I give thefe Books

for the founding of a College in this Colony"

•YALE-MSPfEISSJnnf- • iLHiaiSAisy ¦

Gift of
Dr. Hirain Bingham
of the Class of 1898
1907

RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD

RECOLLECTIONS OF
TRAVELS ABROAD

A J DUFF1ELD

Author of a New Translation of the "Don Quixote" "Don Quixote his
Critics and Commentators" "The Beauty of the World" "The
Last Inca" "Needless Misery" " Peru in the Guano Age"
and other works

" Magic casements opening on the Foam
Of perilous seas "
" There are in our existence spots of time
That with distinct pre-eminence retain
A renovating virtue whence ....
 our minds
Are nourished and invisibly repaired "

WITH MAP SHOWING THE AUTHOR'S OCEAN ROUTES

LONDON
REMINGTON & CO PUBLISHERS
HENRIETTA STREET COVENT GARDEN
1889
[All Bights Reserved]

Ecdt.8fc»

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE
Epistle Dedicatory ... ... ... vii
I. At Sea with a Dushenka ... ... ... i
II. Don Juan Badulaque de Gorduro ... ... 24
^^-— ill. Santa Fe de Bogota  37
^xIV. Baranquilla, United States of Columbia ... 41
,  V. Lima, Peru ... ... ... ... ... 51
^ VI. Lima (Continued) and Guayaquil  60
VII. The Peruvian Coast  70
VIII. From Silvern Potosi to Golden Australia ... 84
^r IX. Silver Lima and Golden Melbourne  117
X. From New Zealand to Bolivia ... ... ... 128
 XL Venezuela, Negroes, and Trinidad ... ... 155
XII. More Gold and Silver Comparisons ... ... 167
XIII. Australia ,   174
^-XIV. Chile  182
XV. Colonial Religion and Morals  •••I95
^^XVI. The United States  211
XVII. Spain  231
_^-XVIII. Canada  247
XIX. Still in Canada  280
XX. Books and Libraries in the Colonies ... ... 298

EPISTLE DEDICATORY TO
CHARLES BROOKFIELD, ESQUIRE.
My dear Brookfield,
It gives me great pleasure to dedicate this book to you, because
your name is associated with reminiscences that cannot be made
public on account of their private nature, and for affections ' that
would lose their charm if they were shared by others. I shall never
forget the extemporized dramas that were played in your youth, in
which the dramatis persona were numerous, and the players few,
for they included only your brother Arthur and yourself. Those of
us who were admitted to the gallery know well enough where the
future comedian was born ; but I believe I was the only one who
prophesied his coming. Of course people in the private boxes had
better knowledge, and were therefore not among the prophets.
The other day, as I was dining at a nickel restaurant in a back
street off Broadway, in the modern city of New York, a man, who
guessed that I was an Englishman, asked me if I knew Mrs. Brook-
field. I was greatly surprised by this question ; not only on
account of the lowliness of the house in which I was, but by the
obvious obscurity of the person who put it. These Americans,
however, are of a strange nature, and it is impossible for an insular
British man to tell in America what manner of man it is who sits
next to him at dinner, either by the cut of his clothes, or, to use
one of our own unrefined expressions, the cut of his gib ; he may

viii EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
be a man of cultivated mind, but of limited means, or a man of
many millions and of miserly disposition. He may be a literary
man, who frequents out-of-the-way places in search of character —
for clever as the American novelist is, he seldom travels in Par
nassus — or he may be a genuine man, whose inside spirit is repre
sented by his outside form. Such men are not rare even in New
York. This was a genuine man. He kindly and dispassionately
informed me that he had been greatly struck by my resemblance to
a miniature which he had at home of Michael Angelo, and he had
resolved to break through his ordinary reserve in order to have the
pleasure of speaking to one who bore so striking a likeness to the
greatest artist and one of the greatest men of the old world. I told
him with all humility that I was less surprised by his discovery of
the likeness to which he had so flatteringly referred than by the
question which he had asked me, for the same remark had fre
quently been made before, and always by persons who were perfect
strangers to me; but his question had startled me, for I knew the
lady of whom he spoke very well. He assured me that it was
entirely owing to my distinguished appearance that he had asked
that question : that he had been reading some letters which
Thackeray had addressed to the Brookfields, and which were then
in course of publication in the foremost of all the monthly
magazines of both hemispheres, and it would be only likely that a
man of my mien should know the gifted persons of whom Michael
Angelo Titmarsh was an intimate friend. When I told him that
you and I were intimate friends he insisted on ordering in two
glasses of lager beer, which at that house you get for a nickel a
glass. I was glad of this little adventure, for the world then
seemed to me not so bad a place for a man to live in, even though
he may have a broken nose.
I hope you will read this book ; not because I have the vanity
to think it will improve your own style, but because it contains
something original on a subject about which of late there has been
much unoriginal talk. I refer to the colonies, which are not worth

EPISTLE DEDICATORY. ix
talking about unless you can say something that is true about them,
or paint something that will wash, and not wash out.
In the first chapter I give you a picture from life of a woman
whose husband died in the Indies, and who belongs to the women for
whom are expressly written eight hundred novels every year — some
of which you may see praised to the skies in newspapers — and for
whom are prepared and preached fifty thousand sermons every
week ; the women who worship in the temple of fashion, and who
fashion the manners and morals of English " Society," and are the
beau ideals of colonial life. I have little doubt about your recog
nizing the Dushenka.
The second chapter contains a sketch of some of the followers of
this class of women, and what they are prepared to do to win their
smiles. Also an etching of one who represents many who are
masters of the approved way of enlisting the energies of these
young bloods.
The third chapter gives you an incident in a silver colony of a
people out of whom the gold colonists find it easy to make slaves ;
also the slightest outline of a man who, though poor, lived like a
prince, and about whom I had hoped to say much, but my recol
lections brought so many tears to my eyes that I could not see to
write more than I have. Allusion is also made to the kind of
colonist who professes to build his house on the sand.
In chapter four we dive deeper, and bring to light the stuff out
of which the atheist is made — a lurid picture — which if I had not
remembered it early in the morning I should not have slept at
night. The fifth chapter contains the way by means of which many men
and women, by false representations in a good cause, are made
credulous and weak. Also what the lazy and voluptuous suffer who
are victims of terror and superstition ; people who never kneel
before the throne of grace except when it thunders, or lightens, or
when an earthquake is abroad.
The sixth chapter makes mention of some heroical women whom

x EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
I recollect, together with my first experiment with cuca, the magical
leaf that was not then known to anyone in England save perhaps
to Charles Kingsley and myself ; or if others did know of it, it was
only to laugh at it as a traveller's tale.
In the seventh chapter you have a discursive view of some silver
colonists, with some remarks about ourselves.
In chapter eight I give you a translation of the petition of a
silver colonist who had, in common parlance, had enough of Peru,
and wanted to go in search of New Lands. He had helped to
pick the plums out of the Peruvian pudding, and these having dis
appeared he longed for another pudding. This is what has
recently happened in the gold colonies. Forty years after the find
ing of gold the Australians began to turn their eyes to New Guinea,
Fiji, and elsewhere ; hence the Australian kidnappings in the South
Sea Islands, and slavery on the sugar plantations of Mackay and
other parts of North Queensland, where you have a remarkable
reappearance of some " old foes with a new face."
In the ninth chapter we have some further comparisons of gold
and silver colonists ;
And in chapter ten a glimpse of New Zealand, a Presbyterian
descendant of Robert Burns ; and how I took a skipper into custody
on the high seas, together with an adventure, which taught me a
lesson on the value of keeping on a straight line when you find your
self lost, and would not be lost for ever. There are also pictures
of Potosi, and further adventures, which prove how true it is — in
the colonies — that you never know what a day may bring forth, and
that the best policy is to be always prepared for the worst.
In chapter eleven there are more pictures of silver colonists.
There is a long extract from an old book in chapter twelve with
more comparisons of gold and silver colonies ; and novel particulars
of certain black fellows.
In chapter thirteen these comparisons are kept up, and you will
also find a court of justice conceived in fancy.
A trip to Chile occupies the fourteenth chapter, and the com-

EPISTLE DEDICATORY. xi
parison between, or rather likeness of, gold and silver colonists still
maintained. In the fifteenth chapter I make some remarks on a dry, but vital,
subject, as you will see.
In chapter sixteen I make certain piebald remarks on the United
States, the " biggest colony out," to cull a flower from the ever
sparkling rhetoric of our old friend Tapaculo.
In the seventeenth I give you a glimpse of Spain, and still harp
on the Don Quixote.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters I warm up a little
Canadian broth.
And in the last I show how loth I am to conclude, but finally
conclude with an archbishop, which considering that I began with
you, is not a bad ending.
I have said little about Canada, although I know it so well, and
have so many pleasant recollections of some of its people, of
Montreal and the St. Lawrence, and the good old times when you
would often dine at mess with some of Her Majesty's officers and
discuss the meanness of the Imperial Colonial Office, the futility of
the Royal Colonial Institute, which someone calls the Colonial
Young Men's Christian Association, and make plans for fishing
excursions and shooting wild turkeys. No ; Canada is a colony
sui generis, and does not lend itself to comparison with the gold and
silver or shoddy colonies. It never had anything to do with
slavery for one thing, but did often get into hot water by giving
hospitality to slaves who fled for their lives and freedom from
Egypt — or Was it South Carolina ? All the other colonies of the
world — whether Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, German, French, or
English — are represented in the " Federation of Man " by Sancho
Panza, the materialist ; the man whose eye was always fixed on
the main chance — the would-be governor who was consoled for his
cudgellings by " finding " gold in the Sierra Morena. Canada
has about her some of the charm of heroism, a spice of Don
Quixote, and is quite equal to a quarrel over a kettle of fish. I

xii EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
always thought that the name Canada was of Spanish origin ; that
it was written Canada, which means a glen or dale, while Canada
real means a sheep walk, a passage from the cold uplands to the
warm flats. Very pretty, but quite wrong. Canada, I am
delighted to find, is an Indian native name, not Spanish, and
signifies a collection of wigwams.
I have been further moved to throw together these Recollections
of Travel by certain eloquent writers and orators who have lately
been making pets of the colonies and ringing rhetorical changes on
their favourite Colonial-Institute- word, " Disintegration," which is
as high-sounding and meaningless as Mesopotamia, but which does
not contain half the comfort. When you hear of Sir Toby Belch or
Sir Andrew Aguecheek separating from their titles, then you may
possibly hear of the colonies separating from England, and the
" disintegration of the Empire " will begin at the Antipodes. The
separation of these colonies from each other should be encouraged,
for this will be the best means of drawing them closer to their
beloved mother. The federation of the Canadas was imperative ;
the achievement of the Dominion was demanded by Imperial
necessity. Even if it were possible to federate the Australias, it is
not in the least needful or desirable. Let the colonies first agree
on much more simple matters, and then they may agree on greater.
Of the influence of the colonies on England I have not spoken. It
is a wide and important subject. Here, there is no comparison
between the gold and silver colonies. The influence of the silver
colonies on Spain was hurtful and disastrous. Cervantes has given
us a picture of a returned colonist, who, after spending twenty
years in Peru, and gaining thirty thousand pounds in that time (a
large sum in 1590), returns to Seville to be mocked, and made a
contemptible spectacle of; but FelipG de Carrizales does not repre
sent the returned English colonist, either in his morals or his
maudlin end. England has sent many ruffians to Australia, but Aus
tralia has sent to England many honourable men. If Philip II. had
had the gold of Australia at his command at the time that he had
the silver of Potosi, you and I, my dear Brookfield, might now be

EPISTLIV DEDICATORY. xiii
talking Spanish, and worshipping a doll twelve feet high, which is
supposed, in Madrid, to have been painted, or at least varnished, by
St. Luke. The colonies have now for several years sent home some
admirable cricketers. I was present at the first great cricket
match in Melbourne, when H. H. Stephenson's team of Eleven of
All England met a team of twenty-two of the United Colonies, and
gained an easy victory. This could not now be done. A Colonial
Eleven is a fair match for an Eleven of All England. I wonder
that a good theatrical company has not been organized in London
to make a tour of all the colonies ; not to spend a year starring in
the chief ports and returning home, but a tour that would take three
years at least, leaving some of the company who would elect to
remain behind, as some of H. H. Stephenson's team did. The result
to the colonies and players would not fail to be good. But what
excites my wonder much more is that so little has been done in
the Australias on a grand scale in the way of colonisation. There
are many thousands of young men in London alone who could
make themselves a name and a position of renown if, for example,
they were to establish a fishery in Australian waters, which should
include whale fishing. All the large towns are ill off for fish ; the
supply is not sufficiently well maintained, while the demand is
great. It is a splendid calling, full of adventure, and requiring
courage as well as skill and training. There are also many
new industries which remain to be introduced into the colonies.
There is a fine opening for a Limited Liability Company to under
take the development of useless young men. Will no one start The
Industrial Army ? There are many thousands of black fellows in
North Queensland who are being hunted down like kangaroos who
could be overcome by kindness and enlisted in this army. Is there
no spirit in England among the great families whose younger
sons are able to discern this, and " To fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good ? "

xiv EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
Or are the native races which have been committed to our care to
remain for ever the victims of greed and a low ambition, or to be
restricted to the ineffectual goodness of missionary zeal ?
Resta. — Do not wonder at my writing this book. I could not
help it. My love to Kemble and all the rest whom we both know.
Always, my dear Brookfield,
Yours faithfully and affectionately,A. J. DUFFIELD.
P.S. — There is a Post scriptum of some magnitude inserted for
no other reason than to show what may happen to a man in the
Lands of the Golden Fleece.

REMINGTON & CO., LONDON.

George Pkilip 3cSan.Loncloii&Lwerpool.

CHAPTER I.
AT SEA WITH A DUSHENKA.
These Recollections are memories which are left clear
after a long lapse of time. By waiting, in some cases as
long as six-and-thirty years, I find that either the weather
has changed or what was foul has died out of mind like the
sound of the trumpets of mosquitoes, or the rattles of
snakes ; and the sea with its rage or its calm, its terrors
or its joy, is no longer thought of with disgust, although to
me the sea has always been a delight, nor has every long
voyage been only so much waste of time. There have
been whist parties between England and India which I can
never forget, theatres on the way to Australia which are
always delightful to think of, and friendships and com
panionships formed which made the longest voyage too
short. I shall never forget, for example, how on one of the
longest journeys I ever made, a woman, who was a
charming, youthful widow, made love to me, as I have
often made love to little children. She was deliciously
stupid, but with liquid brown eyes ; and her well-made
body was as full of health as a full magnum of Dagonet
B

2 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD-
is of liquid joy. Before joining the ship in which the
Dushenka, as I will call this lady, and I were to be together
for many days, I had been in the saddle for more than a
fortnight, during which time I had ridden something more
than a thousand miles, six hundred miles of which were
over a desert, under the tropic of Capricorn, and I was
very tired when I got on board. How delightful it was to
be clean, once more to sleep in a Christian bed, sit on a
clean deck, with everything wholesome and sweet about
you, and resting! Even now, after the lapse of years, the
recollection of those fifteen days of travel over hot sand,
with little to eat but raw onions and cheese, and nothing
to drink but cold tea, comes back far more vividly than
anything which I did last week. Nor can I forget the
soothing pipe of tobacco, without which I could not have
gone to sleep after the day's hard ride. Let no traveller
in the far interior of any foreign land ever be without tea,
tobacco, onions, and cheese ; if he can add to these cuca
and preserved potatoes* he need fear no evil. But the
glorious rest which followed the toil of that tropical fort
night is graven on my bones. I wanted nothing else but
to sit still in an arm-chair on deck, breathe fresh air, and in
imagination travel over again those fifteen days in the
saddle. * Presi'wrtl potatoes, called in Quichua and Avmara Chun^o, or Chuiio,
according to Spanish orthography. They will keep for years, and it is a
wonder to me that Chunyo is so little known among us. The art consists in
mechanically taking all the water out of the vegetable and leaving the protein,
the fat, carbohydrates, and mineral matter behind. This reduces the potato
more than 75 per cent., and is as hard as old mortar when quite ready for use.
When [(.'quired for food a handful of what appear to be small marbles is thrown
into lint water for half an hour ; the first water is thrown away, and they are
then boiled in the usual way. When cooked the potato will have assumed its
normal size ami taste. Of course, this method of pieseiving potatoes is only
possible under a tropical sun, whtre there is also much frost.

AT SEA WITH A DVSHENKA. 3
The only acquaintance I made during the first day or
two on board was that of Colonel Lawrence, who had
served her Majesty as a warrior in India and was ending
liis days in her Civil Service, a man of delightful manners
and much pride. Dushenka and the Colonel were well
acquainted, and he informed me that she was desirous that
he should introduce her to me. I begged him not to do
anything of the kind ; but while we were thus chatting the
lady came, brought her chair, and began talking to the dear
old Colonel on matters of great triviality. Just as I was in
the act of getting up to avoid this youthful, restless woman,
Lawrence got up and walked away, saying that he was
going to look after his horse, whom some "Jew fellow had
been interviewing, and, perhaps, had made him unhappy.''
I was thus left at the Dushenka's mercy.
" You are a great traveller Colonel Lawrence tells me,"
she said, turning her brown eyes full on me.
I knew I was in for it, that not again should I as long as
that journey lasted know another day of uninterrupted
quiet. Without replying to her question, I said —
" You are going to England ? "
" Oh, yes," she answered.
"Are you fond of reading?"
" It is my only pleasure. But I have nothing with me
that I have not read over and over again," she answered,
as if the knowledge she imparted was worth rubies to
me. " What kind of reading do you like best ? "
" Oh ! poetry. I am fond of all the poets, but I don't like
Tennyson ; indeed, I may say that I detest Tennyson."
This I was not surprised to hear, for, in spite of her
brown eyes and cherry lips, her pretty-dimpled little hands

4 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
and graceful bust, I was certain that she had no reason to
give for her verdict on the author of
" There lies a vale in Ida, lovelier
Than all the valleys of Ionian hills."
So I said to her with studied gentleness —
" If we have any luck, you and I will be together for the
next thirty days ; we shall see each other every day,
whether we like it or not. We shall, perhaps, quarrel ; or,
if not quarrel, we shall hurt one another by some unin
tentional word or deed. It is the inevitable result of
living together under circumstances which do not admit
of your going into another neighbourhood, if only for a
change. Now, if you do not want to quarrel with me, or
me to be ungracious to you — "
" I am sure you could never be anything of the kind," she
threw in.
" Let us agree," I continued, without noticing her inter
ruption, " to meet every day at one particular spot in all
weathers, at one particular hour, for real work, let us call it.
I will read to you, and you shall sew or knit some little
thing for me, and this work shall last exactlv seventy
minutes each day, and no more. In this way we shall get
along, and during our thirty days of travel we will make
certain of three whole days of pleasure."
" I like the plan ever so much," she answered; "but the
worst of it is I can't sew and I can't knit."
" Why ! " I retorted, with some mastership, " you are like
the lilies of the field. Do you like the comparison?"
" I think it a great compliment," she said.
" 1 surely thought you would be offended," I said.
" How could you think so ? " she asked.

AT SEA WITH A DUSHENEA. 5
" Do you think it a compliment to be compared to a
vegetable?" I inquired.
" Ah ! but lilies are not vegetables," she said.
" What are they, then ? Are they animals or minerals ? "
I asked. " Oh, no. A vegetable is something to eat, like a cabbage
or celery. Lilies are to look at and to smell, to give
delight." She said this without the least effort. She neither
smiled, nor winked, nor turned a hair. I did not expect her
to wink, but I did look for some change in her expression
that would guide me to appraise her knowledge. But no,
she sat as unmoved as a piece of waxwork in a barber's
window, which is used for setting off a style of hair-
dressing. What she said was not untrue, but it was not
her own.
"What will you do, then," I asked, "while I read to you
if you can't sew or knit ? "
" I shan't want to do anything," she said, " but to sit still
and look at you, and listen, and enjoy your voice, and what
you will read."
I confess that I thought it somewhat early for this, but
after living in countries where you can eat your green peas
for 300 days the year round you get accustomed to anything .
Only an earthquake is equal to keeping up a sense of
novelty. You get accustomed to the peas, but not to the
earthquake. I had never met a woman like this, at least,
not an Englishwoman. I never knew an English lady who
couldn't sew or knit, and who could dispense flattering
remarks without effort to a stranger. I never knew a
woman who, after five minutes' talk, and meeting her for
the first time, announced that she would enjoy my voice,

6 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
and look at me while listening to what I might read to her.
Here was a well-made, fascinating woman, well groomed,
and certainly under thirty, with a musical voice, brown
eyes, and a refined row of teeth, surrounded by red velvet,
who could neither sew nor knit, and who was prepared to
sit and look at me for the space of an hour while I read to
her. I was much puzzled. Spanish women, or rather Colonial
Spanish women, will surprise the best travelled man in the
world, I don't care who he is, even if he were Gulliver him
self, or the new translator of the " Thousand Nights and
One Night." But here was an Englishwoman, good look
ing, well dressed, fresh as a daisy, and of quiet manners,
with all her features, as well as her hands, under perfect
control, saying things to me which a wife may have said — I
believe there are wives in the world who flatter their
husbands in private — and even English wives — or as a
sister might have said to her brother — but which, to sav
the least, were somewhat unusual.
No doubt " society '' on board ship, especially during a
long voyage, is very different to society in a village or in
London. It is also likely that Lawrence, who knew some
thing of me, had told the Dushenka a few favourable lies
(men will do this sometimes it they wish to gain anything
by it for their friends) of one of whom he had heard
somewhat. But this was not sufficient to account for the
free speech of this woman. I have now little doubt that
it all came from the fact that she was a young widow,
and had "moved" in military circles in India, and that,
unconsciously, she had acquired a familiarity with things
which produced carelessness, and had banished all ten
dency to shyness. How much longer this interesting

AT SEA WITH A DUSHENKA. 7
communion would have lasted it is hard to say, but here
the ship's drum beat the riveille, and we separated, I with
some alacrity, to prepare for dinner.
On the whole I felt much like an invalid who was being
nursed into wellness, and no doubt my fifteen days in the
saddle had prepared me for such idleness as the Dushenka
could make pleasant. I was too tired or too lazy for any
other thoughts about the words and ways of this, to me,
new sort of woman.
The next day we kept our appointment. It was delicious
weather, and we made ourselves snug on deck. Dushenka
brought plaids and shawls, and I a handful of manuscript.
After reading for an hour I asked how she liked it.
" I never heard anything so beautiful," she said.
" Oh, you must have heard or read something like it, at
any rate."
"Never; all these thoughts are quite new to me, and
they are as beautiful as they are new," she said.
" Will you please repeat to me one thought which you
noticed?" I said.
" Oh, there are many," she answered. " I shall go and
write them down. One is —
" ' Tho' I should die, I know
That all about the thorn will blow
In tufts of rosy-tinted snow.'
" The other is —
" ' Every cloud that spreads above
And veileth love, itself is love.'
" But this is the one I like best —
¦' ' Oh, to what uses shall we put
The wild-weed flower that simply blows ?
And is there any moral shut
Within the bosom of the rose ? ' "

8 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Away she went, and I confess that I was surprised, for I
did not believe she was even equal to the task of remember
ing the lines, and still less of picking them out as beauties
worth storing.
We kept up this kind of reading for nearly a week, at
the end of which I wound up by repeating " OEnone," and
then I again demanded of her how she liked these poems.
Her answer I did not expect. She said —
" They are marvellously sweet. I am quite enchanted.
The man who wrote them can write anything."
" Who do you think wrote them ? " I inquired.
"You," she answered.
" No," I said ; " the man who wrote ' CEnone,' and the rest,
is Tennyson."
She was not in the least embarrassed, but said —
" If it had not been for your beautiful reading I should
never have understood or liked him."
" Do you now know why you detested Tennyson ? " I
demanded. " No, indeed ; I feel ashamed of myself for saying what
I did of him," she replied. " I suppose I must have been
very stupid."
" And arrogant," I added. " When you first tried to read
Tennyson you found him, I suppose, to be the fashion.
You heard so many people talking of the poet that you
found it necessary to know something about one whose
name was on everybody's lips. You began to read his
works because you wanted to follow the fashion. Is not
that so? "
" I suppose it is. You speak very plainly to me," she
said. " Well," I answered, " you can't sew or knit, and I must

AT SEA WITH A DUSHENKA. 9
have some wage for reading to you. Let me have the
pleasure of converting you. I shall be quite satisfied with
that. But then you must allow me to speak in plain words,
or I shall lose my time and you will not be converted."
"Converted!" she gasped.
" I don't mean," I said, " to make you religious, or to
change your religion. I do not even know whether you
have any religious convictions or not. I simply want to
turn you round; that's what I mean by converting you."
" Pray, what do you mean by that ? " she inquired.
" I have turned you or reversed you on Tennyson— you
detested him once, and now you love him; and I now want
to convert you so that you shall never again make such
another blunder with regard to any great man, or great
thought, or beautiful object."
" Do you think I am incapable of knowing what is
beautiful or great? You are very complimentary," she
said. "And you," I answered, "are hasty; I suppose you
always were. What I meant to say was that you must
not expect that you are to be supplied with a love of
knowledge and good taste, and the means of cultivation,
in the same way as you are supplied with gloves, nor
will you get new eyes by wishing for them."
"New eyes, indeed!" she said, curling the corners of
her mouth.
But I was not to be put off in that way ; therefore I said
to her —
" The reason why you once detested Tennyson is that you
were, shall I say a wild rose, or a wild olive — suppose we
say an olive, because it is a Scriptural figure of speech, and
we may kill two birds with one stone ; the fruit of the wild

10 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
olive is sour, and its sourness comes from the root. You,
I say, were, or are, if you like, a wild olive tree, with a
root of your own, with power to bear fruit of yourself — the
sour fruit of the wild olive. If you ever bear good olives
it will not be as a tree, but as a branch, and that will be
when you are grafted into a good olive tree. The source
of all beauty, all truth, and love, is God, and until we are
brought under His influence or into communication with
Him we shall detest all that is beautiful, all that is true,
and all that is lovely : ' They are the best for the longest
time whom the gods love.' "
" Indeed," she said, raising her eyebrows the sixteenth
of an inch, " I thought, on the contrary, ' whom the gods
love die young,' but please tell me how I am to get grafted
into a good olive tree?" meaning to give me " a facer."
"These metaphors and figures of speech," I said, "you
must be as careful of as you are of sugar-plums, or any
other sweet things, or they will spoil your stomach ; I
mean your moral stomach. You will easily get grafted
into a good tree and become a branch by first ceasing to
be an independent person, and next bv cultivating reverence,
lowliness of mind, sweetness and reality, or naturalness, and
then, then — "
Here, to my great surprise and thankfulness, Dushenka
rose to her full height, shook out her dress, and without
giving me a look she said, as if speaking to herself —
" I was never so spoken to in all my life," and off she
went, and I lit a pipe. If you want to anger a highly
respectable or fashionable woman — by which I mean a
woman who gets herself up to be looked at by other
people — you have only to make mention of the name of
God as a real name of a real being, and she will melt into

AT SEA WITH A DUSHENKA. 11
thin air, like the "insubstantial pageant" mentioned in
The Tempest.
We met again at night and she was my partner in a
rubber, and very well she played. When it was over and
she was going to bed I told her that she played a very good
game, and we shook hands, on which she made me a curtsey,
not a mere saucy bob like a float on a fishing line indicat
ing a bite, but a real curtsey, such as you sometimes see in
a country village, and it was a very pretty sight.
Our cabins were next to each other ; hers being the
outside one looking on to the sea, which was so calm
one morning that the port windows could be opened.
Along the top of the partition which divided us was a
perforated metallic plate, and hearing the Dushenka busy
in her cabin I filled my hand with toilette vinegar and
sent it flying through the ventilator.
She came on deck in a French muslin dress and with
out a bit of gold about her — except her wedding ring — or
precious stone, or fluttering ribbon.
" Good morning," I said, which she responded to by
remarking —
" Did you notice how delicious the sea smelt this morn
ing?" " No," I answered. " What was it like ? "
" I hardly know," she said.
" Was it like a druggist's shop ? "
"Yes and no."
" Or a glove shop? "
" I never perceived any odour in a glove shop."
" Ah, then you have never been in Cadiz. Was it like
Eau de Cologne ? "
" A little."

12 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
" Or toilette vinegar ? "
" Not the least like toilette vinegar, which I hate," she
said. It was Sunday, and I waited to see if she would notice it,
or make any reference to our "work."
" Will you read me something, to-day ? " she said at
length. " What would you like ? " I inquired.
" I will leave it entirely to you," she said, and then we
went to breakfast, but I had no appetite. That toilette
vinegar was too much for me.
At the usual hour we met, and I read to her Sterne's
sermon " On Enthusiasm," of course without telling her
who the author was.
On asking her how she liked it, she said —
" It is beautiful."
This was her constant verdict on anything she liked, " It
is beautiful." The words were as necessary to her as her
gloves were necessary. On the hottest day she must
put on gloves or she would not feel dressed, and " It is
beautiful" were equally stock words. The sermon is not
beautiful, it is, indeed, very plain ; the language is not
always pure, and the eloquence is not always natural, but
it is the work of a man of genius, a man who is a good
olive tree, or a true vine, the fruit of which is sweet and
wholesome. " Do you know who wrote that sermon ? " I asked her.
" No, indeed, nor can I guess," she answered.
" I suppose not. The author is the Reverend Laurence
Sterne, who wrote ' Tristram Shandy,' the ' Sentimental
Journey,' and is commonly known in the world of letters as
Yorick."

AT SEA WITH A DUSHENKA. 13
" I am very much astonished," she said.
"Why?" I inquired; not because I expected her to tell
me the real reason, but I could only learn more of the
quality of her mind by this way of catechising.
"I always thought," she answered, "that Sterne was a
humourist." " So he was ; but do you attach any definite idea of your
own to the term ? What is a humourist ? "
" Well, I suppose a Punch and Judy sort of man ; not
exactly a wicked man, nor even a naughty man, but a man
who lives by his wits."
"A literary chevalier d' Industrie," I suggested.
"No, I don't mean quite that," she said, "but certainly
something French, something not comme il faut."
It is more than likely that she had read either the
" Sentimental Journey " or " Uncle Toby," and, regard
ing both as books only fit for men, did not like to trust
herself to make confessions, or to have it known that
she had read what some immoral confessor had perhaps
condemned. If she had read " Tristram Shandy " she was, I suppose,
quite right in not owning it to one who was quite a stranger
to her, although a fellow passenger occupying the next
cabin to her own. I do remember a married woman once
exclaiming in the innocency of her heart, " I never knew
what that meant till now," on the occasion of a certain
incident being mentioned 'by her husband. We all
laughed, but then we were all old friends, and she was a
gifted woman, and very pretty. She had read the Shandyan
philosophy when she could not understand it, and her eyes
were opened at a time when it could only move her to
wholesome laughter.

14 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Dushenka was a very different woman, and the difference,
I think, was in her cultivation. She had been trained in a
hot-house, and the other woman had been trained in the
fresh air. One was natural, the other was artificial, and
sprinkled with toilette vinegar.
I will mention another matter which occurred in the
course of our acquaintance on board, because I think it
opened my eyes to a new thing, namely, the religion of
fashionable English women, the ladies who fill London
churches and the grand stands with fashionable bonnets
and artificial perfume.
"What church do you go to when you are in town?" I
once asked her.
" Oh, we often go to the Chapel Royal — the music is so
good. But our own church is St. Elizabeth's, in Moat
Lane," she said ; and there was a certain gravity in her
voice which made me fancy that she was not a mere out
sider. "They have early celebration there, have they not?"
"Oh, yes."
"Do you take the Sacrament yourself ? " I asked, with
decorum. Thereupon she closed her eyes, turned awav her head,
and would, I think, have got up and gone away, but several
women were, as usual, watching our " goings on," and she
would not give them occasion for supposing that we were
having a tiff.
" You pain me," she said, at length.
" I am very sorry ; it is the last thing I should dream of
doing," I said. " Perhaps you will tell me what I have
done ? "
" You speak of sacred things in a very improper way,"

AT SEA WITH A DUSHENKA. 15
she remarked. " I do not think that anything is sacred to
you, and this gives me pain."
" I simply asked you if you went to the Sacrament," I
said. " Yes," she replied, " as if it were a dance. I have no
patience with you."
" Shall I call it the Lord's Supper ? "
" Pray do change the subject."
" Do you call it the Eucharist ? "
To this she made no answer, but called my attention to
something in the sea. " Was it a sail ? "
Sail ! There wasn't a sail probably within a thousand
miles of us. She wanted to " change the subject," and she
didn't want the other women to imagine that we were
having a row.
" How brown your eyes look this morning ! " I said.
She smiled, shook her head, and said —
" You have no right to look in my eyes," and she closed
them. On which I remarked that I was then looking at some
thing which she had never seen, and never would, or could
see. " What is that ?" she exclaimed, with animation.
She knew well enough that I was looking at her eyelids,
but this was the kind of make-believe of which she was
master, the twaddle she cultivated and practised every day
of her life.
After a little space I said to her —
"Have they gone away?" meaning the women who
were always watching us.
"Yes," she said, "they have gone. How they hate
you ! "

16 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
"Never mind them, tell me if you goto the Sacrament?"
" I am not good enough," she said, almost naturally.
" Would it make you any better, do you think, if you did
go?" " Indeed, I am afraid not. I did partake when I was
confirmed, but it made no difference in me. I was just as
ready for a dance, or a horse in the Park, the next day as
ever," and she looked quite sad.
She seemed to regard the Sacrament as a balsam, the
balsam, perhaps, of Fierabras ;* and I was unwilling to say
anything that might disturb her superstition. A little
superstition in her case could do no harm, and might do
her good. No amount of positive instruction that I could
give her would have been of any use, and so I let the
subject drop for that day. But some time after, when our
intercourse had become warmer, she asked me why I drank
so much wine at dinner.
" Because I like it, and it is good for me ; I can do more
work on wine than on anything," I said.
" But what an example you set ! Don't you think of
that?" she said.
•' No. What I think of are the words of our Lord, ' As
oft as ye drink, do this in remembrance of Me.' That is
the best temperance pledge a man can take."
" You are more profane than I thought," she said.
" And if you had only some legal right in me how miser-
* " What balsam is that ? "' asked Sancho.
" It is a balsam," said Don Quixote, " with which no one need fear dying of
any wound ; and when I make it and give it to thee, thou hast no more to do,
when thou secst me in some battle clown, than to take dettlv that part of the
body which has fallen to the ground, and with much subtlety, before the blood
has congealed, to place it on the other part which remains in the saddle, taking
care to adjust it nicely and fitly. Presently, thou shalt give me to drink but two
draughts of this said balsam, and thou shalt see me sounder than an apple."

AT SEA WITH A DUSHENKA. 17
able as well as profane I should become," I said, on which
she was silent ; but after a little she said —
"You did not quote that text right. It is, ' As oft as ye
drink it,' not as oft as ye drink," and she gave me a superb
look. " Indeed. You have been thinking over this subject of
the Sacrament? "
" Yes, a little," she answered.
" I'm glad of it. Do you know why some words in the
Bible are printed in italics ? "
" Of course I know that."
"Wrell, why?"
" For the same reason that you underscore a word in a
letter," she said.
" To give it emphasis ? "
"Yes."" How clever you are ! "
" Do you really think so ? "
" You found out all this about the italics yourself ? "
"Yes.""No one told you?"
" No one. I have always known that."
" Well, it is all wrong. Those words are put in italics
to show you that they are not in the original Greek, and if
you look up the text, i Cor. xi., 25, you will find that ' it '
is in italics."
" Are you sure?"
" Quite sure."
"You would not deceive me?"
" Not for the world."
It was dark when we held this talk, and we were walk
ing up and down the deck, and because the ship was rolling
C

18 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
a little I offered Dushenka my arm ; and the ship appeared
to roll very much while we were talking about italics.
" Why are they called italics ? " she inquired — for she
was fond of catechising.
" The type founder," I answered, " who first invented
or designed them called them by that name. Some types
are called Roman, Egyptian, Gothic, Brevier — "
"What is Brevier?" she interrupted.
" It is the size of the type in which Breviaries were first
printed," I said.
"Dear me! how interesting!" she said. "Do you
know, I think I am getting quite afraid of you ! "
******
We reached London at the appointed time. A few days
afterwards, as Lawrence and I were on our way to the
Colonial Office, he asked me —
"How's the widow?"
" I've no idea."
" What ! ain't you going to marry her ? "
" My dear fellow, I am married," I said.
" I'm devilish glad to hear it."
"Why?" I demanded.
" She is such a fool ! " said my fatherly friend.
But how happy some men of my acquaintance might
have been if they had married fools such as Dushenka.
Some of them, on the contrary, married intellect, others
money, others hair, or a foot, or a seat in the saddle, or
music, or some poor wretch had the ill luck to catch a
glimpse of an ankle, and he married on that, and what a
mess they all made of it. My interest in this lady arose
from discovering in her the typical woman who reads eight

AT SEA WITH A DUSHENKA. 19
hundred new novels every year, who hates Tennyson,
despises Browning, can't abide Charles Reade, and thinks
Shakespeare to be a profane writer ; the woman who is
too ignorant to be honest and sufficiently vicious to follow
after priests, superstitious enough to require an Established
Church, and with sufficient taste and observation to make a
market for the sale of artificial flowers. If the active
clergy, the missioners, the archbishops, bishops, and other
great and lesser officers of the Church could convert all
the Dushenkas in London to a simple knowledge of the
Christian faith, it would, I think, do more good than all
the other conversions which are reported in the religious
newspapers. Sometimes my residence in foreign countries enabled me
to be of unexpected service to friends who, but for
information which I could give them, would have been
swindled. The story that I am about to tell will not only
explain the nature of this service, but it is also full of
interest of an unusual kind. With my reader's permission,
however, I should for a moment like to return to Dushenka.
With all her shallowness and hollowness, I really believe
she had some honest desire to find out a method of improv
ing herself. She was fond of reading — and she read much
— and carried about with her a great basket full of books,
and one day she begged of me to tell her what to read, and
how to read to the best advantage.
" You are always reading," she said to me on that par
ticular day ; " do you remember what you read, or do you
read only to forget ? "
" What do you mean by reading to forget ? " I inquired.
" I don't know," she said, " it was what a man once said
to me when I asked him why he read so much."

20 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
" What was he, or, as the Americans say, what did he
do?" I asked.
" He was nothing — he was a gentleman," she answered.
" And young, I suppose ? "
" No, indeed, he was past middle life."
" You mean by saying that the man ' was nothing ' that
he had a fixed income, and was of no profession, except
the profession of an idler?"
" He was a gentleman," she reiterated.
" Beau Brummell once said that a gentleman is ' one
who never perspires ; ' is that your view ? "
" Don't be disagreeable ; you know what a gentleman is
as well as I do," she said.
" But pray let me hear you say what is a gentleman. My
favourite author* says the true Latin word for a gentleman is
ingenuus — a freeman, and the son of a freeman. Yet there
were distinctions. Under the emperors the courtiers were
divided into two classes. With respect to the superior
class, it was said of the Sovereign that he saw them ; with
respect of the other, that he icas seen. ' Caesar is in the
habit of seeing me,' etc., will convev to vou a world of
meaning. Then, again, one of our most popular religious
poets has said, ' He is free whom the Truth makes free,
and all are slaves beside,' and another, ' Onlv a Christian
is a gentleman, for a gentleman never hurts the feelings of
others.' "
" I like that," she said ; " who said that ? "
" Never mind who said it. Is it true ? Is that your
idea?" " I like it very much," she said. " I suppose it is your
own ? " * De Quincey. See " The Casuistry of Roman Meals."

AT SEA WITH A DUSHENKA. 21
" No, indeed," I said ; " it is the saying of a man who
many years ago wanted to be a missionary to the heathen,
and had to give up the wish because he shrank from having
to tell them they would go to the place below if they did
not believe what he preached, and so he stayed at home in
his delightful Devonshire parsonage, and passed his time in
fishing and idleness."
" Dear me ! " she exclaimed. " Perhaps you knew him ;
you appear to know a great many clever men." .
I kept her chattering away after this fashion because I
wanted, if possible, to help her in this matter of desultory
reading, a subject on which everybody is so ready to give
advice. " I am not always reading," I began, " as you say, but
when I am at sea I carry a book in my pocket that I can
open or shut up when I like. Books are the best friends a
man can have about him."
" Yes, I know all that," she said. " I mean that is not
what I want to know. Can't you tell me some way that is
the best way for reading? I know you men have ways of
reading that are of great advantage, and I wish you could
put me up to some of them."
What would have been the good of giving this chatter
box any of the well-known methods common to reading
men ? So I promised to give her a hint or two, if she liked,
that would be useful.
"What time of day do you go visiting?" I asked her.
" Between four and six in the afternoon," she said.
" And you make a list of the people you are going to
see ? "
" Of course."
" And there are some people you like better than others,

22 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
and you plot and plan to meet them, and do all kinds of
things on purpose to make the most of those you care for,
and some you don't care to know at all, except by their
backs." "That's the way," she said, with a knowing smile, for,
highly connected as I found her to be, she had certain
defects that proved she had mixed with inferiors.
" Then, besides these, you have friends whom you see at
all times, and are always happy with them, and you don't
dress on purpose to receive them, or take care of your mouth
while you talk to them, or show off your hands, or your
eyes, or your feet to them."
" I have very few of them — some, no doubt," she
replied. " Well," I said, " that is all I can tell you about books
and reading."
" What have you told me ? " she said, with wide open
eyes. " I have made you go over in your mind your method of
seeing people, and what you do with them and for them.
You must do the same with books, and then you will
become as good a scholar as you_are a good fashionable
neighbour in society. If you take as much pains to know
books as you take to know people, inquiring about them,
talking about them, reckoning them up, or even, say,
running them down, treasuring up all you hear, and for
getting nothing, and telling all the good things you find in
them, you will become as learned as Hypatia without being
as disagreeable, and if you don't become very wise you
may be witty, and full of sweet thoughts and feelings which
never grow old."
" Feelings which never grow old ! Do you think so?"

AT SEA WITH A DUSHENKA. 23
" It requires no thinking about," I said to her with some
asperity, for she cared only for herself, and wanted nothing
but things that would serve as cosmetics.
" Ycu know I am very stupid ; do not be impatient, but
tell me plainly what you mean," she pleaded, with much
apparent earnestness.
" Did you ever drink at a mountain spring?"
"Yes, often," she said.
" Wasn't it always fresh, exhilarating, even intoxicating ? "
" Always."
" Well, ' whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst
again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him
shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlast
ing life.' Those words, you know, were said to the woman
of Samaria, at the time she was living with a man who was
not her husband, and you know who said them. What the
words mean you must find out for yourself, but I will tell
you what they do not mean : They do not mean going to
Church, or reading the Bible, or singing Psalms, or giving
away money in what you call charity, or being proper, or
wearing costly garments, or believing in certain doctrines,
or even going to the Sacrament."
She was much astonished. The woman of Samaria was
to her as an unsavoury smell, for she quietly opened her
little reticule and pulled out a smelling bottle which she
used with much grace.
If anything else occurs to me about this lady I will tell
it. She engaged my attention a good deal, for she belongs
to the unwritten history of England— a " girl " of my own
period, who I have the satisfaction of knowing still speaks
well of me.

CHAPTER II.
DON JUAN BADULAQUE DE GORDURO.
THE story I was about to tell of being once, as wre say by
accident, of some use is as follows : — I had strolled into the
city one summer morning, probably to get some money,
when a kinsman of mine met me in Throgmorton Street,
who said —
" Have you ever been in Guayaquil ? "
"Certainly; I was there last year," I answered.
" Well, just step into Radaman's chambers over there,
and tell him all you know about the place; I promised that
he should see you."
" Who is Radaman ? "
" Never mind that just now ; go and see him."
Radaman, it appears, was a young sporting man who
gambled on the Stock Exchange and " made money "
sometimes, and sometimes lost, as all — even the best of them
— do; "they can't help it," their friends say.
Radaman, when he heard who I was, plunged at once
into business.
" You know Guayaquil ? Is there a river there ? How

DON JUAN BADULAQUE DE GORDURO. 25
close is the river to the town ? Can a large ship get up
from the Pacific ? How long is this river ? "
I answered these questions, adding —
" No ship can get up to within twenty miles of the town
now, owing to some vessels having been sunk there to pre
vent the town being bombarded by a hostile fleet."
" The devil ! " exclaimed Radaman ; " would you have
any objection to making that statement in the presence of
a — a — a friend of mine ? "
" If it will be of any service, I shall be glad."
" It will be of the greatest service ; he will be here
almost directly."
Indeed, while Radaman was yet speaking in came one
who was introduced to me as Senor Don Juan Badulaque
de Gorduro.
He was a handsome fat man, like a prize man got up for
show ; he had a diamond as big as a big raspberry in his
shirt-front, a hearty smile on his face, and he spoke excel
lent English.
When Radaman told him of the sunken ships in the
Guayaquil river he said —
" All that is now cleared away, but I will drive to the
Foreign Office, and return within an hour with authentic
information." His brougham was at the door and he straightway drove
off and returned as he had promised, bringing a note written
on Foreign Office paper in a gentleman-like hand, which
said: — "The Guayaquil river is quite free for navigation, all
the sunken vessels have been removed." The note was not
signed — nor did Radaman notice this omission, who then
said to Gorduro —
" I wish you to go into this thing with Mr. Duffield, who

26 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
knows those countries; explain everything to him, introduce
all your friends to him, and omit nothing. If Mr. Duffield
makes a satisfactory report to me in the morning the enter
prise will go on, if he advises against it you must go to
somebody else."
"Very well; then Mr. Duffield, shall we go at once to my
hotel?" said Badulaque de Gorduro in an exuberance of
politeness. We drove to the most expensive hotel in London. Rada
man had possessed me of all the wondrous tale, and I was
to hear from Gorduro his plans, and read his papers, and
see his friends, and report.
The enterprise was nothing less than the seizing and
holding of the town of Guayaquil and conquering the
republic of Ecuador. Once in possession of Guayaquil,
nothing and no one could come in, or go out of the republic
without the permission of the invaders. There really was
no obstacle at all. Ecuadorian stock could then be bought
in Capel Court for £8 ; by skilful management the expendi
ture of £100,000, and a little daring, a million pounds
sterling could be made in less than a year. Some
merchants in the city were to be allowed to enter " the
swim," and the conquest of Ecuador was to be achieved by
young bloods of the English aristocracy. The people of
Ecuador were ready, they would join in the movement, it
would be a bloodless conquest, the onlv people who
would be killed were those who made any resistance.
But no resistance would take place. The President
would formally resign to the English gentlemen at their
request. This is the mere outline of the swindle.
Badulaque was delighted to have me to go through his

DON JUAN BADULAQUE DE GORDURO. 27
papers, for I could read them in the original, and Radaman
could not.
I spent an hour with Badulaque in listening to a long
verbal statement of his magnificent plot, and how he in
tended to proceed. His object, however, in our first inter
view was not so much to unfold his plot and plan
as to unfold me ; and being satisfied, I suppose, with his
conclusions, he invited me to dinner that evening when he
would have his chief confederates to meet me.
The dinner was excellent. The guests were all fine
young fellows, highly connected. One was the son of a
foreign European Ambassador, then resident in London.
It would not surprise me to be told that some of the
youngsters connected with our own Foreign Office were
in the conspiracy. Those with whom I dined were obvi
ously in earnest, and had probably given in their names as
volunteers. They fired many questions into me during
dinner, which I had no difficulty in answering, and from
these questions I gathered how deeply they were involved
in the scheme. There was abundance of wine of the best
kind, but it was moderately drunk. They had obviously
all often met previously, for each talked of his command
and his preparations in the most business-like way, and
with perfect nonchalance. One of them came in late, after
we had got through the entrees. He was a tall, handsome
fellow, of striking looks. I knew him, although we had
never met before. After dinner, as we rose from table and
were grouping ourselves in talking knots, I took this last-
comer on one side and said to him —
" Your name is Pendargon."
He started, and asked, with a little fierceness —
" How do you know that ? "

28 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
" Never mind. I know some of your people — your
brother, who is now in Peru, and your aunt, who is with
the Colonel, her husband, in Melbourne — and for their
sakes I wish to save you from failure and disgrace. This
man, this Badulaque de Gorduro, is a swindler. Meet me
in Throgmorton Street to-morrow morning at eleven, and
you shall know more."
He was sulky, and only promised to meet me after much
hesitation. " What are you doing here ? " he asked me, with waking
reason. " I am here," I replied, " on behalf of Radaman. Gorduro
is to show me his credentials after you have all left, and I
am to report to-morrow."
" I thought it was all settled," he said.
" No ; Radaman cannot read Spanish, and I am to go
through the originals."
" That's quite right. Very well, then, at eleven to
morrow. Shall I take these youngsters away now ? "
" Let us have a peaceable smoke first, and then, pray, go
away not later than eleven."
All that I recollect of this part of the evening was an
animated discussion on the manoeuvring of cavalry at
Guayaquil. "You can move cavalry about Guayaquil," I said, "as
easily as you can on the Dome of St. Paul's."
" Are you a military man ? " inquired one of the would-be
conquistadorcs. " No," I answered ; " a man doesn't need to be a watch
maker to tell what o'clock it is, nor does he need to be a
cavalry officer to know that you can't turn a charger on an
upright ladder."

DON JUAN BADULAQUE DE GORDURO. 29
They agreed to this, and then there was a display of
Admiralty charts and maps, which showed how far these
young would-be heroes were in for it, and how thoroughly
the swindler had done his work.
" WThat is the distance of Quito from Guayaquil ? "
inquired one.
" It is," I answered, " sometimes a month, now and then
a week, or four or five days, and it has been done in one
day." " How is that ? "
" It is a matter of weather. For three months in the
year — sometimes for more — the rain is wonderful, indes
cribable. It draws the stones out of the mountains like a
dentist will draw your teeth. The roads become rivers,
and the mud is simply maddening. Indeed, mud is an
inadequate word to express the condition of things."
I noticed the impatience of these youthful military
aspirants. They knew well enough all about mud, and did
not require definitions ; indeed, it was not worth considera
tion. Some time after this I recollect a puzzle-headed
F.R.S. asked me to define mud, and when I replied, " In
organic matter in a state of liquefaction," he shut up like a
knife, for I had seen the thing in oceans, and could speak
with authority, which he was bound to recognize.
"You say," continued the youngsters, "that the banks of
the Guayaquil river are flat. Is that the case all the way
down to the Pacific ? "
" Yes, from the town ; but those banks are more inacces
sible than if they were steep and high."
" Please explain."
" Both sides of the river, except here and there, where
are patches of hard ground, are covered with dense forests

30 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
of mangroves, miles in breadth, which you can see early in
the morning by the mist which hangs in dense white clouds
over the tops of the trees. This mist is sometimes so thick
that not even a whole day's sun pouring down upon it in a
straight line from right over head can disperse it."
" Then there is no towing path along the river — no road
at all?"
I could not help laughing at this question, which was
simple remissness on my part. None of these youngsters,
except Pendargon, had ever been in tropical countries.
How, then, could they know that a tropical river is as like
an English river as a domestic cat is like a jaguar? And
certainly no geography that I am acquainted with pretends
to make known the difference.
" Are the people quiet and peaceable ? "
" As vermin."
This short answer of mine provoked many more ques
tions, which I need not repeat. It was evident to me that
they had given much attention to the subject of invadino-
and conquering Guayaquil, and that they knew absolutely
nothing about it, nor was it possible to convey to their pre
occupied minds any accurate knowledge.
" You have been through the Straits of Magellan ? "
" Yes."
"And across the Isthmus of Panama? "
" Many times," I answered.
" Well, suppose you wanted to surprise vour friends in
Guayaquil, would you go across Panama or through
Magellan's Straits ? "
"In a case of war," I replied, "with very limited supplies,
with all your men and munitions of a select kind, and pro
found secrecy being of the essence of your success, you would

DON JUAN BADULAQUE DE GORDURO. 31
go the round-about way through the Straits. Coaling and
watering at Puntas Arenas, and then at Tocapilla, finally
at Payta, you would fly the Pacific Steam Navigation Com
pany's flag and get all you want. The captain of the port
would come off to you in each place. You would have to
take him into your confidence, or take him along with you.
In either case you must be prepared with some small
change, in the current coin of the country. But if you have
plenty of funds and secrecy is of no importance, then you
would send your steamer through the Straits with the
heavy material to meet you at Panama, and take another
steamer from hence to Colon, and so cross the Isthmus. If,
however, any suspicions were roused, you would be all
taken prisoners by the Government of the United States of
Colombia, through whose territory the Panama railway
passes, and you would be detained until everything about
you was known, and then all the fat would be in the- fire.
Therefore, all things considered, you would doubtless elect
to go the longest way about, which, as Lord Bacon says, is
sometimes the shortest."
" Oh yes, the Panama route was out of the question,"
said one ; " I always said so."
And so it was, and what with the good wine, the animated
talk, the familiar handling of the subject they had in
view by conversing with one who, as they said, " knew the
ropes," it became well known to me that these ardent
young gentlemen, led by a plausible swindler, were resolved
on taking Guayaquil and conquering the republic of Ecuador.
Before the hour arrived when we should separate, I knew
who was to command the cavalry,' who the infantry, which
should be Chancellor of the Exchequer, and which Prime
Minister. But who was to be Commander-in-Chief of the

32 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
expedition I was not told. At length, soon after eleven, we
separated, and I was left alone with El Senor Don Juan
Badulaque de Gorduro.
We had all drank well, but the wine was good, and no
body was the worse for it. Gorduro was a teatotaller; at
least, he said he was. I am not of a suspicious nature. I have
never cultivated suspicion, but no sooner was I alone with
this man than an irresistible conviction seized hold of me
that he was up to anything and would do anything.
This was not the first time that I had been in the power
of a murderer. I was once quietly taken possession of by
two mounted murderers, whom I escaped by tempting them
with some of the leche de la Madre de Dios. They and I
dismounted in a solitary part of a mountain pass, and I
gave them to drink of the enchanting liquor.
"Have another trago," I entreated, and they had
another, and another, and between them they emptied a
bottle of old French brandy, as soft as milk and potent as
laudanum, and in a moment they fell dead asleep, and I
rode away.
Now I do not claim any merit for the manner in which I
acted on that occasion. Everything was unpremeditated.
I knew absolutely nothing against these men, and was
guided only by the evil looks of the oldest of the two
ruffians. It is true that those looks were enough to frighten
the devil himself, and why I was not frightened I do not
know. 1 was, on the contrary, somewhat gay. Perhaps
the air of the upper desert entered my brain, and made me
for a moment like the desert itself, steadfast and calm.
But I do not know. I will tell the whole story at length in
its proper place.
" Have another bottle of wine," said Gorduro, when we

DON JUAN BADULAQUE DE GORDURO. 33
were quite alone. As fast as I emptied my glass he filled
it. Of course. I partly expected this. But I did not
expect the wine to be so fine, or the effect on me so
strengthening and refreshing. He showed me all his
papers. He talked well, and with much discretion.
"Where did you learn English?" I inquired.
" In Mexico," he answered.
But as Satan, or somebody else, would have it, the way
in which he pronounced "Mexico" was as if Ariel had
suddenly sounded a Jew's harp. There was a twang about
it which was peculiar to Broadway, Wall Street, Fifth
Avenue, or Cincinnati.
I complimented him on his English ; but he suddenly
dropped it, and began talking in the Spanish tongue, the
odd thing being that he made more blunders while talking
in his native language than when he addressed me in
English. He became conscious of this, which was shown
by his overbearing affectionateness. At one time I really
thought he was going to give me a kiss ; Peruvians do this
when they are meditating murder.
" Have another bottle of wine."
" Waiter, will you please carry this bottle into my bed
room." Then, turning to me like a wanton, he said —
" I am going to show you my heart ! "
We adjourned from the private dining-room of the hotel
to his bedroom, and heartily did I wish that I had never
been let into this filthy business. Having now to go
through with it, I proceeded to give the man all the benefit
I could of all the doubt which hung over him. I began to
pity the brute, and thought of the words of Prospero when
describing his false brother to Miranda as D

34 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
" Like one,
Who having, unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,
To credit his own lie, — he did believe
He was indeed the duke."
I ought to say that Gorduro had made up his mind to the
conviction that I would certainly report favourably of him
to Ramadan. He did not once venture to put to me a
plain issue, but in answer to one or two little questions
which pointed in that direction he had received from me
certain nods and winks of the eye, which he interpreted in
his own interest.
Before showing me his heart he unlocked a green
morocco despatch box, and taking from it a document
which he unfolded, handed it to me, and said —
" Read that."
It was simply an agreement, or rather a promise, on the
part of another native scoundrel, in the event of Gorduro
and his friends taking Guayaquil, to hand over to them his
right to the Galapagos Islands — of course for a considera
tion. This document, by a strange freak of fortune, I had seen
in the hands of an Englishman who showed it to me, and
who died in Guayaquil some little time before.
Seeing me read it with so much care and interest — for I
was much concerned in the history of the man to whom it
had once belonged — he said to me —
" Are you satisfied ? "
" Perfectly," I answered, and Gorduro was pleased.
" But now," continued the enchanted fool, " prepare for
something greater. Read this ! " And in handing me
what proved to be a piece of parchment he went through
the ceremony of symbolically cutting his throat.

