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EX LIBRIS

FREDERICK WELLS WILLIAMS.

W.F.HQPSON.IBSI

A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN,

UP, AND DOWE", AND ABOUND
THE WOELD.

BY
JAMES BROOKS.

[WBITTEN IN LETTERS TO TUE N. T. EVENING EXPItES8.'\

NEW YOEK:
D. APPLETON & COMPANY,
549 & B51 BROADWAY.
18'72.

Enteeed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
D. APPLETON & CO.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

TO THE PUBLIC.

"When I left home, late in May, 1871, after an
extraordinary session of Congress, it was for the sake
of health, to free body and mind from work and ex
citement of all sorts, such as I had broken down
under, in the hot, unhealthy air, and unnatural light
of the House of Kepresentatives and its Committee
rooms. Then, it never entered my head " to scribble "
(for that is the only proper word) the notes which
are here embodied in a book, not altogether with my
approbation, though of course, with my consent. A
life-long habit of work compelled me to work (I
could not help it), and hence, in disobedience of the
orders of my physician, I took to scribbling, always
in pencil, these notes or letters, wtich others would
have kept in their trunis, but which I sent home,
rude and rough, "and good enough for a newspa
per," perhaps, which lives but a day, bnt not good
enough for a book, especially for a boot of travels.

iv TO THE PUBLIC.
All of them save one were in pencU on Japanese
mulberry-paper, often pencilled on my hat, some
times, on my knees, and oftener yet on decks, or, in
the cabins of steamers, roughly rolling and jerking,
and then quickly mailed without being read — ^from
Yokohama and Tedo, in Japan, to Pekin and Can
ton, in China, or, from Sumatra or Ceylon, or, from
India to Madras in the south, to Calcutta and Al
lahabad in the north, and Bombay in the west.
These notes, thus scribbled and thus mailed, have
no literary merit, of course — are not intended to
have any, and if they are good for any thing, it is
because they were pencilled and mailed "on the
spot" fresh and photographic, thereby. To revise
them now, I have neither time nor inclination, not
even time carefully to read them, until I see them
in book-proof, where, when irrevocable, I cannot,
if dissatisfied, remould them, and thus extract for
the sake of style whatever life or vitality there may
be in the notes,
Japan, since July, when I was there, has " pro
gressed" so rapidly, that, the then, great, mighty, sa
cred, and invisible Mikado has become as visible as
any European monarch ; and the one- or two-sworded
retainers of the Daimios are putting off their swords
as well as their costumes (pity for that), and becoming
American- and European-ized so rapidly, that, in some
respects, my notes, not a year old now, will soon be-

TO THE PUBLIC.
)me almost as antiquated as Sir jRichard Alcocfs
3ok, published not ten years since, the very reading
f which half affrighted me, when first thinking of
itering Japan,
China, unchanged and unchangeable from the
ays of Marco Polo, will probably remain thus, until
.mericans or Englishmen tempt the Mandarins, by
it contracts, to build railroads and telegraphs, and
ms to defy the " Eung-Shuey."
The American tourists, who have long been run-
ing over Europe and parts of Africa, will find in
lese notes, if not a guide-book, the outlines for one,
nd they will see, that they can now run over Japan,
Ihina, and India, as well as Egypt and parts of Italy,
1 less than a year.
To tempt my countrymen of the new World, with
[leir wives and daughters, even to visit this very old
rorld of the East, and thus to invite them to new
elds of instruction and refiection, I have, not with-
ut reluctance, consented to this unprepared pubUca-
ion.
J. B,
¦Washington, D. C, April 12, 1812.

CONTENTS.

LETTER L
OJV, TO, AND OVER THE PACIFIC.
The start from New York to go round the 'World. — Thinking out loud on Paper. —
No fine "Writing, Scribbling only. — Car Life on the Prairies and Eocky Mountaius,
but no Eocky Mountains. — The Way the Engineer dodges them. — The Holy Land
of Mormondom,  1
LETTER IL
ON, TOt AND OVER THE PACIFIC.
The Mormon Holy Land. — Geographically like the Holy Land over the Sea. — How
Irrigation has made the Desert a Grarden. — The Apostles and Elders of Mormon
dom. — The Holy Temple, — ^Brigham Young in the Temple. — The "Women and
the Fashions in Salt Lake City. — ^Beelzebub stirring up Eebellion, — ^The Grass
hoppers and the GuUs,  10
LETTER ni.
ON AND FROM THE PACIFIC
Around the "World only a "Trip." — Snow on the Mountains and Alkali Plains.— rForty
Miles of Snow-sheds. — Sudden Descent from Ice and Snow to Apricots and Straw
berries. — Sacramento.— New Railroad and Steamboat Routes, ... 18
LETTER rv.
ON THE PACIFIC.
From the Golden Gate to Yokohama. — The "Japan," and the motley Crowd on
board. — ^Is, or is not, the Pacific Ocean a Humbug ? — ^The Amusements on board.
— ^The Police of the Ship. — Spoke a Boston Ship. — Meeting a Steamer in Mid-
ocean, exchanging Mails, etc.,  ' .... 24
LETTER T.
ON THE PACIFIC.
Life and Thoughts on Ship-board. — ^The Day Lost in Jioimding the "World. —
"Down East" is out "West. — ^A Puzzled Traveller. — Summer Life on this Ocean.
— ^The Second Exchange of Letters — The Sixteenth Amendment. — Curious
Congregation of Passeugera, .  81

viii CONTENTS.XETTEE VI.
FIRST IMPREBBIONB IN JAFAN.
Arrival in Japan.— First Impressions on the Coast.— The Fishermen in "Geor^
Costume."- Everything New, Everything Odd.— Bamboo Baskets for Hats.—
Straw Overcoats.— Landing on the Hatoba.— The Cues of the Japanese.- The
Brawny Coolies.— Travelling Eestanrants.— Strange Street Spectacles.- The Tat
tooed Men.— The Horse Boy (Betto).— Hair Dressing.— Shocking Black Teeth
of the Married "Women, ,  *^
LETTEE Vn.
377^ CITY OF YEVO.
The First Day in Tedo.— The Eide on the " Tocaido."— Strange Sights there.— The
Pretty Tea Girls.— The Tiny Tea Cups.— Eooms with Paper Partitions.- The
Beggars.— The Gin-rick-a Sha.-Eide in State along the "Tocaido." — ^Hogs in
Baskets. — No Tycoon, only a " Mikado." — ^How we Stare and how they Stare at
us. — Great Fire in Tedo,  B2
LETTEE Vin.
UFE AND EIGHTS IN YFBO.
Bintoo and Buddhist Temples.- The Priests.— The Sacred Cream-Colored Horses.—
Theatres in the Temples.— The Opera in Tedo.— Funny Eide thereto in Gin-
rick-a Shas,  .64
LETTEE IX.
tlFM AND BIGHTS IN TEDO.
Eyes only Useful Here.— Tongue and Ears TTseless. — Shopping in Tedo.— Hotels in
Japan. — Grand Hotel in Tedo. — ^Breakikst with the Ministry of Foreign AfTaira
at Hamagoten. — ^Dinner at a Beautiful Country-Seat. — ^Discussions, Political and
Theological. — ^Why the Japanese don't like Christians. — The Schools of Japan. —
Beading, Writing, and Arithmetic almost Universal,  75
LETTER X.
TRAVELLER'S LIFE IN THE INTERIOR.
The Great God of Kamakura. — "Statue of Dai-bootz."— Lifein Japanese Tea-Houses.
— Eide in a Cango Bamboo Basket. — ^The Temples around Kamakura. — ^Beautiful
Sceneiy. — ^Fields cultivated like Gardens. — ^The Life and Hank of Japanese
Farmers. — ^Visit to the Cavo of Inosima. — Fish Life and Fish Dinners. — The
"Mikado" and tho "Tocaido." — Politeness and Amiabihty of the Japanese
Farmers,  87
LETTEE XI.
RETURN TO TEDO.
In Tedo a Second Time. — Now under a British Escort — The English Dragoons
and Japanese Takonins. — ^The British Student Interpreters. — Only a Hundred
Caucasians among a Million of Japs. — Paper Windows. — Uneasy Sleeping. —
Two-Sworded Loafcra.^A Thousand British Troops iu Tokohama, — Cheap
Shopping in Tcdo. — ^I'ashlonablo Elding,  98

CONTENTS. ix
LETTEE xn.
THINGS IN JAPAN.
Women among the Japanese. — ^Their Position and Condition. — Promiscuous Bath
ing-houses. — The Theatre. — ^Ticketing Straw Shoes therein. — Jap Stump
Orators. — Bamboo in Japan. — Japanese Art — Shopping in " Curio " Street. —
Can spend any Amount of Money. — The Steel of Japan. — The Government of
Japan a FeudaUty. — Eailroads, Telegraph, and Mint in Japan, . . 104
LETTEE Xin.
ON TKE JAPAN SEAS.
Adieu to Tokohama. — ^The Foreigners and their Life there. — ^The All Sorts of Clothes
of the East — ^The Japanese Passengers on board the Costa Elca. — A""Japanes0
Prince and his Eetinue on board.— A Typhoon dodged.— Frightftil Loss of Life and
Property. — Au Earthquake felt. — Curiosity satisfied. — Motley Cargo of the
Costa Eica.— Butcher's Meat called Fowl,  112
LETTEE XIV.
ON THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN.
The Beautiful Inland Sea of Japan.— Luxurious Travelling.— Prince Hizen.— Vampire
Cat— Bay of Nagasaki.— The Oldest European Settlement — The Eoman Cath
olic Priests.- Pappenburg Island. — Thousands of Christians thrown from the
Precipice. — ^The Faith of Eoman CathoUc Missionaries. — Street Scenes in
Nagasaki. — ^Needle Making. — Porcelain Painting.— Begging Buddhist Priest. —
Street Actors. — Japanese Confectionery. — Japanese Woman's Toilet-Box. — Ee-
ceipt for Blacking the Teeth. — Final Leave of Japan,  120
LETTEE XV.
ON, AND OVER TO CHINA.
On the Tellow Sea, liound to Shanghai.— The Great Tang-tze and its Tellow AVater.
— Up the Whang-poo.— Eeflections on entering the Great Gates of China. —
Thermometer in Shanghai. — ^Hot, Hotter, Hottest. — ^Air wanted, a Puifor a
Typhoon. — ^Things In and About Shanghai. — ^The Summer Costume. — Innumer
able Monnds or Graves in the Cotton-Fields. — ^American Flag in the Tang-tze. —
We are taking the Coasting Trade of China, etc.,  129
LETTEE XVI.
THE HEALTH OF CHINA.
Where's Chefoo ?— A Watering-PIace in China.— Amusements There.— The Amer
ican and Other Fleets. — The Noisy Salutations of the Fleets. — Church Service
on the Colorado. — TheCorean Expedition. — ^The Eace ofthe Eival American
Barges.  Eahi here.— Breakiiist by the Eussian Admiral.— The English (Uni
versal) Language.- Entertammonts given us by the Russians.— AfBnity of
Eussiaus and Americans.- Admiral Eodgers's State Breakfast.— Divine Service
on board the Eussian Flag-Ship.— A Busy Week.— The Novel Assemblage at
Chefoo about to disperse,  140

