. To
avoid being treated like lemons, people prefer to live out
side the gates, and the result is a thriving suburb, which
flourishes on what is now considered the safest side
of the walls. If one should enter by the high portal of
one of these pretentious fortifications, expecting to find
busy streets and an active population, he will be slightly
disappointed. The interior is more like a wilderness than
anything else. There may be a house here and there
among the wretched thoroughfares which pass for streets;
but Pariah dogs and pigs seem to be left in possession —
perhaps they remain because they are not liable to the
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 231
squeezing process. The roads, bridges, and great Avails
of these towns all tell of a time when there was a Govern
ment in the country which did something ; their present
condition tells of a Government which is defunct, and
only waits its time to be removed.
Sha-ho, or Sandy River, was the name of the first
town we reached. It is named from the river we had
just passed, and it has an extending suburb on the out
side, where Ave stopped for tiffin. This was my first
experience of a Chinese inn, but I believe that they are
in this part of the country rather Mongolian than pure
Chinese. Such places of accommodation may be found
in every village hereabout, and through the whole
of Mongolia. The portion of the inn which is next the
street is a restaurant, with seats and tables ; and in a
corner is the kitchen, which is usually a very busy
and noisy place. A gateway leads to a large court
behind, and all round this are the sleeping-quarters.
They are all one-storied buildings, with separate rooms,
each room being capable of accommodating two or
more travellers. The sleeping-place is not a bed accord
ing to our notions of such a place. One end of the
room has a platform built across it about two feet high ;
there is a fireplace which is used in winter to heat all
the space under, it. Here you sit during the day, and
make your bed upon it for the night. The courtyard
is for the accommodation of the animals, and for stowing
away merchandise ; so that when one of these inns is
busy with travellers it is a very picturesque scene. As
we carried our own Chow-chow along with us we did not
need to trouble the " Comptroller of the Table," nor
232 MEETING THE SUN.
the " Governor of the Pot " of any of these esta
blishments. After tiffin we went on again and reached in the even
ing a place called Chum-ping-Sho, which our party
easily converted into " Jumping Joe," an infinitesimal
change in comparison to what the Chinese Literati make
with Avords adopted from our language. Here we put
up for the night, as it was the nearest place to our
destination, where accommodation could be found. In
cracking a nut you at times find within a dried-up
shrivelled fragment of what was once the kernel, and so it
Avas with Jumping Joe. A miserable small village was all
that remained at the north-west corner. The walls
might be about a couple of miles all round, and one must
suppose that they are an indication of what the town had
been at some former period.
Next morning we were on our Avay again, making for
the Ming Tombs. They are on the southern side of the
range of hills, upon Avhich the Great Wall is constructed,
the Wall being situated on the northern side. We had
passed two or three outlying knolls of this range when
Ave came upon a very fine gateway of marble. The
name given to gates of this kind is Pai-low. They are
all triple doorways. This one was not quite so high as
Temple Bar; but about the same width. The marble is
hewn into posts, and morticed ; the lintels are inserted
as if they were only beams of wood, clearly indicating
the origin of this style of architecture. This gate is in
a very perfect condition, but the road and a bridge close
by are in the usual state of dilapidation. The beautiful
but ruined bridges which we had passed the day before
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 233
had struck me as being more like what one would expect
to see about a palace than on a country road ; but all
this ultimately explained itself. This had been an Im
perial road from Peking to the tombs, made for the
Emperor and his Court to pass along when he visited
the graves of his ancestors to perform the necessary
rites. That would be during the Ming dynasty, which
ended in 1644, so that for more than two centuries this
road has not been in use for its original purpose, and
the present dynasty have no interest in it, for all their
tombs are somewhere in Mongolia.
About half a mile beyond the first gateway there is a
second, constructed very differently. It is like a solid
house, roofed as all houses are here, and an arched
passage forms the gateway. It has neither windows
nor doors leading to its interior. We pass another
arch something similar to this last, and then reach
what is considered the principal sight of the place.
This is a long approach bordered on each side with
sculptured animals. They are all fully the size of life
— a statement, however, that requires a slight qualifi
cation, as some of the figures represent griffins, and I
have never yet met one of these beasts alive.
There are in all twenty animals, and twelve human
figures. Among the animals are camels, elephants,
horses, and mules — four of each kind — two in a recum
bent position, and two standing, one looking at the other
across the road. The human figures are of warriors and
priests, the same figure being repeated on each side.
This stone population of man and beast extends for at
least a good half-mile, and ends by another triple gate.
234 MEETING THE SUN.
This grand approach to the tombs reminds one of the
Dromos of Sphinxes leading into the Egyptian temples.
It is said that one of the later Emperors desired to have
these old figures removed to his own burying-place, and
had given orders accordingly. Such spoliation as this is
to the Chinese mind a dreadful sacrilege. To preserve
the graves of your ancestors is one of the highest virtues ;
and one of the Court dignitaries went off by night, before
the order could be acted on, and chipped a bit from
each of the statues. This made them all imperfect, and
nothing imperfect can form part of a new tomb. It
saved the statues, and it is related that the Public Censor
denounced the Emperor for giving such an order, and
that he was tried and sentenced to a year's imprison
ment. These Public Censors still remain, not only in
Peking, attached to the head-quarters of the Government,
but in each province there is such an official, whose duty
it is to accuse and bring to trial even the Governors of
the locality. The existence of such a functionary shows
how wise the old laws of this country must have been ;
but now-a-days be has to think twice before denouncing
the crimes of a Mandarin, and the indicting of an
Emperor is a thing unheard of in these latter times.
When you reach the end of the sculptured avenue just
described, you are in the centre of an amphitheatre of
hills, some three or four miles wide. One can see in the
distance what seem to be country houses surrounded by
trees all round the base of the hills. These are the
tombs called Shih-san Ling, or "thirteen tombs," this
being their number. It would have been impossible to
visit the whole of them, and as they are all of the same
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 235
type we made for the principal one, a slight description
of which will do for them all. Their arrangement is very
important as bearing on the old ideas of tomb construc
tion, and particularly that of the barroAV or tumulus
graves. Ancient sepulchres are being dug into and
opened at home, and are a most important object of
study with archaeologists. Those opened in England are
prehistoric ; in China the barrow or tumulus mode of
burial is practised at the present day. The graves all
round Peking, which are to be seen in every direction,
are simply small mounds of earth, and the Imperial
tombs of the Mings are also mounds, but much larger.
We visited the tomb of Yung-lo, the third of the
race, who died in 1425. A large mound, about 600
or 700 feet in diameter, forms the sepulchral part
of this monument. It is surrounded by a high, cre
nelated wall of brick, and planted Avith trees — the
pine, with its resinous scent, being most plentiful.
The mound is thus made to appear like a strong
castle or fort, and it Avould be taken for something
of that kind were it not that it is almost entirely
hidden by a series of very important buildings erected
in front of it. 'These are surrounded by a wall forming
an enclosure, the whole being about 1200 feet long by
500 feet wide. The buildings within this enclosure are
in the form of a palace or temple, with gates and halls
and altars, showing, what has been already noticed,
that, in this part of the world, the Tomb, the Temple,
and the House are constructed on the same idea.
The position of the body in this great mound was not
indicated by any sign which we could discover. The pro-
236 MEETING THE SUN.
bability is that means were rather taken to conceal than
to suggest the precise spot, so as to prevent spoliation.
On the southern edge of this tumulus is a building
with a vaulted ramp below, and above, placed on the
back of a tortoise, is a tall slab, forming what may be
called the grave-stone. In front of this building, and
still farther to the south, is a very large stone altar, not
less than twenty or thirty feet long. On it are the usual
five altar vessels. The central one is a vase for incense ;
on each side are two candlesticks, and at each end are two
vessels for flowers. There is no house or covering over
this altar. It is the altar before the Imperial grave.
The worship at it is devoted to the tomb. As already
stated, Dr. Clarke says, " The simple sepulchral heap
was raised, and became the altar on which sacrifices
were offered." Here the altar is not on the sepulchral
heap, but yet it is so attached as to connect the wor
ship of the one with the other, and that so closely that
we could easily suppose we have the primeval worship
he describes. Before the altar are a couple of gates, and
in a second enclosure is the great hall.
This is the finest specimen of architecture that I saw in
China. Mainly it is constructed of wood, and whatever is
not so illustrates clearly the wooden origin of every detail
of Chinese architecture. The building is about 200 feet
long, and has sixty teak pillars to support the roof. Six
teen of these are about sixty feet high and four feet dia
meter at the base ; the others are not much less in size.
They are said to have been brought from Borneo, and
came in the form of a raft. Like the Temple of Heaven
and other temples about Peking, this hall stands on a
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 237
triple terrace, all of marble. The first or lowest is
ascended by seven steps, and the second and third by
five steps each. A triple set of doors leads through each
of the gates and halls attached to this tomb, and the
series of steps is also triple.
In the central point of this hall, in a shrine, is placed
the ancestral tablet of the Emperor. His name was
Yung-Lo, and Mr. Davenport, who is interpreter to our
Legation at Peking, and was one of our party, translated
it for me. It is, — The Perfect Ancestor,
The Literary Emperor.
Our Poets' Corner is a higher tribute than this to lite
rary genius, for it is not dedicated to crowned heads, but
to men who made themselves a position by their own
genius. Still this hall and its ancestral tablet indicate
the literary instincts of the nation. In front of this
great hall are two small shrines of glazed tile or majo
lica. All this is within an enclosure, and a hall-like
gate connects it with another enclosure and gate,
leading to the southern extremity of this strange tomb-
palace or temple.
I am sorry that time did not permit my visiting the
other tombs of the Ming dynasty here, and comparing
them with the principal example. At a later time I
visited Nanking, where there is the tomb of the first of
the Mings ; and I consider myself very fortunate in
having seen this tomb, and in having been able to com
pare it with the tombs to the north of Peking. It has the
mound even larger than the others. I had no means of
R
238 MEETING THE SUN.
measuring it, but was told that it is nearly a mile in cir
cumference. The arrangement of altars, halls, and gates
in front must have been very similar. I could only judge
from tracing the plan on the ground, for they had all
been burnt ; but the great peculiarity was the approach
formed of sculptured figures. The number aud character
of these sculptures differed in no respect from those at
Peking, but the road on which they stood had a double
bend, something like the letter S. My Chinese guide ap
plied the word " Loong " to this road, which is the name
for the dragon. Seeing how important this would be as
bearing on the subject of dracontine temples, I tried to
find out by various means whether my guide had used
the word as denoting that the road was designed to
represent a serpent, or if that was the recognized
meaning or symbolism of the way to the tomb ; but
unfortunately I could find no one who was able to
answer my inquiries. The loong or dragon is supposed
to select the site for a tomb, and the idea that a deceased
Emperor is borne to heaven by the dragon, expressed in
a former chapter, suggested that this heavenly journey
might be symbolized by a serpentine path to the grave.
It is a subject worthy of inquiry by the believers in
dracontine edifices, and for the present I leave it in
their hands.
The Nanking tomb is at the base of some hills which
partly encircle it like a crescent. The Peking tombs ex
tend for two or three miles round the base of a similar
circle. In both cases these hills are on the north of the
tomb, and I am told that that situation is part of the plan,
and has a reference to the Fung-Shui, the personification
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 239
of air and water, which has to do with everything in
China. No one can be buried until this spirit has been
consulted, and has determined the place and position of
the body. Coming up the Pei-ho I noticed that many of
the grave-mounds had a circular ridge on the north side.
In this we also get the probable explanation of the Mei-
Shan, or artificial hill, on the north of the Imperial palace
in Peking, which has already been referred to; and, if so, it
shows how completely the identity of a palace with that
of a temple or tomb was carried out. The worship at
these tombs — which is that of deceased ancestors, and is
the acknowledged basis of religion in China — gives sup
port to the explanation which I offered relative to the
Temple of Heaven.
We had tiffin in the great ancestral hall of Yung-Lo.
The Chinese do not associate any ideas of desecration with
the use of a temple as a house. They use them in this
Avay themselves, and offer them for the accommodation of
travellers, so that we were committing no impropriety in
taking our food in front of the altar with the tablet of the
" Perfect Ancestor."
In the afternoon we had a pleasant ride along the
base of the hills to Nan-Kow, which we reached in the
evening. Nan-Kow means " South Mouth," and is the
southern entrance to a valley leading to the Great Wall,
distant about eleven miles, and the object of our march
for the next day.
From Nan-Kow to the Great Wall and back is a good
day's work ; so we were up betimes, and started on mules
(mule litters for the ladies), for the pass is too rough and
stony for horses. All travellers who have described this
240 MEETING THE SUN.
pass have mentioned the stones they have had to get over,
and there is certainly some justification for a word or two
on that score. Most mountain passes, left in a natural
state, are stony, but this one is pre-eminently so. It re
minded me of many parts ofthe Sooroo Pass, which leads
from Annesly Bay to Senafe, and formed part of our
way up to Magdala. Our soldiers made a road there,
and now probably not a vestige of it is to be seen. In
the Nan-Kow Pass also a good road once existed, but its
ruins now only help to increase the quantity of stones for
which the pass is renowned. This road, when new, was
paved with large stones, like the road already described
between Tung-Chow and Peking, and must have been
a better thoroughfare than the Appian Way of the
Romans. There are very few fragments of it now left,
and these are so small, and so covered with stones,
that it is not easy to discover them. Fragmentary
remains of bridges can also be detected. When in good
order, it must have been much used, for there are the
deep ruts on the stones caused by the traffic of cart wheels,
which must have taken many a year to produce. At the
present day carts cannot pass. We met with portions of
them, such as the wheels, &c, being taken through on
the backs of mules. As this is the route of all caravans
going to Siberia and Russia, besides being one of the
principal lines into Mongolia, the traffic is immense — not
quite so great as that of the Strand, but quite equal to
many of the frequented streets of London. Mules,
donkeys, and camels are constantly going and coming in
large and small groups. We saw hemp, paper, oil, felt,
grapes, &c, coming in, together with sheep, goats, and
THE GREAT WALL OE CHINA. 241
bullocks for the Peking market. Soda from Kalgan is
an article of trade that comes by this pass to China.
All the productions of China, on the other hand, were
going out by this stony way. So great and constant is
this traffic that our party proposed a Nan-Kow and
Mongolia Direct Junction Railway on the spot. It is
easy to propose railways in China — here man may pro
pose, but Peking disposes. This is the one great point
of grievance between the "Foreigners" and the powers
that be in China. Probably there are vested rights
in roads, such as I have described, and which would
be at an end were railways introduced ; but no doubt
there is something more behind the opposition to rail
ways in this country. At one part we found a poor
woman scooping up the stones with a wooden dish, and
throwing them on one side, and when travellers passed
she held this dish out for a small contribution as a
voluntary toll for work done. One naturally Avondered
what might be her connexion with the Board of Works at
Peking, or if she might be mentioned in the annual
report on the state of the routes leading into Mon
golia. Readers will please to remember that this is
the condition of the public highways within a few
miles only of the capital, and that the rulers in this
capital will not allow a railway to be made in any part
of the Empire.
There is a fort, with a good-sized village, about the
middle of the pass. Its name is Keu-yung-Kwan. There
is a portion of an inner wall here, which is said to be
very old. The place is celebrated as being the spot at
which Genghis Khan was successfully stopped in his
242 MEETING THE SUN.
efforts to force the pass, and has now an importance to
philologists from an old arch full of sculptures and
inscriptions. As this erection stands by itself, and has
no relation to the walls of the fort, it presents the
appearance of a Triumphal Arch. The sculptures are
chiefly on the inside, and consist of figures of Buddha,
repeated like a pattern over the space not occupied by
the inscriptions. There are also four large groups of
bas-reliefs at each corner. The date of the arch is 1345.
The inscription is repeated in six different characters, and
as some of these characters are almost unknown, the
Arch acquires all the importance among the Mongolian
languages which the Rosetta Stone had for the Egyptian.
The inscription is Buddhist, and the first copy is Sanscrit,
in the Devanagari character. This is phonetically re
peated in Thibetan, Mongolian, Ouigour, Neuchih, and
Chinese characters. The Mongolian character, known
under the name of Bashpah, is very rare. The Neuchih
is an alphabet whose name only had been known till this
inscription was discovered.
Before reaching the northern mouth of the pass some
inner lines of the Great Wall are seen, and they suggest
the idea that the wall was more fantastic than useful.
It twists about up and down the hills like the wild
vagaries of Chinese ornamentation, or the writhing con
tortions of their gods. It is built up the side of steep
precipices which never could require defence; and in
trying to trace out the salients, were it not for the embra
sures on the top, it would be difficult in most cases to tell
which is the outside and which the inside of the work.
It is manifestly pre-Vauban in more wavs than one.
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 243
These remarks apply also to the Great Wall itself. It
would appear a very formidable defence to the mind
of the Mongols, and its very reputation may no doubt
at times have caused the idea of invasion to be given
up. We must not forget that it was built at a time
when the bow and arrow was the only arm of precision.
To a visitor the Great Wall is not impressive. All that
can be seen of it is the portion which runs up the hills
on each side. A Rhine fortress presents a more im
posing appearance. But the interest lies not in what
we see, but in the associations connected with it. The
wall is upwards of 1200 miles in length — the Chinese call
it the Wan-li-Ohang, or " the Myriad-Mile- Wall." Some
portions of it existed before the Christian era, and its
name, associated with that of great conquerors, is linked
Avith the history of China and the movements of the
Mongols and other races of Central Asia. It is one of
the Seven Wonders of the World, which one has read
of and wondered about in boyhood. Who has not
¦wished to see such a monument, and wondered whether
fate would ever give him the chance of doing so ? But
regarded as a thing of the past, the visit to such
a great and renowned work seems very common-place.
You recognize the wall at once from having seen
it in pictures, and it seems familiar. You inspect the
stones, and the quality of the bricks. You count the
courses and the number of the towers — walk along the
way on the top and gather a flower to send home to a
friend ; you come down again and have tiffin under the
shadow of the wall, and you hear some one grumbling
that the mustard has been forgotten ; the mules are
244 MEETING THE SUN.
mounted, and you return again down the stony pass.
This is the British style of doing such things. Mr.
Seward and a party of Americans lately visited the
same spot, and instead of grumbling about the mus
tard, they had toasts after their lunch, made speeches
and talked of " the civilization of the youngest and
greatest of modern nations," and "the civilization of
the greatest and most ancient of nations." No doubt
this is the best style of doing a visit of this sort, but
for myself I should never feel, on such an occasion,
that I was called upon to make a speech. I should
all the while have the idea that the Great Wall was
laughing at me.
Mr. Seward made one good observation, which is
valuable as a means of giving an idea of the vastness of
the wall. It was, that the work expended on it would
have made all the railways in the United States. If this
statement is correct, it gives a means by which the
labour, and something like its monetary value, may be
estimated. Mr. Seward naturally contrasted the utility
of the one with that of the other, much to the advantage,
no doubt, of the " youngest and greatest of modern
nations." This is scarcely fair to the Great Wall.
Railways are made for the passage of people and the
transport of goods. The wall was made for the directly
opposite object — of stopping the passage of people and
the transmission of goods. In those days, when large
numbers of people wanted to pass with arms in their
hands into other people's territory, for the purpose of
carrying off goods that did not belong to them, a strong
defence fike this Great Wall was a work of the utmost
THE GREAT AVALL OF CHINA. 245
utility. Barrow, who went with Lord Macartney's
Embassy, and visited the Great Wall at that date,
gives an idea of its size in another way. He esti
mated that all the building in the houses of England
and Scotland would not suffice to construct the Great
Wall. At present we all knoAV how useless this great work is.
All the conditions have completely changed, and it now
lies winding and twisting over the hills like some fossil
serpent of antediluvian date. I have stood on the old
fort of Jamrood, at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, and
looked into that mountain portal from which issued the
Veda-chanting race, whose migration south into the
plains of Hindostan is about the earliest movement thus
far known to us in the history of that country. Through
this same pass came Alexander, and at a later date the
conquering Mussulman ; all from the north into the more
rich and fertile south. The present lords who now rule
that country came from the north also ; but the sea has
become the great highway in these latter times, and the
Khyber Pass has ceased to be the Gate of India. So it
is with the Great Wall. If China must have a wall of
defence, it is wanted at the present day along her whole
seaboard. The only walls possible there are floating
ones ; but long before she can build these, the " Sea
Devils " will be dictating how the "Son of Heaven "
and his Government are to be admitted into the com
munity of nations, and how his people are to be
allowed to conduct their commercial transactions with
all who come to buy and sell.
All accounts agree that that portion of the wall which
246 MEETING THE SUN.
we visited, and which is the nearest to Peking, is the
best. Either the Emperors of the time were anxious
to have it strong at that part, being nearest to the
capital; or the contractors, or whoever had charge
of the work, were closer to the eye of the authorities,
and had to do their work well. To the westward of
Peking the beautiful masonry ceases, the protecting
towers become scarcer, and at last disappear. It even
ceases to be a stone Avail, and is in parts only an earthen
parapet. Towards its western end Hue and Gabet
crossed it without dismounting. Hue says, " We have
crossed it at fifteen different points, and on several
occasions have travelled for whole days parallel with it,
and never once losing sight of it ; and often, instead of
the great double-turreted rampart that exists towards
Peking, we found a mere low wall of brickwork, or even
earthwork. In some places, indeed, we have found this
famous barrier reduced to its simplest expression, and
composed of flint stones roughly piled up."
The Coreans also constructed a wall against the
Tartars, and on the maps it has the look of being merely
an extension of the Great Wall eastward. It was made
of wood, and is known for that reason as the " Wooden
Palisade." It is now reported to be in a most ruinous
condition. On our way back to Peking we visited the Summer
Palace. There is some talk that it will be restored again
for the use of the present Emperor. It remains as it was
left by the allies in the late war.
We also visited the Wan-sheu-shan, a hill covered with
shrines ; but the principal feature is a Buddhist temple
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 247
all in porcelain, and very beautiful it is. I believe that
" Majolica " would be a more correct word to use in
describing this building. It is formed of glazed earthen
ware, green and yellow predominating. It is one mass
of ornament and Buddhist figures, and is the most
beautiful specimen of that style of work that I saw in
China. Many of the shrines round it have been destroyed,
but this building is untouched. I believe that its preser
vation is due to Lord Elgin. Had Peking been built in
the style of this temple, it might have then earned the
title of " Crockery- ware Metropolis," and been proud of
its reputation. There is also a small bronze temple, and
it was strange and instructive to see the original wooden
forms of Chinese architecture here all repeated in metal.
In the distance we could see some ruinous-looking
buildings, which were erected by a traveller who had.
been in Mongolia by order of an Emperor, so that he
might form an idea of a Buddhist Lamasery : they seemed
to have much the appearance of a barrack about them.
Having visited many of these monastic establishments
in the Himalayas and Tibet, I felt a great desire to
inspect these places, but time would not allow me to
do so.
We visited the Jade Spring — a fine stream, bubbling
up clear and fresh into a lake. A long inscription tells
of its merits. It is called " The One Spring under
Heaven," and it is asserted that "the virtue of water is
the nourishing of men," many high attributes being
given to it. The water for the Emperor's use is
brought in from this spring to Peking daily, and
shortly after we had left it the small cart was pointed
248 MEETING THE SUN.
out to us going out for the day's supply. There were
two casks in the cart, covered with a yellow cloth ; and
a flag of the same colour, with some Chinese writing on
it, fluttered in the wind, telling that, cart, mule, and
man were on Imperial business.
CHAPTER XX.
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA.
In passing through the streets of Peking, or those of
any town in China, the visitor cannot fail to see, even in
the smallest and most unpretending shops, an ink slab,
a stick of ink, and the brushes used for writing, and,
probably, some one engaged in noting down in a book
what is evidently a series of business transactions. This
produces the impression that the mass of the people
are educated. In the bazaars of Oriental towns gene
rally there are no such evidences of the schoolmaster.
Except the " Letter Writers " in the streets, you see
in the East no indications of literary ability, and
these men are in themselves an evidence of the want
of education in the mass. In China the case is alto
gether different. A signboard over a shop is a proof
that most of those who pass along can read it. Sign
boards would be an anomaly in an Oriental bazaar, but
in China it would be difficult, even in the smallest village,
to find a shop that had not some character either painted
or written to indicate its business. This tendency to put
up signboards, to have inscriptions on buildings, to place
an engraved or written character on everything which they
manufacture, struck me as very significant, and in this
custom we might imitate them Avith benefit to ourselves.
All this is no new practice with the Chinese, and the
result is that the country is full of inscriptions.
250
MEETING THE SUN.
There is a stone tablet said to have been left by the
" Spirit-like Yu," who is the Chinese Noah, in the hill of
Keu-leu. Only copies of this tablet are to be found —
there is one in the City of Wu-chang, on the Yang-tse-
Kiang — in what is called the tadpole character. I need
scarcely add that there are great doubts as to whether
the original ever existed, for an inscription dating from
the days of the Flood would be a rare monument. In the
Confucian Temple at Peking there are preserved ten
"stone drums." These are said to date as far back as the
ANCIENT STONE DRUMS WITIT INSCRIPTIONS, CONFUCIAN TEMPLE, PEKING.
(From the "Illustrated London News.")
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 251
celebrated Moabite stone, about b.c 800. The inscription
is in a very old character, and relates a hunting expedition
of an Emperor called Siuen-wang. The stones were so
highly valued, that they were carried from one capital to
another when the Court migrated, and exact copies of them
have been made, so as to insure, in case of accident, the
preservation at least of their character, which is very
different from that now in use.
I have already described the Buddhist arch at Keu-
yung-Kwan in the Nan-Kow Pass, with its inscription
in six different characters dating from 1345. The
whole surface, outside and inside, of the great bell of
Peking is covered with characters. I bought a small
Buddhist handbell which the Lamas use in their service,
and even this, I found, had an inscription. Collectors
of old china in England look to the characters, in the
form of a stamp, always to, be found on it, to know
the age and quality of any article of that kind. The
fragments of pottery lately sent home from the Temple
of Diana bear no such evidence of the writing power of
their makers. Biscuit manufacturers at home impress
the name of their firms on what they sell ; but the
Chinaman is not behind them. In the meanest shop or
stall hereabouts, buns may be seen with letters stamped
on them in red colour. When men came with " curios "
for sale, I always inspected them to see if there were
characters to be found. In walking through the streets,
the modern practices in this line were an equal object
of curiosity to me. One " curio " in this way, which
arrested my interest, was a man carrying home a
duck he had just bought. It was killed, plucked, and
252 MEETING THE SUN.
cooked, and on its back was a large red stamp, which,
on inquiry, turned out to be the name of the shop
where it was bought. Whole rows of fowls may be
seen for sale, marked in this way. This will show
that advertising is not unknown among the Celestials.
On the walls of Peking there are yellow, green, and
orange handbills, and one, as read to me, stated
that a consignment of goods had just arrived at some
establishment; others were described as advertisements
of quack medicines. Large and attractive signboards
are a great feature of Chinese shops, and the words upon
them are a strange mixture of the flowery literature of
the land and the advertising instinct of a commercial
people. I saw a list in Peking of signboards, and a few
samples of them will illustrate their general character.
" Shop of Heaven-sent Luck;" " Tea Shop of Celestial Prin
ciples," " The Nine Felicities Prolonged ;" " Mutton Shop
of Morning Twilight ;" " The Ten Virtues all Complete ;"
" Flowers rise to the Milky- way." In these signs we see
that the Chinaman can combine the soul of a poet with
the pocket of a shopman. Contrast such efforts with
" The Noted Eel-pie House " of the London streets, and
one must feel that we are outer barbarians. Carlyle
quotes a Chinese signboard, " No Cheating Here," but I
could not find anything like it in the list. " Good and
Just according to Heaven " ought to satisfy the ideal
notions of the author of " Sartor Resartus." " The
Honest Pen Shop of Li " implies that other pen-shops
are not honest. The " Steel Shop of the pock-marked
Wang" suggests that any peculiarity of a shopman maybe
used to impress the memory of customers. Snub noses,
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 253
squint eyes, lame legs, or hump backs, might all be used
in this way. A charcoal-shop calls itself the " Fountain
of Beauty," and a place for the sale of coals indulges in
the title of " Heavenly Embroidery." An oil and wine
establishment is the " Neighbourhood of Chief Beauty"- — ¦
a description the realization of which it is hard to con
ceive anywhere in Peking. " The Thrice Righteous " is a
pretension one would scarcely expect from an opium
shop. Education begins at a very early age in China; very
small dumpy boys may be seen in the streets on their way
to school with an armful of books in a satchel of blue cloth.
At Nanking, one day, I entered a school (the schools are
easily distinguished from the noise of voices proceeding
from them), and the teacher was an old man, with nearly
twenty pupils. The boys do not sit on forms as in Eng
land ; but there were a number of small tables, each with
a boy or two sitting at them. A very prominent object
was a large new coffin, which the schoolmaster had
provided to be ready when he should require it. It was
decorated at the end with a piece of bright red paper,
and upon it was one of those favourite characters of the
Chinese, used to express either longevity or happiness,
which they use alike at funerals or marriages. This
would indicate that they have not the same sepulchral
and dismal ideas in connexion with a coffin that we have.
At Peking I visited a school belonging to the London
Missionary Society. As there was a Chinese teacher in
it, and the system was the same as in the other schools,
a description of it will illustrate what such places are in
any part of the country. In few words, they may be
254 MEETING THE SUN.
described as very noisy places, — all the boys bawling
at the same time at the very top of their voices, to get
by heart the books which they are reading. When they
have learned a portion the pupils come to the school
master, and, standing with their backs to him, so that
they cannot see the book in the master's hand, repeat
what they have learned. It is a system of cramming,
in which the boy with the best memory stands highest ;
and this seems to be the Chinese plan all through in
education. I was rather astonished to find that, instead
of horn-books, these little fellows were reading the
Chinese classics. One boy was pointed out to me as
reading Mencius, and whoever at last gets the greater
number of these works by heart is the best scholar.