DON JUAN BADULAQUE DE GORDURO. 35
The parchment was written in Spanish, and set forth
that el SerLor Don Juan Badulaque de Gorduro was raised
to the dignity and degree of a master mason in the Lodge
of Santa Apolonia, in Lima, in the year 5637.
" Have another bottle of wine, Don Alejandro."
I told him an exciting tale — two tales in fact — of men
who by means of a similar piece of parchment had been
saved from impending death, and subsequently raised to
affluence and power. I left him long after midnight, much
more drunk than I was, although I had drunk a good deal
of wine and he not any.
The next day, in the evening, Badulaque just managed
to catch the tidal train to Paris. He never returned, and
Guayaquil stands where it did, and so do Ecuatorian Bonds
stand where they did in the market quotations.
How near these English youngsters were to doing a big
thing ! If they had been properly trained, or had con
tracted some human ideas of human life and human dignity,
they might have set a great example. It is quite possible
to take Guayaquil, and with it one of the most gorgeous
countries in the world, where grow all the fruits and all the
flowers, and where are wonders beyond the power of man
to tell in the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms.
Nor is it necessary to shed blood or to steal. Let a band
of gentlemen, with gardeners, builders, blacksmiths, ship-
carpenters, and others, go there and do as Abraham did,
they shall become as great as Abraham was. But before
they try to imitate Abraham they must, I suppose, have a
little of Abraham's faith, or something that will stand them
in stead. The work can be made more exciting than war ;
I mean bloody, grim-visaged war, for there is a war in
which courage, endurance, skill, knowledge, temperance,

36 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRA VELS ABROAD.
self-sacrifice, and manliness in all its forms are needed, and
is more full of fun and noble happiness than the other war,
and why this kind of warfare has been dropped by English
gentlemen is a question that ought to be answered, and will
be answered one of these days, perhaps, when Mr. Walter
Besant has finished his work on " The Immigration of the
Gibeonites to Santa Fe de Bogota."
My own answer to this question is that the Dushenkas of
our time are incapable of inspiring men to do great things ;
and that as long as the Dushenkas are content to be dressed,
and be-bejewelled, and worshipped by men, so long will
men prefer idleness, selfishness, and littleness to fighting
Philistines, or doing any other hard and noble work.

CHAPTER III.
BOGOTA.
BUT Bogota, like Quito, is too far from the sea. To reach
Bogota you must ascend the River Magdalena, which, in a
good steamer, and with no accidents, will take at least ten
days, for you have to tie up every day at sundown on
account of snags and shifting sand-banks. You can't
travel by night in a steamboat on the Magdalena, excepting
in very few well-known parts, and these are very short
reaches. Then after reaching Honda, which is less than
600 miles up the river, where you disembark before you
reach Bogota, you have seventy miles to go over land.
And it is over land, with a vengeance. If it were to be
ironed out flat it would be, not seventy miles, but five times
seventy miles. You go up and down for three, sometimes
for five, days through all kinds of weathers, climates, and
temperatures, until at length you reach the pass described
by Kingsley in his " Westward Ho," in the chapter " How
they took the gold train." Seeing that Kingsley was never
there, it is a wonderful piece of accurate description. He
only makes one mistake ; there is " no ditch " on either
side of the pass, " once paved when Cundinamarca was a
kingdom." From thence you mount to the plain of Bogota,

38 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
which is ten thousand feet above the level of the sea ; a
beautiful climate, but, as I have said, it is perhaps too far
from the world's highway to be turned to much profit.
On my way up to Bogota from the sea I had skirted the
base of the Quindio Mountains by making a wide detour
from Carthagena on my way to Baranquilla, the head
quarters of the steamers which navigate the Magdalena.
I know of no country so gorgeous in its desolation as this
through which I wandered all alone for several days. It
had once been densely populated ; there were still to be
seen great wide and straight roads running for miles
through vast forests, where were numerous orange trees full
of golden fruit. I was galloping down one of these roads at
a good pace, being well mounted, when an enormous yellow
and black striped jaguar sprang over a wall of creepers
into the middle of the road, immediately in front of my
horse's nose, and in an instant picked himself up and
bounded over another vegetable wall on the other side,
making a standing jump of some twenty feet in length and
at least sixteen feet in height.
On my arrival in Bogota, which happened to be on a
Saturday, I was astonished to see the grand plaza fitted up
like a Spanish bull ring, in which on the following Sunday
was to be a fight between a wild bull and a jaguar. I told
the story of my jaguar to some friends, who made light of
it, and disposed of the dimensions I had given of the
jaguar's jump in the usual way. The Sunday came, the
fight came off ; the bull and the jaguar met in a ring sixty
feet wide, made of iron railings twelve feet high. The
jaguar crouched close to the railings, the bull put his nose
close to the ground and drew stealthily towards him ; and
when the bull made his spring the jaguar sprang into the

BOGOTA. 39
centre of the, ring, and then over the railings among the
densely-packed crowd, killing many before he was himself
killed. I have often thought since that if I had not been so
circumstantial in my account of the jaguar's jump, which
I had been careful to note, the friends to whom I told it
might have been induced to put a stop to the dangerous
exhibition which resulted so fatally to many.
Bogota is eminently a commercial city, of many thousand
inhabitants. When I was there the trade was chiefly in the
hands of Englishmen and Jews, and consisted of quinine
and tobacco as the chief exports. The tobacco was grown
in the valley of Ambalema, on the Magdalena, and the
quinine was brought from the forests by the natives on
donkeys and mules. In these two trades there was ample
room to build up a lasting fame for the English name, but
the sole object which the merchants had in view was to
make money as quickly as possible for themselves ; and some
did make it in a way which altered their good looks. Some
of these men who went to Bogota as good-looking young
fellows are now coarse and common-looking — not worth
looking at in fact ; very rich, and living in the best parts
of London " town," but with no wholesome ambition, and
with no noble example to set or knowledge to impart that
is worth listening to. Bogota is a delightful memory to me
and to many. What Bogota may think of the Englishmen
who have left her and the Jews who made themselves rich
by her help we shall probably never know.
I have met many men in the course of my travels who
towered above the common run of men as the aloe towers
above the weeds which creep at its roots ; men of all
colours — black as well as white, and the intermediate shades

40 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
of these ; of all conditions, also of all tongues ; men
whose lives do as surely hasten the progress of human love
and reason as a river hastens in its peaceful progress to the
ocean the nearer it approaches it. " These kind of men,"
says the ancient sage Albupharage, " are the elect of God,
His best and most useful servants, who are the torches, the
legislators of the world, but for whom mankind would fall
into ignorance and barbarism." Such a man was Patrick
Wilson, of Bogota, a very human man, despised, yet envied
by Dives and his brethren, but loved and adored by Lazarus
and his family, which in that region are numerous. He was
a most gracious man, of much cultivation and fine presence,
who, though poor, lived like a prince, reminding me of the
"one event" of Emerson "which never loses its romance,"
" the encounter with superior persons on terms which
allow the happiest intercourse." Dr. Cheyne was another
similar man, but of less romantic character — he was a man
of science. They were both gifted with vast and peculiar
influence, and they were men who also had suffered much.
Like el Rio Seco, they have disappeared from the face of
the earth, leaving behind only a name — but one is Don
Patricio el Bueno — Don Patricio the good, and the other
the Famous Doctor — both Englishmen, who have left be
hind them in the memories of men an idea of the greatness
and splendour of the nation to which they belonged. If
the same could be said of all Englishmen who have lived in
foreign parts, the world would now be flocking to England
for lessons in greatness.
It would be delightful to tell more of Bogota, but as this
could only be done by mentioning the names of persons
who arc still living, we will go down the Magdalena, and
prepare for a visit to Peru.

CHAPTER IV.
BARANQUILLA.
THERE are men, some of whom I have also met, who
look as if they were skulking in corners in hope to hide them
selves from merited scorn. There are men who it would
seem have their service in this world, men but for whom the
greatly good could not so readily work their will if there
were not in the same neighbourhood men who were, or had
once been, equally great in working evil.
On my way down from Bogota to Baranquilla I arrived
just in time to miss the northward-bound mail, and I had to
remain a month in that dismal place for the next ship. There
were plenty of mosquitoes, scorpions, caimanes, snakes,
vampire bats, stinging spiders, and a great excess of solar
heat. There was also much cotton — the beautiful long stapled
perennial cotton which grows without gardening, also fields
of tobacco, and forests of caoutchouc and ivory nuts, and
where these are, commercial man will not be far off. The
day of my arrival in Baranquilla was marked by an event
which I shall never forget. It was towards evening, and the
sun was red hot, when suddenly there came on us, or we
ran into it, a thick fall of snow !

42 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Snow at the mouth of a tropical river only ten degrees
north of the equator ! Snow falling all around us when
everybody was profusely perspiring, and millions of mos
quitoes were blowing their trumpets !
A strong north-west wind had been blowing all day and
had stripped the trees of their ripe cotton for miles around,
carrying it up to heaven. As evening came on, the wind
suddenly ceased, and down came the silvery flakes of cotton
back to the earth. Could I have been carried direct home
on an aeronautic broom-stick without touching at the
village or asking for explanation I should have been pre
pared to swear on reaching London that I had seen a snow
storm in Lat. 10' N., Long. 75 west, so easy is it for a man
with as many eyes in his head as there are in a peacock's
tail to be blinded or bamboozled by his pre-occupied senses.
This theatrical snow-storm which had delayed us was the
cause of my making the acquaintance of a man whose
manners and conversation I will describe.
He was not a striking man to look at, although he came
from New York. He was, for one thing, very silent ; he
asked no questions, he did not even guess at anything. He
was in the caoutchouc business, that is, he employed as
many of the native people as would accept his wage to go
into the forests, collect the exudations of india-rubber trees
and bring to him. There are hundreds of such men in this
masterless part of the world who come from New York,
Paris, London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham,
who make it their business to collect bark for extracting
quinine from, ivory nuts, cochineal, coarse wool, old silver,
orchids, emeralds, old gold, and gold dust, getting these
things sometimes for an old song, or even less, exactly
as H.M.S. Challenger got the art treasures of the South

BARANQUILLA. 43
Sea Islanders by bartering for them Sydney goods or Brum
magem trash* It is not an exciting business ; at least, you
must not get excited over it. It was in every way suited to
the man of whom I am to tell. We ate and drank to
gether at the same comfortable, cool hotel, which was
kept by Miss Creighton. Knowing that I had come down
the river, I wondered he did not ask me something about
gum trees, or ivory nuts. To my surprise he asked me if
I played chess ?
" A little," I answered, " just enough to make me enjoy
a scrimmage." This brought us together, and every night for several
nights we passed away the hot hours in mimic war. But he
was a dull dog, and forced me to believe that he cultivated
dulness for some commercial reason. He had had enough
of chess, and now wanted to talk. This he did in a jargon
which for some time engaged my attention ; but finding
myself going to sleep, and the hot room reeking with
stupidity, I roused myself, and said, for pure fun, quoting
the well-known words of Hugh Latimer —
" Here now I remember an argument of Master More's,
which he bringeth in a book which he made against
Bilney ; and here, by the way, I will tell you a merry toy..
Master More was once sent in Commission into Kent to
try out (if it might be) what was the cause of the Goodwin
Sands and Shelfs that stop up Sandwich Haven.
" Thither cometh Master More, and calleth the country
before him, such as were thought to be men of experience
and men that could of likelihood best certify him of that
matter concerning the stoppage of Sandwich Haven.
" Among others came in afore him an old man with a
* See Moseley's " Challenger Notes," a valuable book, p. 437, etc.

44 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
white head, and one that was thought to be little less than
an hundred years old.
"When Mr. More saw this aged man he thought it
expedient to hear him say his mind in this matter, for being
so old a man it was likely that he knew most of any man
in that presence and company. So Mr. More called this
old, aged man unto him, and said —
" ' Father,' said he, ' tell me, if ye can, what is the cause
of this great arising of the sands and shelves here about this
haven, the which stop it up that no ships can arrive here ?
Ye are the eldest man that I can espy in all this company,
so that if any man can tell any cause of it, ye of likelihood
can say most in it, or, at least wise, more than any other
man here assembled.'
"'Yea, forsooth, good master' (quod this old man), 'for
I am well nigh an hundred years old, and no man here in
this company anything near unto mine age.'
" ' Well, then,' quod Master More, ' how say you in this
matter ? What think you to be the cause of these shelves
and flats that stop up Sandwich Haven ? '
" ' Forsooth, sir,' quoth he, ' I am an old man. I think
that Tenterton Steeple is the cause of Goodwin Sands.
For I am an old man, sir,' quod he, ' and I may remember
the building of Tenterton Steeple, and I may remember
when there was no steeple at all there. And before that
Tenterton Steeple was in building there was no manner of
speaking of any flats or sands that stopped the haven, and
therefore I think that Tenterton Steeple is the cause of the
destroying and decaying of Sandwich Haven.' ,;
"What has all that to do with what I said?" demanded
my companion.
" Do you not see it?" I inquired.

BARANQUILLA. 45
" No," he answered, with firmness.
I consoled him by saying that many well-to-do persons
were often at a loss to know the meaning of many stories.
But he would not be consoled, and wanted an explanation.
As he knew a little of the Spanish tongue, I said, quoting
again — " 'Dip & la rana el mosquito
Desde una tinaja
Mejor es morir en el vino
Que vivir en el agua."
Said the frog from his jar
To the drown'd little fly,
I would not live in water
If in wine I could die.
When again he declared that he did not see it, I wished
him good-night and went to bed. But I found, as I thought
him over, that for some reason he had interested me.
The next morning was cool and fresh, and my india-
rubber man, with commercial cordiality, asked me if I
would join him in a ride. I could not well refuse, and we
set off. On a pair of nimble little ponies, who knew the
art of pacing, we were carried into a green world, adorned
with glad colours and scented with delightful perfume.
I made some enthusiastic remark in playful words.
" You are a pantheist," he suggested.
I asked him how he could imagine an English gentleman
to be a heathen.
This brought out my india-rubber man, and in a little
while I discovered that he was a weak-minded atheist.
He did not avow himself in any offensive way. He seemed
rather to regret that he had taken this disease, as he had
once taken the small-pox, and that it was not his fault.
Here my pony got one of her feet into a crab-hole,
stumbled, and very nearly surprised me out of the saddle.

46 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
It must have surprised me out of myself, for I turned on
my india-rubber atheist and asked him a most rude ques
tion, namely, if he had ever in his life done any man any
great evil which could have brought him to such a pass as
being an American and an atheist ?
He became silent, and we rode back together without
another word, at which I was glad, for it enabled me to
give my attention to the marvellous world through which I
rode. We got back in time for a fresh-water bath before break
fast. The breakfast was admirable ; there was an excellent
chupe — good fish, cutlets, and curried eggs, fried bananas,
Abocado pears, oranges, and figs, all freshly gathered.
There was excellent light wine, and the snow-white table
cloth was adorned with sprigs of red peppers and vessels
containing flowers.
The india-rubber atheist looked miserable, nor was I
sorry. He was still silent, even surly. I had not the least
desire or intention to deliver him from his distress. What
right has a man to be an atheist with an Abocado pear in
his mouth ?
I saw no more of him till night. When we were together
alone, he drew his chair close to mine and said, in a voice
charged with pain —
"You asked me this morning if I had ever done any man
any great evil. No one has ever asked such a question
of me before ; but I am here to answer you. I have in my
time done great evil. I know that it has made me that
mean that life is fast becoming odious to me, and I am sure
that every kind of evil-doing carries its own punishment in
a mysterious way. I've watched it, and it's true. But I
didn't intend to do evil ; I only thought of doing good.

BARANQUILLA. 47
It's true that I made money by it, and perhaps it's right
that I should suffer."
Now, I abhor listening to a man telling his sins. In a
woman it is different ; I could listen to a woman's tale of
her own wickedness if it lasted three days. Therefore I
tried to break away from the india-rubber merchant, who I
thought was probably a commonplace commercial swindler,
who was hiding in these wilds from those whom he had
wronged, and that this was what he intended to confide to
me.
" You, sir, have been very kind to me, and I feel it." (Here
he added some flatteries which I do not intend to repeat;
perhaps he did this in order to keep me interested in him.)
" I was a medium — a spiritualist ; you know what that
means," he said, and looked me in the face as if to see if I
did know.
"God Almighty forgive you," I said, as if I didn't believe
that He would.
Then in a very cruel way I attacked him with much
human bitterness, and said with sufficient arrogance that
his present denial of God's existence came from his
spiritualistic impostures, and that a strong delusion had
been sent upon him by God Himself in order that he
should believe a lie to his present undoing and his future
misery. No Presbyterian or physiologist could have been
more unfeeling or high-minded than I was towards this
man. In a passionate cry he swore that he did not know at the
time that he was doing wrong, and many times that he did
not know what he did at all.
" Did you write on a slate ? " I asked.
" No," he said, " that was not in my line."

48 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
"What was your line ?" I demanded.
" I saw things," he said, with much emotion, " and these
I embellished and made interesting on purpose to make
people believe in a world of spirits, a future life, and an
unseen world. And now I don't believe in spirits, nor an
unseen world, nor another life, nor God," and he hung his
head in abject misery.
All this was in a new key. There was a dithyrambic
tide — if I may so say — in his flood of speech. I began to
pity him.
" Would you like to get back your child-like belief in
God ? " I asked him.
"Like?" he exclaimed. "Would I like to be at home
at my own fireside instead of in this howling wilderness,
where there is so much beauty that you get sick of it, and
so many sweet things that you almost die for a little oat
meal porridge ? No, I shall never go home again."
Here he paused, and looked strangely into space as if he
were in a trance, having his eyes open.
" And," he added, " I shall never have faith in God again
—that's all up."
I could say nothing, but relented towards him. He
seemed like one who had slain his father, and did not know
it until his mother made it known to him in words of
anguish and despair.
I would have cheered him if I could, and did say some
thing to the effect that one need not doubt of God if he
retained a human heart — that if a man cultivated a love for
his brother whom he could see it might lead him to loving
God, who at present was out of sight — and so left him,
feeling equal for little in that way.
Not much intercourse passed between us for the next

BARANQUILLA. 49
and following days. It was, perhaps, my fault ; I had made
another acquaintance.
But my india-rubber friend joined me soon after in my
own room,
" I have something to say to you," he began.
" Say on," I said.
" I have seen a thing which I want to tell you," he said.
" Last night I was waked up by my wife in the middle of
the night. She came into my room and sat on my bed. I
rose to take her in my arms, and she vanished out of sight.
She is dead — of that I feel quite certain. No letter has
come to me by the mail which arrived this morning ; the
only time that she has missed writing since I have been
away from home. Last night was the 25th of August.
Next mail I shall get a letter telling me that she died on
that night. I hope you will be here."
I was there when the next mail arrived from New York,
bringing a black-bordered letter for my friend. It was not
in his wife's handwriting.
He opened the letter in my presence. It began : " Dear
Joe, — Your wife died suddenly on the 25th of August,"
etc., etc.
We looked at each other and said nothing, nor do I say
anything except to say with Don Quixote, " God hath many
ways of bringing His own to heaven."
To me there was something startling in this man, having
vulgarized his soul by imposture, in league with money-
making spiritualists, waking up in a world of wonders to
find that for him there was no God.
Is the present condition of Spain in no manner connected
with the way she governed her American Colonies ? It is
simple folly to deny it, as it would be folly still greater to
E

50 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
deny that it is owing to the Spanish inheritance that the
Spanish Republics are what they are at this day — a disgrace
to human government and human nature.
The present condition of the West Indies and their negro
populations cannot be said to be unconnected with their
past treatment by English planters.
The hatred with which the Roman Catholic Church is
regarded in many parts of the New World springs from
the manner in which a spiritual faith was materialized bv
its teachers.

CHAPTER V.
LIMA.
I ONCE spent the early part of a Good Friday in Lima. At
noon I left for Callao, to take the homeward-bound mail,
for the manager of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company
was not only a Scotsman, but an Aberdonian, and Good
Friday was to him a Friday and nothing more. So, amid
the unexpressed maledictions of the pious ladies of Lima,
we sailed. But the early part of the day in the city was
singularly impressive. Christ was dead, and everybody
wore the trappings and signs of an immortal woe. All the
churches were hung with black. Every house was close
shut up; every face hidden away. There was something
very expressive in this silence of a great city, more than
twelve miles in circumference, and given over to jabbering
cheating, chaffering, laughing, fifing, drumming, and dancing
for the rest of the year. If anyone had gone about his
usual vocation on that day he would have had his. ears cut
off. Not even the biggest German bully in the place had
the temerity to appear in his usual holiday attire of a red
beard, lemon-coloured gloves, and a six-inch cigar.
But a priest on the sly was selling a publication. It was
only a reprint, but I bought a copy for 2£d. I will translate

52 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
a portion of this relique of the religious press of Peru. It
is called : —
" The marvellous account of a case which happened in the
Church of the Magdalen, in the village of Eten,
Diocese of Truxillo, in the Kingdom of Peru, when
was seen for a good space a most beautiful Child in
the sacred Host, with other marvels, which you shall
see."
" Seven leagues from the city of Santa, in the village of
Eten, whose priest and vicar was El Padre Predicador Fray
Geronimo de Sylva Manrique, as noble a religious man as
a zealous minister. On a Thursday in the month of June,
1649, which was the vigil of the Most High and August
Mystery of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, at the
end of the holy father's oration, it pleased the Most Holy
One to descend from His throne in the presence of all the
people, and visibly to take up His abode in the consecrated
wafer (hostia), in the form of a very beautiful Child, in half
figure, from the waist upward, which was distinctly seen of
the Vicar and by all the people. The Child was dressed in
a mulberry-coloured tunic, the rest of the Host being very
white, so that it was easy to distinguish one colour from
another. The hair of the head was ruddy (rubio), and
reached to the shoulders, and was curled at the ends most
gracefully (rcforcidos las puntas dcllos graciosamente). It
was parted in the middle, half falling on one side and half
on the other. The face and flesh were human, and plainly
distinguished from the wafer, all of which was clearly and
distinctly seen by the people, men and women, who were
all moved to tears in spiritual joy, praying for the mercy of
the Lord, who had, in the most rare and admirable way
(tan admirable y raro), condescended to manifest Him-

LIMA. 53
self so as that they could see and rejoice in Him with their
mortal eyes.
" Then the musicians played, these on their clarions, and
those on their trumpets, the children ringing bells, and all
the villages round about to which the fame of so great a
miracle reached were filled with spiritual joy and gladness,
and the Indians, both men and women, were moved to
great tenderness of heart, and brought wax, fireworks, and
sweet scents at great cost to testify their gratitude, which
is abundant proof of the marvellous effects which the
visitation of the Lord had caused in their souls, and so
great was their devotion that they did not stir out of the
Church at Eten for eight days."*
It would be easy to multiply extracts of instances of this
kind ; they may be found in all the remote parts of South
America as well as in places not remote, nor are they con
fined to remote times. The tragedy at Santiago de Chili
in connection with the "Virgin's Post Office" is still fresh
in our recollection. It is no libel to say that the Romish
Church in that part of the New World has proved a dire
failure. It has corrupted the national morals, destroyed
faith, and debased human reason. Patriotism there means
revolution, liberty is not known, but license abounds, show
ing its strength by prevalent immorality, and I think that
much of it, if not all, proceeds from this gross materializa
tion of spiritual things. The priests for very shame, or
idleness, have not been able to keep up their impostures,
and have become victims of their own delusions; as a
body they are utterly degraded and corrupt, and are
the corrupters of family life. Happily for human nature,
there are some notable exceptions, but they are few. A
* A copy of this '' Relacion " is now in the British Museum.

54 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
priest is seldom or never seen in any respectable house
in South America. Like priests, like people. The common
people are given up to an insane belief that they will be
allowed to work out their passage to heaven by the suffer
ing, poverty, and dirt to which they submit themselves on
earth. The governing class, the men in uniform, " the
cocked hat and feather gentry," have no notion of influence
or power, goodness or greatness, save as existing in some
thing that can be seen, smelt, tasted, or handled. There
never has been a single monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly
revolution in Peru, Chili, New Granada, Mexico, or Santo
Domingo, or elsewhere that was not begun and ended with
English money, the money of English money-makers and
dealers in guano, or the monies of Jews and Germans, whose
mission in this world has been to propagate the ambition
which springs from lust, avarice, and greed. Not a single
revolution ever began with the people, nor has there been a
revolution out of which the people have not come greater
sufferers than ever, until, like their priests, they are left
without hope, and with no other god save one which can
be made by a baker, or dressed up by a priest's housewife.
Nor can I refrain my eyes from looking at home and asking
myself to explain to myself the gross ignorance of some of
my own countrymen, to say nothing of their idleness and
general sinfulness, their cruelties, and the brutish lives
which some of them lead. Are these things in any way
connected with English religion and English priests and
English merchantmen, manufacturers and traders, and men
in uniform, the cocked hat and feather gentry? Are the
women who toil night and day in all parts of London, but
especially in some parts more than others, only responsible
for the misery and crime and the everlasting sorrow by

LIMA. 55
which they are surrounded ? Are the toilers in our
beautiful black country only to blame for the ruin which
may be seen there ? Are the sixty thousand, men, women,
and children who in Birmingham do not know where they
will get their dinner to-morrow, or whether they will get
one at all, to be held solely responsible for the plague which
will one of these days break out among them ?
Having seen the growth of the modern commerce and
watched the manner in which the world's markets have
been supplied during the time since India and the Austra-
lias, New Zealand and the Cape, and elsewhere gave new
markets to England, and having been over all the world
and seen with my own eyes the goods which have been
sent for sale or for barter, I confess that it does not
become an Englishman to take up much time at dinner
or in the smoking-room in making reflections on the morals
or manners of other people.
Still it may be permitted to speculate a little on the
time when it will be our turn to be looked at and criticized
by the traveller who will, a little later on, sketch the ruins
of St. Paul's from London Bridge.
I do not say there is not something to be justly proud
of even in Peru and along the whole coast, which bears the
image of England, but the little there is to be seen makes
one regret that there is not more, while it is impossible to
resist the conviction that if there had been less selfishness
and vainglory, and more modesty and love of justice, Peru
might have been a living country now, and Englishmen its
best friends. But Englishmen, as a rule, were too fond of
heaping up money, living sumptuously every day, and
setting an evil example of extravagance to be atoned for
by some of them by endowing London charities or build-

56 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
ing an occasional church whose foundations are laid in
Peruvian guano.
I had my first earthquake in Peru, in Lima, its capital,
and Lima for many years was Peru, as Paris used to be
France. It was early one morning, and before the sun
began to shoot his beams against the back side of St.
Bartolo, a hill which rises something less than two miles
north-east of the city. I was in bed fast asleep in Maury's
Hotel. I was waked by a noise such as I had never heard .'
it was like a noise in a dream, and it was penetrating ; it
shook all my bones, then my bones seemed to be shaking
the bed, the bed to be shaking the house, and the house to
be shaking the solid earth, and the earth to be rocking the
sickly moon, which seemed to grow pale as it looked down
upon sinful, half-naked Lima, then running to the great
plaza to be out of the way of falling houses and falling
churches. When the unearthly noise which waked me
from sleep became mingled with frantic human voices
squealing for heavenly mercy I thought it time to turn
out of bed.
But I could not stand steady. I was drunk, but not with
wine. The earth was reeling to and fro. I shall never
forget the sight which awaited me in the great square.
Long before I reached it, and while yet out of ear-shot of
what was going on, my eyes caught the gestures of great
numbers of half-dressed women, who were stretching their
open hands to the sky, and straining their necks to raise
their upturned faces towards the clouds. Here was one
of Martin's bad pictures painted to the life, one of the
chapters of the Revelation made into a living scene. I
never shall see such another tragedy as that, nor do I wish
to see a repetition of the scenes of that morning. Being

LIMA. 57
ignorant, I was callous to all fear or danger. I even
wanted my breakfast, and asked for it, to the disgust of
everybody, who looked upon me as a hardened wretch, who
must be either a Protestant or an Englishman, or both. I
was both, and am still, but I am no longer fearless in an
earthquake, at least, in Spanish towns or South American
cities, where the houses are specially built for murdering
you when the earthquake is abroad.
The last earthquake I went through was at the Solomon
Islands, but as there was nothing to be thrown down there
was nothing to fear. I must confess that the priests on that
morning in Lima behaved with singular assurance. They
went everywhere " as bold as brass," as they say, com
forting and exhorting the women, and receiving diamond
rings from their fingers and ears as peace offerings, and
even begging for money. Nothing brings so great a
harvest to the Church in Peru as a violent earthquake.
This one of which I am now writing lasted three days ; I
mean, of course, that the shocks at various intervals, and
with more or less force, lasted three days and three nights.
How pious everybody became — how " kind and con
siderate." They let the thieves out of gaol ; everybody fasted
and prayed. There was no rubber to be had at the English
Club ; there was no theatre, no music, not even any cook
ing; no buying or selling; nothing but calling on the
Immaculate and preparing for heaven. It was also very
touching to see processions of frightened people coming
into Lima from the country, and arriving at each of the
four corners of the plaza, for the sake of company, perhaps,
or to share the protection of Santa Rosa, the patron saint
of the City of Kings. These refugees were invariably led
by their village priest, well mounted on a handsome mule,

58 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
and carrying his niece behind him, or some other connec
tion, the odd thing being that almost in every case the
niece was young, good looking, and not at all unaccustomed
to be admired.
When the earth became steady, and the tumult and fear
had ceased, the great plaza was illuminated. There was
a fair show of fireworks, and a well-attended bull fight on
the Sunday following. The usual sinning had once more
begun. Sauntering, as was my custom before breakfast, round
the shaded side of the plaza, my attention one morning
soon after the above was attracted by a table or stall at the
corner close to the cathedral church on its south side. It
contained a dozen or more flower pots, of varied kinds — a
teapot without handle or spout, a porringer, a tea-cup, a
blacking bottle, a tin that had once contained oysters, an
old boot, a ginger-beer bottle, and a small frying-pan. In
each of these was a sufficient amount of earth to support a
flower or flower-bearing plant, the flowers having quite as
disreputable a look as the " pots " in which they were
stuck. Wondering at such an odd assortment of things, obviously
offered ^for sale, I said to the business-like looking little
woman who attended at this stall —
"Pray how much do you ask for this?" pointing to a
faded hyacinth.
"An ounce,'1 was the reply, which, in plain English,
amounted to some £2 10s. od.
" And for this one? "
" Ten dollars."
"Then what is the price of this ?" pointing to a rose of
little colour, no scent, and hardly any form.

LIMA. 59
" Fifteen dollars."
" And this one ? "
" Oh, that you can have for what you like to give," and
the business-like looking little woman treated me, I thought,
with the same scant courtesy with which I regarded her
and her miserable flowers.
On telling the story to a friend who had lived some time
in Lima he burst into a fit of laughter at my ignorance, and
continued to laugh as I continued my tale of the faded
flowers, the quaint pots in which they were stuck, and the
high prices asked for them.
These flowers, if you please, represented so many of the
women who a few days before had parted with their ear
rings to the priests of the earthquake god, and who wanted
to buy new ones. Where they lived and when you could
visit these fair chuchumecas — to use an old word, because
it is so expressive — the old flower-girl would have told you,
with other particulars, on payment of the stipulated price.
How well I recollect dear old Colonel Espinosa saying in
his dry, fatherly way, as we sat that morning over our
breakfast at Maury's, and the laughter of the malicious had
cleared away, " Man is the one animal that has most to
learn, and who the least learns what he ought to know ;
hence the need of professors. The greatest teachers of
man are Nature, History, and Experience."

CHAPTER VI.
LIMA (continued) AND GUAYAQUIL.
The mention of breakfast reminds me of the market in
Lima, and the fruits and vegetables brought there for sale.
In the months of February and March grapes and pears
were in abundance, together with lucutnas and figs ; in
April and May, apples, quinces, ceruela de frayle (Spondias
dulcis) and cerasnas (Malphiga gla/idulosa), patillas (Psi-
dium lineatum), guavas, and cherimollas ; in June, July,
and August, and even into September, cherimollas, guan-
avanas, sweet and sour oranges, apples, limes, sweet and
sour lemons, oranges, paltas, and plantains, which are
obtained, by-the-bye, all the year round. Besides these
there are melons, the musk and water-melon, olives, straw
berries, and pine-apples. In vegetables the variety is
equally great and attractive. If the human were in equal
perfection to the vegetable world in Lima, and, indeed,
throughout Peru, no part of the world would have such
attractions for the lover, and the student of human nature.
The best part of the human world is beyond all doubt the
women part. There are countries where this is not the
case ; but, on the contrary, the women are vastly inferior

LIMA AND GUAYAQUIL. 61
to the men in every way. There are countries also where
the women only excel man in wickedness ; but in Peru it
is beyond question that the women surpass the men in
intellect, in moral sense, in courage, in honesty, in taste, in
loving, in charity, in heroism, in religion — certainly in fidelity
and good looks.
The principal cause of this is, perhaps, that in no other
part of the world has woman so effectually resisted man in
his endeavour to make her merely a beautiful animal. She
has a beautiful face, but she knows it quite as well as those
who adore her. If the whole of the Peruvian woman were
as beautiful as her face she would make her country as
famous as any in ancient story. But the food she eats,
the liquors she imbibes, the air she breathes, and the
general unsanitariness of her surroundings are great
obstacles to health ; and no woman, however glorious her
face, can ever have a beautiful body unless she is in sound
health. Even in my limited acquaintance I have personally known
three of these beauties who have done marvellous acts.
One was married to a man who was overtaken in time of
great trouble by the temptation to forge another man's
signature, for which crime he was transported, went raving
mad, but happily ultimately soon died. His wife, hearing
of his state and condition under confinement, forsook her
home, and went and shared her husband's shame — his
prison — and nursed him till death brought him and her
deliverance ; then she returned to look after the education
of her children, and became for the rest of her life an
example of generosity and compassion to all.
Another case, altogether different, is as follows : There
had been a revolution which involved and compromised

€2 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
everybody, including Colonel Belgrano, who was taken
prisoner, put in gaol in Cuzco, and who would certainly
have been put to death but for his beautiful and heroic
wife, Dona Juana. She journeyed all by herself from Lima
to Cuzco, and arrived the day before the Colonel was to
have been present at a firing party to be held in the plaza.
When the guard came to assist the Colonel in his toilette
on the fateful morning they found, not the Colonel in his
cell, but a comely woman partly dressed in military attire,
the Colonel having walked out of durance in his wife's
saya y manto, and probably was at that moment a hundred
miles away. Of course, they could not shoot the beautiful
Dona Juana, and the governor of the gaol had the good
sense to send her in search of her husband, carrying his
uniform with her.
This dress, known as the saya y manto, consists of two
parts — the saya, which is an elastic petticoat, and made to
fit so tightly that the form of the limbs is rendered visible ;
the manto is also a petticoat, but instead of hanging about
the heels, as all honest petticoats should, it is drawn over
the head, breast, and face, and is kept so close by the
hands, which it conceals, that no part of the body is per
ceptible, except one eye, and sometimes only a portion of
that, which seems as if it had burnt its way to the surface
of things. It is the most perfect of disguises, and I, for
one, am not sorry that this bewitching dress is not known
out of Lima. That it will become known and adopted at
fancy balls in London I have little doubt.
I am not quite sure if I am equal to telling the story
of the charming Dona Anita Ysabel de Castellanos.
If I make it as short as possible it is because I mis
trust myself. She was to all outward seeming as fragile as

LIMA AND GUAYAQUIL. 63
a champagne glass saucer mounted on one leg. The only
sign of strength noticeable was in her spirited riding ; she
was a daring and skilful horsewoman. She married early,
was still young and beautiful, but childless at the time
when her husband, a military officer of high rank, was one
summer evening, to the astonishment of the whole city,
taken prisoner, and shut up in the castle at Callao by the
arbitrary will of a Minister of the Republic. No small stir
arose, and a revolt appeared imminent. The Minister
made an overture to Dona Anita, to which she responded.
An appointment was made and kept, and the next morning
the apparently fragile Anita was leading a revolutionary
army to Callao, mounted on a horse as beautiful, certainly
as spirited, as herself, carrying in her right hand a dagger
stained with the blood of the Minister, whom she had, for a
different reason, like another Judith, slain ; she had, in fact,
in the words of Don Benito Laso, sent the abominable
person, while asleep, to wake up in el inferno !
I am not aware of any acceptable theory that explains
this singular superiority of the Lima ladies, not only to
Peruvian men, which is saying little, but to other women in
America, which is saying much. There have been many
examples of female heroism from the earliest times in
Peru, the most celebrated being, of course, Catalina de
Arauso — who, however, was a Spanish nun from her birth
— whose story is told by our own De Quincy, and Ricardo
Palma gives rare examples, although it is said by Peruvian
men that these are fictions of the poet's brain. Dona
Isabel Barretto, the wife of Don Alvaro Mendana de Meyra,
whose exploits in the South Seas are matters of history, is
a singular case in point, and rests, like the others, upon
undoubted authority.

64 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Don Alvaro went from Callao to find the Ophir of
Solomon, and got as far as the Marquesas, when they
reached a new island which Don Alvaro called Santa Cruz.
Soon after he died, and as he had been empowered by the
King to appoint his successor, he nominated his wife to the
command of the expedition. She went through terrible
hardships and failures. Why it has been said of her that
" she was lean and ill-favoured "* is hard to understand.
She married again and went to Mexico. This was one of
the greatest expeditions which set sail from Peru, and was
at the time of its sailing — June 16, 1595 — -the next in
importance to that of Columbus. We also hear in the
early times of beautiful women being tied naked to trees
and shot at by the valiant Spanish soldiery with bows and
arrows to make them divulge some secret which would
have compromised their kinsmen, and so died rather than
confess. It is beyond all controversy that the record of the
Peruvian women for heroism is lengthy, genuine, and well
authenticated. That they are full of sparkling wit I know,
and I am sorry that the limits of space do not admit of
my giving samples of its quality.
There was once a period in the vear when these fair and
other women were to be seen under peculiar and striking
circumstances. This was on St. John's Day, the 24th of
June, when all Lima, its wives and concubines, met
together on the gentle slopes of the lily-covered hills of
Amencaes. The day was given up to festivity and joy.
Not only are the hills on that festive occasion covered with
St. John's flowers, but so are the men, women, children,
horses, asses, and mules. The noise of the jarana, or
* See " Cruise of the Rosario," Captain A. H. Markham, R.N., p. 15.

LIMA AND GUAYAQUIL. 65
carousal, is kept up all through the day without ceasing.
It is a noise which penetrates like the bag-pipes, but is
more multitudinous in sound, being composed of drummings,
pipings, shoutings, harpings, guitarings, songs, laughter,
and the rustle of silks in the dance. They are all earthly
sounds. The laughter is hearty enough, but there is a
twang of wickedness in it, as there is a decided squint in
some of the eyes which would dance with mirth were the
dance innocent and natural. The laughter, a carcajadas, is
loud and certainly stimulating.
Don Tomas Hump, an Englishman, as broad as he is
long, with a face beaming like a warming-pan, his merry
laughter burying his little nose in the circular wrinkles of
his corpulent cheeks, has put his arm round the waist of a
chuchumeca, or gilflirt. A ring is instantly formed of the
principal visitors, chiefly men ; there are some women, but
the English ladies have gone into the nooks and clefts of
the hills to gather flowers. It is not a fight ; there is no
fighting to be seen anywhere. It is a dance called the
samaqueca, danced only by a single pair, and is supposed
to represent the emotion of Adam and Eve when they first
met in paradise.
From Callao we proceeded to Guayaquil, where we had
the delight of meeting the cargo steamer of the same com
pany going south. It was the only approach to Noah's ark
that I had ever seen with my mortal eyes. Besides abun
dance of the most rare and delicious fruits, which were
piled up in glorious heaps on the open deck, there were all
kinds of birds, monkeys, alligators, armadillos, wild cats in
beautiful furs, young jaguars, black and spotted — rare
things innumerable, " more lovely than their names." I was
F

66 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
shown among other things a copy of the real kind of apple
which our mother Eve was tempted with. It was not a
Ribston pippin, a Foxwhelp, or a Hagloe crab, nor even the
Friar, nor the Brandy apple, the Duchess of Oldenburgh,
the Cornish gilliflower, the white Juncating, much less the
delicious Coccagee, or any other respectable Christian
apple of my believing childish days, but a thing as big as a
big turnip, and quite as homely to look at. I repudiated it
with vehemence.
"Ah, senor, have you ever tasted it?" inquired several
voices. " Never," I answered, with energy.
"Then you shall" said this new kind of apple dealer.
He took a table knife and cut off a great slice, showing me
the inside, which was full of yellow seeds, like a " nutmeg"
melon. These he took out with a table spoon. He then
poured in a glass of sherry, adding some white sugar, and
proceeded to whip the fruit and wine and sugar into a
cream. " Toma " (take it) said the enthusiast, giving me the
fruit and the spoon, and leaving me while he went to wait
on another customer who wanted to buy a parrot.
I certainly never in my life tasted anything so bewitch
ing. I ate the whole of it, never offering to share it with
any of those young fellow passengers who were awaitino-
my verdict. For the first time in my life I approved of my
mother's taste; but perhaps Eve's apple was not dressed
with sherry and sugar.
" How much have I to pay? "
"Did you like it? Was it fine? Would you like
another ? "
" I liked it, it was fine, and would like another," I

LIMA AND GUAYAQUIL. 67
answered, on which he gave me another, and charged me
un peso, that is, 3s. 4d.
Guayaquil is a filthy place, sufficient to give an ordinarily
constituted human being a permanent fever to look at it.
Here, and in the interior, are made the celebrated
"Panama" straw hats, some of which cost as much as
.£10 apiece.
Here, and a hundred miles north inland, is a new world
for the Panama Canal to wake up when it is made. It will
bring new rivers into use which at present are stagnant
with the spoil of an exuberant nature, which man, up to the
present, has been unable to subdue. Many of the villages,
and some towns, have no coin circulating among them, but
pay for their tools, hatchets, and clothing in cocoa, gold
dust, and tortoise-shell. The mode of travelling is different.
Here, especially in Macuchimina, rich in mines, the country
is intersected by so many rivers and precipices, principally
by the Yana, Yacu, and Pilalo, that the only mode of
travelling is on the shoulders of Indians. Probably there
are no people so poor as those who live in these parts,
where nature does everything for man except make roads,
build bridges, and keep things clean ; and because man
does not, or will not, do any of these things, nature kills
him with kindness, holding up to his foolish eyes in the rays
of the morning sun some of the finest gold, which foolish
man goes after and finds it all his own. But the sun goes
to bed early, and foolish man, left in the dark, burdened
with a weight he cannot carry, goes to sleep in a forest
hung round with poisoned curtains, and never wakes up
from his dream.
We left Guayaquil in time to see the sun set in the sea.
If the glorious colours which he then threw into the sky

68 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
were only to be seen once in a lifetime, how we should love
them, talk of them, doing everything to keep up our re
membrance of them ; but because they are common to all,
and occur nearly every day, we regard them as we regard
women, or bread, or salt, the sweetness and delight of
which things we only know at their right value when we
cannot have either one or the other.
Here the Pacific sea began to trouble some of our
passengers, among whom were Peruvian priests, poets,
and women. I was the only seafarer who was not sick,
and some were so very sick that it was heartrending to see
and hear them. I had brought with me from the south
some fresh-gathered leaves of the Erythroxylan cuca. Of
some of these I made an infusion in a teapot, and sweetened
it so as to hide the characteristic flavour which it carries.
All the priests, poets, and women were comforted ; they
all went to sleep and slept all night !
To my great delight, on arriving at Colon — the Atlantic
end of the Panama railway — I found my dear old friend,
Captain Hole, in command of the steamer which was to
carry us as far as St. Thomas, but such a wreck of a man
that I hardly knew him. He had just sufficient strength to
crawl from his cabin on to the bridge, take his ship out of
port, give her her course, and crawl back to his bunk
exhausted. He was suffering from a malignant dysentery,
which robbed him of all sleep and strength.
"You shall sleep to-night, old fellow," I said; but he
was unbelieving.
" You shall sleep now and sleep on till nine o'clock," I
reiterated; but he was hopeless and incredulous.
I gave him a large teacup of cuca tea, weak, and only of
a light straw colour.

LIMA AND GUAYAQUIL. 69
He slept three hours, and awoke with an appetite ; we
supped together. At midnight I gave him another cup of
tea, a little weaker than the first; he slept all night. On
the third morning after this Captain Hole appeared at
breakfast as usual, in his white waistcoat, clothed, and in
his right body. This he had not done for three months
before. As the leaf of this shrub has now come into such remark
able use, let me say that every care should be taken to
bring these leaves, hermetically sealed, from the west coast
of Peru to England ; but I trust that before long we may
see the shrub growing in Jamaica, Ceylon, and India, like
the cinchonae. It will not grow in tropical Queensland, to
my disappointment and grief. I made several experiments,
but the south-east monsoon came and killed the young
suckers with its icy breath.

CHAPTER VII.
THE PERUVIAN COAST.
THE coast of Peru extends from the River Loa, lat. 21, 30
south, to the River Tumbez, lat. 3, 30 south. It is one
continuous desert, intersected here and there by several
rivers, some — perhaps the most — of which have not suffi
cient strength or volume to reach the Pacific sea, but are
wasted in the sand or licked up by the sun before they
reach the bourne from which no travelled river e'er returns.
The coast is dotted with a few towns, which, like the inter
secting rivers, are of various sizes, shapes, and importance.
They all look well at a distance, but, like many things in
Peru, none are pleasing on a close acquaintance.
Along the whole coast the soul of the traveller is wearied
by passing in front of interminable sand plains and hills
which are covered with sand — sand, and nothing but sand,
all of the same colour ; Nature there, to all outward seem
ing, having turned Quaker, and, discarding the vanity of
bright colours, the sinfulness of beauty, and the dangers
which come from joy and gladness, hath assumed an ever
lasting monotony of drab. The only time when this dulness
is broken is when the south wind holds a controversy with

THE PERUVIAN COAST. 71
the sand, knocking it about in a thousand ways and lashing
it into a picturesque fury, like as the same wind tosses the
sea sometimes in foam on to the outlying rocks, or sends it
running in angry force among the chattering pebbles of a
wreck-strewn beach. It is a wonderful sight, well worth
seeing from the deck of a British ship, but infinitely miser
able to be in the midst of. There is a pleasing excitement
in being caught in a storm of wind and rain if you are not
far away from shelter, but if caught in a storm of sand you
can't get out of it ; all your five senses are turned against
you. It is better to be a log than a man in a storm of wind
and sand on the Peruvian coast ; there is no torment that
can be likened to it.
But once out of the rainless zone, and you reach the other
side of the Tumbez river, Nature is found in her right mind.
She is once more beautiful, busy making love to careless man,
even to bird and beast ; busy in finding daily work for the
sun, who in that region puts on his paint, not with a dainty
brush, but with a broad palette knife throws about his belts
and robes of green, red, and blue in mighty grandeur. The
birds are decked in the gayest, brightest waistcoats, im
possible to name or to number. Even in stockings there is
an infinite variety of speckled, blue, red, yellow, black, gold,
and silver; so in bills. These gaudy creatures, however,
have nothing else to boast of save their clothes. They do
not sing ; fine feathers do not always make fine birds.
Who would give the song of a throstle for the chorus of a
wilderness of peacocks, or for a grey parrot with a topknot
as " killing " as any in Regent Street, or even a forest full
of humming birds ! Yet is that a hard saying, for I have
seen humming birds which outshone in lustre and wondrous
strange beauty any confection of emerald and diamond,

72 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
diamonds and rubies, diamonds and sapphires, or all these
bossed together and hung round a maiden's throat. The
humming bird does not sing, but it is, if one may so
say, clothed in music. The butterflies also compete with
the flowers in beauty of form and colour. There are trees
— notably the cinchona when in bloom, and the purple
jagaranda — which suggest that neither men nor architects
have even yet begun to know how colour can give an
ineffable grace to some structural changes found in com
plicated forms. One remarkable characteristic of the
jagaranda, as I have seen it in the open air, is that it
apparently sheds its first blossoms to make a magnificent
show of itself. When its second bloom appears, which
soon follows after the first, the blossoms on the ground
seem to be a lake reflecting the purple glories above.
Few quadrupeds are seen in the landscape. The
monkeys are a great population, but thev keep out of
sight. They are, however, of much use, especially in
certain parts, where very precious fruits grow, which onlv
ripen on the tops of tall trees, which no man can climb, or
shake. I forget the name of the fruit, but its form and
flavour I can never forget. It has a hard rind. Monkeys
are fond of these fruits, climb the trees, and throw them
down to the ground, when large families assemble to hold
a great feast of fruits, unless they are disturbed by the
coming of some powder-smelling enemy. One monkey,
or rather sloth, which goes by the name of Perico ligero.
doubtless because of its slow movement, as the bird with
out covering for its shame is called Tapacitlo, is beauti
fully clothed in silver-grey. The chinchilla is beautiful,
but that little animal is confined to the rocks of the upper
desert. The jaguar can put on, and does, very handsome

THE PERUVIAN COAST. 73
apparel, but it is a wild beast, and will never be anything
else. The puma, which is a Quichua name, signifying
lion, is beautiful, so is the vicuna; but these occupy the
snowy Andes, six hundred miles away from the coast.
The llama and alpaca, the domesticated congeners of the
guanaco, and wild vicuna, having been long in business,
chiefly the carrying and wool trades, seem, from the look
of their large pensive eyes, to find life full of anxiety and
care, and would give up commerce if they could only find
a place of rest.
The ass and mule are also in trade, and travel much,
and are seen everywhere in all parts of Spanish America.
So is the horse, but he is an aristocrat among quadrupeds,
with Spanish manners, and a good conceit of himself. He
is never a drudge. The mule is the most sagacious animal
in all that vast and varied world of beasts, of heat and
trouble. There are sagacious men in Peru, but they are
not so numerous as mules. The ass keeps up his universal
character for patience, but my opinion of him has been
modified since I saw him feeding on old newspapers in
the public streets. The ass, so far as I know, has never
shown any sign that he prefers death to dishonour. I
have heard him bray in all parts of the world, but never
with so loud and dreadful a voice as in Peru, perhaps for
the same reason that some men blow on their unmusical
noses louder in church or in the high-domed reading-room
of the British Museum than anywhere else, and this may
be the unconscious betrayal of a family connection.
Of the climate of this coast it is difficult to convey the
truth concerning it. The best way for a traveller to enjoy
such scenery, air, sea, and sky, as are to be found in some
parts of the coast of Peru — if time is no object to him, and

74 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
earthly peace is — is to select a spot, and there are many
such spots, where no Peruvian has ever been. Then he
can rely, at least, on being clean. The worst of it is that
he can find nothing growing, not even a fig leaf, nor will
anything grow on that coast, forsaken, it seems to be, of
God, who there never sends the " useful trouble of the
rain." There is, however, a never-failing mist, which
hangs like a pall for a thousand miles. This waterless
belt of sand varies in width along the entire coast as far as
it goes. Sometimes it is not more than a mile in width
from the sea shore to the frontier hills, which run north
and south in almost an unbroken line of varying altitude
from the comparative low soft floating lines above Lima to
the forbidding monotony further south, where the line is
almost level at a height of from three thousand to four
thousand feet above the sea.
Of the villages, Chorillos, a fashionable watering-place,
is the largest, and is about nine miles south of Lima, by
railway. When I first knew it, it was a delightful place to
go to for a change ; what it is now, since it was overrun
by the Chilian army, and the Peruvian army ran away, I
do not know. The rise and fall of Chorillos represents, in
little, the rise and fall of Peru, and the rise and fall of all
those who have ever partaken of the ways and manners of
Peru. The village was once occupied by simple native
fishermen, who lived in what are called ranchos. It
became a favourite resort to some few of the merchants
and British residents of Lima, who would ride down on a
Saturday night and stay till Monday, to get a sea change.
Then some of the best native families began to build
houses. The gamblers followed speedily afterwards. The
place became a fashionable pigstye, and as unhealthy and

THE PERUVIAN COAST. 75
insalubrious as Lima. Extravagance and vulgar show
took the place of wholesome living, filthiness made even
occasional cleanliness impossible, and the sea itself became
polluted with the offal and foulness of the shore. Many
men and women have lost all they had in this world in
Chorillos, including themselves. Many women, who com
bined beauty with wickedness, lived in Chorillos. Certainly,
some notorious men also, for where one of this class goes
the other is sure to follow. Chorillos was a product of the
guano age in Peru, as Saratoga, Longbranch, and other
well-known places in North America were products of
shoddy railway speculations, patent medicines, petroleum,
and English books. There were, alas ! so many other
products of guano besides Chorillos, such as revolutions
and general, social and political corruption, that now the
guano has " given out " almost everything has given out,
and Peru itself has become a country that is only worth
talking about for the parable which it holds for other
countries to read.
What will happen when the ship canal through the
Isthmus of Panama is open, few, if any, living men may
say. That the vast undeveloped wealth of Peru will then
come in for some of the world's attention there can be
little doubt. Whether Peru herself will share in the
impetus which this great work, if it is ever finished, may
give to commerce, depends, I suppose, on the kind of stuff
which she may send to market. It may also depend on
other things, certainly on other men. It is not unlikely
that the Chinaman, by the time the ship canal is open, will
be the first to profit by it in Peru. Thirty years ago this
multitudinous heathen was merely a domestic cook and
bottle-washer in Lima and guano lumper at the Chincha

76 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Islands ; then he became a slave on the sugar plantations,
but he is now a merchant of considerable importance.
Shrewd, thrifty, and possessed of much personal dignity, he
may restore the ancient water courses, build again the ruins
of the ancient reservoirs, and the desert of Peru would then
blossom as the rose, not in figure, but in fact. There is
ample room for twenty millions of industrious people along
this coast, and plenty of work, with most abundant harvest,
for all who know how to make the water — which is at
present man's master — his slave and obedient servant.
What the Peruvian " Indian," as he has ever been called,
will do, or how he will fare, is not easy to predict ; he has
always been a superior being to his masters, but, unfor
tunately, has always followed his masters' vices and shared
their fate. The Indian of Peru is one of the superior
aboriginal races remaining on the face of the earth. He
is much the same in Cundinamarca as he is in Atacama, in
Potosi as in Bogota, on the Magdalena as on the Desa-
guadero, that is, in the north and in the south* It is
worth while hearing what one of the most illustrious
Peruvians has to say on the Indian, who knew him inti
mately :- —
"As conquered by the Spaniards," says Colonel Juan
Espinosa in his " Diccionario para el Pueblo," p. 608, "the
Peruvian Indian was more civilized, more moral, less
fanatical, and better governed than were his conquerors ;
he .professed a worship more pure than had ever been
known of any people before the Christian era.
* I make exception to the Indians of the Gran Chaco, who belong to a world
distinct in itself. These Indians were, while under the rule of Jesuit missionaries,
docile, and as harmless as creeping vegetables. They are now as ferocious as
jaguars j and if a man in the garb of a priest ventures among them he is taken,
mutilated, and finally killed outright, The explanation of this inhuman conduct
is easy to give, but it would not be pleasant to read.

THE PERUVIAN COAST. 77
" He was certainly more civilized, if civilization consists
in good manners, and living a life conformable to the laws
imposed for the well-being of all."
The Peruvian Indian, distinguished as he was in civiliza
tion and morals, was also famous in architecture, astronomy,
navigation, and in the fine arts ; he was one of the greatest
of agriculturists, and he was very religious. He was
much given to hospitality, was industrious, trusting, loving,'
patient, a worshipper of nature, a botanist, one of the first
of goldsmiths, a splendid gardener, an excellent shepherd,
a famous builder and road maker, a fine potter, weaver,
painter, and bridge builder. Nor does this list exhaust all
his fine qualities, accomplishments, and virtues. He lived
to a great age ; he lived most in the open air, for he knew
how and where to live to the best advantage* It is difficult
to ascertain how great were his numbers ; the indigenous
population of Peru has always been difficult to find out. It
was very great. Fray Antonio Calancha, speaking of one
particular province once rich in gold and silver, says : " All
the people have been worn out — gastado — in mines. You
may now see some fifteen or twenty persons where there
used to be thirty or forty thousand ! "t
These were they whom the Spaniards " conquered,"
carrying a crucifix in one hand and a sword in the other.
To complete their barbarity, these precious conquerors
brought dogs, whom they trained to catch Indians in Peru
as they were trained to hunt boars in Spain. What is
worthy of consideration is that the Spaniard at the time of
the Conquest was one of the most civilized beings in the
world, and the most fanatical in the spreading, defending,
and believing the religion of the lowly Christ, or what they
* Espinosa. t Calancha, lib. i., i, cap. xv., fol. 99.

78 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
believed to be His religion. What is remarkable is that
the Indian of to-day is a greater fanatic for the religion of
the Crucified than the Spaniards themselves who taught
him. The odd thing is that the Peruvian Indian is still a slave
in the Peruvian Republic, while the negro is free. When
they were both slaves together the condition of the Indian
was not less hard than that of the negro, but the Indian's
peculiar nature has always been, as it is now, his greatest
curse. It is well known that the white people steal the
children of the Indian of the sierra in order to make
presents of them to their friends on the sea coast — and if
they do not steal them they get them by deceit and lies —
where they are brought up in houses and serve without
wage. Priests, prefects, sub-prefects, and planters, with
other caballeros, are all engaged in this infamous traffic in
human beings, not now as a commercial speculation, as
was once the case, with the negroes, but from pure pleasure
— snatching the very child from its mother's breast solely
for its good ! Valgame Dios*
It is still the general opinion in Christian Peru that
the pure Indian ought to pay a sufficient poll tax, for the
simple reason that if he is not made to do so he will not
work. By all means ; but as there are a considerable
number of people who are not Indians, but impure-blooded
Spaniards, in Peru, who do not and will not work, should
it not be seen what effect a poll tax will have on them first
of all? It is also the general Peruvian Christian belief
that the Indian cannot understand anything through the
medium of goodness, but only of evil, and should be
treated accordingly. There are many other things which
* Espinosa.

THE PERUVIAN COAST. 79
may be said of the manner in which the Indians are held
by Spanish Peruvian guano-dealers, but they are unfit for
publication. It must, in fairness to the old aristocratic Christian
Spaniard of Peru, be said that if under him the Indian
suffered all that can make life miserable, all that makes it
detestable as well was added under the military despotism
which was set up on the fall of the Spanish monarchy.
Yet, strange to tell, the patience of the Indian continues.
The traveller has his temper often tried by the amazing
contrariness of the Indian, and in a fit of despair or disgust
cannot help coming to the conclusion that the Indian of
Peru is a human being whose soul is wrapped up in a
napkin or a piece of Halifax baize and hidden somewhere
away in the earth. And yet what an unerring guide he is
across the pathless sand of the desert, over barren, rocky
mountains or through the forest, day and night, through
sunshine or Storm, and as trustworthy and temperate as he
is sure-footed and quick-sighted at all times, while on the
way and on duty.
Dios mio ! would that I had strength to handle this
subject as it deserves ; but I am unequal to the task. Only
may I live to see the day when the Indian shall again be
free, and his forehead wiped of that stain of slavitude
which it at present carries. When that comes to pass I
shall know of a truth that there is for all men a resurrection
of the dead*
Of the conquerors, discoverers, soldiers, sugar-planters,
miners, priests, and general ruffians who have ill-treated
this singular human family and changed them into a herd
of dumb animals, the priest, I think, comes out the worst.
* Espinosa, p. 621.