X CONTENTS.
LETTEE XVII.
ON THE PEIHO RIVER.
Tremendous Flood on the Eiver of Peiho.— Whole Villages washed away.— Tho
People drowned out— Widespread Desolation.- Living on the Eiver on a Tankee
Steamer.- The Grand Canal broken loose.— The Crooked Peiho Eiver.— The Way
we wound up the Eiver.— The Tear-ago Massacre of Europeans andCathoUcs m
Tien-tsin.— The then Fright of all Missionaries.— Scare about going there.—
Guns and Gunboats Commercial and Christian Guarantees.- An Exploration of
the Old Under-water Tien-tsin, in a British LauncLt.— Innumerable Junks.— The
Euins of the Eoman CathoUc Cathedral.— The Tombs of the slain Sisters.- Ter
rors predicted for Tourists to Pekin.— Nevertheless, On, On to PeHn, . 149
LETTEE XVIIL
ONy TO PEKIN.
Arrival at Tung-Chow.— Lodged in a Temple.— Ice in Abundance now.— On to
Pekin that Night— The Gates of Pekin at Sunset- The Infernal Eoad to the
Celestial City, in a Mule Cart— Bump, Thump.— No Getting Out, no Living
In.— The Sights on the Tung-Chow and Pekin 'Eoad. — The Wheelbarrow
Gentry.— Caravans.-First Sight of the Bactrian Camel. — ^The Great Walla of
the City after Sunset- What John Chinaman thinks of an American-dressed
Woman entering his Capital in an Open Sedan-chair. — ^Difference of Opinion
as to Pekin and New Tork Fashions. — Happy Welcome in the Eussian L^a-
tion. — ^A Cossack Porter opens the Great Gates,  15T
LETTEE XIX.
THE JOURNET TO PEKIN.
How he got to Pekin in a Springless Cart, over a Granite-Paved Imperial Eoad,
Thii'tecn Miles long when first made, and passable, now tliirty, or more, from
the Holes in it, and the Crooks to dodge these Holes. — Bones all -aching from
Pounding, but Bone-Pounding Good Medicine at Times. — The Fit-Out for the
Eiver Peiho Journey in Sampans. — ^Hospitality of the Tien-tsiners. — ^Bad Water.
— Must Liquor or Tea. — ^Dead Chinamen by millions, and Graves everywhere
bad for Wells.— Catalogue ofa Peiho Boat Outfit— The Terrors ofthe Eoute all
exaggerated. — The High Water a Help. — Cut across Lots. — The Supplies e»
route. — ^Beggars. — A not Disagreeable Journey. — ^All Sleeping Unprotected. —
No Eeal Perils. — Coolie Comforts. — Sights on the Eiver. — ^British Mannikctures.
— ^The Cock keeps Time for the Coohe in the Morning. — Life In a Junk. — Toi
lettes there. — The Countless Babies here,  164
LETTEE XX.
FROM PEKIN.
The Guide-Books of Pekin.— The " Ji-hia-kieu-wen-kau" "and the " Chen-yuen-chi-
lio." — Three Cities within Pekin, the Manchu or Tartar, Chinese, and Imperial —
Shopping in Pekin.— Great Fur Market— Mongolia, Manchimo, Corea, and Sibe
ria Sables, Ermine, etc., ete. — Precious Stones. — Jade. — Greek Chapel on the
Grounds of the Eussian Legation. — Life among Chinese Eusslans. — Catholic
and Protestant Missionaries in Pekin. — ^Visit to the Eoman Catholic Cathedral. —
French Priests and Sisters of Charity. — School for Chinese Children. — ^Money
and the Missionaries. — Conflicts between them. — Foreign and Anti-Foreign
Party in China. — Chincso Efforts to create Pi-ojudico ag.iiust OhristL-ms, , 173

CONTENTS. xi

LETTER SXL
FROM PEKIN.
Paradise in-doors, Tartarus out. — Pekin Holes, Mud, Dust, Dirt, — ^No Noses in Pe
kin. — Sights and Smells. — ^Wealthy Chinese. — Sumptuary Laws in China.— Se
dan-chairs. — Marriages and Funerals. — ^Women of no Account. — Polygamy. —
¦Women's Fashions in Pekin. — ^Dr. "Wilhams, the Secretary, BibliopMlist, and
Encydopsedist — The Chinese retrograding. — Confticianism losing its In
fluence. — Christianity. — ^Romaa Catholics, when starting here, teaching the Ma
terial as well as the SpirituaL — Conflict of Christ and Conflicius. — ^The Chinese
Classics,  182
LETTER XXn.
THE TEMPLES IN PEKIN.
The Temples in China.— Confucius and the Lama. — The Lessons of Confucius, — His
Influence in the Government of the Chinese, — ^The Sages of China. — Tablets to
the Disciples of Confucius. — ^The Competitive Students. — ^The Despotism and
Democracy of China. — The Diagrams. — The Yang and the Yin, — Intelligence of
the Chinese. — The Lama Buddhist Temple. — ^Mongolian Priests. — Contrast of
the Lama and Confucius Temples. — A Chinese Mandarin's House. — ^Yang was
his Name. — Sensation in the Streets. — The Interior of the Mandarin's House. —
The "Wife aud Handmaids. — ^Description of the "Wife's Dress. — Refreshments. —
"WalksontheEoof ofthe House,  190
LETTER SXIII.
THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA.
The Great "WaU of China. — The Overland Route to St. Petersburg.— Turned back by a
Mohammedan Mmeute. — Now too late or too early in the Season. — Can tele
graph from hero to New York in twelve or sixteen Days. — The Govenmient of
China. — Confucius a sort of Ben Franklin or Thomas JeflFerson.^No Hereditary
Aristocracy. — PubKc Sentiment governs here as in Great Britain and the
United States. — Railroads and Telegraphs resisted by Superstitions, to be
overcome. — China making Great Preparations for "War. — Casting Cannon, etc. —
China retrograding, — Corruption tho Cause. — Mandarin Titles bought and
sold. — The Literati Mandarins now dishonest. — The Boy Emperor, fifteen
Years of Age.— His Future not promising,- The Dowager hunting a "Wife for
him.— The Pekhi Gazette^  199
LETTER SSIT.
FROM THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.
On Top of the Great "WaU of China.— Droves of Sheep, Hogs, Ponies, Donkeys.—
Mongolians and Manchus, — Speech-making on Top of the Great "WaU, — Speech
of J. B. to tl^B Great "WaU. — Tartara, a Species of "Yankees, leaping over all
"WaUs, — Outfit for the Trip from Pekin to the Great Wall. — Brick Tea.— Sheep's-
tail Soup. — ^Eggs in Abundance. — ^Mule Litters. — Description of the Craft. — The
Muleteers. — Mingling Mire, Mud, and Dust. — Sounding for the Bottom of the
Bogs. — Dodging into Farms and Gardens. — ^Roads in China are Ditches.— The
Pass of Nan-Kow. — First Night's Experience iu a Mongolian Inn, — A Brick
Oven to sleep on.— Journey to tho WaU over a Rough and Terrible Road. — A.
Series of WaUs.— A Lunch amid Euins of the Wall.— The Comfort of a Cup of
Cold Water,  203

xii CONTENTS.

LETTEE XXV,
RETURN TO PEKIN.
The Ming Tombs.— The Grand Approach to them. — ^All going to min.— The Bummer
Palace of the Emperors. — " Tueng-Ming-Tuen-Ching," the man-of-aH-work. —
Letters of Credit no Service in Pekin.— No Coin or Currency in China. — Sycce. —
Tho North of China.— The Emperor gives Audience at 5 a. m.— The Marble Bridge
and the Lotus.— The Temple of Heaven.— The Temple of Earth.— The Sacrifices
in these Temples by the Emperor,  220
LETTEE XXVr.
RETURNING SOUTHWARD.
A Traveller, retracing his Steps. — Tung Chow, on the Peiho Eiver. — ^The Wheel
barrow Traffic. — ^Death to the Coolies. — Processions en route. — Of Funerals
and Weddings. — ^A Good Story told of Gov. Seward. — ^Mistaking a Funeral Pro
cession for an Ovation to Himself. — ^Expense of Travelling as a Grandee. — ^A Tem
ple for a Hotel. — ^Eunning the Gauntlet ofthe Junks to Tien-tsin. — ^The Noisy
Monosyllables ofthe Chinese. — ^Huge Pyramids of Salt — ^Home, Sweet Home. —
The Szechuen. — ^Under a Tankee Captain firom Maine. — The Grapes of the
Peiho. — ^The Rolling Screw Steamers of the Tellow Sea, — ^Rivalry of British and
American Steamers. — Chinese Customs collected by Foreigners. — The American
Flag driven off. — ^Manu&ctures driven o^  286
LETTEE XXVn.
THINGS IN SHANGHAI.
Shanghai. — Its Enterprises and Surroundings.- The Hot Sun of Shanghai — ^Turning
White Men Tellow. — ^The City Government of Shanghai. — ^Eastern Hours for
Breakfast and Dinner. — The Great Commerce of ShanghaL — Much of it passing
into Chinese Hands.— Tea Trade. — Tea-Tasters.— Telegraphs to, and fl^m Shang
hai. — Tea Steamers up the Tang-tze.- Foreign Schemes to dodge the Fung
Shuey.- Hostihty to Electricity.— The Telegraphs from Shanghai via Nagasaki
and Vladivastock, in Eussia,  . 247
LETTEE XXVin.
FROM THE ENGLISH COLONY OF HONG KOXG.
How Screw-Steamers roll. — Cabins, Hot, Hotter, Hottest — Chow Chow excellent—
Sleep in a Stew Prison.- The Great EngUsh (P. & O.) and French Lines of Steam
ers in the East- Hong Kong.— Typhoons here.— The City the Eefiige of the
Ecflise Chinese. — Curious Intermixture of Population. — ^The Coolie Emigration
here.- The Dialecte of China.- Pidgen English. — Chinese Kitchens and Cooks,
etc., etc.,  , . . . K . . 2^
LETTER XXIX.
THINGS IN CANTON.
What Canton is.— Its People, Streets, Sewers, etc, etc.— The Temples of Canton. 
Hiicred Hogs, Confucius and tho Stalls. — Caging Students ambitiofas to be Man
darins.— Do CUnamcD cat Oats, Dogs, and E-itsf— Tho Mannlhctorii's of Con-