Imagine boys at home in a village school reading Plato,
Homer, or Milton, and being able to repeat them from
memory, and -you will realize the Chinese mode of edu
cation. All this is working up to the public examination
system, which occupies so important a place in China
that it may be called the core of the political and
social fabric. As it is an old institution here, it would
be well if it were carefully studied in reference to
our own examination system, which is but a thing
of yesterday. The principle on which it is founded
is no doubt good, but still it is full of defects. A
system which has been a thousand years at work, how
ever perfect in its adaptation to the period when it
began, is not likely to be in accordance with the altered
circumstances of the times now. To be able to repeat
the works of Confucius and Mencius is no doubt good,
but cramming mere words into a child is not quite the
Seliotype.
From the Illustrated London Neavs.
BOYS* SCHOOL, PEKING.
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 255
best system of training. The mind has other and more
important powers than that of mere memory. Limiting
the sources of knowledge to these old classic authors is
another defect of the Chinese system. We have had the
struggle about the classics and more modern knowledge
going on in our own universities. No sensible person would
object to the study of ancient knowledge. The limiting of
a national system of education in any way must be a fault.
In China the literati, or educated class, are said to be
the haters of foreigners, the opponents of telegraphs,
railways, and of everything new. Their classic books date
from the time of Confucius, and with them the history of
the world, or of intellectual thought, which is the essence
of all history and knowledge, ceased at that time. The
Chinaman has been grinding his teeth on these dry bones
ever since, and he growls if any other dog should venture
to approach. This education, confined to such narrow
limits, has been going on till his mind is as compressed
and diminutive as the small feet of the women of the
country. The growth of a Chinese girl's feet is arrested
in her infancy, and a literary man's mind has its growth
arrested at the early date of Confucius. A woman here
goes about much like a goat trying to walk on its
hind legs, and an educated Chinaman seems equally
incapable of treading the paths of modern knowledge ;
hence his total incapacity to comprehend the strange
foreigners who have of late years invaded his soil. The
whole civilization of these foreigners began ages after the
date of Confucius, and the educated Chinaman has not
acquired in his training even the preliminary knowledge
necessary to form a notion of their science and power.
s 2
256 MEETING THE SUN.
Over the outside of the gateway of the Examination Hall
at Peking there is this inscription : " If you are high up
in the classics you will gain a scholarship ;" and over the
inside of the door, "Those who pass through this gate learn
afterwards to govern the country." This simply means
that a knowledge of the classics is all that a man requires
to entitle him to be a governor of men in the nineteenth
century in China. One is almost tempted to advise the
Conservative party to emigrate to this region, for in this
happy spot they would find a true devotion to their prin
ciples. I would rather recommend that some impartial
man, free from all political bias, or at least able to see
for himself and to judge honestly, would come out here
and give us a good account of the whole educational
system. It would be of the highest importance as a
guide to those who direct and legislate in the matter of
our system at home.
The Chu-chang, or "Examination Hall" (as we
translate the name) at Peking, came upon me on the
first visit with all the surprise of a new discovery. I had
never read a detailed account nor seen pictures of these
places, so that I came with no preconceived idea. If any
one Avere taken to it aud told that it was a pig-market,
the interminable rows of small cells would seem exactly
fitted for such a purpose. At the time of my visit it was
in a very dilapidated condition. It is used only once in
three years, and it was over two since the last examina
tion. The seats and boards forming the writing-desks
were all gone ; nothing but the grooves in the wall into
which they are inserted were there to explain how the
place is furnished for the candidates. Large jars, such as
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA.
257
Morgiana might have used for the forty thieves, in which
water is kept for the use of the students, were scattered
COMPETING STUDENT, EXAMINATION HAIL, PEKING.
(From the " Illustrated London ^Vews.")
about, most of them broken. A rank vegetation of
nettles and weeds was luxuriant over the whole place.
258 MEETING THE SUN.
In the centre is a ruinous tower-like building, from which
watchmen look out, as well as from smaller towers at the
corner, to See that no one comes in to communicate with
the competitors. The outer walls are double, and guards
walk up and down for the same purpose*. The judges are
also confined in a series of houses on the north end
of the " Enclosure,"— for that word is a term more
descriptive than " Hall," which is out of place when
applied to what looks more like a cattle-market
than a literary institution. There are 10,000 cells to
accommodate the numbers who compete every three
years. There are similar places in every provincial
capital, where the first and second degrees are conferred ;
but that of Chwang-Yuen, " Senior Wrangler," can only
be got at this " College of the Forest of Pencils " in
Peking. It lasts nine days — that is, the 10,000 are shut
up three times for three days and three nights for each
" go." Tea and food are supplied. The students bring
their own brushes, which are here used for pens, and ink.
Sealed paper is provided, on which the essays must be
written, in order to prevent the introduction of exercises
already prepared. Miniature editions of the classics are
now prohibited, because in some instances they have
been smuggled in. The student's own memory is the
only book of reference allowed. It is only when every
man has taken the cell allotted to him that the subject of
examination is given out ; and for three days and nights
each is confined to a space about three feet square, where
rest or sleep is almost impossible — where a stout man
must have a difficulty in getting in, or turning round
when he is in. The cell is open, as there is no door in
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 259
front, and a strict watch is kept that its occupant does
not communicate with his neighbours on either side. It
is a hard task, but the prize is great ; and ambition, or
vanity, seems as strong in the Chinaman's soul as it is
amongst ourselves. With them these literary degrees
bring not only honour and respect; they are the
steps to position, wealth, and rank. Even in the lower
degrees, when the news reaches a village or town that
one belonging to it has been successful, there are public
rejoicings, and the name of the successful candidate is
placed over his father's door. To gain the prize at the
Peking Examination is a very high honour. They are
entitled " One of the Ten Thousand," — this very title
telling how few can ever receive it, for it is only con
ferred once in three years. We are apt to associate
competitive examinations with young men as the candi
dates ; but such is not the case in China, and particu
larly at the Peking trial. The honour is so high, the
temptation is so great, that men come up time after time
till they are old and grey — men of seventy and eighty
continuing to compete. It is not an uncommon occur
rence to find at last their dead bodies in the cell.
Ambition and hope have led them on till their physical
powers were no longer sufficient for the ordeal, and they
succumb in the midst of it. When such an event occurs,
a hole is knocked through the wall of the place, and the
body is pitched out. This is owing to some very stringent
regulation about not opening the gate during the time
the men are in the cells at their work. Such is the end
of some literary careers in China. In many cases, where
aspirants for honours have persevered, and without
260 MEETING THE SUN.
success, till they reach the advanced age of eighty, the
Emperor confers some title upon them as a reward for
such continued endeavours. In addition to the rank and
position which these literary degrees command, there
are Confucian temples, Avhere, if any should attain to
popular favour and celebrity, he may hope for a tablet
with an inscription which will transmit his name and
reputation down to posterity.
The number of stone tablets for memorial and other
objects erected all over the country is one of the many
evidences of the literary education so earnestly coveted ;
and the respect paid to them is one of the good
features in the character of the population. Old in
scriptions are built into walls to preserve them ; large
stone tablets are standing in public thoroughfares, and
never seem to receive any injury. All written characters
are respected by the Chinese. There are men employed
who go about collecting all scraps of paper Avith writing
upon them ; these are carefully burned, and I was told
that the ashes are sent out to sea and thrown into it.
There are societies formed principally of literary men, in
every part of China, who employ functionaries to do all
this, and it is done from the idea that writing is so good
and worthy, and is of such advantage to men, that it
should not suffer any desecration, and be always treated
with respect. This reminds one of the Mahomedan's rule,
not to burn any bit of paper, lest it should have the name
of Allah upon it, the result being that Avith them also
scraps of paper are very much respected.
The Chinese histories tell of one tyrannical Emperor
who tried to destroy all the copies of the classics. Since
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA.
261
that time, and in case of another such appearing, the Avhole
of the thirteen books have been engraved on stone tablets,
and they are placed in houses which surround the Hall
of the Classics in Peking. There are about 200 large
slabs of marble upon which they are inscribed, and they
TABLETS WITH THE CLASSIC BOOKS ENGRAVED, HALL OF THE CLASSICS, PEKING.
(From the "Illustrated London Neros.")
form a most creditable monument of the veneration of the
Chinese. The idea was also entertained that it would
preserve the Chinese characters from changes in the
future by having them thus written on a durable material .
262 MEETING THE SUN.
The Hall of the Classics is a very fine building close to
the Confucian temple — of which I think it forms a part
— where the Emperor once a year expounds the classics
to the high Mandarins of the Empire. On visiting it
I found it foul with dust ; this was OAving to its not
having been used for the last ten years, but now that the
Emperor has attained to the full power he will have to
perform this among his many high functions. In this
institution we have another illustration of the literary
character of the people. It also indicates the literary
basis of the Government. The Head of the State is not
only a High Priest, but he also appears as the head- of the
literature of the country, and becomes its expounder. The
idea is no doubt good in the abstract, for it implies a wise
man at the head of affairs ; and the institution dates from
a time before Mongol and Manchu came into the country.
It could not have been intended that such barbarians
should be the expounders of the ancient books. This
task may, however, eventually fall to the new outer
barbarians, for many of them are hard at work, and
some quite as well up in the ancient lore as the Chinese
themselves. Mr. Wade, our Minister at Peking, occu
pies a very high place, and could no doubt teach or
" coach" the young Emperor if it was required. Neither
could it have been contemplated that Chinese literature
was to be expounded by a lad of eighteen, whose edu
cation had been finished by four Professors of Matri
mony, and who commenced his knowledge of the world
by being married to five wives. A performance of this
kind is a farce such as outer barbarians can only laugh at.
If Carlyle's best man could be foun4 — the man of wisdom
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 263
and power — who could explain the sacred books of a
country, and the just principles of government, and see
that these principles were carried out by the executive,
it would be a sight for gods and men to look at. The
catching of this "bestriian" is the great difficulty. If
rumour speaks true, they have not found him in Peking.
The Emperor is reported to have been but a dull scholar ;
like a spoiled child he had to be bribed into learning every
page of his Classics. How an Emperor is bribed I cannot
tell ; perhaps a boy-Emperor, like other boys, might be
open to the seductive temptations of lollipops, and the
paths of knowledge may have been made sweet in that
way for him.
What the proportion may be of educated Chinese
women, it would be impossible to say; but culture
among them is not uncommon. In a friend's house here
I met an old lady who had been one of a number of wives
belonging to a Mandarin. He was dead, and they had all
come down in the world; and this old lady supported
herself by teaching the daughters of people of the
better class in Peking. The fact that this woman her
self had been educated, and that she could gain a living
by teaching others of her sex, is an evidence that female
education is not altogether neglected in China. In this
respect China clearly stands high above the rest of the
Oriental world.
I visited a girls' school, belonging to the London Mis
sionary Society, which had been founded in 1865 by a
French lady, who happened at that time to visit a boys'
school in a great state of excitement. They were expel
ling a pupil, and, on making inquiries, it turned out
264 MEETING THE SUN.
that the delinquent was a girl, who, anxious for know
ledge, had disguised herself as a boy. This child became
the first pupil when the new school was opened. It is
now under the direction of Mrs. Edkins. A Chinese
woman acts as matron, and the teacher is a Manchoo,
well qualified for the post, who was born and brought
up as a gentleman, but is now, like many Manchoos,
in reduced circumstances. Reading, writing, arithmetic,
geography, music, sewing, &c, are taught, and in the
Missionary school religious education is also given.
The task of sketching the school, the various costumes,
and the modes in which the girls wear the hair, occupied
me some time. Mrs. Edkins took advantage of it to make
me recount to them some of the details of what I saw
in Jerusalem, which she translated. They followed every
particular with great interest, and were evidently familiar
with most of the places. Mrs. Edkins afterwards told
them of other parts of the world I had visited, and said,
'¦' Why, this gentleman has been all over the world; there
is no place he has not been to." One of the girls looked
up with an arch smile. She had in her thoughts dis
covered a region I had not yet seen, and said, " He has
never been to Paradise!" I was much pleased with
the idea, and liked her expression in saying it. The
twinkle of her small eye conveyed the idea of humour,
aud one could imagine a very slight infusion of what we
call " chaff." In the same spirit I was inclined to bid
our interpreter say, —
" For lie on honey dew hath fed,
And drank the milk of Paradise ;"
but what the musical lines of Coleridge would have
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 265
become Avhen translated into Peking Chinese it would be
hard to tell; so the answer was, "No, but I hope that
some day I may go there."
Seeing some of the girls with compressed feet, I asked
why it was allowed in such a school. The answer was,
that they were Chinese, and if they allowed their feet to
grow, it might interfere with their matrimonial prospects
— that no one of their own class would marry them — and
that it would be wrong to place them at such a disad
vantage in life, as worse results might follow. The Pro
crustean bed is a very old and worn-out simile, but one
is almost justified in applying it here to a custom which
literally cuts off a few inches of the human body.
The civilization of China is not the greatest of which
history bears record, but yet it is undoubtedly high,
and it would be an important question to answer how
much the education of the country has had to do in pre
serving it from decay. The civilization of Egypt and
Assyria has entirely disappeared; not one of their insti
tutions remain ; the very people themselves are gone, or
have been absorbed into other races. While all this has
been going on, the Chinaman exists to-day as he was
two or three thousand years ago. The reason of this is
a most important question, and a true explanation would
be of the highest Aralue. Egypt and Chaldea had a
learned priesthood and an ignorant mass of people. In
China we find an education which penetrates, at least
to a certain extent, through the whole mass. We find
them respecting, not only old, but all inscriptions ; all
books and documents are carefully preserved ; even every
scrap of paper with a character written on it, as I have
266 MEETING THE SUN.
already remarked, is collected, and preserved from what,
in this literature-loving country, is considered to be dese
cration. I have given in other parts of this book many
evidences that the people are educated, and it will be a
point of great importance to know how far this education,
and the feelings which it has engendered, have tended to
preserve the civilization of the country from that decay
which we know was the fate of all other Powers in the East.
This, again, I repeat, is a country for our educational
reformers to come and study ; a small expenditure of
time and money here might save much time and money
at home. What we are trying to do in England has been
in practice among this people for ages. We may assume
beforehand that this ancient system, although it may
have suited China, would not do for England ; but we
can find here a long experience which would be invaluable
to us while undergoing the process of hatching a system
of our own.
The high respect in which Confucius — Kung-tsze, as the
Chinese call him — is held is one of the many evidences of
the state of Chinese education. For more than two thou
sand years that veneration has endured. Temples exist
all over the country, and the shrine in all is a tablet with
his name. Under the Tang and Sung dynasties he was
called a Wang or Prince, and now he is called Sien-shi,
" the Teacher." Such sentences are applied to him as,
" Example and teacher of all ages," " Of all born men the
unrivalled," " The Perfect One," " Equal with Heaven
and Earth." These titles, of course, savour a good deal
of the sign-board style of literature already given ; still
the flowery style does not in the least detract from it as
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 267
an evidence of the high position which Confucius holds
in the estimation of the Chinese. Confucius has been
deified, and that rather as a literary god than a strictly
religious one. The Wen-Miao, or Confucian Temple in
Peking, with its Hall of the Classics, with the thirteen
books engraved on tall stones, standing all round like
grim deities ; the ten stone drums, with inscriptions as
old as the Moabite stone — the inscriptions being a hunt
ing ode, and not a Psalm to the deity ; aud the tablets to
all the learned followers ofthe teachers of all ages,"
all denote a temple dedicated to knowledge, and not to
worship, a result flowing from education, and not from
religion. In this, perhaps, we have the strength and
weakness of the whole Chinese system. Perhaps the
Turanian mind is not capable of combining the two, and
putting the higher development in its proper place.
Time only can tell whether the Aryan can accomplish
this result, and place them both on a firm and solid
basis, and each in its right position.
Whatever the present Emperor or Empress may do
in literature, it is worth recording what former sove
reigns in China have done. There is a dictionary pro
duced by the Emperor Kanghi, who began his reign in
1662. He employed seA^enty-six scholars, and each day
he looked over their work. Eight years were occupied
on this dictionary, and it extended to one hundred and
thirty-six volumes. The Emperor himself wrote the
preface, and in it he says, " Overwhelmed night and
day by the affairs of Government, seldom can I find a
moment's repose. But when I happen to have a little
leisure, I never fail to devote it to literature. My first
268 MEETING THE SUN.
care has ever been to study the classics and historians,
to examine their style and ascertain the meaning ; after
wards I turned to writers of secondary importance, more
extensively read among the people, and I found them
both, though of great usefulness on account of the in
structions they give on moral conduct, in great need of
being explained, corrected, and completed." Having
undertaken tbe dictionary, he thus describes the labours
of himself and those engaged : — " In the forty-third
year of my reign and in the twelfth month, I opened
the palace Yu Ying, and there convoked the Doctors
of the Academy to assist me in thoroughly revising the
work. The labours of each day were first submitted
to me, and then put into the hands of the engravers.
At last, in the fiftieth year of my reign and in the
tenth month, the work was completely finished, and con
sisted of 106 books, containing 18,000 sheets. It com
prises all that the ancients and moderns have written,
little as well as great ; so that of all dictionaries, even
the most extensive, there is none to be compared to this.
When the work was finished the doctors came in a body
to request that I would Avrite the preface. I have con
sidered that, from the beginning of this undertaking to
the present day eight years have elapsed, and that
during a long succession of winters and summers, great
have been the efforts made to complete the work. Not
withstanding my manifold occupations, I have had the
satisfaction of devoting to this object nearly all the leisure
hours of every day. In the beginning I warned the
Doctors that a great work, destined to embrace all our
literature, ancient and modern, could not be executed in
F,,>vi Hie Illustrated London News.
THE PEKING GAZETTE.
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 269
less than ten years. After a period somewhat shorter
we have finished the compilation of this universal work.
But would it have been possible to terminate it so soon if
we had not combined the efforts of every person capable
of assisting us in the undertaking ? I have therefore
deemed it advisable to inscribe at the beginning of the
work the names of all the Doctors who have contributed
to its publication." What a prince-like occupation !
As I was walking with a friend one morning in Peking,
a man with a small bag, which was suspended by a belt
over his shoulder, and from which could be seen the ends
of some pieces of bright yellow paper, was pointed out to
me as the distributor of the Peking Gazette. A Chinese
newsboy, a "representative of the press," with a pigtail
and white soles to his shoes, was an entirely new pheno
menon, and I instinctively got out the sketch-book and
secured him. The Peking Gazette is printed in the form
of a book, such as books are in China, but is more
like what we should call a pamphlet. It is about seven
inches by four and stitched in paper of the yellow imperial
tint. It is published every day, and is distributed prin
cipally among the official classes, but it contains nothing
but imperial edicts and petitions. Sir Rutherford Alcock's
articles which lately appeared in " Fraser's Magazine,"
show that these official notifications are a little more in
teresting than the same class of documents in our Gazette.
The ideas expressed in the petitions give one much know
ledge of the people. These documents are now often
translated into the newspapers published in China. I
never missed reading them, and I would recommend their
perusal to all travellers who wish to gather information T
270 MEETING THE SUN.
beyond what is to be seen on their line of route. Here is
a specimen, of date Oct. 24, 1872 : —
" Yang-chang-sun, Lieut. -Governor of Che-kiang, me
morializes the throne, requesting permission to rebuild
the temple of the god of the sea. The safety of Che-kiang
largely depends on the sea-wall, and although it is man's
province to erect such a Avail and keep it in repair, it is
none the less true, that we must look to the gods for its
protection. The temple in question was situated in the
city of Haining, but it was so completely destroyed by the
rebels, that only four stone pillars and a small pavilion
were left standing. It occupied forty mow of land. The
sea is the greatest thing under heaven, and we are com
pelled to believe that it is, with its daily ebb and flow,
under the immediate control of the gods. The eastern
and central portions of the sea-wall are of stone, but the
rest is only a narrow strip of earth and wood, and this
weak structure is all we have to oppose to the strength of
the mighty deep. The danger is at times very great.
Fortunately the sea was very tranquil last year, and the
wind very light, thanks to the gracious protection of the
gods. The memorialist is informed that it has always
been the practice for the local officials and people, when
ever there was an unusually high tide, to repair in a body
(to the temple of the sea god) and offer silent prayer,
and that an answer has been invariably vouchsafed. It
is estimated that the rebuilding of the temple will cost
about taels 45,000, and he begs permission to appropriate
that sum from the funds allowed for the sea-wall. The
sum required, however, being large, it is not intended to
commence building till next year.
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 271
The request is granted."
Any one wishing to study the mediaeval state of Europe
should first visit China, and he will find that condition of
things still in its purity there. This idea was constantly
impressing itself upon me. The document just quoted is
as good an illustration as could be given of the real state
of ideas in the middle kingdom. There is faith in the
gods, faith in prayer, and faith in sea-walls at the same
time. Here is a condition of things where science has
not as yet appeared with its doubts. But when these
people get modern newspapers to enlighten them, they
Avill have to encounter the question as to whether gods,
prayers, or temples are of any use at all when sea-walls
have to be built ; or to reduce it to another form — Is the
priest or the engineer the true prophet of the gods ?
The Imperial answers to some petitions are curiously
significant. The reply is, " It is known." Another is
sent up by "his kneeling servants," and the answer is,
" It has been seen." " Regard this " is one of the forms
when an order is given ; a variety of the same is " Regard
this as from the Throne." In many cases the reply is
that the subject is before the proper Board. Official
documents brought up to the Emperor are all signed
with what is known as the " Vermilion Pencil," or as
the " Dragon's Pencil."
The Peking Gazette is a very good illustration of .the
spirit of the Chinese people and of its principle of govern
ment, — a strict adherence to " The Ancient Rites and
Usages of the Empire," or " Usages of the Ancient
Kings," which is a variation often employed in public
documents. They have a constitution founded on their
272 MEETING THE SUN.
classic books, and from these old authorities they Avill not
move. I cannot help expressing my respect for all this.
I like a family who preserves portraits or relics of their
" forbears," as we say in Scotland, and what is worthy
in a family is still more worthy in a nation. Yet with all
its veneration for what is old, and in that sense almost
sacred, our approval is greatly qualified by the reflexion
that although this nation invented printing, yet almost
to the present time it had not within its territories any
journal but this official gazette of Peking. Two Chinese
newspapers are now published at Shanghai, one at Hong-
Kong, and a magazine is published in Peking in the
Chinese character under Missionary auspices. These
comprise the entire journalistic literature of China at the
present day. One of the consequences of this dearth of
journals or newspapers is, that one half of China may be
in rebellion while the other half is utterly ignorant of the
existence of any disturbance. A Mahomedan revolution
has been going on for years in the province of Yunan,
which is situated in the extreme south-west of China ; it
must take even months before official information of its
varying phases can reach Peking.
Newspapers in China will follow the fortune of other
" Foreign Devils." They may be resisted for a time, but
they cannot be kept out in the long-run. Think what a
field a nation of 360,000,000 people, who are all taught
to read and write, will become some day for the journalistic
press !
In the Legation at Peking, Chinese is the language
of communication between Englishmen and the natives.
This is because the language is studied there by those who
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 273
must speak it in their official capacity. But in the open
ports quite another tongue is spoken. It is now known
as " Pigeon English." This form of speech struck me
very much, and I have a theory to propose respecting it.
It is not my purpose to trace words back through the dim
ages which have gone, but to suggest probabilities as to
the future forms of speech among the Celestials. The
knowledge of the past of all language is as yet only in a
very theoretical state ; and in the nature of things, all
speculation as to its future must be equally so. My
theory rests on the assumption of the continued domi
nance of a race which will, by means of trade or con
quest, retain a powerful influence in China. Still, no
one who knoAvs China, and is acquainted with the
powers and influence of Westerns in the East, will
doubt that we shall not only maintain the position we
have acquired, but that most probably that position
will become stronger; that new ports will be opened,
and our relations with the people become more intimate
and powerful than ever.
Taking all this for granted, we may consider what will
be the future of that strange jargon known as " Pigeon
English," a language resulting from the meeting of East
and West in the ports of China. This language, if such
it may be called, derives its name from a series of
changes in the word Business. The early traders in
China made constant use of this word, and the
Chinaman contracted ¦ it to Busin, and then through
the change of Pishin it has assumed the form Pigeon.
In this form it still retains its original meaning, and
people talk of whatever business they may have in hand
274 MEETING THE SUN.
as their "pigeon." All mercantile transactions between
the Chinese and the Europeans are carried on in this new
form of speech. Domestic servants, male and female,
have to learn it to qualify themselves for situations with
the " Outer Barbarians ;" but the newest and most
important feature of all is, that the Chinese generally are,
to a certain extent, adopting this language. This is
owing to the fact that men of different provinces cannot
understand each other's dialect. The written Mandarin
character, however, could be read and understood all over
China, and the provincials used to write what they wished
to say in this, character, and could thus manage to do
business together. But now, if they both happen to
know " Pigeon English," they use it as the means of
communication. A lingua-franca was needed, and the
common necessity has supplied the demand.
It may be premature to call " Pigeon English " a lan
guage. It is only the beginning of one. Although ideas
can be expressed by it, it is in a most defective condition ;
so much so, that an Englishman, when he first reaches
China, is very much amused at what seems to him a relic
of Babel. If it should be his fate to remain in the coun
try he dislikes to adopt it. His sense of good manners
makes it distasteful to him to speak such a jargon, for it
sounds like making a fool of the party addressed ; but here
we get an evidence of the power of growth which this in
fantile speech is possessed of, for however reluctant any
one may be to speak it, he is forced by the necessity of
the case to do so. I was a traveller for only a few months
in China, but I found myself obliged to acquire the habit
of speaking what seemed to me, at first, nonsensical rub-
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 275
bish. I could not get on without it. On my arrival I
got a Chinese servant — servants in China are all called
" boys," in fact this is one of the words of " Pigeon Eng
lish;" and it is scarcely necessary to state that it is not
derived from the Irish. It is usual to breakfast about
twelve o'clock, and it is customary to have some tea,
toast, and perhaps an egg served in your bed-room when
you get up, and before dressing. The first morning I ex
pressed my wishes on this matter in my usual way of talk,
and the " boy " went off smiling, as if he understood my
meaning; but as he did not come back, I made some
inquiries of my friends in the house. They asked what I
said to the " boy," and I repeated the words as nearly as-
I could recollect them, to the effect that I wanted some
breakfast, and would like it immediately. I was then
told that I might as well have talked Greek to him, and
that I ought to have said, " Catchey some chow-chow
chop-chop." Chow-chow is understood in this as some
thing to eat, and the last double word is equivalent to
" quick-quick." Had I been a comic actor, and the
ordering my breakfast been a farce, it might have been
possible to feel that I should be saying the right thing in
this way. That not being my " pigeon," I felt reluctant
to do it ; but when eating, drinking, and all your wants
are found to depend upon its use, you soon give in ; and
here is the source of growth in the language, and the
reason why it advances and spreads in China.
One would suppose that such a mode of speaking could
only have a temporary existence, but these facts are given
to show that such will not be the case, and that there is
no chance of its dying out, On the contrary, we have the
276 MEETING THE SUN.
Chinese now adopting it among themselves as a means of
communication. There is nothing new in this ; it is only
history repeating itself. We have on record the growth
of other languages which must have begun under similar
conditions. A notable instance of this is the language
known as Hindostanee. Its origin dates from the Maho
medan conquest of India. It was named the Oordoo, or
" camp language," because it grew up in the camp of the
invaders. The conquerors and the conquered spoke
entirely different languages, and as a consequence their
means of communication at first must have been only
fragmentary. Each, however, acquired broken bits of the
other's speech, and time at last welded the whole into a
language. It has now a grammar based on the Hindoo or
Sanscrit, and an ample dictionary in which it will be found
that about three-fourths of the words belong to the lan
guage of the invading power. This has long been the
lingua-franca of India. Many languages are spoken there,
but this one will carry you over nearly the whole length
and breadth of the country. The pure Farsee, or Persian,
remained, and is still considered the burra-bat, or high-
court language. Of course the camp might jabber any
combination of sounds it found most suited to its wants,
but the dignity of a Court could not submit to the in
troduction of such barbarisms. For the same reason
" Pigeon English " would scarcely be a fit language for
St. James's or Windsor Castle. Imagine a Chinese Em
bassy, with the principal personage in it explaining to her
Majesty that he is " one piecey ambassador, that belongey
my pigeon. Emperor of China, one very muchy big
piecey Emperor," &c. Clearly this style of talk is not
likely to be used for diplomatic purposes for some time.
LITERATURE 'AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 277
Pigeon English is as yet in so rudimentary a state,
that to talk of its grammar or vocabulary would only raise
a smile among those who are familiar with it. When
you hear it spoken it sounds like an utter defiance of all
grammar ; and yet if we are to remain in the country, as
the Mahomedans did in India ; if we are to retain our
commercial camps — and our treaty ports in that country
are exactly camps — and if we, and the Americans at the
same time, go on extending our commerce, a common
language is an absolute condition of the case, and this
new form of speech must make way. Already its idio
matic forms are becoming defined and understood.
Chinese modes of expression are curiously mixed with
English ones. The interrogative form is purely Chinese.
Suppose you wish to ask a man if he can do anything for
you, the sentence is put, " Can do ? No can do ?" and
the reply is given by repeating whichever sentence ex
presses his abilities. It is the same with " Understand ?
" No understand ?" " Piecey" is a word that is largely
used, and clearly has its origin in our own language of
commerce which talks of a "piece of goods;" but with
the Chinaman everything is a "piecey." He does not
say " one man," but " one piecey man." There are a
few Hindostanee words in use, such as " chit," for a
letter, " tiffin," for lunch, and "bund" for a quay or an
embankment. The word " Mandarin " is from the
Portuguese ; " Dios " from the same language became
" Joss," and is a well-known word in China — Joss-house,
or God-house, meaning a Temple, being derived from it.
" Savey" is from the Portuguese, and is always used as
the equivalent of "know." To have, or to be connected
with, is always expressed by " belongey." If you wish
278 MEETING THE SUN.
to say an article is not yours, you express it thus :
" That no belongey me ;" or if anything is not an affair
of yours, you say, " That no belongey, my pigeon."