80 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
As I do not prove what I say, perhaps I ought not to make
this charge against a body of men who have many friends
in the world ; but when I explain that my inability to bring
this proof arises solely from the indelicacy, obscenity, and
general satanic quality of the evidence which I have in my
possession, I may induce a credence which I am unable to
command in the truth of my statement. The Indian could,
and often did, emancipate himself from the torments which
he suffered at the hands of his secular masters, either by
hanging, poisoning, or sharpening a stake and ripping him
self open ;* but he could not emancipate himself from the
soul-destroying priest. t The Indian had always been a
religious being, long before he made the acquaintance of
the Spanish miracle-monger and dealer in revelations ; but
when the Spaniard substituted the Jewish maiden-mother
for Mama Ocllo — purgatory and hell for the sun and moon,
a wooden cross and a dead Christ for the southern con
stellation of that name, and Pachacamac the divine spirit —
the Indian became subject to a bondage more awful and
degrading than ever suffered heathen Roman, or theocratic
Jew. The old Spaniard, who, although he was a technical
Christian, was a gentleman, confessed and published his
sins done against the Indian ; but your modern Spaniard,
born and baptized in Peru, is not conscious of having
committed any sins against anyone, certainly not against
the Indian, nor even against any of the English, if they
happen to be holders of Peruvian bonds. The Peruvian
Republican Spaniard has been as grinding in collecting
* See " Peregrenaciones de Alpha,' M. Ancizar; Bogata, 185,3.
t I need only refer the learned reader for confirmation of this to the numerous
Ciinjessionarios drawn up for confessing Indians in their native tongues.

THE PERUVIAN COAST. 81
his patriotic poll tax from the Indian as the Royalist
Spaniard was in exacting the Royal fifths ; but the in
famous exactions of the Spanish-Peruvian priest in the
way of sacramental fees and keeping up the honour of
tutelar village saints, with other ludicrous and cruel
exactions, exceed both.
There is one thing worthy of remembrance, namely, that
poor a thing as an Indian is in himself — I have had these
people come to me in the distant interior, go down on their
knees, kiss my feet as I sat in the saddle, and beg in piteous
tones for a cigarette — yet when roused in combination they
are very swift and terrible in the vengeance they can take.
The old massacre in Castilla de Oro, and the later one of
our own day in La Paz, bear testimony to the truth of this.
The principal industry of the Peruvian Indian is now
that of agriculture ; he is also a flockmaster, but on a very
limited scale. The cultivation of the cinchona in India, Java,
Ceylon, and Jamaica has deprived him of one of his chief
occupations, as it has deprived the merchant of the coast of
some of his gains ; but the cultivation of the alpaca remains
to him, and this industry is capable of great, almost indefi
nite, extension. It has always been a source of wonder
to me that while men of intelligence should have sunk
their capital, and sometimes their credit, in copper, tin,
and silver mines in the far distant parts of Peru, few, if
any, have taken pains to cultivate the alpaca on a large
scale, or on any scale. I have never heard of a single
European owning a flock of these useful and remunerative
animals in that country *
Although Peruvian bark, as we know, is now no longer
* I have an impression that the laws of the Republic now prohibit anyone
not of Indian birth to own alpacas.

82 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
confined to Peru, it is successfully cultivated elsewhere,
but not so alpaca wool. There is no alpaca wool in the
world but that which is grown in Peru and Bolivia.
Attempts have been made to transport the alpaca to
Australia and acclimatize it there, and other where, but
these attempts all failed.
How far we English have contributed to the decadence
of man in South America, as a moral, religious, intellectual,
and social being, is not difficult to say. We, more than
any, helped him to achieve his independence, and he did
achieve it, before he knew how to turn it to the best
account. We lent him as much money as he asked for,
and the amount still owing may be taken as the measure
of the evil progress man has made in those miserable
lands since he abolished the names of King and Crown.
We set him a vile example in leading an extravagant,
luxurious life ; in our love of money, in our pride and
insolence, and in our tyranny over the weak. In Peru,
perhaps, more than in other parts of the world we fomented
revolutions in order to feather our own commercial nest,
and we taught Peruvian sinners the art and mvsterv of
adulteration, and of selling false goods, which have been as
hurtful to them as false gods ever were to the children of
Israel. The results are everywhere plain to be seen — at
least, by those who care to use their eves.
There are other natural disadvantages under which the
Peruvian lives which help him to live a debased national
and social life. The climate of the coast, for the most
part, is detestable, and sundry diseases are common —
phthisis, dysentery, intermittent fevers, or agues, called
tcrcianas, and typhus are endemic. In Lima asthma and
disorders of the heart, visceral obstructions and intestinal

THE PERUVIAN COAST. 83
haemorrhage, as well as consumption, are very general,
besides a variety of cutaneous eruptions and nervous
diseases of too frequent occurrence. In consumption, says
my medical informant,* which in all its various forms is a
common disease on the coast of Peru, a portion of the
lungs becoming by degrees ulcerated and destroyed, there
is an interruption to the proper discharge of the pulmonary
functions, accompanied with nocturnal increase of fever and
excessive perspiration.
What, therefore, is to be expected from a people thus
physically handicapped? But this is not all the trouble
which the Peruvian has to bear, or all the payment he
must make for living in a climate which, although he
knows it to be destructive to human health, is a climate
which, nevertheless, he prefers to any other. It is a
climate which excites the passion in which he most
delights to indulge, and for which he lives, though it
reduces him to the mere shadow of a man.
* I am indebted to my late friend Dr. Archibald Smith for much information
on this and kindred subjects. He attended me through an attack of yellow
fever in Lima, but from the effects of which I was a. long time in recovering.
One of these effects was a total loss of memory, which loss continued for a
long time, and which I regained in Australia during a succession of hot wind
days, which lasted for nearly a week. Dr. Archibald Smith was the first
European physician who recommended the still mountain air of the Andes, at
a level of five thousand feet above the sea, as a cure of consumption. He sent
his patients to Jauja, and their cure was, after a residence of some two years,
absolutely certain and permanent.

CHAPTER VIII.
FROM SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA.
The most memorable journey I ever made for its duration
and variety was from the silver mines of Potosi to the
gold fields of Australia. Nothing belonging to either
engaged my attention so much as the way in which these
deposits of the precious metals have shaped the destinies of
many human lives.
With the reader's permission, I will here translate from
its original Spanish a remarkable document which contains
one of the earliest references on record to the South Sea
Islands. It is the petition of Captain de Quiros to His
Catholic Majesty Philip III. of Spain, and is as follows: —
" Senor,* — I, Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, say :
This is the eighth memorial that I have sent to your Majesty
setting forth what ought to be done to people the land
which your Majesty commanded me to discover in Austrialia,
the Unknown, without having received any answer or
assurance of despatch, although I have been fourteen
months in this Court, and fourteen years engaged in this
cause, without pay, not minding mine own profit, and also
* Relation de un memorial presentado a su Majestad por el Capitan Pedro
Fernandez, de Quiros sobre la poblacion, y descubrimicnto de la quarta parte
delmundo, Austrialia incognita, su gran riqueza y fertilidad. Pamplona, 1610.

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 85
without obtaining a judgment of my cause. Amid infinite
controversies, I have travelled twenty thousand leagues by
sea and land, wasted all my substance, destitute of the
necessities of life, suffering so many and such terrible
things that even to myself they seem incredible. All this
have I undergone that I might not abandon a work of so
much piety and mercy, and, for God's love, I most humbly
pray your Majesty not to allow your servant to be deprived
of the fruits of so many labours and watchings, and of such
a notable perseverance. I claim these fruits with so much
earnestness, because if I gain them it will be to the honour
and glory of God, the service of your Majesty, and im
measurable good while the world stands, and afterwards
for all eternity.
" The extent of the newly-discovered lands is in length
as great as the whole of Europe, and as far as the Caspian
Sea and Persia, with all the isles of the Mediterranean,
and the ocean within that boundary, including England
and Ireland. That part hides a fourth part of the globe.
It is not in the neighbourhood of Turks or Moors, or other
nations who are given to disturb their neighbours. All the
islands we sighted fall within the torrid zone, and those
which touch the equator some have a latitude of 90°, others
a little less, and if their extent prove as great as it promises
to be, these countries will be the antipodes of a great part
of Africa, the whole of Europe, and the half of Asia Minor.
" The population of these countries is great. They are
of various colours — white, yellow, mulatto, and black, with
mixtures of these. The hair of some is black, straight and
loose, of others it is crisp and curled, and of others, again,
it is ruddy and thin ; which variety shows how great is the
commerce amongst them, for which reason and because of
the goodness of the lands, and because they have no fire
arms with which to kill each other, and because they do
not work any silver mines the population is great. [Philip
must have winced at this.] They know no arts, greater or
less, have no walls or strongholds, no king, no law, but are

86 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
pagans divided into tribes. Their arms are bows, arrows,
wooden swords, clubs, spears, and darts also of wood. The
people are partly clothed, are cleanly, vivacious, and rational,
and as full of gratitude as any of which I have had experience ;
from all which it may be hoped that under Divine Provi
dence, and by gentle means, it will be easy to subdue them
to the useful and the good (pasificar, doctrinar, y con-
tentar), which things are necessary at the beginning, for
afterwards they may be conducted to the holiest ends,
advancing to great things from small, till they arrive at the
knowledge of the greatest good. Their houses are of
wood, covered with palm leaves ; they use earthenware
pots, make nets of various kinds, they work in marble,
make pipes, drums, and wooden spoons, varnished ; they
have oratories and grave-yards, large properties in land,
enclosed and palisaded. They use much mother-of-pearl,
and of the shells they make chisels, gouges, hooks, and
ornaments, and round plates, which they hang on their
necks. They have well-built vessels to convey them from
one island to another, and they are built so as to indicate
the existence of a race of greater and better government.
Not a little noteworthy is their practice of castrating hogs
and making capons.
" Their bread is made from three different roots, which
are collected in great abundance. The fruits are plentiful ;
there are six sorts of plantains, four sorts of almonds, and
large strawberries of extreme sweetness. There are many
ground nuts, oranges, and lemons. There are many large
sugar canes, and an infinitude of palms, from which sugar,
wine, and vinegar can be obtained, as well as honey ; the
dates are good. They also bear coeos. When these are
green they look like thistles, and have a marrow-like
cream; when ripe the nuts contain a liquid like milk.
When old they produce an oil of great value for lighting,
and which cures like ,t balsam. The shells make excellent
cups and bottles. The fibre is used for spinning all sorts
of cables, rigging tackle, and other ropes. The fruit of

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 87
these palms is gathered all the year round ; they require
no manure, or cost of any kind in money or time. The
garden herbs are pumpkins, beet, and many kinds of
purslain, as well as beans. Their meat is that of pigs —
tame, like our own — hens, partridges, capons, geese,
turtles, pigeons, goats, and the natives led us to believe
that there were animals, which we supposed to be cows or
buffaloes. The fishes are numerous. Besides which there
are nany dainties.
" There are pearls, silver and gold, mace, pepper, and
ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and other spices. There is
much and excellent wood for building. The coast for three
leagues and more consists of black pebbles, very good for
ship's ballast. The coast contains neither ruins nor rocks ;
the herbage on its banks is green. There is no sound of
the tide to be heard, and as the trees are tall and straight,
and n:>t torn, I gather that there are no great storms in
that knd. These lands will bear comparison with Peru,
Chile, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, New Spain,
Terrirate, and the Philippines, of all which lands your
Majesty is lord. They are sufficient to sustain 200,000
Spaniards. He will be lord of the world who shall unite
these countries in one, with Spain for their centre.
" The temperature and purity of the air are such as must
be evident from all that I have said; none of our people
fell sick from ordinary labour, by sweating, or drinking the
water, or while fasting, or by eating all that the earth pro
duces, or by the dew, moon, and sun, which is not very hot
during the day. We sawr no sands, nor any kind of thistles
or thorny trees whose roots appear above the ground, nor
plains liable to be flooded, nor snow on the high mountains,
nor crocodiles in the rivers, nor poisonous reptiles, nor white
ants, nor those that destroy fruit, nor worms, nor ticks, nor
mosquitoes, an excellency above all others, and so much to
be esteemed, if we consider that many of the lands in the
Indies are uninhabitable for these insects, as I have myself
witnessed.

88 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
" Such, senor, are the greatness and goodness of the lands
which I have discovered, and of which I have taken posses
sion in your Majesty's name and under your Royal standard ;
and I may here mention the acts which I performed. In
the first place, I set up a cross and a church of Our Lady
of Loretto, in which twenty masses were said. I won the
jubilee given on the Day of Pentecost, and formed a solemn
procession on Corpus Christi Day, in which I walked,
preceded by the Holy Sacrament and your Majesty's
standard. I also hoisted three field ensigns, and your
Majesty's Royal arms were exhibited between two columns.
Furthermore, as a loyal vassal of your Majesty, I confide
in your at once annexing this great continent to your
dominions under the title of Austrialia of the Holy Ghost.
" I have a firm belief in the wisdom, greatness of soul,
and Christian piety of your Majesty, the abounding care
you take to know certainly what is necessary; the popula
tion of those countries now discovered being the priicipal
cause why those lands should not be left uncultivated. I
hope, therefore, to be the means of the Lord Our God being
known, believed, worshipped, and served by them, and the
devil overcome ; and, through the energy of the Roman
Church, of preventing others from sowing false doctrine
and of converting all the good things I have made known
into evils of greater magnitude, calling themselves lords of
the Indies, and ruining everything. I believe also that vour
Majesty will be well advised that a loss so pernicious,
whether arising from neglect or misfortune, is such thit to
remedy it in the future might cost millions of gold and
thousands of men. Your Majesty then can by means of a
little silver spent in Peru gain at once heaven, eternal
fame, and the new world, with all else that I have promised.
The vessels are prepared, but there is much to be done
before they can be made ready to sail, very much, both of
a spiritual and temporal nature, and every hour lost can
never be regained.
" If Christopher Columbus, under a belief that he could

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 89
discover something, was so persevering, shall I not persevere
and be importunate with regard to that which I have seen
and felt ?
" Senor, this is a great work ; by it you may make mortal
war on the devil. There is no good to be done that can
equal it, your Majesty being its protector.
"(Signed) P. F. Quiros."
Had Quiros happened to visit these parts of the South
Seas, as I did, in January, instead of in June, July, and
August, his experience of the climate would have modified
his enthusiasm. Still, his contribution to our knowledge is
considerable, and it enables us to see the temper of the
men of those early times. With the exception of the
weather and the plagues, the account remains substantially
the same now as in 1605. We may be thankful that
Philip III. was not moved by the eloquence of Quiros,
and that no Spaniard set his foot in Australia before it had
been annexed by ourselves.*
But what will be said of the Spanish cruelties and kid
nappings of the sixteenth century being imitated by
Australian British colonists in the nineteenth ? We shall
be assured that the thing is incredible.
It is, alas ! too true. The same murders which the
Spaniards committed on hapless Indians in the silver
mines of Potosi were perpetrated in a certain legal way by
British colonists on South Sea Islanders, not a century ago,
but only two or three years ago, on the sugar plantations
of golden North Queensland.
The greed to which Don Gorduro de Badulaque appealed
in the City of London exists in an exasperated form at the
* The lands mentioned in the petition of Quiros were not Australia, but the
New Hebrides and the south-eastern part of New Guinea, afterwards named
Lousiade by French navigators.

90 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Antipodes ; and the enterprise by which he sought to
captivate the professional capitalists of Capel Court is but
a mild example of schemes which are constantly hatched
among the wits of the " Lands of the Golden Fleece " —
schemes which are dressed up, not only with scholarly
rhetoric and the tropes of poetry, but with figures that
might be envied by a Chancellor of the Exchequer in
Downing Street.
On the margin of one of these Australian schemes (a
prospectus of some Pastoral Land Company) someone had
written these lines — " If ye buy heav'n with your blood
In hell's hard market, when the bargain's through
The toil begins again."
My first visit to Australia was in 1861, my last was in
1885. One remarkable difference which struck me as between
Australia a quarter of a century ago and the same colonies
of to-day, was the interest which many rich and titled
Englishmen have in Australian things. Lords and dukes
are now as common in Australia as they are in New York,
while the number of titled Australians is remarkable. Men
who were mere barristers, grocers, top-sawyers, teamsters,
Irish rebels, Irish adventurers, Scotch shepherds, merchants
of low degree, and plumbers, are now baronets and knights of
the realm, and the number of untitled Australian men who
own racehorses and live in London in the grand style is
very great.
We have now an Australian question. The question
twenty-live years ago was transportation and the convict
system ; that was only temporary, but the federation of
the Colonial Empire is an idea which is fast becoming a

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 91
stock subject with politicians. It is as safe a subject for an
editor to have an article in type upon as the biography of
an aged man of letters, science, or politics.
Less than a quarter of a century ago every Australian
and New Zealand colony imported its bread stuffs from
Chile, California, or the United States. Now all these
colonies export wheat to England as well as beef and
mutton. They had no fish in their waters worth eating except a
few possible herrings, some bream, snapper, barakouta,
trumpeter, or Murray cod. They have now salmon and
trout. Kangaroos and sand-pipers, wood pigeons, and bush
turkeys were the only things to chase or to shoot. Now
they have partridges, deer, pheasants, hares, a few rabbits,
some say many, quail, and the game birds of India.
But I have no wish to draw minute comparisons between
New Zealand and Australia between the time when I first
saw those lands, and when I left them, as it maybe, only the
other day. I am content with general and large interests,
and to note chiefly how once, not so very long ago, men
cared not if they died out there, and now they
" Lust so to live they dare not love their life."
Death has been made terrible even in the Australian
Bush to men who left England with their lives in their
hands. It is this spirit which is at the bottom of the new
cry for federation, colonial defences, and so forth. Some
Australians have made their garden so sweet to live in that
they do not want to leave it, nay, they are becoming afraid
that an enemy will come and spoil it, take it from them, or
drive them out of it, and this garden is, moreover, a quotable
article in the market-place, at least those vast portions of

92 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
it that constitute what may be called the kitchen garden —
where the vegetables grow, the sheep nibble, and the cattle
graze. Let us roam a little. We need not stray. I was one
night in the Lower House of Assembly in Brisbane, the
House of Commons of Queensland. The everlasting sub
ject of land was being debated, and a more absorbing
debate I never heard. One of the Members for North
Brisbane addressed the House, and in the course of his
speech he said —
" The land of this colony is not held by the people. It is
held by money-lenders, Jews, dukes, and speculators.
" The Bank of New South Wales holds seventy-six large
stations. " The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney holds
one hundred and seventy-six stations, equally large.
"The Queensland National Bank, one hundred and three.
" The Mercantile Bank of Sydney, fifty-two.
" The Union Bank of Australia, sixty-two.
" The English, Scottish, and Australian Chartered Bank,
forty-nine. " The Australian Joint Stock Bank, forty-six.
" The London Chartered Bank of Australia, eighteen."
Or, in popular phraseology, these powerful money cor
porations lord it over forty-seven thousand nine hundred
and thirteen square miles, or thirty millions six hundred
thousand acres of the colony of Queensland. " There are
other corporations which together with the banks own be
tween them more than twenty thousand square miles of the
pick ol the land, swelling the grand total to sixty-eight
thousand square miles, or nearly forty-four millions of
acres ! "

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 93
The speech made a deep impression. The figures were
not disputed, they were simply resented by the squatter-
ocracy, the bankers, Jews, and speculators, syndics and
land agents. When the speech appeared in the daily papers
it created a still deeper impression throughout the colony.
People began to realize what the country was to them who
had adopted it as their home. There was a general feeling
of dissatisfaction, disgust, and ill-blood.
Hence the present cry for federation among the
capitalists. It is not a national cry. It is the cry of dukes
and syndics, as well as Messrs. Dives and Co., who want to
keep up or raise the marketable value of land in London.
The revelations which I have given above moved the
Queensland people to the very depths of their feelings. Sir
Thomas Mcllwraith was, I think, still in power. He was
generally liked. He had a large-hearted way, and a
practical mind that attracted the bulk of men. He had
done some admirable things. He solved one of the
questions of the day — the immigration question. Labourers
were now not ninety-nine or a hundred-and-twenty days
coming from England in a sailing ship at considerable
cost, but the journey was made in the finest steamers that
are built, that came, not round the Cape of Good Hope, but
through the French ditch, called the Suez Canal. A
splendid sea trip of more than thirteen thousand miles for
£10, done in forty days! That was what Sir Thomas
Mcllwraith did. It was not an original idea. It was first
done by the French ; the author of the daring scheme being
my old friend, M. Quesnell, formerly banker and merchant
at Havre, now a humble imitator of Cincinnatus at Carupano.
But Sir Thomas was the first to carry out the idea on a
large scale, and " on strictly commercial principles."

94 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
He was full of large ideas. He planned a railway that
was to unite Melbourne with Sydney, both these with
Brisbane, and all with the Gulph of Carpentaria. The
surveys were all made, the money found, all things were
ready for this marriage with an iron ring of all the
Australian Colonies, when, lo ! the people of Queensland
rose up and said : " There must be an end of this land
grabbing." For Sir Thomas had been very liberal —
perhaps not too liberal — in his grants of land to the Great
Trans-Continental Railway Syndicate.
That speech of one of the Members for North Brisbane
had opened people's eyes. " We will build this railway
ourselves," they said. They would not be dependent on
any cocked-hat and feather gentry, or bankers, or a mob
of titled men.
And they dethroned Sir Thomas, and there was
mourning in Judea, and the bankers mourned, and the
dukes, and ornamental people who were rich and would
increase their riches, and could only dream of the federa
tion of the Empire or the federation of the Colonies.
The railway would have been a great work ; but it was a
greater work for the people of Queensland to resolve as
they did. In this we shall find no parallel in the Spanish
silver colonies, and so long as this spirit is kept up in the
British sold colonies there need be no fear of their coming
into the Spanish heritage of corruption and decay. So
long as this national spirit is recognized men do not waste
the time in talking about Imperial federation.
I > u t there was another question which occupied the
attention of Queensland at the time of Sir Thomas
Mellwraith's fall, which may be referred to in this connec
tion. This was the coloured labour question.

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 95
The traffic in human beings had assumed alarming pro
portions under the Mcllwraith administration.
This abominable trade sprang out of the activities of the
great land-owning companies, the Colonial Sugar Company
being one of the most powerful of these. All kinds of
persons had " put money " into this Company. Ladies and
gentlemen, priests and politicians, professional men of all
kinds who had any spare • money put it into this great
dividend-paying Sugar Company, which had branches in
every Australasian colony and every large town. Men who
denounced the murder and kidnapping of Kanakas became
rich on the profits of the trade.
As late as 1884 there were some thirty ships, carrying
the British flag, and licensed by the Queensland Govern
ment to go to the South Seas to bring islanders to the
sugar plantations of Mackay and elsewhere.
The number of islands from which their inhabitants were
beguiled would be between thirty-five and fifty, ranging
from the Admiralty Islands, in the north, down south to
Fiji. Some of the vessels in the trade were owned by
pious grocers and merchants ; a few belonged to private
men who were not pious. Several well-known brigantines
were the properties of the skippers who commanded them.
They all were licensed by Sir Thomas Mcllwraith. His
department was responsible for the number of men and
women that were from time to time packed in these ships,
for the sufficiency and quality of the provisions put on
board for the sustenance of the islanders during the voyage,
for the character of the commander and his crew, and for
the character of the Government Agent, who went in each
ship, licensed by the Queensland Government, to see that
fair play and never foul was observed on board. For

96 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
everything done in connection with obtaining islanders —
the way of obtaining them — and conveying them to the
sugar plantations of North Queensland, the Government of
Sir Thomas Mcllwraith was responsible. The planters had
nothing whatever to do with obtaining islanders. The
Government regulated, or professed to regulate, everything. .
Even the "trade," as it was called, by means of wrhich the
men and women were bought, was settled by the Immigra
tion Department, of which Sir Thomas Mcllwraith was the
head. The planters paid a good price for their slaves. The
highest ever paid up to 1884 was £25 10s. per head — all
to be warranted in sound health, " without encumbrances,"
and with not more than twenty-five or thirty women to one
hundred men. This proportion, however, was seldom
observed, and sometimes the women were as numerous as
the other sex. Women were more easily obtained than
men, and cost much less. No young children were allowed
to be taken.
Out of every thirty women brought on board the slaver,
not less than ten would leave newly-born children behind
them. It was very pitiful to see women, big with milk,
milking themselves for several days after the ship had put
to sea. The amount of unconscious infanticide which this
form of slavery brought about has never been reckoned up.
It must have been very great.
I am aware that " slaver," "slavery," and "slaves" are
offensive terms — that some of the good people of Queens
land resent their use, and deny their correctness. I, who
have seen the real thing, know that these are the correct
terms to use, and shall use no other.
I believe that I am correct in saying that no medical man

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 97
ever accompanied a slave vessel, except in the case of the
Karl, when the doctor was one of the owners of the ship, and
who, if he had not turned Queen's evidence, would certainly
have been hanged.
The "trade" which a labour or slave vessel carried,
to buy men and women with, consisted, in Sir Thomas
Mcllwraith's time, of fish-hooks, looking-glasses, lucifer
matches, glass beads (small and very common), mouth
organs, Jew's harps, gaudy-coloured handkerchiefs, red
calico, tobacco, pipes, butchers' knives, glass beads (large),
gunpowder, muskets, round iron in io-inch lengths.
All these things, except the small glass beads, I could
understand as having attractions for uncivilized human
beings. But why naked people should care for such
ornaments as beads no bigger than pin's heads, I could not
understand for some time.*
* This matter of the small coloured glass bead remained a mystery to me
for a long time. Here were full-grown men willing to sell themselves for a
thimblefull of glass beads ! What could it mean ? Here were women parting
with all control over their own souls and bodies for as many glass beads as you
could hold between thumb and finger ; you could buy a splendid ammon or
canoe capable of holding 20 men for six penn'orth of glass beads ; you could
get to, coo cocoa nuts f.o.b. for eighteenpence in the form of glass beads.
What could be the meaning of folly so obvious to the commercial mind ?
I will answer that question.
One day when the weather was unpropitious, the heat excessive, and life dull
and heavy, the captain gave our women a present of those beautiful glass beads,
10,000 of which you can buy for 2s. 3d. Instantly the face of all creation was
changed ; joy took the place of deadly dulness, every woman was happy ; and
when women are glad men cannot be sorrowful. On another occasion we took on
board a youthful naked woman, without the least speck of ornament or cicatri
zation or tattooing, and she was so melancholy for the first day or two that I
began to suspect that she had been carried away against her will. I made strict
inquiry, and found that she had come for love ; she had climbed out of the sea
into the boat of her own free accord, and would not be turned out of it. What,
therefore, was the matter ? She found herself miserable, poor and naked
amongst some of her own sisters, whose necks and arms and loins were
covered with the precious glass bead, and she was shy, demure, lonely, and full
of woe. She was quite pretty, and the captain, who was not insensible to the
H

98 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
When a slaver arrived at an island it was generally met
by the natives coming off in their canoes, bringing with them
fresh provisions, fruits, and vegetables, poultry, pigs, and
opossums, fish, shells, clubs, spears, and masks for sale or
barter, but no men or women for sale. These could only,
or generally, be bought from the " king," chief, or head man
of the tribe or village by going on shore.
Having an overmastering desire to see the South Sea
Islands and above all the mysteries of the slave trade, I
applied for the berth of Government Agent on one of the
crack ships in the business, owned by some Presbyterian
provision merchants, commanded by one of the most unique
scoundrels it was ever my lot to know, and licensed by the
successor of Sir Thomas Mcllwraith in the Queensland
Government, to go to the islands to fish, not for cod, but
for men.
The first island at which we called was New Ireland, and
it took us from the 19th of December to the 21st of January
charms of female beauty, gave her a small match box full of beads. As if by
magic she was a changed being ; it was soon found that she had a peculiarly
sweet voice, and five minutes later she was leaning against this one, then
against that, giving opinions, and in the most familiar way taking an interest
in your welfare, and criticizing everything and exerybody all round. Moreover,
she was married a few days after she had come into her kingdom of glass
beads The explanation of this mystery is as follows : — The natives of those
Islands are great artists in shells. They make lovely bracelets out of shells,
which they call " altillol ambulot." Earrings, nose and finger rings, all out of
shells, which they call kabon. Kabon is a generic word for wealth. The man
or woman with the longest string of kabon is the most important person in the
village ; it is equivalent to the family diamonds of our own aristocracy. An
ample necklace of real kabon takes a life-time to make, and these children of
the Coral Sea regard our Brummagem moulded glass beads (coloured) as of
equal value. This is the solution of the small bead mysterv, which, in all pro
bability, will be a mystery for some time yet, but may not last quite so long as
some mysteries of less importance to the families of men, which hold them in
as deep a spell, and give as deep a tone and tint to their lives. — From a Lecture
delivered by me in Queensland.-- A. J. D.

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 99
to reach it from Townsville. This was owing to contrary
winds, hurricanes, and calms which we encountered in the
Coral Sea.
How I wish that I could throw on to this page for the
reader to see as plainly as he reads these words some of
the glories which " Nature, the Vicar of the Almighty
Lord," there pours upon earth and sea and sky. The
Vicar often made his evening dress to consist of heavenly
scarlet robes. Not such imitation scarlet as that other
Vicar wears now and then in Rome, or the woman in the
Apocalypse, but a scarlet that reminds us not of sin, or
blood, or shame, but of sweet flowers. Beneath this
imperial robe of red danced a sapphire sea, and to the
north of us ran a range of hills, of which Mount Huxley
was one, whose quick and rapid outlines were picked out
with ruby fire.
We saw some very strange fishes, of more colours than
are seen in rainbows, and quite as vivid. One seemed to
be of solid gold, in shape like an eel — a foot in length —
with power to telescope itself to a length of not more than
four or five inches. There were few birds, but many flying
fishes of unusual strength and length of "wing." The day
was warm, but the cold at night was very sharp.
At length, quite early in the morning, we ran close up to
New Ireland or Tumbara as it is called by the natives. It
is situated some 300 miles south of the equator, and
separated by a strait 50 miles wide from the south-east
coast of New Guinea. The island is at least 250 miles
long — a rough guess would make it 30 miles broad. As
viewed from seaward, it is densely wooded and well
watered. Cocoa and areca nut palms, stand out against
the sky along the summits, and also grow in immense

100 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
numbers along the shore. Great patches on the hill-sides
are under cultivation, fenced in with wickerwork two yards
high. Yams and taro are the roots mainly cultivated. The
food of the natives is chiefly vegetable, and consists of
cocoa-nuts, yams, taro, bread-fruit, arrowroot, nutmegs,
haricot beans, the sweet potato, bananas, Chile peppers,
oranges, the delicious mangostine, and other dainties.
There was abundance of domestic poultry and plenty
of good fish, also some fine plump pigeons.
The climate is humid, the vegetation a dark green, and
every tree appeared to be overrun with parasitic plants.
Although food was abundant, the natives were poor in
flesh, lanky, short in stature, slight in weight. Their usual
colour is a dark brown, but many are much lighter. The
hair of the head is crisp and glossy. Many of the black
men had abundance of hair on their bodies. They were
not negroes. The lighter coloured had little or no hair.
The tattooings or " cuttings on the flesh," as the Hebrew-
prophet calls them, were entirely confine dto women and the
head men ; no ordinary private man carried anv. while the
finer the woman, or the better looking, the more elaborate
were these cuttings ; they are abundant on the face, espe
cially at the corners of the eves, as if to hide the crow's
feet, and at the corners of the mouth, as if to secure a
permanent expression. The navel — iimbuling — was always
adorned ; sometimes in a large diamond, or broken circle.
Each breast — siisioig — carried a well-cut ornament, much
like a Maltese cross. The tattooings on the buttocks
— ¦putputiiiigc — and back — ampocktan — were always well
done. The cheek — tntaan — generally carried a laro-e
diamond figure. The tattooings were darkened by rub
bing in the powdered oxitle of manganese, which thev call

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 101
labdn. The septum of the nose in both sexes is always
pierced to carry a ring or polished bone. The men go
absolutely naked, but the women wear " aprons " of grass
behind as well as before, suspended from cinctures made of
beads, strung on fibre threads drawn from the great leaves
of the aloe. The women make an excellent bonnet from
palm leaves, also a cloak, which is used in great heats and
against rain. They are more careful to avoid rain than
is a well-dressed London woman on her way to church.
They stick feathers and bright flowers in their hair. Their
feather work is beautiful. Some wear garters under the
knee, finely knitted — not to keep up stockings, but for
pure ornament. The women do not paint, but the men
daub their faces and bodies with red and yellow earths ;
both men and women bleach their hair with coral lime.
They are singularly cleanly in their habits, and in their
persons if not made to wear clothing. They are fond of
bathing in the sea, of singing and dancing, and telling
stories. They easily learn to smoke tobacco, and many
like it. Some it makes deadly sick. Give them any kind
of food which is new to them, such as rice with treacle,
they begin to investigate it, not by tasting, but by smelling
it. They became very fond of tea all at once. They are
singularly kind and polite to each other so long as they
keep in bodily health, but if any fall sick, or come into any
kind of disgrace, they pass them by without the least regard,
as if they were priests and Levites journeying on the
Jericho road and passing by a fellow-sinner in evil case.
They would rather die than take physic.
The are full of fun as kittens, and play with each other in
the same frank and graceful way. Thieving is a great
delight to them, and they evince no shame on being found

102 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
out. Their laughter is hearty and musical, and their smile
is very pretty. They will do anything to please you except
work for any length of time, or in a systematic way. All
the old-fashioned emotions, tempers, airs, graces, vices,
virtues, and personal charms, which are to be seen in parts
of the polite world, are to be found among them. Some
are full of natural dignity and self-respect, as others are of
childlike naughtiness. They bear physical pain with
composure, are very patient in privation, and care nothing
about other people's opinions.
The women are much less modest than the men. They
are grateful, but not confiding. They are not curious, and
it takes much to rouse a genuine surprise. For many of
them with whom I was in close fellowship for more than
six months I retain a delightful feeling of affection. They
soon learnt when on board ship to wash decks, and this
work was always done to songs of their own making.
Both men and women screamed with delight in drawing
water from the sea, throwing it over the decks and washing
down. They submitted without murmur to occupy different
parts of the ship, both during meal times and at night, but
their love of talking was incessant.
"Melagot!" I once shouted down the ladies' cabin one mid
night to their infinite amazement, for they thought the voice
came out of the sky, and this shut them up for that time ;
but no repetition of the word, which means '• silence " in
their tongue, in the imperative mood, ever again produced
the same effect. As my tent on deck was immediately
above their cabin, I was much troubled to find out a way
that should bring about a permanent reform of this ever
lasting female talking nuisance. So, knowing their horror
of cold water, I made a little watering pot out of an oyster

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 103
tin, and went down among them one night of turbulent
jabbering, and sprinkled them in the name of melagot.
This cured them, and I had no more trouble or sleepless
nights. They were baptized into silence.
Another reform which I was bent on making was of a
more serious kind. Hitherto the women had waited upon
the men at breakfast and dinner, carrying the food from
the galley where it was cooked, and placing it before the
lords of creation. One day, to their great astonishment, I
made the women sit down and the men wait upon them.
The men at first refused to do this, but as they got no food
themselves until they obeyed my order the new reform was
adopted — not however until I took my part in waiting on
the ladies myself. At first the women did not like it ;
afterwards they exacted this service with rigour. Then
the men abjured the society of woman altogether, and for
more than a week kept themselves apart in the forward
part of the ship. As the women got on very happily with
out the men, the men gave up sulking and took to the new
way of life with cheerfulness, the women making rapid
strides in learning how to make the most of this radical
change in their manners. How much would I have given
to know the full meaning of some of the women's remarks
to the men when they brought in dinner. The shrill
screams of laughter with which these were received by the
younger women together with the cowed looks of the men,
and the hurry with which they would get out of ear-shot,
were sufficient to convince me that woman had found a new
weapon with which to fight her tyrant and conquer.
Oh ! how did these sinful beings revel in this new form of
wickedness. Is there any happiness so great in the world
to a woman as being able to make a man smart with

104 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
pain by no other exertion than that of wagging her
tongue ?
They all went to bed at a fixed hour, cooked their own
food, cleansed their own vessels, chopped fire-wood, and
learnt to sew and mend clothes. The women took readily
to wearing gowns, but much preferred to tear their petti
coats into ribbons to adorn their heads than to cover their
limbs withal. The thing which, I think, most attracted my
notice was their quick and accurate eye-sight. They could,
and did, discover land by the naked eye which we were
unable to pick out by the aid of good glasses. They could
detect a small boat six or seven miles off in bad weather
when we were unable to do so with the telescope. They
also made minute beads out of shells, and were fond of
carving* and engraving on wood, pearl, and tortoiseshell.
I think I may safely say that I never had the least thought,
wish, or desire to "convert" these people. They did not
want any conversion. Much rather would I like to convert
some of the religious women of Brisbane into South Sea
Islanders. The way of kidnapping these people was as follows :t —
* Their principal graver was a shark"s tooth, and bits of obsidian mounted
in a wood handle.
t The method of recruiting is exactly like the old method of the recruiting
sergeant in the country towns at home. All the lies that can be conveyed to an
islander's fancy are palmed off on him, and no mortal mixture of earth's mould
is so easily deceived as he : he is an adept in deceiving himself, and he indulges
in it as some lower natures indulge in ardent spirits ; but when he is helped in
his self-deception by one who is an artist in lying, then the islander falls easilv
into the snaic which is laid before his open eyes. Nothing has astonished me
so much as the little that is known of the natural history of these people, and
apparently no one cares to know anything about them.
Let me remind you that these islanders have never been conquered by a
superior inee. They have never come under the discipline of military rule ; have
never known what it is to obey orders, even when these arc given by a man in
¦i language they do not know, who thinks he will be understood if he speaks

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN A USTRALIA. lOn
There are two lifeboats attached to each slaver. Early
in the morning these are manned with a mixed crew of old
"boys" who had been kidnapped at Fiji, or the New
Hebrides. Each carries a rifle and five rounds of cartridges.
The recruiter goes in one boat — the Government Agent in
the other. There is a box of " trade " in each boat. As
the boats reach the shore the natives swarm down to the
beach, and many swim off to the boats, men and women,
hoping to have a chance of stealing something. The
recruiter soon finds out if the natives are friendly or not.
He opens his shop, so to speak, begins playing on a Jew's-
harp, or talking in broken English, hoping the natives will
understand him. After a tedious while it becomes known
that the recruiter will give two knives, a thimbleful of
beads, two tobacco pipes, some figs of tobacco, three fish
hooks, a Jew's-harp, a looking-glass, and a gawdy pocket-
handkerchief, for one man. This is too little, or it is
sufficient, according to the plenty or scarcity of men. The
largest amount of " trade " I ever saw paid for one hand-
sufficiently loud. They have not been trained to continuous effort, they have
never felt the insolence or the graciousness of correction ; save the little moral
influence which may be said to be induced in them by being ruled in a limited
degree by their kings or head men, they know little or,nothing of restraint. The
physic of the doctor, the rod of the schoolmaster, or the rousing voice of the
gangman are all odious to them. They die as willingly under the influence of a
little authority as they do on a meat diet or a reduction of the temperature. They
would give the world to know English, or that the English knew New Irish.
Having the frailty of all human beings, they are fond of sympathy and an
exchange of ideas ; nothing is so sweet to them as beads and a clear under
standing of what is wanted from them, what they want themselves, and what
they are going to receive for what they are willing to part with. But from this
they are at present debarred, and in a manner that is absolutely appalling to
behold ; men get angry if these summer children do not apprehend the meaning
of an inarticulate thundering noise or some unhuman pantomime. Up to the
present your South Sea Islander has been an expensive failure, and I cannot help
saying it, you who have suffered much are most to blame. — From a Lecture
delivered by me in Queensland. — A. J. D.

10'i RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
some islander cost the slave hunter seven shillings and five-
pence. The property is divided among the man's friends,
whom he leaves behind, a portion of it goes to the " King"
or head man. A man will sell himself to give his friends a
few beads, some bad cutlery, a few pipes, a Jew's-harp, and
some fish-hooks. It is the recruiter's duty to tell all the
people who are thus bought that they are going to work on
a sugar plantation in Queensland for three years; that they
will be well fed, and clothed, and lodged, and at the end of
three years they will all come back again with the sum of
£18 in their pockets, or as many beads and pipes as this
money will buy.
Great numbers of men and women were thus obtained
in these islands — minus the information which it was the
duty of the recruiter to give to the islander. It was the
duty of the Government Agent to see that this was done.
It never was done. The whole thing was a solemn farce.
I will venture to say that no islander ever came to Queens
land from those islands who knew what he was coming
for — the work he was expected to do, the hours he was to
work, or the years he was to stay. The native language
is not known by anyone out of the islands. The recruiter
was a very ignorant, cruel, malignant wild beast. The
language in which the recruiter generally talks to the
people whom he is going to enlist, or kidnap, or beguile,
is the limited language of sign or pantomime. The Govern
ment Agent is absolutely and entirely at the mercy of the
skipper when in those waters. It is not a question of
fear, lack of courage, or power to exert authority ; the
skipper knows that he is out of the jurisdiction of the
Queensland Government at the time that he is filling up
his ship with slaves ; the skipper takes no notice of the

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 107
Government Agent, nor need he* I have made the
acquaintance of several of these gentlemen, each of whom
I believe did all that he could, and did it well, in protecting
the natives to the best of his ability against injustice.
But not one of them could ever satisfy me that the islander
knew what he was about in coming to serve as a slave on
the sugar plantations of Mackay, and elsewhere.
What I did in my own case was to inform the authorities
immediately on our arrival in port that every one of the
islanders we had on board had been illegally obtained,
and they were all sent back at the expense of the owners
of the ship in which they had been carried. Every effort
was made to induce the Premier to allow this ship load to
pass, but without avail. Every effort was made to obtain
an interpreter by which to communicate with the poor
people whom we had brought, and to ascertain if they
would not like to go and dig and dung in the sugar garden
of Mackay from early morn till dewy eve for three years for
ten shillings a month and the run of their teeth.
But no interpreter could be found.
Had Sir Thomas Mcllwraith's Government been in power
at the time, that ship-load of New Irelanders would have
been discharged on to the great blackguard sugar station
of Mackay. Had the attempt been made under the
Government which superseded Sir Thomas to pass those
* In many cases when a Government Agent has reported to his Government
the misconduct of a slave skipper a local court has been ordered to be held by
the Premier to inquire into the matter. The skipper and his crew are allowed
to give evidence, which is always overwhelming and unanimous. The Com
missioners who form this local court consist of sugar planters and others
interested in the trade. Probably there is nothing so conclusive of the corruption
of some of these Colonial Governments as the ready manner in which they are
prepared to sacrifice the men whom they appointed to be their agents or repre
sentatives.

108 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
islanders, that Government would have been discredited for
ever. Up to the time, for a period of twelve years, that this
same ship left Townsville to go to New Ireland and other
South Sea islands the only instructions which the execu
tive Government issued to a Government Agent consisted
of an obsolete Act of Parliament and a revolver, and my
opinion is that if the Government of Sir Thomas Mcllwraith
had not fallen as it did the slave trade in Queensland would
have assumed alarming proportions. New Guinea would
have opened up new fields for kidnappers, and kidnapping
under the sanction of Government would have gone on at
an increasing speed.
At the same time, I am also of opinion that no man is
more glad at what bids fair to be the total suppression of
this hateful trade than Sir Thomas Mcllwraith. The sugar
trade, the banking trade, and syndicates of great power
had become too strong for him. Queensland will be a far
sweeter place to live in when he returns to office than it
was when he left it ; if it be only from the fact that he
will never again have the power of licensing a ship to go
to the South Seas to exchange men and women for
Sydney "goods" and Brummagem trumpery.
To the credit of the colonists — at least, those of South
Queensland, where some of the details of the slave trade
were made known — they showed even more spirit than
when they discovered how the Land Act had been adminis
tered. In North Queensland the spirit displayed was the
spirit of the Ephesians, who made silver shrines for
Diana, and got their living thereby when they discovered
that their craft was in danger by the preaching of St.
Paul.

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 109
Not only were the planters angry with South Queens
land and full of a spirit of hatred, but the townspeople, the
great and small shopkeepers, and general traders in the
north lashed themselves into a madness equal to that of
the priests of Baal on a particular occasion when the
planters discovered what were the intentions of the new
Government with regard to them.
The reason of the planters' rage was the same as that of
the rage of the planters' camp followers. Close to all
sugar plantations there is sure to be a village, and the
village will contain many little shops for the sale of imita
tion jewellery, imitation cutlery, imitation meerschaum
pipes, beads, bracelets, glass emeralds, glass rubies, glass
diamonds, and other Christian rubbish. If there was no
village there would not fail to be a general store at which
the kanaka would spend his money. In three years a
thousand South Sea islanders would spend eighteen
thousand pounds sterling in the village in buying detest
able trash, such as only a Jew or a colonial scoundrel would
sell. I have no hesitation in saying that this rubbish sold
for £18,000 would not cost the traders £100. Of course,
when there threatened to be no more kanaka simpletons to
spend their earnings in toys, the shopkeepers of North
Queensland cried out with a loud voice.
Will it be believed that never once among the Presby
terians, the Methodists, or other missionary bodies in
North Queensland was one poor effort ever made, I do not
say to save the souls of the South Sea islanders, who were
living with them under the same sky, but to save them
from the rapacity of the despicable shopkeepers who
robbed and cheated them ?
By all means let the children deck themselves with

110 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
trinkets, and spend their pocket money at the fair. But
if you discover that one of your own children has been
swindled by a villainous hawker you communicate with the
police or take other steps. Nothing was ever done to pro
tect the children from the South Seas against the swindling
practised on them in Mackay and other sugar towns.
Mackay had a representative in the Queensland Parlia
ment, but to my certain knowledge he never denounced
the iniquities of the town in this matter.
Here do we come on an old foe with a new face. The
old Spanish aristocrats, who received a license from the
King to trade in the colonies, the governors of Provinces,
and all who had dealings with Peruvian Indians, always
carried with them from Seville, when they took ship for
Callao, a large, wondrous, and mixed assortment of
" goods " to sell to the people in the distant Repar-
timientos, such as gold and silver brocade somewhat
tarnished, satins, silk stockings, false hair, waistcoatin^s,
spectacles, playing cards, pictures, rosaries, gold crosses
made of brass, tin images, tin suns, tin moons, dolls,
crucifixes of varied dimensions, buttons, beads — in short,
the sweepings of Seville shops, all damaged, but which
would be "sold" at enormous prices to the Indians of
Chayanta, Puno, Charcas, Caupolican, and elsewhere.
There is no more pitiful chapter in Spanish colonial history
than this, told, as it is, with great minuteness.* The parish
priest frequently helped in selling this trumpery, and lent
his chapel for the occasion. One of these worthies managed
to get a large parcel of common spectacles at a very low
price. What could be done with these articles among a
* " Noticias Secretas," por Don Jorge Juan y Juan de Ulloa, the only
authentic work on the social condition of the Spanish colonies in the last
century,

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. Ill
people noted for their excellent eye-sight, whose eyes were
never dim except with tears ? Priests can do much under
certain conditions. This speculator in spectacles stuck a
notice on his church door to the effect that all who appeared
at mass on the coming Sunday in a pair of spectacles would
receive a remission of the last week's sins! "Spectacles
can be bought from El R. P. Fray Oscuras Segundo for
eight shillings a pair — muy barato." There was a large
congregation. The price of spectacles rose in the market,
etc., etc. Several of these colonial aristocrats " made" by
this form of trading two hundred thousand dollars each
within less time than three years. As in kidnapping the
Spaniards led the way, so in this infamous form of trading,
and North Queensland imitated their example.
I have said that the Executive Government of Queens
land was responsible for all the iniquities of the labour
traffic. But the planters of the north — notably those of
Mackay, represented in the Brisbane Parliament by a
planter — were responsible for much. These men were not
so foolish as to pay £25 a head for kanakas, and then
amuse themselves by killing them as quickly as possible.
That charge has been made against them by silly editors
and small local preachers. The charge is obviously beneath
contempt. The mortality, especially in Mackay, among
the South Sea Island sugar slaves was always very great.
It was so astounding at the time I was there that the
Government of Mr. Griffith* was afraid to publish parti
culars. A medical man was sent from Brisbane by the
Premier to Mackay to report, and he did, and received a
quieting fee. The document was never published. It
would have damned the colony at home, and perhaps inter-
* Now Sir Samuel Griffith.

112 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
fered with the floating of the next loan — at least, the
Government may have so thought — for, although the
planters and their agents were blameworthy, the principal
blame for the fearful mortality, which at one time ran as
high as 60 per cent., must fall on the Government and
their local officers. The planters supplied all sufficient
funds for the building of hospitals, for medical men, for
medicines, and all remedial means and measures. The
Government received these funds, but disbursed them in
the most inadequate way.
The truth of the matter is that the climate was fatal to
the islanders; it was too cold and too variable. Frequently
a day of broiling sun would be followed by a night of sharp
frost. This of itself was sufficient to kill large numbers of
the feeble children of the South Seas. The labour was too
continuous, the monotony too awful and depressing. These
South Sea heathens were from their childhood brought up
to dance on their own sun-warmed, yellow sands, to gambol
in the sea, to sing and laugh, and subsist on fruits and
roasted yams, the delicious cream of the cocoa-nut, the
delicate flesh of the banana, and other refined things of
exquisite taste. They soon had the song knocked out of
them when they came to Mackay. Their limbs soon be
came too stiff for the dance, and their blood soon too poor
for laughter. The)' were put on a meat diet. Salt pork,
and flour made into unwholesome bread, did not suit them,
and numbers died because life was hideous to them, many
went mad, others ran away thinking — poor children — that
tliey might reach home that night, but night coming and
bringing for them nothing but cold and hunger, they would
crawl into a field of sugar cane and lie down and die. They
died as easily as you could quench smoking flax.

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 113
The main blame of the planters was in employing such
feeble labourers to cultivate their fields.
Had the conveying of islanders from the South Seas not
degenerated, as it was meant to degenerate, into a real
slave trade, it would have occurred to someone to set up
model plantations in one or more of the islands, where the
islanders would have been gradually taught systematic
labour, and so be prepared for profitable work. But the
truth must be told ; the planter thought only of his sugar,
and how much he could squeeze out of the cane ; the one
and only labourer that would suit the planter was a being
who would be content with a low wage, and who had no
mind capable of hatching a strike at an inconvenient time.
It is, perhaps, an infinite pity that the planters did not press
their claims at an earlier time on Sir Thomas Mcllwraith in
the matter of obtaining coolies from India. Had this been
done the colony of Queensland would probably be more
flourishing than it is, a great scandal might have been
averted, a great good might have been achieved. ,
If Queensland does not grow sugar, she will not get as
much out of her soil as she ought to get. The cultivation
of sugar promotes many other industries. For any politician
to have it in his power to bar the cultivation of sugar in
that colony is a deep disgrace to society; it is a stain on
character, and indicates a low, narrow, sectarian mind that
should be got rid of. The attitude of that mind, so to say,
is not only narrow, it is insolent towards a question of this
magnitude and importance, and if some modification does
not soon show itself a grave disaster may happen in Queens
land. I cannot close this part of my reminiscences without
referring to a matter that is at once painful and startling. I

114 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Of the number of kidnapping skippers, who carried on the
Queensland slave trade during the past twelve years, thirty
died young; they were murdered, shipwrecked, died while
drunk, died in consequence of excessive drinking, or they
cut their own throats. Not one was hanged, although one
was condemned to die in that way, but his sentence was
commuted to transportation for life. Had the miscreants
who were connected with the massacres done on board the
Karl been hanged we should not probably have heard of
the later atrocities. But how could a jury of men who had
been concerned in indiscriminately slaughtering Australian
black fellows bring in an English skipper guilty of murder
for slaying kanakas ?
Doubtless the manner in which the Australians have
stained their hands with the blood of the aborigines must
have not a little to do with the readiness with which they
entered into the murdering of South Sea Islanders.
We read " Las Casas " with horror. The histories bv Sir
Arthur Helps of the Conquerors of the New World and
their Bondsmen and the Spanish Conquest in America
make our flesh creep as we read of the massacres of
Indians. If the Australian blacks had had a history any
thing like the history of the Incas, the Astecs, the
Muyscas, and the Mexicans, the deeds of our own Aus
tralian colonists would have been seen to be precisely the
same as those of the Spanish colonists in South America.
Travellers of literary distinction, who visit the Colonies
and travel swiftly, and in railway carriages lined with blue
satin, and are entertained like princes, write of the coldness
of the Colonial Office and British Secretaries of State to
wards Australians. It so happens that there are men
among these great officers of State who have memories,

SILVERN POTOSI TO GOLDEN AUSTRALIA. 115
men who have had to regard with pain the meanness,
selfishness, and grasping sordidness of colonial politicians
and the agitators of the great colonial towns.
Of all the millions of pounds sterling dug out of the
earth in Australian lands, or New Zealand, during the
past generation, has a single shilling been paid in the form
of royalties to the Crown ?
Not a single shilling.
Are we to forget the cruelties, the degrading inhumanities
and murders done to the Chinese on Australian Gold Fields ?
Have not the selfishness, the avarice, and greed of the
Australian colonists kept pace with their increasing wealth ?
These things are forgotten by illustrious writers, or, perhaps,
were never known to them ; and when they visit Melbourne
and Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, Hobart Town and
Auckland, and see the splendid streets of these towns, the
glorious parks, the magnificent public buildings, the rolling
grass plains, the railways and shipping, they are annoyed
at the ignorance and rudeness which British Ministers of
State almost invariably display towards the colonies.
If such travellers would know the truth about life in
Australia, its trials and sufferings, as well as its aspirations,
they must not make their inquiries from privileged persons
who have settled in those colonies, and who occasionally
run home for a year's holiday. The facts of Australian life
can only be gathered from people who never leave the
colonies, and never dream of being able to leave them. I
once came on a curious gravestone with the following
lines cut in it. It was in Sydney —
" Beneath this stone Sam Boden lies,
No one laughs and no one cries ;
Where he's gone, and how he fares,
No one knows and no one cares."

116 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
There never was a more sad or truthful epitaph ever
written. Of course, it is not true in any but a local sense.
I, for one, would give a good deal to know where Sam is
and how he fares ; but at the time of his death, and in the
place where he died, I have no doubt about this being a
veracious statement. If there be a real desire in England
to know the exact truth about Colonial or Imperial Federa
tion, the witnesses to be examined must be sought among
the survivors of Sam Boden, including the man who wrote
the doggerel lines which are carved on Sam's tombstone.
The Australians are making of themselves a nation.
What it will be like, or what form it will take, no one
can forecast.
The likeness and the unlikeness to other colonies, Spanish
or other, may be seen with distinctness now and then.
The fact which most vividly brings out the unlikeness is
to be seen only at night.
Within less than thirty years the Australian coast has
been dotted with lighthouses by the colonists themselves.
Not a single lighthouse was erected in South America
twenty years ago ! That is to say, the Spanish colonists
held twenty thousand miles of coast in America for three
hundred years, and never built a single lighthouse.
What new developments are in store for Australia and
New Zealand, especially when the Panama Canal shall
bring them in closer contact with the United States, neither
Australia nor New Zealand at present know. What form
the question of Federation will then assume, who may sav ?
Of one thing we may be sure, that no form of slavery will
be possible under any name that the ingenuity of Ministers
or millionaires may suggest.

CHAPTER IX.
SILVER LIMA AND GOLDEN MELBOURNE.
The humanity of the Spanish colonists has been too much
hidden from sight. We have been so occupied with the
history of their religious wickedness and general selfishness
that we are ignorant of the natural qualities which many
possessed, and the great and noble things which some of
them did. Let it never be forgotten that there was at one
time in Lima a college for the instruction of the aboriginal
population in the Christian religion. Not a mere elemen
tary school, but a college — not of children, but of men.
There was also a hospital for the poor who were recover
ing from sickness, another for incurables, one for sick
Indians, and nine other hospitals were appropriated to
some peculiar charities : — For poor ecclesiastics, for sailors,
for negroes, three for women, for lepers, also a retreat for
women who wanted to be separated from their husbands,
and another for women whose only infirmity consisted in
their being poor, and probably not very good-looking ; an
orphanage ; a foundling hospital conducted by lady nuns.
I have seen authentic descriptions of these religious houses,
and of the riches of the churches, which are very striking.
The gold and silver candlesticks, all of solid metal, were

118 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
marvellous ; many of these being high, and well propor
tioned. The paintings were highly valuable. Some altar
pieces were works of the great masters.
Lima, no doubt, was first in all the cities of South America
for the splendour of its churches and religious houses. But
there were many towns and cities that vied with Lima in
this particular. They were a very religious people, and
boasted of it.
Within fifty years after its foundation Lima was the
largest city in the whole of South America.* It was
famous for its orchards and gardens ; the splendour of its
shops, as well as its churches, the beauty of its women,
and the extent of its private wealth. Its public and private
libraries are spoken of with admiration in the works of
learned men and travellers.
Lima, to repeat what has already been said, is now one
of the filthiest towns in the world. Its solid splendours
have given way to wretched tinsel ; many of its hospitals
have been razed to the ground. Earthquakes and revolu
tions have torn the city to pieces. It has been conquered
in war by one of its republican neighbours. Some of the
scenes which have taken place in it are an everlasting
disgrace to the people and race, or races, who took part in
them. In less than twenty years from the time that Peru
separated from the mother country, and Lima ceased to
belong to Spain, it became as celebrated for its misery and
squalor as it had been for its prosperity and riches.
* We have recently been told by eminent writers who have visited Australia
that no ancient or modern city ever grew so rapidly in opulence and power as
the city of Melbourne, Victoria. The statement is quite untrue ; and it is always
made in forgctfulness of the city of Lima, whose magnificence was the talk of
the world less than fifty years after it was founded.