CONTKNTS. xiii
ton. — The Silk Gauzes. — ^An Improvised Breakfast on a Pagoda, — ^No Beasts of
Burthen in the City.— AU CooUe Work.— A Sabbath in Canton,— Boat Life
there. — ^Ducks smd tiiefr Owners, — Gates and PoUce. — No Going Out Nights. —
No Courting.— No Clubs,  265
LETTER XXX.
THOUGHTS ON THE CHINA SEAS.
The Imitative Powers of the Chinese. — Their Love of Money. — Population of China
over-estimated, — Pisciculture in Canton. — Chinese Dialects. — ^War Talk. —Super
stitions of the Ignorant. — Singapore. — The Malay Divers. — Foreign Commerce.
— ^The Census, — The Jungle. — Agriculture, etc., etc., .... 276
LETTEE XXXI.
FROM CEYLON AND THE RAY OF BENGAL.
England, Continuous England. — The Steamer Congregation in Ceylon. — A Grand Ori
ental Hotel. — Buddhism bom here. — Sapphires, Rttbies, and Pearls. — The Cinga
lese great Cheats. — A Monkey Story. — Curious Boats and Boatmen in GaUe. —
Men here mistaken for Women,, and mce versa. — Madras, and Things there. —
The Latin Races here crowded off by the Anglo-Saxon.— Englishmen here patron
ize the Shastra and the Teda, as weU as the Bible, — ^Their Eace kept distinct.— A
HandM of Englishmen governing a World. — Juggling in Madras. — Golconda and
Juggernaut. — Cyclones and the Church at Sea. — Hymns, etc. . . . 283
LETTER XXXIL
BRITISH INDIA.
England Forever and Ever— 200,000,000 British Subjects— Standing Army of 820,000
Soldiers. — Vast Imports and Exports. — ^East Indians. — Monkeys or Men, — Trade
and Commerce of India. — ^The Holy Ganges. — English Water- Works on it. —
Calcutta no longer the " Black Hole " — ^Hot, not Unhealthy. — The Punkah Fan
the Great Institution of India. — The Punkah Everywhere. — Tudor and His Ice
the Great Things of the East. — The Hancocks, the Websters, Nothing.-^The
Tudor Every Thing. — Wenham Something. — ^Boston Nothing. — ^The Hoogley
.River and the Cyclones, — ^Enchanting Approach to Calcutta. — The King of
Oude. — A Seventeen Days' Hindoo HoUday in Calcutta, — Polygamy and Poly
andry, — Hindooism, Buddhism, Brahminism and Mohammedanism. — The 320,-
000 Standing Army Government of India not a Bad One,  292
LETTER XXXm.
THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA.
The Impudent Crows of Calcutta. — ^How they chatter.— A Drove of Elephants cm-
barking for War. — ^The " Central Park " and " Hyde Park " of Calcutta.— Funny
Liveries. — The Trade of the MetropoUs of India. — Exports, 'Catch, Coir, Jute,
Indigo, and so on. — Tho Cocoa-nut Tree. — ^American I^de. — Assam Tea. — The
Opium Trade, a Government Monopoly, — The Flocks of Servants in Calcutta. —
No Women Servants. — All Men. — ^Men as Washerwomen. — The Woman invisi
ble. — ^EngUsh Women going to India, — The Chit and the CooUe. — The Ladies'
Chit — Charming Social Life in Calcutta,  303

xiv CONTENTS.
LETTEE XXXIV.
THE RUN ACROSS INDIA.
Things in India.— Rail from Calcutta to Bombay.— The Eaghig Sun of India.— The
Parsees of Bombay. — Fire Worshippers.— Sunday Evening's Work in Cal
cutta. — India Railroad Cars. — How they are cooled, and how they are convert
ing the Pagans. — ^The Telegraphs of India. — Joumahsm in India. — Coal in
India.— The Way Coolies work. — Indian MuBlins and Cashmere Shawls. — ^The
Plains of the Ganges.— The Pagan Temples of India.— Hindoos more intelligent
than Mohammedans, — ^Allahabad. — Jubbalpore. — ^The Passage of the Ghauts. —
Entrance into Bombay,  814
LETTEE XXXV.
SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAY.
Bombay. — What it is as a City. — Calcutta the Court; Bombay the Mart. — ^New In-
floences ofthe Suez Canal. — The Treasures of India here. — Cashmere Shawls. —
The Bombay Fashionables on a Drive. — The Parsees. — The way they don't bury
their Dead.— India Gods. — ^Where manufactured, — ^The Temples of India. — The
Wonderful- "Elephanta,'^^Dining Out in the East. — The Eoute to Persia and
Aden. — The Census aud Exports of Bombay.— Extent of Railroads in India, —
Sound Banks imd a good Currency,  329
LETTER XXXVI.
ON THE ARABIAN AND RED SEAS.
Lascars, Africans, Chinese, Portuguese, and Englishmen, naanaging a Steamer. —
The Infernal Sun of India.*— The Reservoir of Surplus Englishmen. — ^How India
exhausts European Life. — ^The British Soldier'^s Luxurious Life in Peace. — The
Native Troops of India. — ^The Grip of England upon India.^Effect of Christian
ity upon Hindoos and Mohammedans. — ^The Hindoo Pantheon Mid 333,000,000
Qois. — The Brahmin Castes. — Bankers below Barbers. — ^Arabs and their Ocean
Craft, — Railroad from London to Bombay.— Time, Five Days. — ^England encore,
toujours, forever and ever. — The Red-Hot Red Sea. — This Unfinished Part of
the Earth.— Aden the Fag End of Creation. — The Divers of Aden, — Strings
of Camels Led by tiiefr Noses.— The Proper Time to Travel in the East — Fares
and Distances,  340
LETTER XXX"VT[.
SUDDEN FLIGHT FROM ASIA AND AFRICA INTO EUROPE.
Among the Alps. — The Isthmus of Suez. — Suez Canal.— WiU it pay ?— Egypt and
Alexandria. — Confederate Officers in the Pasha's Army. — Horrid (English) EaU-
road Cars,— Boreas and the Egyptian Sands.— Across the Mediterranean to
Brindisi, — ^Things in Brindisi and Turin. — ^How cold it is. — Mt. Cenis and the
Great Tunnel. — Glorious Scenery,  • . S53
LETTEE XXXVIII.
THINGS IN PARIS AND LONDON.
Things in Paris and In London,— Shopping in both Cities,— Paris sad just now. 
An American almost Home in England. — Liverpool, — Eough Eocking on the
Atlantic.— Put into Newfoundland for Coal. — St, John's.— Fishermen there.—
Home again, Sweet Home, etc.,  861
Home vroj-i a FoitraaN SnoRB,  371

A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN,
UP, AND DOWN, AND AROUND THE WOKLD.

LETTEE I.
ON, TO, AND OVSB THE PAGIFIG.
The Start from New Tork to go round the World.- Thinking out loud on Paper.—
No fine Writing, Scribbling only. — Car Life on the Prairies and Eocky Mountains,
but no Eocky Mountains. — ^The Way the Engineer dodges them. — The Holy Land
of Mormondom. Salt Lake Cut, May 26, 18'71.
FiTE days' start from New Tork, only ; left there
Sunday night, May 21st (after Sunday was over),
here, in the "Holy City," Friday, 7 p. m., trunks
all right, ticketed from New Tork, with but one
sight of them, no trouble, no fatigue, plenty of
sleep, good enough living — the Tabernacle in view,
and the Saints all about. The " Eail " could not do
all this, not even the " Pacific " Kail ; but the
blessed invention of the sleeping-car rocks one so
gently at night, and puts one so gently to sleep, that
one is a little fresher, as the morning sun peeps
through the windows, than if one slept at home,
without the cradling and the motion.
I am ordered off by a doctor for a " trip," a trip
only, somewhere, but where, there are no Congresses,
no newspapers, no telegraphs, no rails, and I am going

2 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
to obey, reserving the privilege only of thinking out
loud on paper to you — ^nay, permitted to do nothing
else — and I am going to obey that doctor, but just
how, or just where, I can't see, though I am going
over the Pacific into Asia to see. I should die, after
my busy life, with nothing to do ; but this — if your
readers will expect nothing else save scribbling — ^pen
cil scratching, no fine vrriting, nothing but a travel
ler's thoughts out loud, will busy me, kill off idle
hours, and, perhaps, amuse you.
Well, when one starts on a journey over, or
"around the world," one naturally enough begins
to count the first few miles in the twenty-four or
twenty-five thousand (more or less, that depending
upon deviations to come). The start from New Tork
to Newark was the first count, seven great miles,
which left some twenty-four thousand nine hundred
and ninety-three to come. This species of arithme
tic, however, soon tires one, and the blessed sleeping-
car comes to relieve. I waked up among the moun
tains of Pennsylvania, in the winding gorges of the
AUeghanies, near Altoona, where the Chinese gongs
sound a terrible rattle for breakfast, and where sce
nery, as beautiful as cit should see, gladdens his eye,
warms his heart, and makes him feel there is some
thing on earth — even if it be Pennsylvania coal and
coal-smoke — ^now and then, more cheering than miles
of New Tork brown-stone or brick and mortar. We
flew (a locomotive fly) over the crest of the AUegha
nies,. by such pretty mountain watering-places as

ON, TO, AND OVEE THE PACIFIC. 3
Cresson ; and at 10.30 a. m. we were in that great
inland workshop, Pittsburg, which all of us contrib
ute more or less to build up in the taxes we univers
ally pay. As a stream of freight cars met us, labelled
" From Talparaiso to Batavia," I could not but think
at first what a long journey that train is on, from
South America to the East Indies, over sea ; but
when I reflected what hard work it is in this new
country to find new names for its ever-springing-up
cities and towns, the journey did not seem so long.
There was a dear little woman with us, and she
had a dear little baby, and these dear little things
were going somewhere West, to meet some dear big
husband, who had rolled up dollars enough to roll
them out from their Eastern home, but not dollars
enough to spare to tempt him to go out and escort
them on. The dear little woman must have air, and
would have air, and, this being her first great jour
ney, would look out of open windows. The con
sequence was, despite the ingenious inventions of
the compartment-car, its upper windows, its ventila
tors, etc., etc., the dear little woman would, and did,
cover us all over with dust and cinders. This led me
to the reflection, that the car inventors, who are daily
inventing all sorts of new things to cheat journeying
out of its hardships, and to make it as pleasant as
home, should invent a special compartment cage, to
cage up dear little women, fresh and green in this
journey of life, where they would be themselves all
covered up with dirt and cinders, and catch great

i A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
colds for themselves and their babies, to kill them,
perhaps, soon after they reach their husbands.
But if I go on thus "thinking out loud," I shall
never get to this, the Holy City, this Mecca, this
Jerusalem. The 23d (evening) we crossed the Missis
sippi, at Davenport ( Iowa), where great works and
great doings of all kinds are going on. Think of an
opera-house there, and big breweries, and two bridges
here over the stern Father of Waters. The 24th
(morning) we crossed the Missouri, rising and roaring
n6w, and looking like mush. The classic Greeks
called such yellow rivers " golden " (vide, the golden
Pactolus) ; but " mush " is the proper Tankee word
for this yellow, turbid, wild, mud-mixed torrent. The
big piers of the Union Pacific Eailroad bridge, sixty
or eighty feet under water, to rock bottom, are fast
'going down, and the same car that takes us from Chi
cago over the broad prairies of Illinois and Iowa, can
take us over a bridge, on to the Eocky Mountains of
Wyoming and Utah.
We are crossing the prairies of Nebraska, and
ascending the eastern slopes of the Eocky Mountains
— in a compartment, with an organ in the centre,
from which the musically inclined are grinding
out their melodies — in native " Old Hundred " or
" Bridgewater " notes, while a Frenchman, an artist,
of course, bound on to San Francisco, roUs out his /b^
de-rols in thunder squalls, that astound the Pawnee
squaws, and scare up the prairie dogs and antelopes.
Everybody that has not seen an Indian, pants to see