This terminal ey of " belongey " is one of the forms
which is peculiar to this new language. From it we
have " supposey," " talkey," " walkey," " catchey," &c.
The Portuguese " savey," which was one ofthe first words
in use, may be the original root of this form. Many of
the words in use are of unknown origin. In a number of
cases the English suppose them to be Chinese, while the
Chinese, on the other hand, take them to be English.
" Chow-chow " is one of these words. I heard my own
servant tell some of his countrymen that "Chow-chow"
was the English for " food." It was on the bank of the
Yang-tse, near Nankin ; they were country people, and
as he could converse with me, he no doubt seemed
to them a most trustworthy authority. A good many
Chinese words are of course used, but the bulk of the
ATocabulary is English.
It is not very satisfactory to look forward even to the
bare possibility of such a caricature of our tongue be
coming an established language. Should this ever be
the result, translations into it of our classic authors will
become a necessity. It is fearful even to think of trans
lations of Shakespeare and Milton turned into Pio-eon
English. A translation from one of our dramatists is
already in existence. It begins somewhat in this way —
" My name helongey Eorval, top-
Side gallow that Grampian hill
My Father catchey chow-uhow for him pieeey
Sheep," &c.
LITERATURE AND EDUCATION IN CHINA. 279
The Missionary " pigeon " will also in due time demand
a translation of the Bible into this very vulgar tongue.
Death has many consolations, and to the number may
be added this new one, that before this consummation
can be realized, we shall have passed away, and our ears
will be deaf to the hideous result.
Suppose any book for which you had reverence, or
even a favourite piece of poetry whose words your lips
loved to repeat — imagine your feelings on hearing it
converted into something like the following. It is a
translation of " Excelsior " into Pigeon English ; and it
may be necessary to explain to those whose education
has been neglected in this Language of the Future,
that " topside " means above, as the opposite of
" bottomside." "Galow" is untranslatable, but added
to " topside " the phrase becomes exclamatory, and it
is the nearest equivalent to Excelsior. " Chop-chop "
means quick-quick, but anything such as a stamp, mono
gram, or device, would be called " a chop." " Maskey "
is another of those words whose origin is unknown. It
has to do a great deal of duty in Pigeon English. In
the following it means " notwithstanding." To " chin-
chin Joss " is to worship God : to "chin-chin" a person is
to salute him. By placing the original alongside of the
translation the reader will easily make out the remainder
of the piece. The moral, it will be noticed, is by the
Pigeon English translator.
Excelsior ! Topside-galow !
The shades of night were falling fast, That nightey time begin chop-chop,
As through an Alpine village pass'd One young man walkey — no can stop.
A youth who bore, 'mid snow and ice, Maskey snow ! maskey ice !
A banner with the strange device, He carry flag wid chop so nice —
Excelsior ! " Topside-galow ! "
280
MEETING THE SUN.
His brow was sad ; his eye beneath
Flash'd like a falchion from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,
Excelsior !
In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and
bright ;
Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan, Excelsior !
" Try not the Pass ! " the old man said,
" Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide ! "
And loud that clarion voice replied, Excelsior !
" 0 stay ! " the maiden said, " and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast ! "
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answer'd with a sigh,Excelsior !
" Beware thepine-tree'swither'd branch!
Beware the awful avalanche I"
This was the peasant's last good-night !
A voice replied, far np the height, Excelsior!
At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of St. Bernard
Utter'd the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior !
A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner, with the strange device,
Excelsior !
There, in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, hut beautiful, he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star, Excelsior !
Hiin muchey sorry, one piecey eye
Looksee sharp — so — all same my.
Him talkey largey, talkey strong,
Too muchey curio — all same gong —
" Topside-galow !"
Inside house him can see light,
And every room got fire all right,
He lookey plenty ice more high,
Inside him mouth he plenty cry —
" Topside-galow ! "
Olo man talkey " no can walk ! "
By'm by rain come — vverry dark,
" Have got water, werry wide."
" Maskey ! my must go topside " —
" Topside-galow ! "
" Man-man ! " one girley talkey he,
" What for you go topside looksee ? "
And one time more he plenty cry,
But all time walkey plenty high —
"Topside-galow!"
" Take care ! that spoil'um tree, young
man !
Take care that ice ! He wont man-man ! "
That coolie chin-chin he good night,
He talkey " my can go all right."
" Jopside-galow !"
Joss-pidgeon man he soon begin,
Morning-time that Joss chin-chin,
He no man see — him plenty fear,
Cos some man talkey — he can hear !
" Topside-galow ! "
That young man die, one large dog see
Too muchey bobbery findey he ;
He hand belong colo - all same ice,
Have got flag, with chop so nice —
" Topside-galow ! "
MOilAL.
You too muchey laugh ! What for sing ?
I think so you no savey what thing !
Supposey you no b'long clever inside,
More better you go walk topside !
" Topside-galow ! "
CHAPTER XXI.
CHINESE CIVILIZATION.
One of the works of Davis begins with a quotation
which is so perfect an epitome of Chinese history
and civilization that I feel constrained to give it
here. " A territory of enormous extent, stretching 1400
miles from east to west, and as many from north to
south, peopled by above 300,000,000 of persons, all
living under one sovereign- — preserving their customs for
a period far beyond the beginning of authentic history
elsewhere — civilized when Europe was sunk in barbarism
— possessed many centuries before ourselves of the arts
which we deem the principal triumphs of civilization, and
even yet not equalled by the industry and enterprise of
the West in the prodigious extent of tlieir public works
— with a huge wall of 1500 miles in length, built 2000
years ago, and a canal of 700, four centuries before any
canal had ever been known in Europe — the sight of such
a country and such a nation is mightily calculated to fix
the attention of the most careless observer, and to warm
the fancy of the most indifferent. But there are yet
more strange things unfolded in the same quarter to the
eye of the political philosopher. All this vast empire
under a single head, its countless myriads of people
yielding obedience so regular and so mechanical, that the
282 MEETING THE SUN.
government is exercised as if the control were over
animals or masses of inert matter ; the military force at
the ruler's disposal so insignificant that the mere physical
pressure of the crowd must instantly destroy it if the
least resistance were attempted ; the people all this while
not only not plunged in rude ignorance, but actually
more generally possessed of knowledge to a certain
extent, and more highly prizing it, than any other nation
in the world ; the institutions of the country established
for far more than five-and-twenty centuries, and never
changing or varying (in principle at least) during that
vast period of time ; the inhabitants, with all their refine
ment and their early progress in knowledge and in the
arts, never passing a certain low point, so that they
exhibit the only instance in the history of our species of
improvement being permanently arrested in its progress ;
the resources of this civilized State incalculable, yet not
able to prevent two complete conquests by a horde of
barbarians, or to chastize the piracies of a neighbouring
island, or to subdue a petty tribe existing, troublesome
and independent, in the centre of a monarchy which
seems as if it could crush them by a single movemeut of
its body ; the police of the State all powerful in certain
directions, and in others so weak as to give way habi
tually for fear of being defeated ; the policy of the State
an unexampled mixture of wisdom and folly — profound
views and superficial errors — patronage of art and science
combined with prohibition of foreign improvements —
encouragement of domestic industry with exclusion of
external commerce — promotion of inland manufactures
and trade without employing the precious metals as a
CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 283
medium of exchange — suffering perpetually from the
population encroaching upon the means of subsistence,
and yet systematically stimulating the increase of its
numbers, removing every check which might mitigate the
evil, and closing every outlet for the redundancy." Such
is a wonderfully true account of the Chinese system as it
has been and as it is, but how much longer it will remain
so is a point most difficult to speculate upon. That
changes are about to take place is clear, but when and to
what extent it is not easy to foresee. If a beginning be
once made, they may rush headlong into Western ideas
as the Japanese are doing. Many consider that the
Chinaman, standing on his ancient customs, which ages of
experience have shoAvn must contain some good in them,
holds in this truly conservative aspect a more dignified
position than his neighbours in Japan, who can throw
away institutions of a thousand years with a grin and a
laugh, and in apeing everything European — are going
through a transformation scene with a speed which Avould
suit a pantomime, but which is questionable in political
or social changes, where time is one of the most essential
conditions of safe and permanent building.
Doubts are being expressed in these later days as to
whether " modern civilization " is entitled to all the loud-
sounding praise which it has received. There are the
Avell-knoAvn lines about the ills which human hearts
endure, and it expresses the doubt as to whether they
can be affected or cured by kings or laws ; and it might
now be asked if railways and telegraphs have solved the
problem ? Iu the midst of our progress, what are human
hearts not suffering at this moment ? The truth is, that
284 MEETING THE SUN.
Conservative reactions, High Churchism, Roman Catho
lic conversions, Paray-le-Monial pilgrimages, and such
things, are all expressions of doubt regarding the pre
tensions of Avhat has been called " progress."
Amongst the leaders of this aspect of dissent no one
occupies a more prominent place than John Ruskin, and
the "Fors Clavigera" is his last expression of it.
Much of what he proposes is in actual existence in China
at the present time. Mr. Ruskin has a strong anti
pathy to engines, and to all machinery propelled by
such means, applying the nickname of " demon " to them.
He holds that a man can cultivate with his own hands as
much ground as will support himself and his family, and
that he is better doing this than having a " demon " to
help him. He feels that an engine in a boat pollutes
the air with its smoke, and spoils the beauty of skies ; the
steam-whistle is a nuisance, and the primitive modes of
propulsion should be returned to. A woman can spin and
Aveave cloth, and can make with her own hands all the gar
ments necessary for herself, her husband, and family, and
she should be more happy when engaged in this than in
lying on a sofa all day reading novels while a demon is
doing the work for her. Men and women working in
factories with machinery, and breathing foul air, cannot
be so healthy as if they lived a quiet rural life ; men were
intended for working on the surface of the earth, and not
for grubbing like moles into its centre. These are Mr.
Ruskin's charges against modern English life. Now let
us see what the Chinese say and do in these matters.
One of the great complaints made by the Europeans
is that the Chinese will not allow the introduction of rail-
CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 285
ways nor telegraphs. There are steamers, but they only
enter what are called " open ports;" on the rivers, where
there are no such ports, a steam-vessel is not allowed
to come. I do not know exactly what the real ob
jection on the part of that Government may be. I
scarcely think that the adulteration of the atmosphere,
the spoiling of delicate tints in skies, or the un
musical scream of the steam-whistle, can have much
to do with the reasons of their policy ; still the result
is such that Mr. Ruskin and they might act together.
What he wishes to disestablish in Europe they refuse
to establish in China. China possesses a wonderful
network of rivers and canals, and through these
channels of communication a great variety of craft
is navigated. Much is done by the sail, but more still
by the tracking-rope, the "yuloo," or oar, and the pole
by which the boat is pushed along — that is, the motive
power is the muscular action of men's bodies — exactly
what Mr. Ruskin prays for in England. Robert Owen
and other social reformers have advocated spade culti
vation. The plough is used in this country, but it is by
the hand that the soil has been here brought into the
condition of a garden. I visited some of the villages
around Shanghai, where cotton is one of the chief pro
ductions. As it was in Avinter time, the people were
all at work indoors, the women being busy at all the
various processes hj which cotton is made into cloth. In
any village hereabouts they may be found at work ginning
it, spinning, winding, and weaving. The interior does
not suggest ideas of comfort — that is, according to our
notions — but the inmates seem happy enough. They
u
286 MEETING THE SUN.
look well fed and well clothed ; their winter garments are
all padded with the cotton in its unspun state ; the
children, particularly the very little ones, seem so padded
to keep the cold out that they are as broad as they are
long. The spinning-Avheel is driven by both feet, and
spins three threads at once. The loom is small, and
weaves a web not above twenty-four inches wide. There
is usually a table arranged as an altar, containing the
household gods, with vessels before them for lights and
incense, and on the walls are coloured pictures of pro
tective deities. The Avhole has quite a mediaeval look.
This mediaeval aspect is a characteristic of things in
general in China. Every one seems pleased at your
entering and noticing his work. There is neither a sofa
nor a novel visible, and the Aasitor is almost tempted to
ask whether they have been reading the " Fors Clavi-
gera," and are trying to work out its ideas.
This cloth is dyed blue, of various tints, and makes the
clothing for all in the house. There are no large barrack
like factories here, Avith an engine driving a thousand
shuttles. The home is the workshop, and human fingers
are the working means. What the principles of Political
Economy would say to this system I do not know ; but it
is clear enough to me that the people engaged in this
domestic manufacture must be healthier and happier than
if they were confined all day in the great Babel ofa Man
chester steam-loom factory. It is the same with the silk,
Avhich, far from being the produce of great establish
ments, is the special province of the women who feed
the worms and unwind the cocoons. Every cottage
produces as much as it can, and sends the surplus
CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 287
remaining, after supplying its own wants, to the nearest
market for sale. The Empress, who is supposed to be
the head, or the mother, of all the Avomen of China,
gives all her daughters a lesson of industry by going
through all the processes of the silk manufacture, with
the ladies of her court, partly as a religious ceremony.
This practice is founded on the same idea as the
Emperor's SerAdce at the Temple of Agriculture. The
Europeans lay stress on the abundance of coal and
minerals of all kinds existing in the country, but com
plain at the same time that they cannot get the per
mission or the means of working them. The manufac
turing usages here are not founded on the factory system
of the West. As a rule, every man does his work in
his own house, and there is no doubt that they all
produce good work in many ways, and they are most
industrious, working from early morn to late at night.
This is a very faint outline of the social condition ofthe
people as seen in those parts of this country which I have '
visited. If Mr. Ruskin should visit the same places, I
feel sure that there is much in them which he would not
adopt as the model for his new society. Still it is rather
marvellous to find existing in this old nation the chief
points which he insists that his own countrymen should
conform to. How old the village system or the present
forms of social life may be, as they at present exist in
China, I cannot pretend to determine ; no doubt they are
very old. They are almost independent of the dynasty
Avhich governs, or the religion which may dominate at any
time. We might kick the Manchus out of Peking, or the
missionaries may convert tbe whole 360,000,000 of " Hea-
u 2
288 MEETING THE SUN.
then Chinee," but it will require quite another set of
influences to change the old system by which they navigate
their rivers and canals, or the mode by which they cultivate
the ground, and produce food and clothing for themselves.
In other parts of this book I have noticed important
changes which I considered to be imminent, or rather,
of which I think that the beginning is at hand, which will
make the present time an era in the history of China.
Up to our day the people of this country have been,
by their geographical position, isolated from all the rest
of the world, except the nations of a similar ethnic
character with themselves. A great change has come
over the scene. The men of the West are settled in a
number of points on or near the coast, and are now so
firmly established that they have a basis of operations
from which, to act. The two races are face to face, and
the problem of the relations thus created must go on.
The English view of the position may be understood from
a favourite form in which one often hears it expressed.
It is something in these words : — " Let us have the au
dience question settled, and telegraphs, railways, and
steamboats will follow ; then we shall have the country
opened, and the people will become civilized." It is
rather an assumption in the case, that telegraphs and
railways must follow from Mr. Wade's standing in a
perpendicular position before the Emperor of China.
We have Philistines out here, and a Philistine in the
East is a perfect Goliath. When he imagines that any
thing is wrong, — let it be a Coolie or an Emperor-
he says, " Give him a thrashing. " The men of this
class here propose their usual remedy ; " Let us have a
CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 289
war, and give the Chinese a good licking, and then we
shall have the audience question granted, and everything
else will follow." This includes the opening of the
country for trade and the civilizing of the people,
through the process of " thrashing them." The missio
naries are working to civilize in another way, that
is by the usual plan of tracts and preaching ; but their
system is clearly not much in favour, if we may judge
from the very small effect which they produce among
the 360,000,000 whom they seek to convert. The man
of business wants the country laid open to trade, wants
manufactures introduced, the mineral wealth to be used,
and generally speaking the resources of the country to be
developed, " and that sort of thing, you know — that's the
real way to civilize them." This, of course, implies a
multitudinous breed of Mr. Ruskin's demons, or machinery.
I am here giving the tone of the ideas I hear expressed
around me. One day I heard some of these various points
talked over. We were sailing on the river above Shanghai
in a steam launch, which was making the air impure Avith
its smoke, snorting in a high-pressure way, and whistling
as steam launches are wont to do. The scene was ap
propriate to the conversation, for we were among a
forest of great junks — most quaint and picturesque they
looked — so old-fashioned, indeed, that Noah's Ark, had
it been there, would have had a much more modern
cut about it. My friend, to whom the launch belonged,
and who is in the machinery line himself, began by
giving a significant movement of his head in the direction
of the uncouth-looking junks, and then pointing to his
own craft with its engine, said, " he did not believe much
290 MEETING THE SUN.
in war, and the missionaries were not of much account."
" This is the thing to do it," he added, pointing to the
launch ; " let us get at them with this sort of article, and
steam at sixty pounds on the square inch ; that would
soon do it ; that's the thing to civilize them — sixty pounds
on the square inch." These prophetic declarations were
thrown out at China generally, but it was clear that the
old junks were the particular object of his anathema. He
Avas right at least in his view of the case, that the old and
the new — the East and the West — were meeting face to
face, and that the stronger must preArail. It will be noticed
that the civilizing of the Chinese figures largely in all these
programmes, and it suggests the Avhole question as to the
good which they are likely to get from our civilization. As
yet all that we have done is to give them opium, by which
they ruin their health and kill themselves off A^ery fast. If
the civilization which is to be brought here is that which
is represented by the system of agricultural labour in
England, or the factory system, or the coal-pit system,
were I the Chinaman I should certainly elect to do with
out it. The system of machinery, of which we are so
anxious to give the Chinese the benefit, may be said to
date almost wholly, in Europe, from about fifty years ago.
It has wiped out or supplanted the old guild system, and
its result has been the production of large capital on the
one hand, and a vast labouring class without capital on
the other. Capital and labour have become two anta
gonistic forces, giving us a problem which has not yet
been wrought out. Political economy assumes a scientific
air, and while it proclaims its principles, we can see most
grim and ominous shadows thrown upon our future way.
CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 291
Many solutions of the problem have been tried, but as
yet the result has not been very satisfactory. We have
had strikes — a most uncivilized state of things to bring
to China. The Internationals are hard at work solving
the problem. I hope they are considering John China
man in their meditations, and that they also see their
way to civilize him. The Commune is another of the
many solutions proposed. I happen to know something
of this last remedy, for I was in " the Sacred Centre of Civi
lization " in May, 1871, and saw a week's slaughter and
destruction as the result. If the events of that week were
to be thoroughly explained to the Chinese, I think they
would say that they had had quite a sufficient dose of that
sort of thing from the Taepings and the Imperialists.
Primitive barbarism of any sort would be preferable to it.
It would take a long time to go over all the panaceas
proposed. I can only notice that of Mr. Ruskin, which,
if carried out, would produce a condition of things in
England so very like what I have described as already
existing in China, that it might be said, instead of our
civilizing the Chinese, the Chinese were civilizing us.
With these modern problems in this state of confusion, I
cannot pretend to say what amount of good the Chinese
might probably derive from the changes we might intro
duce. Here, as I have already described, our power to civilize
the Chinese is always assumed ; and the only matter of
dispute is as to whether we shall be allowed to introduce
railways, telegraphs, and machinery of all kinds, which,
of course, includes " steam at sixty pounds on the square
inch," to accomplish this purpose. This, I think, is a
292 MEETING THE SUN.
much easier question to answer. If Mr. Ruskin could
find in England a herd of swine to run down to the sea
with the great legion of "demons " at home, the Chinese
might not be troubled with them ; but it is not likely that
this miracle will be repeated. On the contrary, the great
probability is that the . modern St. George will come off
second best in this encounter with the dragon of the
period ; and if the countries of Europe, including America,
go on producing machines, be they spirits of hell or agents
from a better place, it will be a moral impossibility for a
country like China to resist them. The literati, mandarins,
or governing classes, may put every obstacle in the way,
but in the end it will be as nothing. If the machines do
not come in to-day, they will find admission to-morrow.
The truth is that the beginning has already been made.
There are not a few steamers now on Chinese waters, al
though they are confined to certain ports, and wherever the
people can travel in them theypreferthem to their own junks.
Saving in time and money is the great inducement. Even
the mandarin class do not stand quite unaffected by this
new influence. The Chinese army were, and are still to a
certain extent, armed with bows, spears, and other primi
tive weapons of that sort. During the Taeping war,
muskets of the Brown Bess kind found their way here ;
but the governing heads are now aware that arms of this
sort will not do if another war should take place, and they
have started, under European direction, a number of
Government factories, which are producing arms of the
very latest kind. At Shanghai there is a very laro-e
establishment, producing by machinery Remington
breech-loading rifles. They have finished one very fine
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CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 293
wooden steam screw frigate, and another is onthe stocks.
Two small iron gunboats, with twin screws, were being
made for the Peiho. Li-hung-chang,the governor of Pechili,
is the guiding spirit in all this. The establishment is
being rapidly extended, and buildings are being erected to
contain more machinery. The machinery comes out from
England and America; but they are now so far advanced
in this particular place that they are making machines
for the various kinds of manufacture themselves. There
is an arsenal for the manufacture of cannon, Avith shot
and shell, at Nanking. It is under the charge of Dr.
Mc Arthur. There is a gunpowder factory at Tientsin,
another arsenal at Foo-chow, and one at Canton.
It needs no prophet to tell the end of all this. The
civilization of the West has power in it ; ethnologists
would also put it that the Aryan is a higher form of
human development than the Turanian; and the civili
zation of the former, be it for good or ill, must carry the
day. It is rather startling to find in this land of ancient con
servatism the existence of societies like the International.
Secret societies of a political nature are common in China.
They also, like the literature and the sign-boards of the
country, indulge in the use of flowery words. One of
these societies is known as the " Water Lily Sect; " an
other -is the "Triad Society." If I am not mistaken I
think it has been stated that the Taeping Rebellion came
into existence by means of one of these sects. I remem
ber asking the question one day as to where all the
Taepings were now who escaped the slaughtering of the
time, and the answer was that they were no doubt still
294 MEETING THE SUN.
existing and known to each other through some of these
secret forms, and might be waiting their time for another
outbreak. Every branch of trade in China has its guild,
another of the many bits of mediaavalism to be found here.
The Temple and theatre, with its club arrangements, of
the Shansi merchants at Tientsin has been already de
scribed. These guilds are not secret societies, but being
designed for trade protection, they have a tendency that
Avay. The Chinese emigration to San Francisco is all managed
by one of these hooies or guilds, and the United States'
authorities have learnt by experience that secret branches
of this association exist and attempt to enforce their de
cisions in direct opposition to the law of the State. A
Chinaman who had been summoned before the Secret
Tribunal in San Francisco had the courage to appeal
to the police, who made a raid and penetrated into the
council-chamber of the hooie. It was a room with a
kind of altar at the end, surrounded by the usual Chinese
figures of gods. They were formed of wood and paper,
and their eyes and jaws could be moved with strings. In
this room sat a council of twenty of the richest Chinese
of the place, who, in addition to striking terror on the
mind, were prepared to resort to assassination or any
extremity for the purpose of enforcing their Avishes.
I was one morning at the Mixed Court in Shanghai,
and saw the manner of conducting cases and the
Chinese forms of justice. One man was told to make
a clean breast in relation to a theft, but he stoutly
denied it, and at last a beating was ordered. This is
the usual way of enforcing a confession. He was laid
CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 295
flat on the ground on his face, his thighs were bared,
and it told against him when it was seen that the rod was
not a new thing to him. The beating is done with slips
of bamboo, about four feet long and an inch or so wide.
The place gets purple and the skin begins at last to break
and curl up. It was not severe enough to produce blood
or raw flesh, but it was very near it. About forty blows
were administered, but so far as making him give the
desired confession, they did not seem to have any effect.
He was sent back to prison, and Avould perhaps be brought
up in a week again to undergo the same process, which
might be repeated for months till a confession was ex
tracted. Two fellows belonging to a gambling -house were
brought up, and their case made it evident that " pigeons ' '
and " pluckers " are common everywhere. A greenhorn,
in this case from the country, had been induced to go to
their place and play at some game with dice. His pockets
wTere soon empty. By some means or another he found
out that loaded dice had been used. He applied to the
police, a raid was made, and the dice wrere all seized as
well as the men. The tools for making the loaded dice
were found, and some dice with the hole made for the
lead, but not filled up. All these articles were in
court as witnesses, and made the case very clear ; but
judgment was deferred for a few days to make inquiries.
The Chinese are very much given to gambling. Both men
and women play, and play heavily too.
Child-stealing is a very common crime, and there was
one case on the morning on which I attended the court.
The children stolen are generally boys, and mothers often
dress up their sons as girls, plaiting their hair, and imi-
296 MEETING THE SUN.
fating every distinctive mark, so as to deceive those who
make a trade of this kind.
Owing to the Imperial nuptials, all capital punishments
had been commuted, so I had not the questionable satis
faction of seeing anything of that sort.
Europeans who transgress the law come before the
Consular Court. The Mixed Court is for the Chinese
who live within the bounds of the Settlement, and hence
a Chinese official presides in the Yamen to administer
justice in the Chinese form. A gentleman from the Con
sulate attends and sits beside the Mandarin, but his pre
sence there is only as a controlling influence.
Mr. Penfold, the superintendent of police at Shanghai,
kindly took me one morning into the Chinese portion of
the city, where I saw the way they keep their prisoners.
The cells (but then they were not the least like cells) are
separated by posts, arranged like the wires of a cage,
everything rude, dark, and dirty. It was early in the
morning, and scarcely one of them had got up. We saw
mounds of rags and straw, from which sounds of breathing
were heard. One man turned out of bed on hearing that
Mr. Penfold was there. They were old friends, for he
had often been before the Mixed Court. He complained
of the cold weather and the state of his shoes, and ap
pealed to this link of friendship. The appeal was not
without its result ; Mr. Penfold kindly gave him enough
to get a new pair. In the Native prisons, such as this,
prisoners are kept for indefinite periods awaiting the
action of the officials, and this unfortunate had been, I
understood, about a year in custody.
The same morning we visited one or two pawn-shops,
CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 297
places which seem to thrive well in China. The triple
emblem by which we can distinguish the residence of our
"Uncle" in England is not used in Shanghai. A small
sign-board only is hung out Avith the characters for
" Tong-poo," or pledge-shop. The business is done over
a long high counter. There are no cell-like divisions
upon it to separate the customers, showing that people
here are not ashamed to be seen calling on the brother of
their aunt. There is no absurd feeling of delicacy in the
Chinaman about these matters. He does not hesitate at
the door, glancing around to see that no friend is there
to espy his object. We saw men come in, redeem their
coat, and put it on as they left. These places are all
strongly built, and arranged for safety against robbery, and
people often pledge property at a nominal sum, merely to
have it in safe keeping. When they change their clothing
after the winter or summer, it is a very common custom
to deposit all that is not required at the Tong-poo. These
pawnbrokers have some safe plan of keeping furs free
from moths, and almost every one sends all articles of
this description when the winter is over.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE YANG-TSE-KIANG.
The traveller, going " all round the world," who visits
Peking, has to return to Shanghai in order to get back
to the line of steamers for Japan. Before starting in
that direction, I made a trip up the Yang-tse-kiang as
far as Han-kow. Among the chief rivers of the world the
Yang-tse is considered to rank as third; only the Amazon
and Mississippi are admitted to surpass it. At its mouth
it is said to be about ten or twelve miles wide ; further
up it contracts to about five miles, and the average
width at Han-kow, 600 miles from the sea, is about one
mile. It is said to be 3200 miles long, and the area of its
basin is computed at 760,000 square miles, containing a
population of 170,000,000. It rises in the highlands of
Tibet, in the region of Kokonor, the supposed Ergini or
Erginur of Marco Polo. Kokonor means "blue water"
— a name, no doubt, derived from the many lakes we see
on the maps — and from this elevated region all the great
rivers of Eastern Asia take their rise. Here also the
Yellow river has its source ; and the same district gives
rise to the Meikong, which flows to Cochin China, and to
the Salmeen, the chief river of Birmah. Not far to the
west start the Brahmaputra, the Indus, and the Sutlej ;
Avhile the Ganges and Jumna spring remarkably close
to them, but divided from them by the high ridge of
THE YANG-TSE-KtANG. 299
the Himalaya rampart. It is indeed a celebrated family
of mighty rivers among which the Yang-tse has its
birth. The Chinese do not call the Yang-tse a river, Ho being
the usual word with this meaning, such as in the Pei-ho
and the Hwang-ho. But in this case they apply the name
" Kiang," — a word which in Chinese has no other signifi-
cationbeyond its connexion with this stream — and Yang-tse
is rendered " Son of the Ocean," reminding us of Homer's
association of river and ocean in the description ofthe
shield of Achilles. Herodotus smiled, he tells us, when
he heard persons describe " the ocean as flowing round
the earth." It was to represent this that Homer
describes it as encircling the shield, — •
" Thus the broad shield complete the Artist crown'd
With his last hand, and pour'd the ocean round :
In living silver seemed the waves to roll,
And heat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole."
Pope in his free translation omits the word " river,"
which Homer gives. The Chinese seem to have had a
very similar idea about the Yang-tse, for they call it
" The Girdle of China."
The Hwang-ho, or Yellow river, has the name of
" China's Sorrow," — a term resulting, it is said, from its
tendency to overflow its banks, scattering death and
destruction around.