SILVER LIMA AND GOLDEN MELBOURNE. 119
Lima never represented the whole of Peru until it became
a republican pigstye. It is fifty-three years ago from the
present year since the ground on which Melbourne now
stands was first trodden by an Englishman, or a white man
— at least, so far as we know — and he was an escaped
convict. The founder of Lima was the illegitimate son of
a Spanish soldier, who, when he was born, was indebted
for shelter to a church porch, and for sustenance to a sow.
The rise of both towns in size, riches, and splendour within
a like period of time is remarkable. But it is of little
profit to seek any further similarity between them, except
to say that the rapid growth of both was due to the acci
dental finding of vast wealth, one in silver, the other in
gold. In Melbourne, of provision made for the poor there was
none for many years. Five-and-twenty years ago there
were nine hundred prisoners in one stockade, all able-
bodied scoundrels, as many women elsewhere, and still
more insane shut up in a mad-house. Presently, as the
colony of Victoria became peopled, churches were built,
hotels, clubs, and shops, especially in Melbourne, but the
churches remained for a long time far behind in outward
appearance. They are fast becoming very handsome.
Perhaps the largest and handsomest Wesleyan Methodist
Chapel in any part of the world is in Melbourne. There
is an admirable University, a truly great Public Library, a
Post Office, and Town Hall, which without exaggeration
may be called grand. Just as certainly as if you went on
board ship in the Firth of Clyde in sight of the Duke of
Argyll's Bowling Green the Holy Loch and other sweet
waters of Scotland, went to sleep and waked up in Blue
Skin Bay, Dunedin, New Zealand, you would fancy that

120 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
you were still in Scotland. In like manner, if you saw
many parts of Melbourne, the chief parts, without being
conscious of the space intervening between them and
England, you would not doubt that you were in England
still. The language is the same, the women are the same,
clothed in the same beautiful, expensive, foolish way as
they are in London, and almost everything is the same,
except the gutters which run down the sides of the streets.
The newspapers are the same, with a difference, so are the
cabs, omnibuses, clubs, railways, and railway stations.
Melbourne is thoroughly an English edition of an English
town, revised and enlarged.
If a man were inclined to say that the one abiding and
absorbing spirit of the Australian colonies was a spirit of
selfishness, an hour's drive through the chief streets of
Melbourne would drive that idea out of his mind. There
is a look of generosity about the place that is unmistakable.
As for the people who are mad or miserable, " it's their own
fault;" "they have no business to be miserable out there,
under the Southern Cross ; certainly they ought not to go
mad." " Let people drink less, and drink only good liquor
when they do drink, they will then be all right." If they
do not follow these golden rules " they ought to come to
grief," and there is possibly some beneficence in this
brutality. " Oh, yes, of course, there are heaps of women even in
Melbourne who want to be separated from their husbands,
but they must grin and bear it. We are not going to build
refuges for these. Besides, let people wash their dirty
linen at home."
"Niggers? Certainly, there are plenty of them; more
useless than dogs, and not half so cleanly."

SILVER LIMA AND GOLDEN MELBOURNE. 121
It is almost worth while to go to Melbourne to hear a
real Australian burst of laughter. It is more of a storm,
-or a heavy windy shower of laughter, that you get in
response to the question —
" Do you teach the negroes the Christian religion?"
By negroes of course I mean the aboriginal black fellows.
Now little as I think of the Spanish Peruvian, I am sure
that even he would deem it everlasting infamy and disgrace
to have walking in the streets of his chief cities such
striking scarecrows, such hideously ugly wretches, such a
loathsome " eclipse of a manhood divine " as the Australian
black fellow and his gin.
It is only the lowest type of Englishman, no matter what
may be his wealth in gold-dust or tallow and wool, that
• consents to keep in his house a human being who is dis
tinguished only for his bad habits, his offensive smell, his
¦dirty nose, and his disagreeable grin. What would our
feelings be on reading an Australian edition of The
Tempest to find that Prospero is no longer master of
Caliban, that Caliban no longer fears Prospero, not only
steadfastly refuses to carry logs, but boasts of his mul
titudinous wickedness ?
The last time that I visited the Port of Bowen, in North
Queensland, I saw early in the morning three or four
.cockle-shell canoes paddle up to the starboard side of the
English commercial steamer on which I was a passenger.
Each canoe contained what seemingly were three or four
bundles of rags. I was quite unprepared for what followed,
but some of my companions in. travel had visited Bowen
-before, and knew what to expect.
Presently the rags fell from half-a-dozen full-grown naked
¦women, who proceeded to cover themselves up with the

122 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
transparent waters of the sea. Some ardent Australian-
born English youths began to waste their substance by
riotously throwing half-crowns, florins, shillings, and six
pences into the great laughing water. Down went the
bronze mermaids, head first, into the deep, out of sight,
bringing up the shining coin which they had caught, and
showing it in gleeful triumph. This submarine exhibition of
Australian art was open for more than an hour, and those
Australian women paddled to their camp, each with a
mouthful of silver coins that would presently be spent in.
rum and tobacco.
I had seen men and boys diving for silver sixpences on
heathen coasts, but it was reserved for me to see full-grown
naked women do the like within sound of the English.
Church bell. Each of these women had a little baby, and I
for one should like to ask if those babies are to be allowed
to grow up as irresponsible as kangaroos, and to have free
warren over the Australian vineyard without being taught.
to take their share in the art of dressing and keeping it ?
The Australian Caliban ought to be kept at Australian
work. But the Australian Prospero has not proved himself
equal to the task of taming the Australian Caliban. There
may be seen in every large town an Australian Stephano
and an Australian Trinculo, and Caliban has been allowed
to become the friends of these, and has learnt to imitate
the drunkenness and wit of both. This is a deep disgrace
to the Australian colonists.
Dreadful as it is to read the cold-blooded murders of the
aboriginal Peruvians by the Spaniards, it is still more
dreadful to see the manner in which the English treat the
aboriginal Australians.
In Tasmania the black fellow was mercifully put to death ;.

SILVER LIMA AND GOLDEN MELBOURNE. 123
it was becoming, in a colony of convicts, to murder the
original owners of the soil on which they were to work for
a living. In the other Australian colonies the black fellow
was almost as plentiful as the kangaroo. The fate of the
kangaroos is supposed by many to be identical with that of
the blacks.
That the Australian aboriginal is a much more degraded
human being than any other aboriginal in any part of the
world maybe true, although even on this opinions differ ; but
I shall never, I trust, come into the belief that it is impossible
for an Englishman to teach the black fellow how to work
and how to live.
Immediately before leaving Brisbane this last time, a
w-hite man — an Irishman — was hanged between two
aboriginals from the same gallows, all three for the same
offence, namely, murdering women, etc. I confess that I
should not like to have been the judge who sentenced these
two wretched blacks to that death. Identification must
have been next to impossible.
But if black fellows are worth hanging they are worth
teaching. If the black is not teachable, if it is certain that
he is in nothing better than a dog, to hang him is degrading
to the community in which he was allowed to live.
There are in Melbourne two separate and distinct
quarters, the Irish quarter and the Chinese quarter; they
are distinct from the other quarters of the town chiefly in
squalor and misery. These quarters were founded and
grew just as another quarter was founded and has grown.
— not in Melbourne, but in another part of Australia — I
mean the black fellows' quarter, which is Queensland.
Melbourne was founded on gold, as the strength and
glory of Lima was founded on silver and the glory of

124 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Republican Peru was founded on guano ; as Birmingham
was founded on brass, buttons, and beads, Yarmouth on
herrings, the Roman Catholic religion in China on Jesuits'
bark, called in their day quina-quina, the bark of barks ;
and the Imperial town of Potosi was certainly founded on
silver. The principal railways in Peru, notably the Callao and
Oroya railway, were all built on guano ; its Army and Navy
were all sustained by guano. The glory and' strength of
Peru, its Army and Navy and its great railway, are over and
gone, simply because the Peruvian guano is no longer sent
to market, and is, as the Peruvians believe, all over and
gone. It lasted little more than a generation, 'and Peru is
irretrievably fallen. If it ever be set up on its legs again
it will be by a people who have something better to trust in
than guano.
Melbourne was founded on gold, as every school-boy
knows, and all the large towns in Victoria were in like
manner so founded ; and all the external greatness of that
magnificent British colony may be said to have a similar
foundation. What will become of Melbourne when the gold gives
out? What effect will it have on the Chinese quarter or
the Irish quarter of that magnificent town ?
Will the black fellows return to their old quarters?
What will become of my old quarters at the Melbourne
Club, or the Club itself, where I lived for a year in great
comfort and at much expense? And the Melbourne Cup,
is that institution not going to last for ever?
Is there in all the world a desolation so terrible to behold
as the fenceless desolation of a forsaken, worked-out srold
field, unless it be that part of Peru where once were piled

SILVER LIMA AND GOLDEN MELBOURNE. 125
up a million tons of guano, and now there is nothing to-
occupy it but the viewless winds ?
It looks like treason to one's own nature to ask these
questions. Is there any comparison between an Englishman
and a Spaniard, or between an Australian colonist and a
Peruvian ? or any comparison between the religion of the
Papist and the Presbyterian ? Is there the slightest reason
to imagine that a similar fate is in store for golden Victoria
as the fate which has overtaken the Spanish colony of
silvern Peru ? Shall Melbourne ever bite the dust as
Lima has bitten it? Did not Spain and her colonies
mainly come to grief because they worshipped a woman
and kissed the Pope's toe, or believed in transubstantiation,
purgatory, the seven sacraments, and the infallibility of the
Church ?
Let the Presbyterians of Australia plume themselves on
the purity of their faith, the sweetness of their morals, the
exuberant bounty of their hospitality, the Melbourne Club
and Cup, the Chinese and Irish quarters, not omitting the
black fellows' quarters in Queensland. The only difference
I see at present between the miners of Peru and the miners
of Australia is that the first found silver in marvellous
abundance and mined it with little trouble, and the second
found gold under like conditions ; both have used these
metals in precisely a similar way, and for the same ends.
There is no difference in the magnificence of the hospitality
which both dispensed to strangers. Both may equally boast
of their beautiful women ; both have killed off vast numbers
of aboriginals; and in t,he acclimatization of birds, beasts,
and fishes, fruits, and vegetables there is little to choose
between them ; and in so far as both these miners use their
wealth in the same way and from the same motive, there is

126 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
little reason to doubt that the same fate will overtake the
one as overtook the other.
Happily, there is no reason why the golden Australians
should continue to imitate the silver men ; and there is
evidence to prove that the Australian will not be so selfish
and self-indulgent, so lazy and revolutionary, as the Peruvian
has been. Those lighthouses along the Australian coast
are one guarantee, the Australian prisons are another ; and
there is an enormous difference in the form and nature of
the government of both countries. The Australian colonies
are quite as republican or democratic as the South American
Republics. But there is this peculiar difference between
them : the Australian colonies have the distinguished
privilege of very often making the acquaintance of English
gentlemen, not only in the form and character of a sailor,
but of a Governor, who represents the Queen of England
and is the colonial fount of honour. Colonial Governors
have not been, as a rule, brilliant men. Some have even
been very stupid men ; but the cases have been rare when
they have not been gentlemen, and the influence which
these and their families have exerted on colonial life has
been most gracious, fine, and good. English ships of war
also pay frequent visits to all the chief Australian ports,
and these convey to the colonial mind more distinctly than
Governors and their suites do the real greatness of England,
the greatness which it is within the reach of every English
man to achieve for himself; the greatness which springs
I rom self-abnegation, from a sweet courtesy, from obedience,
order, rule, and the ever-present readiness to die when duty
requires it.
These excellent models of greatness were seldom or
never known to Spanish colonists, even under the Crown

SILVER LIMA AND GOLDEN MELBOURNE. 127
¦of Spain, and certainly never under the Republic, and this,
no doubt, was a great drawback. So long as England
supplies Governors to English colonies there will always
follow them English men-of-war, and in the presence of
these, vulgarity, selfishness, meanness, cowardice, and their
-subordinates will skulk out of sight, or become permanently
ashamed of themselves and be afraid to appear. At least
that is our general hope and belief. No gold colonist
from Melbourne, or sugar colonist from Queensland, or
¦mutton colonist from Sydney and New Zealand, can be
asked to contemplate a silver Spanish colonist from Peru
or Ecuador, Bolivia or the United States of Colombia, and
be required to take warning by his example without the
gold man indignantly exclaiming, "Is thy servant a dog
that he should become like unto this thing ? "
Alas ! there is a likeness, if not a relationship, between
them which a colonist may very naturally ignore, but which
no thoughtful man who is not a colonist will fail to
recognize. There is one unlikeness for which we may be thankful.
The British gold colonist was never required or even asked
by the mother country to give any of his gold for the pur
poses of war. The Spaniard only cared for his colonies
because of the silver they supplied for carrying on great
wars, and it is certain that but for the mines of Potosi,
Motley's prose epic of the Dutch Republic would never
have been written.

CHAPTER X.
FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA.
THE most weary of all the long journeys I ever made was
from Melbourne, the chief port of Victoria, to Callao, the
chief port of Peru. We called on our way at Dunedin,
where we remained for a week. Blueskin Bay was beauti
ful, and very impressive was the sight of the doctor's boat
which came out to meet us, manned by eight Maoris,
young and handsome, dressed like a man-of-war's men. I
also well remember a young Maori girl who stood over a
fruit stall in the market-place who had cuttings round her
eyes and on the chin, similar in all respects to the young
girls of New Ireland. In less than three months afterwards
I was carefully examining the tatooings of young women
whom I encountered in the market-place of Chuquisaca, eight
hundred miles inland from the Pacific shore. They were
not natives of Chuquisaca, but "Indians" from Cocha-
bamba, very like in ligure to the South Sea girls, and their
cuttings in the flesh were precisely the same.
Dunedin was then up to its eves in mud. The post-office
was a wooden shanty made of unplaned boards. It was
the age of crinoline. On my remarking at dinner, which

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 129
was at the house of Mr. Reynolds, the pleasure it gave me
to see English women dressed in graceful garments instead
of being stuck up in balloons, there was a general laugh
at my expense. The women in Dunedin, it appears, did
not wear crinoline, solely on account of the uncertain
temper of the wind, which came down the gullies and round
the hills in sudden, wanton tricks that made walking very
slow work and sometimes hazardous. On the Sunday
morning I went to church, which was a little Scotch Pres
byterian building, delightfully situated at the head of Blue-
skin Bay. The preacher was the Reverend Doctor Burns,
an old man with a fine red face and flowing silvery white
hair. Very striking. During the sermon the reverend
gentleman took the opportunity of telling us that the name
he bore was odious to him, and that he bore not only the
name of Burns, but the blood of Robert Burns ran in his
veins, and he would spend the rest of his days in repu
diating the connection, and doing something to vindicate
the honour of his God, whom his relative had always insulted
by his words and by his deeds.
This is a sample of that cruel Presbyterianism with
which the colonies are cursed a statement that will seem
incredible to many. A religion that allows of an exhibition
of hatred and ignorance such as this, if not as bitter and hate
ful as the religion of the Holy Inquisition, is at least liable
to become so. I made some inquiries about Dr. Burns, and
found that he was from Kincardineshire originally, and a
veritable descendant of the poet. I think this Dr. Burns a
disgrace to Scotland and a scourge to the cause of pure
religion. But he is now dead, y basta.
We left Dunedin for Callao with a fair wind, which
promised to carry us across the Pacific in good time.
K

130 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
The fair wind left us, or we left the fair wind, in less than
a week. There was plenty of wind, but it was foul. The
skipper was new to these waters. He had an idea that if
he ran south we might reach the coast of Chile, pick up the
well-known trade wind which blows there, and so make up
for lost time. We ran south, into the coldest and most
forbidding sea it was ever my lot to look upon. The
clouds hung so low that sea and sky seemed no further
apart than the shells of an oyster half-opened.
I was the only passenger. The skipper, to drown his
sorrow, took to drinking rum. He became so drunk that
he did not know what he was about. I consulted the chief
officer, who was an American. I proposed to take the
skipper into custody and give the mate command of the
ship, but the mate was not inclined to follow my advice. I
then demanded of the mate that if I locked up the skipper
he would take command. This he promised to do. So I
locked up the skipper, who was dead drunk, in his cabin,
and awaited with some anxiety the time when he would
wake up and ask questions. I had to wait more than
twenty-four hours. He at length got up and called for me.
I appeared at his cabin window, which looked on to the
quarter-deck. He was singularly subdued, and to my great
delight handed me the key of the locker in which he kept
his liquor. He wished me to hear him swear that he would
" never again taste another drop." This I refused to do,
but stuck to the key of the locker.
The captain knew nothing of currents or winds except
such as blow in the English Channel. Why we were not
wrecked is a mystery to me. Starting from latitude 48
south, longitude 160 west, we ran down to latitude 60,
longitude 120 west, in order to reach latitude 12 south,

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 131
longitude 80 east ! We were two months at sea, and must
have sailed more than eight thousand miles. This skipper
is a fair example of the politicians who are navigating the
constitutional ship of the Australian colonies — with this
difference, that when they get drunk there is no one by
to lock them up, or lock up the liquor.
From Callao I took steamer to Cobija, and remained
there a month waiting for the coming of mules. It is a
small place, but with many pleasant recollections for me.
The name of ARTOLA will remain one of the pleasantest
memories of my life, connected, as it is, with all that
remains of good in South America. I was very anxious to
get to the native home of the alpaca, but this could not be
done without mules. While thus waiting I observed one
afternoon a small crowd gathered round a man in the
market-place, who appeared to be preaching. It was on
this account, I suppose, that I joined the crowd. It turned
out to be an auction. Some spiteful creditor was selling
up the Consul for Chile. All his things were put up in one
lot, and the lot consisted of ten thousand fire-bricks, thirty
barrels of gunpowder, many tons of copper ore, a machine
for condensing water, several carts, miners' tools, chains,
rope, candles, and I know not what. Merely for the pur
pose of giving a start to the bidding I hid three thousand
dollars, and to my amazement the lot was knocked down to
me. The ore alone was worth double the money. A few
days afterwards El Senor Osa, who had been thus victimized,
came and asked me to let him buy back all the things as
they stood, and inquired my price.
"Three thousand dollars," I said.
Knowing me to be an Englishman, and supposing that I
had made a mistake, he put the matter in another shape, but

132 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
I told him that I thoroughly understood how he had been
served, that I was very sorry for having started the bidding
at so high a figure ; but I did it for the best, intending to
serve him, and that if he wanted his things back, and had
three thousand dollars at hand he could have them at that
price, that I had not used any of them, and that it was a
habit of mine if I found anything in the street and knew
the owner, to return it without asking for a reward.
He was thunderstruck. He called me an angel ; he said
I should be laughed at, that they had given him the name of
demonio, and would not fail to call me loco. However. I
had my way. Osa still thinks me to be an angel, and many
others think me a fool. But it doesn't matter. Here come
the mules.
I left Cobija at sundown one Sunday in company of fifty
of these sagacious creatures heavily laden with merchan
dise for the far interior of Bolivia, and ten muleteers
heavily laden with ardent spirits. Mv mule and I were
laden also. Attached to the pommel of mv saddle were the
saddle-bags, containing a bottle of old brandy, three bottles
of Vino de Pasto, a goodly number of small meat pies (all
made by la Sefiora Artola), some ham from Estramadura,
some cheese, tea, onions from Lisbon, and garlic from
Chile, a hundred cigars, each live inches long, from the
Havannah, and other comforts. From the croup hung a
pair of great horns, which went round the barrel of the
mule, containing four quarts of sweet water, all that could
be allowed the mule and me until we should cross the river
Loa at Mescanti, that is some four days.
We travelled all through the night, which was cooled by
the south wind. We breakfasted at Culupo, having climbed
live thousaiul feet above the sea in sixteen hours, and

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 133
travelled about forty miles. Here I committed one of the
greatest follies of my life, and here also began an adventure
which I never shall forget. The folly consisted in separa
ting myself from my companions, and setting off alone
across a desert where there are no permanent tracks, no
landmarks or guide-posts, except such as are known to
Indians, who keep their own counsel. It is true that in this
desert there are to be seen the blanched remains of many
thousands of mules that have perished of hunger, thirst, or
weariness, and for six hundred miles you can in the day
time trace a certain course that will not fail you ; but they
are unsafe guides to an Englishman who sees them for the
first time, and has heard nothing of them beforehand. It
was from no love of adventure that I started off alone from
Culupo ; it was simply to escape from the torment of
clouds of dust raised by the fifty mules. My companions
and the captain of the troop assured me that I could not
miss my way. So on I went on level ground at an easy
pace of five miles an hour.
Before me lay a motionless sea of sand, and above hung
the sun pouring down heavy rays of heat. But the air was
sweet ; it penetrated my bones, and I went on mindless of
all things save the bliss of being. This uncommon feeling
lasted for some five hours, when I waked as if from a happy
dream to find myself all alone.
I had no sense of danger, but pulled up the mule to get a
steady view of things. In front there was nothing to be
seen but the mule's ears, behind nothing but its tail. I knew
enough of mules to tell me that this would not have carried
me so willingly had it not known what it was about, and
where it was going to. After an hour's steady pacing in
the direction which the mule of its own will elected to take,

V.U RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
we came up to what I conceived must be my own troop of
mules. " How far are we from Mescanti ? " I inquired, in a con
fident tone.
" This," said the courteous Indian, in cultivated Spanish,
" is not the trail that leads to Mescanti."
" Where, then, lies the trail ? " I inquired.
" Yonder," was the reply, the dark-faced child of the sun
pointing indefinitely with his chin to a part of the world at
right angles to that over which we were then passing.
Being in haste, for the day was now wearing, I bolted off
and came on not one track, but three tracks. After trying
them each in turn, I discovered that they all ran in the same
direction. It was now six o'clock. In less time than it takes a maid
to close the shutters, the sun would roll over the side of the
world, and I should be left in the dark. Still, I had no fear.
But, before deciding upon anything, I thought it good to
dine, give the mule a roll in the sand, and otherwise pre
pare to meet the unmistakable difficulty in which I
then found myself, of being lost. On taking a steady
survey of the round world, I discovered a dip in the
distant hills, then fast becoming clothed in blue. So
remarkable was this appearance that I could come to no
other conclusion than that there, if anywhere, I might find
water, and if water, something else which the mule would
be glad to crunch and get into its stomach. I further
resolved that if no way of escape was possible, rather than
lie down and die I would kill the mule, make charqui of
her flesh, and live in the strength of that food as long as I
could, or till rescue came to me.
I kept my resolution, and we sped on our way to the

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 135
space in the hills, which looked as if one of the great
pyramids had been cut out of them, peak downwards, the
mule still going as fresh as when we first left Cobija. The
sun at last did roll over, as I expected, and we two were
left in the dark. There was no moon. Soon I caught
sight of what seemed to be a torch. It hung over the dip
in the hills, making it visible. I pulled up my companion
to get a steady gaze at the friendly light, the finger of fire
which beckoned me on. It proved to be a star, which was
magnified into a blaze of brightness by being seen through
the reverberating heat of the hills. It was a long way off.
The night became very cold, but soon the stars came out
in emerald, ruby, sapphire, and diamond light. I forgot all
about being lost. I wanted all the world to come and see
this glory of the heavens, the " vicar of the Almighty Lord "
in his richest robes.
It was now midnight, the cold very great. We reached
what seemed to be a deep, yawning pit, which lay in a
direct line with the star. Down went the mule into what
turned out to be an extinct volcano — a crater of pumice.
We climbed the other side with difficulty, making a great
cloud of blinding dust, and on reaching the solid earth I
proposed to give the mule a drink of water. But to my
horror there was no water to be had. The strap which had
fastened the horns containing the water to the croup had
given way. To my actual thirst was now added an
imaginary thirst, which became intolerable. In my distress
I had no heart to mount the mule, and walked at its side,
picking up one or two pebbles to roll them under my burn
ing tongue, which began to swell, or I imagined it did, and
my thirst increased. As I walked along, carrying the reins
over my left arm, the mule appeared to be in a dismal

136 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
plight ; its tail was pressed between its legs, and its ears
hung all awry. The colour of my thoughts changed ; the
stars lost their beauty. I would have given them all to
hear the barking of a dog or the crowing of a cock. But
the star, although not a bit nearer, still hung steadily over
the dip in the hills. I got into the saddle. The mule
cheered up and began a cheery trot, its ears standing
straight against the sky like two spikes. The horrible
thirst became bearable by this good conduct of my com
panion. Soon my attention was called to a mysterious
stretch of darkness, over which hung the friendly star, and
as I was peering into this strange thing the mule turned
with a swiftness which nearly hurled me from the saddle.
I pulled up, and, listening and looking, heard the sound of
rippling water !
We had reached the precipitous banks of the Mescanti
river. If the mule had not started back as it did we should
have fallen down a deep place and been killed. The mule
had found the river ; it was now my place to find the ford.
This did not take more than an hour. We reached the
river's brink, and I gave the first drink to the mule. After
half-an-hour's rest I was again in the saddle. We swam
the river, and in less than five minutes we were in front of
a roaring fire in an Indian's hut at Mescanti — saved !
It is good for a man to be tried in a desert. I was once
lost in a tropical forest at the foot of the Quindio Moun
tains, and felt as helpless as a land crab up a tree. But no
man need be lost in a wilderness of sand if the atmosphere
is as sweet and inspiring as I found it. No despair is
possible when your very bones are full of the power which
is supplied by the Queen of the Air.
I had only twenty miles to go before reaching the place

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 137
•where I was to rest and prepare for what remained of the
'way. I suppose it was in an insolence of triumph over the
troubles of the previous night that I set off still alone for
Calama. The Indians of the hut told me that I should not
.fail to overtake two men, adding some other word of which
I took no notice at the time. I quickly made up to them,
as they were loitering along.
" Buenas dias, caballeros," I sang out in cheerful voice,
as I drew nigh to the two horsemen.
" Buen dia," responded the oldest of the two, who was
of saturnine complexion.
There was no expression of human love in his face or
voice. I became painfully suspicious that these two men
were murderers.
Our talk became as polite as it was reserved. It was
nearly all on my side. I could only learn what my fellow-
travellers were made of by making remarks which compelled
them to look at me. I had never seen such ill-looking
.men. " Have you any fresh water?" I inquired.
" Oh, yes, we have two bottles of sweet water."
" And have you, perchance, any good things on which to
.breakfast ? "
" No."
They had nothing of that sort, as I knew full well.
" Then, if it will please your worships to join me at
breakfast I shall be happy to entertain you. I have some
•delicious meat pies, onions from Lisbon, garlic from Chile,
•cheese and ham from Estramadura, the finest cognac from
France, and the choicest cigars from the Havannah. On
these we will refresh ourselves under the first rock we
¦come to that gives any shade."

138 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
We reached a great rock, under the tropic of Capricorn,
which the reader perhaps knows is very hot, take it when
you will.
I spread a white diaper napkin on the sand, and began
to make an ostentatious display of rare delicacies. Before
inviting them to eat I offered the ruffians a thimbleful of
the old French brandy. They both praised the liquor.
"Well," I said, " I will give you this bottle of old brandy
for your two bottles of water."
They jumped at the chance, and the exchange was made.
They drank freely of the smooth, milky, mild liquor, but
very soon they fell fast asleep — all their senses were locked
up like pawns in a chest. Fast asleep they lay in the sand,
and I could have cut their throats as easily as I sliced an
onion. I finished breakfast, leaving the ruffians still sleep
ing, and off I rode, laughing till I reached Calama, where I
learnt further particulars of them.*
And my desert life of seventeen days was over, with its
glorious freedom, its pure enjoyment, its unexampled sim
plicity, its magnificent abundance of all that makes life a
blessed endowment.
My travelling expenses on the road amounted to three
shillings. This, however, did not include my supper at
Ascotan. I arrived there very late at night, having wasted
much time in examining some deposits of borax, which I
discovered on the way. The keeper of the hut, in answer
to my question, said in a surly way that he had nothing
much for supper.
" Have you anything good to drink ? " I asked him.
He had a large bottle of veritable Bass.
* They were subsequently shot in the market-place for murder and highway-
robbery, by order of the authorities.

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 139
" How much silver coin will induce your worship to part
with this one bottle of Pally-Ally ? "
" Eight dollars," he answered.
" Very well. Get me something warm for supper, and
make a good fire. I will give you the eight dollars."
Within an hour I sat in front of a dish of stewed guinea
pigs, the brown sort, and did not reflect on the extrava
gance of paying twenty-four shillings for a bottle of beer-
The Bolivian dollar is, or was then, only worth three
shillings. I arrived in Potosi in the afternoon in time to see a
revolution, which however was a tame affair, it being
winter time. For three months in the year all the four
seasons are represented in one day in Potosi. This was
the season of my arrival. A heavy fall of snow began at
five o'clock, and lasted for three hours. Then it began to-
freeze hard and fast until sunrise. When the sun got up it
began to thaw. Before noon the city was under water. By
three o'clock in the afternoon all the waters were dried up
and the straws were blown about the windy streets. At
five o'clock all nature went again to bed under cover of the
wondrous strange snow. A very trying climate.
" Potosi ! " exclaims Pedro de Angelis,* " the famous
city of the world, whose history is ciphered in its hill. It
was the great guerdon of the Conquest of America in the
streams of silver which it poured upon the monarchy of
Spain, and which raised it to a grade of prosperity unique,
to precipitate it by-and-bye into an abyss of disgrace. How
many despots, how many wars, how much crime had been
saved to Spain,, and through her to Europe, if she had not
had at her disposal the mines of Potosi." Angelis says
* "Coleccion de obras y documentos," Buenos Ayres, 1836, p. 68.

140 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
further that they were discovered by an Indian of Porcos,
January ist, 1546, and since then they have been so ill
directed, so tyrannically sustained, that they have cost the
lives of millions of aboriginals. " So foolishly and wrongly
have these mines been developed that they have had to be
abandoned, although only a third part has been worked.
Potosi, or Ppotocsi, in Quichua, signifies "a thing which
bursts,"* according to some, but no reliance at present can
be placed on any translation from this language.
The town of Potosi, as seen from the heights above, is a
striking sight. In the clear light which prevails you can
almost count the stones in the street from a height of five
thousand feet. It is a sweet innocent-looking place, a
picture of order and cleanliness, but a closer contact reveals
the exact opposite of these. Every street bears a sinister
aspect, as almost every human face is clad in sorrow or
pain. It is a towrn where probably more murders have
been committed than any town in the world noted for
similar wickedness. Potosi is as much noted for its crimes
as for its thousands of millions of pounds sterling. If you
did not know this you would not fail to inquire why it is
that it carries such a hang-dog look. A sensitive eye has
no difficulty in perceiving a likeness between Potosi and
Jerusalem in its present condition, or as it was rather, a
quarter of a century ago. Are not the crimes done against
the poor done against all reason, common sense, and
decency in the infamous Black Country, in Staffordshire
Warwickshire and Worcestershire, written on the face of
all those towns, as well as on the miserable, sorrowful,
suffering faces of their people?
* The hill is 16,150 feet above the level of the sea, in shape like a sugar loaf,
which it resembles when covered with snow. In it are, or were, 5,000 different
openings. Lat. 190 36' S. and 65° 46' W. long.

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 141
Where ever I have been in the new world, or the old,
where the landscape has been murdered, and sweet Nature
put to death, the marks of violence remain in graphic force
for all to read. There is nothing so painfully hideous as
the aspect of mining towns, whether in Chile, Bolivia, and
Peru, in Staffordshire or Yorkshire, in North America or
South, round Lake Superior or Lake Titicaca, in New
Zealand or Australia.
The devastation caused by earthquakes is not displeasing ,'
there is a picturesque disordered orderliness about it, a
certain beauty, as in icicles torn by the wind, but man's
devastation conveys no idea but that of corruption or
decay, destruction or death. The ruins of human dwellings
in Potosi are hateful to behold, alike for their number, as
for the desolation which hangs over them. This is not
idle fancy. Some of my readers have, perhaps, been
through the vale of Daroka in Castile. It was once famous
for its vineyards and its innumerable, happy people, who
made a garden of it, from which there went up daily songs
of joy and gladness. Behold it now, and you shall see a
desolation that is precisely the same as that which I am
trying to depict as existing in Potosi.
How came it to pass ?
The same people wh'o murdered the Indians in Potosi
banished the Moors from Daroka, where there are now more
empty houses than inhabitants, and more ruins than both
put together. The Spanish colonists in the one case were
consumed with avarice and greed and the lusts which come
from selfishness, and the Spaniards of the mother country,
believing that God had forsaken them because trade was
slack and no silver came now from Potosi, thought to
appease Him by sweeping their house clean of misbelieving

142 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
dogs, hoping that He would send them back the good old
days of joy and plenty. He has never taken the bribe; cer
tainly joy and plenty for Spain seem farther off than ever.
Would that I could see no likeness between the avarice
and greed, coupled with ferocious cruelty, which once
prevailed in Spanish silver colonies, and the avarice, greed,
and cruelty to be found in some of our gold colonies. The
likeness could not be more perfect if it were taken by the
sun. Given a sordid religion at home, we shall not fail to find
a debased morality in the dependencies. As a proof of
this, let me call attention to the following announcement,
which appeared in the London daily papers of March nth,
1886:— " Letters received yesterday from the Australian Station
state that her Majesty's ship Diamond recently returned to
Sydney after an absence of three months, during which she
was busily employed punishing natives in various parts for
murders committed by them on British subjects.
" AtNormanby, where Captain Miller had been murdered,
the natives refused to surrender the murderers. A number
of sailors were accordingly landed from the Diamond, and
they burnt the villages, drove the natives out, and
destroyed their nets and canoes.
"At Hoopiron Bay, Moresby Island, where Captain Frier
and one of his sailors were murdered, the skulls of the
murdered men were discovered, but the natives disappeared
into the interior directly the Diamond hove in sight.
" The same thing occurred at Millport Bay, where Captain
Webb and his crew were massacred, and here again men
were landed, and destroyed all the canoes and nets, and the
villages were shelled from the ship.

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 143
" The Diamond next proceeded to the Solomon Islands to
punish the murderers of Mr. Childe. Boats' crews were
sent ashore, and not only were the villages destroyed and
the cocoanut plantations laid waste, but an armed party
marched through the island and destroyed all the cocoanut
trees and villages that were met with.
" At San Christoval the natives refused to give up the
murderers of Captain Howie and his companions, and they
were punished by the entire destruction of their villages,
plantations, and nets."
These details are similar to those which took place in
1868, when Commodore Sir William Wiseman, in H.M.S.
Curacoa, bombarded the island of Tanna, totally destroying
all its villages. He then continued his cruise, Bishop
Patteson in his yacht, the Southern Cross, being in his
company. On the 25th of September, in consequence of a
report which the Commodore had received, he fired twenty
shells and four rockets into a native island village. It was
said that frightful damage was done by the bursting of a
shell in a cave in which the people had probably taken
shelter.* I must remind the reader that kidnapping in English
ships from the South Sea Islands began in 1861. The
largest ship load of kanakas which had then been made was
carried to Peru by one Byrne, Birne, or Bergne, a notorious
scoundrel whom I saw in Lima at the time that he made
his bargain with the Peruvian Government. He was an
Australian colonist. By the time that inquiries had been
set on foot into Byrne's doings, and efforts were being made
to compel the Peruvian Government to return the kidnapped
people to their homes, they had all died.
* " Cruise of the Rosario," Captain A. H. Markham, p. 47.

144 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
The late Sir John O'Shannassy told me that Byrne had'
asked him to join in this kidnapping speculation, but that
he refused.
I may be allowed to add that Bishop Patteson was in the
habit of cruising in and out of these same waters, from
whence these people were taken, with the object of
inducing some of them to go to his school in Norfolk
Island. The intentions of the good, let me say saintly,
bishop were admirable, but he could not explain them to
the natives because he could not speak their language. The
natives were unable to distinguish the bishop from a
recruiter; while I know of my own knowledge that some of
these inhuman recruiters, in order the better to beguile the
natives, dressed themselves up to look as much like the
bishop as they could.
Bishop Patteson was murdered because the natives
believed that he was in the sugar business, or in some wav
connected with plantations and kidnapping.
Whatever their mistaken beliefs, or their reasonable
convictions, no one knows better than Captain A. H. Mark-
ham, late commander of the Rosario, that the wives and
daughters, sisters and mothers of South Sea Islanders, were
by cunning devices conveyed to the sugar plantations of
Queensland — that they never returned, that manv were mur
dered on board the slave ships, and others died of improper
treatment on the plantations.
When the husbands, fathers, and brothers of these women
got the chance the)- murdered in just revenge the murderers
of their women.
Blood revenge is the only religion which exists among
these people ; and for us to send our sailors and men-of-
war to cut down the cocoa palms and burn the villaoes of

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 145
these people is an everlasting disgrace to those who ordered
it to be done.
If any persons deserved punishment it was they who
formed the Queensland Government, who licensed the
ships to go to the South Sea Islands to fish for men and
women — even the men who licensed well-known cut
throats to command those ships, and winked at the
abominations that were done on board.
Kidnapping led the way to the passing of the " Queens
land Labour Act of 1868," and the Imperial Act for the
" Prevention and Punishment of Criminal Outrages upon
Natives of the Islands in the Pacific Ocean, 1872."
It was absolutely necessary for the Colonial Government
to interfere, or to make a show of interference, not only
because murder and kidnapping were being done in the
name of commerce, but also to send people to sleep whose
business it was to be wide awake, namely, the respectable
people of Queensland, and the people of the Imperial
Colonial Office. If the interference had been effective all
would have been well ; as it was, it was the most ineffective
interference ever made by Government.
Here I will again quote from a lecture which I delivered
in the School of Arts at Mackay, the Capital of the Sugar
Industry in North Queensland.
" Under the organized interference of Government,
islanders have been brought from their homes who never
understood the nature of the ' contract ' into which they
were beguiled.
" Under the organized interference of Government, labour
vessels have been made into dens of infamy, where the
grossest sensuality and obscene living have been rampant,
in which some representatives of Government took part,
L

146 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
and were as conspicuous for their treachery to the Executive
as for their loathsome immoralities.
" Under the organized interference of Government, labour
vessels have been fraudulently measured, whereby the re
sponsible Minister has licensed a ship to carry more
islanders than the Statute allowed.
" Under the same organized interference, many thousands
of islanders have, by a legal figment, been enthralled in
Queensland after having been illegally beguiled from their
homes by the very men whom Government had selected to
represent it, and whose duty it was to hinder the doing of
these things.
" Under the organized interference of Government, the
Government submitted complacently to insult and outrage
in the persons of some of its representatives, to which only
a Government conscious of its own corruption could have
submitted itself.
" There never was any other reason than the apathy of the
Queensland authorities for the labour traffic so speedily
developing itself, as it did, into a slave trade, except that
there is for sinful man some diabolical fascination in man-
hunting that exceeds fox-hunting, fishing, or shotting birds
as much as real war exceeds a sham fight. It has alwavs
been so under all the dynasties of recorded time. Man-
hunting in all probability achieved the acme of its infamy
under Charles V., and was carried on by all the Christian
monarchies until a very recent date. How it was abolished
in the United States we all know full well. How the
Southern States are at the present moment yielding a fuller
increase under their changed conditions than they yielded
under the reign of the slavemongcr has been made obvious
to the meanest capacity. But that we, at this hour, should,

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 147
on trying to found an English colony within the tropics,
have got hampered and embarrassed with the question of
labour is one of those accidents in our history that cannot
possibly assume a permanent influence in any shape or
form." The worst thing in connection with the destruction of
South Sea villages by British men-of-war is that it has
done more harm than good. It is certain that the exploits
of the Diamond will lead to fresh assaults when the chances
occur for committing them on Europeans, whether they be
bishops, or captains, or botanists, or other harmless travel
lers. This has proved to be the case since the foregoing
was written.
The little time I had in Potosi for social intercourse I
passed in the company of the Archbishop of Charcas and
his familiares, who were on a visit there. The arch
bishop always appeared at dinner in a purple cassock, with
a large gold cross hanging round his neck, and lace ruffles
on his wrists. He was a very handsome man, of delightful
manners, full of good stories, which he told with real
delight. Everybody listened in silent pleasure, especially
our host's wife, a charming woman, una hija del pais,
dressed all in white lace, looking like a snowball with a red
posy stuck in it. After dinner we adjourned to a large,
well-adorned room to smoke and tell tales. On one of
these occasions I experienced the disagreeable sensation of
a priest trying to convert me to the worship of the Virgin
Mary. He was a good enough fellow, and fond of wine
and fine cigars.
I remained as long as I cared to remain in Potosi, and
left it on a somewhat curious mission. I had hoped to
return to the Pacific by way of La Paz, but accident, fate,

148 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
or luck led me back across the same desert over which I
had come.
I was made conductor of a remittance of 100,000 dollars
from Potosi to Cobija.
This required twenty-two mules, ten Indians, and a
capataz, or head muleteer. The Indians went on foot. We
had not, among us all, a single weapon of any sort. Leano,
the capataz, was the only one who carried a knife of any
use for stabbing. My duties consisted in counting the hide
bound dollars every time we halted for the night, and
taking such precautions as circumstances seemed to require
for the safety of the lucre. There were forty hide parcels,
each parcel containing 2,500 silver dollars. We marched
about forty miles a day, always sleeping at night at some
well-known hut. We lived well, had always a hot supper,
and we were ever ready for our beds after smoking a pipe
or a cigar. The Indians, who chewed cuca all day, never
cared for tobacco in anv other form than that of a cigarette.
I never once heard one Indian address another. They
were the most silent human beings I ever knew. Trudging
along attending to the mules, and looking after the trap
pings which kept the hide-bound dollars in their places,
they seemed in intelligence no higher than the mules them
selves, as patient and as silent.
One night we arrived somewhat early at the snuggest
quarters of the whole way, after a day of comparatively
easy travel — Cnnchas B/ancas the place was called. The
puchcro, or stew, was very good, and we spent a quiet,
pleasant night, smoking tobacco and drinking home-made
chiclta, or aguadicntc. and telling tales; our host and his
wife listening with much interest and attention.

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 149
" Leano," I said, " how long have you been occupied in
carrying money in this way across the desert ? "
" More than twenty years," he said.
" And you never had any trouble and were never
robbed ? " I inquired, hoping to get some knowledge of
this kind of life from one who had followed it so long.
" / was never robbed, and never had any trouble. Only
once, when we arrived at Cobija, there were two zurrones
missing, but that was not my fault. It was the remesero's
place to look after every zurron, and he was responsible."
" What did you do ? " I naturally inquired.
He said —
"We returned very sorrowful to Potosi, for each zurron
then, as now, contained 2,500 dollars, and we prayed all the
way to the Most Blessed Maria that she would find the
zurrones for us. And now, mark, senor, when we got to
Potosi, there were the two zurrones ! "
'' You had never taken them away," I suggested.
I meant no harm, but found that I had greatly hurt
Leano' s feelings, and the listeners were annoyed, so I had
to remark —
" How kind it was of the Blessed Virgin to bring back
the zurrones ; " on which the sky became once more clear,
and we drank together in peace and good fellowship.
I had noticed the emphasis which Leano placed on the
personal pronoun when he said that he had never been
robbed, so 1 inquired if he had ever known of any robbery
of or from the remittance during his twenty years of
service. " Ah ! Senor Don Alejandro, have you never heard?"
" No, never; let me hear."
" It was the largest remittance ever sent down — it was

150 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
250,000 dollars, and it is a long time ago. It arrived at
Puquios, and there it was met by French pirates, who shot
the Indians, killed the capataz, and after that they
bound the postero and his wife (i.e., keepers of the post-
house) back to back, taking them a good distance away,
and so left them, and they had well-nigh perished, but an
Indian shepherd with his llamas passed that way some
days afterwards, and saved them from starvation. The
post-master at once set off for Potosi, told the truth, and the
authorities sent out mounted scouts, who overtook the
Frenchmen with the remittance and overcame them, and
brought them into Potosi, and they were shot in the Plaza."
" Which way had the Frenchmen taken ? " I inquired.
"The way to Buenos Ayres."
Leafio's story took a long time to tell, but it was full of
incident and was well listened to. We all then went to
bed. The best bed was in the room where we had sat
drinking and yarning, and belonged to the post-master and
his wife. In the most good-natured way they asked me to
sleep with them. I excused myself, and said that I must
go and count the remittance and look after the mules. They
assured me that Leano was to be trusted in all things ; but
I was not to be beguiled, and I slept outside in the fresh air.
The climate of the desert after passing Canchas Blancas
was singularly benign, and even' step now brought us into
warmer weather. We did not meet a single mule or man
till we got to Puquios, and the post-house being in sight I
rode ahead, and arrived in the corral at about five o'clock
in the afternoon. Judge of my feelings when I saw sitting
outside on the door step of the principal room two French
sailors busily engaged in cleaning firearms. They were
good-looking, fair-spoken men, well clothed, and wearing

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 151
Panama hats, having the name Hyacinthe printed in gold
letters on a black ribbon running round the crown.
I addressed them cheerily, and they responded in like
manner, asked me whence I had come, and on my naming
Potosi they further inquired if I seen the remittance on my
way. I kept up a careless talk, remaining in the saddle and
taking stock of their firearms. There were two breech-
loading rifles, two muzzle-loaders of heavier metal, four
horse-pistols, and two handsome revolvers, all of which had
been beautifully cleaned and were now ready for use.
I called several times for the post-master, who did not
appear. On calling again one of the Frenchmen kindly
told me that the post-master had disappeared somewhere.
I said that I would go and hunt him up. My real inten
tion was to communicate with Leano. This I did. We
held a council of war, and, after I had instructed him in
what he should do, I rode back to the post-house, dis
mounted, went inside, and found the Indian post-master
hiding in a corner.
" Come and make a fire at once," I said to him. " Do
you know that Leano is close at hand, and do you know
that I am the remesero ? "
" Si, mi amo," said the Indian, but did not budge an inch.
He knew Leano was at hand with the remittance, and it
became obvious to me that the Frenchmen had been work
ing on the Indian's fears, perhaps his loyalty.
In rode Leano at the head of his mules, filling the corral,
and making an imposing appearance. I said, in a low,
calm voice, although I did not feel at all calm —
" Leano, you will make a barricade of the zurrones, place
all the arms inside, and cover all with your tolda. The

152 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Indians will sleep underneath. How many revolvers have
you?" "Ten."
" How many rifles ? "
" Two."
" And knives ? "
" We are all pretty well knived, blessed be God."
" Place all these arms for my inspection."
Which Leano said he would do, as was always done.
The Indian post-master still refused to stir. Leano, how
ever, made a good fire, and we made ourselves comfortable
with such things as we had. I brewed a good brew of tea,
which I invited the Frenchmen to share, which they did.
At nine o'clock Leano went to bed behind the wall of
zurrones, under the tolda, with the Indians. " I will keep
the first watch," I said to him as we shook hands, all of
which was observed by the French with marked attention.
They also soon went to bed in the one room set apart for
travellers. They took their arms inside, placed them handy,
left a light burning and the door open, I remaining outside
walking up and down like a sentinel smoking cigars, not
at all happy although the night was bright with moon and
stars, singularly peaceful, and but for those suspicious-
looking Frenchmen everything would have been delightful.
About midnight one of the Frenchmen came out of the
room with a gun in his hand, walked hurriedly across the
corral, got over the adobe wall, and disappeared in the
desert. On this I called Leano, told him that one of the French
highwaymen had gone evidently to call his companions,
and that the other French highwayman was inside fast
asleep ; that the thing for us to do was there and then to

FROM NEW ZEALAND TO BOLIVIA. 153
secure the sleeper — if necessary, to kill him — but at all
hazard to get hold of the arms. I particularly wanted
Leano to kill the sleeping Frenchman, for I had no heart
to do it myself. My imagination began to work all of its
•own accord, and so pictured things to me that I could no
more have committed that murder than I could jump over
the moon. Leano seemed also to have misgivings.
" Yo no quiero matar a indie," he said, in good Spanish :
which in English is, " I don't want to kill anybody."
I then asked him if he would like anyone to murder him,
¦on which he very properly reminded me that I was the con
ductor of the remittance, and responsible for its safe arrival,
.and not he.
This was true, but for the life of me, although I saw that
it was necessary to get hold of those arms, and that this
could not be done without disabling, or overpowering, or
killing the sleeping Frenchman, yet I could not compel my
mind to entertain the bloody business.
Some time after this the Frenchman who had got over
the wall with his naked gun returned in like manner, carry
ing by the hind legs a white rabbit, a yard long ! This was
a vizcatcha — a description of which animal the reader will
find in Darwin's charming book*
Leano went to bed without giving me a look, or saying a
word. The Frenchman went to his bed, and so did I to
mine, not in the least sorry for the sight of the rabbit, and
the conclusions which it suggested. I had nothing to be
ashamed of excepting in proposing to Leano to kill the
Frenchman — a thing which I did not like doing myself;
but as I found that I really could not commit that murder I
-had no compunction of conscience for having proposed
* '• A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World."

154 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
that it should be done by someone else, it seeming to me
so necessary for our own preservation and the safety of
that large sum of money that the Frenchman should be
killed. Early in the morning we saddled up. The Indians had a
fine hot stew, the Frenchmen skinned their rabbit, and
stewed it, I providing some delightful onions and another
pot of tea; and while they and I continued to converse
together, discussing the -e and other good things for a couple
of hours, the remittance went on its way unmolested to
Cobija. " What may your worships be looking for in the desertr
and with such an arsenal ? " I inquired in Spanish, which
language they spoke very well.
" We are looking," was their reply, "for twenty thousand
dollars." Expressing with great cordiality my wish that they would
succeed in finding that small sum, and having begged the
favour of their accepting from me a packet of tea, I took
my leave, and have neither heard of nor seen them since.
When the gold remittance used to be sent down from the
gold fields to Melbourne, well escorted, it did not always
arrive, and there are men still living who went through-
experiences very similar to mine, except that they did not
always, if ever, end with a breakfast of stewed vizcatha,.
or bizcacha, as I believe it should be spelt, with other good
things. Of the gold and silver remittances much could be said of
how and with what success thevwere conducted in the gold
and silver colonies, but this would be a mere catalogue of
crime, and of these catalogues there are quite enough in
the world already.