ON, TO, AND OTEE THE PACIFIC. 5
one, and the first Pawnee that turns up receives
many a mite — ^more especially the squaw and the
papoose slung on her back, from all the romantically
inclined young women. The classic barbarians here,
contemptuously call the Indian, " Lo," from Pope's
" Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind sees God
in clouds, and hears Him in the wind," while all the
Eastern Popes think of him only as Cooper has painted
him, and sympathize with him and his sufferings.
Everybody, too, pants to see a prairie dog— miserable
little squirrel-like wretches, that live in towns (in
towns of holes), and pop up as the cars are coming,
and pop down as the cars come, — or, an antelope (we
are expecting, in vain, though, to breakfast and dine
upon one) or deer, which we often see scampering in
fright over the rocky hills and through the sage brush.
We gather some prairie flowers ; we buy more. All
are very pretty ; and thus car life and prairie life are
charming to such as have .not had too much of it.
Car life like ours is a new life, existing only in
this country. The sleeping-car with beds and bed
clothes is known in no other land, and hence I will
tarry by the wayside to think out loud about
it. There were seventeen ladies and twenty-seven
children in the car that preceded us yesterday, " the
steward's " (that's the new name, I think, for the
dark-colored young gentleman that " helps " in this
craft, and makes up, and makes down, the beds) —
but in this car of ours we have only seven little
ones, not with mothers to match, though, for one

6 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
mother owns flve of the seven. The dark-colored
young gentleman, when we order, drops down the
upper beds, and pulls out the lower beds, and we
tumble in behind the curtains, and strip off our gear
as quickly as possible. Some go to bed at 8, and
others at 12 p. m., and thus the eight-hour people can
be regaled for hours by the stories, the adventures,
the secrets, of the twelve-hour people, who have
four mortal hours to tell all they know. Then, when
the train stops to coal, or to water, we hear the
gentle outgoing of some near neighbor's fairy breath,
or the deep, sonorous snore of some hard sleeper,
whom some nightmare is harassing. The hours of
rising are not so irregular as the hours of retiring ;
for a sort of necessity compels everybody " to get up "
at once, about six or seven. Then come scenes no
mere scribling pencil of mine can exploit, only the
light rays of the photographer. From some top-bed
chambers, hang out long tresses of hair ; from others,
projecting articles of dress; from othei-s, the dan
gling, pautalooned legs of men — while all, to do all
justice, laugh at the miseries and mysteries of the
toilette, and make the most and the best of the uni
versal huddle. We wash, as we best can ; and when
the gong rattles for breakfast, the most of us rush
out, to give the dark-colored young master of the
craft his opportunity to clean up, and clear off, the
ruins of the night. Some, however, nay many, who
cannot afford the doUar breakfast (for that is the
price here of every meal), draw forth their lunch-

ON, TO, AND OVEE THE PACIFIC. 7
baskets, and eat in the cars, and thus much disturb
the master in making a day " palace " of his night
sleeping ^hall. Night after night, this is the scene,
from Omaha, on the Missouri, to Oaklands, on the
Pacific waters.
Cheyenne — away up the hills, some thousands of
feet above the level of the sea, no matter how many,
but many enough at times to be very snowy, more
windy, and very cold — is the Wyoming Territory
Exchange of the Union Pacific Eailroad. Near
here we begin to see the snowy mountains ; and near
here we see, or think we see, the Eocky Mountains ;
but the Eocky Mountains on the line of the Union
Pacific Eailroad are grand humbugs. " There is not
any Eocky Mountain," the traveller writes down in his
note-book. " The geographer has been cheating us for
a hundred years." " Lewis and Clarke, the first Pacific
explorers, told lies." " Fremont wrote romances about
Eocky Mountains, Eocky Mountain fastnesses, and
Eocky Mountain peaks." " The United States Gov
ernment engineers, in theu- great, big Pacific Eailroad
Government books, drew monstrous long yams," etc. !
But there are Eocky Mountains, real, live, big, boun
cing, frightful Eocky Mountains ; but the Union Pacific
Eailroad has contrived so to get over, or through, and
around them, that the traveller is cheated out of his
eyes a;nd seven senses, and there are no Eocky Moun
tains to him. We are going up, up, up ; we all feel
and know that. The vegetation indicates, we are
going heavenward. Sherman, the tip-top, jumping-

g A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
off railroad place, 8,242 feet above the level of the
sea, demonstrates there are some Eocky Mountains ;
but we have only seen snowy peaks in the distance —
Pike's Peak and Elk Mountain— and thus "going
over the Eocky Mountains," on the Union Pacific^
Eailroad, is all a joke to us.
Cheyenne, I was about to say, when led off on
this Eocky Mountain Jack-o'-lantern digression, is an
" Exchange " on the Union Pacific Eailroad. The
Denver (Colorado) Eailroad comes in here, bringing
passengers from St. Louis. The Western Union
Pacific Eailroad train meets the Eastern train here.
We all gaze about to see whom we know. The United
States Army rides in, from the forts all round, with
its wives and children, to see " who is who, and what
is what." Three trains, meeting 6,000 feet in the air,
is the great event of the day. We eat, of course,
thirty minutes (they give us fifty here). We stop to
buy moss agate jewelry. We shake hands with every
body, from everywhere, or going everywhere. There
is a daily evening newspaper here, and we devoured
the telegrams, more especially to see how the mad
men were carrying on, in Paris, the night before. In
short, we know just as much, away up here in the air
of what the world is doing, as you know on Broad
way, New Tork. There are two competino- lines
of telegraph all about us. We receive and send
home messages. Indeed, we are at home, away
up here in the Eocky Mountains, among the bears
the wildcats, and the rattlesnakes!, if any are left

ON, TO, AND OVEE THE PACIFIC. 9
that have not run away with the buffaloes and the
Indians. From " Sherman," named after General Sherman,
the tallest general in the army, we go down, down,
down. Two engines pulled us up, but all the brakes
are put on as we go down, down, down. Then we
scour over the Laramie Plains, reach Laramie City,
the hope, the haven, the heaven of the woman's
righters, where sing the men —
"Nice little baby, don't get in a fury,
'Cause mamma's gone to sit on the jury."
To Laramie succeeded darkness, and a night's
ride ; but the moon broke in upon us, with the mag
nificent scenery of the railroad. An observation-car,
in early morning, was attached to the rear of the
train, to give all the passengers an opportunity to see
the Canons, the Castle Kock, the Hanging] Eock, the
Pulpit Eock, the Devil's Slide, the Devil's Gate Sta
tion, etc. We wide opened our eyes and our ears,
and took in all ; but I am now so absorbed in the
. Holy Land, where I am, that scenery is nothing to
me now. I tarry over the Sabbath to worship with
the Saints in the Tabernacle ; and, if I can get time,
you shall hear more from me before^ I go into the
outer darkness of the telegraph and mail, on the
boundless Pacific Ocean.

LETTEE II.
ON, TO, AND OVEB TKE PACIFIC.
The Mormon Holy Land. — Geographically like the Holy Land over the Sea. — ^How
Irrigation has made the Desert a Garden. — The Apostles and Elders of Mormon
dom.— The Holy Temple. — ^Brigham Toung in the Temple. — ^The Women and
the Fashions in Salt Lake City. — Beelzebub stirring up Bebellion.^The Grass
hoppers and the Gulls. Salt Laxe, May 28, 1 871.
What to say of this extraordinary place, how to
picture it, its industries, its progress, its great achieve
ments, puzzle me. It is very like Jordan, and the
Dead Sea, and that part of the Holy Land. The
Salt Lake is the Dead Sea. There is a Jordan here
pouring into this dead salt sea, where nothing can
live, to which Dead Sea, here, there is no outlet,
as in that near Jerusalem. The mountains are aU
about, but these are magnificent, snow-covered moun
tains, pouring down their rich waters to irrigate,
awaken, develop, and enrich the soil — to drive the
miserable sage brush off, and to substitute therefor
all sorts of grain, and roots, and fruits that can make
a people prosperous and happy. When Brigham, the
Prophet, many years gone by, first led here his
driven-off squadrons (so like the Israelites, driven off
from Egypt to wander in the wilderness), this great
valley, with its sage brush and its rough rocks

ON, TO, AND OVEE THE PACIFIC. H
must have looked very like what the Dead Sea and
Jordan now are; but Brigham and his tribes have
made it teem with bread and honey, and to blossom
like the rose. I cannot help, therefore, feeling a sort
of admiration for these Illinois and Missouri, but
Tankee led, banished prophets, apostles, and elders,
and their hosts of followers from Scandinavia to
Scotia — ^for these Celts, Britons, Germans, Danes,
Norwegians, these representatives of the refuse of the
world. The Lord, or the Devil (choose which), has
here chosen the humblest, the most ignorant instru
ments, to do the greatest things. " And Love rules all,"
we are told, and we see it, or seem to see it, through
the apostles and elders. Love brings the water har
moniously down from the mountains, and divides
and subdivides the torrent into little streams, and
brooks, and rivulets, and they flow over every man's
field, by every man's door, and the patriarchs
(most of them very unpromising-looking patriarchs,
though), with their wives, and children, and flocks,
drink it in, or see the earth drink it in, as Egypt
drinks in the Nile waters. But there is no " report "
from these high Courts of Love, that thus rule and
regulate all. Eeporters are not admitted to the
Council of the apostles and elders. *rhere are no
general or special sessions, that we know of — ^no
short-hand, nor long-hand reporters, no stenograph
ers. But, in faith, we believe, or ought to believe,
that Love rules all the land, and subjects all to its
laws — for here, we are told, is the Millennium, nay.