These two rivers were described in the thirteenth
century by Marco Polo, who was appointed by Kublai
Khan governor of a province on the north bank of the
Yang-tse ; and the town where he resided, when per
forming the duties of his office, is still one of considerable
300 MEETING THE SUN.
importance on the Grand Canal. But so unprogressive
has the country been that the people on the banks and
the craft on the water of this great river, still remain
almost exactly as they were when described by Marco
Polo. It was strange, and perhaps curiously indicative
of the future, to get one's first experience of an Ameri
can steamer in Chinese waters. There is no doubt that
the American model is the best of all for river steamers,
particularly where the voyage extends over a number of
days. A roomy bed, a wide berth, and ample space in
every part of the vessel, then become necessities. Ameri
can steamboats may be seen in almost every open port
in China. They are well adapted for the crowds of
Chinese passengers, which in that well-populated
country are always passing about for some purpose or
another. Any picture of the Yang-tse would scarcely
be complete in the present day unless it represented
one of these vessels upon its surface. They generally
have their names painted large, in Roman and Chinese
characters, and my berth was on board the "Hupeh,"
Captain Johnson. As the "Hupeh" was to sail early,
I slept on board the previous night and got up be-times
next morning to see the river. Meeting the captain, I
chanced to ask if there were many passengers on board.
He said he did not know himself, but called his Chinese
boy to inquire, which he did by saying, " How many
piecey passenger?" This clearly included myself as
a " piecey," one of the most common words of pigeon
English. If you travel in India you are called a
" Sahib," a very high title, given to Rajahs. If you order
your dinner in a dak bungalow, the Khausaman will salute
THE YANG-TSE-KTANG. 301
you as " Lord," " Highness," and " Protector of the
Poor." If you travel in Abyssinia, you receive the high
title of " Sultan." If you are fond of titles, travel in the
East, but avoid China, for there you get nothing but this
word " piecey," suggesting that your value resembles
that of a bit of broken crockery.
Leaving Shanghai about sunrise on a Sunday morning,
we got into Chin-kiang, 150 miles, during the night,
and left about seven a.m. We passed Nanking about
eleven a.m. Next day we reached Ngan-king at mid
day. About five p.m. we passed the " Dove Rock,"
and could see the " Little Orphan Rock " in the distance,
but it was dark before we got to it. We stopped at
Kiu-kiang, 445 miles, and left it again during the night,
and Pwan-pien-shan, or " Split Hill," was visible the first
thing the following morning. The Ki-tow, or " Cock's
Head," is another landmark on the river which we
passed, and at ten in the evening wre got into Han-kow, the
exactdistance from Shanghai being582 geographical miles,
the whole time being a little over three days and a half.
Han-kow means the Han-mouth, and is at the junction
of the Han with the Yang-tse. There are three distinct
towns at the place. The principal one, Wu-chang, the
capital of the province of Hupeh, is on the south bank of
the river ; Han-yang and Han-kow, which are separated
from each other by the Han river, are on the north bank.
The settlement where the Europeans have their houses
is in the eastern part of the town. A magnificent bund,
or embankment, has been constructed, and along this is a
wide thoroughfare, with trees along it, reminding one of
a boulevard. Facing this, and overlooking the broad
x
302 MEETING THE SUN.
expanse of the Yang-tse, are the residences — and it is no
stretching of a word to call them palatial — of the Euro
peans. The rising of the river in the summer, which
reaches a great height, rendered this great bund necessary.
High and dry as it is, the river often covers it and the
whole country round. When this occurs the residents
here have to go from house to house in boats. Even the
communication with the kitchen, which is generally an
outhouse, has to be kept up in this way. On the corner
of the Consulate will be found marks, with the dates of
the various inundations.
Since its opening in 1861 this place has become an
important point in connexion with the tea-trade. Much
of the tea which used to go to Canton now finds a nearer
market at Han-kow, and it is expected that I-chang, a
port about 300 miles farther up the Yang-tse, will soon
become an open port. The river is thus far navigable,
but higher up are places which would be dangerous to
shipping. Native junks do make use of the river, for
Captain Blakiston's party went in one of them, and pene
trated as far as Ping-shan, on the frontier of Yun-nan,
1800 miles from the sea.
The Yang-tse is one of the great natural outlets of
that region of which we have heard much for some years
past as " Central Asia." Many plans have been pro
posed, and some have been carried out, for " tapping the
commerce" of this great geographical space. Trebizonde
has long been an important place, where Manchester
goods disappeared into Persia and farther eastwards.
Some time before the Crimean war, the Turkish Govern
ment determined on making a road there, so as to give
THE YANG-TSE-KIANG. 303
facilities to this trade. According to the history of the
transaction, only two miles were constructed when it was
found that all the funds had been spent. This was all
that was done, and the road has never been even repaired
since. Since that time the Russians have been making a
railway to connect the Black Sea with the Caspian, and as
that line will no doubt affect the fortunes of Trebizonde,
it is said that the Turks are beginning to bestir them
selves, and talk about making a railway.
The Russian line, which passes over the scene of the
events related of Jason, Medea, and the Golden Fleece,
has not only a commercial but a military object
in view at the same time. It is a new form of the
dragon's teeth, for it will produce armed men when
wanted. This line is now open to Tiflis, and will be
continued to Baku,, on the Caspian, and an extension of
the line is contemplated still farther eastward, from
Krasnovodsk bay to the Oxus. If this is continued on
to Bokhara, which will no doubt ultimately be the case, it
will be a most important communication with Central
Asia. The Hindostan and Tibet road, one of Lord
Dalhousie's great projects, had for its object the bringing
of the commerce of Central Asia through India. This
road is about 200 miles in length. It begins at Kalka,
passes through Simla, and ends at Chinee, on the Sutlej.
Lord Dalhousie ordered that a certain gradient was never
to be exceeded, and to preserve the level, which this
implied, long detours round spurs of hills was a result.
Hence the natives will not use it, preferring, as all puharis,
or mountaineers do, to take short cuts over such spots.
Carriage of goods is done in that part of the world on the
x 2
304 MEETING THE SUN.
backs of sheep and goats, and a fine well-made road is
useless to them. I have travelled over the whole length of
this road, and except by the few sahibs who make for the
hills to shoot, it is scarcely used. There has been a good
deal of discussion about opening up the Irawaddy as
a means of communication with the interior of that part
of Central Asia. From Yunnan, in this direction, came
the Panthay Embassy, anxious for assistance in their
efforts at independence, and gladly offered in return to
open their country to trade. The last news about them is
that the Chinese authorities have taken their principal city
and massacred some twenty or thirty thousand people.
A French expedition under Louis Carne went up the
Me-kong, the great river of Cambodia, expecting to dis
cover a path for commerce, but soon found that the
river had currents and cataracts which frustrated further
navigation. These are some of the principal attempts at opening
up that wide and vaguely-defined space knoAvn as Central
Asia. Judging from what I saw of the country when in
Tibet, I should feel inclined to believe that it is a region
which has very little to give. No rain-cloud can pass
the higher range of the Himalayas, hence it is a region
arid and sterile* — not a bit of green to be seen. Much of
it is so elevated that the people are nomadic, and live in
black tents ; a large portion ofthe population are monks,
and produce nothing but prayers. If there was any
commerce to come out of it, a way would be discoverable.
The little which it does produce filters throuo-h. The
pooshim, or fine wool, for the cashmere shawls, comes to
Srinugger and Rampore, on the backs of goats and
THE YANG-TSE-KIANG. 305
sheep. The cotton which is grown on the hill region
about Bokhara and Samarkand finds its way to Russia.
The tea which the Russians drink is carried across the
whole of Central Asia. Such being the case, there can
be no difficulty in procuring a channel of conveyance for
the httle which is to be found in that quarter.
As water-carriage is always the cheapest, it is evident
that a great river like the Yang-tse, 3000 miles long,
must be one of the most important of all the outlets of
Central Asia.
In returning down the river I spent a couple of days
at Nanking, the old south-capital. There is a wall said
to be thirty-eight miles in circumference, which I suppose
once enclosed a city of that size, but now it is mostly cul
tivated ground, and the only relic of the great capital is
a small town in the south-west corner. Dr. Macartney
was not at the arsenal, but Mr. Green, his chief, kindly
looked after me. The arsenal is close to the spot where
stood the celebrated Pagoda, of which all that now remains
is a heap of broken bricks and tiles. I was fortunate enough
to pick up a bit of one of the porcelain bricks. The
trenches made by the Imperial troops when besieging the
Taepings in Nanking can still be distinctly made out
all round.
Taking the steamer to Chin-kiang I returned to
Shanghai by the Grand Canal. This was done in what
is called a "house boat," which is tracked, or uses a sail
When the wind suits. Some of these boats have very good
accommodation for sleeping, and every luxury on the
table that Shanghai can furnish. These boats are kept
by the Europeans for the purpose of going out for a
306 MEETING THE SUN.
week or ten days' shooting, and the banks of the Grand
Canal furnish the favourite ground for this sport. The
Taeping rebellion swept away nearly the whole population.
On both sides towns and villages were burnt, and there was
the most ruthless slaughter of men, women, and children.
This was the region for' producing silk, the cultivation of
which was completely annihilated. Since then the whole
country has been a perfect paradise to the sportsman —
miles upon miles of country stocked with game like a
preserve. We met one boat with two men in it ; they
had been out a fortnight, and had bagged 500 birds —
partridges principally — and forty deer.
This canal is certainly a grand work. Its name is the
Yuen-liang-ho, or " Grain-Tribute River," for its purpose
is not only to aid the commerce of the country, but
specially to furnish a safe means of bringing the taxes, in
the form of grain or rice, to the capital.
I had been told by a gentleman at Shanghai, who was
considered an authority on Chinese matters, that this was
the country in which the immortal Punch had his birth.
I had heard of the Oriental Kara-Guz, as the protoplasm
which was developed ultimately into our high drama of
the piece. Naples also makes some claims to the origin
of Policinello ; but here I am in the Outre Orient, and
am told that this is the real birth-place of that great
delight of my early days. Passing through a town on
the canal, to which, I may remark, the population are
again slowly returning, I saw on the bank all the ap
pearance of a veritable Punch's opera. A halt was called,
and we all went on shore. A minute inspection made it
clear that, beyond being a drama, there was no family
From the Illustrated London Neavs.
CHINESE PUNCH.
THE YANG-TSE-KIANG. 307
connexion with our popular performer. Still the exhi
bition was curious. The theatre, if I may use that term,
was not a frame standing on the ground. The single
performer within seemed to support the machinery, as I
think there was one pole resting on the ground. With
his foot the man kept up an incessant noise, in imitation
of all Chinese theatricals, on a gong. The performance
was simply a miniature of a Chinese theatre. Still it was
wonderful to see how many figures he could produce, and
the screaming and talking of these figures made us believe
that there might be four or five performers within ; but,
on looking over the edge of the surrounding curtain,
there was only the one round face of a man, who returned
our gaze with a broad, well-pleased grin. There were/
pockets all round, into which he stuck the various figures
and the stage properties, such as swords, spears, banners,
and so forth. Some pieces of bamboo held the structure
open at the top, with an appearance not differing much
from our Punch's theatre; but when the man finished
his performance he got out of it and closed the whole
affair up. In walking away he reminded me of a shrimp-
fisher on the sands at Ramsgate with his net.
The performance was very cleverly done. The fights
with swords would have earned applause on the Surrey
side of the Metropolis ; and a woman brought in her baby
and kissed it — a most audible kiss — and held it up to its
papa, who also gave it a sounding smack. This was so
well received by the crowd that it was encored.
The theatre being a part of the Temple in China, I had
a great desire to study it ; but my stay was far too short,
and I regret that I am unable to give even a slight
308 MEETING THE SUN.
account of it. I could see that, like our pantomime,
which is a very ancient form, all the characters were
stereotyped. Just as we recognize our old friends the
harlequin, clown, pantaloon, and columbine in our
Christmas performances, so I could see, in the one or two
theatres I visited, the same costume and grotesque
painting on the faces, telling me through the eye that,
though the pieces were different, the characters were
traditionally the same.
CHAPTER XXIII.
JAPAN.
Passing from China to Japan is like a change between
two worlds. China is stationary, fixed, and immovable ;
Japan, on the contrary, is turning a somersault, and
transmutation is visible in everything. Although geo
graphically so close to each other, yet intellectually and
morally they are as wide apart as the arctic and the
tropical regions. In the one case, everything seems to
have been frozen up for thousands of years, and at this
moment their ideas appear to be as firmly imbedded as
ever in the ice of ancient custom. In the other it
would seem as if the vernal equinox had come round
with its soft breezes, bringing out under its influence the
young leaves and buds of a future summer along with it.
" Non possumus " is the motto in China : in Japan they
are straining every effort to copy whatever is European.
Every attempt at railways or telegraphs has been opposed
by the Celestials in all possible ways ; and up to this
moment not a single step in advance has yet been
made in that direction among them. Already there are
telegraphs all over Japan; one line of railway is now
running; others are in progress, and there is not a
modern improvement which they are not only willing, but
most anxious, to import into their country. If balloons
were to become a practical success in Europe, the Japs
310 MEETING THE SUN.
in their present temper would to a certainty have one on
board the next P. and 0. steamer for Yokohama. As the
Chinese have no newspapers, and they do not condescend
to read the papers or literature of the foreign barbarians,
the high authorities at Peking have not even the means
of knowing anything about new discoveries in Europe.
Japan, on the contrary, is sending her sons, and even
her daughters, to Europe to be taught, while she is im
porting professors and men of every kind of talent to
educate and instruct her people in all the departments of
western civilization.
In Peking the Missionaries are publishing in the
Chinese language a magazine, the object of which is to
prove, by means of accounts of the Mont Cenis Tunnel
and the Suez Canal, and such-like works, that the
" Foreign Devils " are not quite savages. In fact, they
are justifying themselves for appearing there as teachers,
while the Japs are at their own expense paying men of
the same class to come to them in that capacity.
These are a few illustrations of the differences visible
between the two countries, and what is to follow will
bring out still more sharply the contrast between the two
races. On entering the long lake-like harbour of Nagasaki,
with its many islands, there is one that commands special
attention from the traveller. It is the island of Pappen-
berg. It is a small rocky islet, with perpendicular cliffs
visible through its well-wooded sides. On this island,
early in the seventeenth century, some thousands of
Christians had the choice of trampling on the cross or
of walking over one of its highest peaks. Apostasy or
JAPAN. 311
death was the alternative offered, and it is highly to the
credit of the Japanese of that period that so many of them
(about 32,000 is the estimated number) were equal to the
glory of martyrdom. This Pappenberg isle, with its
dreadful history, presents itself to the newly-arrived
stranger as the first witness to the changes going on in
Japan; for now complete religious toleration to all forms
of faith has been decreed.
What a beautiful inland sea or lake is this harbour of
Nagasaki ! It reminds one of the Bosphorus ; or, if any
one has sailed through the Kyles of Bute, he may form
an idea of the passage among hills and wooded slopes into
the town which faces down the harbour. On the right is
the Foreign Settlement, and in front, fringing the sea,
is Desima, a small, fan-shaped island, in which the Dutch
for so long a time carried on their commerce with Japan.
The Dutch managed, after the Christian massacre by
Taico Sama, to get the exclusive right of trading with the
country, but their merchants were not allowed to pass
beyond the limits of Desima. Thus cooped up within a
space of a few hundred feet, they had to live and transact
their business. Servants and food were supplied, but no
communication was allowed with the mainland. For
nearly two centuries they were the only foreigners allowed
in Japan, and they were only tolerated as prisoners.
Kaemfer, whose great work is, after a short notice by
Marco Polo, the first account of Japan, was an exception.
He managed to get out, and travelled for two years in
the country. That was between 1690 and 1692.
Contrast that state of things with the present condition
of the country, when every inducement is held out to all
312 MEETING THE SUN.
foreigners, Dutch (a Dutch doctor went out with me to
take charge of an hospital in Japan), English, French, and
American, to come and bring their knowledge and abilities
so that Japan may learn and advance herself up to the
European standard. The Dutch-looking houses of Desima
can still be distinguished from those in the native town of
Nagasaki, but the great change is visible in the Foreign
Settlement extending down the west side of the har
bour. This is principally English, and the houses have a
comfortable villa-like appearance ; and in defiance of the
Pappenberg in the distance, a Christian church, with its
spire, can be seen among the trees.
As the steamer was to remain here most of the day, a
good many of the passengers landed, and I had a walk
through the town with a friend. This was my first sight
of Japan and its people, and to us, coming from China
with very distinct recollections of its dirty towns and un
washed populations, the contrast presented by Nagasaki
was most remarkable. Its streets though narrow are well
paved, and quite as clean as those of London. Indeed,
Japanese houses are perfect models of cleanliness. As
for the people themselves, tubbing is an old practice, and
whoever is in the daily habit of taking a hot bath cannot
be very dirty in his person. This tubbing system has not
been done away with ; but a late law orders that it is to
be done within doors, and not on the outside of the
houses, as was the practice formerly. Costume, or the
want of costume, as the case may be, is, as travellers are
aware from experience, merely an affair of climate or
custom in each country. The Japs, from long habit, saw
nothing wrong in this practice of bathing in public, and it
JAPAN. 313
shows their great deference to European ideas that they
are trying to conform to our standards of good taste in
such matters.
I do not know if the Japanese authorities have made
any law in the matter of dress, but I soon saAv that in this
also a great change was taking place. We had not gone
far before we met natives who had more or less adopted
the European articles of costume. Many were to be seen
entirely metamorphosed, every article they wore being of
the European cut — the stuck-up collars, bright-coloured
scarf with gold pin, Albert watch-chain, boots, and every
thing got up as perfectly as you would see in the streets of
London. Those who have adopted only parts of our dress
present in many cases rather a hybrid appearance. An
Inverness cape and a Glengarry bonnet is a favourite rig-
out Avith many. As the Inverness cape is not so unlike
their own'wrappers, they have taken to it— particularly the
old men — with evident fondness, and it is so common that
it might now pass for the principal part of their national
costume. The Glengarry bonnet is a great favourite, but
the wide-awake competes with it for the suffrages of the
Japs. The soft felt wide-awake, in fact, carries the day
as the head-covering in Japan. They are so much in
request, it is said, that ships cannot bring them fast
enough to supply the demand. The Japanese never wore
pig-tails like the Chinese. They shave the whole crown
of the head in monkish fashion, and the back hair is
turned up into something like a queue, about three or
four inches long, and so tied that it lies forward over
the middle of the shaven part of the crown. This peculiar
tonsorial form is fast disappearing before the advent of
314 MEETING THE SUN.
wide-awakes and Glengarry bonnets. The proprietress of
a tea-shop, who had a grown-up boy, called my attention
to his head, and pointed out that the hair was " all the
same " as mine, and an English brush and comb were
produced to show me that they had the necessary imple
ments for the process. The lady did this with evident
satisfaction at the result. It was a trifling incident, but,
seen in connexion with other phenomena, it indicates
much, showing that changes appear not only in great
matters, but that all through the affairs of Japanese
life everything is undergoing alteration. The feet are
also changing their covering as well as the head.
Clogs about three inches high haAre hitherto been used
by almost every one in Japan, but boots and shoes
are now taking their place. As yet the women have
not made any alteration in their costume, but I am told
that some of the ladies in the higher ranks of Japanese
society have been making inquiry into some of the mys
teries of dress as worn by their European sisters. This
is ominous, and, to a traveller like myself, to be re
gretted, for the Japanese female costume is most quaint
and picturesque, and the fair creatures will not, I fear,
improve their personal appearance by any change of this
kind. One feature which struck, us in our walk through the
native town of Nagasaki was the number of sewing ma
chines. In every shop where sewing had to be done they
were to be seen. In one tailor's shop we saw two or
three at work. It seemed to us that, in proportion to the
population, the sewing machines must be as plentiful in
Japan as in England. It rather came upon me with sur-
JAPAN. 315
prise to see these machines. I had been walking along,
taken up with the first sight of a new country, where the
houses and streets and every feature is new, and sewing
machines were about the last thing I should have expected
to come across. In a native shop we saw also a photo
graphic camera, on its folding tripod, all complete and
new, for sale ; and a bill in the window announced that
every article connected with photography might be had
within. It was, in fact, a shop devoted entirely to the
sale of photographic materials. As Europeans get such
things direct from England, this establishment was prin
cipally for supplying the Japanese, and while it indicates
the extent to which the art is practised by them, it
becomes in itself one of the many evidences of the rapid
changes now going on.
Nagasaki, or, more properly, Nanga-saki, means " Long
Cape." There is one advantage in going from Shanghai, which
is lost if the traveller proceeds direct from Hong Kong;
and this is the passage through the Inland Sea, called in
Japanese the Seto Uchi, which is entered at the Straits
of Simon -seki, and the scenery of which is well worth
seeing. Towards its eastern end is an open port called Kobi,
distant only a few miles from Osaka, with which it is now
being connected by a railway. As Kobi is the latest port
opened in Japan, everything is quite new about it; all
the European houses look as if they had been brought
out, like children's toy houses, in a band-box, and had
just been taken out with the paint all clean and fresh
upon them.
316 MEETING THE SUN.
There is a waterfall here which is worthy of a visit, and
a fine temple, which is a very good specimen of Japanese
wood-work, with bronze ornament. One striking pecu
liarity of this temple is a sacred horse in a side-shrine.
It is white, and an Albino. The correct thing to do here
is to expend a coin on boiled beans, as an offering to this
deity, who keeps a very sharp, reddish eye on the look-out
for these marks of devotion. I could not find out whether
this horse was an object of worship or only a Buddhist
manifestation of kindness to animals. I felt that it would
be important to know whether this was the case, as the
worship might then be a remnant of the old Scythic
Cultus, or the Aswamedha sacrifice of the horse, brought
into India by the Aryan race.
You leave the Inland Sea at Cape Siwo, a very rocky
point, and turn northwards. A great gulf named Suruga
opens up as you proceed on the left ; and, if the air is
clear, the great mountain of Fuji-yama is seen towering
up as a background to a most picturesque bit pf coast
scenery. I find it very difficult to grasp in the mind the great
changes which have taken place in Japan, and particularly
the political revolution which has been accomplished.
The Micado, who up to the present day existed as a sort
of myth, lived in the recesses of his palace like a sacred
relic in the sanctum of a temple. He has now revealed
himself to the views of mortals, and only a few days
before my arrival in Yokohama he appeared, as princes
do in Europe, to celebrate the opening of a railway.
When the Indian Rajah first saw a locomotive, and heard
the snort of the steam as it moved smoothly along, he
JAPAN. 317
declared that the whole ten incarnations of Vishnu were
as nothing to it. The opening of the railway from Yeddo
to Yokohama, as a ceremony, might be called an act of
worship. The railway is the object worshipped, and the
deified Micado appears as the worshipper, — the railway
being thus the greater of the two.
The change in the old feudal system, which it took
centuries to produce in Europe, seems in Japan to have
been accomplished almost in a few days. This revo
lution was brought home to my mind in a forcible way
by a very short excursion which I made. It was to
the scene of a tragedy, and one of the principal actors
in it was my guide. The event occurred but as yes
terday, — on the 14th September, 1862. Still it belongs
to the ancient history of the Europeans in Yokohama,
and might be said now to belong also to the ancient
history of Japan.
On that day, three gentlemen and a lady, going out
from Yokohama for a ride along the Tocaido, or great
public highway, met a Daimio with his retainers coming
along. As these chiefs always went about with four
or five hundred of their people, they formed a large
body of men on the road. The four Europeans on
horseback took one side of the way, to allow them
to pass. The Daimio — it was Shimadzu Saburo, uncle
of the Prince of Satsuma — having come up to the point
where they were, suddenly gave an order. It was so
quickly uttered and so unexpected that the men hesitated
a moment before obeying ; had it not been for this, not
one of the Europeans could possibly have escaped, for
the command was to kill them. As his men seemed
318 MEETING THE SUN.
uncertain, he said, angrily, " Must Shimadzu Saburo
give an order twice ?" The words had been heard by the
Europeans, and its terrible meaning was understood ; the
wavering of the retainers gave them just a moment's time
to turn their horses round. The movement Avas delayed
for an instant to allow the lady to get away first, but
when the gentlemen attempted to gallop off, the long,
sharp Japanese swords were out, and two of them, named
Richardson and Marshall, received some terrific cuts.
Still they got clear away. Richardson fell from his
horse a few hundred yards from the spot, and either
died of his wounds or was dispatched. Marshall was
able to ride to a friend's house, where he fainted, and
although for a time his life was despaired of, he ulti
mately recovered, and told me all the details on the spot
where they happened.
It was a long time before the purpose to be served by
this cowardly assassination was discovered ; but it turned
out to be this. Shimadzu Saburo had been to Yeddo,
seeking some rank or honour, and had not succeeded in
his object. He had just left the capital, disappointed,
his ungratified ambition burning within him, ready to do
anything that would give him a chance of realizing his
purpose. Seeing the Europeans he reasoned with himself,
" If I cause these foreigners to be killed, it will produce
a war with their nation ; then the Micado will be depen
dent upon me for men to fight with. He will then be
the supplicant, and I can make my own terms." Here
is the old vassal struggling for power and position as in
our own histories and novels. Only ten or eleven years
ago this event took place, and in this short space of time
JAPAN. 319
these feudal barons have ceased to exist. While my friend
was giving me the account of the attack, the railway
train went past, its whistle screaming, as if to declare
more loudly how great the change has been. Since
the train has begun to run from Yeddo to Yoko
hama, the Tocaido has become deserted, and we could
notice that the tea-shops were being shut up ; for it
Avas on the many travellers, Daimios and their retainers,
who passed along in crowds, that these places depended
for custom.
Unless in an extravaganza on the stage, it would be
hard to imagine a media3val baron at a modern railway
station asking for a return ticket; and it would be
equally hard to imagine the continued existence together
of railway trains and two-sworded Daimios. Such were
the ideas that occurred to me when I went to the station
at Yokohama and got a ticket for Shinagawa, the nearest
point to our Legation at Yeddo. The system adopted
is thoroughly after the British model. The ticket Avas
delivered to me at a small pigeon-hole, and duly nipped
as I passed a barrier by a man with a railway uniform,
only a little more fanciful (with red cord about it) than
what is worn in England. The gauge is very narrow,
reminding me of the Fell line which went over Mont
Cenis ; and the carriages are of the omnibus kind, all
very good and clean. A brass plate on the engine
contained the words " Sharpe, Stewart, and Co., Atlas
Works, Manchester," and I noticed that the driver
was a European. I think one of the guards was
European also ; all the others were Japanese, but in
European clothes. The time was kept by a large time-
y 2
320 MEETING THE SUN.
piece of English make, with Roman figures, implying
a certain amount of knowledge on the part of every
one employed. The stations along the line are also
on the English plan, being enclosed by a railing, and
the passengers have to pass out, delivering up their
tickets at a wicket. So closely is our system imitated,
even in the smallest details, that I noticed a railway
porter at each of the stations dressed in a suit of
dark green corduroy. It struck me that there was
an unusually large number of employes about the line,
but it was explained that many of them were men
learning the system, so as to be ready when new rail
ways are opened.
What interested me most at Yeddo was Sheeba, where
you can see the tomb of Hidetada, which delighted and
amused me. This latter feeling resulted from being told
that he was buried in vermilion — seemingly to me the
spoiling of much good colour. The reason for such a
strange winding-sheet could not be got at. I wondered
whether he had an eye for colour, or whether the waste
of so much good stuff was merely a bit of extravagance ;
if this was the only object, had I been in his position, I
should have had the best ultramarine at two guineas an
ounce. Unless there is to be some lavatory process, Hide
tada will be a striking figure when he appears in the next
world among the gods of Japanese belief.
" Celestial, rosy red ; love's proper hue."
That is Milton's idea of the colour ; but then it should
be remembered that it is the Satanic colour of the Ger-
JAPAN. 321
mans — the Mephistophelian tint. With this great uncer
tainty as to its symbolical signification, it will be hard to
tell whether this hero will reappear in his true colours or
not. The tomb is a very beautiful specimen of wood
work, japanned, with a good deal of bronze about it.
The work is as fine as if it were a small cabinet.
Indeed, all the temples at this place are admirable
specimens of wood-work.
I was only a month in Japan, and that is far too
short a time for anything like serious study ; but I
was much struck with their temples, and I find I
have some notes in my book, comparing them with
the Jewish. How any direct connexion could possibly
exist is far beyond my powers of conjecture ; but I
will state the points of resemblance, and leave others to
inquire further and collect additional information.
Wood and bronze to this day furnish the materials of
which temples are constructed in Japan, with stone as a
base. Such also were the materials of Solomon's Temple.
There are enclosures round each court or shrine, and
sometimes these courts are three in number. Hills or
groves are the usual sites for a temple, and the ascent to
it is by long flights of steps ; usually two flights give
access to the shrine. One is long, straight, and steep,
for the men; the other, less steep, and curved in plan,
is for the women. It will be remembered that it was the
great stairs at Solomon's Temple which so impressed the
Queen of Sheba. Small shrines, or miniature temples,
called Tenno Samma, or " Heaven's Lord," are carried on
staves, like the Ark of the Covenant, at their religious
322 MEETING THE SUN.
ceremonies. The inner shrine, or Holy of Holies, is
small, and a cube, or nearly so, in proportion. It is
usually detached, behind the other portions of the temple,
the door being closed so that it cannot be seen into, and
it contains usually not an image, but a tablet, or what the
Japanese call a " Gohei," or piece of paper, cut so that it
hangs down in folds on each side. In the early days of
writing, a tablet was a book, a stylus the pen. The stones
on which the law was inscribed were only a form of the
Book, and the Chinese Ancestral Tablet, or other tablet, in
a temple, is only a variety of this book form. These Go-
heis are so common in Japan, and occupy so important a
place in all tlieir temples, that I felt a desire to know
what they originally meant ; but, as on many questions
of this kind, I could get no information. The only sug
gestion which presented itself to me was that it might
be some form of the book, for the book was a very sacred
thing in past times, and that which is yet called the
" Ark " in a Jewish synagogue contains now nothing but
a book. There is a distinct priesthood with vestments,
and they use incense, music, and bells. There are two
religions in Japan, Buddhism and Shintooism ; the latter
being the primitive faith, the former an importation from
China. The forms of the two have got slightly mixed,
both in the construction of their temples and in the
ceremonial ; but the remarks here made apply particu
larly to the Shinto religion.