CHAPTER XI.
VENEZUELA — NEGROES — TRINIDAD.
The last silver deposit I visited was in Carupano, that part
of the north-east end of Venezuela, in the Carribean Sea,
which is immediately in front of Trinidad.
The climate is superb. I remained there a month,
making excursions to Cumana, the Bays of Paria and Santa,
the roads of New Barcelona, and the offing of La Guayra,
visiting Caracas, and finally spending a month in Trinidad ;
all renowned and famous places, blessed with uncommon
beauty and abounding wealth, and all except Trinity, or
Trinidad, cursed with silver fame. Carupano is the most
favoured spot of earth that I know of. I never saw such
caoutchouc, or india-rubber trees, such sugar cane, such
cacao, and I am almost quite sure that I never saw such
miserable men and poor women as are to be seen there.
Where there are silver mines the sweeter and more
endurable sources of wealth are always neglected by the
foolish people who there spend their days " in misery and
iron." Why the vegetation should be so rich and all growths so
fine, why the sugar cane should have a girth of thirteen inches,

¦>h

156 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
and the theobroma, shrub or tree, be so vigorous I could
not tell, much less did I dream of ever being able to find
out. But one day as I was walking in a solitary wilder
ness of magnificent but neglected things I stumbled on what
seemed to be a piece of red brick. I carried it to my den,
analyzed and found it to be phosphatic lime, highly ferru
ginous, and as hard as a fire brick. Carupano is a bed of
many kinds of phosphates, in some places twenty feet deep.
1 no longer wondered at the marvels of the vegetable
kingdom, but did wonder whether or not agricultural
chemists knew all about the phosphate of lime when it is
much mixed with the oxide of iron. Carupano would be ¦
an earthly paradise if the right sort of mortal mixture of
earth's mould could be found and entrusted with its keep
ing. But no where, in no colony, golden or silvern, have I
seen a people happy, healthy, or wholesome who were
blessed with much of nature's abundance.
What a perfect wonder of beauty and plenty is Caracas ;
how glorious is its climate, and its situation. Who can tell
its flowers, or call by their names its many other excellent
things ? And there how poor a thing is man. How poor
and foolish has man been ever since Caracas was settled
three hundred years ago.
If Caracas be a place begetting wonder, the road to it
from La Guayra is worthy of it. I arrived very early at
this oven, indeed long before La Guayra was out of bed.
But even at that early hour the heat was overpowering.
Within three hours after my arrival at the Hotel Nettuno I
had changed my garments, bathed, breakfasted, and was
fairly on the way to a new world.
On this way there are between forty and fifty turnings,
some as rapid and abrupt as out of the Strand into Wych

VENEZUELA— NEGROES— TRINIDAD. 1 57
Street, out of Cornhill into Bishopsgate, or out of the frying-
pan into the fire. At every new turn there is a new region
of colour and form. Not only does the colour of the sea
change from green to blue, to sapphire and opal, emerald
and pearl, but the earth in like manner puts on a different
dress, all the dresses being beautiful and strange, begetting
wonder. The heavens are in tune with all, and for once
in my life I heard in the tropics a concert of such divine
enchanting ravishment as made me forget the toil of the
way, its dangers, and all of the troubles of life which beset
a pilgrim on his road from the pigstye of La Guayra to the
glories of Beulah.
Why are the men you meet with now like apes and now
like men ? How is it that the first impression you receive
of human beings whom you meet in Caracas is an impres
sion difficult to explain even to yourself, but which on
mature reflection resolves itself into this : Here human
nature is visibly seen to be made up of flesh and spirit,
and can and does change its face as really as the vary
ing light which falls on earth and sea on the Caracas way
changes these in tone and tint ? Here is patent to all, and
at once, " God's image and the mould of clay," a being who
is at once the heir of heaven and the heir of earth — an
immortal, and a brute, the divine legend reversed, the beast
of a dragon trampling on the fallen St. George !
I had not been a week in Caracas before I discovered
that its principal men and women are all gamblers in mines,
gold and silver mines — gold mines in Guiana and silver
mines "close by" in the Cerro. I stayed at the Hotel St.
Amand, the charges at which were higher than at the
Grand Hotel in Paris, but neither the dinners nor the
rooms could in anything be compared. It speedily became

158 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
known in the town that I knew something of the metallurgy
of gold and silver. Men whom I knew nothing of came to
me with the most magnificent "gold ores" I had ever seen,
seeking my advice, and asking questions on the best
methods of treating such hard rocks, which contained so
much of the beautiful yellow metal. Before these rocks
were reduced to powder by stamping, all the auriferous
wealth would be beaten into gold leaf so fine that the wind
would blow it away. Could I, oh ! would I, tell them how
this beautiful fine gold could be got out of these very hard
rocks? If you want to seethe immortal and the brute combined,
or to see in actual operation the brute overcoming the
immortal, go to Caracas. If you would see the seventh
chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans changed into a
living epistle that may be known and read of all men, make
the acquaintance of men who hold shares in the gold mines
of British Guiana. It will not prove a pleasing experience.
but a very instructive one. You shall see one of these
men, his face of a radiant brightness, charming to behold,
giving off a happy smile that is so contagious that it in
fluences the whole market-place ; and six days afterwards
you shall see this being again, and not know him. He has
been changed, not from glory to glory, but from glory to
shame, from a man to the " hairy eclipse of a manhood
divine," from a Ferdinand to a Caliban, from the sweetest
human companion to a black-visaged devil.
The change was wrought not by philtres or powders to be
bought at the most respectable wholesale druggist's, but by
the man's own will, his power of faith. While he bore a
fair impression of the image of his Maker he believed that
he was master of untold unrustable gold; when he bore the

VENEZUELA— NEGROES— TRINIDAD. 159
image of beast, or devil, he knew that all that he pos
sessed in this changing scene of life was nothing but a
heap of iron pyrites !
One of these men, whose figura had afforded me this
study, offered me a fee of one thousand guineas to go to the
Esequibo river and report on a certain gold mine whose
name is now well known in Capel Court. I refused. Two
mornings later he came to my hotel, inviting himself to
breakfast, in an insolence of happiness ; and as we were
smoking our morning cigars he renewed his application
and doubled the fee. I told him that I could not go. I
was already retained.
Thereupon his feelings underwent a change, his manners
changed, and he began asking several direct questions
which I meekly refused to answer. He had taken up the
notion that someone in Caracas had anticipated him. This
he proceeded to ascertain. Not being able to come to
any satisfactory conclusion, he began spreading abroad the
most absurd stories about myself, all the recompense I
obtained for not a little annoyance being the opportunity
which this brute gave me of seeing what a devil a man can
make out of no other materials save the elements of which
his own nature is composed.
The public gardens in Caracas are very fine, being filled
with trees and plants peculiar to Venezuela, a great and
gorgeous collection. This garden was planted by that
singular tyrant Guzman Blanco, who was then President of
the Republic, a man whom all Venezuelans flatter hate and
fear. It is only in a country where the men are all hens that
such a magnificent dunghill cock as this could crow over
them so lustily.
There was one exception, which I trust my reader may

160 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
be glad to hear of. It was in Caracas that I made the-
acquaintance of the most sweet-tempered man I ever
knew. He was a Minister of State, a General in the army,
and a negro — in the language of discourtesy " an un
mitigated nigger," but in manners equal to the best of men.
He was much beloved by the poor. He took me in a hired
carriage to see the principal sights. It was a great treat to
me to see this fine negro in active intercourse with all
classes of people. He was, without exaggeration, adored
by the women of all ranks ; but to all he was as modest as
he was, I believe, true and clean of heart. On returning to
Amand's the driver refused to take any payment for the
use of his carriage ; he had, he said, been more than paid
by having the honour of driving us about !
I left Caracas with regret and walked half of the way to
La Guayra, that is from the half-wav house, a distance of
some twelve miles ; it was the only way to enjov the
scenery, surely the most wonderful of any in the world.
A sunrise in the Straits of Magellan, lighting up withrubv-
fire the rippling snowy heights of Tierra del Fuego is a sight
never to be forgotten by those who have seen it ; but to see
the sun go to his ocean bath from the heights above La
Guayra is to have received a privilege that must for < ver
possess the mind and soul of those who have enjoyed
it. The railway to Caracas is one of several famous mountain
railways which have been built in our generation. How
long it will last, He who orders the earthquake and
harnesses the lightning alone can tell. It is a work of
great skill, carried through w ith courage and perseverance,
and many Americans English and natives have played an
honourable part in it ; it has thrown many honest, hard-

VENEZUELA— NEGROES— TRINIDAD. 161
working people out of work, but it will save much suffering
to innumerable horses, asses, and mules,
Still, to dwell for a moment longer on negroes. The
negro General who helped to make my visit to Caracas so
pleasant was a native of the province of Cumana\ I also
know of my own knowledge that when an Australian black
fellow is early taken on board ship, he becomes an expert
sailor — handy, skilful, obedient, and supremely happy. The
black people of Bouka, in the Solomon Islands — who,
however, are not negroes — are a fine race of men. The
" King," or head man at Bouka, with whom I came in
contact very much — every day for a week — was a man of
refined mind, of exquisite tact, and high breeding. He
ruled his people with gentleness ; he also worked as hard as
any of them. There are in shallow water at Bouka beds of
coral to be seen growing like flower beds, of infinite variety
and beauty in form and colour. Noticing my delight at the
sight, he asked me by intelligent signs if I would like to
have some of these precious corals. I answerd him in a
manner that left no doubt in his mind that to carry away
some of those wonders of the deep would give me great joy.
The next morning ten big fellows brought me two coral
trees, each as big as a small gooseberry bush, nor would they
or their " King" accept any gift in return from me for these
things. They refused tobacco, and, to my utter astonish
ment, they refused a present of some of the much-coveted
small beads. I made it up to them in other ways. The
" King" I dressed in as much apropriate finery as I could
muster, to his delight and that of his people. We also let
off some guns and dynamite ; a heavy lighted fuse being
thrown into the sea raised a magnificent column of water
and stunned a lot of fishes, which were easily taken. M

162 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
To my horror, the skipper told me soon after we had left
Bouka that he had given several charges of dynamite to the
King, " he begged so hard for some." What happened it is
not difficult to imagine. Perhaps some hideous tragedy
which will never be forgotten or forgiven.
When Professor Moseley, of the Challenger expedition
had his soda-water stolen from him by the natives in
Moresby Bay, there was much fun to be got out of suppos
ing what happened in the bosom of those thieves' families
when the bottles were uncorked. But dynamite !
I have seen the negro in many parts of the world, and
know, as well as I know anything, that whatever was his
social, moral, or intellectual state in those parts it was
entirely owing to the treatment which he had received from
his superiors. The negro in Colon and Panama, who had
been debased in early life, in Jamaica is, perhaps, the most
loathsome human being on the face of ihe earth. The
negro in Barbadoes, a pampered sybarite, who has been
allowed to grow up as a spoiled child, is a fine-looking
animal, with homicidal tendencies. In Trinidad the negro
is lazy as well as insolent. In Jamaica he and she are, as
human beings, failures in every sense of that word, to an
extent that is impossible to describe. English-speaking
negroes, everywhere that I have seen them, are worse than
French or Spanish negroes. Even in Peru, where this race
has been living for more than three centuries, the negro is
far more of a human being than he of the. English-speaking
breed. Religious negroes — by which I mean those who have
received a technical education in English religion — are
much more hideous caricatures of human beings than the
heathen negroes who have been left to themselves on the

VENEZUELA— NEGROES— TRINIDAD. 163
Rio Negro, in the glorious wilderness which lies at the
base of the Quindio mountains, and in other out-of-the-way
spots of the earth, to which it would seem this most misused
child of humanity has fled to hide him from the wicked
white who made this earth for the black man a monotonous
hell. What an island is that of Trinidad. Who is sufficient
to paint its wonders ? If this were the only island of its
kind in the world, the great powers of the world would
contend among themselves for its possession. I stayed a
month, meeting with much hospitality and many kinds of
men, from whom I learnt many things. I visited several
sugar plantations, and plantations of cacao, from which is
made what the Mexicans called chocolalt, the Spaniards
chocolate, and we chocolate. The thing which struck me
most in connection with Trinidad was to find that I was
still alive on the morning after I left it. The feasting was
so stupendous, the wine-bibbing so vast ; but then the wine
was so good.
Not the eating nor drinking — sugar, cacao, rum — or even
the comet which at that time hung in the sky and made it
so impressive, nor the Savannah, nor the pitch lake, nor
delicious lap, nor the Blue Basin Falls made Trinidad so full
of interest for me but coolies : I refer to the Indian coolie,
not any individual he or she coolie, but the institution
which is to disestablish the negro in the West Indies and
the kanaka in Queensland, and give to the planters of both
those countries the slave after their own hearts — apprentice,
labourer, or by whatsoever other name the being is to be
called whose days in this mortal life are to be passed in the
sugar-field or the cacao-plantation, not so much for the
purpose of making greater harvest of sugar and more

164 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
chocolate, but for the primary purpose of providing more
purple, fine linen, and sumptuous banqueting for los Senores
Dives y Compania.
Of individual coolies I had some special experiences.
One morning I was returning from an early ride some miles
out of Port of Spain when it came on to rain suddenly,
and as copiously as it only can rain in Trinidad. A
hundred yards in front of me, coming along in the middle of
the road was a shining woman — fair, with beautifully rounded
limbs — walking in the soft warm rain. She had taken off
her clothes, rolled them into a bundle, which she carried
on her head, and over head and bundle, held by her left
hand, she carried a long, broad, green plantain leaf, which
gracefully hung down her back. She looked — to borrow a
phrase from the English poet who sang of the orange — like
a " gold lamp hung in a green night."
Another and very different sight was a coolie of the
baser sex. He had cut open a fellow coolie's face with a
knife, and two policemen were trying to haul him to gaol.
He writhed, leaped, grinned, and glared like a tiger. He
escaped from the grip of the constables several times, but
being in the street he was alwavs recaptured. Spare as
the man was, his nervous energy was amazing. It occurred
to me that a couple of hundred of such beings would give
great anxiety to the town if each were in a similar state of
excitement. Every day there was some row, and a terrible outbreak
occurred on one of the plantations, which caused great
alarm. Some slaughter took place, and one or two valu
able lives were lost.
There can be little doubt about the coolie bein°- an
admirable servant in a sugar-field. Coolies are both hard-

VENEZUELA— NEGROES— TRINIDAD. 165
working and thrifty. Deposits to the amount of £60,000
¦ were then in the Colonial Bank of Trinidad all belonging to
coolies. The sugar and cacao harvests were glorious.
The coolie had in fact brought back the old prosperity,
the good old days when the negro was a slave, not in
Trinidad only, but in Guiana also. The coolie is the
saviour not of West Indian society, but of its sugar.
I had procured statistics to show what a commercial
success the coolie has been. I have advocated the coolie
being engaged in North Queensland, believing that it would
be good for all — the coolie, colonist, and capitalist.
But after going over the whole question again, calling to
mind all that has happened during the past three hundred
years on the West Coast and East Coast of South America,
in the Gran Chaco, in the West Indies, and in North
America, and what is happening in English colonies now,
I think he would be a man of unique temerity who would
try to repeat in Queensland- the history of Peru, Jamaica,
or New Orleans.
" ' But,' you will say to me, ' this people, this Republic,
this State, cannot be supported without Indians. Who is
to bring us a pitcher of water, or a bundle of wood ? Who
is to plant our mandive ? Must our wives do it ? Must
our children do it ? '
" In the first place, as you shall presently see, these are
not the straits in which I would place you. But if necessity
and conscience require it, then I reply Yes ! and I repeat it,
Yes ! You and your wives and your children ought to do
it ! We ought to support ourselves with our own hands ;
far better is it to be supported by the sweat of our own
brow than by another's blood.
" Oh, ye rich of Maranham ! What if your mantles and
cloaks were to be wrung ?

166 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
" They would drop blood."*
There are other considerations. Shall Presbyterians and
others whose power of faith has been diverted from spiritual
things and set upon carnal, who care little for the treasure
in heaven, and much for the treasure which both moth and
rust corrupt and thieves steal, shall these have it in their
power to make of England another Spain, and turn her gold
and silver into dirt by making of our colonies what Spain
made of hers ? Shall these rich, religious colonists make it
the cry of England as it is the everlasting, tormenting cry
of Spain, " The good that I would I do not, but the evil
which I would not that I do ? "
* The first sermon of the Rev. Padre de Vieyra, preached at St. Luiz, quoted
in " The Conquerors of the New World and their Bondsmen,'' Vol. i.F 241.

CHAPTER XII.
MORE GOLD AND SILVER COMPARISONS.
As in the silver, so in the gold colonies; as the rich Spanish
colonists smothered better sources of wealth in their eager
rush after silver mines, so have the colonists in the gold
colonies. The Spaniards depopulated many a peaceful
valley in order to get recruits for the mines of Potosi,
Guancavalica, Carangas, and other places. There is a
curious little book,* written by an English eye-witness,
which is worth quoting : — -
" The King's — that is the King of Spain — interest is to
make provision that there be a sufficient number of slaves
for all the mines that are opened. For this end he obliges
all Couracas, or chiefs of the savages, to furnish everyone
a certain number ; which they must always keep compleat,
or else are forc'd to give twice as much Mony as would
have been paid in Wages to those that are wanting, if they
had been present.
" Those that are destined for the Mines of Potosi don't
amount (now) to above 2,500. These are brought and put
* " A Relation of Mr. R. M.'s Voyage to Buenos-Ayres, and from thence by
Land to Potosi." London: John Darby in Bartholomew Close, 17 16.

168 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
into a great Enclosure, which is at the foot of the Mountain
where the Corregidor makes a Distribution of 'em to the
Conductors of the Mines, according to the Number they
want ; and after six days' constant work, the Conductor
brings them back the Saturday following to the same place,
where the Corregidor causes a Review to be made of 'em,
the Wages that are appointed 'em, and to see how many
of 'em are dead, that the Couracas may be oblig'd to supply
the number that is wanting; for there's no week passes but
some of 'em die, either by divers Accidents that occur, as
the tumbling down of great quantities of earth and falling of
Stones, or by Sickness, and other casualties. They are
sometimes very much incommoded by Winds, that are
shut up in the Mines, the Coldness of which, joined to that
of some parts of the Earth, chills 'em so excessively that
unless they chew'd Coca, which heats and fuddles em,
it would be intolerable to 'em."
I have quoted from this authority because it is the only
English authority that I am acquainted with of what went
on at that time. Spanish authorities supply a few more
details and give the number of Indians employed at 5,000.
Not only were thousands of homes broken up, but Potosi
itself and the country for miles around is a howling desert.
All the highways have in like manner been broken up ; no
new roads have been made. The same with the bridges.
There is not a single obstacle in the way of makine a o-ood
carriage road all the way to Cobija, but this would have
taken many Indians from the mines. The work has never
been done, because no one thinks or dreams of anything
but silver and silver mines. I may say here in passing that
I have little doubt a railway will at no distant date be built
from Potosi to the coast.

MORE GOLD AND SILVER COMPARISONS. 169
What has taken place in and around Potosi has taken
place in and around every place in Peru, where were many
precious permanent things to smother and kill, and some
temporary silver to take away.
Take away ? It fled, seemingly of its own accord. One
of the permanent sources of the best riches in Peru was the
storage and distribution of water. Nearly every one of these
azequias, or artificial watercourses, like the many thousand
homes the highways and bridges have also been broken up.
The captive waters have broken loose, and now run about
as a mob of East End roughs will overrun and spoil and
carry off some of the precious things in the West if the
police stand still sufficiently long or go away in the opposite
direction. The Incas built all the reservoirs, or nearly all, and all, or
nearly all, the distributing watercourses. But like the
Incas, these are no more, and the water like them is spilt
on the ground, and cannot be gathered up again. The
silver has been turned to dirt, or a peculiar kind of moth
has turned it into corruption.
Before making any allusion to our gold colonies, or com
parison with those of silver, let me for a moment divert the
attention of the reader to another subject. Wishing to go
the shortest way, I must go somewhat about, as Bacon
observed. The Roman Catholic Church in China, as we
know, was founded on Jesuit's Bark. The Roman Catholic
Church in Western Australia was founded on a concert.
A band of Roman Catholic missionaries left Gravesend
in the ship Elizabeth, 15th of September, 1845, for King
George's Sound, intending to make Perth their head
quarters. This band consisted of Spanish, Italian, French;
Irish, and English gentlemen, priests, monks, and cate-

170 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
chists. Some of these penetrated a hundred and twenty
miles into the West Australian Bush in their endeavours to
shepherd some of the aboriginal sheep whom they would
bring into their fold. They went through incredible suffer
ings and privations, as all unworldly impracticable people
do in Australia, but especially up country. Still, they were
rewarded with some success, which made them stick to
their posts. They were half starved and naked, having
nothing to cover them but the skins of kangaroos. The
mission was bound to come to an end ; and merely on
account of the lack of funds the Roman Catholic Bishop of
Perth ordered his faithful shepherds to return. But they
could not leave the sheep, and kept on sustaining them
selves with roots, and covering their nakedness with skins.
The Reverend Father Rosendo Salvado, an Italian,
resolved that the mission should not perish without an
effort. Salvado made known his resolution to Colonel
Clarke, the English Protestant Governor of West Australia.
Salvado, who was an excellent musician, proposed to give
a concert if he could only get a piano and a large enough
room, to get money in order to keep the mission to the
black fellows in the Bush going.
The Protestant English Governor lent him a grand piano,
the Protestant English Mayor lent the Town Hall, Mr.
Sampson, a Jew merchant, brought together some English
ladies to sing, the Rev. Mr. Witnoom (?), an Anglican Pro
testant, lent the chandeliers from his Church to light up
with, and a large number of Protestant English laymen
and laywomen assembled to cheer the singers, and the
Padre, who performed in his cassock. Ample funds
were raised, and the mission to the black fellows went on.
It has greatly prospered. I have never seen it, and do not

MORE GOLD AND SILVER COMPARISONS. 171
speak from personal observation, but I derive my informa
tion from a reliable source.
The Rev. Mathew B. Hale, subsequently Anglican Bishop
of Brisbane, and now resident in England, had great success
in his labours among the aboriginals of South Australia. All
who have had dealings with the aboriginals speak of them
with kindness and pity, but never with disgust or in
despair. But what kind of missionaries did the Imperial Govern
ment send, and how did it further the endeavours of godly
men to save the aboriginals of Western Australia from
going to the devil ?
In five years the Imperial Government sent to Western
Australia, at the expense of English taxpayers, 3,661 sinners
of a blacker dye than the Australian black fellow. Tech
nically they are called convicts, which is a kind of sinner
that for modesty I will not describe. To these 3,661 were
subsequently added 1,476 kinsfolk and acquaintance of
these convicts. The crime and outrage which followed,
and the revelations which were made at the trials of these
wicked men in the colony after their arrival there, produced
an impression on the life of the colony which will take half
a century to eradicate. Bishop Hale tells us that " there
are men scattered broadcast through the colony who would
shrink from no atrocity to which their fiendish minds could
tempt them."* These are the men sent out to these
favoured lands by the Imperial Government. In New
South Wales and in Tasmania the like happened.
It had been better a thousand times that all the lions,
tigers, jaguars, leopards, lynxes, hyaenas, bears, and other
effectually cruel wild beasts had been sent from all the
* " The Transportation Question," by Mathew B. Hale.

172 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Imperial Zoological Gardens to Australia than the 3,661
convicts named above.
But the murders and outrages done in Victoria, the gold
colony, on black fellows have been far greater than those
done in the convict colonies. I mean greater in number
and quality. It is true that in Tasmania the aboriginals
were killed off almost at one swoop. That was merciful. In
the gold colonies — Victoria and Queensland — the Lands of
the Golden Fleece, there are many thousands yet to torture
and to kill, who are being tortured and killed daily.
Horrible and hateful as the treatment was of the abori
ginals in the silver Spanish colonies by Spaniards, the
treatment of the aboriginals in the English gold colonies
by Englishmen has been still more horrible and hateful.
We know of a truth that the primary cause of the out
rages in Peru on the aboriginals was the love of silver.
We have no difficulty in seeing this, and we like to see a
text of holy writ well proven, so as to be plain to the
meanest capacity.
We know of a truth that the outrages and murders com
mitted in Australia sprang from a love of gold. But this
we do not like to hear, and many will hate being reminded
of it.
In the Exhibition of 1S62 there was a gold coloured
pyramid some 45 feet high, and ten feet square at the base,
setting forth the quantity of gold taken out of Victoria alone
in ten years. The value of the precious metal was one
hundred and four millions, three hundred and forty-nine
thousand, seven hundred and twenty-eight pounds sterling.
Up to that time there had not been any methods adopted
for the storage of water, except the Van Yean reservoir,
which supplies Melbourne. Had the storing of water been

MORE GOLD AND SILVER COMPARISONS. 173
carefully observed in Victoria, the loss by drought in cattle,
and in pasture lands and houses by bush fires would not have
occurred, and the prosperity of the people would have been
enormously and permanently increased. But gold finding is
as brutalizing and blinding as the finding of silver, nor shall
we see any improvement of any sweet or healthful kind
that will remain until the search for gold has dropped out
of the Australian's mind, and that will only be when there
is no more gold to find.
An improvement might begin now if the Colonial Govern
ments were to issue a proclamation that no more prospecting
for gold would be allowed — that all future discoveries
should belong to the Crown — and that no one would be
allowed to labour in this kind of diggings but convicts for
life. The land would then be made sweet to live in, all kinds of
useful handicrafts would increase, and the pursuit of the fine
and useful arts would provide a permanent means for
securing a steady growth in good taste.
It would be easy to enumerate these handicrafts, but
fruitless. So long as the storing of water is not done, it
matters little what else is done. So long as the magnificent
life of a fisherman and the craft of the sailor are neglected
in any country, but especially in the Australias, it is useless
to preach about elevating the national life.
If the gods would be as merciful to some Australians as
the Indians of Castilla de Oro were to some Spaniards when
they made their gold liquid with fire, and poured it down
the hidalgos' throats, some good things might be hastened.

CHAPTER XIII.
AUSTRALIA.
I WAS not a little moved to laughter when I saw by the
papers the other day that some of the London clergy had
been applying to the Imperial Colonial Office for informa
tion on the colonies. They wanted to know something
authentic on wages and labour, and getting on to the land,
so that these clergy could advise their people — these
shepherds find the best pasture for their sheep — at the
Antipodes. The colonies themselves can give no trustworthy informa
tion on these topics, and, therefore, the Imperial authorities
cannot give any.
As a rule, the one statement that can be relied upon in
connection with sheep — bi- or quadrupedal — is that they
are chiefly wanted in the colonies for their fleece.
It is set forth in advertisements that domestic servants
earn from £20 to £50 a year with board and lodging in
Queensland. This is true. But the domestic servant, who
in England, Ireland, or Scotland has been accustomed to
the sweet influences of domestic life under a roof where
master and mistress mean guide, example, and friend,
speedily finds when she reaches the colony that she has

AUSTRALIA. 17 5
made an irreparable mistake. It is not worth while even
on £50 a year and " all found " to live in a solitude that
is positively appalling except to a strong, trained, or
contemplative mind. In like manner, the English workman
finds that he has to compete with Germans and Chinese ;
the hours of labour are excessive, wages poor, treatment
degrading, house rents high, neighbours shy and far be
tween. The real labourer — pick and shovel men — earn seven
shillings and sixpence to eight shillings a day.
But under what conditions ?
A fierce sun, which no pen can describe, and a very
heavy job entails the need of a sustenance, the cost of
which reduces the seven and eight shillings a day very
nearly to the level of wages at home.
The Government, the squatter, sugar planter, and all
employers of labour, screw the labourer down to the lowest
farthing. Everything is done to keep the labourer in a
menial condition. It is next to impossible for him to " get
on to the land."
It must not be forgotten also that for the past generation
labourers — working men of all kinds and domestic servants
— have been born and bred in the colonies, and these, of
course, successfully compete with new comers for the best
places. Life in every condition, indeed, is very hard.
I am, of course, speaking of the majority. The
Presbyterians and other respectable pharisees, grocers,
Government clerks, and all who are attached to stables,
public-houses and banks, the butchers, bakers, and
gardeners, are well off, get drunk very often, and like it ;
all the more that there is nothing and no one to interfere with
them. Colonial life, in short, requires an apprenticeship to

176 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
succeed in it, but a great number of apprentices of both
sexes never become master workmen, and remain
apprentices all their days with no master to care for them.
There is much religion in the Australian colonies, but
less morality. The hope which sustains the immigrant
during his outward voyage crumbles to dust when he puts
his foot on the shore where he is to end his days, unless, as
many have done, the disappointed man resolves to work if
only to obtain sufficient money with which to return home
as quickly as may be. This resolve has saved many dis
appointed men from despair and suicide. A few have kept
this resolution and returned. In the same ship in which I
came this last time were more than one hundred re
spectable people of the working class who were leaving the
colonies and returning to England because of the hard life
and poor wage they found in Australia. In coming through
the Suez Canal we met three English immigrant ships on
their way to Australia. The third-class passengers crowded
the bows of each ship to look at us as we passed them.
They were greeted by our third-class passengers with the
words, " Go back home."
Others who went to work for the purpose of only getting
the means with which to return to England remained did
well, and will get on. But it requires great self-control,
much common sense, a brave and cheerful heart to face
colonial work. The number of immigrants who turn
cowards on entering the battle field of labour in Australia
is a melancholy sight to see. If we would ascertain the
stuff of which our unskilled labourers are made we must
see them on their passage out, observe their idleness and
greed, their manners and spirits, and go with them to their
first job on landing in the colony. See how they shape,

AUSTRALIA. 177
hear the questions they ask, and observe the sullen, hateful
cloud of cowardice and meanness settle on their brows ;
their look of disappointed lust, their currish slouch, and
hear their hideous words as they turn tail at sight of the
task that is set them.
Who is responsible for this state of things ? It is a ques
tion that can be easily answered. But who cares for the
answer ?
As I publicly stated in Queensland, so I now repeat, that
I have on two different occasions made two different
journeys from England to Australia in ships carrying on
each several hundred immigrants, such as serving maids
from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England ; tradesmen,
deluded clerks, agricultural labourers, drapers' assistants,
grocers, lawyers, and other useless and mischievous people
with their wives and daughters ; and I have now just
returned from a voyage of 133 days in a vessel of 176 tons,
carrying eighty-nine naked men and women ; and I beg to
say that in sobriety and cleanliness, in ability to amuse
themselves, in industry and cheerful content, and in sweet
human dignity, the unchristened children of the Coral Sea,
to use a phrase, licked the baptized Britishers hollow.
That is a humiliating statement. But what is still more
humiliating is that so few of us care to know whether it be
true. We do not care to look into our debased national
life, ascertain the sources of our debasement, and acknow
ledge, even with the courage of my poor india-rubber
collector in Baranquilla, that we have done evil against our
brother. There is one picture that I have seen in our gold colonies
which I would leave out of my collection of pictures if I
could. It is the picture of the English immigrant woman.
N

178 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
I can quietly look on a poor drunken, half-witted hedge-
carpenter, a cowardly pick and shovel man, a disgraceful,
drunken bricklayer, a scandalous tailor, printer, rule maker,
and a broken-down newspaper man, seeking in the colonies
a refuge for the destitute, because I know what awaits them
there, and how they will like it, but I cannot look on a
friendless governess, nor even the slatternly, gin-loving
cook, the gaudy, useless maid-of-all-work, the vain and
foolish parlourmaid, the discredited barmaid, and others
who are technically called maids, without a nameless horror
seizing my faculties.
In the new Russian colony, where the new gold fields
were lately discovered in the valley of the Djolgute River,
some very simple laws were passed, which are worthy of
the notice of the Australian authorities. Among these
simple but severe laws, the penalty of death is inflicted for
cheating at play, for adulterating gold dust, and for theft.
For drunkenness during the hours of labour, or for bringing
women into the colony, flogging, and flogging means death.
They flogged a Jew for spreading false tidings, and he died.
Had these measures been taken on the Australian gold
fields either the male population would be much less than
it is, or those gold fields would have been worthy places
for worthy men to live in, instead of places where every
body's wealth became everybody's hell.
But the women who have been brought to Australia.
What about them ?
I confess that I shrink from the question. I prefer to
read a novel. Here is a quotation from a novel which
comes in pat to the occasion. A great romancer,* who
was fond of mixing facts with his fancies, writing of the
silver colonies of Peru, calls them at the very beginning of
* Cervantes, El Zeloso Estremeuo. Madrid, 1614.

A USTRALIA. 179
his story refugio y amparo de los desesperados de Espana,
yglesia de los algados salvoconducto de los homicidas, pala
y cubierto de los jugadores (a quien llaman ciertos los
peritos en al arte) anagaza general de mugeres libres,
engano comun de muchos, y remedio particular de pocos,
which, in plain English, is as follows : — These colonies are
the refuge and shield of the hopeless ones of Spain, sanc
tuary of the fraudulent, passport of the murderer, gainful
hell of the gambler (as certain experts in the art are called),
general lure of free women, common trick for the many,
and the special remedy for few.
Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Townsville, Hobart Town,
and other Australian towns, are general lures for free
women. The treatment which these receive from the
desperate, the gambler, the fraudulent and others is a treat
ment so shameful and horrible that it cannot he specified.
Its effect on the community is obvious ; its effect on the
future life of the colony no one with any thought or
compassion or patriotism can consider without dread.
The manner in which the immigrant woman has been
treated in Australia is worthy of a people whose pasture
lands have been manured with the blood of their aboriginal
owners, and whose sugar-fields have been made the grave
yards of many hundreds of slaves.
The best thing which some Colonial Governments could
do for many of the domestic servants sent to them from
home was to put them in gaol. The place for their reception
on arrival in Brisbane, might have been designed to drive
them on the streets. Some improvement has recently been
made, and a new house of reception was, when I left it, a
short while ago, in course of construction in Brisbane, the
colony most guilty of all in its treatment of newly-arrived
women.

180 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Nothing in this world of common humdrum life — where
little is of value that cannot be bought — would give me so
much delight as to be able to bring up from the Antipodes
the Brisbane Police-court, while it is occupied in "trying"
the women who had been locked up during the previous
night ; and place this court, its occupants and proceedings,
say, in Trafalgar Square, for all the world to see it; the
front seats to be reserved for the Agents General and the
Secretary of State for the Colonies, with the usual accom
modation for the press.
We should then see the moral and physical pestilence
which walketh about at noon-day in colonial towns — a
pestilence from which all who suffer never thoroughly
recover, which aggravates all other sufferings, and enervates,
when it does not destroy, all the faculties by which a man
may connect himself with that which pertains to immortal
good. In the middle of this court thus brought up should be
placed a pyramid richly gilt, representing the bulk of gold
which has been washed out of Australian dirt or crushed
from its white rocks during the past thirty years, inscribed
with the following golden words : —
" O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce
'Twixt natural son and sire I thou bright defiler
Of Hymen's purest bed ! thou valiant Mars !
Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian's lap lvthou visible god
That soldtr'st close impossibilities.
And mak'st them kiss ! that speak'st with every tongue,
To every purpose ! O thou touch of hearts !
Think, thy slave man rebels; and by thy virtue
Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
May have the world in empire ! "
Round the plinth of this pyramid I would have in Old
English the following : —

AUSTRALIA. 181
"Take any brid, and put it in a cage,
And do all thin entente, and thy enrage
To foster it tenderly with mete and drinke
Of all deintees that thou canst bethinke
And kepe it so clenely as thou may ;
Although the cage of gold be never so gay,
Yet had this brid, by twenty thousand fold,
Leven in a forest that is wild and cold,
Gon eten wormes, and swiche wretchednesse.
For ever this brid will don his besinesse
To escape out of his cage when he may ;
His libertee the brid desireth ay."*
In order to turn the exhibition to the best account I would
ask Mr. Walter Besant, President and Founder of the
Earthly Tract Society, to write a two-paged tract on
Domestic Servants, and I should give a commission to Mr.
George Du Murier, to draw a picture that would illustrate
in black and white the followingrpassage from La Vida Es
Sueno, by Pedro Calderon de la Barca : —
" Cuentan de un sabio, que un dia
Tan pobre y misero estaba
Que solo se sustentaba
De unas yerbas que cogia ;
Habra otro (entre si decia)
Mas pobre y triste que yo ?
Y cuando el rostro volvio
Hallo, la respuesta, viendo
Que iba otro sabio cogiendo
Las hojas que el arrojo."
Which I should translate, to suit my own purposes, as
follows : — They tell of a maid who one day,
Miserable and poor, went on her way,
Plucking up roots|her hunger to stay.
" Is there another more miserable than I ? "
She would say. She turned and saw close by
Was another maid to hunger a prey,
Eating the leaves which she threw away.
This last would be the one who stood in the dock of the
Australian Police-court. * " The Manciple's Tale."

CHAPTER XIV.
CHILE.
THE rapid rise of Peru to opulence and power by means of
its silver wealth was equalled in nothing for wonder and
surprise except by its rapid fall. There is probably as
much silver still in Peru as has been taken out of it, as it
is certain there is quite as much gold in Australia as has
been sent to the mint. Yet what a miserable Peru it is ;
over head and ears in debt, beaten in battle, hopeless,
ashamed without being repentant, disgraced in its own
eyes ; yet too idle to work, and because it always despised
wholesome industry has become too ignorant to learn the
simplest lesson by which it might even pick up a decent
living. There is something appalling to see a man once
well dressed, indifferently honest, very religious, well off,
with a houseful of servants, fine stables, garden and coach
house, lying in a pigstye, too feeble even to die. But to
see a republic in this melancholy condition is a thing which
compels wonder and demands inquiries, which cannot be
shirked even if we try to shirk them.
Very few people, if any, in our gold colonies care to
trouble themselves about the ruin which has come on the

CHILE. 183
silver colonies of the Andes. Probably a few deluded bond
holders in London, who at this particular period would be
glad if they had in hand the money which they had lent to
Peru ten years ago, have still a little interest in her real
condition. But the number of Englishmen who see in the
ruin of Peru a lesson which affects themselves and their
own country I trust may be many, although I am afraid
that, like the chosen, they also are few.
Never having visited the republic of Chile until recently,
I accepted with alacrity a retainer from some merchants in
London to go and inquire into the particular mining
industry which had secured to Chile the high character
which makes her to differ from every other republic in
Spanish America.
I sailed from Liverpool to Valparaiso, touching at Madeira,
calling at Montevideo, visiting the Cape de Verdes, and
steaming over the fathomless waters of the Straits of
Magellan, whose banks are hung with ever-green woods.
A very remarkable voyage, which was accomplished in
forty-four days, with gorgeous summer weather all the way.
We carried a few Scotch Presbyterians among the first-
class passengers, who sufficed, amid the glories through
which we passed, to remind us that we were still in a world
of woe. They were grocers and drapers and general dry
goods men with their wives, who had been " successful "
in Valparaiso ; had been home to see the old people, and
were returning from a land where they were nobodies to a
country where they were somebodies. Why it is that
grocers and other necessary traders should make a louder
and more ostentatious profession of religion than even
parsons, grave-diggers, or churchwardens I could never
make out.

184 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
On approaching the mouth of La Plata we ran into a
pampero. This was nothing more substantial than one of
" Heaven's cherubin horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,"
a wind blowing off the pampa, the mighty plain of
Uruguay. I have been in many kinds of winds at sea, and
was never vexed ; but this pampero was as different to any
wind I had ever experienced as the bagpipes played in a
room are different to every other kind of noise. It not
only penetrates every part of your body, but smites every
part with a resistless palsy ; and the chill it brings is
bewildering. The effect on the sea is also remarkable,
the waves being fretted into little things in shape like unto
shark's teeth, very peculiar; and it was trying to the
Presbyterian ladies and their husbands.
Montevideo was agreeable, as all places are to landsmen
who have been long at sea. Its climate reminded me of
the climate of Bogotd — cold in the early morning, hot in
the middle of the day, and very suddenly cold at night,
especially if there was a wind. The food was good, so was
the market-place, with its great heaps of oranges and other
fruits. It is the only place in the world where you can
fully appreciate yerba mate", the cha or ti of Paraguay.
There was a great dearth of people in Montevideo ; there
were even no beggars. Many beautiful women there were,
and a large orphanage, or rather foundling hospital, with the
inscription in Latin: "When my father and mother forsake
me the Lord taketh me up." The hospital was served by
nuns. There were some handsome shops, and I was
invited in the most simple Quaker-like way in one of them
by an astute young person to buy some French photographs
of living creatures. Very much annoyed and astonished

CHILE. 185
did she seem at the terms in which I expressed my refusal.
I had seen similar works of mechanical labour exhibited
publicly in the shop windows in Dunedin.
We reached Sandy Point, Puntas arenas, the entrance
to the Straits of Magellan, early on Sunday afternoon, too
late to admit of our finding anchorage at night if we went
on ; and, therefore, we tied up, hoping to get an early start
next morning, so that we could reach the Pacific before the
sun went down. We rose, however, to meet with a dense
fog, and we had to remain tied up another day. This gave
us time to go on shore, and also to receive visits on board
from some of the natives of Patagonia, who had come in
the day before to sell skins and buy provisions, also from
some dealers in those skins. A villainous-looking wretch,
who turned out to be an evil son of the United States,
offered me some curiosities and " a fine guanaco robe " if I
would get him a bottle of brandy from the purser.
Puntas arenas was once a penal settlement, and an evil
spirit still seems to cling to it* Among our visitors from
Patagonia was a very handsome chief of considerable
stature, well proportioned, and equally well mannered.
No doubt their way of wearing the "guanaco robe" gives
the tall men a seeming height which does not really
belong to them. Had I not measured our tall example, I
should unhesitatingly have set him down at seven feet. He
measured six foot four without his shoes.
We got away very early next morning, and to my great
delight Captain Hammell came to my cabin and called me
on deck. Tierra del Fuego may derive its name from
* See " Cambiaso : Relacion de los acontecientos i de los Crimenes de
Magallanes," par B. Vicuna Mackenna." Santiago, 1867. A most interesting
study in human wickedness.

186 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
belching volcanoes, but whether that be so or not we were
certainly in the region of Cielos del Fuego — a heaven of fire,
but fire without smoke, ruby fire, so red, yet soft, so
dazzling bright, yet beautiful, that I could well-nigh have
shed tears for the speed which was carrying us away from
the sight of heaven revealing its delight to the earth.
Below the gold light were " motionless cataracts " of silver
snow, below the silver snow were emerald islands flung in
the air, and there was a staircase of sapphire built up on the
slopes of two mountains called in guide books glaciers, and
if that name conveys to the reader an idea of the triumph
of heavenly beauty in an earthly paradise of colour let it be
so called.
The sun went down at evening earlier than we expected,
and we could now only see our way by the wild, white
waves that came tumbling in upon us through the Strait
from the Pacific, threatening to swallow us up. It was ten
o'clock, and we were still in the jaws of the Straits, the
ship pitching like a cameleopard mounted on a rocking-
horse. Most of the Presbyterians had said their prayers
and were gone to bed, some of them were still praying. All
the plated wares belonging to the ship, the spoons, forks,
dish covers and cruet stands, were put away at the stern
end of the saloon on a gallery over the rudder. In one of
her pitches, the ship going down as if bent on standing
on her nose, she tossed all those Birmingham goods into
the middle of the saloon with a noise that cannot be
described, which drowned even the roar of the wild waters
and made the Presbyterians believe that
" Hell is empty
And all the devils are here."
The women were very pious, and glad even of such cheer

CHILE. 187
as I could give them. Them I comforted with hot beef-
tea and other carnal delights, and when we at length got
into smooth water they went to sleep and I went to bed
to rise in the morning to another world of wonders
impossible to describe, although I can never forget it. The
mountains of Chile seemed glad to see us.
Valparaiso is unlike any other place that I have seen.
It is the European quarter of the new world. The Italians
muster in thousands, the Germans muster in thousands, the
French muster in thousands, the English muster in
thousands, and the Spaniards muster in thousands. There
are more than thirty thousand Europeans in Chile, and they
most do congregate in Valparaiso.
Chile began life in a very humble way, and gained a
living by selling tallow to Lima to light up its streets and
houses, also charqui for its negroes, and other small
commodities. To these it presently added ropes and
yarns of all kinds — its hemp is still famous — and it boasts
of a thread which even the new world cannot surpass. To
these it subsequently added mules, and the traffic in these
beasts of burden was very great, especially with Potosi. It
then began to cultivate wheat, and grind flour, which it
sent to all parts of the Pacific Sea, and then it began to
smelt copper. Chile has had three ages since the year 1640 —
the age of tallow, tackling, and charqui, the age of mules and
corn, and the age of copper. In shorter form, the founda
tion of the prosperity of Chile was agriculture, and when
this was well laid it took to mining and manufactures.
Chile has always been industrious and thrifty, proud, pious,
and pure of blood. Chile was settled by Spaniards from
the North of Spain, who were too proud to wive with
negroes or Indians, too proud to live without labour, and

188 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
scorned idleness as much as they abhorred impiety or run
ning into debt. Like all strong races, the Chilians were
cruel, and showed their cruelty most in their religion.
They boast of the victims which they supplied to the maw
of the Holy Inquisition, and of the two thousand, mostly
women, who were burnt to death in La Iglesia de la
Compania, less than three-and-twenty years ago from now,
while they were at their devotions before the shrine of
Maria, and they rightly boast of their recent conquest of
Peru. They are fond of their own land, and pride them
selves on their commercial integrity. They like to be
called the English of the Pacific.
The Chilians have been much indebted to the English
for capital which has been invested in mines and for
money lent to the executive Government. The relations
of the two peoples have been a benefit to both. English
men have married Chilian women, and Chilian men have
married English women. The family institution, the home,
without which no nation has ever been formed, and only
where it is found in its purity is there any certainty for
the continuity of the community in all that is good, and
sweet, and gracious, flourishes in Chile.
The easily available gold was taken away from Chile by
the Spaniards ; its silver has never been great, but its
copper has in times now gone been in quantity the greatest
in the world. There is still gold in Chile, but it does not
turn the people into oromaniacs.
It takes more skill, time, and patience, to produce
metallic copper than silver or gold. Had copper been as
easily produced in Chile as silver was in Peru under the
crown of Spain, or as guano was under the filthy tyranny
of the Republic, Chile would have been as poor and blind

CHILE. 189
and naked as Peru now is, her agriculture would have been
neglected, and her morals would have followed in the fall of
her agricultural industry. Even when copper had reached
the height of its glory its agriculture was still in the
ascendant. The greatest amount of copper which Chile
ever exported in one year was in 1876, when the value
reached to somewhat more than eighteen and a half
million of dollars. Since then there has been a disastrous
fall in the price of the metal, and competitors have increased
in all parts of the world, so that if Chile had devoted all her
attention to copper her beautiful country would have been
as desolate as the shores of Lake Superior, and her people
as destitute and miserable as those of Peru.
Before the war with Peru in 1879 Chile occupied and
worked all the principal mines of copper and silver that
were in Bolivia and Peru. But for Chile energy and Chile
capital the silver mines of Caricoles, in the desert of
Atacama, would not have been opened up. She still
supplies Lima with flour and vegetables, as well as all the
towns along the coast, as she has done from the earliest
time ; and now, by means of her navy, she dominates the
entire coast from the Straits of Magellanes to Panama.
The nitrate of soda deposits of Tarapaca now belong to
Chile. It is impossible to doubt that the ship canal through
the Isthmus of Panama will give an enormous impetus to
whatever is doing in Chile.
There is a great deal of weather in Chile.* All the rain
that has been denied to Peru and the desert of Atacama
has been added to the natural downpour of the southern
republic. This gave rise to much prayer for many years,
* See a valuable little book, " Ensayo Historico sobre el clima de Chile desde
los tiempos prehistoricos hasta el gran temporal de Julio de 1877." Valparaiso,
1877.

190 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
but it became obvious to the Chilians that this was not the
proper means to use in order to escape from being drowned
at one season or dried up at another. They gave them
selves to hard work, and built canals and reservoirs instead
of wasting their substance and losing all their people in
building an ark. Indeed, what with early wars with the
Araucanos, earthquakes, floods, the low price of copper, and
having to fight Peruvians on sea and shore, and other serious
calls on their time and attention, the Chilians have had a
great deal of very hard work to do.
But they have done it.
That is the secret of the difference between Chile and
Peru, Chile and Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia, Chile and
Colombia, and all the other beggarly republics of South
America that were born with gold and silver spoons in
their mouths.
There are few countries in the world, and none with
which we English have been so intimately connected, that
have so interesting a social, commercial, and moral history
as Chile. It is full of lessons to ourselves and examples to
our colonies, especially those colonies that belong to the
family of the Kielmanseggs.
Although Chile has done so much hard manual work, none
of the gold or silver colonies have been so productive in
works of scientific and literary merit as she.
I trust it will be taken in good part if I end this chapter
by translating some of the laws and customs of that people
whom the Spaniards "conquered." Here is one from
Chapter IV. of the Fifth Book of the Royal Commentaries
of the Incas written by one of themselves : —
" In the lands where there was little water for irrigation
they gave it by order and measure (as they did all other

CHILE. 191
things that were distributed), for among Indians there were
no heartburnings about the administration ; and this they
did in the years when there was little rain, when the need
was great. They measured the water, and experience told
them how much was needed to water five hundred square
fathoms of land, and according to this rule they gave amply
to each Indian so many hours of water according to his
span of land. Each received the water in his turn one after
the other ; neither the rich, nor the most noble, nor the
friend or kinsman of the chief, nor the chief himself, nor
the minister or governor were preferred. He who was
careless to water his land within the appointed time they
publicly and ignominiously chastised, giving him three or
four blows on the shoulders with a stone ; or they scourged
his arms and legs with osier rods as an idler, and a
slothful fellow — a people that were much despised among
them, whom they called Mizquitulyu, which means easy-
bones, composed of Mizui, sweet or soft, and Tulyu, which
is a bone."
A horror creeps over me every time I am reminded that
the wonderful land of Peru was deprived of the services of
a people who could give and administer such a law as this.
I like to increase this feeling of horror, and would much
like to give the same feeling to every thoughtful man in
the gold colonies, or the lands of the Golden Fleece.
Therefore, here are a few more characteristics.
" Idleness was punished as a crime. There were no
beggars in the land. As gold and silver and precious
stones were not necessaries of life, but fine things for
adorning and giving pleasure, these were gathered when
there was nothing of importance to be done, and presented
to the Inca for the adorning of his palaces, or the temple

192 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
of the sun. They only used their spare time in searching
for gold ! "
These were the people whom the gold and silver grabbing
Spaniards murdered !
" Copper was of more value to them than gold, for out of
it they could make mirrors, warlike arms, knives, tools,
pins, spades, and hammers." " No Indian was called upon
to pay ought out of his own property. His payment for
the service of the State was personal, given in the form of
labour, time, or skill. All were equal in this, the rich with
the poor, for they were all an educated people."
These were the people whom the gold and silver grabbing
Spaniards murdered !
" They called a man rich when he had children. He who
had no children, although rich in things, was called poor !
A man with a large family was regarded as a very rich man !
The poor who had no children were helped by the children
of the rich."
These were the people whom the gold and silver grabbing
Spaniards murdered !
Among the annals of the people we come on such things
as the following : —
" Among the works that the Inca Yiracqocha constructed
was a channel of water more than twelve feet deep, and as
many feet wide, which flowed for more than five hundred
miles. Its rise was in the mountains between Parcu and
Picuy, at some beautiful springs which are there. The
channel flowed thence to the Rucanas, watering the
pastures in those desolate wilds, which are sixty miles
wide, and in length stretch almost over the whole of Peru."
" There were many such channels throughout the empire,
and were equal to the greatest works in the world."

CHILE. 193
These channels were allowed to get out of repair by the
gold and silver grabbing Spaniards. The waters got the
upper hand, and swept away the walls as the Spaniards
swept away the people who built them.
Many sayings of the Incas are preserved. Here is one
by the great Viracqocha worthy to be held in remembrance.
" Fathers are often the cause of their sons being lost, or
what is the same thing, corrupted by evil habits acquired
in childhood. For some train up their sons in oyer indul
gence, leaving them to do as they please, without caring
for the future when they shall become men. Others treat
their children with too much severity and harshness, which
ruins them. Too much indulgence weakens body and mind,
and too much severity enfeebles the spirit, making the child
to hate instruction, and to make learning hopeless. Those
who are made to fear everything cannot have the courage
to do deeds worthy of men. The proper way is so to train
children that they may be brave in war and wise in
peace." This voice the Spaniards choked with blood.
Here are a few more sayings of these wise people.
" Envy is a worm that gnaws the vitals."
" Drunkenness, anger, and madness are all one, except
that the first two are voluntary, and the last inevitable."
" He who kills another without authority condemns him
self to death."
"Thieves and adulterers who destroy the happiness of
others must be put to death."
" The noble and generous are known by their patience in
adversity." " Impatience is a sign of a base mind, ill taught and
worse mannered." O

194 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
" Judges who receive gifts are thieves, and to be punished
with death."
" He who tries to count the stars where he can't count
the quipos* is worthy of scorn."
This voice the Spaniards choked with blood.
" They planted colonies in those regions where the
climate was fine, in order to multiply such fine things as
would best grow there, and obtain greater perfection. These
colonies were planted first of all for the good of the people,
then for the good of the Inca, and lastly for the good of the
kingdom." Nowr the fine climate of Peru is so much waste in the
earth. The precious things which grow there fall into
rottenness, the land is clothed with the " muddy vesture of
decay," because the gold and silver grabbing Spaniards
murdered the gardeners, and all their wives and children.
One remarkable custom which the Presbyterians of our
gold colonies may imitate, if they please, was that the Incas
insisted on all tradesmen marking the cost price on every
article of food or clothing offered for sale — not in cipher or
marks privately known to the vendor, but in figures that
could be " understanded of the common people." The sale
of fuel as well as the distribution of water was under
control of the State.
* Quipos, plural of quipo, an arrangement of coloured threads and knots. A
description of this method of keeping the public records was made by an English
sailor, but never having heard his name I cannot find his book, which I am
told is in the British Museum.

CHAPTER XV.
COLONIAL RELIGION AND MORALS.
I HAVE remarked already that there is more religion than
morality in the colonies, as there is, let us say, in Ireland
or in the ranks of the Salvation Army ; and I have often
thought that it would be worth while to throw a little light,
if it were possible, on the ease with which we can propagate
religion, and the difficulty there has hitherto been in
cultivating good morals, and thereby acquiring good
manners. In the course of my travels I have met with
many clergymen, by which I mean men in Holy Orders,
or clerks ; ministers of the Gospel, by which I mean men
who are not in orders, but whose profession it is to preach ;
and priests, by which I mean men who offer, or pretend to
offer sacrifices, and if I ever speak of clergymen or ministers
of the Gospel as priests it is for shortness and to express
dislike of the priestly character. I have also travelled
much with sailors and soldiers, lawyers, doctors, actors,
botanists, and other men of science, fishermen and farmers,
carpenters, engineers and blacksmiths, painters and poets ;
and when my ship comes in, by which I mean when, in
the words of Antonio, " My merchandise makes me not sad,"

196 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
I shall charter the finest steamer of the Cunard fleet, give
a picnic that will last a year to all my friends — if the ship
is big enough to hold them — and re-visit all those ports of
the world where I have left and received marks of affection.
But there would not be a single priest among the lot. Of
sailors there would be many, for they are the best of man
kind in all nations. Of soldiers a few, and only those
who have been in battle ; lawyers one. Of carpenters,
engineers, and blacksmiths, there would be a host, which
would include many other handicraftsmen, as well as
fishers. There would be several doctors, who would be
also botanists, chemists, and historians. The only historian
I ever knew was the best doctor I ever knew. There
would be also a few women who can sew and wash linen,
besides the wives (some of them) of the sailors and soldiers,
the fishers, carpenters, and blacksmiths. Also if we had on
board any poets or novelists (and there would be some of
these) all the wives of these, with the painters. Of actors
the number would be great.
For it was entirely owing to some actors that I owe what
I hold as most dear, and that is the recollection of the days
of my childhood. But for them I could not go back into
the playground, or the gardens where the big gooseberries
grow, or the rivers where the fishes are mighty prey, or the
meadows where the birds sing, or the sky where the stars
always shine, or the world where the villain is always
caught, where marriage means love, and home joy.
It is always dangerous, at least it is not always safe, to
take illustrations from Plato, especially such as he puts
into the mouth of Socrates, but there is a passage in the
" Ion" which I will venture to quote from Jowett's transla
tion, which, as Sancho would say, fits like a glove to the

COLONIAL RELIGION AND MORALS. 197
hand, or a ring to the finger. There is a divinity which
moves an actor, "like that in the stone which Euripides
calls a magnet, but which is commonly known as the stone
of Heraclea. For that stone not only attracts iron rings,
but also imparts to them a similar power of attracting other
rings ; and sometimes you may see a number of pieces of
iron and rings suspended from one another so as to form
quite a long chain, and all of them derive their power of
suspension from the original stone. Now, this is like the
muse, who first gives to men inspiration herself, and from
these inspired persons a chain of other persons is suspended,
who take the inspiration from them. For all good poets —
epic as well as lyric — compose their beautiful poems not as
works of art, but because they are inspired."* The magnet
which first picked me out of a heap of rubbish was hung in
a lowly theatre in a provincial town in the Midlands, and
though I have not kept my place I have never ceased my
connection with the magnet which first laid hold of me. At
a remote distance I am still moved by Shakespeare, and
those whom he has moved. The muse of fire that did
ascend the brightest heaven of invention still keeps my
little candle alight.
I could not have been more than twelve years old when I
first saw " Mary Jane Woolgar," as she was called among
her intimate friends, who became so great a favourite as
Miss Woolgar, and subsequently as Mrs. Alfred Mellon, of
the Adelphi. When I first knew her she belonged to a
company of strolling players attached to Bennett's Theatre,
which went the " Midland circuit." She was a charming
actress, and the most beautiful girl that up till then I had
seen. According to my childish ability I used to take her
* " Dialogues of Plato," Vol. i., 237,

198 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
flowers, and even bought pieces of music, which I carried
to the theatre for her, and gave for delivery to an actor of
the name of Fenton, who kept my secret. She was my
first love, although I never made her personal acquaintance.
I allude to my early recollections of the play in order to
help me to say what I would about the propagation of
religion and the cultivation of morals in large towns, and
the religious and moral condition of our colonies, and I
would remark in passing that if we would see a nation in
its naked reality, appreciate its energy, its tendencies, its
meanness and nobleness, its cruelty and pride, in short, if
we would see the bent of a nation's genius, we must see its
colonial life. If the professional historian wishes to instruct
us on the downfall of Spain, and point the awful moral of
its disgrace, a story that certainly remains to be told by
some man whose love of truth is invincible, he must not go
to Simancas, or the Escorial, or the Colombina, or the
picture galleries of Madrid or Seville, but to Peru ; he must
visit Cuzco, Santiago de Chile, Santa Fe de Bogota, Caracas,
Old Panama, Potosi, and Chihuahua. Precisely as if we
would see the value of a father's example and the influence
of a mother's love on a son who has never been from home,
we must see the young man, let us say in Paris, alone and
by himself, and, especially if he has been brought up in the
Presbyterian faith, we must observe how he spends his
Sunday evenings in what used to be called the gay metro
polis of France. The " principles " of the young man are
nearly always found to be as easily put off as they were put
on, to be resumed, like his clothes, when he returns to the
bosom of his family.
How often have I been amused in watching the agony of
some men in what is called " society " in London when at

COLONIAL RELIGION AND MORALS. 199
a garden party they have unexpectedly met some of their
kinsfolk from the Antipodes dressed not in peacock's
feathers, but in the real plumage of the barn-door fowl,
which for ease and pleasure they prefer, because it is
natural to them; in brief, who never were of gentle
blood, but only good commercial people in the egg line.
And I think if the strait religious denominations, who
sometimes hold high festival in the Strand in the merry
month of May, could see the result of their teachings in
some of the big towns in Victoria and New South Wales,
Queensland, and Tasmania, they would become very
anxious, and even ask me for a little advice. This I should
be glad to give, because I think after a long experience
they are prepared to relinquish many things that are worn
out now and worthless. The first thing I should venture to '
say to my own friends in the colonies, who belong to the
Lion and Unicorn party, who stick to black bombazine and
lawn, would be —
" You perceive that religion is an acquired taste ; and as
you cannot get real Stilton cheese, nor real Chambertin,
nor real fine old port, nor even the meanest "fiz," in any
of the colonies you would not dream of investing for your
own use in any base imitations of these, so you would not,
if you are wise, dream of getting an imitation religion.
Nor is there any need for it ; all that you have to do is
to cultivate the native article, instead of importing imitation
trash. Pure religion is infinitely more precious than pure
wine, but you can only get either one or the other by
natural causes and the use of appropriate means. The
first means to be used is to get hold of real men, who are
religious and learned. If you have to wait a thousand
years for men whom you want to teach you religion, let me

200 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
advise you to wait for them rather than put up with
religious men who are ignorant and mere formalists ; who
are not real men at all, but only imitation men. The
preaching and praying men you want are the men who can
do something, if it be only fishing or tent-making ; who
have already done something, not men who are soldiers
only in uniform, but men who have been in action ; not
men who know how to spoil a good thing, but who would
rather die than not do the best. Even if you began by
discarding the imitation man, that would be a fine begin
ning, and the best beginning towards getting the real
man." Now, I make bold to say that the clergyman who does
not cherish the play, the drama, the theatre, in a colony ;
who does not think more of it than of any other means of
recreation ; wrho does not strive night and day, wrestling all
the time to get good actors for playing the best plays, is an
imitation man, a stick, a dumb dog, a sentinel who sleeps
at his post, a watchman who tells lies about the weather,
and is in league with the thief.
The hard work that is the daily portion of every colonist
is always followed in all our colonies by a long night. A
man to work well under an Australian skv must have the
best of rest, and that is a rest which is looked forward to
with joy and delight, not the rest of guzzling the bad liquor
which is sold as Scotch whiskey or French brandy in a
hateful atmosphere, but the rest which comes from looking
into that mirror which shows virtue her own feature. The
best rest for an Englishman is that which makes his soul to
sing and dance with joy, which excites his wrath, and
rouses his admiration. The only rest for a hard-worked
wife, capable of restoring her vigour and enabling her to

COLONIAL RELIGION AND MORALS. 201
keep by the side of her husband in the hard journey of life
through colonial mud, mosquitoes, and heat, is to laugh and
be glad, with such laughter and gladness as are only to be
got at a good play. The best recreation for the domestic
servant is to be found in the pit or gallery of a theatre,
where she can have something to cheer her into a wider
sympathy than that which she finds in the frequent inhuman
drudgery to which she is often condemned.
When the history of the English theatre is written, it
will be seen that by its being divorced from English every
day life, English life became a very dull thing, youth was
robbed of its best teacher, manhood of its charm, the com
munity of its best moral stimulant, and religion of its purity.
The priests who shut up the theatre opened the new gin
palace, and enlarged the gaols ; the statesmen who made
education' compulsory but neglected the encouragement of
the national theatre, made the best provision for sapping
the intellectual vigour of the people. If we would see the
proof of this statement we must go to the Australian
colonies, where we shall not fail to find much refined
cruelty, and a life so vulgar and selfish that men who see it
for the first time think of nothing but the shortest and
-quickest route back to Warwickshire, or Devon, or York
shire, or anywhere, where there is a church porch, if only
for shelter, or a peal of bells, if only for a little music that
will remind us of happier days, or that will link us to some
one or to something that is better than ourselves. The
profession of technical Christianity is not always associated
with kindness and charity even at home ; what are called
the religious newspapers are quite sufficient evidence of
this, and this profession is not infrequently associated with
narrow-mindedness and even bitterness, which are destruc-

202 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRA VELS ABROAD.
tive of good fellowship and provocative of ill blood. But in
the colonies, where good nature and sweetness of disposi
tion, frankness, openness, honesty, courage, charity, and
kindness should be specially cultivated, the hotter the
religious enthusiasm is the more sickly are the other
growths ; indeed, I think it is true that sectarian religion
at the Antipodes may be likened unto a bush fire which
consumes the grass. Fierce religion burns up all natural
feeling, and every lowly and sweet instinct that belongs to
cultivated human nature, and leaves behind grotesque
results which are the incarnation of monotonous ugliness
and lingering sullen death.
There is by no means alack of sport in Australia; on the
contrary, there is a great deal of sport. But women are
not expected to play cricket, or football, hunt kangaroos,
join in boat races, or join the volunteers. They want some
thing more suitable to their taste and ministry; besides, it is
not a woman's place to contend at all in anything ; she
ought to see and enjoy beautiful sights, hear good music,
and never want to play on the piano, unless she can play
well. But to return to my meagre thesis for a brief space,
there is more religion in the colonies than morality. I think
this worthy of consideration. The great majority of good
people who look to the colonies as a stand-by for the
mother country, philanthropists who look to emigration as
a means to improve our national poverty and ragged-legged
condition, little think what emigration means — and they do
not know. It is impossible for them to conceive what an
"assisted emigrant" has to go through on arrival at
Melbourne or Sydney, Adelaide or Hobart, Brisbane or
Perth. We may be quite sure that the emigrant who
comes as an outcast to Australia is a very ordinary being,

COLONIAL RELIGION AND MORALS. 203
with no other knowledge than was doled out to him in the
Sunday School, and with a religion that only excites his
fear, or appeals to his imagination — and as a rule the
power of this imagination is very strong; he has no
mental training of any kind ; he has received no discipline
which has produced one wholesome habit, or confirmed him
in one good custom ; from the moment he puts his foot on
board the ship which is to carry him fifteen thousand miles
to the time he leaps on to the new soil which is to receive
him, he lives the life of a hog. The effect of a storm at sea,
when every heave of the ship threatens to drown him, is to
bring back the memory of the little child when God was
like his earthly father, whose anger and sudden ill temper
made his life miserable. The British emigrant is not a
coward, but he is always superstitious, and never knows
his own mind. Everything around him when he gets on
shore is as indefinite as the sea which surrounded him for
three months — no familiarity with which ever bred con
tempt for it — and he is not only superstitious, but he is also
very religious, and his religion he keeps to himself. I
don't care by what name his priest or his parson calls this
religion, be it Roman Catholic or Protestant, Presbyterian
or Methodist, the British emigrant has always got a
religion of his own. I never in my life met a man of
the emigrant class who had the remotest notion of a
systematic religion, not a Roman Catholic who could tell
me his church's meaning of a sacrament, a Church of
England man who knew the meaning of the word re
pentance, a Methodist who could explain Wesley's doctrine
of the witness of the Spirit, or understand it when it was
explained to him, or a Presbyterian with a settled con
viction about the duration of hell — how its fires were

204 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
supplied, or in what was to consist the happiness of the
elect. Indeed, each was
'.' A pupil in the many-chambered school,
Where Superstition weaves her airy dreams,"
and all seemed to be
" Lost in a gloom of uninspired research."
I took much pains to inform myself of the quality of the
religious services which are celebrated every Sunday in
colonial churches and chapels. In all my experience of
calling at the various ports to which we carried emigrants,
I only met one clergyman who came to see the new-comers
on their arrival to offer his sympathy and advice.
The Roman Catholic priest is very earnest in beating up
recruits among the emigrants after they are settled. As
a preacher he is singularly lacking in human sweetness,
and I never heard him preach without his larding his dis
course with indefinite but powerful language on the future
torments of the wicked. The altar of his church is always
decorated with artificial flowers, lighted candles, and gilt
ornaments. The gaudy clothing which he occasionally
wears, mingled with the white surplices of the choir, the
tinkling of bells, the swinging of censers, the fumes of
incense, perfumed sometimes with the penetrating scent
of the tonquinbean, together with some approach to refined
music, cannot fa.il to produce a sensuous delight that may
soothe and bless, even if it does not elevate and strengthen
the mind.
The Church of England services are well attended by
respectable, substantial, well-clothed people, and the women
are as fashionably dressed as when they go to the play.
There is more preaching than in the Roman Catholic

COLONIAL RELIGION AND MORALS. 205
Churches, but it is far from good. With one or two
exceptions it was very bad. I was puzzled to ascertain
what motive a man could have in delivering in a monotone
voice a string of words which sounded all right, but which
did nothing but buzz about your ears without ever getting
inside either to stimulate to action, or to hope, or to whole
some sorrow. Nor was I less puzzled to find out what kind
of composition the sermon belonged to, how it was put
together, and what sort of a mind the preacher had that
could make words of such a sort that the moment they left
his lips began to float in the air, sometimes like slow snow,
sometimes like fine dust, and sometimes like feathers. I
gave it up, never expecting to make anything of it. But
to my delight and surprise, one Sunday I solved this
mystery, and it has since been of much use to me. A
young and good-looking parson, noted for being " a good
fellow," a promoter of cricket, football, boating, tennis, and
picnics, a favourite at Government House, and much liked
by the rich young women of the town, preached from a
text which made me prick up my ears. The words were,
" Ye cannot do the things that ye would," Gal. v. 17. In the
course of his sermon the preacher said, all on one note,
" Let me impress upon you, dear brethren, the importance,
the value, the weightiness of the great truth that mortal
man, poor, sinful mortal man is nearly always made to
consist of high and ennobling thoughts, which sometimes,
it may be in church, it may be in the market-place, or in
the social circle carry him away from this world into a
better, a higher, and a truer world where God is, and low,
grovelling, sordid, sometimes wicked desires, which degrade
him, and which, if he gratifies, must bring him into trouble,
perhaps, alas, into a long life of suffering and disease ; and

206 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
he has grand ideas and the weakest, feeblest, yea, it too
often happens, I am afraid, very worthless results. He has
bright, it may now and then be ecstatic, visions of some
important or noble work that he means to do, but which
through his infirmity and the sin which so easily besets
him he never does. He has bright and fond hopes for
himself that never come to any fulfilment, at least, not in
this vale of tears. He has the very best intentions of being
something better, greater, perhaps holier, but these in
tentions, alas, my beloved brethren, are overcome by the
influence of the world, or the influence of the flesh, or the
influence of that fell being by whom, or through whom,
sin came into the world, and all our woe."
Some time after he had preached the sermon of which
the above is only a short extract I made his acquaintance,
indeed, we became friends. Among his books he had a
volume of sermons called " Spirit and Form,"* and in one
of these which is called The Meaning of Limitations, is the
following passage, p. 151 : —
" Man is made up of high thoughts and low desires ; of
great aims and small means; of grand ideas and poor
results. He has visions of work that he will do which he
never does ; hopes for himself that are never fulfilled ;
intentions of being what he never is."
The whole sermon, which is one of uncommon vigour and
helpful sympathy, is designed to set forth the true mortality
of man, and is of the greatest practical value. But my
priestly young parson had simply spoilt it. Every word of
the second extract is contained in the first, but is so
smothered with platitude that it sends to sleep the reader
* " Spirit and Form," Sermons preached by Edwards Comerford Hawkins,
M.A., Vicar of St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London.