12 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
Paradise, perhaps. Wonderful people ! La Allah,
as the Mussulman says. " Great is God, and Brig
ham is His prophet."
Everybody comes here now, of course, unless a
body is in such a hurry that Mecca, or Jerusalem, is
nothing to him. The curious can never happily pass
over the great Pacific road without shooting off, on
the Mormon tangent railroad, now thirty-six miles
long, to see this Mecca of America. I shot off with
a New Tork party on this railroad tangent. A Mr.
Townsend, all the way from Maine, with only .three
wives (one of them just dead), keeps the hotel of the
city, and a very fair and quite a large hotel it is, but
very soon, with all its additions, it will not be half
big enough, especially on a Sunday, when travellers
most desire to be here, to worship in the Tabernacle,
or Temple. Think what a day of rest a Sabbath is
here ! We breakfast on mountain trout, fresh from
the icy streams. We march in the long trains of
Saints and Saintesses to the holy Temple. A hun
dred or two, or more, of apostles and elders sit on an
elevated platform, and we, the people, in mingled
communion, sit below, and look up to the holy
priesthood while they dispense the Old Testament
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the New Testa
ment of Jesus Christ, as enlarged and expounded by
Joe Smith, in his new Gospel of " glorious " Eevela-
tion. Our wives and progeny are all about. None
of us have less than one child — some forty, or fifty
or sixty. The women are not fascinating, either in

ON, TO, AND OVEE THE PACIFIC. I3
pretty faces (there are exceptions) or pretty fashions.
The great Prophet Brigham discourages fashion, but
the rascally innovation will come here, and is some
what stronger than even the Prophet. A big hoop
rustles around us now arid then. Occasionally we
see a coquettish cap, nicknamed a bonnet ; silks, if
not satins, also intrude ; but the great mass of the
women bring here their hats and robes, from their
mothers and great-grandmothers, and the result is a
head-gear representative here of Swede, of Scot, of
Celt, of Tankee, the patterns, perhaps, of ten genera
tions behind, with scoots of Quaker formation, and
umbrellas of Italian conception. A photograph of
Salt Lake fashions might suggest ideas to Eugenie,
perhaps, if ever she recovers the fashionable domin
ion of the world.
We listened profoundly, for one hour and more,
to a very clever discourse of an elder, or apostle,
here, a Mr. Cannon, who does double duty — ^first, as
daily editor of the Deseret Journal, and next, as
preacher ; but our great desire was to see Brigham,
to hear Brigham, and to drink in the gospel of Joe
Smith, the martyr, as dropped from the lips of Brig
ham. Heaven prospered our desires. Brigham arose
— a good-looking man, now of seventy years, very
like Tom Benton, the Missouri Senator, in his latter
. days — neatly and meekly dressed (by what wife ? a
wicked Gentile woman asked us), and he shrewdly,
ably expounded his creed. There is no doubt of tlie
all-sorts-of-ability of this remarkable man, whether he

14 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
be preacher, prophet, governor, ruler, banker, farmer,
railroad builder, miner, husband, or father. The
Saints all look up, and marvel, and wonder, and even
we sinners looked up, and marvelled, and wondered.
He told us (and it was ne-fr to all of us) the City of
Enoch was in the Gulf of Mexico, and the waters
Avould one day recede northward, and the city come
up again — while all the isles ofthe Gulf would be re-
annexed to our continent, and become part and
parcel of the United States (even St. Domingo, per
haps, without Grant's treaty of purchase and annexa
tion). Brigham, however, is not much longer to have
undisputed religious dominion here, his worshippers
tell us. Beelzebub is stirring up rebellion. The
Episcopalians have planted a church here (wonder
where the money comes from), costing forty or fifty
thousand dollars. The Eoman Catholics are already
here. The Methodists are about to invade Utah
with one of their prodigious camp-meetings, raking
in Methodists, there, from the Missouri, at Omaha, to
San Francisco, on the Pacific. They threaten to
capture Brigham and all his hosts. Brigham, gener
ously or tauntingly, offered them his huge new Taber
nacle, holding 13,000 people, with its galleries, new
and the big organ, perhaps the biggest in the world
to be thrown in, for their great Love Feast • but >
they declined the taint, or the taunt, and they turn
up in tents, in the open fields, under a cloudless
sky. If any sect can capture Brigham and his hosts

ON, TO, AND OVEE THE PACIFIC. 15
it is the Methodists; but they cannot sing half as
loud as his ten or twelve thousand congregation;
they cannot cry " Amen " as loud, and they cannot
pray louder. Their priesthood, close, and compact,
and powerful as it is, is not half so close, compact,
and powerful as his. I should like to be there to see
the great battle of the hosts ; but I am bound for the
land of Confucius, and the heathen Chinee, and the
Hindoo, and the Mussulman, and shall never see the
great fight among the mountains of Utah.
The grasshoppers, not the Gentiles, are the great
est enemies of the Mormons. They eat up every
thing, at times, and half-starve out the delving Saints.
Bnt Providence, Brigham told us, has come to the
rescue of the Saints. The gulls, never before known
here, were sent to eat the grasshoppers up. They
came in swarms, devoured the grasshoppers in the
fields, vomited them up in the deadly waters of Salt
Lake, returned for more, re-did the like, and thus
freed Mormondom from the pest. The Gentiles are
coming in, in swarms, though, to work the mines.
They find the money ; Brigham finds the workmen,
on hire. The Emma mine is a new silver mine, just
sold to Calffornians and New-Torkers for over a mil
lion, to be converted into a five million stock. The
valley below here (south) is said to be full of mines
on the mountain sides. Brigham has just concluded
a contract with the Union Pacific Eailroad directors
to extend his thirty-sixth-mile road twenty miles
further, that Company finding the iron, and Brigham

16 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
doing the grading, for only eight hundred dollars per
mile— for there is little or no grading or bridging
to do. There is no doubt that all Southern Utah is
more or less abounding in silver mines ; and capital
ists are here on hand looking after them. The
Townsend Hotel is full of adventurers in mining.
What effect all this invasion is to have upon Brigham
and his Saints is not exactly to be foreseen ; but
when the Prophet has a new revelation, from Joe
Smith or any other divine revelator, abolishing poly
gamy for the future (now that the country is settled,
not at present, of course), then Brigham and his Saints
have an organization that can and will successfully
contend with Methodism or any other religious de
nomination. The double, triple, quadruple, if not
centuple, wife system will not stand fire now. Its
day was over with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when
the world was to be settled. I expect every day to
hear some such new revelation from the great Tem
ple, and Brigham, the great Knight Templar.
I visited every thing, or almost every thing, the
two days I was here — ^the sulphur, natural, warm-
baths in the city ; the barracks (Camp Douglas), four
miles off, where we station a general and several
companies, to frighten the Saints to keep order, and
the theatre, Saturday night— a first-class theatre, too,
with a building as fine, and acting as good, as two-
thirds of the theatres of New Tork— (the Prophet,
like Beecher, allows his followers fun and frolic, and
assists in it, now and then)— and last, not least of

ON, TO, AND OVER THE PACIFIC. 17
all, the house, the home, the sanctum of the great
Prophet himself. Two of his daughters are stock
actresses. But I must draw a veil over all that. It
is not right for sinners to talk with saints, and then
teU, is it ?

LETTEE IIL
ON AND FBOM TEE PACIFIC.
Around the World only a " Trip.^' — Snow on the Mountains and Alkali Plains. — Forty
Miles of Snow-sheds. — Sudden Descent from Ice and Snow to Apiicotfi and Straw
berries. — Sacramento. — New Eailroad and Steamboat Boutes.
San Fkakcisco, June 1, 1871.
I AM about leaving in the Pacific Mail Co.'s
steamer, the Japan, for Tokohama, Teddo, Shanghai,
Hankow, Hong Kong, Canton, and  , which is
about as far as my geography goes, just now.
Hence, I must scribble in pencil as fast as I can.
The Pacific Mail steamers, all of them, are first-
class, more abounding in sea comforts, I think, than
any thing we have on the Atlantic; and therefore
Japan, only twenty-two days from here, is not much
of " a trip," so it seems to me now, though Japan
once did seem a great way off — as fai* off as was Cal
ifornia from Boston in the days of my youth — that
is, the jumping-off place of the world. If the tropics
do not threaten to burn us up in July and August, I
shall " trip " it around the world. Every thing, you
know, in this country is a " trip," even a journey
around the world.
We left the snowy mountain surroundings of the
Salt Lake Valley after " meeting," on Sunday, May

ON AND FROM THE PACIFIC. 19
28, and in a short time reached Ogden, the end of
the Union Pacific Eailroad, owned mainly in Boston
and New Tork, and the beginning of the Central
Pacific Eailroad, owned all in San Francisco and
Sacramento. The sun was hot ; but hot suns here
are not like hot suns. East — the air is so dry and ex
hilarating. A long-troubling cough I brought with
me from Washington is rapidly going, and when I
reach the Alkali plains I am sure it will all be gone.
This is the very land for consumption, bronchitis,
or the like, if patients are not too far gone ; though
Brigham Toung told us, in his discourse, his voice
was about worn up, though his body was as vigorous
as ever. But, May 29, strange to say — a phenome
non here now — a heavy rain met us, succeeded by a
snow-storm, re-whitening all the mountains, covering
even the Alkali plains, and making them whiter
than the Alkali. But the rain and snow saved us from
the trying dust of these plains. Our cars were as
pleasant as ever, and we have been in them so long
now, that they seem like home — sweet home, too,
when conti'asted with the rough cabins we often pass
in the rough-looking towns and villages. The wind
mills increase, forcing up the water for the railroad
tanks. There are three stations 'where water has to
be brought in car-tanks to feed the locomotives.
" Lots of Indians," dirty, filthy Piutes, are out beg
ging whiskey, or money to buy whiskey with.
" Backsheesh " squaws, in the West as well as in the
East, sling papooses over their backs to touch the

20 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
sympathies of ladies in the cars. The morning of
the 29th we passed the Summit House of the Sierra
Nevada, hid, however, in the midst of high snow-
sheds ; but the snow, as I should judge from peeps
through the crevasses, was nearly a foot deep.
Icicles were trickling down these snow-sheds. Slid
ing on the board walks of the restaurant places was
the traveller's fun. These snow-sheds on these moun
tain sides are " cursed " by travellers, when panting
to see the mountain tops. " Plague on them," was
the universal cry for forty miles ; but they save the
traveller from all delays in the winter, and are here
indispensably necessary to keep open the road. Two
engines took up our long train of cars, lengthened
the night before by an Uncle Sam's cavalry troop,
bound from Fort McDermot, in Nevada, to Arizona
(via Benicia), to fight the Camanches there. Soon,
however, very soon (two hom-s and forty minutes),
we were in the valley of the rich Sacramento — ^the
hay harvest over, the wheat ready to cut, apricots
and strawberries and cherries abundant, new potatoes
on our table, every surrounding seeming like mid
summer, the sun hot and high, and vegetation all
parched up, save the ever-green grape-vines. Is this
America ? Is this in oitr country ? Isn't it in Lom
bardy, from the Alpine descent, or, on the Po, or,
further on southward, in Naples, say, near the laA'a
of Vesuvius ? Sometimes the cars come down from
the Sierra all covered with snow, while the dust is
blowing in the streets of Sacramento !