One of the late acts of the Government has been to
declare the Shinto, as the old religion of the country, to
be the only State faith. This is the disestablishment of
Buddhism, but it does not imply its suppression. The
JAPAN. 323
Buddhist priests complain very much, saying that their
temples are not now so popular, and many are being
closed. Speculators are buying up their fine bronze
bells, and sending them home to be coined into English
pennies and half-pennies. Faith presents many strange
aspects, and this is a very curious one.
During my visit to Japan I made a walking tour into
the interior of the country, Hakoni, near the base of
Fuji-yama, being the most distant point in my plan.
Not knowing the language, I needed some one with
me who could make up for this deficiency, and
one of two coolies who carried supplies, and a small
amount of baggage, had some knowledge of English,
which, although very slight, proved sufficient for my
purpose. The first day's walk was to Kama-kura, by Kana-sawa,
on the way to which there is one view so splendid that it
is called " The Plains of Heaven." Undulating hills,
well wooded, extend away to the south and west, with
the higher ranges of Oyama, and the snow cone of Fuji
in the distance. To the left is the coast indented
Avith bays, dotted with islands, all rich with pines
and trees of every kind. It was a bright, fine day,
and the view was beautiful; the Elysian fields of the
poetic Greeks could not have been finer than the prospect
which lay before me, and with a good piece of bamboo
in my hand, I looked forward with infinite delight to
a fortnight's ramble in such a region with my sketch
book in my pocket. My hopes were not disappointed,
and I can recommend my little tour to any one visiting
Japan as a route which they may follow with both
324 MEETING THE SUN.
profit — I use that term in a mental sense — and pleasure
to themselves.
Kama-kura was at one time a great city, but as wood
is the chief material of construction for all buildings,
temples, palaces, and houses in Japan, Japanese towns
are easily destroyed. Kama-kura is now only a village, or
rather a few scattered ATillages. The Temple is the only
attraction. It is dedicated to Hachiman, the God of War.
A number of Tenno-Samas, or Arkite shrines, are to be
found in the court. The sword, hat, and various articles
belonging to Yoritomo, a celebrated hero, are also ex
hibited as curiosities to the visitor. From this temple a
long straight road nearly two miles in length goes to the
sea shore, adorned with Tori-es, or triumphal or votive
gateways, which, I understood, were designed for religious
processions in connexion with the temple. Within the
limits which probably mark the old city of Kama-kura
may still be seen the colossal bronze figure of Dai-Bootz,
which means simply the great Buddha. It is about
fifty feet high, and had at one time a temple over it ;
the bases of the columns can still be seen in the
garden. The interior of the figure is now the only
temple, and it has an altar with Buddhist figures and
incense vessels.
A Buddhist priest lives at the place, and combines the
practice of his faith with the sale of beer to strangers
and Europeanized Japs. I managed to get this man's
views of the changes going on in his country, and as
he expressed himself very frankly on the matter, what
he said is worth recording. The priesthood, he said, was,
as a line of business, not worth folloAving ; at least to be
JAPAN. 325
a Buddhist priest was no good now, since the State had
thrown it off. The people did not seem to care for it,
and a living could scarce be made by it. He blamed the
foreigners as the cause, not that they had any direct
hand in disestablishing Buddhism ; that was only part
of the great movement going on, which was all due to
this foreign influence. He did not speak bitterly, for he
explained that he found the sale of the beer pay better
than the religious services he performed to the few
Buddhist devotees who now came. He talked of ceasing
to be a priest, and becoming a merchant. From this
it will be seen that the Almighty Dollar is becoming a
Missionary, and doing something towards converting the
heathen ; nay, there is some chance of this new religious
influence converting the great bronze Buddha himself.
There are rumours that the Japanese Government have
the idea of selling Dai-Bootz, and speculators have been
computing already the quantity and quality of the bronze,
to see what it would be worth for -remelting and passing
through a metempsychosis into a new coinage in England
or elsewhere.
Dai-Bootz was erected between 1252 and 1267. A
caste in paper, or papier mdche, had been lately made, to
be sent to the Vienna Exhibition, and in making it they
discovered that the eyes of the figure are of gold, and
that the spiral knob on the forehead is of silver. The
invocation used is " Na Moo Ah Mee Dai Bootz," and is
most probably of Sanscrit origin. There is another
temple near with a standing Buddhist figure.
Next morning I went on by the sea beach to Ino-
shima, which is a very sacred island. It contains a
326 MEETING THE SUN.
large fissure-like cave with a temple in it. The cave goes
in for some hundreds of feet, and the tide flows in for
some distance, making it at times very difficult to enter.
Benton Sama, or the Goddess of Mercy, is the presiding
deity. The views from Ino-shima, and from the mainland, look
ing away towards Fuji-yama, are said to be the finest in
Japan. It is a favourite subject with the native artists,
and may be seen in their pictures and on their pottery,
and the outline of Fuji-yama on cabinets and articles of
Japanese manufacture is always given as it appears from
about Ino-shima.
The route after this was along the Tocaido, and as
there is no railway at this point yet, the public road was
a busy place. Travellers of all kinds are to be met :
villages are seen every mile or so, and the country is level
and well cultivated. Jinyrikshas, a vehicle something be
tween a Bath-chair and a perambulator, and pulled by one
man, as its name implies, can be hired at the villages ; but
as I had determined to walk the whole way, I only got as
far as the village of Nango. The next day I reached
Odawarra, which is a large town. It contains the ruins
of an old castle, of which the walled parapets only remain ;
but they are worth looking at as specimens of Japanese
fortification. Not less noteworthy is their style of build
ing, which is almost Cyclopean in the size of the blocks of
stone. The Tocaido from this enters a very picturesque
valley with a bright clear stream running through it, and
there are some particularly fine pine-trees along the road.
Hata is a village noted, like most of those hereabouts, for
the manufacture of wooden work, such as boxes, cups, and
JAPAN. 327
various articles of a fanciful and useful character. From
Hata the ascent is very steep to the base of Stango-
yama, the name given to two Mamelon-like hills at
this point. The road is here high, and for a couple of
miles was covered Avith snow and ice ; the date was the
end of January. Even at Hakoni, to which you have to
descend, there were patches of snow, and the water froze
at night where I slept. The lake at Hakoni, surrounded
by steep hills with Fuji-yama beyond, is considered
to be the finest point for Anews of that mountain.
From the top of the ridge beyond the village a glori
ous view may be got, giving the Gulf of Suruga
away to the left, while Fuji can be seen from its base
upwards. The name Fuji-yama was explained to me as meaning
" the one not two mountain," — that is, there is no second
to it, meaning to express that it is " peerless." It is a
regular, conical-formed mountain, its shape telling clearly
of its volcanic origin. Numerous small mounds towards
the base can be made out, all of them craters. The
Japanese authorities state that it was as late as 200 B.C.
when Fuji first appeared, and that when it was thrown
up Lake Biwa also came into view some two hundred
miles away to the west. An eruption took place in 1706,
and cinders were thrown as far as Yeddo. The moun
tain is considered to be sacred, and there are numerous
shrines around it, where charms are sold to the pil
grims. Various estimates of its height have been given, but it
is generally accepted as being 14,000. Although not
equal in point of height to Mont Blanc, it is more im-
328 MEETING THE SUN.
pressive, standing as it does " peerless," its base sloping
down to the sea-shore, and Oyama, which is only 6000
feet, being the only rival within sight.
On my return I came by Ashinoyou, where there are
hot sulphur springs, telling that Fuji has still the central
fires in action. These springs are frequented for their
medicinal qualities. The journey by Ashinoyou was
mostly over snow, and it was only when I neared
Meanoshta that we descended low enough to get out of
it. At Meanoshta there are hot baths, but the water is
said to have no chemical qualities ; still the place is fre
quented for these baths, and the hot water is led in bamboo
pipes about half a mile to the tea-house in the village,
where there are very-nicely-kept bathing-houses. It is
so arranged that the hot water is in constant flow, and it
is as clear as crystal. These tea-houses in Japan make
travelling easy. They are to be found in almost every
village, and are delightful places — cleanliness being here
carried to perfection. They generally look out upon a
garden with miniature mountains, rocks, waterfalls,
lakes, and temples. At Odawarra I was taken to a new
tea-house which copied European customs. My coolie
told me it was " all the same as Yokohama." I found
only a base imitation, and would recommend travellers
to the original Japan tea-house wherever it can be
found. From Meanoshta my programme was to have kept by
the hills to Oyama, but the snow was too heavy, and we
returned to Odawarra, and from that by Matzda — where
I put up in a temple, there being no tea-house — and
by Menonge to Oyama. This word is composed of 0, an
JAPAN. 329
honorific prefix, and Yama, a mountain. It is translated
" Great Mountain," but it would be better to render it
" Sir Mountain;" and "K.C.B." might be added, for it
is, or was, a very sacred place — so much so that soldiers
used to guard it, and it was some time before Europeans
were suffered to get to the top of it. At last it was
" carried," to use the military phrase, by a midnight attack
on the 23rd November, 1866. The force which accom
plished this consisted of W. H. Smith, Captain Roberts,
9th Regiment, Lieutenant King, R.M.A., and Lieutenant
Hawes, R. M.L.I. Some of these gentlemen had tried to
do it on a previous occasion, and were made prisoners.
At the present day no obstacle is offered to any one
going up. Oyama is about 6000 feet high, and on its
summit are some interesting temples, one of them having
two large swords suspended in front. I measured the
biggest of them, and found it, including the handle, to be
106 inches ; and the scabbard is a most beautiful piece of
metal- work. Why swords are placed in temples I did
not understand ; but they are common. In a Buddhist
temple below a curious practice is kept up. In a level
court in front about thirty or forty pups were running
about. The pilgrims all paid a coin, and got small balls
of cooked rice, which they threw to these animals. No
full-grown dogs were visible ; and where they got so
many pups was beyond the linguistic powers of my
coolie to explain. Being a Buddhist temple, I set it down
as a relic of that tenderness for animal life which
Buddhism has always inculcated.
I fell in Avith streams of pilgrims climbing up the
steep sides of this bill. Men, women, and children — all
330 MEETING THE SUN.
ranks were to be seen. I am more struck with the like
ness of human nature everywhere than by its differences.
After seeing all this, I come home and find that Europe
is trying to recall the past, and is making pilgrimages
also. It was at this tea-house that the mistress of it called
my attention to her son's hair, as being in the European
cut. I spent the afternoon walking about the village
sketching, and this boy attached himself to me ; and
when I returned, his father appeared, and introduced
himself as an artist. He produced his colours, and
showed me his manner of working, and made me a
present of the subjects he produced. It is strange to be
so far away — that is, geographically — and yet to feel
yourself so perfectly at home. I had had my dinner,
but I went downstairs, and sat beside them while
they had theirs — partly from curiosity to see domestic
details. Afterwards we had music, and art, from mv
brother brush ; and what more does human nature
require ?
From this I went away to Meyonachi, and returned by
Tanna to Yokohama, very much pleased with my tour.
Mr. Smith, of the Y. U. Club, arranged it all for me ;
and I can recommend any one visiting Japan, and
wishing to see the interior, to trust himself into the same
hands. The romantic history of Will Adams, an English pilot,
who lived in Japan in the time of Queen Elizabeth and
James the First, is well known ; and an important dis
covery had just been made in relation to it only a short
time before my arrival. This was the discovery of the
JAPAN. 331
tomb of Adams and of his Japanese wife. The Dutch
sent out a fleet of five ships, the largest of which, of 250
tons, carried 130 men ; the smallest, of 75 tons, carried
56 men. Adams went as pilot of the " Charity," 160
tons and 1 10 men. This was the only vessel of the fleet
which reached Japan ; and when she arrived most of her
crew had died, and the few men left were so ill that there
were not men enough to work the ship. In spite of the
enmity of the Portuguese, Adams became a great favourite
with the Emperor. He built some ships after the English
model of the time, and gave the Emperor lessons in
geometry and mathematics. So high a position did he
attain, that the Emperor conferred on him the rank of
a nobleman, and made him lord of a village with the
power of life and death over its inhabitants. Adams had
left a wife and daughter on the banks of the Thames,
and he wanted to return home to see them ; but the
Emperor would not part with a man so valuable. Cocks
says of him, " He Avas in such favour with the two
Emperors of Japan as never Christian was, and might
freely have entered, and had speech with the Emperors
when many Japan kings stood without and could not be
permitted." He died on the 16th May, 1620, and the
" Royal James," which was in Japan at the time, took
home the news of his death. He had made a will, and
divided his money between his Japanese wife and the
English one. This will is yet to be seen in the archives
of the East India Company.
Mr. Walter, a gentleman now in Yokohama, having
read in Hildreth's " Japan and the Japanese" that Wil
liam Adams, with Captain Saris and other Englishmen
332 MEETING THE SUN.
of the British ship " Clove," had visited, in 1613, the,
bronze figure of Dai-Bootz, and had — after the custom
of visitors — written their names on the inside, visited
the place to see if any vestige of the names could be
found; but nothing was visible. The pale ale of the
priest was patronized while the subject was being talked
over ; and the result was that, a week afterwards, the
priest came into Yokohama, and stated that in a native
book called the " Miurashi," he found that Adams — or
Anjin-Sama, as he had been called — lived at the small
village of Hemi-Mura, near Yokoska. On going thither
it was found that some relics of Will Adams were
still carefully preserved. One of these was a Buddhist
figure in bronze, supposed to be from Siam. This
was preserved in the village temple with the most reve
rential care; also a palm-leaf covered with writing,
likewise supposed to be from Siam. The head man of
the village still preserved a letter written in Japanese by
Adams, showing how well he had learned the language of
the country ; and on the top of a hill behind the village
they showed his tomb close to that of his wife. The
inscription upon it is now unreadable ; but it is the tomb
of a Hatamoto, which was the rank given to Adams by
Gongen Sama. The date on the wife's grave was made
out, and is " Kan-jiu-ichi-nen, 7th month, 16th day," i. e.
a.d. 1633, or 240 years ago, and showing that she sur
vived Adams about thirteen years. Mr. Walter has at
his own expense put the whole place in repair, for it
Avas overgrown with grass and bushes; and it is now a
shrine to which few Englishmen visiting Japan will fail
to make a pilgrimage. I had the pleasure of going
japan. 333
there with my friend Mr. Barnard, and Mr. Walter was
himself our guide. The priest at the temple took out
the figure, handling it most reverently for me to sketch
it ; and the head man of the village presented Mr. Walter
Avith Will Adams's Japanese letter. On first visitino- the
village he offered any money for this relic, but they refused
to allow him to have it. When, however, he had repaired
the tomb, and manifested so great an interest in the
matter, they showed their appreciation of his kindness
by presenting it to him. Mr. Walter was so delighted
that he most unselfishly proposed, instead of keeping the
relic himself, to send it home to be placed beside the
will of the writer in the India House — an intention I hope
he has carried out.
We climbed up the hill to see the tombs, which are on
a summit overlooking the sea. We know that Adams
wanted to return to his native land ; but he was retained
in a state which we must call that of the most honour
able captivity. We can understand how his thoughts
would often wander to the Thames and the Medway ; how
a point with a good sea- view would have attractions for
his mind ; and how with the eye of a mariner he would
watch the horizon to see if perhajDS a sail might rise into
view, coming from the land to which he so desired to
return. Such is the spot where this man was buried ;
and I can believe that, being a favourite haunt of his,
he had selected it for his burying-place, for tbere*are no
other graves except the two. The view from it is most
beautiful. It is, in fact, a part of the landscape already
noticed, and now known as " The Plains of Heaven."
After looking for some time over the sea, a sudden
z
334 MEETING THE SUN.
thought occurred to me — Is Fuji-yama visible from this
point ? Looking round to the left, I could see its
spotless peak between two trees, and could understand
that this was one of the attractions which had drawn
him to this spot, when living, and made him choose, it
as his last resting-place at the end.
Hemi-mura is in a bay, or series of inlets, one of
which, called Yokoska, is now a naval station of the
Japanese Government. It so happens that in their fleet
they follow the English system, and we can suppose
that the spirit of Will Adams still hovers^ about the old
locality, and derives a pleasure from what is going on.
A very fine new graving-dock has been made, and her
Majesty's ship " Rinaldo " was in it at the time of our
visit, undergoing repairs. We walked along the coast
about eight miles, to visit a quaint old seaport, called
Ooranga, in a rocky inlet opening out to the Gulf of
Suruga. The only other excursion I made was to Tokska, to
see some excavated caves. They are not far from
Yokohama, and can be reached in about a couple of
hours on horseback. They are curious, but not ancient ;
and, in fact, have only been made within the last few
years. The night before I left Japan I was invited to a purely
native dinner, only one or two of the guests being
Europeans. It was in a Japanese house, and we had to
leave our boots on the outside and go up a steep stair in
our stockings. In the room we found on the floor small
mat-like cushions, about twenty-four inches square, and,
folloAving the custom of the country, I placed my knees on
JAPAN. 335
this, as if I had knelt to pray. In this position a Jap
can sit for hours ; but as my joints had been educated in
another quarter of the universe, the pose had to be often
changed during the dinner. Japanese ladies were among
the par*y, and I chanced to have one on each side of me.
To the one on my right, whose name was " Chika," I was
indebted for most of my dinner. As the dinner was
purely Japanese, there were no knives or forks — only
chop-sticks. These are not unlike pencils, but I have not
yet met an artist who had tried to draw with two pencils,
and that ought to be quite as easy as eating Avith chop
sticks. In Chika' s hands the two bits of wood seemed to
do anything, and she most kindly came to my rescue
when I was making what I may literally call a mess of
it. There is an old saying that fingers were made before
forks, and I feel certain that archa3ological investigation
Avill make it clear that fingers were also ante-chopstick.
The dishes were peculiar. Soup, with sea-weed to give
it a flavour, was, I considered, a happy thought. Fish
and duck together formed a mixture I had never heard of
before. Revenge is clearly to be distinguished from just
retribution, and this was my feeling when a course of
shark was stuffed into my mouth by Chika's chop-sticks.
As shark has so often eaten mes semblables, it was
turning the tables, in the most literal sense, to eat
instead of being eaten. What the various dishes were
made of I cannot exactly say. Courage has never
yet failed me in moments of danger, but I confess
that I felt some timidity during that dinner, and,
with regard to some of the dishes, I should have liked
to know of what they were composed. I could now
z 2
336 MEETING THE SUN.
listen to the information unmoved, but I was anxious to
appear not to shrink from doing justice to what our enter
tainers evidently considered was especially excellent. So,
mentally, I closed my eyes, and opened my mouth and
took whatever was offered. It ought to have been stated
that our table was the floor, but then a Japanese floor is
as clean as any table in the world. It was wondrous at
last to see how it got covered with bowls, cups, plates,
saucers, and innumerable quaint bits of pottery of all
colours — black, red, blue, and white. The native wine is
called saki, a spirit distilled from rice. It is taken in
small porcelain cups, and the method of challenging your
friends at table is to dip your own cup into a bowl of
water placed beside you for the purpose, and then
to throw it to the person whom you wish to compliment.
Your friend catches it in the air, and the attendant
then pours out the saki. Cricketers, with their, expe
rience of bowling and catching, would have an advan
tage when complying with this custom. It is very
amusing, and I can warmly recommend its introduction
as something likely to give life to dinner-parties at
home. Japanese, like all other Orientals, neither sing nor
dance. They hire people to do these things for them, and
on this night a musician and a dancer appeared about the
end of the dinner. The musician was a girl, who per
formed on a samisen, or guitar. The dancing was little
more than posturing. At the end of each performance we
complimented them, after the manner of the country, by
throwing one of the drinking-cups and saying " Ohio,"
which is a much-used salutation in Japan; and this word,
JAPAN. 337
expressive of farewell, we had soon to use that night, for
it was necessary to return to my quarters to pack up and
be ready for the steamer next morning.
The Japanese call their country " Nipon." Marco
Polo describes an island "five hundred leagues in the
ocean," which he calls " Cipango " or " Zipangi," and it
is supposed to be Japan. He says that it abounds in
gold, precious stones, and choice articles of commerce,
and that the monarch had a palace roofed with gold
instead of lead.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE PACIFIC
After staying a month in Japan, I left on the 24th
February, 1873, to cross the Pacific by the American line
knoAvn as the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. It also
owns the Australian line, as well as Panama and local
lines near San Francisco, its head- quarters. Their ships
are built on the American model, of wood, with paddles,
and the walking-beam dancing a jig near the top of the
funnel. My berth was on board the "Alaska," 4011 tons,
Captain Lachlin. The "China" and "Japan" of the
same company are newer and even larger ships. One
great necessity for size in these vessels is the quantity of
coals they have to take; in our case we started with
1300 tons on board — a large ship's cargo itself — and even
with this quantity they have to be careful on the first
half of the trip. Our voyage from Yokohama to San
Francisco was twenty-six days, averaging about 200
miles in the twenty-four hours. The direct distance is
4674 miles, but in the winter months they go south till
they strike the 30° of north latitude, which is kept all the
Way till near the American coast, when they have to
go north again. This course increases the distance to
5250 miles.
These ships, being large, have roomy accommodation.
The saloon is wide and spacious, like a hall, and there is
THE PACIFIC. 339
ample space in the berths; but they are not good as
ocean boats. When the wind is with them they can set
but little sail to take advantage of it, and when it is
ahead the paddle-boxes and high houses on deck greatly
retard the progress. A wind on the beam, which a screw
steamer could make use of to save coals, is of no avail ;
even with a breeze on the bow, while a vessel on the
English model could derive some benefit from it, one of
this shape would have even to expend coal in struggling to
make way. The company intend to make a thorough
change, and to adopt a newer style of vessel. The Ameri
can marine-engine, which we are all familiar with from
its walking-beam above deck, is a very good working
machine, but it must succumb at last to the new com
pound engine. The Americans were quite right to retain
their own speciality, for it was a good design, and its
valves work Avith wonderful simplicity. But its day is
gone. The screw is better adapted for the ocean than
the paddle, and as the new high-and-low pressure mode
of working saves coals, it will become the only type used
in the future for ships which are to make long voyages.
On the map there is an island marked as on our route
in the 30° of latitude. This is the only point of land
indicated between Japan and America. The officers on
this line say that they have never seen the place, and as
they have passed it so often one must conclude that the
captain who reported it, and after whom it is supposed to
be named, must have been seeing even more than double,
and have been gifted with " second sight," or something
of that kind, when he made the discovery.
At 180° west longitude — counting from Greenwich
340 MEETING THE SUN.
— we reach the point which is half-way round the
world. This is, roughly speaking, very near the middle
of the Pacific Ocean. Going east, the same day has to be
repeated, and going west a day has to be thrown over
board. We were at this particular longitude on Saturday,
8th March, and we had two Saturdays that week, and
two days which we dated 8th of March that month. By
means of this operation our day of the week, as well as
the day of the month, agreed with the date at San Fran
cisco on our arrival. The traveller going eastward round
the world will thus have 366 days in his year, but this is
compounded for by a fraction of time lost each twenty-
four hours.
We found the Pacific not untrue to its name. There
were one or two days which we might say were not quite
smooth ; but a storm, or a gale, or even a rough sea, we
did not encounter the whole way. Crossing such a vast
ocean is apt to make one moralize. Should anything
happen to the ship, what are your chances ? During the
greater part of the voyage you are a thousand or two
thousand miles away from either continent, and islands
on the way are doubtful. According to Homer, the
ocean was the parent of all, but in the event of an accident
to your ship the chances are that it would be the grave
of every one on board.
We may imagine that certain notions held in past times
would have strangely affected those who, believing in them,
had taken to going all round the world by a route like this.
For they held that going sunwise was good and lucky,
while going the opposite way was unpropitious. The
Lama monk twirls his mani, or praying-cylinder, in one
THE PACIFIC. 341
direction on this account, and he fears lest a stranger
should get his wheel and turn it the other way, thus
destroying whatever virtue it had acquired. They also
build piles of stones and uniformly pass them on one side
in going and on the other side in returning, thus making
a circuit in imitation of the sun. The ancient dagopas
of India and Ceylon Avere also thus circumambulated.
The Mahomedan performs the " tawaf," or circuit of the
Caaba after the same fashion, and it is an old Irish and
Scotch custom to go " Deisul," or sunwise, round houses
and graves, and to turn their bodies in this way at the
beginning and end of journeys for luck, as well as at
weddings and various ceremonies. To turn the opposite
way was called by them " withershins," and supposed
to be an act intimately connected with the purposes of
the Evil One. Witches danced this way, and in imitation
of the same read prayers backwards. The author of
" Olrig Grange," in an early poem, describes this most
graphically : —
Hech ! sirs, but we had grand fun
Wi' the muckle black deil in the chair
And the muckle Bible upside doon,
A' gangin' withershins roun' and roun',
And backwards saying the prayer.
About the warlock's grave,
Withershins gangin' roun',
And kimmer and carline had for licht
The fat o' a bairn they buried that nicht,
Unchristen'd beneath the moon.
{Confession of Annaple Gowdie. From the "Bishop's Wade")
I had been very busy in China and Japan, and it was
only during the comparative leisure of the passage across
342 MEETING THE SUN.
the Pacific that I had time to recall these things, and I found
to my horror that I was going all round the world the
wrong way, that is " Withershins." Whenever I find that
the powers of evil have prevailed against me I shall be
able now to account for it ; if future calamities should
come I shall know that it was wholly OAving to my having
gone round the world in opposition to the way of the
sun. To arrest Russian aggression was supposed to have
been the chief object of the Crimean war, and we have
had before us for some time the Central Asian question,
which is as old as the war in Cabool. The encroachments
of Russia on Chinese territory form another branch of the
same subject. As my travels have given me some know
ledge of these political situations I have often indulged in
speculations on the future probabilities of events, and I
have to confess to a change in my ideas, in at least one
part of this subject, resulting from my present journey.
My former notions were something of this sort. The
Russian people are in the main of a Tartar stock. Mon
golian is the old name given to this race by Blumenbach,
but the more modern word Turanian is not very different
in its signification. We have the old phrase ascribed, I
think, to Napoleon : —
" Grattez un Eusse, et vous trouverez un Tartare."
The governing class of that country may be Aryan or
Caucasian ; but the quotation applies to the body of the
people, who are the real stamina of power in war and con
quest, and I feel certain that Russia could never subdue
a nation of the higher type unless they were a small com-
THE PACIFIC 343
munity, or were under a condition of political demoraliza
tion at the time. In proof of this we have the defence of
the people of the Caucasus, a mere geographical speck,
divided into clans like the Highlanders of old, each
clan fighting for its " ain hand," like the Smith at the
North Inch of Perth ; yet with all these disadvantages it
took the great Colossus of the North something like a
score of years to accomplish their subjection. Turkey is
not yet conquered, and it is now considered that she is
not likely to be so. Had the population of that country
been Tartar, her fate would have been settled long ago.
India being inhabited by an Aryan race was conquered
and held by us in virtue of our being of the same stock.
Russia may some day attempt the conquest of Hindostan,
but, for the ethnic reason just given, her chances of
success are not great, and for the same reason the proba
bilities of success over the Trans -Himalayan portions of
Asia amount almost to certainty. The map of Russia
already illustrates all this. The progress of that country
westward, among the Caucasian population of Europe,
has been small ; but, on the other hand, consider the
huge territory, extending east to Behring's Straits,
where she has long ago extended her dominions among
the Turanian races, and from what she has already done,
we get fair data from which the future may be indicated.
These facts are palpable, and the explanation is easily
understood. The result of my speculations then was this, — that
Russia is not likely to conquer on the western side of the
Himalayas, but that the ethnic principle will continue to
act, that her line of advance will be on the eastern side
344 MEETING THE SUN.
among the people of a Turanian type, and that China
Avill in the course of time fall to her. On this last point
I have been obliged to modify my conclusions.
All round the coast of China and Japan I found another
power which, from geographical considerations, I think
must in due time become the dominating power in that
region. This is America. It is only within the last ten
years that the Americans have increased and become what
they already are in that quarter, but it is only the begin
ning of what must be in the due course of events.
That which struck me first was the number of what I
may call " American Institutions " in China and Japan.
American steamers are doing the local traffic on the rivers
and at all the treaty ports. At hotels, clubs, and all such
places, American bars, with drinks of wondrous names,
may be found. I had never tasted a " cock-tail " till I
reached Hong Kong, but I afterwards found that there is
not a house in China or Japan where the switch for
frothing it up is not to be seen. American stoves, car
riages — in fact American "notions " of every kind — may
be seen and studied in China as perfectly as in America
itself. The American business transactions are as yet
nothing in comparison to that of the English houses ; but
they are increasing, and as the population of America
grows there will be a corresponding increase in the
demand for tea. Since the end of the Civil War the
naval force in the Chinese sea has been doubled. All
things point to the future and betoken the natural result.
It is not supposed in this theory that the Americans have
any policy which includes the conquest of China. None of
the great powers have any such scheme in contemplation.
THE PACIFIC 345
If such were the case, England, with India as her basis,
could easily settle the question. Geographically, from our
sea communication with India, we are nearer than Russia,
although the population of England is the furthest off.
San Francisco in point of distance is the nearest, hence
the commercial connexion has marked advantages tending
to growth, and the visible rapidity of that growth is an
evidence of what the future is likely to be.
There is a commerce over the great deserts of Mon
golia ; but think of its difficulties in comparison Avith
the voyage across the Pacific. Think how many camels
it would require, and how much time must be spent on a
journey across these dreary wastes, to carry 1000 tons of
cargo ; and any one will see that Russia has no chance
of commercial competition with America. This same
advantage would be on the side of America, if a
struggle of interests in China should ever lead to war
between these two powers.
As England gained India and her various possessions
by her command of the sea, so the Pacific must give
China to America. There is only one disturbing influence
likely to affect this result, and that is a very long way off
as yet — namely, Australia. As a power that country is
as yet only an infant, but what may it not do in the ful
ness of time ? Another century may see her fleets com
peting with America for supremacy on the Pacific. The
whole subject is an affair of the future, and there it may
for the present be left.