COLONIAL RELIGION AND MORALS. 207
or the listener. He had not availed himself of this volume
of sermons to shirk his own work, or to strut in borrowed
plumes, but to improve on the sermons.
" There is no religion in these sermons," he said to me
in all seriousness when we were talking about them. " /
fill in the religion, and then find they go first-rate ! "
It is this filling in of religion that takes out all the bone
and marrow from colonial morality, and by thus separating
religion from daily life, it becomes a very dangerous thing,
because they who look upon religion as an antidote soon
come to regard it as an anodyne. In the colonies religion
is taken as an opiate, and not infrequently swallowed as a
dram. I found the same " vain repetitions " in all the services of
the Presbyterians, while their sermons, made up of weary
doctrinal argumentation, never could have produced one
manful resolve, or one rational conviction. Using the key
which had been supplied by my young Church of England
man, I was always able to follow the long-winded extem
porary prayers which make the Presbyterian services so
very terrible. Here is one to which I call especial attention,
which I took down with great care.
" O thou dread Being, who art our Almighty all-loving
Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us which art to
come, and who dwellest in that heaven the light of which
sinful man cannot approach unto ; holy and hallowed be Thy
great and wondrous name : and, O, in mercy and in grace
let Thy righteous kingdom come into our fallen world, and
on our bended knees before Thy awful throne we beseech
Thee let Thy perfect and good and holy will be done
amongst us on this polluted earth, and in our sin-stained
hearts, from the Queen on her throne to the humblest of her

208 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
subjects, O Lord, even as it is done by angels and arch
angels who delight to do Thy will in the heaven of heavens..
And do Thou of Thine infinite mercy and tender compas
sion, who feedest the ravens and dost mark the sparrow's fall,
give to us Thy servants even on this day our manna from
heaven, such daily and hourly bread as may be good for our
souls and our bodies, and in the tenderness of Thy compas
sion, and remembering that we are but dust, forgive us the
sinful thoughts of our hearts, the debts of gratitude which
we owe to Thee, our sins of omission and commission even
as we trust, O our Lord, that we are desirous to pardon and
forgive all the debts of our earthly debtors. And, most
mighty, do Thou of Thine infinite compassion and tender
mercy blot out all our transgressions and forgive us all our
sins, and lead us by the still waters of Thy grace where the
pleasant pastures are, and not into the mire and marsh of
deadly temptation ; but do Thou make bare Thine arm, O
Lord, and come down, deliver us in the time of trouble
from all evil, of whatsoever kind, and from the evil one
who goeth about seeking whom he may devour. For Thine,
O omnipotent, is the everlasting and glorious kingdom,
which shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of His
Christ, and Thine the almighty power which shall bruise
Satan under our feet, and shortly, shortly, O Lord, as well
as the refulgent glory that shall last for ever and for ever,
world without end. Amen."
If the reader will take the trouble to read only the words
in italics he will perceive that they form the Lord's prayer
as given in Matthew vi. 9-13. All the rest is the "much
speaking" and the "vain repetition" of the heathen, and
it is this which makes preachers vain and wooden, and
congregations stupid, vulgar, and, I am afraid, immoral. It

COLONIAL RELIGION AND MORALS. 209
is far from pleasant to say these things, but they belong to
our colonial life and are of greater moment than they may
seem at first sight. I once heard a colonist in Queensland,
a man of much cultivation, and who occupied a place of
great public trust say, and he said it to me —
" I only wish to God my father had been a convict ! "
He was referring to a cruel controversy that was then
occupying every family and every newspaper in the colony
on the appointment of Mr. Groom to the Speakership in
the Queensland House of Assembly. In early life this
Groom had been a convict, and some of the vulgar wits
went the length of saying that the only place he was fit for
was that of groom of the stole. But the man had thoroughly
purged himself of his wickedness, and had become an able
journalist, a clever speaker, a thorough man of business,
well acquainted with parliamentary life, Mayor of Ipswich,
and rich. He had to exert himself — and, of course, without
friends — and this compulsion, coupled with a poignant
compunction, made him, as it had made many a hopeless
convict who had been shipped from England to Botany
Bay, an independent and a powerful man.
What my friend Mr. Ballard meant by that apparently
wrong-headed saying was that he wished his father had
come out from England, and been compelled to begin life
anew at a time when men were valued, not for what they had
been, but for what they could do ; men who would not have
been troubled about pleasing this or that kind of man, or
currying favour with the commonplace people of the com
munity, but who would push ahead, wisely improving the
present, and going forth with a manly heart to meet the
future careless of favours and frowns. There are thousands
of respectable men in Queensland, but they are supersti- P

210 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
tious, and allow their hopes of heaven to interfere with their
growth in robust moral health, who are very much shocked
at the elevation of Mr. Groom, and all because when they
say the Lord's Prayer- they smother it with so many words
of their own, and with so much " religion " that they cannot
see its beauties or feel its power.
Therefore I say with all humility that there is too much
religion in the colonies and too little humanity, too many
churches and chapels, and far too few theatres, too much
work and too little play, and that what there is of this over
much religion is not of the best kind, but of the lowest
kind, that it leads to vanity and self-conceit, and widens
the space between rich and poor, between lowly saint and
lordly sinner, by which each loses much that would be of
the greatest service to both. And finally, and I say it with
reverence, knowing what I say, that for the colonies the
Son of Man has yet to come, and up to the present very
little has been done to hasten His coming.

CHAPTER XVI.
THE UNITED STATES.
If we care to look at modern colonial life and compare it
with the past and comprehend its spirit, we must live in
the United States for more than six weeks at a time.
Indeed, they are worth living in for many reasons for a
much longer time than even six months. I should be
content to live in this nation for ever but for one thing, and
that one thing is that it persists in calling itself a great
nation, and yet every day of its life it does one of the
meanest things that can make man little or a nation little,
and this daily exercise of this mean thing has become a
part of its daily life, and greatly belittles the national life
of this nation, which persists in calling itself great, but is
not. It is great certainly in one thing — it is the greatest
pirate in recorded history. So great are its piratical acts
that no one sees any immorality in them. Napoleon was
not a murderer, he was a soldier, and the horrors with
which he overspread the earth, or some of the fairest parts
of it, are only not called murders because they are murders
on a large scale.

212 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
If a man picked your pocket of a story which cost you
twelve months to write you would not presently think it
any the less a crime if the thief got it printed, sold it in
thousands, made much profit by the transaction, and then
excused himself for his theft by pointing to the fame which
he had procured for you.
This is what the Americans do every day. You can't
pick up a newspaper, no matter how respectable it is, but the
best part of it consists of something stolen from the best
men in England. All the bright things in the current
Temple Bar, or the Cornhill, are at once appropriated ;
if there happens to be anything good in the Saturday
Review it is at once transferred to the leading newspapers,
and the small up-country weekly papers copy from the
leading daily papers. This is common enough to a limited
extent in England, but I only know of one paper here that
lives entirely by its scissors, whereas in the LTnited Sates,
as in all the colonies, there are " editors " who never
handle any other tool in making up their columns but a
pair of scissors. If Mr. Louis Stevenson gives us a new
story, not only is it at once put into a cheap form and sold
for a " nickel," but it is copied into many newspapers.
The same holds good with the short stories of Mr. Walter
Besant, Mr. James Payn, Mr. Haggard, and others. And
all the time that this piracy is going on the sneers and
the abuse go on. If any garbage about the Queen or her
family appears in a London paper it is at once laid hold of
and put into large type with edifying remarks in a language
that is only heard among riverfaring men. And if any
trial is going on in the Law Courts in which some un
happy lords and ladies are implicated the proceedino-s are

THE UNITED STATES. 213
sent to New York as fast as lightning can carry them, and
are printed in special editions. How many publishers and
proprietors of newspapers in the United States have become
rich by robbing English authors will never be known. It
is easy enough to understand why their Government should
impose taxes on pig iron, copper, and other articles of that
sort, even though the Government has more idle money in
its purse than it knows what to do with ; but that this
same Government, which is richer in hoarded coin than
any Government in the world, should go on screwing
money out of English authors is, to say the least of it, very
remarkable. There has been no piracy carried out on so vast a scale
since the days of Sir Francis Drake.
Therefore I repeat that the people of the United States
may call theirs a great nation, but it is essentially a little
nation, because a great nation would not condescend to do
acts of systematic piracy.
Drake turned pirate to please Queen Elizabeth;* but
three centuries ago kings and queens were different beings
to what they are now, and it is quite certain that if Lord
Brassey, or any other yachtsman, was to go out on his own
account and intercept some commercial steamer and take
all its treasure and offer it to the Queen, the Queen,
through one of her policemen, would certainly hand him
over to a stipendiary magistrate.
We know that the "throneless homicide" of Waterloo
* " The quantite of bullion brought into ye Tower by Fr. Drake was of
silver, it weighed 22,899 lbs., the coarse silver 512 lbs., and the gold 101 lbs.,"
in round numbers. This is not a vast sum, and the risk was great. There
also was some glory in "singeing the King of Spain's beard." If there were
any glory to be got by singeing English authors, or even any risk, I would be
the last to make any reference to the matter.

214 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
was a murderer, because we know that he was a measure
less liar, an All Evil Spirit whose
" Evil deeds are writ in gore,"
and that weighed in the balance the hero dust
" Is vile as vulgar clay."
And we know that the United States cannot be a great
nation so long as it continues piratical practices, which are
all the more despicable because its victims are too poor to
put to sea in armed ships.
The truth is, that the United States have not yet grown
out of their colonial smallness, their colonial vulgarity, their
colonial religion, which dwarfs their morality; and they
will continue to be colonials so long as they continue
dependent on English art and English literature for their
culture and pastime, obtained not by fair playing, but by
thieving. Let the United States show their greatness by becoming
honest* For my part I am morally sure that the high-
spirited people of the United States never think of this
wrong, any more than the English people ever thought of
how they got their sugar at one time, or the godly people
in Manchester — for there are a few such people in
Manchester — ever thought of how they once got their
cotton. * It is retorted that we English steal more American books than the
Americans steal of English books, and that if Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe had
her rights she would be $200,000 richer to-day than she is. That is to say, we
English people owe that lady for " Uncle Tom's Cabin ' £20,000. Let us pay
it. If I thought my banker would honour the draft I would draw on him for
that amount, and send it to this lady, whom Americans say we have robbed.
Let everybody in England who has read " Uncle Tom's Cabin " subscribe
towards paying off this debt which Americans say we owe. I very well
remember the first English edition of "Uncle Tom," which appeared thirty-five
years ago. It was poorly printed and sold for a shilling. But how it was

THE UNITED STATES. 215
I have great love and admiration for American people ;
especially those of its beautiful women, who do not know
that they are beautiful any more than Eve knew she was
naked before she took a certain apple. But that is the
greater reason why I should talk plainly of their continuous
thieving ; for it must stop before it is too late for repent
ance, or the greatness of the United States will be indefi
nitely put off.
But I make bold to say that in a peculiar sense the
Americans are not dependent on English art and English
literature for their culture and pastime. It only seems that
the Americans are thus dependent ; the American people
do not think about English literature, or English art, nor
do they " feel after it." But when an English newspaper
publishes a highly-flattering notice of an English writer's
work, and this is copied into another and another paper,
and the voice of the English press is as unanimous as a
chorus of brass trumpets about an English novel, history,
dictionary, poem, or other work, then the American pub
lishers run for that work. No American publisher ever
reads an English book before venturing on its publication
in the United States ; he simply reads the reviews of it,
and the newspaper paragraphs which puff it up ; in short,
devoured ! It was read by everybody. I well remember saying in a public
meeting after reading it " that the tears which that book had made to flow in
England would fall on the fetters of the slave and dissolve them." Nor am I
now ashamed of the words or of remembering them. Among the people whom •
I know to have derived great inspiration from that book who are now living are
the Duke of Argyll, several Sutherlands, R. W. Dale, and Florence Nightin
gale. These alone are capable of stirring up the people to pay Mrs. Stowe. It
is true that only a set of publishers ought to be made to pay up, and not the
people; but as the people shared in the publishers' stealing they must be made
to pay for it. What fun it would be. But then, as certain lewd French
men say, " Englishmen have no sense of fun." So I suppose the thing will not
be done.

216 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
he watches the market, and listens to the racket which is
made in the market-place. It does not in the least matter
if it be a clean or an unclean book, a great or a little book,
if the thing is a much talked of book then there is no hesi
tation in publishing it. Literature in the United States,
therefore, is simply a matter of trade, and reading English
books is only a fashion. Americans deal in books as
they deal in pigs, or pig iron, or oil, solely for the purpose
of making money. This is the true colonial spirit ;
the spirit which subordinates everything connected with
the fine as well as the industrial arts to the principle of
getting on, the undivine science of trying to make the best
of both worlds,* the old world and the new.
* The American people need not be dependent upon England for new books.
One of these da)S there will be a list of American works produced by American
authors in one year with a list of English works which have been stolen. It
will then be seen how native American talent is rewarded, or rather how it is
snubbed, belittled, put in a corner, and made to wait. If an American man of
genius takes a really great work to Messrs. Harpy Pickpoke, Dam-the-Old-Ten
and Co., these great publishers say to the American man of genius : " Thank
you, so long as we can steal all we want we need buy nothing from you. But say,
look here, why in thunder don't you go to England and publish there; they'll
pay you well, better nor we, and then we can come to terms. You just try it."
The baseness of this traffic in English books is only possible to a people who
defended slavery for so long, who parted with it by accident, who made their
coloured brethren citizens, and then set up a turnpike gate on the Republican
highway through which all negroes must pass and pay toll to get to heaven,
or even into the Post Office, while all white men and publishers go o\er free.
The following appeared in a London paper August 7, 1889 : —
"SPOILING MR. RIDER HAGGARU.
" Mr. Haggard's ' Cleopatra ' is believed in by the publishers at any rate
•(says the Ameiican Journalist). The Messrs. Harper are the authorized
representatives in America of the writer, but the return which they will be able to
make to him will be of the smallest. The Munros followed the Harper edition
within three days, ami Rami, McNally and Co. followed with another. Perhaps
the most amusing thing in connection with this legalized thicwug is the state
ment of the priipiietor of Once a Week. In his announcement of the publica
tion of the book in his paper he says : ' In consequence of the unexpected
receipt of the last chaper of " Cleopatra," we publish,' etc. The truth is that
the enterprising owner of this sheet had clipped the columns of ' Cleopatra' as

THE UNITED STATES. 217
Nor will the United States cease to retain its colonial
complexion, even if they renounce all literary piracy and
lead an honest life in that particular, unless they also do
something more of far greater importance than recognizing
the rights of authors, their instructors in wisdom and good
taste. They must recognize the rights of man before they
can become a great nation. They must carry out their own
declaration of independence * before they have the right to
call themselves the great Republic. For the past century
this declaration of independence has only been so much
bounce and bluster. The American people declare in a
voice as loud as Niagara that all men are equal ; but the
voice has been as false as it has been loud, and is more
false to-day than it was when it first uttered that declaration.
they came out in the Sun, and this ' unexpected receipt ' was the cause of the
sudden publication of the book by the Messrs. Harper. How much there is in
the way a thing is put. ' In consequence of the unexpected receipt ' sounds so
much better than ( in consequence of an unexpected opportunity to steal the last
chapter, we publish,' etc."
* " Our declaration of independence was held sacred by all, and thought to
include all ; but now to aid in making the bondage of the negro universal and
eternal it is assailed and sneered at, and construed, and hawked at, and torn
till if its framers could rise from their graves they could not at all recognize it.
All the powers of earth seem rapidly combining against the negro. Mammon is
after him, ambition follows, philosophy follows, and the theology of the day is
fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison house ; they have searched his
person, and left no prying instrument with him. One after another they have
closed the heavy iron doors upon him, and now they have him as it were bolted
in with a lock of a hundred keys, which can never be unlocked without the concurrence
of every key ; the keys in the hands of a hundred different men, and they
scattered to •• hundred different and distant places ; and they stand musing
as to what invention in all the dominions of mind and matter can be pro
duced to make the impossibility of his escape more complete than it is." —
Abraham Lincoln's speech at Springfield, quoted in the Century Magazine,
June, 1887.
These striking words of the martyred President are more emphatically true
now than they were when spoken thirty years ago, while the words I have put
in italics express with awful precision the political and social bondage of the
negro in the United States at this present hour.

218 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Therefore, the Americans are not a great nation, but only
a provincial or at the best a colonial people, and they only
pretend to be, or say they are a great nation, for they
know well enough that in spirit they are mere colonials.
It is eighteen years since I first made the personal
acquaintance of America, during which time I have visited
many of the States several times at long and short intervals.
My recollections are all pleasant. I have never had any
trouble — except once, when I challenged a man to fight
with equal pistols for a vulgar threat he launched at me
and on account of the disparity in our size. I was the little
one, but it ended in a whiskey sour. I have met with more
noble men without titles in America than in my own
country, including the titled ones ; and, as I have before
said, I love the. American women, some better than others
of course, but all better than I can express. Yet they are
more colonial than the men. The American woman is only
a subordinate when she is unconscious, and she is never
conscious that she belongs to a great nation. No wealthy
Creole lady in Cuzco or Lima, Tucuman or Potosi, or in
the West Indies, ever showed a more willing disposition to
become the wife of an Hidalgo from Seville or Madrid,
however poor he may be, than some of the rich Creole *
ladies of New York or Boston, Chicago or the States of
New Jersey, or New England, to become the wives of
Englishmen or English peers, no matter whether thev were
good men or bad. In fairness it should be said that this
never happens without indignant comments from all, or
nearly all who have married plain undecorated men.
* A creole is commonly supposed to be a person of colour. This is always
the case in the States. It is a vulgar error. The word, as is well known
outside the colonies, is made up of two Spanish words, the verb criar, to breed,
or to bring up, and the adverb alia, there, in that place. A Creole in common
parlance is one born or raised out yonder, and has no connection with colour.

THE UNITED STATES. 219
The changes which I have noticed, and are to be seen by
all who are acquainted with the States, are great and
worthy. I defy any Englishman, even though he has been
to Jerusalem and Spain, India and Egypt, or wheresoever
Cook and other couriers have conducted him, to visit the
United States and not be wonder-stricken by the wonders
which he shall see in that great country.
It was, perhaps, natural for me to be struck with what I
am about to relate, because, go where I may, I am more
interested in human beings than in bridges and railroads, or
mines, steamboats, or even mountains, icebergs, or trees
four hundred feet high. The lakes are glorious. Niagara
is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, but none of
these things move me so much as the people. Any man
with eyes can see that if it is possible for man to make a
great nation, greater than any that has ever been, the men
of the United States will do it. That is my firm conviction.
But it will take more than five hundred years from now to
accomplish. Such speculations as these, however, are not
reminiscences, and I resume my tale of things which
I have seen.
Last year I made the acquaintance in New York of a
scholarly man, who on account of his being a native-born
American and possessing an uncommon vision attracted my
notice, and our acquaintance ripened into friendship.
During the early period of our intimacy we were a good
deal together, and together we visited some of the popular
institutions of New York. One of the most ephemeral of
these is the Young Men's Christian Association. My
friend and I strolled into the building to see what was
going on. We were no sooner inside and began to take
an interest in the proceedings, than one of the Christian

220 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
young men, with a Bible in his hand, came to us and said
in a sweet, low voice —
" We do not admit negroes."
My scholarly friend is a negro, and his manners are as
good as mine, or yours, or anybody's. There is nothing
the matter with him except that he is black.
I was thunderstruck. I turned to my friend, who said to
me in a tone of voice which I shall never forget —
" We must go. Come."
We did go, but not before I spoke to that Christian
young man, and said in a sweet, low voice — but it was pure
imitation —
" You Christian young men may go to heaven, but take
my word for it, you are just now on the track which goes in
the very opposite direction."
And he went on with his Bible studies, and I went out
with my negro.*
To say that I was suffocated, mad, and shrivelled up,
is to say a small thing. It was in this way that the
* Here is an extract from a newspaper of the day on which the above was
written : — " St. Louis, Missouri, May 24. — In the general assembly of the
southern Presbyterian Church on Monday morning, the special committee on
organic or co-Operative union, consisting of thirteen ministers and thirteen
elders, made a majority and minority report. The majority report had sixteen
signatures and favoured union, on conditions that the church, as «. religious
organization, consents to totally eschew politics in every shape and form, and
that the negro membership in the church must worship separately and distinct
from their white brethren and meet in separate sessions for church legislation.
It is considered extremely doubtful that the northern branch of the church, now
in session at Omaha, will accept these terms. The minority report, signed by
the members of the committee, vehemently opposes unification in any form.
Action on the reports was deferred."
We are distinctly told in the Acts of the Apostles that Philip sat with an
Ethiopian while he opened up to him the Scriptures and rode in the same
cairiage with him. Who are these Presbyterian Democrats that dare fly in the
face of apostolical piactice? (see Acts viii., 2;, 38).

THE UNITED STATES. 221
negro question first pressed itself on my attention, but
since then I have made up for lost time. I continue to
be amazed at my own ignorance, but every day I make a
point of learning something new on this vital question.
It is the one question that will keep the United States in a
subordinate position until it is settled on the lines of their
declaration of independence. They will not cease to be
mere colonials until they act up to that declaration. It is
quite impossible for the bulk of Englishmen to understand
this matter. They do not understand the difference between
Republican and Democrat, and there is not, probably, a
single editor in London who a year ago knew the meaning
of mugwump, and but very few — they may be counted on
the left-hand fingers — who know the meaning at this
moment. And it is impossible for anyone who takes an
interest in human affairs to care for these distinctions unless
he knows that they are of vital importance to the progress
of the human race in all that is excellent and precious in all
the wide world.
These political distinctions exist in the States because the
declaration of independence is a mere literary document,
and not an article of faith for the guidance of human
conduct. It certainly never seemed possible that I, who
am nothing but a pair of hands and feet used for fetching
and carrying knowledge from the ends of the earth to the
heads of departments, should ever find anything worthy of
notice in a Mugwump, a Michigan Republican, or a
Democrat from the Mississippi, and I now find that these
distinctions carry more interest than the distinctions of
Whig and Tory, Radical and Conservative, for they concern
humanity more.

222 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
The future Presidents of the United States will be elected
by the negro vote*
This startling statement can only be fully appreciated by
those who understand the difference between Mugwump,
Republican, and Democrat.
And yet the negro is not admitted into the assemblies of
the Young Men's Christian Association in New York !
This Christian young men's insolence is a mere straw in
the street, but it tells which way the wind blows down on
the river. The negro is not allowed to share in the Lord's
Supper when it is spread in Holy Trinity Church. The
negro was good enough to fight for during one particular
crisis in the history of the States. The blood of some
Americans was good enough to redeem the "niggers"
from slavery, but the sacrifice of the Saviour was not meant
for negroes !
This is a mistake, and arises solely from the colonial
mind caring more for religion than for morality.
* This is a very serious thing. It appears that the white population of the
United States, increasing at the rate of twenty per cent, per annum, doubles
itself every thirty-five years. The black population, increasing at the rate of
thirty-five per cent, in ten years, doubles itself in twenty years. Hence we
find: Whites in Southern States in 1880 (in round numbers) 12,000,000
Whites in Southern States in 1985... ... ... 96,000,000
Blacks in Southern States in 1880... ... ... 6,000,000
Blacks in Southern States in 1980... ... ... 192,000,000
In the year 1902, or thirteen years hence, each of the States lying between
Maryland and Texas will have a coloured majority within its borders ; and
there will be eight minor republics of the Union, in which either the coloured
race will rule or a majority will be disfranchised.
So that not only are the United States a subordinate people, they stand
confronted with the possibility of becoming subordinated to the people whose
race they once enslaved. Will the United States, by persistent blindness to their
own national dignity, hasten the time when the declaration of independence
shall be interpreted as excluding the white race ? — See an ¦' Appeal to Caesar,"
by A. W. Tourgee. New York: Fords, Howard, and Hulbert,

THE UNITED STATES. 223
I do not say, of course, that the object and purpose of
the civil war between the North and the South was to
liberate the negro from bondage. Far be it from me to say
so. It is, however, the commonly received opinion, and it
is not altogether wrong; that is, it is sufficient. The object
of the war was the preservation of the Union. The Union
remains intact, but slavery has gone to the devil, and will
never be restored, hence the common opinion that the war
was undertaken for the abolition of slavery. To prevent
the possibility of the South ever again enslaving the negro
the Republican party made the negro a citizen — a full
citizen of that great and free country. That is to say, the
negro was made free in order that he might defend the
freedom which is set forth in the declaration of indepen
dence. And there is no question that this was a wise thing
to do and worthy. A negro now can only become a slave
in the same way that a white can become a slave. This
equality of rights is fully recognized by Mugwump and
Republican although not so fully by the Democrat. But a
negro is not allowed to partake of the Lord's Supper
when it is spread in Holy Trinity Church. This is unwise
and unworthy. But it is essentially a colonial view.
When the United States cease to be colonial all the citizens
of the States will have equal rights in no limited sense,
whether they are black or whether they be white. So
long as there are citizens in the United States who can
slam the door in the face of other citizens, and can keep
them out, and can refuse to allow them to partake of
supper with them, when the supper has been prepared
for both by the Lord, so long must the United States hold
a subordinate position. They are not a great nation.
I will give the latest instance that has occurred up to

224 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
now of the colonial spirit which rules in the United States.
An Act has lately received the signature of the President
called the Inter-State Commerce Act, one section of which
reads as follows : —
" It shall be unlawful for any common carrier, subject to
the provisions of this Act, to make or give any undue or
unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular
person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any
particular description of traffic in any respect whatsoever,
or to subject any particular person, company, firm, corpora
tion or locality, or any particular description of traffic to
any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in
any respect whatsoever."
The negroes naturally saw in this provision a protection
for themselves against the injustice and insolent tyranny to
which they are as much exposed on railroads as at the
Lord's Supper, and they prepared a document which had
better be given at length, as it will explain much. It is as
follows : —
" To the Honourable Inter-State Railroad Commissioners.
" As constituents of railroads whose operations are
governed by the Inter-State Commerce Law, we respect
fully ask you to place a construction on the third section of
the said Act. In our opinion the evident spirit and letter
of the law is to obviate discriminations of all kinds, whether
of person or property.
" The discriminations of which we complain are against
persons of African descent ; throughout all the Southern
States, with the possible exception of one or two,
persons of African descent travel at great inconvenience
and disadvantage by reason of the inferior accommodation
accorded them by railroads. A few among the many dis
advantages and inconveniences which we suffer are as
follows : —

THE UNITED STATES. 225
"First, We complain because in travelling we pay the same
amount for fare from place to place that any other class
of passengers does but do not receive the same equal and
indiscriminate comforts, privileges, and advantages from the
road selling the ticket. For instance, we pay five dollars
and twenty -five cents for a ticket labelled 'first-class' from
Atlanta to Montgomery. On entering the train we are
assigned, peaceably if possible by force if necessary, by
the officers in charge of the train who claim to be acting
under orders from superiors, to some particular car known
in the common parlance of this section of the country as
the ' Jim Crow ' car, ' Smoker,' or ' Negro Annex,' which is
always inferior in every respect to cars occupied by white
passengers paying the same fare, and travelling between
the same points, which car is also the retreat for drun
kards and all low and unprincipled characters of the
travelling public of other races, thereby subjecting our
wives and children, mothers and sisters, to horrible out
rages and indignities and forcing them to listen to
language which is heard in the brothel and seraglio.
" Secondly, We complain because the cleanliness, venti
lation, and sanitation of the cars to which we are assigned
are not such as will conduce to the best health of pas
sengers. " Thirdly, We complain because of the injustice involved
in this sort of treatment, and because of the injurious
effect it has upon the morals of any people who are sub
jected to such indignities ; that is to say, that filthy and
squalid surroundings have an effect detrimental to the
highest intellectual and moral development of any people
who come in contact with them. We are aware that the
railroads claim to give equal but separate accommodations.
A casual investigation will prove that the -accommodations,
while separate, are not equal ; and if they were equal yet
separate, would this condition satisfy the demands of the
law? " In our opinion the grievances herein enumerated can
Q

226 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
and should be remedied by that section of the Inter-State
Commerce Act now in existence, known as section third.
" Each and every allegation contained in this petition can
be proved if a question arises in the mind of the commis
sion as to its truthfulness.
" In view of these facts, we whose names are hereunto
subscribed in behalf of our race whose rights and privileges
are being trampled upon, and whose patience, long-suffer
ing and forbearance is being tried, respectfully ask your
interpretation of the third section of the Inter-State Com
merce Act. — Very respectfully, J. S. Flipper, H. A.
Rucker, J. N. Blackshear, J. W. Young."
This document speaks for itself. It is written by negroes,
and signed by negroes, who are citizens of the United States.
Again, it is scarcely possible to open a newspaper without
encountering some shocking tidings of the lynching of
negro citizens by white citizens of the United States.
There are sinful negroes as well as sinful whites who break
the laws. Both have equal rights to be tried in the courts,
but this right is frequently denied to the negro, and
negroes are taken by force out of gaol by white citizens,
and without trial — simply on rumour or very flimsy testi
mony — are hanged in the fields. Such citizens do not belong
to a great nation, because a great nation does not allow
such things to happen, for various and serious reasons.
I am quite aware of what has taken place in Ireland, and
still stand to my statement that a great nation does not
allow one set of citizens to hang another set of citizens on
their own responsibility, and without taking some sufficient
notice of it.
A negro cannot marry a white nor a white marry w ith a
negro in the United States. The utmost license will be
allowed in the mingling of these races, but it is against the

THE UNITED STATES. 227
law to marry ; and the United States cannot be allowed to
call themselves a great nation without exciting much
derision so long as they abide by that law.
If Othello were to come to the United States, bringing
Desdemona with him, they would not be allowed to stay at
the Brevoort House, nor Palmer House, nor Sherman House,
nor Cleveland House, nor Hoar House, nor Hoffman House,
nor any of the fashionable houses ; nor travel in a Pulman
Car, nor take the sacrament in Holy Trinity Church, if they
had a mind to do so. They would not be received in
society. Their marriage would have been illegal.
Now I understand for the first time why it was that
Forest played Othello in a copper-coloured skin, and not
in blacklead.
The Republican party made the negro a citizen of the
United States. The Democratic party have never recognized
the full legality of that act. The negroes naturally voted
for and with the Republican party, and by that means the
Republican party held a long lease of power, during which
time the Republican party would go to the Lord's Supper
with the Democrats, and Democrats and Republicans
agreed together to slam the door in the face of the citizen
whose face had been burnished by the sun, and keep him
from partaking of the same table. The Republicans at one
time had it in their power to make a full citizen of the
negro, after they had made him one by statute, but they
joined the Democrats in not doing it.
"We cannot make citizens by Act of Parliament," say the
people of the United States. Therefore, by their own
confession, the United States are only a subordinate people.
They are not a great nation.
The mugwump is a dissatisfied Republican who will vote

228 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
for measures, not for men, merely because they belong to
the Republican party ; for good measures and a good Presi
dent, even if they have to seek for them in Democratic
Nazareth. Therefore, there is some hope that the United
States will not for ever continue to be an agglomeration of
colonies. They may become a great nation.
" We are engaged," observes the Reverend Dr. Strong,*
" in what Lord Bacon called the ' heroic work of making a
nation,' for which heroic sacrifices are demanded; and our
plea is not America for America's sake, but America for
the world's sake." The Doctor means well, but his
eloquence not unfrequently makes him blind to the truth
of some of his own sayings.
By living in the United States for a sufficient length of
time we may see a mean colonial spirit actuating fifty or
sixty millions of people. It is the same spirit which presided
over the silver colonies of Peru and which presides over
the gold colonies of Australia. They all worship one god
at the behest of him who said " All these things will I
give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me ; " and
nothing makes people so much alike in looks and ways as
worshipping at one and the same shrine.
It is only fair to hear what an American has to say on
behalf of his country.
Bishop A. Cleveland Coxe, in an article upon " Govern
ment by Aliens," printed in the August number of the
Forum of last year, says : —
" We are confronted by the terrible fact that we are
undergoing changes similar to those which have been the
ruin of ancient peoples in many examples. Successive
invasions of Spain made for her a mongrel race, and have
* " Our Country : Its Possible Future and its Present Crisis," by the Rev.
Joseph Strong, D.D. New York : Baker and Taylor, Bond Street.

THE UNITED STATES. 229
fastened upon her a chronic state of decay and imbecility.
The great world-changes of the sixth century were effected
by the movements of Goths and Vandals pouring into the
sunny south, as the Gulf Stream rushes into the cold waters
of the north. The Salian Franks made a great kingdom,
but they did so by wiping the Gauls out of their inheritance
as one wipes a platter. In a more stealthy fashion, but
with equal powers to obliterate, hordes of barbarians are
now flooding our fair estate, and taking possession of our
heritage. We do not recognize the immigration as an
invasion, which it really is, simply because the invaders
land without arms and ammunition. We forget that they
come with weapons of fatal import to our civilization and
to our race. Vice, ignorance, corruption, superstition, and
hereditary enslavement to a foreign Court which makes
war upon all free institutions are the destructive elements,
worse than dynamite bombs, which they distribute through
the land. What boots their lack of guns and bayonets ?
We give the invaders votes, and they are soon drilled and
magnified into a 'balance of power' which makes them our
masters. Look at the City of New York — invaded, seized,
and held by aliens, who have presumed to make it the seat
of war ; turning its Government into the hands of a
religious sect governed by priests ; conquering and now
sacking the metropolis, and even raising an alien flag over
our hotel de ville, not merely as a menace and a defiance
to the older inhabitants, but as a step toward embroiling
us in the political conflict that rages between England and
Ireland. The alien flag is the symbol of organized warfare
upon a great nation with which we are professedly at
peace. Our invaders, who have sworn fidelity to our laws,
and who claim to be Americans, are practically Irish, and
nothing but Irish always. Everybody knows that they are
engaged in supplying the sinews of war, if not destructive
weapons, to the factions that stained Phoenix Park with
the blood of a cowardly assassination, and that placed
dynamite under London Bridge and in the lobbies of the

230 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Parliament Palace at Westminster. Such facts are serious
tokens of a political decay which works towards dissolution.
We are rapidly becoming a conquered people.
" Is there national spirit left among us (the Bishop con
cludes) to assert that the time has come to govern America
by honest American voters, and to demand that no such
prefix as Irish or German or Mormon shall be suffered to
qualify the American name ? If not, free institutions and
popular government must perish even here. Have we so
speedily reached the terminus predicted, as by Cassandra
herself, in the pregnant warnings of that pure and lofty
genius, Fisher Ames ? He said, long years ago : — ' The
sovereign power being nominally in the hands of all, will be
effectually within the grasp of a few, who will combine,
intrigue, lie, and fight to engross it to themselves. . . The
idle, the ambitious, and the needy will band together to break
the hold that law has upon them, and then to get hold of
law. . . . Our country is too big for union, too sordid for
patriotism, too democratic for liberty.' But even this far-
seeing statesman had nothing to forewarn him of the real
character of the combinations which have actually come to
pass ; of alienism entering like a Trojan horse, drawn over
broken walls by our own infatuated hands, and already
threatening our inheritance with Fit it Ilium for our pre
mature and ignoble epitaph."

CHAPTER XVII.
SPAIN.
WHEN I was preparing my translation of the "Don Quixote"
for publication I went a second time to Spain, and passed
several weeks in Albarracin, Teruel, Calatayud, Daroca,
and Valencia, in the very heart of the Castiles, and lived in
a house not far from Daroca, which, three centuries ago,
was the home of renowned hidalgos and fine women not a
few. This is a region in which it is possible to catch
glimpses of the power and glory of Spain, when Spain was
in the height of her glory, and to realize what a wonderful
country it must have been. Here, if a company of a dozen
men wanted a holiday, they might enjoy some of the ruins
of departed splendour, the enduring glories of a landscape
which man cannot spoil, and live on the fat of the land for
tenpence a day. I am astonished that Spain is so little
visited by men who can paint, women who can sketch, and
others who would understand the present time by moving
amongst some of the finest monuments of the past. But
it is absolutely needful to be able to converse, to joke,
and to sing songs in the native language. The most learned
man in the world visiting Spain would be considered a

232 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
nobody if he could not speak, and speak well, the Castilian
tongue. The old house in which I stayed as a guest was
in perfect preservation, but its contents were in a state of
hopeless confusion. Pieces of quaint old furniture were
thrown into one corner, covered up with old folios in
vellum and gold. In another corner were old wood
carvings, pictures, pieces of gilt leather embossed, ancient
manuscripts which the rats had been investigating for
their own selfish purposes — like some English historians
at Simancas have done with the old records which are
there — pieces of ancient armour, covered with rust, and
tattered flags, to say nothing of the men servants and maid
servants who waited on me, laughed at my questions, and
made me laugh with them at their simple ways and speech.
The old gentleman who occupied this ancient house
lived in one of its smallest rooms, where he slept and took
his meals. A rich mine of manganese had some time
before been discovered on his land, and there were deposits
of fine hematite iron ore to be seen everywhere. Coal
was also abundant, and also close by, and Don Felipe" de
Quinones, as poor as a church mouse, was living in hope
that some day these riches would be turned into ready
money. He knew no more than a child what was to be
done to get the iron and coal to market. When he found
that I knew something of these things he began to thaw,
and carried me from one place to another where the
hematite ore cropped out in marvellous abundance. The
hills were simply masses of tine rich iron ore, the like of
which I have not seen either in Cumberland or Bilboa, or
on the Agogebie range. One day he took me to see the
works of los unt/ot/os — the ancients, probably the Phoeni
cians — and lo ! a vertical chimney had been bored through

SPAIN. 233
one of the highest hills, at the foot of which could still be
seen the hearth where the ore was smelted into iron. This
is probably one of the oldest blast furnaces in the world.
The slag which is lying about is very rich in iron, and
resembles what is known as kidney ore. So interested
did I become that Don Felipe waked up under my influ
ence. I plied him with schemes, and so effectually excited
his avarice that I found it difficult to leave him. The
dinners became much improved, the wine was better, and
we sat up later at night. There was nothing he would not
do for me. At length he found out a way to detain me,
which I could not resist. Among his old books was a copy
of the first edition of " Don Quixote," printed in Madrid,
1605. It was the veritable first edition which I call the
shirt-tail edition, to distinguish it from the other first
edition, which was really the second, published in the same
year by Juan de la Cuesta, in which the knots made out of
the shirt-tail to make the rosary of are changed into gall
nuts. I believe there are not more than five or six copies
of this shirt-tail edition in the world. Don Felipe there
and then made me a present of this book, which perhaps
Cervantes himself had not only seen, but handled. If I had
found a fragment of the tables of stone on which the original
Ten Commandments were written I could not have been
more affected. There was no sleep for me that night, and
although I had read the book a score of times already, I
did nothing but sit in the sun all the next day reading it
once more and laughing and crying over it more than
ever. All the iron and the coal and the manganese of the
world became as mere dirt to me. I cared no more about
the blast furnace of the Phoenicians than I cared about last
year's clouds. Don Felipe could not move me out of my

234 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
corner and away from my glorious companion. I was with
Cervantes in his own beloved Spain, beneath his own
sky, hearing him talk, seeing him smile, and asking him
questions, which were answered in a most sweet voice. I
did not want any dinner or to go to bed. I only cared for
some Rioja, of which there was plenty, a favourite wine of
Cervantes. Don Felipe' was too good ; certainly too
courteous to take me away from my book, but to my
disgust he came and sat by me and began to talk.
" Why, think you Don Alejandro, did Cervantes write
this book ? " he asked, intending to draw me away from it,
and to talk about iron ore.
But I wasn't to be drawn away; wild horses could not
have drawn me away. I said in answer to this —
" You know, Don Felip6, that Cervantes had served under
Don Juan of Austria and had greatly distinguished him
self, and when he would return to Spain he carried on his
person letters to Philip II. from Don John, which set forth
all his bravery and the noble example he had set at the
battle of Le Panto, and you know that when Cervantes was
taken captive and carried to Algiers these letters were
found on him, and you also know that it was these letters
which made Dey Azan think so much of Cervantes that he
took special care of him, loading him with chains and
keeping him in the cellar of his own house, believing that
not only Philip II. but all Spain, would part with all their
gold, and even sell the shirts off their backs to ransom
such a man as this. You know, also, how Cervantes
behaved in his captivity — how he was always plotting to
escape — and yet, when all his fellow captives expected
that he would be impaled or hanged when his plots were
discovered, the Dey did not even scourge him, partly

SPAIN. 235
because there was something divine about this noble
Spaniard, but chiefly because he still believed that all
Spain would even sell the shirts off their backs to pay his
ransom. It must be also well known to you, Don Felipe,
that Cervantes wrote often to Philip II., telling the King of
the twenty thousand Spanish Christian captives held in
bondage in Algiers, urging him in the name of his father
Charles the Great, in the sacred name of Christ, and by all
the obligations of a Knight of the Cross to come to the
rescue of these captives. He showed how easily their
redemption could be accomplished, and reminded him of
the glory with which he would be covered if he sent a
sufficient armada against this infernal tyrant, whose daily
cruelties were turning many noble Spaniards into rene
gades, losing their souls in order to save their bodies from
pain. But Philip II. was at that time too much occupied
in the Netherlands to attend to the ravings of a mere
captive dreaming in the baginos of Algiers, and the letters
of Cervantes remained unheeded. In 1580 Cervantes re
turned to Spain. He had been absent nine years, five of
which were spent in cruel captivity, two years in active
service in war, one year in the domestic service of the
Colonna, and the rest of the time in hospital or travelling
through Italy."
Don Felipe had more than once shown a little restless
ness, but he was now all attention, and turned his face full
on mine, as I continued —
" Cervantes who you remember lost the use of his left
arm in the service of his country, found it very difficult to get
employment of any sort. He was willing to do anything,
even to go to Peru as an exciseman, if only to earn his
bread. But he was neglected, and probably he was proud

236 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
and hated the idea of standing on some hidalgo's door-mat
waiting for an answer to his application to serve the State.
He did go to Portugal and served under the famous Santa
Cruz. Then he found some time after some subordinate
employment at Seville in the commissariat department, for
which he was not fitted, but it involved much travelling
about the country, buying up provisions for the galleys of
Spain. His profession brought him in contact with the
highest and lowest class of men and made him acquainted
with village customs and general rustic life. There is a
tradition that he was thrown into gaol in a village of La
Mancha for libelling a lady of Toboso, that he was also
confined in a gaol in the town of Argamasilla, where some
believe, if he did not write his ' Don Quixote,' he designed
it. It is certain that Cervantes suffered much -from poverty
through the treachery of false friends and the neglect of all
who should have been proud to help this maimed and noble
soldier." "Ah, Don Alejandro," said Don Felipe, "the world never
knows its great men."
" Es la verdad," I replied. " But see how lengthy an
answer I am making to your short question. ' Why did
Cervantes write the "Don Quixote?"' Bear with me a
little longer; I will give you the best answer I can. When
Cervantes began to write the ' Don Quixote ' he was more
than fifty years old ; he was fifty-eight when he published
it. He had seen much of the world, and probably more of
Spain than any strolling player, or missionary priest, or
muleteer. He was an avaricious reader, he sympathized
with all men, and could find something good in the most
stupid book ever printed. He associated with Jews, Gipsies,
Moors, carriers, soldiers, wine growers, wits, and men of

SPAIN. 237
the highest distinction in every walk of life. He was a
•personal friend of Don Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas,
Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, a learned and most humane
man, and of many others who mourned over the corruption
of manners, the degradation of letters, and the immoralities,
irregularities, and puerilities of the stage. The best writers,
orators, and the holiest of men tried in vain to put down the
novels of the day, but the more these holy men preached
against the loves of Amadis and Oriana, the indiscretions of
the Imperial Princess with Belianis, the revels of el Caballero
Don Cupido, and the very naughty things that were to be
found in the Amadis of Greece, the more did everybody read
these pernicious books; and to bring them more into fashion
the Government put a tax on them, and the higher the tax
and the more lewd the book, the more it was multiplied
and read."
"All that I never knew, Don Alejandro," said Don
Felipe. " It is quite true," I continued; " indeed, before the ' Don
Quixote' had been published a year the revenue of the
Government fell off so seriously owing to this tributary stream
having been dried up that political economists wrote on the
subject and complained ; for I have no doubt that you, Don
Felip6, know well enough that not one more of these
lascivious books was again printed in Spain after the
appearance of the ' Don Quixote.' "
" I had heard it so said," he replied ; " but never appre
ciated the statement until now."
"Very well then I go on. Wearied with neglect,
weighted with poverty, bowed down with insult, Cervantes
resolved that he would make his ungrateful country repent
its conduct towards him. And now I must translate for

238 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD. .
you an English story as it is told by one of the greatest of
English writers of prose* But I warn you that the story
will lapse into nothing at all unless you yourself are able to
dilate it by expansive sympathy with its sentiment. " A
young officer (in what army, no matter) had so far forgotten
himself in a moment of irritation as to strike a private
soldier, full of personal dignity (as sometimes happens in
all ranks) and distinguished for his courage. The inexor
able laws of military discipline forbade to the injured
soldier any practical redress — he could look for no retalia
tion by acts. Words only were at his command ; and in a
tumult of indignation, as he turned away, the soldier said
to his officer that he would ' make him repent it.' This
wearing the shape of a menace naturally rekindled the
officer's anger and intercepted any disposition which might
be rising within him towards a sentiment of remorse ; and
thus the irritation between the two grew hotter than
before. Some time after this a partial action took place
with the enemy. Suppose yourself a spectator and looking
down into a valley occupied by the two armies. They are
facing each other, you see, in martial array. But it is no
more than a skirmish which is going on ; in the course of
which however an occasion suddenly arises for a desperate
service. A redoubt which has fallen into the enemy's
hands must be recaptured at any price, and under circum
stances of all but hopeless difficulty. A strong party has
volunteered for the service ; there is a cry for somebody to
head them. You see a soldier step out from the ranks to
assume this dangerous leadership. The party moves rapidly
forward ; in a few minutes it is swallowed up from your
* De Quinccy, "Autobiographic Sketches." James Hogg, Edin., 1853,
p. IZ7.

SPAIN. 239
eyes in clouds of smoke ; for one half-hour from behind
these clouds you receive hieroglyphic reports of bloody
strife, fierce repeating signals, flashes from the guns,
rolling musketry, and exulting hurrahs advancing or
receding, slackening or redoubling. At length all is
over; the redoubt has been recovered; that which was
lost is found again ; the jewel which had been made captive
is ransomed with blood. Crimsoned with glorious gore
the wreck of the conquering party is relieved and at liberty
to return. From the river you see it ascending. The
plume-crested officer in command rushes forward, with
his left hand raising his helmet in homage to the blackened
fragments of what was once a flag, whilst with his right
hand he seizes that of the leader, though no more than a
private in the ranks. The soldier, stepping back, and
carrying his open hand through the beautiful motions of
the military salute to a superior, makes this immortal
answer — that answer which shut up for ever the memory
of the indignity offered to him, even whilst for the last time
alluding to it — 'Sir,' he said, ' I told you that I would make
you repent it.' " Has not all Spain repented of its insults
to its soldier-hero, who was never anything but a private,
although he heads the entire army ? Even now not a soul
knows where the bones of Cervantes rest, but the meanest
Spaniard that lives knows that when he died there died the
greatest of them all. The most highly decorated Spaniard
could do nothing for Cervantes but insult him, and there is
not a Spaniard now living that would not kiss his bones if
he knew where to find them, and who is not consumed
with ineffectual repentance for the treatment which
hastened their one great man to his nameless grave."
" Hombre, vamos a comer ! " said Don Felipe ; and I,

240 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
looking at my watch, found that it was long past the hour
to dine, so we went in to dinner.
Happily for me the next day was one of cold rain —
although it was the middle of June ; walking about to look
at hematite iron ore was impossible, and I was left in peace
to read my most precious and absorbing book, then made
more dear to me than ever. A couple of hours before
dinner I was so cold that I thought I would go for a run
over the hills. Don Felipe thought I was mad. " You'll
catch your death of cold ; you will be laid up with
rheumatism ; pray do not go."
I begged of him to have filled for me the large wooden
trough that was in my room with cold water, and I would
return in an hour. He, thinking that I was about to make
some experiment, promised to do so.
I came back dripping with perspiration, and found half-
a-dozen lasses carrying water up the great staircase in
long jars on their heads, and looking like so many living
caryatides stepping out of a frieze. The tub was nearly
full, I dismissed the caryatides, and began to undress,
when, to my astonishment, I found these curious maids
anxiously looking on through an open window at the other.
end of the large room. I sent them away with some verv
harsh words. They ran to tell Don Felip£, who, in great
terror, rushed into the room to see what I was up to. He
found me splashing about in the tub. He began to call
on a great number of saints in pious ejaculations, and I
was out of the tub rubbing myself down before he had
finished. He hurried out to look after the dinner, I believe ; and
when I joined him, instead of finding me pale and tremb
ling with cold, he saw me red, warm, and happy, he was

SPAIN. 241
agreeably surprised, and inquired if that was an English
custom. When I told him that all English gentlemen in
sound health tumbled into a tub of cold water every morn
ing all the year round, in winter and summer, he exclaimed,
good-naturedly —
"Que barbaros son estos Inglesas" — what barbarians
these Englishmen are.
I was very glad to find that Don Felipe was quite ready to
resume our talks on Don Quixote. He was only the second
or third Spaniard whom I met in Spain who did not get
away from the subject as quickly as possible. Of course I
do not include my friends Don Pascual de Gayangos or
Don Jose Maria de Asensio. I have sat up for hours
together with these learned Cervantistas talking of nothing
else but the neology of the famous man who was as great
a coiner of words as Shakespeare was, and more remarkable
as an inventor of names.
I had brought with me from Seville a copy of the
recently-discovered letter of Cervantes, which was found in
the Biblioteca Colombina by el Senor Don Aurellano
Fernandez-Guerra y Orbe, and as this magnificent " find "
was quite unknown to my host, I thought I would try his
patience and my own skill in making known its literary
value. The next morning , therefore, as we were sipping our
early chocolate, I asked him if chocolate was a Spanish
word, hoping to wean him away from his beloved hematite,
and his manganese, and my magnificent schemes.
" Of course it is a Spanish word," he said.
After a good deal of gentle manoeuvring on my part he
acknowledged that he was wrong, that he was grateful for
my learned company, and would never forget that the
R

242 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
original word was chocolalt, and that it came from
Mexico. " Now," I said, " Don Felip6, as I have told you this
great secret, and added, although little, yet something to
your knowledge, do me the favour to tell me in return for
this service why it was that Don Quixote, after many
promises to visit Zaragosa, not only did not go there, but
after getting almost in sight of the city, where he intended
to take part in the great tournament that had been an
nounced so long before, he turned his back on it in disgust
and went to Barcelona instead ? "
"You, my dear Don Alejandro," he said, "can better
make answer to that long question than I can, and therefore
I beseech you to answer it for me, and I shall listen with
joyous gratitude."
" I tell you, Don Felipe, that it will make you happy for
the next six weeks, and when I am gone — "
" I pray you not to mention your going."
" When I am gone you will be delighted that I ever came,
and I shall always think of you as often as I think of Don
Quixote, and I do not expect ever to give up thinking
about him, either on this side the grave or the other."
He smiled, rolled up another cigarette, and ordered me
to go on.
" You have read the false ' Don Quixote,' by Avellaneda ? "
I began. " How could I read a false ' Don Quixote ' ? " he exclaimed.
" Is there in the world such a book as a false ' Don
Quixote'?" "Oh! oh!" I said, with some excitement. "This will
be as great a glory as a three days' bull fight."
On which he exploded a volume of inarticulate satirical

SPAIN. 243
incredulity. For a bull fight to a full-grown Spaniard to
last three days would be like all the hydrants in London
running free gin for the same period to its male and female
roughs, and why an exhibition of so much cruelty and
cowardice should so delight a mob of ten thousand
Spaniards is as inexplicable to me as the ever-recurring
description of this brutal sight by English travellers in
Spain. " Yes," I answered, " Avellaneda published a second
part of ' Don Quixote ' in which, knowing as he did that
Cervantes intended to take his hero to Zaragosa, he devotes
three chapters to the Virgin de Pilar, the patron, you
know, of that famous city. This book came into the hands
of Cervantes at the time that he was just writing the
advent of Don Quixote to Zaragosa, and when Cervantes
jead it he broke out into a rage so terrible that as you read
you can perceive it must have been a rage that was in
creased by intense pain. For Cervantes had intended to
be very humorous, and playfully satirical, in dealing with
the worship of the Virgin de Pilar."
" Como ? " exclaimed Don Felipe, opening his eyes with
energy. " Oh, yes, my dear Don Felipe," I answered, "you must
bear with me and with Cervantes in this matter. Remember
that he had been nine years away from Spain, travelling
through Europe, and living, or rather dying, in slavery in
Africa. He had mingled with all kinds of men ; he had
noted their morals and been moved by their immoralities ;
he had seen the awful divorce of religion from morality ;
he had pondered on the inhumanity of man to man, and all
this while human life was a dread reality to him, while
shams of all kinds claimed his most serious thoughts, for he

244 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
pitied man, and laughed at the delusions which man im
poses upon himself. I must also tell you that Cervantes
made the acquaintance of some of the early reformers of
Spain, who were hunted from pillar to post, ' from Meca to
Zeca,' who had to hide in hovels and stables, and in
mountain caves, from the wrath of Philip and the myrmi
dons of the Inquisition, and if he did not believe their
doctrines he sympathized with them in their toils. You
must keep all this in mind as you think of Cervantes turn
ing the stream of his sunny satire on to the worship of the
Virgin de Pilar. I know that it is difficult for you to
remember this, or to make any allowance for a man whose
experience of life is so much wider and deeper than your
own. You, my dear Don Felipe, have never been out of
Spain. You have, as you tell me, lived all your days in
Castile. You know nothing of the hardness of man, noth-»
ing of the corruption and the arrogance and tyranny of
priests who have frightened men and women out of their
souls, nothing of the moral slavery in which millions of
Italians, Frenchmen, and Englishmen were then held. The
cries of the victims of Saint Bartholomew were still ringing
in the ears of Cervantes, mingled with the laughter of
Philip when the news of that massacre reached him.
Cervantes knew that the Netherlanders were fighting for
liberty against Philip's troops, against a persecution which
makes us tremble for the name of man when you read
the history. And Cervantes knew better than any man
then living that Spain and all her people were as fond of
vice in all its varied forms as Philip himself was. He knew
that the people were profoundly ignorant — in morals deeply
degraded— for the books they read were as demoralizing as
the plays they saw on the stage, and that the Church which

SPAIN. 245
watched over the good of the community was in its officers
as unholy, cruel, and tyrannical as he who was the head of
the State."
" Por Dios Senor Don Alejandro Vuestra merced es
algo exaltado," said Don Felip6, breaking in.
" I will be as calm as I can," I replied. " I say that it
was inevitable for Cervantes not to see, to feel, and to
know that there was no inherent quality in Spain that
could justify her in lording it over other people. Much less
was there any morality in her to qualify her for dictating
what other people should believe, and that it was the
people's own fault if they lived in slavery or in terror, and
their own pusillanimity which made them sweat to win
money in order that Philip might walk up to his knees in
human blood as he went to say mass or to worship the
Virgin de Pilar. Basta ! Now when Cervantes found
that Avellaneda had handled the subject of this worship in
a gross and carnal way in his false 'Don Quixote,' Cervantes
shrank from it as you, Don Felipe, would shrink from
pollution, and so instead of the joust at Zaragosa we
have the visit to Barcelona, and a series of isolated and
unexpected accidents for which no preparation had been
made, and which are not linked with anything that has
gone before, all sprung upon the reader as if to bewilder
him or make him forget the way he has come, in order,
apparently, to show that the road leads to nowhere.
This, querido Don Felipe, is orie of the greatest dis
appointments you shall meet with in the whole range of
secular fiction. It can only be likened to the ' Merchant
of Venice' — which I am glad to see you have translated
into Spanish, with the trial scene omitted — in which the
revenge of the bloody-minded Jew is backed up. His plot

246 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
of vengeance is supported by a technical and masterful
reading of law, and the cup of Christian blood is carried to
the thirsting lips of revenge when it is dashed to the ground
by the wit of a woman. Without that scene Shylock would
be to us nothing more than a common-place ' bull ' or
' bear' on the Rialto of Venice. This is the fatal loss we
have in our ' Don Quixote.' Zaragosa and the Virgin
of the Pillar are left out. The great promise remains
unfulfilled. Dulcinea remains a garlic-eating wench —
" ' She glided like a spirit, and her light
Did all fantastic seem. And yet her form
Was human, I touched, yea — felt its substance.
She, too, had mortal fears, and woman-like
Shrank back with crimson modesty !
Then like illusion faded —
And unsubstantial melted quite away.
If now to nice conjecture I give place
By heaven I neither know nor guess
What most I doubt — nor what I most believe.'
This is the painful attitude into which we are all brought
at the very moment when we expect our hero to crown his
life with one achievement which shall eclipse all other
achievements which preceded it. Instead of this we have
the rebellion of Sancho against his master ; the trees on
the highway turned into so many gallowses — a horrible
picture of domestic lawlessness in the most beautiful
province of central Spain — Roque Guinart — the incarnation
of provincial license ; the beautiful Claudia, another
victim, like Dorothea, of the pernicious reading of the
time ; the first view of the sea ; the insult to Rozinante
by the rabble of Barcelona, showing the estimate in which
the ' Don Quixote ' is held by the lowest and most brutal ;
the enchanted head illustrating the intellect of the Spanish
middle-class mind ; the visit to the printing office ; a

SPAIN. 247
view of the pirates of the African coast ; the expulsion of
the Moors, the only life-like picture which has come down
to us of that insane act of an ignorant people and a priest-
ridden king ; the return to the duke's castle, which Don
Quixote thought he had quitted for ever, but to return to go
through the burlesque of the Holy Inquisition ; the
descent into hell ! the scourging of Sancho — a profound
mockery — and a new use of the rosary ; the return home ;
the recovery of his reason ; his peaceful death in bed,
and taking the Sacrament — thirty or more striking
incidents, all new, all gems of genius, hurried together
in a short space, and to no purpose ! This is not Cervantes'
way. His ' Don Quixote,' as it was the first great novel, and
the father of all modern novels,* so it was a novel with a
purpose — and the main purpose is lacking — because a lewd
priest had touched his subject and profaned it. Just as
some stage carpenter, to catch the gallery of the Globe,
made Shakespeare's La Pucelle invoke the help of fiends
and to offer hell " ' Her soul, her body, soul and all
Before that England give the French the foil.'
After which the whole Globe, including pit and royal box, was
ready to believe anything that was said of ' the holy maid' of
France. Allow me Don Felipe, to repeat that the great tour
nament that was to take place in Zaragosa had been long
promised. There had been many such in Spain, at which
Charles V., Philip II., and Philip III. assisted. Valladolid,
Salamanca, Seville, Madrid, and Naples had held their
jousts which were nothing but masquerades, the revels of
an idle time — a dying world — whether for pastime or in
* Including the Waverley Novels, which would be an incredible statement if
Sir Walter had not said so himself. See Lockhart's " Life."