ON AND FEOM THE PACIFIC. 21
Sacramento is the ambitious capital of California,
with a huge, costly dome on a State-house, now aris
ing, and not yet done. I thought, two years ago,
when here, I had dropped down from the Alps into
Milan — such were the fruits, and such were the
seeming luxuries of the climate. But we tarry here
no more. " On," " o%," ever " on," is the lawof the
steam-car. " Fifteen minutes for dinner," never over
twenty-flve or thirty. The wonder is, we Ameri
cans do not all die, eating as we do ; but we take
on lunch baskets here and elsewhere, cherries, boxes
of strawberries, apricots, California claret, Tankee
doughnuts even, strayed thus far (crullers is the
Middle States or California name for them) ; and
thus, you see, we cannot starve. Sacramento is one
hundred and thirty-five miles by rail from San Fran
cisco, about sixty or seventy by the shortest rail and
water route.
Speaking of railroads, I find here not a little
excitement about a new rail route to run from San
Francisco, not so much over, as around the Sierras,
to Ogden, to connect with the Union Pacific there.
Eich men and richer resources are in the new idea.
The plan, substantially, is to use the existing Vallejo
and Marysville Eailroad, and from thence to fork off,
connecting with Ben HoUiday's Portla'nd (Oregon)
Eoad, through the Willamette Valley, and thence,
from Klamath Lake down to Snake Eiver. The
Central Eailroad people say this route will be two
hundred or three hundred miles longer; the new

22 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
railroad people say, forty miles shorter. Surveys
aloue can settle the question ; but sooner or later, if
for nothing else, for the Oregon trade, this road will
be made ; and the Union Pacific will have two forks,
one, on to San Francisco (the Central), and the other,
into Oregon and San Francisco. There is room here
for all.
I have a thousand pleasant things to say of this
rising city — this New Tork of the Pacific Westj its
Japan and Chinese gateway, and Australia's gate
way, too, where steamers are now running, under
the invigorating auspices of our Wm. H Webb, who
is here, looking after his line. I see on the wharves
of the Pacific Mail Company, coffee, said to be as
good as the Java, from Central America, and sugar,
in quantities, in bags, and cassia, etc., all things
indicating a fresh, growing commerce. But the big
ship Japan has her steam up, threatening to cut me
off, if I go on pencilling longer ; and so you wiU not
hear from me again till I am "down East," some
where among the Antipodes, who are under our feet,
just now. Am I going East, or West, to-day ?
What say geographers? Is Japan down East, or
farther out West? Is this the end of "the great
West," or, the beginning of that unknown land our
starting point? My head is all agog with these
extraordinary geographical and time calculations.
My watch is not worth a sixpence, measured by New
Tork time. While we breakfast, you dine, and while
we dine, you go to bed. I telegraph, and you get

ON AND FEOM THE PACIFIC. 23
my telegram before it starts. How will it be in the
East, or the West, where I am going ? I am losing
a day of my life now by travelling. Shall I gain it
by keeping on ? We shall see. But — " All on board
that's going ! " and I close. " Adieu," " adieu."

LETTEE IV.
ON TEE PACIFIC.
From the Golden Gate to Yokohama. — ^The "Japan," and the motley Crowd on
board. — ^Is, or is not, the Pacific Ocean a Humbug? — The Amusements on board.
— The Police of the Ship. — Spoke a Boston Ship.— Meeting a Steamer in Mid-
ocean, exchanging Mails, etc Jmus 1, IS"?!.
We are passing the Golden Gate, and the broad
Pacific is opening around us for a long, long voyage
— four thousand seven hundred and eighty mUes to
Tokohama, in Japan, twenty-two days off, if not
more, the rate we are to run. What a motley
crowd we have just taken on board — the returning
Japanese, Governor Ito & Co., who have just been
making the tour of the United States, vsdth Japan
ese women (not belonging to them, though), very
much resembling our Indian squaws, but pretty
well dressed, and with more intelligence ; hundreds
of Chinese, almost all men, but a few women, who
have made "their fortune" in America, now re
turning home to enjoy it; and Englishmen, travel
ling for pleasure, and Germans, and Scotchmen,
and the universal Tankee nation, of course. A
Chinese " fortune " — happy people — is only three or

ON THE PACIFIC." 25
four hundred dollars, not the New Tork three or four
millions ; and the " heathen Chinee " is happy in hav
ing earned enough to live hereafter magnificently at
home. They scattered bits of paper on the water
as we left the wharf, to appease their Joss (the God)
of the Sea, and to bribe him to give us a prosperous
voyage. We have three missionary women on board,
from Albany and near by, going to Japan, to turn
the Buddhists there into Christians — ^hopeless task,
I fear. All these, with Chinese sailors, all, or nearly
all, to manage the ship — Chinese servants, all — a
Tankee captain, from Cape Cod, of course — a doctor,
a purser, a steward, etc., make up our motley crowd,
and are to be our companions over three weeks, on
the way.
The sailing of a steamship from a Pacific port is
an affair very different from that of the sailing of an
Atlantic steamship from New Tork. All Chinadom
and Japonicadom come down to see us off. The
hard, harsh jangle of Chinadom on the wharf, scream
ing " adieux," was mingled with the softer, gentler,
and more. Tuscan-like notes of the Japanese; while
English, and German, and French, and Italian, and
Spanish, in our cabin, bade the politer adieu. We
took on provisions enough to feed a city; — ^bullocks,
beasts of other kinds, sheep, henneries and duckeries,
with tenants too full to count ; vegetables, fresh from
the Eden gardens of California ; fruits of many kinds,
with apricots and strawberries, luscioas to look at
now, however they may look, or taste, when Neptune

26 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
exacts his tributes from us, a few hours hence. "We
shall live, I see, if we do not die of sea-sickness.

June 3.
The Pacific Ocean is a humbug. For twenty-four
hours I have been tossed, and rocked, and turned
inside out, just as I have been on that rough, boister
ous, reckless bosom of waters they call the Atlantic,
that never made any pretensions to gentleness or
gentility. There is nothing Pacific on this ocean as
yet. This is the second time I have tried it, north
ward, though, once before, as far up as Vancouver ;
but the captain promises better behavior from the
winds and the waves, as soon as we get far enough
off from the northerly winds of the California and
Oregon coast.

June 6.
The Pacific Ocean is not a humbug ; but the best-
behaved, best-looking sea I ever was on. There has
not been a ripple on the water for forty-eight hours.
There is not a sea-sick victim on board. Sunday,
June 4, the captain read the Episcopal service in
" the Social Hall," the upper, frescoed, lookout deck
of the ship, and all the Christians on board assembled
to hear him — not the Buddhists, nor the devotees of
Confucius, of course. Our missionary women sano-
their hymns, and the piano, acting as organ, accom-

ON THE PACIFIC. £7
panied them. We read, we write, we play shufile-
board on deck (not on Sunday, though), and pitch
quoits, with cards and backgammon, and walk and
talk. The Japanese are reading Japanese novels,
with illustrative pictures all over them, quite equal
ling the genius of the New Tork publishers, or
instructing us in words we deem it necessary to
learn. " Ohio " means " good morning," and in the
morning we " ohio " all we see. Thus we pass time,
with the five meals per day, if we choose to eat so
many, but with appetites that seem insatiable after
our tributes to the sea.
The police of this ship is so admirable that I must
give the captain, Freeman, a puff therefor. There is
a cry of " Fire," " Fi/re^'' — that terrible cry aboard
ship, in mid-Pacific sea — ^but a m,0Gli, cry here, to test
the crew, and on the instant, every Chinaman is at
his post, with streams of water flowing from hose all
over the deck, and ready to rush anywhere he is sent.
The life-boat is unrolled, and the India-rubber, can
vas-covered raft is blown up in a very short time.
The captain took some of us, last evening, all over
his ship. The neatness of the cuisine, the pantry,
and all the outworks indicate a husbandry, I must
say — ^not housewivery, for men do all th^ work — not
unsurpassed even by the Eotterdam or Amsterdam
Dutch. The stores of the ship all pass through the
purser's accounts, and double entry, or single entry,
tell the owners of every thing in or out. The Chinese
passengers on board, some of them, are going to their

28 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
bunks ; some are smoking opium in nearly an air
tight cage set -apart especially for them to indulge
that vice in, and others reading, or telling tales, or
playing on the banjo, we call it, with a chip. Happy
they all seemed — the happiest of all, in seeming, the
half-drunk opium-smokers, but all happy, in return
ing home to Hong-Kong, at fifty dollars only of cost,
with rice enough to eat, mixed up with pork, and
devoured with chop-sticks — a provender far better
than any food they are likely to have hereafter at
home. At 11 p. m., " Douse the glim " is the order of
the night, and we all go to bed — Christians, Buddh
ists, Confuciusists, Europeans, men, women, chil
dren, all — when watchmen in every part of the ship
watch over us and protect us during the night. I
feel as safe — I hope I am not to be mistaken — as in
my own bedroom at home, and the doors here are all
unlocked, and the windows open to let in the refresh
ing air.
" Ship ahoy ! " That's a refreshing sound, even
on the Atlantic sea, where ships are crossing and re-
crossing all the time, and where you can see one
almost every day. But here on the Pacific there are
few or no ships, and little or no crossing and recross-
ing, so that " Ship ahoy ! " startles us all up, and we
all rush to our glasses to see. As the morn broke in
upon us, a big ship, under full sail, was descried
crossing our course, and soon we saw the American
flag, and soon after a boat put out to meet us. The
ship was a Boston ship, the Daniel Marcy, one hun-