As bearing on this question, the coal supply is now an
important matter, and it would seem that the supply is
ample. Japan produces a large quantity, but it is not
346 MEETING THE SUN.
considered good ; coal exists in Formosa, but has not
been much worked. There are coal-mines also in Labuan ;
but English coal is sent out, and some now comes from
Australia. China itself has numerous coal-fields, one of
which is in Shansi. This field, according to the Baron
Von Richthofen, in his paper read before the British
Association this year, is calculated to extend over 400,000
square miles, and " to be capable of supplying the whole
world, at the present rate of consumption, for thousands
of years to come."
The emigration of Chinese to America brings out more
clearly the connexion between the two countries. On
board the " Alaska " we had 1250 Coolies, something like
the usual number brought over every trip by the ships of
this line. One would think that such a number of emi
grants would interfere greatly with the comfort of the
passengers ; but from the size of the vessels, the very
carefully arranged system, and the docility of the China
men, no inconvenience is felt.
One of them died on the way, and the body was em
balmed, in order that it might be sent back to China —
a necessary condition, as they suppose, of getting to
heaven.
CHAPTER XXV.
SAN FEANCISCO.
On the morning of the 21st March we were in a thick fog.
At last the sun broke through, producing a brilliant but
still soft rainbow, and the Farallon lighthouse appeared,
telling us the course to steer. The fog soon cleared up
in the other direction, and we got a glimpse of the Pacific
Coast of America. By mid-day we were passing Fort
Point, and entering by the " Golden Gate." A few minutes
later the "Golden City," or "Frisco," as it is more fami
liarly called, was seen, and the splendid bay over which
it looks opened to our view.
The entrance to this bay is very striking. On the north
side is a most picturesque piece of coast scenery, with
perpendicular cliffs of rock, rich in colour, against which
the waves from the Pacific dash themselves into white
foam. On the south side, in a style reminding me of the old
forts at Sebastopol, is the Fort, whose walls, like those of
Jericho, would go to pieces with the first roar from the
sides of a modern ironclad. On this account, newer
and more formidable works are being constructed on both
sides of the Golden Gate. As we sailed in we saw other
earthen forts, some finished, others in course of construc
tion ; while Alcatras, a strong fort on an island, is right
ahead. On the parapets of the place we could see what
looked like ponderous black ginger-beer bottles, whose
348 meeting the sun.
corks would be sure to fly out, were an enemy coming in,
and sweep right down the passage. I think that if any
one, after seeing Bombay, were to enter the bay of San
Francisco, he could not help comparing the two. Their
great inland harbours, perfectly protected from any wind
that blows, could contain all the shipping of this planet,
and of all the other planets as Avell, should they favour
us with a visit. Islands in the bay, and mountains
in the distance, still further help to carry out the resem
blance. With the bay the likeness ceases, for San Fran
cisco and Bombay, as towns, are altogether dissimilar.
One point only they have in common, — they are both
Cities of the Future. The one will, at some period, and
at no very distant day in these fast-going times, be the
great commercial port of the Indian Ocean, and the other
the Queen of Commerce on the Pacific.
As to " Frisco" itself little need be said. That which
was new to me was a city, built almost entirely of wood,
and paved with wood. All architecture can, in every
country, be traced back to a wooden origin ; every stone
form can be followed through many stages to this source.
With some knowledge of this, it was amusing to find that
in San Francisco the process has been reversed, and
that all the architectural forms now produced in stone
have been copied in wood. Except in the business parts
of the town, the houses are exactly like our suburban
villas ; and you find the Classic, Gothic, and Elizabethan
styles, from the humble cottage to the lordly mansion,
all produced with logs, beams, and planks, and, in some
cases, most elaborately ornamented. They put on some
kind of sticky paint and sprinkle over it a fine sand, so
SAN FEANCISCO. 349
that, even to the touch, it would pass for stone ; and the
resemblance is so good in this, as well as in the architec
tural details, that I was at first uncertain as to the mate
rial which had been employed. Stone is plentiful enough,
and is now being used for the business houses; but
owing to the frequency of earthquakes, which are gene
rally slight, and as there is no security that an extra
"quake" may not take place some day, the people are
shy of using stone for their dwellings.
A splendid new park has just been laid out upon the
high ground west of the town, and it Avill extend down as
far westward as the beach. "With the exception of clouds,
and things of that sort, there will be nothing between this
place and Japan to interrupt the view. It is laid out with
streets on each side, and before another generation has
passed away, it will be the fashionable quarter of the
Golden City.
One morning I came upon a large Roman Catholic
church, with an inscription on the outside in large letters,
stating that it was dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi. It
is curious how the mind is led by words ; my thoughts
instantly ran off to Italy, and it was a second or two
before I remembered that I was in a town dedicated to
St. Francis. A friend, to whom I mentioned this, pro
posed to take me to see " The Mission," the first church
of St. Francis of the Spanish or Mexican settlement, which,
wTith a school and a house or two, was all that existed of
San Francisco before the discovery of the gold in that
region. It is now in the suburbs of the present city, and
a tram-omnibus took us there in about ten or fifteen
minutes. It is an old church, built of sun-dried bricks,
a a
350 MEETING THE SUN.
called by the Spanish " Adobes," now commonly in Cali
fornia pronounced " Dobies." The interior is very plain,
with rude pictures representing events in the life of St.
Francis and the Virgin. The outside looks as if Grecian
Doric had been the intended style. There is a grave
yard on one side, with a strange variety of nationalities
dwelling in peace within it. Names from South and North
America, and the whole of Europe, may be found on its
inscriptions. There are stone and marble monuments,
but as many were only of wood, or with wooden railings,
which are much decayed, the place has rather a melan
choly appearance.
One of the people belonging to the Mission told me
that the church was founded in July, 1776, and that three
years hence, when the anniversary of the American In
dependence will be celebrated all over the States, they
-will have a double celebration. To an archasologist, this
is about the only thing in the shape of antiquity to be
found in San Francisco. If I remember right, a new
church is in contemplation.
I had some walks through the Chinese quarters to see
what aspect my old friends presented in the new world.
John is a very old name ; I should like to hear a really
learned philologist give its original signification. In the
old wars with France we used to call Frenchmen "Johnny
Crapaud;" in the Crimean war, as we were allies of the
Turks, we addressed them as "Bono Johnny;" and a
native of the Flowery kingdom is " John Chinaman"
wherever the English tongue is spoken. Hence the
name by which he is known all over the western States
of America. He is "John" everywhere. In San Fran-
SAN FRANCISCO. 351
cisco John thrives. At first, when every kind of labour
was scarce, he was hailed as a blessing by all. He cooked,
he washed, he dug, he built, in that steady, industrious
way which is his marked peculiarity. When the diggings
began to be used up, and many returned to find work at
their old employments, and emigration brought a plen
tiful supply of white labour, John came to be looked upon
as a rival. This feeling has grown and taken such root
that I am informed the police are always looking in
another direction when some drunken brute is amusing
himself by kicking a Chinaman. While this was going
on, the capitalists defended the Chinese emigration, we
may easily suppose, because it made labour cheap ; but
lately some of these Johns have, by such virtues as
industry and frugality, earned enough money to start as
employers of labour themselves. This is the last phase of
the Chinese emigration question in California, and now,
being a rival to the capitalist, John Chinaman has the
whole population against him, and it is becoming as near
to a war of races as can be. John has not a friend in
California, and if I should have a "Massacre of Chinese"
from anywhere in that locality served up as part of my
breakfast news any morning, I shall not be in the least
surprised. 1 saw a manifestation of this feeling one evening at the
Circus, where one of the attractions was a prize for the
best conundrum on the Epizootic, a disease which had
made all the horses iu California useless while I was there.
The quaint humour of American wit, and I confess to some
admiration of it, stands too high in the world to require
a compliment, so I may make my remarks on this case
A a 2
352 MEETING THE SUN.
without being supposed to be a Britisher finding fault
with American institutions. Well, I never was present
at a more dreary exhibition in my life. But to the point :
one of the conundrums was, " Why is John Chinaman
like the Epizootic ?" — " Because he comes where he is
not wanted," was the answer.
It might be doubted if this effort could be included
Avithin the strict meaning of the word conundrum, but
that was not thought of at the moment ; it touched the
feeling of the audience, and " brought down the house."
From that time I felt the chasm over which John stands.
Americans brought Chinese to California for their own
benefit, and if anything does occur the crime is not
John's. When they began first to import the heathen Chinese,
they were very much astonished to find that he was an
educated man. He could read and write, and my readers
will understand how, and why, he knows the classical
books of his country. If you pass a house in San Fran
cisco, or even a wooden shanty anywhere in California,
and see John through the window washing or ironing,
you will be sure to see also a piece of bright orange-
coloured paper over the door, with Chinese characters,
telliug the name of the person within.
Americans are much surprised that the Chinaman has
no admiration for the political institutions of the United
States. As he was a heathen, it was not to be expected that
he would go to church, or care much for the religion of
the West; but it was thought that the glorious prin
ciples of the Republic might dazzle the small eyes of the
benighted Mongol. Strange to say, they did not ! John
SAN FRANCISCO. 353
treats everything out of his own country with the most
stolid indifference. At the beginning of the Chinese
emigration, American politicians took into consideration
the question of John being made a citizen, the impor
tant point as to his vote, and the still more serious
problem as to how he would use his vote if he got one.
Those who like the amusing side of a case rather chuckled
at the politicians, when, after much serious discussion,
it was discovered that John neither wanted a vote, nor
bad any desire to be an American citizen.
The only institution in America to which the Chinaman
is not indifferent is the dollar. The only object he has
in coming to the country is to chin-chin this Almighty
Joss, and as soon as he gets a certain amount he returns
by the Golden Gate back over the Pacific again to
the land of his birth, where he marries and settles down
a well-to-do man. I was told that many will return when
they get 400 or 500 dollars, and buy a house for their
father and mother — a very good kind of ancestral worship
— and then come back to California to earn enough to
make their own future comfortable.
To return to his own country, either living or dead, is
the desire of the Chinaman. In the chief cemetery of
San Francisco, there is a large house or vault where
bodies are kept till they can be trans-shipped.
I made a trip to Saucelito, on the north side of the
Golden Gate, and climbed the hills behind, getting a fine
view of the bay. Every spot round lay as in a map beneath
me. April is a splendid month for flowers in California,
and on the tops of the hills the masses of colour, of every
hue, were most beautiful. Some of the slopes of these
354 MEETING THE SUN.
heights were covered with buttercups and orange poppies,
making large spaces seem as if solid gold were shining
through the earth. This glorious colour would itself have
justified the use of the word " golden " as applied to the
city and ocean gate by which it is approached. To me,
with an old love of flowers, this Avas the real Auriferous
produce of the region. If in this botanical estimate of
California we include the golden grain of the Sacramento
and San Joaquin valleys, it may yet be found that my
estimate is the right one, and that the real gold-mines of
the country will be the vegetable products which the soil
yearly brings forth. If all the labour which has been
expended to lead water miles out of its course for
mining purposes had been applied to the less attractive
but more useful object of irrigating the soil, the Cali
fornians might, I suspect, have been able to say with
king Philip,- — " The glorious sun
Stays in his course, and plays the Alchymist ;
Turning, with splendour of his precious eye,
The meagre, cloddy earth to glittering gold."
King John, Act iii. Scene 1.
For want of a shower or two this season, 1873, the
crops of California have been a complete failure, whereas
last year they were so abundant, that every ship which
could be got was laden, and sent round Cape Horn to
England. A good full harvest seldom occurs oftener than
every four or five years. To obviate this, the farmers
are taking up the question of irrigation, and have some
ground already under its operation. The Government
have appointed a Commission to report on the subject of
SAN FRANCISCO. 355
the Merced river and the irrigation ofthe San Joaquin Val
ley. General Alexander of the U.S. Engineers, and Mr.
Brierton are prominent members of the Commission, and
were at work on the subject before I left. Mr. Brierton
has had considerable experience in India, and with the
go-a-head character of the people, it needs but little
foresight to see what the future will be. They -will soon
turn the fine, cloddy earth of the Sacramento and San
Joaquin to glittering gold.
A trip from San Francisco to Calistoga with its hot
sulphur springs, and on to the Geysers next day, is
worth doing. The myth of that sheet of brown paper
which I was told got burned up at times in the Red Sea,
would find easy credence at this place. At the Geysers
it will be. found that the Gehenna fires have burned
through and made holes, from which steam and hot
liquids issue, bringing with them a strong smell of
the region whence they come. The names of the places
are significant. There is the Witches' Cauldron, the
Devil's Workshop, where you hear the noise as of wheels
beneath, the Devil's Pulpit, the Devil's Kettle, the
Devil's Steam-pipe, which at times screams like a railway
whistle. Sulphur, alum, magnesia, vermilion, oxide of
mercury, epsom salts, in fact, anything almost in a
druggist's shop may be found on the place, which looks
like a burnt sore on the face of the hill. There are
materials here for almost every kind of medicinal baths,
which will no doubt be some day utilised, and the place
will then become a favourite summer haunt of the Cali
fornians.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE MODOC WAR.
Being in San Francisco when the news, arrived of the
assassination of General Canby and Dr. Thomas by the
Modocs, I determined to make for the locality. General
Kelton, belonging to the headquarters of the army of the
Pacific, gave me letters to General Gillem, commanding
the troops of the Modoc Expedition, and to other officers
connected with it. But before entering on the war path
it may be as well to give some account of the deaths of
General Canby and Dr. Thomas, for it was that event and
the treachery connected with it which has excited so much
interest and given such importance to the Modoc war.
After the great Franco-German war, where one side
had 800,000 men in the field, it is a striking contrast to
hear of another which, at the time of my visit, had
already lasted about six months, in which battles had
been fought, one of them lasting three days, and in
which on one side, — the Modoc, — it was supposed that
there were only forty-five armed men. The first
hostilities took place in November, 1872, and a second
battle was fought on the 17th January. In both cases
the Indians had the victory on their side, although with
enormous odds against them. After the last engagement
the Government at Washington became anxious to have
the matter peacefully arranged, and gave orders to suspend
THE MODOC WAE. 357
hostilities. At the same time they appointed a Peace
Commission. This was composed of the Rev. Dr. Thomas,
a Methodist clergyman of San Francisco, Mr. Meacham,
and Mr. Applegate, the last two belonging to the Agency
for Managing Indian Affairs in Oregon. General Canby
was appointed to the supreme command over both
the army and the Peace Commission. After these
gentlemen reached the Modoc country, a long time was
spent in arranging a meeting with the Indian chiefs.
Both sides were afraid of treachery; and past events, as
will be shown, justified each in this feeling. Neither
Captain Jack, the Modoc chief, nor any of his principal
men would venture within the camp of the United States
troops. On the other side, it was feared that as the
hatchet had been unburied, and blood had been shed, the
Indians would only look on the " Big Talk," or conference
with the Commissioners, as an opportunity for vengeance
not to be thrown away; and such turned out to be the case.
A meeting was at last agreed upon, and a place half
way between the camp and the Modoc stronghold was
selected for it. General Canby, Dr. Thomas, and Mr.
Meacham met Captain Jack and a number of his warriors
with him, all supposed to be unarmed. Mr. Riddle and
his wife, who is a Modoc woman, went with the Commis
sioners to act as interpreters. The " Big Talk " went on
for some time, and almost every one had a share in it, when
Captain Jack at last making a side movement, turned sud-
denlyround again, and shouting "Hetuck! Hetuck !" which
means " all ready !" pulled out a revolver from his breast,
and presented it at General Canby. The cap snapped,
but he instantly recocked it and sent a ball through the
358 MEETING THE SUN.
general's head. Two of the band attacked Dr. Thomas,
Avho fell dead almost instantly. Mr. Meacham had better
luck ; he had a six-shooter in his pocket, and was able to
show fight ; his opponent, Schonshin, fired five times,
hitting him each time, but none ofthe wounds were mortal.
The last shot knocked Mr. Meacham over, and he re
members nothing afterwards, but it is believed that an
effort was made to scalp him. The whole occurrence
had been seen from the camp, but it was a mile away, and
before the soldiers could get to the spot the Modocs were
off to their stronghold, having stripped the general en
tirely naked and carried off his clothes. While this was
going on, on the one side, another plan for assassination
was being carried out on the other. The troops were in
two camps, one on the west and the other on the east of
the Modoc position, this last being under the command of
Colonel Mason. Three Modocs and a flag of truce came
out towards it, and the officer of the day went to meet
them. The Modocs asked for Colonel Mason, but were
told that he could not see them. On being asked what
they wanted, they said, " Nothing," and the officer,
Lieutenant Sherwood, told them to go back again. Thus
they parted ; but Lieutenant Sherwood had not moved
many steps when two shots were fired at him, each taking
effect, and he died next day.
It is thought that they expected to find Colonel Mason,
and that it was their intention to kill him as well as
General Canby and the Peace Commissioners, and by
these acts to destroy what they considered to be the chiefs
opposed to them. Such is the aim of all Indian warfare,
and victory is pretty sure, according to their notions, to
THE MODOC WAR. 359
follow when they succeed in such attempts ; they do not
seem to know that the head of an organized army is like
the king, and never dies. The success of this treachery
was not quite so complete as the Modocs had calculated
on, for they had only managed to kill two of the big
chiefs ; still it was an unfortunate success — unfortunate
for both sides. All deplore the loss of General Canby,
who Avas held in the highest respect by every one ; and
Dr. Thomas was also looked upon as a good man. The
misfortune to the Modocs was, that these two men whom
they so foully massacred were their best friends, and
were most anxious to see justice done in the quarrel. It
is admitted that the Modocs had cause of complaint, and
up to the time of the massacre they had the sympathy of
many on their side. Even the Government at Washing
ton, after their troops had suffered two defeats, felt that
the Modoc claims deserved some attention, and it was in
order to see justice done that a man so experienced and
fair-minded as General Canby was put at the head
of the Peace Commission. The foul treachery of the
assassination changed the whole aspect of affairs. What
ever sympathy, or desire for the benefit of the Indians may
have been entertained at Washington, or through the
country generally, was at once extinguished. A deep
feeling of indignation was excited in every breast, and
a cry came from every part of the country for the utter
extermination of the whole Modoc tribe.
When I left San Francisco for the war trail, I was in
a state of almost complete ignorance about the Modoc
war. The condition of the Indian tribes generally was a
subject about which my ideas were very vague, but as I
360 MEETING THE SUN.
went along I found that I was learning at every step.
The amount of knowledge which I picked up in my
hurried visit to the Modoc country is necessarily slight;
but, slight as it is, it may be new to many, and I think
the best way to give it will be to relate what I heard and
saw as I went along.
As I moved north by train up the magnificent valley of
the Sacramento, the cry for vengeance upon Captain Jack
and all his tribe was at its highest. It was the only
subject of conversation, and almost every one expressed a
desire to have the shooting of the Modocs reserved for
his special satisfaction. Some wished that Captain Jack
had a hundred lives, and that they might be allowed to
take them all. All kinds of terrible tortures were talked
of. I began to speculate as to whether the Indians could
be more bloodthirsty than these wishes indicated the
white man to be. The mass of men seem, when roused
by some wild passion, to lose all the good qualities that
civilization has given them, and the original wild nature
of the savage appears. The bourgeoisie of Paris were in
this state when the Commune was put down. Their
desire was " Shoot ! kill ! you cannot kill too many of
them !" A fearful offering of blood was made to appease
this cry. The Hindu goddess Kali, a name founded on
the treble signification of Time, Death, and Darkness, is a
personification of the terrible aspect of the universe —
nothing but blood is offered at her temples ; and here as
I passed along I felt as if I had been in the midst of an
incarnation of this blood-worshipped goddess.
At Redding, about 300 miles from San Francisco, the
railway ends, and we had to go by stage-coach through
THE MODOC WAR. 361
the valleys where the Sacramento river rises. The first
stoppage to breakfast was at one of the primitive log-
houses of the early settlers. Here we had the usual con
versation about the Modocs, and the proprietor of the
place being an old resident, I began to get some insight
into the past relations between the white man and the
redskins. So I will give some specimens of his style of
talk. He expressed the usual warm desire to see the
Modocs exterminated, and included the whole race of
Indians in the same merciful sentiment. When he came
to the place first there were lots of Indians about —
they were as plentiful as ground-squirrels, and every
fall white men used -to go out and shoot a hundred or
tioo of them. At the present moment he was sorry
he could not get away, or he would take his rifle and
go off to the Lava-beds himself, and knock over a lot
of these Modocs. I reported this A7aliant warrior's wish
at the camp, and there was a great regret that such va
luable services were not to be had ; for the regular army,
with rifles, guns, and mortars, found it a most difficult
matter to kill even one Modoc, and the one Modoc gene
rally cost the lives of ten men. It was also explained to
me that in the early days when settlers went out to shoot
" a hundred or two" of the Indians, the latter were armed
only Arith bows and arrows. Now the Modocs are
armed with the newest breech-loading rifles, with which
weapons they are first-rate shots.
This man's words were valuable chiefly as giving a
retrospective peep into the character of past events which
have taken place between the settlers and the Indians ;
and I have since been told by others that to understand
362 MEETING THE SUN.
the Modoc difficulty completely I should have to go back,
through the events of the last twenty years, to the time
when the gold diggings on the Sacramento brought the
great influx of white population to the country. There is
no doubt it has been a history of lawlessness and of evil
deeds of all kinds, perpetrated by both sides, and General
Canby, Dr. Thomas, and other officers who have been sacri
ficed in the present war are only the innocent victims of
a long series of iniquities.
It was immediately after hearing this conversation
that, having walked down to the river where the coach
had to cross by means of a ferry, I met, for the first
time in my life, a real Indian chief on what I might term
his " native heath." Before the coach came down and
had got over the river I had secured a rough sketch of
him. He was the chief of the M'Leod Indians, so named
now from the M'Leod riArer, which here joins the Pit
river, both being tributaries ofthe Sacramento. His Indian
name was "Ochoolooly,"but he is generally called M'Leod,
and Captain M'Leod ; in fact, he is " the M'Leod of
M'Leod" of that part of the world. How unlike the
Indian chief of one's boyish reading ! All the war-paint
and feathers were wanting. If you had met him about
Wapping your conclusion that he belonged to some of the
ships would have been most natural. He wore a wide
awake hat ; a flannel shirt served at the same time for coat
aud vest ; his dirty cotton trowsers were held tight at the
waist by a belt, a pair of deer-skin moccassins on his feet
being all that was left of the old costume. His daily occu
pation seemed to be that of coming to meet the coach and
begging tobacco. He spoke almost no English, but he had
THE MODOC WAR. 363
a half-caste Indian boy with him to do all the talking, and
made inquiries as to whether we had any tobacco to give.
The two followed the coach for about a couple of miles, and
stopped where we could see the wickieups, or huts, of his
family on the other side of the M'Leod river. These
forms of domestic architecture are of a very primitive
kind. They are made of sticks, mats, and straw, not
unlike an inverted bird's-nest, but most birds generally
construct a much more comfortable kind of habitation.
Going along we saw these Indians at the various ranches,
many of them being employed as servants. The M'Leod
may be taken as a fair type of them all as they exist at
the present day. They are usually dressed, both men and
women, in cast-off clothes of the whites.
After thirty-three hours of the coach, we reached Yreka,
the chief town of Siskiyou county. It is close to the
border line of California and Oregon, and is the base for
supplies to the Modoc Expedition. The Lava-beds were
still eighty miles away to the eastward, and there are no
conveyances except the waggons Avith Government stores
for the troops. I had a letter of introduction to Colonel
Stone, of the Quartermaster-General's department, who
kindly arranged with a man to drive me out in a light
team, two or three days being necessary for the distance.
This was on a Thursday afternoon, and we learned that
General Gillem had attacked the Modocs in their strong
hold on the Tuesday, and that the fighting had been going
on ever since. This made me most anxious to proceed, and
I managed to get a start, and did fifteen miles that evening.
The next morning, after we got again on the way, Ave
met a courier from the front, who reported that, after
364 MEETING THE SUN.
three days' fighting, the stronghold in the LaAra-beds had
been captured, but that the Modocs had been able to
escape ; that they were at large and supposed to be
going about the country killing and scalping every white
man they met — they had already killed and mutilated a team
ster employed by the Government, named Eugene Hovpy
— and that there was danger in every step to the front.
My driver became scared at once. I got him to continue
the route as far as Ball's Ranche, but I began to see that
I should have great difficulties in advancing further. A
Special Correspondent is thrown into many and various
experiences, but to be travelling in a wild region, with the
country haunted by fierce and desperate Indians, and the
certain fate before you that if you are caught your body
will be left so mutilated that your nearest relatives could
not identify it, while your scalp will ornament the shot-
pouch of a savage, was new to me, although I have had
about as fair a share of adventure as most of my class.
Ranches are places where the white settlers live who
breed stock, — in this region principally cattle. These
ranches are wide apart, for the stock requires extended
feeding grounds ; and being thus isolated, they might be
attacked in succession. So when we reached Ball's
Ranche, the excitement produced by the news from the
front was great. Teamsters were coming in, and all
declared against going on till an escort came, or till news
could be got that the road was safe. The fact that one
of their number had been killed by the Modocs completely
paralyzed them. My Jehu shared the general terror, and,
although so near to the scene of action, I yet found
myself powerless to proceed. The Modocs were all the
Yyvo-Aqc <^*j^j^
i-Vowi ;Ae Illustkated Lomjon Nmis
THE MODOC WAR. 365
talk, so I did little else but listen. The men among whom
I found myself had been most of them about the country
from the first arrival of the whites, and were familiar
with both Oregon and California. They had all lived
a rough life, and were a rough lot. Their language
was peculiar, and I had difficulty at times in compre
hending their meaning. Their chief peculiarity was the
use of an enormous amount of profane swearing. Seventy-
five per cent, of their words were oaths of the strongest
kind ; no matter what they spoke about, it was all pre
faced and concluded by old sacred and ecclesiastical
phrases. It was a style of talking which had its origin
in the strange mass of humanity which first came to
the country in the digging days. I asked one of them if
there was any Act of Congress making it a penalty if
they spoke without interlarding their speech with oaths.
" Well," he said, " it's a bad custom, but we are all so
long given to the habit that we cannot get over it."
They were nearly all familiarly acquainted with every man
in the Modoc camp ; and, strange to say, the feeling for
vengeance, so strong in other parts, was not so manifest
here. Many of these rough men spoke in defence of the
Indians, and I heard of the frequent injustice which the
Modocs had suffered. One event they recounted to me,
which, as it is the counterpart to the assassination of
General Canby, ought to be related. In 1852 there was
trouble with the Modoc tribe, and .a man called Ben
Wright organized a force of volunteers, whicli had two
engagements near the Lava-beds, Avhere the war was
going on. Ben Wright's men were defeated in both
fights, so he tried another method. He first proposed to
b b
366 MEETING THE SUN.
the Modocs that if they would come and have a Big Muck-
a-muck, or dinner, the matter could be talked over ; and
the plan was to poison them all with strychnine. This
he did not manage to carry out ; but at last he got them
to a Big Talk. Wright had his followers all ready, and
at a signal given by him, which was the drawing of a
revolver — exactly the same signal which Captain Jack used
at the late assassination — they commenced the massacre.
About thirty or forty were killed, and only six or seven
escaped. Ben Wright, instead of being branded as an
assassin, was feted. A dinner and speeches laudatory
were given him at Yreka. Some of the Modocs waited
their time, and ultimately aA'enged the crime done to their
tribe. Wright was murdered while asleep. The Indians
who did this were hanged, but they gloried to their last
moments in the revenge which they had accomplished.
The man who related this to me said he had often heard
the Modocs refer to this event, and speak of it with the
most bitter feelings. The leading chiefs of the tribe were
all boys or young men at the time, but none of them have
forgotten the story, and there is no doubt that they felt
they were revenging this old injury when they planned
the equally foul massacre of the Peace Commissioners.
In this also we have the reason why none of their chiefs
would risk themselves into the camp of the whites during
their late negotiations. This is some of the history,
twenty years back, which it is necessary to know in order
to understand the late Modoc war.
I heard of the relations of the settlers with the Indian
squaws, of drunken quarrels, six-shooters and knives,
performing a large part of the history ; cattle-stealing and
THE MODOC WAR. 367
evil doing of all kinds, treachery and murder being com
mon events on both sides. Any one can easily imagine
what must have been the result of savage Indians comine
into contact with all the scoundrelism which went to that
region when the gold fever broke out, and thus may form
some idea of the causes which have led to the present
troubles. There is another aspect of the case which must be
given in order to convey a complete notion of events.
The people and Government of the United States have
undoubtedly desired that some fairness at last should be
meted out to the Indian tribes. The sense of justice in
human nature must declare that these tribes have been
cruelly wronged. They have been despoiled of their land,
and many of them exterminated. To save what has been
still left, the Indian Bureau has reserved lands in most
of the States for them, and appointed Commissioners to
look after the proper management of these lands, and of
the money voted by Congress for the Indians.
But, sad to say, the intentions of the people and the
Government have failed to be realized.
The greatest enemies of the Indians have been the very
Commissioners appointed to look after their interests. All
whom I have spoken to declare this to be the case. It is
said that the very worst men were appointed — men unfit
for anything else ; and that mismanagement and blunder
ing are not the worst of what has taken place. An idea
may be formed from the fact, that out of 35,000 dollars a
year voted for the Indians not five per cent, of it ever
reached them. It is to the doings of these very Com
missioners that the present disasters may be directly
B b 2
368 MEETING THE SUN.
traced. The reservation lands for the Indians in tbis
quarter are in Oregon, on the east of the great Klamath
Lake, but the region is so high and poor that the Modocs
will not live upon it. It is somewhere over 6000 feet
above the level of the sea. The land in this region is
white on the surface with alkali, and produces little
except sage-bush, and where sage-busb grows not much
else will be found to thrive. Some of the Modocs were
prevailed upon to go to the reservation, but after a trial
they all returned to their old country, declaring that they
would rather die than leave it again ; and it was in an
effort to force them that the military were called out and
the first hostilities occurred. I made inquiries of the
people at the ranches if the Modocs had been given to
supplying themselves "with beef from their cattle, and they
all said that they had not. They did not object to a dead
animal if they found it ; like the Highlanders with "braxie,"
they rather preferred such meat. If they found cattle
mired they would help them out, or come and report them
at the ranche. Both Doris and Fairchild, who have
ranches close to the Modoc haunts, say that they always
found them faithful to any engagement into which they
entered. Others had a different opinion, and said, " An
Indian is an Indian, and ought never to be trusted." In
all this, I give what I heard said on the spot, and I will
now conclude the account of my journey to the front.