248 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
profound pretence, mimicking the glorious enthusiasm,
when the sword welded to the cross swept the accursed
crescent from the earth and planted the standard of the
Church on the highest rock of the world — as it was thought ;
and now there should be another joust, and the scene
the Celtiberian Salduba — Kaictapav^vcrra, — the glorious
free city of a glorious king and the shrine of heaven's
queen. But, as I have said, the promise was not kept for
the reasons which I have given you."
Don Felipe laughed at my elocuencia, as he called it, and
marvelled that so much could be said about " Don Quixote."
He had read it for pure amusement and nothing else. Nor
did he believe that Cervantes had any such intention as I
had ascribed to him. Don Felipe firmly believed that the
Phoenicians had once visited Spain and had made iron out
of some of his own hematite ore. That blast furnace was
sufficient evidence for him ; but he could not see that the
work of a man of genius was like the pie in the nursery
song, in which the four-and-twenty blackbirds were baked,
when the pie is opened the birds begin to sing." Hereupon
three-fourths of the company run away in a fright. After
a time, feeling ashamed, they excuse themselves by declar
ing tke pie stank so they could not sit near it. Those who
remained behind — the men of taste, the epicures — say to
one another, " We came here to eat. What business have
birds, after they have been baked, to be alive and singing?
This will never do. Here is an invasion, for who will send
a pie to an oven if the birds come to life there? We
must stand up for the rights of ovens. Let us have dead
birds, dead birds for our money." Then each sticks his fork
into a bird, mangles it awhile, and then holds it up and

SPAIN. 249
cries, " Who will dare assert that there is any music in
this bird's song?"*
I was now in great dread that Don Felipe" would not ask me
if I had any proof of my assertions, in which case I should
have had to conclude that he did not care a fig about this
matter, and that I should lose the opportunity of making
use of the new discovery in the Colombina. This oppressed
me a good deal because I felt that I had already given him
quite enough of ' Don Quixote,' and it would be gross cruelty
in me to press upon him more if he did not wish for it.
But to my great joy he returned to the subject, and inquired
how I became possessed of all this knowledge, and if it had
ever been of use to me further, he hastened to add, " than
entertaining your friends." " Have you ever made any
money by it ? " he inquired, as if he were an American,
and it is true that we had become very familiar.
I told him that I had once delivered two lectures on this
subject before the celebrated Philosophical Institute in
Edinburgh, for which they paid me £10; but that, as I had had
to pay my railway fare to London and back, which by going
third class amounted to £3 6s. 8d., and my hotel bill at the
Caledonian for six days, which came to £6 5s., I did not
make much profit by my labours. But I had great pleasure
in recollecting that by means of the same lectures I once
raised £200 for building a house of refuge for young
women in one of the English gold colonies.
On hearing this his interest increased. I did not care to
tell him of my translating the ' Don Quixote' into English,
and the great pecuniary profit and universal praise I gained
by this work, because a man is not unseldom an object of
* Julius Hare, I think, in " Guesses at Truth." It is a long time since I read
this passage. But I am sure that I have not spoilt it in quoting.

250 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
doubt when he tells the tale of his own successes. Don
Felipe" was glad to have me read to him the document dis
covered in the Colombina, because he was a real Spaniard
and full of Spanish sympathies; but it would not interest
the English reader.
It was necessary to draw my visit to Don Felipe to a
close, and I had to resort to a stratagem in order to escape
getting still deeper entangled in the toils of his hospitality.
I ordered Jose, the major-domo, to have my horse
saddled early in the morning, as I intended to reach
Murviedro the same night. This I knew he would not fail
to communicate to his master, and, as I expected, Don
Felipe was down to see me off. He had also ordered his
horse to be in readiness. The moment I saw him I went to
him with the copy of the precious first edition of " Don
Quixote " which he had given to me, and I said —
" Don Felipe, you must keep this rare book in your own
house. Do not part with it on any account to anyone ; it
is one of only some five or six copies that remain in the
world. Let this be kept in Spain, and let me help in show
ing to the world that even in Spain Cervantes is no longer
neglected." He took the book in silence ; he embraced me ; we drank
our chocolate, and mounted. He rode with me as far as
Valverde; and a very windy ride we had, talking was im
possible. Arrived there we breakfasted, and then I bade
him farewell, and I have not seen or heard of him since.

CHAPTER XVIII.
CANADA.
SOME TIME ago when I was in the pay of the Government
of the Dominion, Canada became more and more every day
a land of much importance to me, for always have I found
that the people who supply you with money are much more
interesting and worthy than others, even though they may
be superior in manners and talents who do nothing in
your behalf. On one occasion I enjoyed the hospitality of
a man who at one time was a great friend of some con
nections of mine, and by means of his commercial acquire
ments and relationships in the grocery and lumber trades,
of which trades he was a pillar, I was able to see much of
one particular part of Canada, and to make the acquaint
ances of many men, both good and bad.
One day as this grocery man was driving me in his dog
cart, I think he called it — and it certainly was his own — to
see some salt wells which he thought of buying, he said
pointing to a house half-a-mile in front of us : "Yonder is
the house of the man I am going to see. He is one of our
self-made men."
The house pointed out did not appear to me to belong to

252 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
the ordinary self-made man. It was surrounded by one of
the best gardens I had seen in the district, which is rightly
called the Garden of Canada. Not far from it was Nata-
wasauga Bay, which stretches into and forms part of the
waters of Georgian Bay.
Now, there is never any difficulty in making your way
into a Canadian house, provided your entrance be marked
with goodwill and courtesy ; so my friend and I found easy
access to the pleasant and substantial dwelling of the
Canadian self-made man. I was not anxious to make his
acquaintance — preferring to remain outside and look at
things which, although not self-made, were beautiful and of
infinite value. But my friend, who was great on all matters
pertaining to common salt, and had, in fact, come to con
sult with the self-made one about some salt wells, of which
he was the owner, insisted on my going into the house
with him, and in I went. I expected to find the self-made
a ponderous, square-shouldered man, of heavy jaw, high
cheek bones, a long chin, small eyes, who had forgotten to
get a forehead in the process of his Creation, and who, if
he had ever been endowed with any of the simpler graces
which help to make up human character, had obliterated
them all in making himself anew.
The moment I saw him I enjoyed an agreeable surprise.
He was still young, well built, with a good English face, a
rich voice, a clear eye, an uncringing gait, and fresh and
open in look and gesture. He received us in a quiet, but
frank and easy manner; he took us into his private room,
which was well littered with books and papers ; he went
himself to the pantry, and brought out wine and other
things, which he set before us with that sweet politeness
which can only proceed from kindness of heart.

CANADA. 253
This natural behaviour of the self-made, whom I shall
call Job Spring, showed itself in other ways than by
supplying us with refreshments. He took us round his
garden, introduced us to the pigs, the poultry, and the dogs,
and explained those improvements which were of his own
planning, together with certain projects for making his
homestead famous.
After a while my grocer friend interposed, and said that
as he had come to see the salt wells, he would like to be
shown the way to them. On which Mr. Spring called to a
serving man who was there, and said to him —
" Take this gentleman to the springs ; show him every
thing ; tell him all you know ; and be back in an hour
whether the gentleman returns with you or not." Then,
turning to me, he said, " Do you wish to go with your
friend, or will you remain here ? I shall be glad of a talk
about the old country."
There was a mixture of peremptoriness and kindness in
his tone and manner that was pleasant to see and to hear,
and I answered that I should prefer to remain and give him
such home news as I could, if it would please him.
" I shall be more than pleased," he said ; " I shall be
grateful." No sooner had the others left us, and gone in the direc
tion of the salt property, and we were alone, than a strange
feeling took possession of me. It was a troublesome, half-
awakened consciousness that I had met this man before,
and known him under some conditions that were not of the
pleasantest kind. This feeling did not last more than a
second, nor did it again return, until, after awhile, it came
back attended with a few veritable facts which made me
speculate, as I had often done before, and still oftener since,

254 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
on the mysterious manner in which the lives of some men
seem to be linked together.
From the garden we strolled back into the little room
where we had been received, and, after shutting the door,
but before taking a seat, I was asked in a quiet, untroubled
voice —
" Do you know London, and the country round about —
I mean in the direction of Surrey?
Now it was to Surrey, while Job and I were together in
the garden, that my thoughts had suddenly flown.
Quick as lightning the truth flashed across my mind, and
I knew the man's early history, although, as I have said, I
had never before seen him, or heard his name, nor had he
said more words than I have here set down concerning him
self which could have given me the least hint of who he
was, where he had come from, or what had been the course
of his life. It was not until my friend had left us for the
salt pits that this secret communion between my own spirit
and that of the unknown man before me had begun ; and it
continued to increase after the first moment of uncertainty
had passed away. I discovered that he did not care about
mere newspaper tidings from England ; his wants were
deeper, and we fell into a vein of homely talk chiefly about
ourselves. I even got the length of calling him by his
Christian name.
I had risen from my seat, and was walking about the
room talking to Job all the time, and now and then looking
at the goodly row of books on the shelves. The first book
I picked out contained a name, the sight of which sent
through me a thrill of pleasure. The name belonged to a
relative of mine* Job saw me take out this book, and saw
* The Reverend Charles Walters, M.A., late Chaplain of the Redhill
Reformatory, Surrey.

CANADA. 255
me restore it to its place again. Then, turning my back to
him and going to look through the window in order to hide
what he must have discovered in my face had he caught
sight of it, I said to him in a cheerful voice —
" Job, they call you a self-made man ; how do you like
it?" " Like it?" he replied ; "it is one of the worst names a
man can go by. I have often tried to stop it, but it is of no
use ; the people here are so accustomed to it."
" What arrogance and pride there is about it. Talk of
self-conceit, this is the conceit of the devil," I said. " Do
you not think this vile phrase to be a real Yankee product
of Yankee independence and bluster, and springs from their
money-making republicanism ? "
" I think," answered Job, with much seriousness, and as
if he were pained by my alluding to Americans in terms
which he considered to be intended for an insult or a sneer,
" I think that the phrase ' self-made man ' was at first a
mere idle word — and it is so still in many cases — and
seldom or never intended to bear the meaning you would
put upon it."
" Then why should it offend you," I inquired, " when it
is applied to yourself ? "
" Well, you see, it depends upon how people are brought
up. In this country," he continued, " a man is taught very
early to rely upon himself ; the children are much smarter
than our children are at home. I have seen young lads do
things which, for intelligence, would put a whole English
village to the blush, including both the parson and the
squire." " What do you mean by being brought up differently ? "
" Well," said Job, " I mean chiefly the way that sacred

256 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
things are taught to them. From their earliest days,
English children — at least the children at home of the
class to which I belong — are made to feel that they are
nothing else but prisoners : the earth their prison, the
great Father their gaoler, and His Son the one who comes
and persuades the Father to be kind to them, and let the
little gaol birds go free. These terrible symbols stick in
the child's mind ; they haunt it, and fill it with images of
terror. Such imaginings make the child timid, and very
pliable to the first powerful influence which comes upon it."
Job's sentences were very nearly missing fire, so he pulled
up in this rhetorical fashion —
"Whereas," he went on, "in the children's schools here,
while they are taught much that is like this, it is not all like
it ; there is something else besides. They learn much of
natural objects; they get ideas; they get abundance of
fresh air — "
" They get, in short," I struck in, " a variety of moral
and mental food. But do you mean to say that the English
child is taught the fear of God in some way that it hurts its
moral nature ; and that this is not the case with the
American child?"
"Yes," he said, " I do mean to say that ; and I sav more,
that this over-much talk about the Almighty, dressing Him
in black like an undertaker, surrounding Him — not with
the charm of mystery, but with its jargon — stifles in the
child all power to reach after Him, except as a Being who
can do anything and everything He likes ; and, althouoh
they soon discover that He never does interfere with them
in the way they have been led to expect, yet they get
the notion that He is as changeable and as full of inter
ference as their own parents."

CANADA. 257
"Job, you are an atheist," I said, with as much grim
humour as I could throw into my voice,' putting a bold,
unaltered face upon the whole matter, hoping to divert his
thoughts from what I knew to be at that time directing and
colouring them.
Job, however, went on unmoved, and proceeded as
follows : — ¦
" I think I can safely say that no man has tried more than
I have to help poor fellows who left the old country and
came out to Canada 'to better their condition,' as they were
told they would, but which they never did and never will,
because they never had anything to better. They are not
men at all — except in shape, and not much of men in that;
they have the brains of birds or rabbits, who build their
nests and make their holes, as they did at the creation ;
and if you insist on their being men, and learning different
ways, and obeying a different master to what they have
been accustomed, they simply jib, or go and get drunk, and
enter the hard and active service of Satan, because, indeed,
they are not strong enough, and were never taught to fight
in the active service of God."
•To which I replied —
"Job, all this is very dreadful ; and I am beginning to
suspect you to be a Republican, or, as I said just now, an
atheist, and let me tell you I ought to know what that is,
for I think I have known more men of the clerical profes
sion than any man who has lived for sixty and odd years
in various parts of the Christian world."
But Job apparently did not hear my remarks, or what is
more likely, did not care for them ; he was like a hound on
the scent, and not to be diverted from the pursuit by the
babbling of a shallow brook. s

258 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
" I mean, of course," he proceeded, " the untaught, ill-
fed poor; the beings who cannot think, nor even see any
thing but the food they eat ; or smell anything but what
they give off in sweat ; or feel anything but what they wear
to hide them from the cold, and who are as much good in a
country like this as a wheelbarrow is for helping a man
over ten miles of soft snow three feet thick."
And all this ignorance, imbecility, and stereotyped or
wooden notions which belong to the poor emigrant classes
who leave England for Canada, he traced to the defective
training, or no training, which they had received, as well as
to a certain religious cramming which, he said, stifled them
in childhood.
The impression which Job Spring's conversation pro
duced on me was that Canada was a splendid man-growing
country. It had certainly produced Job Spring, and I
think that if some of the Englishmen whom I know in
various parts of South America, in India, in Africa, and the
Spanish Main, even in Australia, had selected Canada as
the field of their future lives, instead of going to the bad as
many of them have gone, they would have strengthened
the good that was in them, and reaped the very opposite
kind of harvest to that which they have garnered, and
might now be living on corn instead of having to feed for
the rest of their lives on husks, in the company of swine.
If Job had been left to himself when a boy in England,
he would have added to the number of its permanent
criminal population ; but being taken in hand at the right
time — supplied with the physic appropriate to his malady —
in other words, made to labour with his hands, taught to
plough, and sow, and reap, he became, as he now is, one of
the most perfect men I have ever met. To Job every new

CANADA. 259
day seemed to be an addition to his personal pleasures, and
he convinced me that he went to bed for the express pur
pose, and with the fixed faith, of rising to a better day than
he had as yet seen.
"Job," I said to him, as the above passed through my
mind, " what splendid health you have."
" Well, you see," he answered, with an easy smile, which
I verily believe had in it the slightest curve of a sneer, " I
have no debts, except one that I can never pay. I have
no fears, no anxieties, except such as now and then come
to make me ashamed of the manner in which I have wasted
much time. But," he added, with a curious dash of
suspicion in his eyes as he looked at me, " do you think
good health comes from being well off ? "
I replied that I had a sort of belief that good health was
much mixed up with good conduct, and perhaps right
thinking. " It has, I think, more to do with right doing," said Job ;
"and as for opportunities of doing right being so few, I
can't agree with those who so complain. It is not my ex
perience. I know that the more right things a man does
the more he can do, and the easier he can do them ; and
one of the most mischievous errors ever taught in book or
pulpit is, that it is easier for a man to do wrong than right."
" What a spectacle of shame it is," I remarked, " to see
so many beggars and thieving tramps not only in Canada,
but through all the Eastern States of America. How does
it come about ?"
" There are faults on both sides," said Job, with great
promptness and moderation ; " it is a long story, and an
awkward business to discuss. There is no use in going
back, or quarrelling; if there were, a few Cabinet Ministers

260 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
would have to be dug up and hanged, as well as in
numerable jobbers in land, and not a few local jobbers in
colonial politics, but," continued Job in his dogmatic
fashion, " I am myself a living example of THE RIGHT
THING TO BE DONE. The exactly right and appropriate
thing to be done with me was done ; had I been sent from
the old country to Canada without first being taught to do
the things I had to do, or had I come here without guide
or friend to receive me, I should even now be a beggar, or
a thief, or at best a mere splinter in the bucket, instead of
one of the staves which compose it."
" Or one of the hoops which bind it together," I said.
" A steady stream of emigration has set in from England
to Canada," Job continued, " which nobody can stop, and
which nobody ought to try to stop, but it might and should
be regulated ; it might and should be a blessing to both
countries. There are a good many people in England who
are worth a matter of £5,000 sterling, and all that they can
make this sum to yield will be £250 a-year, or £300 a-year
at the most, and with this the man has several children to
educate and provide for, besides other things. These men
would flourish in Canada, and Canada would flourish the
more their number increased ; and what is more, they would
be of greater use to England in Canada than they are at
present by remaining at home."
" How do you make that out ? " I inquired.
"Easy enough," was the answer. "These people, so
long as they stop at home, merely live from hand to mouth.
Every year they buy fewer things, for their purchasing
powers are diminished every year by such expensive luxuries
as fantastically educated children ; but once out here their
ability to buy would only be limited by their ability to

CANADA. 261
consume, which I assure you grows amazingly. That is one
class of men who ought to be encouraged to emigrate to
Canada ; the others are those who should be compelled to
do so, and by a hearty co-operation this would be easy
enough." " How compelled ? " I inquired, with much amazement.
" Just as some folk from being cold are compelled to
work to get themselves warm ; or as the epicure is now and
then compelled to take a blue pill to aid his digestive
organs ; or like the people of the highways and hedges
who were compelled to come in to a wedding feast."
" Do you mean that you would have the Colonial Secretary
of State go tramping up and down the kingdom, beating
up recruits for the Colonies ? "
" There are plenty of officers of the kingdom already to
do that, if they would only do their work," said Job. " The
British Colonies ought to have been held out to the British
workman as prizes to win and rewards to earn, and as
places of distinction for which all were to contend; and
this idea is fast making its way among the people, who
know that by thrift, uprightness, and the practice of other
virtues, there is a career open to them in the Colonies equal
to that which made many obscure men famous in England
300 years ago. Unluckily for us, the first use that we made
of one of the most splendid of our new domains was to
transport there our desperate criminals, instead of honest,
industrious men. These latter, when British capital became
devoted to manufactures, and machinery displaced opera
tives, and operatives became herded in great shops, and
labour became more and more divided, we then proceeded
to do the enormous wrong of building for them great
houses of state, called workhouses, keeping them and

262 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
encouraging them in idleness by outdoor relief, and even
indoor protection, clothing them, and teaching their
children at the expense of those who still had work to
do, and could get paid for it. Again, the word ' emigrant,'
which should suggest ideas of health, hope, and prosperity,
has been degraded into low meanings by its association with
the very scum of the people ; and so, what with transporta
tion, and able-bodied paupers, to say nothing of filthy
emigrant ships, and wrecks of emigrant ships, pilfering,
over-paid, Colonial Government emigration officers, land
sharks, and money sharpers, thousands of good, sound-
hearted English work-folk have been deterred from even
thinking of emigration ; and they have gone through many
years of a cheerless life, its only charm to them being that
it was unstained by crime, and that they had never troubled
the parish."
Here my friend, who had been looking after the salt
property, returned, and having taken a seat with us in the
same room, Job, with the decision which distinguished him,
plunged swiftly into the matter, and settled it in his own
way, and after his own original fashion. It was his method
of dealing with the man of salt that increased my curiosity
and interest in his knowledge of emigration. He began as
follows, addressing my companion —
" Do you like the property ? "
" I do," replied the other, who did not much relish saying
so point blank, Scotchman as he was, but could not help
himself. " Are you quite satisfied that you can do with it all that
you can reasonably expect ? "
" Well, Mr. Spring, I want to know how much money
you want for this property; how you wish the money to be

CANADA. 263
paid, and so forth ; and then you may leave me to form my
own opinion as to what I can make by the bargain."
" Not so," answered Job. " I have no need to sell, but I
am in need of a good neighbour ; and if I could make up
my mind that I should have a good one in you that would
go a great way with me in coming to terms. From this
letter you have brought me I find that you have been a
lumberman." " Lumbering is still my business, but I have taken a fancy
to salt," said the other, who was beginning to feel a little
more at ease.
" Very well. I don't ask you for any money, but you
shall have the salt springs for $5,000 worth of lumber, to
be delivered here next fall at current rates, and you shall
pay me 6 per cent, on all profits you make above $5,000 a
year for the next five years. Those are my terms. We
need not discuss them if I have made myself clear ; it would
be waste of time for you to try and alter them."
" The terms are clear enough ; but I should like to think
them over," replied the man of lumber.
" Take a turn in the garden," said Job, rising and giving
the man his hat, who could do nothing else but go out into
the garden, whether to think over the said terms or not.
Then, addressing himself to me, he said, "You did not tell
me your name, I think ? Or have I forgotten it ? "
" ADALID," I answered, unblushingly.
" He repeated it, and said that it sounded more like a
woman's name than a man's.
" I did not say Adelaide," quoth I, " but ADALID," giving
to it its full Arabic sound.
" Then it is not an English name ? " he said, interroga
tively, which I answered in the affirmative.

264 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
" It came from Spain," I added, " and let me tell you
there are many useful lessons to be learned in Spain. For
example, the last time I travelled through Castile I came to
a little farm-house by the wayside in the middle of a hot
day in August, and my companions and I turned in there,
and we were kindly entreated by the people to whom the
house and farm belonged. We six, in the space of two
hours, consumed three gallons of wine, a dozen small loaves
of fine bread, and several pounds of delicious raisins, such
as you never taste out of Spain, and how much, think you,
did that elegant wayside repast cost ? "
" Perhaps ten dollars," was the reply.
"It cost exactly ten pence," I continued, "which uncom
mercial transaction took place near to the village of Cala-
mocha, in the valley of the Jilloca, once one of the most
fertile tracts of country in the Peninsula ; but, alas ! there
are now in that region more ruins than habitable dwellings,
and more houses than men."
" How came that about ? " inquired Job, who, like a
hungry fish, rose at every strange fly that was cast above
him. " It came about," I said, nothing loth to tell, " through a
religious difference. That romantic valley, like many
another in Spain, now so desolate and dreary to look at,
was once alive with thousands of men, women, and children,
by whose constant free labour and skill the hills and dales
gave fragrance to heaven, and health to the earth. But one
fine morning all these busy people were turned out bag and
baggagc, because they could not be made to believe in the
Pope, or make believe that Mary, the Jew ish Maiden, was
the mother of God ; and ever since that sublime act of
sweeping the Roman Catholic House of Spain clean of

CANADA. 265
heretics it has become occupied with the worst of evil
spirits, for which there is now abundance of room. The
country, to speak in plain English, has been ever since
going from bad to worse; people starve in the midst of
plenty ; poorer than poverty-stricken Job, they are as proud
as Lucifer, and are more piteously ignorant than the
romantic person who ripped up the goose which laid the
golden eggs."
" Oh ! " said Job, "you are speaking of the Moors. I have
often read about them, but never till now since you began
to speak of them have I ever realized the force or meaning
of what I read. What a wonderful thing sympathy is. I
shall go back to my lessons to read and learn again the
chapter of the expulsion of the Moors from Spain."
" And you may add the Jews " — but wishing to get back
to the subject of emigration, I added, " If you go offering
such a premium as that of making English labourers and
artizans landed proprietors in Canada, there will be no need
of a profligate Duke of Lerma, or an eloquent bachelor of
divinity, or crusading bishops, and an imbecile, easily-
terrified king to make Devon and Dorset as desolate as the
Valley of Daroca."
"There's no such fear, nor are the two cases the same,"
said Job ; " for the more the colonies have prospered, the
more has England prospered ; and if it had not been for her
colonies there is no telling where England might be now.
Empty back into England at any moment the Canadas, the
Australias, and the real English-feeling people now settled
in the United States, and you would have a revolution — as
great as any of the past, and very different from all of
them." " While I admit what you say," I replied, " that there is

266 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
no parallel between the expulsion of the Moors from Spain
and the emigration of skilled and unskilled workmen from
the Mother Country to the plantations, yet the same result
might follow to England as followed to Spain. If, for
example, all the colonies, after receiving the English army
of workers which England has trained and taught and led to
victories, in which the whole world has shared, should take
it into their heads to impose prohibitive duties on British
merchandise, as some of them have done already."
"I have no fear," Job answered, "about what you say of
prohibitive duties ever coming to anything serious. Here
and there you may find a few political philosophers who are
to the rest of British colonists what the Irvingites are to the
great bulk of British Christians, but they are too fantastical
to do any permanent harm."
" Do you think that any widespread tendency still exists
in Canada to give up the Union Jack for the ' Stars and
Stripes ? ' " I inquired, intending to keep up the discussion
under a new guise.
" Such a tendency exists, but it is not widespread," said
Job. " It is confined to men whose existence depends upon
competition, who live to keep up the contagion of competi
tion, and who believe competition and nothing else to be
the one spirit that rules the universal race, and guides,
prompts, and sanctifies its progress. But those men are
becoming fewer in number every day, and every day their
number will grow less the faster the colonies of Great
Britain determine the peculiar character each is going to
play in the future."
We talked on many subjects, and Job was ever on the
alert for knowledge. Knowing that I had been staying for

CANADA. 267
a year or so on Lake Superior he begged me to tell him
what I saw up there, and how the people lived and what
they were like.
" There is not very much to see," I replied, and begged
him to be more specific in his demand.
'"' What is the extent of this copper region, and what is
the general appearance of the landscape ? How many towns
and villages are there, and how do they look ? "
" If you include iron mining, together with the copper,
the mining district on the American side of Lake Superior
is in one continuous line, 400 miles long and 80 miles wide
in some parts, in others it is less. From Marquette to
Ontonorgan, the last village to the north-west, before
reaching Duluth, the distance is 250 miles, and all the land
between those two points is highly metalliferous. There
are more than a dozen towns and villages scattered over
that space, and all, with the exception of Marquette, are
the most abject-looking and misery-stricken towns I have
ever seen. The landscape looks like a murdered thing.
You see nothing for miles and miles as you travel along in
summer-time but signs of violence ; the blackened stumps
of great trees which have been burnt down, look like
charred corpses. There are also great mounds of waste
sand, and mountains of broken stones; forsaken mines
surmounted by fragments of machinery, which hang silent
in the air. All is like this until you come to Calumet,
where you find the largest native copper mine that is
known in the world. All the little streams which once ran
through the Huron Hills, and carried copper in them,
would appear to have emptied themselves into what now
seems to be an inexhaustible pit of copper, called the

268 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Hecla and Calumet mine. Here the town is substantial
looking, even healthy ; and carries itself as if it were not
to be frightened out of its wits in the night-time."
" Did you know any of the working-people — the miners,
for example, in any of those towns ? " inquired Job Spring.
" I made it my business to know as many as I could in
every one of them," I said. " I lived among them, ate and
drank with them, and I know more about them than I like
to tell."
"Give me," said Job, "a general idea of the people;
who they were, where they came from, how they looked,
and how they lived."
"The great majority," I said, "were from Cornwall;
there was a good sprinkling of Germans, a few French, not
a few but a good many Irish, and an odd lot of Bohemians,
Poles, Hungarians, Swedes, and Finlanders. They were,
for the most part, hard-working, kind-hearted men, and
full of sterling character. A good number had saved a
little money. The Germans and French were given to
spending their Sundays in shooting little birds or going
after deer. The Cornish were, in their general ways, less
intelligent, having no religious excitement to keep them up
to their old standard, and these relapsed into sulkiness and
general dulness. A few of their number had, however,
become rich, and were very good, kind-hearted, wise men,
according to their light and opportunities ; but the native-
born American was always superior to them all. The
women fared the worse, and the poor Cornish women worse
than any. Many went mad. One poor fellow, whose
children were growing apace, who had built himself a very
decent home, and earned good wages, was married to one
of these unhappy creatures. She had taken to drink. The

CANADA. 269
stillness of the lake-shore, with its stretch of unruffled
water, the cloudless sky, the flowerless earth, the murdered
trees, the absence of church bells, and of every other
familiar thing which belongs to English life, the value of
whose ministry is never known till it is lost, bewildered
her, and then she lost her senses. She made her man's
home a hell; she starved his children; she broke his
furniture, and smashed his crockery. At last he left her,
then she followed after and found him, but he refused to
take her back ; until one day, as she stood moaning in the
street, she deliberately stripped herself stark naked and
stood before his door until he, for very shame, was com
pelled to take her in."
" That will do," said Job. " I do not want to hear any
more. I had an idea that some such life must be the out
come of passing Acts of Congress by the arts of the
gambler. I knew that the worst forms of human misery
are to be found where competition is the order of the day.
I thought I knew the full meaning of the cant phrase,
' protection to native industries ' in our Colonies. I per
ceive that I had something to learn ; and I thank you for
the knowledge you have given me/'
Here the man who wanted to buy the salt-pits again
interrupted us by putting his head in at the door and
inquiring —
" Is the six per cent, on the five thousand a-year to be
paid in cash or lumber ? "
Job replied that if that was all he stuck at he might take
his choice. When the bargain was struck, and all necessary
documents signed, Job asked us to take dinner and remain
with him for the night, which' we did.
The dinner to which Job invited us was of an early

270 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
English type ; I mean that it was not what we now under
stand by a dinner-party. We began at once on roast beef,
without any prefatory soup, fish, or anything else. But the
beef was a marvel of succulent tenderness ; so were the
vegetables. The fruit pies were delightful, so was the
bread, which, somehow, made you believe that it was made
by the hand of a woman ; so light was it that it retained
the perfume of the wheat from which it was made. Job
drank home-brewed ale, but provided wine for those of
weaker stomachs. We were waited on by a maid.
The man whose soul was in the salt-pits went early to
bed ; and Job and I remained alone till very late before we
said good-night, and we talked chiefly about the eternal
question of emigration.
The earnestness with which my host spoke of the ignor
ance, ineptitude, and stolid idleness of the poor emigrants
who were sent out of England to Canada, in the vain hope
of bettering their condition, approached to fierceness.
" Is it not all their own fault," he continued, in a milder
tone, " as you may see after five minutes' talk with them ;
at the same time it is easy to find out that they have
simply been got rid of for the good of those who remained
behind — at least they come to think so themselves. For
they speedily discover that everything they have been
told about Canada they have been told wrong ; their stupid
hopes have been raised by pretty pictures, and no pains
taken to help them towards realizing them."
'But, Job," I struck in, "this matter of the emigration
of the poor is still going on ; what would you do to improve
things ? You appear to have thought about it, and to have
some experience in it. Give us some practical advice."
'' Do?" he exclaimed; " I would begin by undoing."

CANADA. 271
" Oh ! you would send us back all the moral cripples —
the drunkards, thieves, and thriftless ones. I remember
the Australians once threatened to transfer back to England
all the convicts which she had sent to Van Diemen's
Land." " Did they ? " replied Job, with much astonishment.
" Well, I do not mean that ; nor should we gain much by it.
But let me say that before I was allowed to emigrate they
first put me on to a farm for three years, where I had to
work, and to work much harder than I had to do when I
first came here. I was then fifteen years old. When I
arrived here there was a friend to receive me. And then I
had to begin to learn things which, if I had not before been
taught the way of learning, I should soon have got sick of,
thrown them up, and run away perhaps."*
To me it was very delightful to hear Job thus refer to his
early life, and I remarked —
" That is the way they began with you ; but how do you
propose to begin with those who have been begun with
at the wrong end ? "
" Oh ! " he sighed, " it shames me to think of the lazi
ness, the misery and waste of human life always to be
found in England which need not be."
"Come to the point, Job," I cried out, " and do not go
fretting and fuming in that painful manner. What would
you do, I ask again ? "
" There are so many sides to the question that it is not
quite so easy as choosing a knife to choose which side of
the emigration question to provide for first ; but, no doubt,
* My dear relative when chaplain at Redhill paid more attention to the
industrial training of the boys than to their reading, writing and arithmetic.
He was besides a High Churchman, and the services in the delightful little
chapel were as much a part of the drill as digging on the farm.

272 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
if we can get hold of the master principle all the rest will
follow like a flock of sheep."
Here there was a silence, and, to my disgust, it was
broken by Job asking —
" How many parsons are there in England, do you
think?" I was getting somewhat wearied with what seemed to be
a mania of his. I believe that Job Spring had not an idea
in his head that was not connected with a parson, so I
answered with some indifference —
" Oh, as many as jackdaws, I should think — perhaps fifty
thousand of all kinds."
" A vast population, devoted, for the most part, to the
propagation of talk," remarked Job, in a tone that carried
no malice, but some evident regret. " Hundreds of
thousands of starving men and careworn women consoled
by hearing of paradise, who never get the slightest chance
of learning how to behave in paradise should they ever get
there." " Pray go on," I interposed ; " don't mind me, I am
accustomed to free speech and free thinking."
" In this our Canada," continued Job, as quietly as if he
were winding a ball of worsted, " there are hundreds of
thousands of acres of land waiting to be made into a
garden, and yonder in England are hundreds of thousands
of labourers standing idle, not earning a penny — many
preferring to steal it ; and the preachers of paradise seldom
or never open their lips to these idlers to tell them of a
vineyard to which they might go, and in which they can
work, much less to command or hire them to go to work in
it." " What rant is this ? " I demanded. " Where have you

CANADA. 273
been ? — what company do you keep ? Do you perchance
correspond with the author of ' Modern Painters' ?"
" I never heard of the gentleman," Job continued. " You
asked me for my ideas, and I am trying to give them to
you. If you do not interrupt me, I shall the sooner get
through. Now if those shepherds of the sheep were to
offer a real paradise to these poor, as they might, not as a
boon, but as a joy — an inheritance to improve and beautify
— what men, sheep, and shepherds they might become, and
what a change would happen in the world ! There might
be held here in Canada fifty farms of forty acres each, and
two of these farms should be six times the size of the
others, for larger and more varied work, and where model
farming would be carried on. There should be also farms
where the untaught labourer would be received on his
arrival from England, drilled on it, and kept at his work
and prepared for better and higher things. One of the
better things would be his own land, on to which he would
pass when he had laboured for a period of two years. He
would be enrolled in the Dominion Militia at once, and if
he stuck to his duty he would receive farm implements,
seed, and oxen on easy terms from the General in com
mand, after a certain time, which, as I have said, need not
exceed two years, and — "
"Hold ! " I cried. " Do me the favour to tell me, where
are the poor parsons to get the hundred thousand pounds
or so with which to start this delightful militant-agricultural
man-helping Utopia ? "
" Get it ! Where do they get their stained glass from ?
and their brass filigree and twisted candlesticks, to say
nothing of the gilt cocks stuck on spires, which cost hun
dreds of pounds a-piece? Let them build churches of
T

274 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
living stones ; they will cost less money, and endure much
longer than any that are built of blue stone or Portland.
Say we start with a capital of a hundred thousand pounds,
we should have no difficulty in getting it. We could draw
up a prospectus that would make men's guineas start out of
their pockets like fleas start when the blinds are drawn
and you begin to move. We should not have the least
trouble in getting labourers, in getting the farms, in raising
corn and beef, potatoes and barley ; and we could become
the greatest cheesemongers that the sun ever shone upon.
" Oh ! " he exclaimed, in fervent language, " how many
hundreds of thousands of pounds have been thrown into
such quicksands as the Eliza mine, oil wells, and schemes
of impossible railways, and not a groat into the only pro
fitable one of all investments, namely, that of human
industry guided by knowledge ! "
" That is an idea which I should think would be able to
fight its own way in the world, if it got a chance," I said.
" It is a great idea," said Job, " and like many another of
its kind, no one knows who first gave it out. Is it not a
strange thing that we should have among us so many men
of really great intellect, and so few with what may be
called great ideas ? If money-making could only for once
be connected with a great idea, even money-making might
become a means of grace. I could name three men who by
themselves could make a sensible impression on the food
supplies of England — a marked sensible impression on that
hideous spectacle called able-bodied pauperism — and gain
ten times more profit than they gain at present by dealing
in other people's money, taking care of it, or doing the
easy work of mere pawnbrokers. But they cannot commit
themselves to this, because these men are as innocent of

CANADA. 275
great ideas as a guinea-pig is of a purse. They are, like
wise, mighty timid, and also somewhat ashamed of looking
singular, and so they remain the commonplace beings they
have always been, and always will be — ¦ "
"Job," I exclaimed, " you have been reading the history
of William Paterson * and his bubbles."
" Yes," he answered, " and there has been no great coloni
zation scheme since the disaster of Darien. It failed because
it deserved to fail, but so far from that history, even with
all its horrors and its immortal disgrace, deterring us from
attempting great things it ought to encourage us. Paterson
was ignorant of everything pertaining to Darien ; he mis
represented its climate, its capacity, its productions, and his
title. There was a truly great idea in the plan, but the
enthusiast had not paid the least attention to one of the
details which it was essential to observe. If another
William Paterson could come and organize flour grinding
on the St. Lawrence or at the Sault de St. Marie we should
see a result worthy of the times in which we live. The
valley of the St. Lawrence would become a garden ; the
Pacific Railroad would run through a thousand miles of corn
fields; and a million men, women, and children would in
less than five years be living in their own homes, who up to
then had had no home and no hope of getting one ! "
As I lay in bed that night, before falling asleep, I thought
it a good sign of the times that a man like Job Spring
should be found who thought on these things.
The joyous sun of an autumnal morning in Canada does
its best to rouse anyone out of bed who has the least taste
for enjoying the charms of a new-born day. At an early
hour I was awakened by the sun coming into my room like
* See Macaulay's " History of England," Vol. iv., pp. 91-498.

276 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
a turbulent friend in search of a companion, whose advances
admit of no denial. I got up at once, opened the window,
and received a breath of air as delicious to breathe as it is
to eat ripe fruit freshly gathered. I then proceeded to
make use of a tub of water and an enormous sponge which
had been placed in my room by the thoughtful master of
the house. While I was in the midst of my ablutions a
thundering attack was made upon my room door, which
hastened my movements.
" Come in," I was at last in a proper condition to sing
out ; but as no one came in, and the noise being repeated,
I half opened the door to see who my visitor might be,
when, to my great surprise, and altogether against my will,
the door was pushed open, and in bounced a Newfoundland
dog rather less in size than one of the lions in Trafalgar
Square. " Holloa ! " I cried, in as cheery and confident a
voice as was possible to me, and the great beast bounded
over the tub of water, and at once turned round and faced
me, lying down on his stomach ; he then stretched out his
two forepaws, opened his mouth, rolled out his bright-red
tongue, and began beating the floor with his tail as if he
were threshing wheat and expected to be paid for it. I
was as polite to that dog as if he were a man of superior
intelligence, who had come to confer on me some favour.
Each garment I took up and put on suggested some
remark, which I addressed to that dog in the most musical
tones I could throw into my voice. I called him in a
familiar way all the endearing names I could think of. If I
could have turned all the money I had in mv pocket into
bread I should have done so at once, and in the most playful
manner thrown it into the jaws which yawned before me.

CANADA. 277
At last I was dressed, which Newfoundland seemed to know
quite as well as I did.
" Come on," I cried to the great fascinating beast, making
a dash at the door, and as if we had known each other all
our lives. To my intense relief the enormous brute bounded
out of the room, downstairs, and through the front door,
which stood wide open, on to the grass plot, and once there
he gave a bark which shook the dew-drops from the trees.
Of course I followed him, and I was no sooner outside the
house than he scampered off to a remote part of the garden,
I meekly going after him, evidently much to Hector's
pleasure — Hector was his name. As I turned the corner of
the house, Hector watching my approach, prostrated him
self on the gravel walk in front of a bower, some distance
off, opened his great jaws, put out his great tongue, and
began beating the ground with his great tail as he had
beaten the carpet in my room. Up I went to this summer-
house, as Hector, of course, expected, and there I found
Job Spring, dressed for the day, seated inside, smoking a
pipe, and reading.
" Good-morning ; how did you sleep ? You like dogs, I
see," was the greeting I received.
And I had to confess that I did like dogs, but was not
quite sure if I liked being taken into custody by one of
Hector's size.
As I was quite sure that Hector was listening to all I
said, and understanding it, I was very guarded in my
remarks. I learnt that Job had sent the dog to call me, and
instructed the creature to bring me to the summer-house,
and very faithfully had the dog done his master's will.

278 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
Here there came into our shady retreat a dairymaid
carrying a large white jug of milk. The appearance of this
girl, the way she came in, and the curtsey she made when
she went out, made as much impression on my mind as
anything else I had seen in that house. It was the only
curtsey I had seen a woman give to a man in the New
World, and I could not help reflecting how much the New
World had lost by allowing- that act of grace and worship
to fall into desuetude. Probably, if the Job Springs were
more numerous, there would be more women to make
curtseys. " Did you notice the servant who brought us the milk ? "
inquired Job, in cheerful seriousness.
I told him that it was a habit of mine always to notice a
man's servants, and sometimes I preferred the servants to
the man.
"You," my host continued, "wish to have a plan or idea
for conducting emigration. There is no plan to be had for
individual cases. Every individual case requires a plan of
its own. This servant, whose name is Rose Marigold, was
dairymaid at home to a man whose name or calling I will
not mention. All I will say of him is that, without being a
scoundrel, he wrought the social ruin of that girl ; had she
remained in the old country she would have certainly added
to its evil and shame, but her master put an advertisement
in a London paper, which quite bv accident caught my eye,
and it moved my heart. I answered it. Rose has now
been my servant three years. She is a jewel. That little
fellow, whom you see toddling across the lawn yonder, is
her boy, and he will become a Canadian farmer. He might
have died in a ditch, and his mother on the gallows ; but
God is merciful to all who hope and trust in Him."

CANADA. 279
I was greatly affected, and will not trust myself to write
what I heard of Rose Marigold, or the passionate feelings
which flooded my heart on hearing all that Job Spring told
me of her.
The attachment of my generous host to Canada as a
place to live in was as plain to be seen as the blue sky
which stretched above us. It coloured his conversation ; it
never left him ; and in some form or other it was constantly
coming up.
We were sorry to part. Job pressed me with great
earnestness and affection to remain with him for a week,
but the cares of this world forced me away from further
communion with one of the stoutest-hearted men it has
been my lot in life to know and to love.
As my grocer friend and I drove away from the house, I
said to him —
" You told me that Mr. Spring was one of your self-made
men." " So he is," replied my companion.
To which I answered that Mr. Spring was as much a self-
made man as yonder oak was a self-made tree. But the
man, although a friend of mine, did not seem to understand
the remark.
Job Spring is one of the treasures of the ancient English
kingdom, which are dispersed through one of England's
many mansions that we call Canada. And there are others
like him, with plenty of room in which to grow, and who
hold within them a sufficiency of power to hand down for
centuries to come the English name, and who know that
there is no need that a single Englishman should perish,
either for lack of bread, or the lack of a noble human love.

CHAPTER XIX.
STILL IN CANADA.
I WILL tell of one or two more of these chance acquaint
ances, because they will help us to understand some of the
ways of life peculiar to Canada, and appreciate the novel
conditions under which a man lives in that ever-improving
part of the New World. I made the acquaintance of which
I am now to tell on board a great pleasure steamer, while
running down the St. Lawrence on a trip to the Thousand
Islands, which in the autumn put on a painted pomp worth
journeying several thousand miles to see. An imaginative
person might be excused on first beholding the coloured
trees of these islands for believing that the gold and purple
clouds of the summer had fallen there from the skies, and
were held by some unseen hand among the leaves and
branches. The native Indians must have taken their
fashions of tailoring from these gay and gaudy princes of
earth and sky ; and certainly an Indian chief, in all his
magnificence of red and white plumes, his porcupine quills
and coloured leathers, is not unlike a maple tree whose
leaves have undergone much kissing of the Canadian sun.
I had occupied a few monotonous hours in reading a
book called " Man and Wife ; or, How to Become a Brute

STILL IN CANADA. 281
in Six Lessons," or something like that, and a book more
false it had never been my lot to buy — at least, I thought
so at that time — and, in revenge for my folly in buying it,
I flung it into the river, where at the moment I would also
have flung its author had my power been equal to my will.
This ostentatious act happened to be observed by a fellow
passenger, who, like myself, had nothing else to do but
stand bolt upright among several hundred people, and look
over the side of the steamer at the rapid river, over whose
rippled waves we were going at the rate of sixteen miles an
hour. Presently he and I began discussing the demerits of
the book I had consigned to a watery grave. This led us
on to other things, and ended in our dining together at the
same hotel in Montreal, where we stayed that one night — -
occupying the same double-bedded room — and returning to
Toronto together in the same steamer on the day following.
He turned out to be a young doctor who had taken up his
abode in the region which lies on the Canadian side of
Lake Ontario, between Toronto and Lake Simcoe — a good
wide region, sufficiently indefinite for anyone curious to
discover the dwelling-place of one whom I may now call my
friend. It seems to me, from the little experience I have had in
the matter, that what the doctor of souls once was, such is
the doctor of physic of to-day in the estimation of certain
well-to-do people. No professional man inspires such
thorough-going devotion in the female breast as your hand
some doctor, provided that to ability in his art he adds
great firmness of character, coupled with sweetness of
manners. This is not to be wondered at ; the confessions
which some women are ready to pour into the professional
ear are of a kind to beget confidence. It is no doubt this

282 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
passion for confession in women which makes such thorough
paced charlatans of certain doctors ; and it is remarkable
how like a fawning priest goes your thorough-bred money-
making fashionable doctor. His dress, including the white
necktie, his sleek ways, his complexion, the whites of his
eyes, his measured walk, his serene and equable, conversa
tion, his universal knowledge, his smiling despotism, his
steady and unshaken faith in things long ago exploded, the
awful sanctity of his behaviour when in the company of the
superior clergy, all show a curious parallel with the pro
fessional priest. It would seem that when to a man — be
his vocation the saving of souls or the healing of bodies —
the vocation becomes a profession in which the money he
is to make, or the social distinction he is to win, become
the paramount objects of life, in that same moment do the
two quacks become transformed into the same likeness,
especially if the sphere in which they both move be noted
for its love of ease, its insincerities, and its fondness for
what is only common to the superior brutes who are ever
dumb. Then are you sure to see your sleek family
physician, and the family priest, or the fashionable parson,
of one and the same colour in cloth and in skin, both
equally and scrupulously clean outside, both as empty and
sometimes as undesirable within, as a stranded boat on a
bank of mud.
It was the somewhat free handling of some such subjects
as this that established a common feeling between my
young doctor and myself — so strong that we became
friends, as we remain to this day. I stayed with him
several days at his own house.
It was the snuggest place a man could desire, and only
wanted a wife to make it the happiest — provided she was a

STILL IN CANADA. . 283
wife and not a Dushenka, a milliner or money-monger, or
any of the other equally objectionable things which pass
under the name of wife. There was a garden of about
half-an-acre, which contained for the most part pot herbs
of every sort, vegetables innumerable, and fruit trees ;
attached to the garden was a field in which, besides a cow,
there were pigs, geese, and innumerable egg-producers, all
hemmed in on two sides with brick walls, and the other
two sides fenced with shingles. The house was built of
wood, but was commodious and weather-proof, the rooms
large and lofty, and the stories were two. At the back
was a large yard paved with brick, with dog kennels, in
which were housed spaniels, pointers, hounds, and a bull
dog with a very observing eye and a curled tail ; there
were stables and two horses, a four-wheeled buggy and a
sleigh. The inside of the house was plainly furnished, the
bedrooms were like the soldier's quarters, who is above all
luxury in that department except of a clean bed, a tub of
water, and rough towels. A man servant as well as a
maid waited at table. The dinner was better, both in the
quality and variety of food, in cooking and serving, than
will be ordinarily found in the houses of wealthy people in
London. The wine was good, the beer excellent, the
whisky Old Bourbon, which Prince Napoleon once said
was the only good thing of the name he had ever known.
During the hours of day the doctor rode out to see his
patients, or he drove out, and then he took me with him.
He introduced me to many admirable people whom it was a
pleasure to meet, who had cut their way through many
troubles, while weighted with heavy sorrows, to safety and
repose. Many of these not only had carried on their backs
their poor relations, but their sinful relations likewise, and

284 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
made long journeys through life with such impedimenta,
coming to rest at last, thankful that they had done such
service. One evening the doctor was visited by some officers of
the British army, who were quartered not very far off.
They had come to borrow the dogs, and to invite the doctor
and me to a day's sport on the morrow. They remained
the whole of a night, which will live in my memory as one
of the merriest a man may spend. We had all of us
travelled far and wide — in India and Africa, in Australia,
New Zealand, and Peru ; and from the Pacific to the
Amazon, and from the western shores of the Atlantic to
the Meta and the Cauca, and heaven only knows where
besides, and we were all born on British soil, and not a
renegade among us.
Not with an income of less than five thousand pounds
per annum could a man command the social distinction, or
find such society and comforts of life, not to mention a
long string of health-yielding duties, as my friend found in
Ontario, and which cost him certainly not so much as three
thousand dollars a-year.
But behind these three thousand dollars was a free, open-
hearted, brave, handsome fellow, as full of health as he was
of knowledge, as modest as he was true of heart, and with
only one failing — which was, perhaps, the secret why he
had not married, or which kept him from dipping his hand
into what he called the bag of snakes called marriage,
on the chance of securing the one being that could not
poison his life or sting him — and that failing w-as, that he
would always have his own way, and think his own thoughts,
and carry them out in a perfectly original and masterful
fashion.