ON ^HE PACIFIO. 29
dred and sixty-three days from New Tork, having
left before Christmas, and seen nothing since ; passed
Cape Horn, lost her longitude, and wanted to know
where she was. There was a woman on board with
four sick children, seen on deck — how many under,
deponent cannot say — and for one hundred and sixty-
three days no news, no newspapers, no telegraphs,
no nothing on board that ship ! Well, that's what I
came here for — ^not exactly to get out of the world,
but to be upon that part of the world where " no
nothing " could get after me. Our captain gave his
Tankee confrere, for the benefit of his wife and
babies, two bags of new (California) potatoes, fresh
beef, fresh mutton, and fresh newspapers ; and, when
all that had got on board the Daniel Marcy, there
must have been happiness there, to say nothing of
the " longitude."
Latitude 36" 50', longitude 142° 10'. " The Mail
closes to-night at 6 p. m.,". is posted up on our ship.
What meaneth this ? "Why, the steamer from Japan
(left Tokohama on the 22d of May) is to meet us to
night, or to-morrow, and we must all have our letters
ready to send home to our friends. Hence, every
body is writing home ; the ladies with their desks on
their knees (what a gift they have in being able to
write anyhow, or everywhere !), and we gentlemen,
in the cabin, or in our state-rooms, on our wash-
stands. Pen, ink, paper, and pencil are in the great
est demand. The meeting of the steamers is to be
another great event, and we are to give them news

30 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
from Europe and America, and they are to give us
news from Niphon, and the Tycoon, or the Mikado.
There are " politics " in Japan, I am learning, as in
the United States, and I am becoming as interested
in Mikados and Tycoons as in General Grant or St.
Domingo. What's the news from — ^not New Tork,
but the Corea ? Our little fleet, I hear, has gone up
to open Corea, or Korea — a part of the Chinese ap
pendage dominion not yet opened by gunpowder.
"What is the value of an Itzebu (Japanese paper
money), two New Tork shillings, or three ? " " How
are we to live or board in Tedo ? " " Will the Dai
mio's retainers stab or cut up us, foreign devils ? " as
the Chinese call us. These are all most important
questions ; but the Japanese on board say we shall
have no trouble, and shall travel as pleasantly as in
New Tork or California. We shall see.

LETTEE V.
ON TRE PA OIFIG.
Life and Thoughts on Ship-board. — ^The Day Lost in Sownding the World. —
"Down East" is out West. — A Puzzled Traveller. — Summer Life on this Ocean.
— ^The Second Exchange of Letters. — ^The Sixteenth Amendment — Curious
Congregation of Passengers. June, 1871— Lat. 36° N., Lon. 180° B.
No date, you see. We have dropped out Friday,
which ought to be June 16th, 1871, but we have
dropped it out (a dies non), and it is Saturday now,
June 17. We have not had any Friday, and never
shall have any June 16. There are but six days to
us this week — nay, only five, from Sunday to Sun
day. I am puzzling over this in geography and on
chart, and, though doubtless it is all clear enough to
the navigator and astronomer, I have found it not
so easy to store it away in my head. Watches, days
and days ago, I found to be good for nothing to the
traveller by steam, but the sudden loss of faith in
almanacs and the calendar is confusing. London, I
am told, is just under our feet, or Greenwich rather,
the astronomer's headquarters, and we are 180° (of
the 360°) around the world, that is, half around —
from Greenwich, and we have, therefore, lost a day,
by the chronometer time of Greenwich. I expect to

32 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
have all this clear by the time I get to Greenwich,
but nothing is very clear just now in my muddled
mind, save that there is no " Friday, June 16," for
us, as for the rest of mankind. We are not in Gibeon
nor the Valley of Ajalon, with enemies to avenge, as
Joshua had, when he ordered the sun and moon to
stand still ; but, the sun stands still to us, in this wild
wilderness of waters, as we lose the day, and there is
no Friday, June 16, 1871, to us, and there never will
be! But, as one approaches the portals of the rising
sun, one must expect to be puzzled. Every thing
ahead is beginning to be, or seems to be, topsy-turvy.
We are going West, and have been going West some
sixteen days, to get East. We are going to the set
ting of the sun to approach its rising ! In my early
days in Maine the more " down East " I went, the
more I saw of the " Eastern stage," promising to take
passengers further East. I then searched for that
" East " at the head of the Bay of Fundy, but I gave
it up, as there was then running an "Eastern stage ! "
In later days, Cincinnati was " West," Chicago, the
" far West," and St. Paul's and St. Louis, the end of
•'the boundless West;" but here I am, some twen
ty-three days from New Tork, all the while going
West, and that " Will o' the Wisp " is not reached,
and never will be. As if all these things could not
enough puzzle one, or seem enough topsy-turvy, I
see the Japanese and Chinese on board reading up
side down, from right to left, in perpendicular in--

ON THE PACIFIC. 33
stead of horizontal lines, and their books begin
where ours end — the preface, where our fmis is.
Their locks on their boxes and trunks are all made
to lock by turning the key from the left to the right.
Their carpenters use the plane by drawing it to
them, and their tailors &iit(^ from, them. All this,
perhaps, is not to be wondered at among people
whose night is our day, and whose heads are under
our heels, but they confuse one's senses, more espe
cially when one sees a day dropped out from under
one, and the sun, as it were, standing still without a
miracle !
I have been hesitating for some days whether or
not I shall give the Pacific Ocean a good character
or a bad one ; but, upon the whole, I have concluded
it deserves a certificate, more especially in contrast
with the Atlantic, the English Channel, the Bay of
Fundy, the Mediterranean, Lake Ontario, or any
other like rowdy seas. The Pacific, though, if a
taking, is rather a cheating. Christian name, for it
does kick up and flop over at times, and fiutters often.
It is not everlastingly pacific, ^Aa^ is certain; but,
upon the whole, it is a pretty-well-behaved ocean —
this part of it at least, where no typhoons or cyclones
rage. In June, a big steamer like this, l^e Japan,
with plenty of men on board, is a yacht that a New
Tork commodore might envy, and such as Cleopatra,
who led astray so many Eomans in her galley, never
dreamed of. And we carry with us a sort of minia
ture Newport or New London ; we eat, we drink,

34: A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
we make merry, we dance, we sing ; material pleas
ures only, but we read, we write, we think, we preach,
we pray, we do every thing on board that people
do at Newport or Long Branch in summer, besides
having two Sundays now in one week. Sure, an
ocean where all this can be done, deserves a certifi
cate of good character, and it is hereby written —
That if, in summer, a man with his family would
go a yachting, on a pleasure " trip " only, there is
nothing like this on the Pacific, more especially if
on one's way to Japan to see the drolleries and curi
osities of the East, where something new must ever
turn up, and something fresh must ever be seen.
There is a pleasure even in having one's senses
muddled, as mine are, in the loss of a real live day,
and in being among people who turn every thing in
side out or upside down.
Besides the study of navigation on board ship,
" horizon," " altitude," " parallax," etc., etc., we
naturally study up and talk of a great many other
things. The " Japs " are educating us on their re
cent revolutions, on the Tycoon, Mikado, and Daimio
nobles, and telling us how to travel in Niphon, or re
lating the marvels of Tedo. We see them read
their novels, and we beg for translations thereof. Ja
pan already has become quite familiar with us. WhUe
America has our hearts, with all that is in it — that
America, now so far away, and so rapidly running
under our feet — we much discuss which is the near
est route to Japan and China, whether over Puget

ON THE PACIFIC. 35
Sound or by San Francisco. Longitude narrows,
you know, as we reach the North Pole; hence,
Puget Sound (north) is, on the great circle, nearer
than San Francisco (south) ; but there is no sailing
on that great circle. There are islands northward in
the way, and the winds are not favorable. Toko
hama, Japan, however, is 4,780 miles as we sail on
the chart from San Francisco, but only 4,100 miles
from Puget Sound, so that over 603 miles can be
saved from the Sound over the North Pacific Eail
road — say from New Tork to Tokohama, now the
great seaport of Japan, and en route to Shanghai and
Hong Kong. The San Francisco journalists, how
ever, will not admit this — ^nay, will cipher it away,
or try to ; but I have measured it on the chart, and
it seems truly so. Puget Sound, too, is the best in
ternal sheet of water in the United States (haud non
experims loquor), navigable to the very shores, well
timbered, and the climate by no means so cold as
the latitude indicates. We discuss lines of tele
graph, too. We Tankees now must reach the East.. .
John Bull has just stretched his wiry arms out
beyond Bombay and Calcutta, and his "tick" is now
heard from London to Shanghai, and in the Tang-
Tze-Kiang — the Amazon and Mississippi oi the Chi
nese world. What can we do ? How can we thus
"tick?" We must bargain with the Eussians, it
seems to me, and stretch our wires through Alaska
and the Aleutian Islands to Petropaulauski in Kam-
schatka, and thence down the Kurile Islands to

36 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
Japan, thence to Saghalin (now a long Eussian isl
and, stolen from the Japanese), and thence to the
Amoor or Manchuria., The two great friendly Gov
ernments can thus encircle the world, and be in
dependent of all Europe, save Eussia in Europe.
The real greatness of Eussia is now for the first time
bursting upon my vision — ^not Eussia in Europe,
for I comprehended all that, but Eussia in Asia,
which now commands the frontier of China, and, in
commanding the sea of Japan, and the sea of Ok-
hotsh, commands, also, more or less, the whole North
Pacific Ocean. We ignorant politicians have much
to learn from our whalers, even, I see ; and I am
hearing, on ship board, their voyages, their tales, and
adventures, and no romances are more delightful
reading just now.
Well, well; with no telegraph, no newspapers,
no nothing about us but a whale or two, and sea
gulls, and white birds, and porpoises — politics, nor
electricity, nor rails, ought ever to enter our brains ;
but bad habits of thinking follow one, even when
sent off to rest. And sure, there is no rest like this
on the Pacific. Eating is the great order of the day.
We eat, if we please, at 6 a. m. (a sort of French
breakfast, tea, coffee, and crust), really breakfast at
9 A. M., lunch at noon, dine at 6 p. m., and tea at
8^. Next to eating, if not over, or above it, is sleep
ing. We sleep and we eat; we eat and we sleep.
Wlien Sancho Panza exclaimed, "Blessed be the
man that invented Sleep," he was thinking, doubt-

ON THE PACIFIC. 37
less, only of Castile and Arragon; but doubly
blessed be the man that invented sleep for the Pacific
Ocean. The days would be endless if we did not
sleep, and the nights are endless, though we do sleep.
We have not spoken or seen a ship since, days ago,
we met by arrangement the steamer from China to
San Francisco, with some one thousand two hundred
Chinese on board, a sea of heads, bald and pig-tailed,
going over to try their fortunes in America. We
see nothing on the Pacific but birds, that follow us
for our offal, or porpoises, or a whale or two. We
seem far beyond the reach of commerce, or civiliza
tion, or any of their tracks. No " ship ahoy " greets
us ; no smoke from the pipe of some distant steamer.
What an eternal waste of waters ! Will it ever end ?
We shall see.