It was settled that all should stop at Ball's Ranche for
the night, and perhaps satisfactory news might come in
before morning. I noticed that one of the teamsters, who
had arrived during the day, was of a better class than
most of the others, and that he used a much smaller
THE MODOC WAR. 369
percentage of swearing in his conversation, so I asked if
he was for the front, and if he was willing to go on. He
said he was, but would not decide till the morning.
When the morning came there was a long discussion.
No news had arrived, and there was great uncertainty.
I spoke to my friend, and asked what he intended to do.
I told him that if he would take me and my small amount
of baggage, I was willing to proceed. This determined
him to go, and four other teamsters followed our example.
The next ranche was Doris's, halfway from Ball's to the
Lava-beds, and we reached it in the evening in perfect
safety ; but being so near to the enemy we had to look to
the defence of our bedroom, which at this place was a
hay-loft, where four of us slept. We had a rifle and a
revolver, but our weak point was fire. A lucifer match
would have dislodged us in a few minutes, but we trusted
we should not have our slumbers disturbed.
Such was the case, and next morning the teamsters
were all so reassured that they went on without much talk
of danger, and to our joy we met a cavalry escort coming
out with some waggons, and it returned in charge of us.
I was ,glad of this, for I had fears every moment, if any
thing should have occurred to scare them, that they
would have gone back. I could not say that the escort
altered my own views of the chances of danger, for our
road led by what I took for glacial moraines, where rocks
and stone were piled up into bastions and barricades, and
two or three men could have shot us all down like dogs,
and escape would have been impossible. This opinion I
did not communicate to my friends around.
We were getting on our way capitally when an incident
370 MEETING THE SUN.
took place, producing the very effect of which I was most
afraid. We met a man called Glenn on horseback coming
from the front ; his eyes were bright and fierce, and almost
projecting from their sockets ; his under-lip hung down,
giving a most unhappy expression to his mouth. He was
known to all our party, and when he announced that he
had been shot at — he declared he heard two cracks of a
rifle about a mile behind — the fright it produced among
our men was something wonderful. There was even more
than the usual seventy-five per cent, of Church anathemas
evolved by this news ; but luckily we were too far on to
return, and our escort ordered all the teams to keep close
together, and we went on. Whether the shots were really
fired, or only imagined by Glenn, it would be difficult to
say. A few minutes later we passed the same place in
safety, and I thought that our dangers, or rather our fears
of danger, were at an end ; but in this I was wrong.
When about a mile out of camp, a picket rode up and
told us that the Modocs had come down in force and were
firing into the headquarters. By another volcanic. eruption
of oaths the teamsters managed to make us understand
that they wished themselves all back at Yreka. We
soon got into camp, and this last report strengthened
the suspicion I had felt all through this journey, that the
dangers were exaggerated in the mere telling. The
last alarm resulted from the Modocs making an attempt
to get to the lake for water, and for this purpose four of
them had fired a random shot or two towards the
camp, so as to divert attention from those who were
getting the supply.
On descending the bluff to where the tents were at the
MOUNT SHASTA.
From the Illustrated London Nea\s.
THE MODOC WAR. 371
corner of the lake, I was rather astonished at the first
gentleman I met introducing himself to me as an Eng
lishman, and the correspondent of the New York Herald.
His name was Fox ; he had formerly been in the
British army, and had been doing all sorts of plucky
things in the Lava-beds. He introduced me to the officers
of the force, by whom I was most warmly welcomed.
One reason for this cordial reception was the feeling that
the public did not understand the locality, and that blame
was attached to them for being held at bay by so small
a number of rude savages. "Now," they said, "the
public will see pictures of the place, and be able to under
stand what we have had to fight against."
Having visited the scene of events, I am able to
give some account of the fighting, and of the wonderful
stronghold in the Lava-beds, which Captain Jack and his
handful of Modoc warriors so stoutly defended. The
locality is in California, far north on the border of the
State of Oregon. The whole of California is, or has
been, volcanic. A land constantly shaking with earth
quakes, and where people are afraid to live in stone
houses, can scarcely be called terra firma. The Modoc
country must in former times have been the head
quarters of the subterranean forces which are not
yet quite dormant. Many are the evidences of their
action. The magnificent peak of Mount Shasta, an
old volcano, nearly as high as Mont Blanc, stands a
monarch among the lesser extinct craters to be seen
for miles round its base. Perpetual snow is on its
summit. The iced waters from its glaciers supply the
highest sources of the Sacramento flowing to the south,
372 MEETING THE SUN.
and on the north side rise the Shasta and Klamath
rivers. Hot sulphur and soda springs are common in this
region, telling that the fires beneath are not yet quite
gone out. " The Warm Spring Indians," a tribe in this
neighbourhood, derive their name from the volcanic
nature of the region. The Modoc country is to the east
of Mount Shasta, where there are a series of lakes. The
great Klamath Lake is over forty miles in extent, and
there is a Lower Klamath Lake of smaller dimensions.
Goose Lake, Clear Lake, and Tule Lake are all consider
able sheets of water, none of them less than ten or twelve
miles in their longest direction. The old hunting-ground
of the Modocs is on the Lower Klamath and Tule Lakes,
whose waters also supplied them with fishing. A river
runs from Clear Lake into Tule Lake, but no river runs
from the last. Pit River comes out of a hole, as its name
indicates, some miles to the south of Tule Lake, and an
underground channel of volcanic construction is supposed
to exist and conduct the waters. The now celebrated
Lava-beds are on the south margin of Tule Lake, and
this underground outlet to the Pit River is supposed to be
under them. The whole region is high, for the surface of
these lakes is said to be about 6000 feet above the. level
of the sea. It is too high for forest trees. A few stunted
cedars are scattered over the landscape ; but sage-bush is
the great botanic feature of the locality. The ground is in
many places white with alkaline compounds, with which
the waters also are impregnated. Tule Lake derives
its name from a reed which grows plentifully all
over it, but it was also known as Rhett Lake, from
the name of the officer who first surveyed the district,
^SVaa=.
e^a.
'%
'H
Pj-om ifte Illustrated London News.
WARM SPRING INDIAN.
THE MODOC WAR. 373
or as Modoc Lake, from the fated tribe whose days are
now nearly ended on its shores.
These Indians have always been warlike, and have
fought and vanquished all the other tribes around. They
defeated Ben Wright's volunteers in two engagements
twenty years ago. They have fought a number of battles
with the regular army of the United States in the present
war, and in each case the victory was on their side. The
last engagement before my arrival continued three days.
About forty Modocs against six hundred, they fought all
that time like perfect devils, and at last made good their
retreat when they found they could no longer defend
their stronghold. One could haA7e wished that the men
who have shown such bravery had been unstained in their
reputation with such a crime as assassination. Had they
not basely accomplished the deaths of General Canby
and Dr. Thomas, few heroes could have been compared
to them. That crime put them beyond the pale of
mercy, and extermination like vermin was decreed against
them. An order of the general, Gillem, says, " Let
it be that no Modoc shall ever in future be able to boast
that his ancestors killed General Canby."
The first engagement took place on the north-west of
Tule Lake. The Modocs were living there at the time,
when a body of thirty-five cavalry, under Major Jackson,
came to force them away to the reservation. Those Avho
directed this movement never supposed for a moment
that the Indians would resist, but they receiA'ed a lesson,
and every succeeding encounter was a new lesson as
to the pluck and ability of the men they had to deal with.
This first engagement took place at the end of last
374 MEETING THE SUN.
November, 1872. It was more properly a skirmish; eight
of the soldiers and a citizen soon bit the dust, and a
hasty retreat ended the whole affair. The Modocs moved
their squaws and children by the side of the lake to the
Lava-beds. One small body went by the east side of the
lake and murdered fourteen white settlers on the way.
They had unburied the hatchet, and death was the lot of
every pale-face with whom they might come in contact.
Troops were now concentrated from the various forts
about the country, and at last about 450 men were
brought on the field under the command of General
Wheaton. Of course, with such a force it was presumed
that a mere handful of Indians could not offer any resist
ance. Here again they were quite mistaken, and they
received the second lesson. The lesson was the discovery
of the great strength of the Modoc stronghold in the Lava-
beds, a matter on which all seemed to be in the most
perfect ignorance. It ought to have been the duty of
those in command to have at least some idea of the
place they were attacking. The force was divided into
two bodies; and on the 17th January, 1873, they made
the attack from opposite sides. A dense fog came on
that morning, so that the two parties could not see each
other's movements, nor could they make signals between
them. After fighting for some time in this fog, and
having ten men killed and twenty -nine wounded, they had
to retire utterly discomfited.
It was after this defeat that the Peace Commission was
established, and General Canby took charge of the whole
affair. The interval from January till the assassination
on the 11th of April was passed in efforts at negotiation.
^VV^&OC/*),
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(rnlL\1rwul cWfl li<|Vt -
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From the Illustrated London Neavs
MEDICINE FLAG, POUND IN THE LAVA BEDS.
THE MODOC WAR. 375
After this unfortunate event, General Gillem at once
prepared for an attack. There were now over 500 men
in the field, composed of infantry, cavalry, and artillery,
the cavalry and artillery not working the guns being used
as infantry in the operations. There were two howitzers
and four cohorns, or small mortars. Something was
now known ofthe strength of the Lava-beds. More careful
preparations were made for the attack, and the men
began with three days' rations in their knapsacks. The
force was again divided into two bodies, that on the west
being under the command of Colonel Green, and the other
on the east under that of Colonel Mason. It was known
that there was no water in the Lava-beds, and it was
thought to be the proper line of tactics to cut off all com
munication with the lake. This was generally approved of
at the moment, but tbe result has since made it question
able, for the troops were too few", and the number of men
needed to cut off the water did not leave a sufficient
number to hem the Indians in on the land side.
The attack commenced on the 15th April, and the
Indians expected that the soldiers, after firing all day,
would return to their camp in the evening, as they had
done on former occasions, and they were much astonished
Avhen this did not take place. The troops held the ground
they had gained during the day, and even used the night
to advance over dangerous pieces of the field. Rifle-pits
and barricades formed of blocks of the lava, which are
plentiful, were thrown up, and safe cover was thus pro
vided. The soldiers seldom or never saw the Modocs,
Avho were securely hid among the lava and sage-bushes.
They could hear the Indians abusing them in the peculiar
376 MEETING THE SUN.
English of the locality, mixed with the usual amount of
questionable language. They have an orator in each
tribe, and the Modocs brought theirs to the front, and
from some place where he was invisible he commenced an
oration. He began by reviling the soldiers in the plainest
and most vulgar of English words ; asked how long they
were intending to fight ; told them that if they did not want
to be all killed they ought to go home to their mothers,
and so on. The Indians had never seen shells used in
warfare, and they were rather surprised when the cohorns
began to drop these missiles among them. It is reported
that the first one that came was picked up by one of the
chiefs, who tried to bite it, and that it burst in his hands,
knocking him all to pieces. They gave curious descrip
tions of the shells afterwards. " Firing cans of powder "
was one way of putting it, and another of their phrases
being " the guns that went off twice." It is generally said
by those engaged, that had it not been for these mortars
and their vertical fire it would have been beyond the
power of the small number of troops employed to have
forced the position.
Great efforts were made to join the right of Colonel
Green's force with the left of Colonel Mason's, but the
men were too few, and on the third day it was found
that the Modocs were evacuating the place. This they
managed to do most successfully, carrying off their
families and the wounded, their arms and ammunition.
Only one wounded man was found. Two old squaws
managed to hide themselves in the rock, and had to
come out, forced by hunger and thirst, a couple of days
afterwards. The number of Indians killed has never
THE MODOC WAE. 377
been clearly ascertained. Four dead bodies were in the
Lavarbeds, but as the custom with most of the tribes is to
burn their dead, it is supposed that this was done with
those who fell on the first two days of the fighting.
Great fires were seen, and teeth were found afterwards
in the ashes. The loss which was accepted at head
quarters made the number about fifteen, leaving
thirty warriors of the tribe alive. The loss to the
troops was about six or seven killed and about
twenty wounded.
On occupying the stronghold evacuated by the Modocs,
its real character could be seen and fully understood, and
it became tbe wonder of all. South of the lake is a high
ridge covered with numerous extinct craters; from the base
of the lower of these, about seven or eight miles away, a
stream of lava has poured out and made its way to the lake.
Seen from a distance, this bed of lava looks like ordi
nary flat ground covered with sage-bush, behind whicli
no one would expect to find the curious labyrinth which
the convulsions of nature have produced. Imagine a
rabbit warren on a large scale, or a colossal ant-colony
with Indians instead of insects. It has been likened to
a piece of sponge magnified, and this certainly would do
as a model to give an idea of the place. It would require
a geologist to explain fully how the whole thing has been
produced. The lava in cooling has been opened up into
valleys and fissures of almost every shape and size. There
are round openings like craters, and caverns of all sizes,
the whole forming a city which one could believe
the gnomes had constructed; in which thousands of
people could be securely placed ; and where they might
378 MEETING THE SUN".
defy an invasion to overcome them. Any one accus
tomed to fortifications and trenches might well fancy
that a military engineer had planned it. Long cracks
and fissures served as trenches ; there were places like
zig-zags, bastions, redoubts, redans, epaulments, curtains,
sallyports, — in short, every feature to be found in a for
tified place — all constructed of solid rock, hard as iron.
As this intricacy of form has been produced downwards
into the original bed of lava, these works were thoroughly
on the Vauban principle. None of them could be seen
by the attacking party, and hence it was that the officers
did not know what they had to deal with till the Modocs
bolted and they entered this volcanic citadel. The In
dians had supplemented the original construction by
throwing in rocks to fill up gaps, and thus completely
covering themselves. On commanding points they had
erected with blocks of lava small rifle-pits, exactly like
those which played so important a part in the siege of
Sebastopol. Low dwarf walls of the same material were
thrown up where nature had forgotten to leaA'e a ridge
of lava, and from behind these the Indians could lie and
use their rifles. Every line of approach or point of attack
was as completely covered and protected as if a Todleben
had been the engineer in command.
In this we have the reason why this handful of men
were so confident in their stronghold, and the explana
tion of their success in fighting. To attack such a place
by an assault, as was attempted on the 17th January,
was about as foolish as it would have been to have led an
army in the open against the guns of Metz or Strasburg.
Defeat was the only possible result. General Gillem's
THE MODOC WAR. 379
attack succeeded because his officers adopted the tactics
of a siege. It was, in fact, a siege of three days. The
men made cover as they advanced, and fortified them
selves so as to hold whatever ground they gained. The
chief losses in this attack were from the first charges
across the open ground. As it was, there were too few
men, and thus the enemy were able to escape. Had
the force in this attack begun its operations more
after the fashion of a regular siege, and made works
to command the line of retreat on the land side,
instead of attempting to cut off the communications
Avith the water, it is possible that even the small
number of soldiers engaged might have been able
to hem in Captain Jack and his followers, and have
caught them all. More time would have been necessary
for such a plan; but it would have been a saving of
time, as well as of life, in the end.
The Indians fight naked, or nearly so ; and as their dark
skins are about the same tint as the lava, it is a good
colour for the work. The soldiers say that they never
saw one of them during the whole three days' fighting.
They could only return the fire wherever they saw the
smoke or flash of one of their rifles. After every engage
ment the Indians killed any whom they found wounded,
and mutilated the bodies. A string of scalps, noses, and
fingers was left by them in the Lava-bed. Such orna
ments, worn as most honourable decorations, are generally
attached to their shot-pouches. All the warriors had
rifles, and good ones too, after the latest pattern of
breech-loaders ; and since the war began they have been
amply supplied with Government weapons and ammuni-
380 MEETING THE SUN.
tion, got from the dead and wounded in the different
engagements. The squaws were said to help and
encourage the men while the fight was going on.
I visited the much-talked-of cave where Captain Jack
and his family lived in the Lava-beds. It indicates the
primitive condition of civilization reached by the Indian
tribes of this region, who seem to be very little in advance
of the ancient cave-people. In looking round the place
we could see the very deposits which are found im
bedded in the old caves. Bones, some of them picked;
others with pickings still left ; horns of cattle ; hoofs ;
skins, with the hair on ; hides, and pieces of deer-skin,
from which they made moccassins. Fish in a putrid state,
and fish-bones, were in shelves of the rock ; pieces of fat,
and dark, questionable-looking lumps lay about which
were said to be meat. The bones seemed to have been
thrown anywhere about the cave when they were picked,
and even those which I saw may remain there till they
get covered up and imbedded, and may thus 'form a rude
chronicle of the cave-life of this tribe. The cave was
simply a circular hole in the lava, and had the appearance
of being an old crater. It was perfectly bomb-proof, and
only a vertical fire could by chance drop a shell into it.
It was near the centre of the stronghold, and had a num
ber of similar crater-like holes around.
On evacuating the stronghold, the Modocs went south,
along the line in which the laA^a had flowed. They were
said to have taken up their quarters in another cave about
three miles distant. Their camp-fires were visible, and
with a good glass even their dusky figures might be made
out, moving like specks of shadow. I spent a.pouple of
Wmm
;m"W Jb
£&&
m mi
*»Jt "'"¦
THE MODOC WAR. 381
days in Colonel Mason's camp, which was pitched in the
Lava-bed, and on returning to Colonel Gillem's camp I
found that a strong escort was leaving next morning to
accompany Colonel Biddle on his way to Yreka, and to
bring back General Jef . C. Davies, who had been appointed
in General Canby's place. Finding that no immediate
action was intended against the Modocs, and that every
thing was uncertain, I determined to leave. Mr. Fox, of
the New York Herald, for similar reasons was also going
away. On the morning of our departure a " scouting
party" went out — in the old country called a "recon-
naisance " — composed of about sixty men, with officers.
We all shook hands together, and from the top of the
bluff we could see them, like spots, moving away south
west among the blocks of lava and bunches of sage-bush,
while the polished steel of the rifles, although, from the
distance, small as needles, glanced as they caught the
angle of the sun's rays. The scene fixed itself in my
mind at the moment, and the events of tbe day, which I
only learned three days after, at Yreka, acted as a
mordant, to fix it all still more deeply.
It would seem that they went over about three or four
miles of ground. Their object was to feel for the where
abouts of the enemy; but, seeing nothing of him, they
were on the point of returning, and only called a halt to
eat the lunch which each carried with him. " The Sun
sees many flowers ; the flowers see but one Sun," is an
old Oriental proverb, and it suggests what took place
here : the Pale-faces saw no Red-skins, but the Red-skins
saw many Pale-faces. The Modocs, gliding about unseen,
waited their opportunity. When the halt was called, and
c c
382 MEETING THE SUN.
every man had sat down, each Indian crawled, in silence
and invisibly, to a point where his rifle could be pointed
on a victim, and with fatal certainty the whole, at a given
signal, fired at once. The effect was terrible. Taken at
such a disadvantage, they were helpless. The details of
this sad affair have never been clearly got at ; some ran
away, and some fought gloriously. To a man the officers
stood to their duty, and a soldier's death was the reward
of all. Dr. Semig, the only one who was left alive, was
badly wounded. Out of the sixty, seventeen were killed,
five of them being officers, twelve wounded, and five
missing ; more than a half of the whole number.
I had experiences of this kind before Sebastopol, but
as we grow older we become more sensitive in such
matters. These five officers I had only known for about
six days, but they had welcomed me warmly to their
camp, and shown me kindness in every way. Major
Thomas, who commanded the party, had been all through
the war in the South ; he was quite a young man, but
had made a name for himself, and, after passing through
a great war, it was hard to be knocked over by a lot of
cut-throat Indians. Colonel Wright was a most pleasant
man. He came in only the night before to Lieutenant
Greer's tent to post a letter for his wife, saying, " That is
something whicli will amuse her ; that is the best way to
keep her in good spirits." I wish he could still write his
wife an amusing letter. Another officer was Lieutenant
Cranston, of the 4th U. S. Artillery. His body, as well
as those of some of his men, could not be found for more
than a week afterwards. The night before his death we
sat in one of the tents, having a long chat about guns,
From the Illustrated London News.
'MAIN STAKE" MODOC INDIAN WOMAN.
THE MODOC WAR. 383
projectiles, and about the Moncrieff gun in particular.
I believe he and I were the last to go to bed in the camp
that night. He gave me the address of his brother-in-law
at Washington, on whom I promised to call, and which I
did afterwards, feeling, from what had taken place, that
it was a religious duty to do so. Dr. Semig, the only
man who was not killed, had a limb amputated, and
besides had a bullet or two left in his body. While in
camp I belonged to the mess of his detachment.
These were my rather sad experiences of the war.
About a month more had passed in unimportant skir
mishing and hunting through that wild country, when
Captain Jack and all his people were made prisoners, and
the fighting came to an end.
When all these Indian warriors had been made pri
soners, a Military Commission was appointed to try them
for their crimes. A number Avere sentenced to death, and,
while I was writing this narrative, news arrived that on
the 4th of October four of them suffered the last penalty
of the law. These were Captain Jack, Schonchin, Boston
Charley, and Black Jim. It would seem that these
heroes of the Lava-beds were anything but heroes when
the gallows was before them. Captain Jack made a
long speech, denying his guilt, and proposing that Scaur-
faced Charley, who was a relative of his, should be
hanged in his place. Boston Charley was the only one
of the three that died game, and, seeing the conduct
of his companions, he called them "women."
c c 2
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE YOSEMITE.
Mt first love in art was a Highland mountain, and I have
been a Mountain Worshipper ever since. Fate has privi
leged me to visit many shrines of this faith, — the Alps,
the Caucasus, the Himalayas, the mountains of Abyssinia ;
now I can add to this list Fuji-yama in Japan, and the
Sierra Nevadas of California, where I have seen Mount
Shasta and the Yosemite Valley. I think that a valley,
however beautiful it may be, never could have become a
sacred object, such as mountains seem to have been all
over the world. A great high peak, soaring up into
heaven, with its garment of snow, white and pure, often
lost in the clouds as if communing with those above, its
icy barriers setting it apart like consecrated ground
where the profane must not tread, — these are features of
the higher mountains, which may have impressed men and
produced that religious veneration of which we have evi
dences from the most remote antiquity. For myself I
think there is no grander sight in this visible world,
affecting not only the eye but the mind at the same time,
than one of those mighty heaven-dwelling peaks.
Of the lower aspects of mountain scenery, the Yosemite
by far exceeds anything that I have yet seen. It not
only concentrates into a small space the grandest and
most beautiful scenery, but it contains wonders which,
THE YOSEMITE. 385
even if they stood alone in any part of the world,
pilgrims might well be eager to see. Some places are
celebrated for the beauty of their scenery, others for
grandeur; the wild and savage aspect, again, is the
reputation of certain localities. At the Yosemite, all
these and more are to be found together, — snow-capped
peaks and domes of rock ; high walls of granite ; per
pendicular cliffs and pinnacles, some of them like church
towers; waterfalls, unsurpassed for size or beauty; woods,
like a primeval forest ; and close to this great valley, so
close as to form part of the attractions, the greatest
trees in the world — huge, like giants before the flood.
Although it is wild and grand in the highest degree,
it is yet a perfect bower of beauty. Eden itself could
not have been more lovely. Having now seen the
Yosemite, I renounce for ever as absurd the traditions
that Aden or Ceylon could have been the Garden of
Paradise. Under the article "Eden," the Avriter in
Smith's Dictionary of the Bible remarks : — " The three
continents of the Old World have been subjected to the
most rigorous search ; from China to the Canary Isles,
from the Mountains of the Moon to the coasts of the
Baltic, no locality which in the slightest degree corre
sponded to the description of the first abode of the human
race has been left unexamined. The great rivers of
Europe, Asia, and Africa, have in turn done service as
the Pison and Gihon of Scripture, and there remains
nothing but the New World wherein the next adventurous
theorist may bewilder himself in the mazes of this most
difficult question." Here I register my copyright to the
newest theory. The spot is not to be found in the Old
386 MEETING THE SUN.
World, and, in the only place left where search can be
made, it has been discovered. Should any one ask me
for proof, I say, " No ; go and see the Yosemite for
yourself. and you will seek for no more proofs !"
In the beginning of April, when I expected to have
found a way to the Yosemite, the conveyances had not
started for the summer visitors, and the trails over the
mountains Avere not open. Mr. Bierstadt, the artist, whose
name is so closely associated with the valley, and whose
brush may be said to have made it his own, made
arrangements for me to pass in, but the trip to the
Modoc country threw me later in my plans, and by
the time I made my visit all the conveyances were on
the roads, the trails were open, and the difficulties of
crossing the snow were avoided.
The journey in summer can be done in three days.
We left San Francisco at four p.m. by train for Lathrop,
where we changed for the San Joaquin line, and reached
Merced about ten. At that place there is a large, fine
hotel, called El Capitan. Next morning, at six o'clock,
we left by the stage for Mariposa, which I am told is.
Spanish for Butterfly. Three of us went on to White
and Hatch's the same night, and slept there. On the
following morning we got to Clarke's in time to go and see
the big trees the same day. They are round the summit
of a high hill, and one cannot ride fast either going or
coming, the trail being very steep in many places.
These trees are about 200 in number, are scattered for
over half a mile or so, and are always found in groups.
One group much visited by travellers to the Yosemite,
and known as the "Calaveras," is not left so much in its
THE YOSEMITE. 387
primitive condition as the "Mariposa Group," as that
which we visited is called. The first, I understand, has
been converted into something like a tea-garden, while
the latter remains in its original condition ; so I am very
glad it was my good luck to see the Mariposa trees.
Mr. Fergusson has made the subject of Tree Worship
well known, but he does not avow himself a disciple of
that particular culte ; still I know those who, from their
great admiration of trees, declare themselves to be Wor
shippers. A tree expresses the ancient idea of rebirth in its
growth from a seed, hence the old Assyrian worship of a
pine-cone. Every year a tree spreads out its ample
foliage, as the sun in its power revivifies nature after the
death of winter. In these forms a tree is a symbol of
life, and of the life to be. It has still another aspect ; it
is a great object that moves. Motion is one of the forms
of life, and Job's arguments with his comforters had this
point — that God only sent the wind which moves them.
In its slight breath the tree whispers ; as it increases, a
louder rustle is heard ; and, when the gale is strong, the
branches move like the arms of some mighty Being,
and loud are the sounds of its many leaves. According
to the old ideas, the air, or wind, was the Spirit, or the
Spirit of God ; and a tree acting thus was looked upon as
under the Divine afflatus. It was a thing which spoke, and
which might be spoken to. In this we have the whole
element of ancient worship, and the reason why Trees
became Gods, and the Grove became a Temple. These
are thoughts to which the Digger Indians never reached ;
to them a tree was only good as it gave them nuts, — a
388 MEETING THE SUN.
deduction which to the mind that lies in the stomach is
logical enough, but there are minds of far different
tempers and aspirations. But if I Avere a Tree Wor
shipper, and I sympathize with those who are, I would
look upon the Big Trees of California as the great Gods
of my system.
They stand on the top of a mount, the sides of which
are covered with a congregation of common mortals, such
as the ordinary pine, the fir, and the cedar, quite a crowd
of lesser trees below looking up to the top as a shrine.
The sights here are the " Fallen Monarch " and the
"Grizzly Giant." This latter tree is 300 feet high, and
ninety-three feet seven inches in circumference at the
base. About 200 feet from the ground is a branch about
nine feet in diameter, which, if you look up to it reve
rently, may give a wave of its arm in recognition, as
much as to say, in Peking Gazette style, " It is known."
Many of the trees are named after celebrated men, such
as Longfellow, A. Lincoln, President Grant, Ferdinand
Lesseps, and so on. Some of these trees have fallen, and
through one which has been hollowed out through time,
there is a tunnel about twenty feet in length, through
which, by a most gentle bend of the head, any one can ride
on horseback. From this the reader may gather some
notions of their vast proportions.
I found that Americans bad some reasonable cause of
complaint in reference to the name given to them by our
countrymen. The name Wellingtonia was awarded by a
Britisher, but the tree had already received a name. There
was a tree known as "Redwood;" but American botanists
called it Sequoia Sempervirens, from an Indian, a noted
THE YOSEMITE. 389
man among the Cherokees. He was of mixed blood, and
his paternal name was George Guess ; his Indian name
was Sequoyah. The Big Tree belonged to the same
genera, and it naturally was called the Sequoia Gigantea.
Botanists in the old country give it the correct name uoav,
but visitors, as a rule, do not, and unthinkingly act as
rudely as if they called the capital of the United States
after the same military hero, and ignored the fact that the
Americans know it as Washington.
From Clarke's to the Yosemite is a day's ride, but there
are two trails ; one is known as the Avinter, and the other
as the summer trail. The last is shorter by many
miles, but there were some doubts as to whether it
was passable. Eli Stump, who was our guide, made
inquiries, but no one had yet gone over this season, and
it was difficult to get good information. Opinions were
rather against the attempt. We consulted men working
on the trail, and although snow Avas the main difficulty,
yet their words all referred to a very warm region. Each
expressed himself in strong terms, which, however, rather
whetted our desire to try the higher trail, and we went
by it. Eli Stump reasoned that as the fall of snow that
year had been slight, it might be done ; and we all got
over safe. We had a good deal of snow, with water, and
slushy places to surmount, but our guide was a careful
man, and evidently knew the ground.
In California I heard of a preventive against snow-
blindness worth mentioning, because it is very simple.