STILL IN CANADA. 285
" How came such a magnificent fellow as you to leave
Old England ? " I ventured to ask once, when we were
alone. We were smoking our pipes after dinner, in front
of the great fire of logs which blazed on the wide hearth
of my friend's dining-room, when I put to him that stereo
typed question of mine.
After a pause, and looking at me over his pipe, out of the
corner of his right eye, he said —
" It seems to me that you have asked that question before.
There is a dryness about it, and about your way of putting
it, that smacks of the diary-keeping man, who is callous to
human frailties or tastes and feelings, and only looks upon
human beings as so much raw material for using up in ink.
Come, confess."
" It is true," I said, " that I have asked that question
often, of many and different people, but never from light
ness of heart, nor because I am going to write a book —
though if ever I do write, it shall be a book as unlike any
other as I am unlike my neighbours. There must be some
sort of pleasure in writing books, or so many women would
not engage in the occupation ; and one of these days I
may try and find out in what that pleasure consists. But I
am not thinking about it at present."
" Gentle and harmless creature," he replied, in assumed
sarcasm. " Might I ask what first prompted you to put
that question, to whom you first put it, and what answer
you received ? "
" Well," I said at once — for I thought I perceived a slight
suspicion of my having trespassed — " the first person I ever
put that question to was myself. The occasion of it was
my being lost in the Desert of Atacama, when I was near
becoming food for condors, and the answer I received was

286 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
so amusing, that I have come to believe there is more fun
and humour in us who wander over the face of the earth
than may be found in the good mortals who stay at home,
and that both the fun and humour are of different stuff. We
get into the habit of bullying ourselves, which is even more
amusing than playing with dogs or parrots. When I went
wandering in the dark on that, to me, eventful night,
beneath the tropic of Capricorn, I could not help laughing,
amidst all my woe at the question which seemed to come
from my household soul to the wandering soul then mounted
on the top of a mule, ' What the devil was it that brought
you here ? ' and the answer which the fireside soul obtained
made me laugh, and almost hold opinion with Pythagoras
that the souls of animals infuse themselves into the trunks
of men, not in Gratiano's sense as he conveyed it to the
immortal Shylock — for I suppose your worship believes as
much in hell as in heaven — but rather as Malvolio would
have it. I need not tell you the answer I gave to myself.
I am only accounting to you for having acquired the habit
of asking some of the men whom I meet abroad what it was
that first set them thinking: of leaving home."
"Very well," returned my friend, "I need not answer
your question either. But what kind of answer have you
received from other folk ? "
"Oh," I replied, "one man said that his reason for
emigrating was that he was fond of a garden; and another
that he was hungry."
" A very good answer too, although for that matter I
have known men emigrate because they had no appetite ;
but go on."
" Another said that he came out to America because they
insisted that he must doff his bonnet when he went for his

STILL IN CANADA. 287
wage. He refused, and came out to a land where he could
be free. A third said that it was for love."
"Ah ! that must have been a woman. Love and pride
are potent causes of motion, as well as heat."
" While another declared that his sole reason for leaving
England for the New World was the decline of the drama."
"All this," my friend said, " is surprising and delightful.
Here is anew object in life for my idle hours, and one that
will supply me with a fund of delight ; but then I haven't got
that fascinating eye of yours, or that remarkable impudence,
which seems to belong to you as its perfume belongs, shall
I say, to the dandelion ? How, in all wonder, did you get
at that woman's answer who said that she came out from
the Old Home for love ? "
" Oh, Iflattered the baby," I replied, "who was caressing
its mother and kissing her in the most delighted manner,
which excited my envy, and I made some remark about man
being an unthankful, restless, ambitious animal, seldom
happy, and always wanting to be in somebody else's shoes.
" ' And whose shoes do you want to be in just now ? ' she
inquired, with a pleasant intelligence.
"And I said 'The baby's,' on which of course we both
laughed, and then she told me her story."
" That method is quite beyond me," said the doctor, " and
I suspect you to be a Jesuit, for it is a conviction of mine,
on which I invariably act, that any fellow who is cleverer
than myself is bound to belong to the Society of Jesus ; but
I repeat, all this is interesting. Here do we find all the
elements of national greatness, the passion for pastoral
pursuits, love, pride, the drama, and the lower appetites, to
satisfy which men consent to till our soil, black our boots,
dig coal and iron, sweep chimneys, and do all the other hard

288 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRA VELS ABROAD.
and necessary things which certainly neither you nor I could
or would do, but which must be got over if we would live
as superior creatures ought to live. Well, I had intended
to give a rallying answer to your impertinent question, but I
relent and forgive you, for there is some admirable use to
be made of this method of pumping people. I shall adopt
it and cut you out, for is not competition the glorious
attribute which distinguishes the man from the ass ?
Know then, oh wandering sage," he continued, " that the
reason why I left Old England was fatty degeneration —
peristaltic action — aconite, together with a dogmatic con
demnation of Dr. Sangrado's treatment; all these at one
time or another got me into such hot water with my
governor, who was physician to Bishop Sweetapple, as well
as to the Dowager Duchess of Patchouli, that I was glad to
pack up my traps when the governor suggested it, and
give up lies and imposture for the sake of living as it
becomes a man to live who cares more for fresh air than
lavender powder, and prefers freedom to the sleepy
monotony that is afraid to laugh lest it should land you on
the shores of silence to live in the cold. And now, take mv
answer, and add the same to your repertoire, and to be as
epigrammatic as possible, write down for your answer
' Science versus Humbug,' and give that as the reason why
I, among the many of your acquaintances, left Old England,
and why I am now here in this new land. The dear old
bishop, who was very fat, fell sick of a fever, and at a
certain stage of the disorder my old quack father proposed
the Sangrado method of letting blood from the Episcopal
arm. I not only remonstrated, but was guilty of the
indecorum of swearing at the practice of my venerable
parent, and all the venerable humbugs associated with him

STILL IN CANADA. 289
in their treatment of the case of Bishop Sweetapple. I went
further, and said to the friends of the right reverend prelate
that if he were then bled he would die. Humbug shivered in
its shoes, but as my fate would have it, I had to compound
with Humbug ; and to save my dear old father from
humiliation in his own eyes, as well as to wash my hands
of a set of murderers who commit homicide through
ignorance, I came out here, and I may tell you that I am
right glad I did so."
We continued on the best of terms, and I never visited
his part of Canada without going to see him, or without
receiving a warm reception, and I had to promise always
to make his house my home when I passed that way.
Not all the men of whom I asked the reason why they
left the old country answered with equal alacrity. Some
put on an expression of countenance that was far from
pleasant, as if they had been reminded of something painful,
while others were glad to have the time recalled to mind
when they began life anew, in a new land, under a new sky,
surrounded by new faces, and inspired with the strength of
new hope. These I found were generally men who had
started with a definite idea, bent on realizing it, and finding
each day's happiness to consist in advancing towards it if
it were only the advance of an inch — the saving of a six
pence, or the removal from an acre of ground of a handful
of stones.
It was a habit of mine to stroll outside the towns where
I happened to be staying, with the object of discovering
traces of English tastes, customs, or ways that could be
recognized at a glance, as an old mode or fashion kept up
for its own sake in new circumstances and under new con
ditions. I have made agreeable acquaintances by recog-
w

290 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
nizing certain old words in the talk of people who had come
from certain English localities. But this was easy compared
with such tricks as trundling a mop — the way of cleansing
a bucket — adorning a window with flowers, or painting a
door, and dressing out its step. More than once have I
amused myself and astonished others by asking certain tidy
women who seemed to have much love for domestic clean
liness in dress if they had not come from such and such a
town ; and when, with a laugh, they answered me in the
affirmative, and demanded to know how I had found that
out, the reply would be —
" Well, only in Masston did they use such curtains
stretched on thin brass rods across the window ; and only
in Hampton did men cultivate gardens with such earnest
ness and passionate love."
One day, being a couple of miles outside the little flat
town called London in Ontario, I came on a cottage stand
ing in a garden that roused in me much curiosity. I could
not refrain from going to see the person who lived in it
and learning, if possible, if the builder of that cottage and
the maker of that garden had not once lived in Masston.
The cottage had a wide porch in front, supplied with a
settle on each side, and the walls were spread over with
honeysuckle, whose branches were pinned against the walls
in careful regularity.
"Good morning; do you come from Masston?" was my
greeting to the solitary man who opened the door.
He was a spare built and somewhat timid fellow, not in
the least like a man who would of his own accord get up
from the place where he had been knocked down and renew
the strife in which he had been worsted.
" Masston ? " was his reply, " no, I did not come from

STILL IN CANADA. 291
Masston ; but I was born there, and so was my father and
my grandfather."
" Did you know anyone in Masston ? "
" Why, yes. I knew the Haydons and Mr. Buckle and
old Sparrer — that was when I was a Dame Cumberladge's
scholar ; but I left Masston early and settled in 'Ampton
after my father died. Won't you come in and sit down ? "
he said abruptly, but with evident cordiality.
Without asking me if I would take any refreshment he
straightway went and brought a brown stone jug full of
beer — of his own brewing— -two clean pipes, and a tobacco
pot with a leaden damper inside.
" This," I said, taking up the straight brown jug with a
wide mouth, " is Masston ale, and that is a Masston tobacco
pot." " Yes, I follow my mother's way of brewing, and that
tobacco pot belonged to my father ; it is the only thing of
his I have, except yonder pair of sugar-nippers, which I
saw him make."
" Do you follow your father's trade ? "
" Not exactly ; he was a steel toy maker, I am a coach-
smith," he said, with much mildness.
"That surely is a new name," I remarked; "used you
not to be called a whitesmith ? "
He did not know, he replied, in a voice which clearly
said, " I am a solitary man, I know nothing, except to make
springs, brew my own beer, and dig my own garden ; and
although I live more on the past than in the future, yet I do
not lead a questioning life. I live on the things which
come to me of their own accord."
I made myself as pleasant as I could. I spoke of cheerful
things. I praised his garden, his cottage, the tobacco, and

292 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
what appeared to be his way of life ; but the more I
talked the more silent he became, and a look came into his
eyes which made him wear the expression of a man who had
once been tired, and could never get a sufficiency of rest.
" I suppose you had to leave the Old Country," I said,
leading up to my usual question, " like many others, because
there was no work for you."
" No," he answered, with an animation that raised my
spirits, and helped me to put my query point blank.
" Well, well," he began, " it is strange that it should be
so pleasant to talk to a stranger, but it is like going back
to early times to see one who knows the town where you
were born when we meet in a strange land."
Here he took along pull at the brown jug, and then, with
some brightness coming into his somewhat careworn face,
he told his story, which was something like as follows : —
" If you had asked me why I left Old England a little
while after I got here, I could not have told you. I don't
mean to say that I didn't know, but that I couldn't tell. I
had no words in my mouth for the job. I had plenty of
feelings, and plenty of hope, and plenty of disgust, but I
could not have expressed myself well enough to make any
body understand either one or the other. What is very
curious is, that after I had lived here for a couple of \ ears
and began to make the garden grow, I began to talk just as
when I was a lad. I could not only speak plainly what my
thoughts were, but new words came to me every day, just
as naturally as the graining comes into oak ; and I believe
that curious welling up of words inside me is owing to
nothing else than the fresh air and living among green
things of your own growing, to say nothing of having plenty
of work to do and as much play as you like.

STILL IN CANADA. 293
" How I came to emigrate was something like this :
You must know that when I was born and for some time
after, the gardens in my native town were almost as many
as the houses. Every householder had a garden, and our
garden was famous for its gooseberries and black currants,
cherries and pears, potatoes and spinach, and all the herbs.
For many a year after the time when I as a young shaver
was allowed to go into the garden and pull as many goose
berries as I liked, that old garden was the only thing that
was a real pleasure to me to think about — it came into my
dreams, it stuck to my fancy, and all the more that by the
time I had grown up, the garden, somehow or other, had
gone ; yes, gone for ever, as clean as the days of my child
hood had gone. It was eaten up by a brickfield first, then
a thundering big manufactory was built upon it, and, last of
all, the garden and the country round it was run through
by a railway.
" That eating up of our garden was the fate of all the
other gardens, and in less than fifteen years there was no
garden to be seen, much less to walk in. Still less were
there any blood-red, or bearded, or gold-skinned goose
berries to pick. The town became as famous for smoke
and dirt and disease and accidents which maimed men, as
it was once famous for its gooseberries and good beer.
" I, among many others, became a ruined man at the age
of thirty. What the process of my ruin was, may I be
damned if I know. If I had been the only one among
them who became poor I should have said it was through
my own fault; but all my neighbours got into the same
mess. Not a week passed but somebody came to grief.
There was an auction in every street at exactly the same
hour every week, some of the neighbours being sold up for

294 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
their rent. Men with ten children had to give up living in
a decent house and to go into pigsties and huddle together ;
then they began to die. Some fell into low habits, others
died with their eyes wide open. The women — God
Almighty love them — took to tippling; then their big
daughters ran away to other towns, and were never heard
of again. We were all brought to horrible straits. Only
the masters got rich, and the richer they became the poorer
we became ; and may I go to hell if it isn't true that when
one of our neighbours had to sell up, and come down and
go and live with thieves, it acted like a plague on everybody
else. Everybody else, sooner or later, came down too.
But the greatest blow was robbing us of our gardens. And
when the gardens went, and were covered over with houses
and shops, we, who had lived in the country all our lives
felt as if we were being walled up alive."
" Do you really recollect all that ? " I inquired ; and my
voice, against my will, sounded as if laden with tears.
" Recollect it ! " he exclaimed, looking at me out of his
large blue eyes, which had now for the first time, as it
seemed, come into view, " no, I don't recollect it ; it ain't
recollection at all ; it's something a tidy bit stronger than
recollection. I don't recollect my heart beating yesterday.
It was somewhere about that time," he proceeded to
say, " that I got a fever. I was altogether thrown on my
back. I had to sell all my tools and my clothes and my
old father's watch and seals, and was as near groin? on the
parish as hundreds of the old men and women of the town
had gone already."
" What is the cause of this hatred of the Workhouse
among you working people ? " I inquired — not because I
was altogether ignorant of many of those causes, but I

STILL IN CANADA. 295
wanted to hear this man's particular reason for reasons of
my own. " Some of you fellows," I continued, " look upon
the Workhouse as a disgrace."
" So it is."
" As a deadly insult — "
"So it is."
" To your existence ; or as if it were not a place of
refuge to which you have a right to fly, but a trap to catch
and hold you, from which they will serve you up for some
body's dinner when the order comes."
Here there came into my host's mouth and nose and eyes
the most abominable sneer I had ever seen mar a human
face ; it was not only visible to the eye — you could almost
smell it. It wrinkled his forehead, buried his blue eyes out
of sight, and crumpled his cheek bones.
" You seem to be a clever enough chap," he began to say
at last, after regarding me through his wrinkles as a thing
to be despised. "You go to an English Workhouse, the
best on 'em, and try to read what is written on the faces of
some of the men ; they'll never tell you what they think or
feel, because they can't — if they could, mark you, they
wouldn't be in that Workhouse, and that's a nut you can
try and crack whenever you like to try ; but am I to tell
you how I came to emigrate ? "
" By all means ; I am not going to let you off telling me
that story, and then we can return to the Workhouse
afterwards." " Damn the Workhouse," he cried, fiercely, " let's have
another jug of ale ; " and up he got, and with much cheer
fulness went and drew another quart of the wholesome
brown beverage, of which we both partook with equal grace
and thankfulness.
" While I was down in the fever," he continued, with a

296 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
new face, a new voice, and a simple gesture of his right
hand, " the gooseberry gardens used to come into my mind
as real as when I was a lad. I could smell the strawberries
and the nettle-blossoms. I'm blessed if the taste of some
of the black hearts and gold beards and jargonelles did not
come into my mouth and make it water again. At last,
when I was able to get up and walk about, I w-ent straight
to the spot where our old garden once grew, and when I
found that I was no longer dreaming, but was then standing
in a new dirty street and for gooseberry bushes there was
nothing but long, dead, straight brick walls, and for sun
shine falling on lettuces and onions, beans and apples,
there was nothing but clouds of black smoke, and beastly
mud, and broken bits of crockery, and brick ends, and
pieces of dirty newspapers, I began to cry like a child.
" I got better, and soon got to work again. One day
there came a letter from Canada, from an old shopmate. I
heard it read, and two lines in that letter opened my eyes,
and put new life into me. The two lines were these : ' We
have got a splendid garden, and grow our own grapes as
well as apples ; and as for peaches, they are worth walking
twenty miles to see.'
" I said nothing to anybody, but I made all sorts of
inquiries, and I read more newspapers than ever I had read
before in all my life, but I could never find anything about
Canada in any one of them that gave me any light. But I
started off at last, with a sort of tremble for my hope that I
was going to get a garden of my own, and live among
people who owned their own gardens. God knows I never
dreamed the half of what I have found it. Here I have a
garden twice as big as my old dad's ; all my neighbours
have gardens ; and one of the blessings of having a garden
of your own, and neighbours with their own plots of flowers

STILL IN CANADA. 297
and vegetables and fruits is, out here, that we can live —
live together without talking or anything else, except being
up early in the morning and taking in the breath of the
sweetest things that grow. That was how I came to
emigrate. I wanted a garden. Hundreds of folk have
asked me what I have done after all by coming to Canada.
' You are still a working man,' they say, ' and you could be
that in the Old Country, where the work is not so hard, nor
the winter so long, nor everything so new that it tumbles to
pieces for lack of years.'
" I just answer them," he said, with a hearty chuckle,
" that I've got my own garden, and nobody can take it
from me. All my neighbours have got their gardens, and
nobody can take 'em from them ; and we are all hearty and
well, and if the winters are long they are not cold, and if
they are cold the air is fresh, and there is plenty of fuel.
Besides, the winters here are a wonderful time for rest and
for good fellowship. All the time that the soft snow lies
on the soil, men's hearts grow closer to one another, and
get warm."
I believe that one of the best means of restoring hope in
the breasts of those of our countrymen who are well-nigh
past hope, who get drunk in order to forget their sorrows,
is to give them a stake in the New Domains which we our
selves have called into existence. Nor am I sure that the
time is far off when wholesome work of a novel kind will
be begun in this our land, that shall make it increase in
wealth, peace', and perhaps godliness ; and if the beginning
of that work must needs be attended with inconvenience to
some, the fault will be largely due to those who thought too
much of their own ease and comfort, and too little of the
cheerless labours of those without whom no ease is possible
and no comfort can last.

CHAPTER XX.
BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN THE COLONIES.
How different is the taste of a book at sea to what it is on
land. A favourite book in London is sent to Coventry on
board ship ; and although the good traveller does not put
up with all kinds of companions, yet he welcomes nearly
all who come in his way, if they come with courtesy. I
have always gone abroad with plenty of books, and by
means of books I have made more agreeable companions
than by means of tobacco, wine, or court plaster, although
these have frequently stood me in good stead and brought
me in delightful contact with people whom it has been a
joy to know. I have known many whose popularity was
founded on nothing else than a pack of cards. A well-
stored housewife has been known to do wonders, and so
has a pair of pocket-scissors ; a wax candle will make a
man immortal under some circumstances, and so will a
small bull's-eye lantern. These, however, are only appre
ciated in times of trial and emergency. Books, on the
contrary, are for all times ; they are never sea-sick. My
own seafaring books have always been working books ; one
set devoted to the bibliography of Don Quixote, another

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN THE COLONIES. 299
set to the bibliography of Shakespeare, and the rest to the
migrations of man and the acclimatization of plants and
animals. Technical, as for the most part they all were,
they were always looked at with great interest, and some
times devoured with startling avidity, by fellow travellers.
There is nothing like a long sea voyage for making new
acquaintances with books and women.
" Can you lend me a book? I am tired of my own com
pany and of that of others," said a large, self-complacent
man of money to me one day, after we had been a fortnight
at sea without exchanging a word.
I had a well-printed copy of Gulliver's Travels, richly
bound, and offered it to him. He began to read, and stood
reading for ten minutes. I left him and came back after a
quarter of an hour's absence. He was still at it. He read
through the little book without stopping. It made him
think ; it took him out of himself.
" Could you lend me another book by the same author ? "
I happened to have with me Swift's " Aphorisms," another
little volume of the size of Gulliver, but thicker, and gave
him that. He had never read a word of Swift in his life,
and he was astonished at his ignorance of one from whom
he found he could get something good to drink.
On another occasion I lent Georges Sand's " Consuelo "
to a large and handsome Scotchwoman with daughters,
and much useless luggage in the form of closely-packed
opinions and traditions, all of which became very heavy
lumber before she finished the enchanting book. She read
it with great delight ; it changed her manners, it changed
the tone of her voice, it made her a human being. She
would never have read this book on shore ; she would not
of her own accord have had anything to say to me, and still

300 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
less to the doctor of the ship, who was known to be a
Roman Catholic, and very dangerous on account of his
religious knowledge and the fascinating way he had of
imparting it. And I think it is very likely if all, or nearly
all, Scotch women could go to sea for a while and get away
from their fierce and narrow, and sometimes shallow, beliefs
and thoughts about the future, it would do them good. As
for the Scotch minister, he is always so much at sea in a
metaphorical sense that if he could make a long trip on a
real sea it might do him good also. But I do not know.
We once had one of these godly men on board a Cunard
steamer coming home. He was very sick for the first three
days, but he was able to preach on the " Sabbath," and he
took for his text the words from the Revelations, " There
shall be no more sea ! " He spoke with great fervour, and
looked forward to the time when he would be able to go
about the world without passing through the perils and
pains of the ocean, with real gratitude to the Giver of all
good, and appealed to his hearers to come into a closer
union with heaven, that they too might enjoy a future in
which there should be no more sea ! The idea produced
much sadness in me, because I am never thoroughly happy
except when I am at sea. I was, however, much struck with
the handiness of the Scotch minister, who proved himself able
for anything, while he was thoroughly persuaded that the
drying up of the sea was a part of the heavenly blessed
ness of the future, for had he not been very sick in the
Atlantic ?
As a rule, I think people do not read much trash at sea.
I once saw as many as seven copies of Kinglake's
"Crimea" all being read at the same table on board the
Simla. Books of travel are well thumbed, and Darwin's

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN THE COLONIES. 301
" Naturalist's Voyage Round the World " was a constant
favourite ; so were the works of Charles Reade and Mr.
Walter Besant. "The Earl and the Doctor" was always
much wanted; so was "Harry Lorrequer" and "A Day's
Ride," Borrow's " Bible in Spain," and " Lavengro," Halli
burton, Sir Francis Head, " Noctes Ambrosianas," Goethe's
"Faust," Mr. Ruskin's Lectures, Green's "Short History
of England," Mr. John Morley's "Diderot," "The In-
goldsby Legends," Carlyle's " Miscellanies," Thackeray's
" Esmond," Dickens' " Hard Times," Trollope's " Framley
Parsonage," Sir Arthur Helps' works, Headley Vickers,
Hood, Charles Lamb, Wordsworth, J. L. Motley's " Dutch
Republic," and Prescott's Histories. In biographies, the
favourites undoubtedly were the Duke of Wellington,
Sydney Smith, Burke, Scott, Nelson, the Rev. Rowland
Hill, Lord Lawrence, George Stephenson, and Macaulay.
I never saw more than two or three at sea reading Shakes
peare, and only one besides myself sticking to the " Don
Quixote," a young fellow who would not have read it if he
had not picked it up at sea ; but when he once got hold of
it, or it had got hold of him, he could not give it up. I
never saw anyone reading a volume of sermons at sea or
religious tracts ; but a good selection of English plays was
regarded as a godsend. French novels of all kinds were
always on hand. I never saw a human being reading one
of Mr. Henry James's novels, and the same may be said of
Mr. W. D. Howell's, which is strange, for I see these
authors constantly spoken of with high favour in English
and American newspapers. And this has happened so
often that I ask myself, Whence comes the difference,
between the discernment of the practical reader and the un-
discernment of the critic ? I suppose we never shall know

302 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
the real merit of a novel through the Press until authors
write their own criticisms !
The finest public library in any of the colonies is un
questionably at Melbourne, and it is very well used. Its
founder was the late Sir Redmond Barry, one of the judges
of the Supreme Court, whose private Saturday night dinners
I remember with delight. For one thing, however much
wine you drank and how late soever you stayed, you always
came away sober from Sir Redmond's house. This cannot
be said of all the houses where you dine in the colonies, nor
for that matter in London either.
The Parliamentary Library in Brisbane is one of the
best of its size that I have ever seen, with a catalogue which
is the model catalogue of all catalogues.
The library in Lima was once very rich in patristic
theology and reports of missionaries of the interior of
Peru, in manuscript, all of which have been carried off by
the victorious Chilenos. The library in Bogota, although
small, was excellent when I saw it, and rich in local
histories. What has become of all the old books, well-bound in full
calf, printed on fine paper, and kept in good preservation,
which often met us in many a lowly shop in London ? The
answer is that they have, like many of our Irish fellow-
subjects, gone to New York. All the fine old books which
once were ready to hand, and after being turned out of the
big house where they had ceased to command any care,
had taken refuge in Orange Street, the Haymarket, in the
slums of Covcnt Garden, and the Strand, may now be seen
well taken care of in clean and orderly shops in Nassau
Street, Wall Street, or Cedar Street, New York. A great
trade is done in old books in the States. There is no duty on

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN THE COLONIES. 303
old English books, and much attention is given to the busi
ness. You can pick up a " Sentimental Journey " one hundred
years old, an original "Robinson Crusoe," a "Tristram
Shandy" of 1759, in New York, but not for eighteenpence.
Here you shall meet with no bargains ; books which are
bought in London by the cartload for the price of waste-
paper are sold in the Empire City at their highest value,
and sometimes beyond it. A folio Hume in Russia will
fetch £10 a volume. Whole libraries are often transferred
bodily from some broken-up old family house in Devonshire,
Warwickshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Berkshire to the
United States. Nothing can compete with fine old English
books in bestowing an air of distinguished antiquity on a
new house. The people of the United States only pay a
rubbishing price for rubbish, and buy their "Romola" for
tenpence; "Daniel Deronda," " Middlemarch," tenpence ;
" Impressions of Theophrastus Such," fivepence ; " The
Spanish Gypsey," tenpence ; the latest and best of all the
English rubbish never costs them more than a shilling of
our money. But although they will not, on principle, give
more than twenty-five cents for Mr. W. Besant's last novel,
they willingly pay twenty-five dollars for a prime old
Burnet bound in full calf ; a Clarendon, and even a Stack-
house has his price, and that not a low one. The stamp of
age, the seal of authority, the fame which no newspaper
reporter can tarnish, the name which is sacred to the
unanimous worship of all respectable people always command
the attention and respect of the rich well-to-do people of
the United States. The money they have to spend on
books they devote to the classical authors, bound in calf, and
at least a century old, and pay no duty at the Custom House.
Lima was the great place for picking up prizes. Many

304 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
a rare old book have I rescued from the pulperias — the low
grocers' shops — where the soldiers and the poor bought
their lard and chorizos. In one of these dirty places I
found the first Atlas of the world in five volumes, double
elephant, bound in gold and vellum, and mounted with the
Royal Arms of Spain. Among the treasures thus rescued
were early volumes of Las Casas, Garcilasso's " Florida,"
Lacunza, and Mollino's valuable work on Chile. These
with many others, had been sold for waste-paper by
profligate priests, who had stolen them from the church
libraries and the once great Convent of San Augustine.
Many of the books in the Biblioteca Nacional were thus
rescued from the pulperias. This speaks volumes.
Melbourne used to have some good old book shops.
D wight's at the top of Bourke Street was excellent, and
oh, what tales some of the books could tell, if they could
only speak. I once bought Mr. Ruskin's " Stones of
Venice " at Jamaica. A book from Lord Elgin's library,
with his name written in it, I picked up in Chuquisaca. I
found no books in the West Indies except at Jamaica ; the
white ant is an awful book-worm in those latitudes. But
French photographs were as thick as leaves in Hyde Park.
Montevideo was great in old books, hidden away in fruit
barrels, in all kinds of shops. In Spain, if it became known
that you were hunting after books, lay-men and priests
would look you up in your hotel and bring you bundles of
them. I once exchanged Bowie's Annotations for a choice
selection of rare editions of sixteenth century Cancioneros,
a line Calderon, and three of the naughty books which, say
what we will of the times in which we live, cannot be
printed now. But Spain has been literally swept of its
books by American agents.

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN THE COLONIES. 305
I suppose next to the books which people read and store
in their houses, the houses they build are most expressive
of their taste and way of life. In this I think the English
colonies surpass the Americans. There are finer private
edifices in the United States than in Australia, but as a rule
the Australians are foremost in this kind of nest building.
Outside the great towns in America, it is great fun to go and
look at the house architecture of the oil and shoddy dry-
goods and lumber aristocracy. You will not fail to come
on a Balmoral Castle, a Shakespeare's house, many Queen
Anne's houses, French chateaux, Swiss chalets, and often
an Hotel de Ville in wood— all in wood, giving one the idea
of a lot of children having amused themselves by means of
an immense — I beg pardon — a great box of wooden blocks.
On the other hand, real Americans live better in their own
homes than any other colonial people. Their food is better
and of greater variety, it is served with good taste and in
ample abundance. The magnificence is sometimes over
done, and you seldom drink wine without being made aware
of what it cost. This is a polite way of showing you at
tention. If you are informed that you have eaten a two
hundred dollar dinner, or that a ten thousand dollar dinner
was given in honour of your illustrious countryman, this must
not be set down to so much bragging, but as a token of
affection or regard. It is very colonial, but it is their way.
It also not unfrequently happens that you learn that last
night you dined with fifteen millions of dollars. At first
this does not strike one as having any practical bearing on
one's own happiness, but you must understand from it that
you were for once in your life in the society of real men.
The only houses in a world of unnecessary evils where
during " fly time " you can sleep without being teased out
X

306 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
of your time and temper by mosquitoes, are American
houses. You are shown to your bedroom — which to your
anxious mind is always viewed with apprehension — and you
notice with horror that your bed has no mosquito curtain.
The mosquito torment robs you of all repose. I would
rather hear the sound of the last trump than the trumpet
of a mosquito. But in the house of the good American
the mosquito is not allowed to enter ; and I think the
people who can abolish the mosquito in the parlour, dining
and bedroom can do anything — and this they have done.
You get plenty of fresh air and good ventilation, but no
mosquitoes inside your dwelling. Wire gauze is stretched
across every window, and a gauze door is also provided for
all the entrances, through which no bloody-minded mosquito
can pass. You only hear the concert outside, the players
can't get at you ; and this, in a fly country, is a blessing
above rubies. For the American mosquito is not like the
Eastern brute, or the South American, or the South Sea
Islander. The American mosquito is a very intelligent
devil. He has not yet learnt how to leave off sounding
his trumpet before indulging in his bloodthirsty habits, but
he has learnt many cunning ways in laying hold of you,
and also in making his escape from your onslaughts on his
blood-gorged carcass, all of which has come from his living
with an excitable, active, and ready-handed people. The
American mosquito only cares for the blood of a high-
tempered race — the quick, the alert, the knowing, the
spry. This is the reason why there are so many intelligent
mosquitoes in the United States. But he has been circum
vented. It is a great triumph.
Of colonial hotels enough has been said ; turnpikes and
hotels never remain in my memory. But there is one hotel
which I can never forget. I was one evening sitting in the

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN THE COLONIES. 307
smoking-room of Palmer House, Chicago, with an American
railway king whose guest I was, when there came limping
up to him a broken-down man, pale, emaciated, and looking
much like a disreputable tailor, for his clothes did not fit
him, and he was obviously starving.
Addressing my friend by his name, he said —
" I heard you were here. I was born in the same village
as you."
"What's the trouble ?" demanded my friend.
"There ain't no trouble. I've made this," was the
answer, on which he handed in what seemed to me to be
nothing else than a meaningless piece of wire tied in a knot.
" How much do you want for this ? "
" I thought it might be worth a matter of twenty or
thirty thousand dollars."
" Will you have some supper ? "
"Yes." On which my friend rose and took this disreputable-
looking man into the dining-room and returned. He then
explained to me this very remarkable invention, which was
nothing else than a permanent soda water cork-fastener.
In an incredibly short space of time the disreputable-
looking man rejoined us.
" Will you have a cigar ? "
"Yes."
After a little while the conversation was resumed.
" I will give you twenty-five thousand dollars for this."
" You can have it."
" Do you want any money now ? "
" You can give me ten dollars if you like."
Giving him a ten-dollar note, my friend said to him —
" See me at my office in the morning, at ten," and the
inventor went away.

308 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
That incident could not have happened in any hotel in
London. The waiters would not have allowed this dis
reputable-looking man to enter the smoking-room ; nor do
I believe that even the late Lord Shaftesbury, friend as he
was of the working man, would have taken him in to supper,
offered him a cigar, and given him £5,000 for a bit of wire
the model of a permanent fastener of a soda water bottle.
Nor does this inventor live or get born in London or in
England ; he is essentially an American. This man was
by trade a compositor. He had fallen sick and lost his
place, but he had not lost his manhood. He was not to be
beaten. He was not going into the Workhouse, or going
a-begging, or borrowing, or going into the Army, even if
he had been strong enough for that. His mind was free ;
he had the whole world to make his pick in. What could
he do for it, to save its time — to save even, if it might be
nothing else its fine wire ? Here was a man who had
no fear of the world ; on the contrary, he would do the
world some service. He had also no fear of this railway
king, rich as he was and powerful.
" I was born in the same village as you."
I can still hear his plaintive drawling voice after a lapse
of sixteen years or more ; and I wish I could hear, or hope
to hear, a similar voice from the village where I was born.
This chapter — the last of these Recollections — was
designed to be a roaming chapter on books and libraries,
and we have roamed. I first met Thackeray at the opening
of the Free Library in Manchester, some thirty-six years
ago. There were two meetings, one in the morning and
another at night. Dickens' speech was certainly the speech
of the day, the leading idea of which was the " Manchester
School," about which his fancy played with an exuberance
which rose into much practical eloquence.

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN THE COLONIES. 309
Thackeray was next called up, and was received with
much enthusiasm by the great fashionable assembly; but,
to the amazement and confusion of everybody, Mr. Thacke
ray could not get one leg before the other. He broke
down as if he had done it on purpose ; but this I am sure
was not the case, for he caused much suffering and pain to
many. He stayed for the evening meeting. Mark Lemon,
Douglas Jerrold, Albert Smith, Sir Ed. Bulwer Lytton, and
Dickens returned to town by the afternoon train. The
principal speeches in the evening were made by Sir James
Stephen, then Regius Professor of History at Cambridge,
Dr. Robert Vaughan, Thackeray, Mr. John Bright, Richard
Monckton Milnes, and the Bishop of Manchester. Thacke
ray's speech was delicious, and no doubt was relished all
the more for the painful breakdown of the morning. The
Bishop expressed his own thankfulness for this speech in
what, for him, was a real human expression of downright
gladness, an emotion to which Prince Lee must have been
an almost total stranger. Mr. Bright's speech was tame to
the last degree, and during its delivery Monckton Milnes,
who sat next to Thackeray, gave way to much ostentatious
yawning, which Thackeray rebuked by a no less ostenta
tious shaking of his fist in Milnes' face. When, many
years afterwards, I reminded the late Lord Houghton of
this incident, he pawed the air between us, trying to look
as fierce as a bear as he exclaimed, " Oh, you were not
born then ! "
Lord Houghton was a master of subtle flatteries, and of
all the men I ever knew the least known for his great good
ness. An ordinary archbishop endowed with the little-
known goodness of Lord Houghton would have been
extolled to the skies for his holiness ; and as I must draw
the line of these Reminiscences somewhere, I will do it

310 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
with an archbishop. It was once my very great delight to
meet Archbishop Whately at dinner. Nearly all the guests
were clergymen ; but not for that did the Archbishop cease
to pour out his stories, his learning, his wit, and his brilliant
play upon words, while the laughter was simply glorious.
As for me, I sat like a little Jew boy might have sat with
his eyes wonder-stretched as he gazed on Moses balancing
the two tables of stone in both hands as the law-giver came
dancing down the side of the mountain.
The Rev. J. B. Marsden historian of the Puritans was there,
and wished, as he said to me, to turn the Archbishop's visit
to some good account, if only for the sake of the younger
clergy who were present ; but at the same time, not to
break in too suddenly upon the fun that was going on,
Marsden began —
" My lord, did you ever hear Sydney Smith preach ? "
" No, I never did," said the Archbishop.
" I heard him once," said Marsden, thinking that he had
now got the archiepiscopal fun pretty well collared ; " and,
my lord, there was not a single word of Gospel in the whole
sermon, except the text."
" Ah ! yes," exclaimed the Archbishop, in his magnificent
voice. "'Ev ap^rj rjv o Xdyo?."*
On which there was another explosion of gorgeous
human joy, and Marsden was shut up.
These recollections, however, are not foreign, but
domestic. Post scriptum. — It is with great repugnance that I tell
the two stories that follow, but I am assured by some
friends on whose judgment I am accustomed to rely that
information on what may happen to a man in the gold
colonies is of much importance to people at home ; there-
* " In the beginning was the Word," John i., ,.

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN THE COLONIES. 311
fore I will tell these stories as briefly and clearly as is
possible to me.
An Englishman, who had travelled much in South
America, and made acquaintance with its animals, including
the wool-bearing alpaca, was induced to go to Victoria to
treat with its Government for the introduction into the
colony of a flock of these valuable quadrupeds. New
South Wales was already in possession of some of them,
which the Government had bought from Mr. George Ledger,
and it could not be borne that Victoria should be behind
New South Wales in anything. Moreover, Victoria had
shown great enterprise in the acclimatization of all sorts of
birds, plants, animals, and fishes, including the sparrow,
the rabbit, the thistle, and the grape, salmon and trout ;
and great enthusiasm was roused by the mere hope of the
Victorians getting hold of the koodoo. The camel they
had already, and the Angora goat. Alpaca wool was then
worth four shillings and ninepence a pound, and the annual
value of one alpaca was greater than the annual value of
six merino sheep. Therefore the Victorian Government
received the Englishman's proposal to bring a thousand
alpacas from the Andes with marked alacrity, and the
O'Shannassy Government of their own generous free will
offered this Englishman fifty pounds sterling in cash and
fifty acres of land of his own selecting for every alpaca that
he should bring. It may be said here that Mr. Ledger, with
wonderful pluck and skill, had marched his alpacas out of
Bolivia to Buenos Ayres, from whence he shipped them to
Sydney, at a time when to take alpacas out of Bolivia to a
foreign land was a capital offence ; so that had Mr. Ledger
been caught by the Bolivian authorities at a convenient
spot, he would inevitably have been shot. The Victorian
Government, however, was dealing with a gentleman who

312 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
was associated with Mr. GEORGE WILLIAMS of Chuquisaca,
who had obtained the sole privilege to export a thousand
alpacas from the Bolivian Government, and the Victorian
Government was satisfied that they were dealing with
responsible men. Within less than two years after the
above contract had been made with the O'Shannassy
Government, a flock of these alpacas was brought from the
Andes across the desert of Atacama, and landed in
Melbourne. But by this time the O'Shannassy Government
was overthrown, and another Government, composed
chiefly of sons of the soil, had taken its place. The
O'Shannassy Government was composed for the most part
of men of wealth and social distinction, with the one
exception of Mr. Charles Gavan Duffy, now Sir Charles,
who was Minister of Lands, and who, by his eloquence and
mastery in Parliamentary debate, had made himself in
dispensable to the great squatter party then in power. The
party that succeeded the O'Shannassy or squatter party
was composed of men, for the most part, of lowly origin,
whose daily occupations unfitted them for the cares and
responsibilities of Government. They sneered at koodoos
and camels, and as for alpacas, they would have none of
them. They also refused to recognize the contract made
by the previous Government; they even rejoiced at the
opportunity of giving the " Gentlemanly Government," as it
was jeeringly called by the proletariat, a slap in the face.
This Government was speedily succeeded by another and
another, but to this day that bill has not been paid. When
Sir James M'Culloch — if that isthe'way his name is spelt —
came into power, he offered to put on the estimates a sum
of ten thousand pounds sterling to be given to the man who
brought the first alpacas if he would go and bring another
batch, but the man in question, in his folly and pride, refused

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN THE COLONIES. 313
to accept this offer until the first bill was paid. When at
length he left the gold colony of Victoria to come home,
they gave him a gold cup at a public dinner, which was
presided over by Sir Charles Darling. Running round the
marble pedestal on which the vase was mounted, is a gold
ribbon, on which is engraved, " Presented to A. J. Duffield
Esquire, to commemorate the landing in Melbourne of a
flock of two hundred alpacas." This man, with several
others, notably John Farmer and George Williams, went
through four years of hard work and had spent much money
in trying to do a great work, which was let and hindered
solely by their having to deal with little men. If the
alpaca could have been acclimatized in Victoria in 1862,
beginning only with a flock of five hundred, the annual
income from alpaca wool alone would now be more than
ten million pounds sterling. But, alack, not only has much
time and money been lost, but also the valuable experience
which had been gained. This is one of the things that may
happen to any man in the lands of the Golden Fleece.
The other is this : —
The colony of Queensland is rich in gold, but it is poor
in men. It has hitherto been ruled by men of whom the
best thing that can be said of them is that they may pro
bably beget statesmen, but at present it is somewhat uncer
tain. Queensland is an off-shoot of the convict colony of
New South Wales, whose laws and constitution it adopted
when it set up in the Government business for itself. It
has had a chequered history, young as it is, but it has a
prolific soil. Many excellent men and women are to be
found in Queensland, who have settled down to dressing
and keeping its garden, which is full of excellent things.
Into this garden it was proposed by an Englishman to
introduce the theobroma cacao from Caracas, and the

314 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
erythroxylon cuca from the Andes, about which the poet
Cowley has sung in this manner —
" Our Varicocha first this Coca sent,
Endowed with leaves of wondrous Nourishment,
Whose Juice succ'd in and to the Stomach tak'n,
Long Hunger and long Labour can sustain j
From which our faint and weary Bodies find
More Succour, more they cheer the drooping Mind,
Than can your Bacchus and your Ceres join'd.
Three Leaves supply for six days march afford,
The Quitoita with this Provision stor'd,
Can pass the vast and cloudy Andes o'er.''
whose praises Charles Kingsley has more accurately
sounded, which many travellers have confirmed, and I can
ratify from personal experience. But this poor enthusiast
of an Englishman had bad luck with the Queensland
weather, and all his seeds and suckers perished of cold and
storm. Not wishing to return home without trying to do
something that should recompense him for having gone to
Queensland, he made the acquaintance of the official
scavengers of Brisbane its capital, whose duty it was to
carry the night soil out of the town and bury it nine miles
away on a sewage farm. This method was crude and
dangerous to the public health, and our enthusiast demon
strated to the official scavengers that the danger could be
overcome ; he also demonstrated that the garbage of the
town could be handled in an economical way, and with no
offence to anyone. The experiments were on a small scale,
and the scavengers, whose cupidity had been excited, desired
to see these things done on a scale of magnitude that would
appeal to and impress a scavenger's mind. They paid all
the necessary expenses in a liberal manner; they did every
thing without stint; they were illiterate men, but full of
natural shrewdness and great kindness. One of the things
required to make a perfect experiment on a large scale was

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN THE COLONIES. 315
the erection of a model of Gay-Lussac's Tower, but there
was no one in Brisbane of •sufficient skill to make it. It
was however quite easy to demonstrate the suitability and
fitness of the great chemist's invention to the purposes
required by means of a large cast-iron pot, fitted with a
goose neck of sufficiently ample proportions. When this
was prepared and all things were ready to prove that
garbage and all other filthiness of the town could be disposed
of with ease and sweetness, two officers of H.M. Customs,
aided by a police sergeant, entered the temporary laboratory
of the sanitary enthusiast — without any warrant — and hand
cuffed him and took him to the gaol in Brisbane, where he
had to remain in a loathsome cell, surrounded by many evil
men and women who were drunk, dirty, and blaspheming,
and was kept there for more than five hours, or until the
Attorney-General could make out his warrant. The good-
natured scavengers came and offered bail to any amount,
which was refused, and this poor enthusiast, who had been
dreaming of nothing but how to make Brisbane a sweet
place to live in, was taken out of the filthy gaol in the town
and driven at his own expense in a Hansom cab to a large
handsome gaol five miles in the country, and kept there for
fifteen days without any accusation having been brought
against him all that time. It is true, and ought to be told,
that some dear English women when they heard of this
strange thing drove out to visit this new sort of prisoner,
and they brought him fresh eggs and butter and diaper
napkins and silver spoons and forks and knives with ivory
handles ; he also had as much Scotch whisky as he wanted,
and two prisoners of the ordinary sort were told off to wait
upon him. One was a Methodist preacher, who emptied the
slops, made the bed, and swept out the room ; the other
was a saucy Chinaman, who knew how to make tea, cook

316 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS ABROAD.
chops and beefsteaks, and to scramble eggs. It should also
be told that when the large-hearted JOHN DOUGLAS, C.B.,
came to know of where our sanitary enthusiast was lodging
he became his bail, and the enthusiast was restored to
liberty. After a delay of some three months the enthusiast
was found conducting his own case in the Supreme Court
of Brisbane before Mr. Justice Pring, the AttorneyrGeneral
prosecuting, with whom was Mr. Sheridan. Mr. Virgil
Power had been retained on behalf of the enthusiast, but
that bright and able barrister was at the last moment sent
up the country on Government business, and there was no
time to instruct another. The trial lasted all day; the
charge against the enthusiast was that of having in his
possession an illicit still. The judge proved himself to be
ignorant, cruel, and tyrannical, and the enthusiast, in the
jargon of the junior bar, won his case, and so ended the
monstrous trial of Regina versus Duffield.
It is a great delight to me to say that the jury were com
posed of Scotsmen, who were Presbyterians, but for whose
common sense and courage I might now be writing stories
or remembering dreams in Brisbane Gaol, Queensland.
Immediately after this high-handed, purely colonial pro
ceeding I applied to the Queensland Government to be
taken into its service, and I was appointed Government
agent on board the Hope to go and fish for kanakas in the
Archipelago of New Ireland, and I trust it may be allowed
to me to say that I did do something before I returned
home.

THE END.

INDEX

Aboriginal Australians
Actors Agent, Government a farce .
„ ,, Instructions of
Albupharage\ Reference to the sage
Alpaca, The .
„ Story of the
American and atheist
Americans ...... vn
Americans colonials still — I do not mean that Americans are
subject to any superior state, nor do I call them
" colonials " save to denote their inferiority in a spiritual
sense .....
Ames Fisher, reference to .
Amencaes, The hills of . .
Amm6n, The South Sea canoe
Ancizar, M. reference to his " Peregrenaciones "
Angelis, Pedro de reference to his works
Army, An industrial proposed
Artola, Pleasant recollections of the family of
Asensio, Don Jose Maria
Ass, The Peruvian ....
Atacama, The desert of . . . 133
Australian art

123196 106
108 40
81
3n 46
212

114
230 64
97 n
80
139
xiii
131
241 73
¦ '35122

318

INDEX.

Australian life, Facts of
Australia, references to
Avellaneda's false " Don Quixote "
Azequias artificial water-courses

• U5
90, 176
. 242
. 169

B.

Badulaque, Don Juan de Gorduro .

. 24

Ballard, Mr. Queensland

. 209

Baranquilla .....

41
Barcelona, why Don Quixote went there
242
Barretto, Dona Isabel
• 63
Beads, Coloured glass
97. 98
Beggars in Canada and the States .
• 259
Belgrano, Dofia Juana
. 62
Birds, butterflies, and flowers
• 7i
Black fellows, Australian
121,
122, 123
Blood revenge the only religion of South Sea
Islanders
144
Blueskin Bay, New Zealand .
. 128
Bogota, Santa Fe de
37, 39
Bolivia .....
128, 140
Books, Old .
• 302
Bouka, Solomon Islands
. 161
Bowen, the port of Queensland
121
Breakfast with murderers
• 137
Bribing God
. 142
Brisbane, reference to
92> i23.
180, 314
Brookfield, Charles Esq.
vii
Burns, Dr. his cruel Presbyterianism.
129
c.
Calania, a village in the desert of Atacama .
• 138
Calancha Fray Antonio, reference to.
77
Calderon, reference to
. 1S1
Canada
251, 279
Canada, a colony sui generis
xi
Canchas Bhincas
. 150
Caracas, capital of Venezuela
156-159
Carupano, Venezuela
• 155
INDEX.

319

178, 233, 235.

Castellanos, Dofia Anita Ysabel de
Castilla de Oro
Cervantes, reference to
Charcas, Archbishop of
Cheyne, Dr. .
Chile, The Republic of
Chinamen in Peru .
Chocolate a Mexican word
ChorillosChunyo, preserved potatoes
Chuquisaca, or Sucre, capital of Bolivia
Church, Romish in New World
Clarke, Col., Governor
Cobija, chief port of Bolivia . . ,
,, Preparations for leaving
Colonial office, its coldness justified .
Colonies, The influence of on mother country
Colonists, a notable unlikeness between Spanish and
Consumption, Cure of •.
Convicts in West Australia .
Coolies Coolies, The need of in Queensland
Coral trees at Bouka
Cowley, Quotation from
Coxe, Bishop his opinions .
Creole, Meaning of the word
Cuca, Erythroxylon .
„ „ Story of
Culupo, an Indian post-house
Curafoa, H.M.S., reference to

D.
Daroca, Castile ....
De Quincey, reference to
Desolation in mining towns ....
Diamond, H.M.S. reference to
" Disintegration " a cant word of the Colonial Institute
Djolgute river, Valley of
Doctors, Some of bodies ....

237, 24

British

PAGE 62
173
, 250 147 40
182 75
242
74, 75 2
128 53
170 r3i
132 114 xii
127
83 n
171 164I[3161
314 228218
68, 69
3H 132H3

141, 231, 265
20, 63, 238 141 142 xii
178
281

320 INDEX.

PAGE

Don Quixote, reference to

16, 49, 242

Drake, Sir Francis reference to

• 213

Dunedin ......

128-9

Dushenka, a Russian term of endearment

2

Dynamite ....

. 162

E.

Earthquake in Lima .

• 56

,, at Solomon Islands

• 57

Emigrant, The British . . . .

• 203

Emigration to Canada . . . .

. 261

English, Influences of the in Peru .

. 82

Epitaph, A curious . . . . .

• "5

Espinosa, Colonel, reference to

• 59

„ „ his " Diccionario para el Pueblo "

¦ 77

Farms, Model . . . . . -273
Federation of Australian Colonies not a national cry 93-116
Fierabras, The balsam of . . . .16
Fishes, Strange in the Coral Sea . . . .99
Flower stall, A curious in Lima . . . .58
Frenchmen, Two suspicious-looking . . . .150

Garcellaso Inca, reference to his Comment;
Gayangos, Don Pascual
Gentleman, A definition of .
Good Friday in Lima
Government Agent, Duties of
Governors, Colonial
Griffith, Sir Samuel reference to
Groom, Mr. Speaker
Guano — also spelt Huano — a Quichuan wo
Guayra, La ...
Guayaquil, The river of
Guinea pigs, A stew of

ries

190
•
241
¦
20
•
5i
106
•
126
•
m
d for dung
25, 28,
29,
209 124
. 156
65, 67
139
INDEX.

321

1~L PAGE
Haggard, Mr. Rider . . . . .216
Hale, Right Rev. Bishop reference to . . 171
Hare, Julius reference to . . . -249
Hawkins, Rev. E. C. reference to . . . 206
Hebrides, The New population products and climate of 85, 88
Hecla and Calumet, largest copper mine known . .267
Hector, A Newfoundland dog . . . .276
Hole, Captain . . . . . .68
Houghton, The late Lord ..... 309
Houses, American and other .... 305
Human beings, Traffic in . . . -95
Hump, Don Tomas . . . . . -65
Huxley, Mount in the Coral Sea . . . -99

I.
Idea, A great
Immigration question, The .
Independence, Declaration of
Indian of Peru and Bolivia .
Industry of the Peruvian Indian
Infanticide, Unconscious
Inter-State Commerce Act .
Inventor, An American
Irish in America
Islands, South Sea, Number of visited for slaves

Jagaranda, The
Jaguar, Agility of
Jowett's translation of Plato .

J-

K.

• 274
• 93
. 217
76, 78, 80, 81, 148
. 81
. 96
. 224
• 3°7
. 229
• 95

72 38
196

Kanaka, a Polynesian word for labourer . . .111
Karl, The slave ship. . . • • 97, :i4
Kidnapping by British Colonists . . . 89,143
,, how it used to be done in the South Seas . 104
Kingsley, Charles reference to . . . -37
King of Bouka . . . • • .161

322

INDEX

L.

Labour Coloured question in Queensland

94

Labourers, Australian .

175

„ Cowardly .....

176

La Guayra .......

156

Lake Superior, American side ....

267

Land grabbing in Queensland ....

92

Lap, a small animal of tender delicious flesh in Trinidad

163

Ledger, Mr. George. .....

3n

Libraries, Colonial ......

302

Life, Colonial very hard .....

175

Lighthouses, The morality of ...

116

Lima, the capital of Peru . . . . 51

117

„ Early charities of

117

Lima, Founder of

119

Lost in the desert of Atacama ....

134

M.

Mackay, Awful mortality among slaves at . . 1 1 1 ,

112

Macuchimina, Territory of .

67

Magdalena river, The .....

37

Magellan, Straits of in Spanish Magellanes, in Portuguese

Magalhaes ......

185

Magellan scenery . ....

186

Man hunting . ...

145

Maoris .......

128

Markham, Capt. A. H., reference to

144

Marsden, The Rev. J. B. ....

310

Marigold Rose ......

278

Mcllwraith, Sir Thomas, his schemes, etc. . . 93, 96

H3

Melbourne, Victoria . . . 118,119

123

,, The possible founder of. John Fawkner is the

recognized historical father of Victoria, but was pre

ceded by Batman .....
119
Mellon, Mrs. Alfred ......
197
Mescanti, a posta in the desert of Atacama .
136
Meyra, Don Alvaro Mefidano de
63
Miners of Lake Superior .....
268
Monkeys .......
72
INDEX.

323

PAGE
Montevideo . . . . . . .184

Moors, reference to the

141, 265

More, Sir Thomas qtiotation from Hugh Latimer

• 43

Mosquito, The Yankee

• 3°6

Moseley's Challenger Notes reference to

43, 162

Mud, A definition of

29

Mugwump, A dissatisfied Republican

. 227

Murderers, Contact with

32, 137
Murders in the South Seas .
. 89
N.
Napoleon the First, reference to . . .211
Nature in the Coral Sea
99
„ „ desert of Atacama
• 135
Negro, A handsome
. 160
„ „ learned
. 219
Negroes in various countries .
162
„ Petition of .
. 224
Newfoundland dog, A fine .
. 276
New Ireland ....
. 98
„ „ Productions and climate of
100
,, „ Natives of
. 101
" Noti'cias Secretas," reference to
no
0.
Ocllo Mama . . . . . .80
Old foes with a new face . . . . .110
Osa el Senor, reference to . . . . 1 3 1
O'Shannassy, The late Sir John reference to. . . 144
P.
Pachacamac. . . . . . .80
Pally Ally, or pale ale
139
Pampero, A biting wind
184
Paradise, A real ....
273
Patagonia, Natives of
*
185
Patteson, Bishop Explanation of his murder .
H3-4
Paterson, William and his bubbles .
275
Peru, Climate and diseases of
82
324

INDEX.

Peruvian Coast, The
Philosophical Institute, A tribute to Edinburgh
Philip III. of Spain, Petition to
Phoenicians in Old Castile .
Physiognomy of mining and other towns
Planters, Main blame of Sugar
Piracy, American
Plato, Dialogues of reference to
Potatoes, Preserved .
Potosi, or Potosee — The value of silver taken from these

PAGE 70
249 84
232 141
H3 212197 2

mines has been considerably more than ^*300,ooo,ooo
in the course of 342 years . • 84, 139, 140, i°7
Prayer, How to make a long Presbyterian . . .207
Presbyterians of Australia, a proud and powerful sect . 125
„ „ St. Louis, Missouri. . . .220
Priest, The Spanish Peruvian exactions of . . .80
„ Roman Catholic, in Australia . . • 204
Pring, The late Mr. Justice . . • • • 3l6
Publishers, American . . • • • 215
Pulperias, or grocers' shops .... 304
Puntas Arenas Magellan Straits . . • .185
Puquios, post-house . . . ¦ • .150
Q-
Queensland Government, reference to . . .145
Queensland, Land-grabbing in . . 92
Quifiones, Don Felip6 . . , . .232
Quindio Mountains . . . . . -38
Quipos, or Quippus, A Quichuan word signifying a knot . 194
Quiros, Captain his petition to Philip III. of Spain . . 84
Quito, Distance of from Guayaquil . . . -29
Quixote, Don reference to . . . . . 233
R.
Railway, Great Trans-Continental of Australia . . 94
,, from La Guayra to Caracas . . .160
Reading, Methods of . . . . 21, 22
Recruitor, The on a slaver . . . . 104 n

INDEX.

325

Redhill Reformatory .
Religion, The of fashionable women
„ and morals in the Colonies .
Relique of the religious press of Peru
Remittance, Appointed Conductor of
,, Story of the robbery of .
„ Gold and silver .
River, A tropical
Rosario, The Cruise of H.M.S. reference to
s.
Sacrament, The Holy allusions to
Salvado, priest and hero
Samaria, Women of reference to
Sandstorm in Peru .
Saya y Manto
Sea, The Coral
Secretaries of State British, coldness of explained
Sermons, On
Servants, Domestic in Australia
Ship Canal, Panama reference to
Sinners, English 3,661 in Western Australia
Skipper, How I locked up a .
Skippers, Kidnapping fate of many
Slaves, Price of on sugar plantations
Slavery in Peru
«' Slavery," " slaver," and " slaves"
Slaves, Mortality among
Smith, Dr. Archibald
„ Rev. Sydney .
Snowstorm , A theatrical
South Sea Islands, Early mention of
Spanish Colonists, Humanity of
Spain „ History of, how to be written
Spanish early reformers
Spectacles trick
Spiritualist, Confessions of a .
" Spirit and Form," reference to

PAGE 254 14
195 52
148
148 154 30
143

14, 15, 17, 52
170

23716299
114 205 174
75- n6 171
130114 96 78 96
112
83 n
310 42 84
117
1, 264198244 m
47, 49
. 206

23

326

INDEX.

Spring, Job a Canadian colonist
Stars, Beauty of in the desert
Sterne, allusions to .
Stevenson, Mr. Louis reference to
Stephenson's, H. H. cricket team
Stowe, Mrs. H. Beecher
Strong, Rev. Dr.
Suez Canal, Incident in the .
Sugar Company, The Great Australian
Sugar, Importance of growing in Queensland
Superior, Lake
Supreme Court, Brisbane

PAGE 253 135
12, 13
212 xii1
214
228 176 95
n3 267
316

Tattooing in New Ireland
,, „ New Zealand
Tennyson, allusions to
Thackeray, The late Mr.
,, Letters of
Theatre, Importance of the
Thirst, Real and imaginary
Tierra del Fuego
" Trade " rubbish
Travellers of literary distinction, reference to
„ „ „ ,, their mistakes
Trinidad .....
Tumbara, Native name of New Ireland

u.

United States, The
Uruguay
Utopia, Canadian

Valparaiso .
Victoria, Australia .
Vieyra, Rev. Padre de
Virgin de Pilar

V.

. 100
. 128
xiii, 3, 8, 9
• 3°8 viii
. 200
• r35
. 185
97, 109
. 114
. 118
i55> !<>3
• 99

211 184
274

. 187
.118, 119, 125
. 166
• 243

INDEX.

327

Viracqocha Inca, Sayings of
Voyage in prospect .

w.

Walters, The late Rev. Charles
War, A new kind of .
Water, Storage of .
Wesleyan Chapel, A handsome
Whately, The late Archbishop
Wilson, Don Patricio
Williams, Mr. George Chuquisaca
Wiseman, Sir W., reference to
Women, Peruvian
„ Aboriginal, of Queensland
,, Slaves in Queensland
Woman, A shining .
„ The poor English Emigrant
Woolgar, Miss, reference to .

Yncas, same as Incas

Zaragosa
Zealand, New

Y. Z.

PAGE 193I96

254, 271 35
169119
310 40
312
H3
61,63 122 96
164177197

190

242, 248
. 128

60,