I speak from experience, having had my own eyes shut up
from the snow in the Himalayas, and knowing boAV valu
able anything would be which could save the sight in
390 MEETING THE SUN.
Alpine regions. The man who told me of it gave the
story of his first knowledge of the specific. He had
been nearly all his life in Western States, and crossed the
mountains often in snow-shoes. One morning he met a
friend coming into one of the towns, somewhere in Oregon,
and noticing his eyes, blackened as if from fighting, began
to condole with him about coming off second best in the
encounter. He was rather surprised to hear that nothing
of the kind had taken place. " The eyes are all right ;
you bet, this is a dodge I learned from the Injuns. Just
rub a burnt stick round your blinkers ; be particular to
rub it half an inch below them ; and you may cross the
whole of the United States under snow, and your eyes
will be safe." By what reason it is so is more than I
can explain, but it was confirmed to me from other
sources; and I am told that the Hudson's Bay men
copied this plan from the Indians, and that the old
trackers learned it from them. The thing is simple, and
any one can test it for himself.
The visitor has one great advantage as he enters the
Yosemite by the summer trail, and that is, that the first
sight of it by this road is one of the finest views which
can be had of the valley. The place is called " Inspi
ration Point." You are there at least 3000 feet
above the bottom of the valley, so that you look
into it as if it Avere a dish; and can realize the
theory by which geologists explain the formation of
the place — that it was a slip downwards of the
whole mass, leaving the precipitous sides standing like
walls. The descent is long and steep, but giving fine peeps,
THE YOSEMITE. 391
when an opening in the trees allows, of the valley and
the grand portal by which it is entered. On the left is
El Capitan or the " Creat Chief." It is 3000 feet in
height and is a perfectly perpendicular wall, not far from
which is what seems like a thin thread of silver hanging
over the rock. It is a fall which dries up in summer,
and is known as the " Virgin's Tears." On the right
ofthe valley is another waterfall called the " Bridal Veil."
It looks small, but you are told it is over 900 feet high ;
and you realize its magnitude by the large streams
coming from it, through which your horse has to wade.
The truth is that the Yosemite, like so many other
places, does not at first impress you with its majes
tic sublimity. There is nothing to measure it by. A
man is too small a measuring-rod. If one could take
St. Paul's in a carpet bag, and put it down in the
valley, the magnitude would be realized at once. When
the valley is entered, the "Cathedral Rocks" are found on
your right, and the " Sentinel Rock" is looking straight
down the gorge at you ; by-and-by the " Yosemite
Fall" itself comes in sight as it thunders its whitened
waters down nearly 3000 feet. There are three hotels,
and they are all so placed that you can sit in the veran
dahs and watch this magnificent chute. Our party put
up at Leidig's hotel, which had abundant accommodation,
for as yet the arrivals were few. This is an advantage
to be had by going so early, and there is another of great
importance — that in the beginning of May there is
plenty of water, so that the falls are seen in their full
glory. The following is a list of altitudes of the falls and.
392
MEETING THE SUN".
mountains at the Yosemite, with the Indian names and
their interpretations : — WATEBFALLS. Height
Indian Name. Signification. Amebican Name, above Valley.
Po-ho-no . . Spirit of the Evil AVind . . Bridal Veil . . 940 feet.
Yo-Semite . . Large Grizzly Bear . . Yo-Semite Fall . 2634, „
First Fall, 1600 feet; Second Fall, 434 feet; Third Fall, 600 feet.
Pi-wy-aek
Cataract of Diamonds .
Vernal Fall .
350 „
Yo-wi-ye
Meandering ....
Nevada Fall .
700 „
Tu-lool-we-ack
South Canon .
600 „
Loya
A Medicinal Shrub
Sentinel
3850 „
To-coy-se
Shade to Baby Cradle Basket .
MOUNTAINS.
Royal Arch Fall .
2000 „
Tis sa-aek
Goddess of Liberty
South Dome .
6000 „
Cloud's Rest .
6450 „
To-coy-se
Shade to Baby Cradle Basket .
North Dome .
3725 „
Hunto .
Watching Eye
Washington Tower
2200 „
Mah-tah
Martyr, or Suicide Mountain .
Cap of Liberty
4600 „
See-wah-lam .
.
Mt. Starr King
5600 „
Er-na-ting Law-oo-
too
Bear-skin Mountain
Glacier Rocks
3700 „
Loya .
A Medicinal Shrub
Sentinel
3270 „
Puo-see-nah Chuck -
ka .
Large Acorn Store House
Cathedral Spires .
2400 „
Wah-wah-le-na
.
Three Graces .
3750 „
Inspiration Point .
3200 „
Pom-pom-pa -sus
Mountains Playing Leap Frog
Three Brothers
4000 „
Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah .
Semi-Deity and Great Chief
of the Valley .
The Captain .
3300 „
As the valley is only about five or six miles long, the
sights are all within easy walking distance, and horses
may be hired as well as guides, so that any one could see
everything in a general way in a couple of days ; but, to
wander about and thoroughly to enjoy the place, weeks
would be required ; and to any one with good legs, and
Avith an ambition to scale peaks, there is ample scope
in the mountains around. The south dome presents an
opening for fame ; it has not yet been trodden by the foot
of man.
THE YOSEMITE. 393
The Congress passed an Act to prevent the Yosemite"
from being seized upon by speculators, which would other
wise have been the case, and the public would have had
to pay for entrance. The Act declares that it " shall be
held for public use, resort, and recreation, and shall be
inalienable for all time." It is given over to the State of
California, which is to take charge of it, and a Commis
sion has been appointed to do so. This Act also includes
the Big Tree Grove.
I came out by the Coulterville route, which requires
two days to get back to Merced, the night being spent at
Coulterville. The Bower Cave is on this route, and as
the horses are changed at that place the chance of a peep
at it should not be lost.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
SALT LAKE CITY.
On the 6th of April, 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints was first organized in the town of
Fayette, Seneca County, State of New York. This
was the work of the founder, Joseph Smith. The new
faith spread, but found enemies, and persecution of a
very bad type was the result. Tarring, feathering, and
burning houses were common aspects of the opposition
to which those who pretended to be saints had to submit.
To avoid this, the body moved west, but the enemy fol
lowed. At last, in 1839, they settled in Nauvoo, Illinois,
then a " far west " State, where they hoped to be safe
from mobs and persecution. The treatment which they
received cannot be justified upon any of the recognized
ideas of the present century. Even at Nauvoo things
became so bad that Joseph Smith, in the spring of 1844,
selected a company of men to explore the far west ; and
he " prophesied that Avithin five years the Saints would
be located in the Rocky Mountains beyond the reach of
mobs, requesting it to be recorded, that, when it came to
pass, it might be remembered."
Inspiration is claimed by almost every Latter-day
Saint; so, although Nauvoo was sacked, and Joseph
Smith and a few others were shot, the literal fulfilment
of the words which had been uttered by the Mormon
-SALT LAKE CITY. 395
Prophet was considered an indubitable evidence of his
inspiration by God. Within the time indicated, the fol
lowers of this new faith, separated from their tormen
tors, and were located beyond the Rocky Mountains.
Although this prediction was thus seemingly realized
to the letter, yet the prophet did not foresee that before
twenty years should pass, a railway would connect the
Atlantic and the Pacific, and that a daily train would be
bringing the mobs which it had been the whole policy of
the Mormon leaders to get rid of. The sequel of events
is a strange commentary on the prophecy in question.
President Young, on my visit, had but lately returned
from Arizona, where he had been " prospecting " in order
to form new colonies, or to find some out-of-the-way spot
where he and his people would not be troubled by the
Gentile world. The inspiration to which they pretend
has failed, however, to reveal a spot which the enemies
of the faith could not reach ; and common sense now
clearly points out that there is not between the At
lantic and the Pacific any region where the Saints can
be isolated and separated from the rest of the Avorld.
The Salt. Lake region has been cultivated from a desert
into fertility — a work redounding much to the credit of
the faithful — and to leaAre it, and incur all the dangers
and difficulties of a new Exodus, would be most damaging
in every way to the system and its supporters. A move
ment either into Arizona or to one of the islands of the
Pacific, which has long been talked of as being among the
plans ofthe leaders, is now impossible. The people haA-'e
taken root on the soil which they have by long and hard
work reclaimed from the wilderness, and any new move
396 MEETING THE SUN.
of the whole body from this spot would have a tendency
to shake the fidelity of even the faithful, while those who
are weak in faith, or already wavering, would remain
on the land which they have made their own by the best
of all titles. New colonies may be extended into Arizona,
but the body of the people cannot be moved, and Mor-
monism and its practice of polygamy must now meet its
enemies and fight its battles in the State of Utah. As
yet the Mormons far outnumber the Gentile population ;
in the meantime, therefore, they are safe from mobs.
But this difference is not likely to last long, and
"breakers ahead" of quite as dangerous a character
can be easily seen, and it is known that the inspired
prophetic power of Brigham Young understands the
position of affairs perfectly.
An introduction to the President was easily managed.
A friend went with us, and we walked up to the " Bee-
Hive." This emblem, and that of a Lion, are over different
doors of the President's residence, as symbols of industry
and strength. We were first introduced to the Secretary,
who asked us to take seats, and said that the President
would come in shortly. The principal features of the room
are the portraits of Joseph Smith and the First Twelve,
as the founders of the new faith. These portraits are
Kit-Kat size, in oil, unframed, and hung high up. Brig
ham Young is, of course, among them as one of the
Twelve, and the picture represents him at the time when
he was a younger man. There are later portraits of him
as well — photos and engravings. Four gentlemen were
waiting to see the President, whom we understood to be
of the faithful, and a large party, principally of ladies,
SALT LAKE CITY. 397
arrived while we were waiting. They were, like ourselves,
visitors from the outside world. The President came in,
and we were introduced all round. Shaking hands is
largely practised in America, and Utah is no exception to
the rule. The conversation was dull and disconnected.
The Vienna Exhibition was mentioned, and one of the ladies
was asked if she was going to see it. She said, " No ;
there are too many of us, and it would be too expensive
if we all went." The President then dryly remarked that
if he went and took all his family with him he should
require a whole ship to himself. This, was the only re
mark with any point in it that was made, and it produced
in all a tendency to smile. We afterwards learned that
the family consists of seventeen wives and about sixty
children ; three-fourths of this large quiver-full are said
to be girls. The interview did not last above ten minutes,
when we all shook hands again with the President and
left. He was dressed in a loose-fitting suit of dark blue
— a similar cloth to what yachtsmen wear — and a white
handkerchief was muffled round his neck. He is short in
stature and slightly stout. He wears well, and- looks
younger than his years would indicate, for he is over
seventy. Whether he is " one of the greatest scoundrels on the
face of the earth" — which words I have heard applied to
him — or so good that he is the Visible Head of the Saints,
and the Chosen Medium, inspired by God, for Revelation
to Men, I could not pretend to say. He has a most
determined-looking mouth, resulting from constant com
pression of the lips, indicating great power of will. That
he is a remarkable man seems to be fairly proved by
D d
398 MEETING THE SUN.
what he has done. No one but a man of great ability
and power could have led a large body of people — a small
nation in fact — for such a distance across an unknown
country, and founded a state and built a city and towns
such as we see in Utah at this moment. His administra
tive talents must be of a high order. The details of
the arrangements for crossing the Rocky Mountains, the
government he has established, and even the management
of his own large household, may be referred to as evi
dences of his power of controlling affairs.
Even the tales of dark deeds with which he has been
charged would be quite in keeping with the character of a
man determined to spare nothing for the attainment of a
given object, and capable also of forcing his will upon
those around him. One of the " Angels of Destruction "
has become an apostate, and published a book giving an
account of what he did for the good of the State, and for
" the safety of souls that were in danger." The Gentiles
seem all to believe these stories, but I had no means of
testing their truth, and can give no judgment upon them.
They refer to a past time, when Utah was isolated, and
beyond the law of the United States. Now it is said
that all is changed. There are many who have put their
souls in danger by apostasy, and I understand that there
is a dissenting body Avith a church of its own in Salt
Lake City, which regards Joseph Smith, jun., as the
true head. We had a conversation with one of these
dissenters. In England he had not felt satisfied with the
teaching of the Church to which he belonged, on the
subjects of faith, grace, and the working of the Holy
Spirit. Mormonism seemed to be right on the points he
SALT LAKE CITY. 399
wished for, and he emigrated. He did not approve of
polygamy, and abused Brigham Young for his teachings
and practice in this matter. This man seemed to be very
honest and sincere, speaking with the greatest frankness
about his creed and all things relating to it ; but in this
he is no exception to the rule among the Mormons ; we
found them all most willing to talk about their faith.
One night we went to the theatre. This is what
most visitors do, not so much to see the performance
as to have a peep at some of Brigham Young's large
family. Theatrical performances are specially encou
raged by the Mormons. Although many characteristics
of the Old Puritans may be seen here, in the matter
of Music, Dancing, and the Drama, there is a marked
difference. They have in their tabernacle one of the
finest organs to be found in the States. Dancing was
one of the amusements in which they indulged each
night in their long and weary journey across the
prairies and the Rocky Mountains, and the theatre was
an early institution in Salt Lake City. The whole of one
side of the first tier of boxes is reserved for the Pre
sident's family, and is marked by its cushion of red
cloth. On the night of our visit fifteen young ladies
were present, of ages varying from eight to about eighteen
or nineteen. We supposed them to be all the daughters
of the President. There were also two ladies, whose
ages might be somewhere about thirty, or perhaps over
that number of years. One of these had a child Avith her,
which was just old enough to be attracted by the figures
on the stage, and the other had a girl of about three or
four years of age; we consequently assumed that they
d d 2
400 MEETING THE SUN.
were some of the President's wives. No gentleman
appeared during the evening among them. They were
all very plainly dressed, no two of them being alike,
and had more the appearance of servant-girls than of
ladies ; but it would be unfair to judge by what people
wear in this part of the world as we do in the old country.
To me the whole sight was very sad. I could not help
pitying these children, who reminded me of a row of
charity-girls, such as we see in a pew at church ; and no
charity-child can be more fatherless than the children
of Brigham Young. No man can do the duties of a
father, in the true sense of the word, to a family of sixty.
I should doubt if he could even remember all their names.
They may be all fed and clothed, educated and amused
— charity- children get all that done for them — but a father
with whom a child daily associates, by whom he is fondled,
to whom he looks up with reverence and love, and whose
loss would be a blank in his existence, is a being which
cannot exist when a man has a company of wives and a
regiment of children. Without going back to the practice
of the Patriarchs — Avhich the Mormons constantly refer
to in defence of their institution — we have in this a strong1
argument, derived from the very nature of things, against
polygamy. Not only does the father not appear in the
amusements of the family, but in our visit to his house
during the day we saw not a single person of that family
except himself. It reminded me of visits in the East,
where neither wife nor child is ever alluded to in the
usual conversation with the head of the house. Should
Mormonism succeed in establishing itself, retaining poly
gamy as its law, the complete seclusion of the women to
SALT LAKE CITY. 401
a hareem life will be a mere question of time. It is the
necessary result of the system. Monogamy may be said
to have been the Brahminical practice in ancient times,
and we know from old Buddhist sculptures that the
women appeared in public. They are represented in
ceremonies and processions in the streets, taking part in
them Avith uncovered faces. It was only after the Maho
medan conquest of India that the Zenana, or hareem,
system was introduced, and the custom became general
over the country.
The piece performed at Salt Lake City Theatre was the
" Hunchback." At many of the affecting scenes I could
hear tittering, and sounds approaching to laughter, as if
it were a farce instead of a serious piece. These mani
festations were not made till towards the end, where Julia
has to struggle between her love for Clifford and the ful
filling of her engagement to the man for whom she has
no affection. This exhibition on the part of the audience,
including the young ladies in the Presidential pew, oc
curred always at what might be termed the emotional parts
of the play. The feelings of a young woman about the
man she will have for her husband — the man she loves or
the man she does not love- — may appear laughable to per
sons accustomed to the doings of polygamy, but it is a clear
evidence that the practice of that law does not exercise a
healthy influence on the moral ideas. " Not for Joe " was
one of the tunes performed by the orchestra, and I had
just learned, before going to the theatre, that Joseph Smith,
son of the founder of the faith, was a dissenter from the
authority of Brigham Young, and had been expelled the
body ; so I wondered if this now-played-out air was still
402 MEETING THE SUN.
retained for diplomatic reasons. If so, it will not have
been the first time where tunes have been used in the
theatre for a political purpose.
Salt Lake City is divided into twenty wards, each ward
being presided over by a bishop, and each bishop having
deacons and teachers under him. The teacher must visit
each family within his limit at least once a month, giving
counsel and advice in all matters. Mormonism being a
Theocratic form of government, the Church authorities
have not only the spiritual but the worldly affairs of the
people to look after ; and the manner in which legal dis
putes are settled was explained to me. If two men have
some point of contention, or some rule of the Church
has been broken, the duty of the teachers is to inquire
into such matters, and to put them right if they can.
If they cannot, then the dispute is referred to the bishop,
who, if he considers the case important, call's a bishop's
court. If the decision of this body should fail to give
satisfaction to the parties concerned, a high council of
the Church is called, composed of twelve officers. Six
of these take one side of the case and six the other, and
they argue it. Supposing that they cannot evolve a
decision, each six changes sides and argues from the
opposite point of view to that which they had taken
before. If even then they cannot settle the affair, it is
left to the President of the State, whose decision is final.
In the matter of medicine the Mormons follow the same
rules of materia medica as the Peculiar People. In the
gate-lodge of the temple I saw a good many bottles of
olive oil, and chanced to ask what they did with so much
of it. The passage from the Epistle of St. James Avas
SALT LAKE CITY. 403
quoted to me in answer : "Is any sick among you ? Let
him. call for the elders of the Church ; and let them pray
over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord." Another curious rite practised among them is called
Baptism for the Dead, of which, in explanation, they quote
1 Cor. xv. 29 : "Else what shall they do which are baptized
for the dead, if the dead rise not at all ? " A Mormon
can be baptized for one or any number of his deceased re
latives. He must go through the ceremony for each, and
he must give name and details of the person whose repre
sentative he is. These, with their marriage ceremonies,
belong to what they call the Temple Services. The large
building already existing is called the Tabernacle, and is
used only for the Sunday service. The Temple which is
now being built was begun in 1853, and is scarcely above
ground yet. It will be their gi'eat building. The rites
are at present performed in temporary places within the
temple enclosure.
All who visit Salt Lake speak of the frank good man
ners of the Mormons, as being always willing to answer
your questions or render a service. Like my friend who
was with me, I was much struck with the behaviour of
the people in this respect.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE MAMMOTH CAVES OF KENTUCKY.
The journey in the railway over the Sierra Nevadas, the
Rocky Mountains, and the prairies of the West I shall
not dwell upon at length. Ticket agents at San Fran
cisco make it their business to supply all information re
garding the route, which occupies seAren days from San
Francisco to New York, — that is, supposing there is no
accident on the way, or that you are not imbedded in
snow for a week on the higher parts of the line with little
or nothing to eat. The American railway system has
been much praised, and to a certain extent it deserves
this praise ; but hard things, were one inclined, might be
uttered in the way of criticism. On so long a journey the
sleeping-cars are almost a matter of necessity, and the
arrangements connected with them are undoubtedly good.
At Omaha, on the Missouri, the Union and Central
Pacific line ends, and the traveller has a choice of routes
to New York. Most people go by Chicago and Niagara.
Instead of this I selected an unfrequented line which led
me to a place I wished to see — the great Mammoth Caves
of Kentucky. This brought me by way of St. Louis, In-
dianopolis, and Louisville, and from that to Cave City,
which is about nine miles from the cave itself. These
nine miles are done in a stage. There is a large and
good hotel close to the entrance.
THE MAMMOTH CAVES OF KENTUCKY. 405
These caves were first discovered in 1809 by a man,
Houchins by name, who chased a bear into them, but
many years elapsed before they were explored, and even
now there are doubts as to whether the ramifications have
been traced to their full extent. For many years the
place was used for the manufacture of saltpetre, and the
tanks and materials employed in it are still to be seen.
The air in the cave was found to give relief to people
afflicted with -colds and pulmonary complaints, and suf
ferers were induced to live within it under the strange
condition of continuous night. While there, the patients
felt better, and many remained for months together ; but
as it was found that it did not improve the constitution
for life above ground, these troglodytes have long since
deserted their houses, which are still standing.
Eyeless fish are another of the peculiarities of this dark
abode. Beetles, shrimps, crickets, and flies are also to be
found, which, from the conditions of existence, have long-
ceased to retain the organs of vision. Mummies of
Indians have also been found in the cave.
Two tracks must be followed in the cave by those who
wish properly to inspect it all. One is known as the
" Short Route," the other as the " Long Route." The
former is about five or six miles long, the other about
eighteen or twenty. I am obliged to speak thus, for
distance in such a place cannot be accurately measured ;
and, besides, it is such a labyrinth that there are a
variety of paths in each route from which the visitor
may choose. On my first visit I " did " the short
route. William Garvin, a negro, who seemed a very
intelligent fellow, was my guide; but I heard of a
406 MEETING THE SUN.
noted guide of past times called " Stephen," who had
made the caves his study. He had some knowledge of
geology, and a general smattering of many things, and
those gifts of genius, including a fund of wit and humour,
which made him a well-known character. Costumes for
visiting the cave are supplied for both ladies and gentle
men ; and each visitor carries a lamp, which will burn for
hours, and the guide has an ample supply of matches. An
idea of the size of the first portion of this great cave might
be formed by supposing yourself in the Strand with a roof
over it from the tops of the houses. The stratification of
the rock is horizontal, and can be made out in the dim
light. Huge blocks have fallen, and these, with smaller
fragments, make a rough road. A big ledge, not far from
the entrance, was once used as a pulpit, where a Methodist
congregation was wont to assemble, and some of the
logs used as benches are still visible. Near to this is a
spot called the Kentucky River Cliffs, where the rock
has been so worn as to present the resemblance which
has given it the name. Here the action of water in the
cave becomes manifest, and it begins to daAvn upon the
Arisitor that a great subterranean river must have run
through this underground channel. Such seems to have
been the case. It would be too much to say that running
water had been the original cause of the cave's existence,
but it certainly has left many evidences of its influence on
the rocks. Water still finds its way into some parts of
the cave. There is one place known as the " Dead Sea,"
"Echo River," and the "River Styx" — a stream which
is still affected by the state of the Green River that flows
above ground, close to the cave on the south. When the
THE MAMMOTH CAVES OE KENTUCKY. 407
waters of this river are SAvollen by the rains, the Styx
also rises within, shoAving some connexion between the
two. It is generally supposed that Green River, or some
tributary of it, flowed through this labyrinth of under
ground passages. The point of connexion between the
external and internal waters cannot be found out, but
although about twenty miles of this wondrous cave have
been explored, the guides are of opinion that there may
be many new routes still undiscovered. One could
believe that Coleridge had this place in his mind when
he wrote, — " Where Alpli, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns, measureless to man,
Down to a sunless sea."
"A sunless sea" with eyeless fish is a strange condi
tion of existence. With these as facts for the imagination
to begin with, gnomes, sprites, demons, and all the subter
ranean beings of past times could be most easily accepted
as realities.
On the second day, when I "did" what is called the long-
route, large parties of ladies and gentlemen from Cincin
nati were going in. When we reached the Styx, it was
found to be so high, from a freshet in the Green River,
that the guide stated that there would be about two miles
of water in the cave, and that it would be impossible to
cross ; so the greater part of this strange place was not
accessible. There are boats for crossing, of which a few
of the visitors took advantage. They had a band of
music, and the trombone in the boat played a most
dolorous tune, which in that dark place, and on this
mysterious stream, with flickering light, helped us to
408 MEETING THE SUN.
conjure up the idea of ghosts going off to another and
an unknown world.
Blue-lights and rockets were also kindled, and lit up
the Mammoth Dome with great effect.
Some portions of the way consist of very rough, large
fragments of rock heaped about. One place is known as
"Fat Man's Misery," from its being so narrow; another
is " Tall Man's Misery," from the roof being low. " The
Gate of Repentance," where all must bow down to get
past, "The Bottomless Pit," "Giant's Coffin," "Star
Chamber," and other such names are bestowed from
some fancied resemblance, while some spots are named
after the persons who discovered the places, as " Gorin's
Dome." In some of the caves beautiful stalactites and
crystal-like floAVers give an interesting variety to the
dark scenery below.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE ATLANTIC.
As I neared the Atlantic I had begun to look upon my
long journey round the world as being practically ended,
and in this last chapter, being so close to home again,
and on such well-beaten ground, I have almost nothing
to tell; so I will only sketch in a few hurried touches
the remainder of my route.
From the Mammoth Caves the line was to Cincinnati,
where I had a glimpse of the Ohio, and then over the
northern end of the Alleghany Mountains, and doAvn the
Cumberland River, past Harper's Ferry, where " John
Brown's bones lie mouldering in the grave," to Washington.
Here I called on an old friend, Mr. Franklin Philp, who
seems to know everybody, and everybody knows him.
Heroes, authors, artists — every one of note — were among
his friends; so under his guidance I spent two very busy and
most delightful days at the capital of the United States.
I did not forget the promise made to Lieut. Cranston the
night before his death, and as I was the first living arrival
from the Lava-beds — for some of the dead had come
before me — I was introduced to General Sherman, so that
I might give him information about the locality. In the
vast territories of the States the places minutely surveyed
are few, and as of the Modoc country there was nothing
at head-quarters but an ordinary map, I was able to
410 MEETING THE SUN.
explain all the details of it, and made the events of the
campaign more clearly understood.
The traAreller, who tumbles into a sleeping-berth in the
train at Washington at night, wakes up next morning in
New York. My first sensations were that cabs are ex
pensive, for though I may have got off cheap, I had to
pay two dollars, or not much less than ten shillings, for a
drive of not much over one mile. Brushing my boots cost
ten cents — about fivepence. To one who had had some
experience with the brush these prices suggested the
notion of settling in such a country.
I was not quite prepared for so well-built and hand
some a town as I found New York to be. As I walked
down Broadway I remembered Knickerbocker's account
of the manner in which New Amsterdam, as the Dutch
settlers first named the place, was planned. The round-
faced, many -breeched Dutchmen sat in council, and dis
cussed the future city. They smoked their pipes so long
over it that the people who wanted houses to live in could
not wait, and they built along the path made by the cattle
as they went out and in every day from the pastures.
Long before the council had settled the plan of the city,
the cows had done it for them. I should say these cows
might now be proud of the city of which they laid down
the first lines.
After a hurried run to Niagara, which included a sail
up the Hudson, and an excursion on the railway where the
first train in America appeared, in 1831 (from Albany to
Schenectady, sixteen miles in length), I left New York on
the 14th June, on board the White Star lineS.S. "Oceanic,"
Captain W. W. Kiddle. Three other large steamers left
THE ATLANTIC. 411
at the same time, full of passengers, most of them bound
for Vienna, to see the great Exhibition. It looked like
starting for a race as the four ships sailed down by Staten
Island, Sandy Hook, and out to sea. Our vessel slowly
left the others behind, and we saw nothing of any of them
till we were at the mouth of the Mersey, in a dense fog ;
and when it cleared away, the "Abyssinia," ofthe Cunard
line, was only half a mile away on our starboard quarter.
The Welsh hills by-and-by appeared, and to many on
board it was the first sight of Old England. In the ex
citement of the moment, some one said he could see the
Welsh rabbits running about on the land, and there was
a great demand for binoculars to discover them. None
of those fresh from the New World seemed to know Avhat
a "Welsh rabbit" meant, and there was some good-
natured fun got out of this innocent " sell."
As this is the only trip which I have made across the
Atlantic, I can say nothing of the merits of the lines of
steamers. Our ship certainly went fast, and it was evident
that she had been built on a model in which speed was
the principal object in view. She had a large, handsome
saloon, and the table was well supplied, but she was not
in any other sense a comfortable vessel. Travellers accus
tomed to the clean-kept and roomypoop of a P. and 0. Com
pany's ship, and the man-of-war-like discipline on board,
would not find themselves at home in the Atlantic lines ;
that is, if my experience is derived from a fair specimen.
I had for companion in my berth a man from the Far
West. He was several inches over six feet, and there were
five or six brothers in the family of a somewhat similar
size. This is not uncommon in the Western States, and
412
MEETING THE SUN.
I understand that the development of the human species
is supposed to be still going on in the New World. Even
the mental powers of the inferior kinds of life are said to
be developing, and a higher style of art is necessary to
make scarecrows, from the advanced intellect of the fauna.
From what I have said in relation to Eve's Tomb at
Jeddah, I am committed to an opposite theory; and I
have since been informed of Abel's Tomb at Abila, some
twelve hours west of Damascus, which is about ninety
feet long. Here is a worthy son of a great mother, and
it will be seen that we are only degenerated descendants
of a superior race. It will also appear, from the con
vincing evidences just given, that much lee- way has to be
made up before there can be any claim to real develop
ment. When we have returned to the original standard
of our race, and when I hear of a lady sixty feet long,
with sons proportionately taller, then I shall begin to
believe that the process of development has begun in the
New World. Still it must, I think, be admitted that
there is a tendency to great size in the people of that
country, and little men are scarce. In the Western States
this is still more noticeable, and great tall, strong men are
common. In California, where I had more chances of
observation, the size and evident bodily strength of the
girls and young women who have been brought up there
often caught my attention. It may be also stated that
good looks are not scarce among them. It may be some
time yet before graves sixty feet long will be found in
America, but certainly there is not likely to be any further
retrogression of the race in that quarter.
My stay was short in the States, but it was long enough
THE ATLANTIC. 413
to give me experiences of much kindness, and I have many
pleasant memories connected with it.
It was the 24th June, 1873, when we reached Liverpool,
and the afternoon train brought me to London. When
I put my foot on a certain door-step, the girdle had
been put round about the earth, and there was an inward
sense of satisfaction in feeling that a long journey was
ended, and a task had been accomplished.
THE END.
GILBEET AND BIVINGTON, PBINTEBS, ST. JOHN'S SQTTABE. LONDON.
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