Jvme 23.
Now over three weeks on board, and we are
hoping to meet the outward-bound steamer from
Tokohama, and send off letters to America by her.
The fog is against us, however. We are in the Gulf
Stream, the Kuro Siwo of Japan, and the warmer
water is sending up fogs and rain. It ^s now the
rainy season in Japan, and we shall be lucky if we
see the coast before we are right on it.
The week we have passed since I began this sketch
ing or scribbling, as you please to call it, has not been

38 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
a week without incidents. We have three mission
ary ladies on board, intending to pass some years in
Japan, instructing Japanese children, to convert
them from their heathenism, if they can ; but the
Japs on board give them very little encouragement.
These ladies are Mrs. Pruyn of Albany, Mrs. Pier-
son of Michigan, and Miss Crosby of Poughkeepsie.
Mrs. Pruyn favored us with a discourse on Sunday.
Discovering the capacity of these ladies, in a mock
trial we had of a Teuton for stealing the sponge of a
Scot, we put two of them on the jury and made the
other the ofiicial reporter of the case. They dis
charged their duties so well that we all begin to think
better of the 16th Amendment.
Among our Japs on board are two returning from
Italy, where they have been with silk-worms' eggs,
on cards, to sell. This has become a great specula
tion, and the Japs are going into it Avith zeal. The
Japs almost always — always when they can — take
cabin passages ; the Chinese seldom, or never. We
have several well-off, if not rich. Chinamen on board ;
but they have preferred herding with their country
men and living on rice and pork to living with us,
or with the Japanese, in the cabins. The Chinese
are intensely economical, it seems ; the Japanese far
less calculating. We have also on board fom* or five
Americans going out to offer their services to the
Emperor of China, as sailors, ofiicei-s, or engineers,
for their navy. One of them already has had com
mand of a Chinese gunboat, and fought the rebels

ON THE PACIFIC. 39
and pirates. Another was shipwrecked in Corea,
where Admiral Eogers has gone with our fleet to
admonish the Coreans, and he tells a terrible tale of
suffering, inflicted by them and by the Chinese Tar
tars, to whom the Coreans handed him over.
Thus, in our motley company of the world's rep
resentatives, we hear and tell tales, exchange or
" swap " experiences, and a log might be made up
of our mutual narratives, more interesting, probably,
than any of the books in our ship's library. But, if
we are to meet the California-bound steamer off the
Japan coast, this yarn must be spun no longer, and
so I bite off, and notch up the thread.

LETTEE VI.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN JAPAN.
Arrival in Japan. — First Impressions on the Coast. — The Fishermen in "Goorgia
Costume." — ^Everything Kew, Everything Odd. — Bamboo Baskets for Hats. —
straw Overcoats. — ^Landing on the Hatoba. — ^The Cues of the Japanese, — ^The
Brawny CooUes. — ^Travelling Eestanrants. — Strange Street Spectacles. — The Tat
tooed Men.— The Horse Boy (Betto).— Hair Dressing.— Shocking Black Teeth
of the Married Women. Yokohama, June 26, 1871.
Something new ! Every thing new, at last ! Un
der your world now, how every thing in this world
seems up-side down, and down-side up ! I feel very
like, nay, just like, the Boston Tankee, who firet saw
Boston, and felt his rural ideas revolving within his
head, and I act more like Ben Franklin, the printer,
when he first turned up in Philadelphia, with both
eyes as open as saucers, munching his roll, staring at,
and astounded by every thing. Long and long ago,
after travelling over many lands, I was sure I had
reached the Horatian nil admirari — ^but I am mis
taken, for I am wondering over every thing to-dav.
At daybreak on the Sabbath 'inorning our good
ship bade good-bye to the pretty-well-behaved Pa
cific, and turned a cape and the light-houses that
opened on us the bay of Tedo. Up early, to see
and to study, the first living things to refresh our

FIRST IMPEESSIONS IN JAPAN. 4,1
long ocean-wearied eyes were the fishermen of the
island of Niphon. Eeport says (I have not tried its
truth) that Japan is about the best fishing ground of
the universe. Ton know (or if you don't, you ought),
that in the Boston State House, over the Speaker's
chair, is a codfish, the emblem of Massachusetts' rise,
progress, and prosperity before the days of East
India ships and the spinning jenny. The fish, in
like manner, is reverenced here in Japan. It is a
basis of Japan life and prosperity. Hence, I levelled
eyes and glasses, as naturally man will, on the first
life seen — that is, on the fishermen. What queer
boats ! What queer oars, or sculls ! What queer-
looking sails, of mats ! Boreas can hardly blow over
such broad-cast boats. Nobody rows — everybody
sculls ; and they scull with one oar, two, three, four,
five, six — as many as need be for the boat or junk — ¦
and they scull as fast as they could row, in such
heavy and clumsy boats. History says — ^wharf-his
tory, I never read it in books, but it may be true—
that when the Tycoons and Daimios found the Jap
anese sculling off, or sailing off, from Japan, they
ordered the better class of Chinese junks, that the
Japanese had been imitating, to be so constructed that
they could never well get over to China — e-ye, to be so
heavy, so clumsy, that Neptune, in his roaring moods,
would tip them over, or roll them under, if ever they
ventured out of sight of land. Hence the ugliness of
these junks, and ocean-uselessness. The June Califor
nia steamer, out from here, picked up the crew of one,

4:2 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
three-fourths of them starved to death, because they
could not find their way only from Hiogo to Toko
hama, having been blown outside of land. The
fishermen we met, such of them as had seines, were
scaring the fish into them by pounding furiously on
the bottom of the boats! Can this be done? I
charge nothing to the Cape Codders for letting them
into the Japanese secret of catching fish. But what
most astonished us new comers was the Georgia
costume, mAnus the spurs, of these interesting fisher
men ! The fishermen were as naked as the fish — that
is, the most of these fishermen ! Some of them had
something on, but nothing to speak of. Anatomy
could be studied practically, as well as phrenology,
and physiognomy, and physiology — that is, muscu
lar and venous anatomy. Some of our passengers,
at first, were a little confused and confounded over
this new development of life, and dropped their
lorgnettes; but I see the same passengers now in
Tokohama streets, and they are done blushing al
ready. The first day an American spends in Europe, say
in England (I speak now for myself), is a great day,
if not the greatest, of his life. The beautifully green
fields, the hedges, the cottages, etc., bewitch him ;
but this first day in this Eastern Asia does not
exactly bewitch so much as it bedevils a traveller.
The livery of a trading company's boatman, sent out
to escort home a passenger by the steamer — what
was it, think you? A little turban on the head,

FIRST IMPEESSIONS IN JAPAN. 4.3
with nakedness to the hips, and then a yellow sash
girdle, over blue nankin trowsers, running into straw
shoes ! Was not this a novel livery ? Can any of the
grandees of Hyde Park, or of the Central Park, come
quite up to this great swell ? Then numerous police,
or custom-house boats, crowded around us, the most
of the boatmen with respectable clothes on (not all),
some with one sword, others, with two. Some of
them had on baskets for bonnets, or hats, made of
straw or bamboo ; others, with heads wrapped up in
handkerchiefs; others, with nothing on their heads
but their cues, not pig-tails of Chinese magnificence,
but short pipe-stem cues, on the top of the crown.
A hundred boats, as usual, were clamorous and
greedy for one passenger, and hundreds of hands
were ready to grab every trunk and carpet-bag —
New Tork, as well as Tokohama life, you will add.
The arrival of a Pacific Mail steamer from California
is a great event in Tokohama, and soon the ship was
fall of Europeans, to see and to study what was
going on. One thing strange — ^but that must be
noted — was a large delegation of California women
to welcome their forlorn sisters, ever coming over
here upon desperate sinful speculation. The men of
the East — the European men, I mean — ^far outnum
ber the women, and hence such scenes as this I
describe. As we landed our missionary sisters, and
took in these frail ones, what a pity, it seemed to me,
that Christian San Francisco could not be, purified

44 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
before this embassy was made to the Buddhists and
Sintoos of Tokohama !
The Japan custom-house officers are not very
particular as to baggage, not even looking into it,
though very peculiar. They have ears, but our lingo
is not theirs, and hence they profit in nothing there
from ; and they have eyes, but they see nothing
custom-house-ward thereby. Hence, we slip and
slide in, without the least trouble — ^but their five per
cent, ad valorem is not the forty, and fifty, and one
hundred per cent, in our American civilization ; and,
therefore, there is not so much need of our American
spying or searching. Soldiers with not very alarm
ing-looking muskets, save in their sword bayonets,
watch over " the Bund," as they call it here — a sort
of pier or wharf. In custom-house tongue it might
be called a gate or portcullis. We pass them, and
then began a series of cryings or yellings that scare
fresh-come European or American horses half to
death, and even frighten our passenger dogs, and
would frighten us, if we were not now expecting any
thing and every thing new. " Teow," " yeow," or
"yow," "yow," or "yew," "yew," or something
like it in the cat-mewing line, are screaming whole
battalions of porters, and carriers; and men-horses
are dragging, on miserable round plank wheels, gran
ite, and timber, or lumber. "Teow," "yeow," goes up
to heaven, and rolls overall the earth. It is " yeow,"
" yeow," at daybreak in the morning, and " yeow,"
all night, among the coolie Japs, loading and unloading

FIRST IMPEESSIONS IN JAPAN. 45
the ships in the harbor. There is no need of horses
(I have already come to that conclusion), or elephants,
where men can carry such loads. When, years ago,
off Constantinople, I flrst saw men turned into horses,
I thought that was something wonderful ; but these
one-horse Japs, with their enormous loads, shame the
Turks, the Grand Tuiks, even. . What glorious mus
cular legs they have, so admirably developed ! I wish
I had a pair of them to trot over the world with.
What brawny arms, pointed off, though, with little
hands ! Gymnast or boxer would have to stand back
in " a primary," where a fellow had such props, or
such pointers. There, comes a travelling restaurant !
That's the way to live, where your dinner comes on
a fellow's shoulders to you, a whole score of you, and
where you do not have to go to the dinner — where
rice and chop-sticks, and fish, raw fish, too, are all
ready for you — where you can squat down on a mat,
and have a Delmonico treat for only a few " cash,"
that is two, or three, or four " Tempos " — not five
cents, even — none of your five-dollar " Delmonico's ! "
There's life, there's happiness, there's economy. True,
it rains ; but has not the fellow a basket-hat on, that
sheds all rain as well as all sun ? — ^not a mere pa/ra-
phbie, a rain-shedder, as the French call tit, but an
umbrella, or ombrella, too, in Latina lingua. And
has he not brought out, too, to shed the rain, a great
straw cloak, or mantilla, that covers all but his legs,
and his one-story mounted shoes, or pattens, tied on
by a rope of braided straw? If it were not for the

46 A SEVEN MONTHS' BUN.
looks of the thing, among the Tankee and English
aristocracy of Tokohama, I would squat down and
try the rice (not the raw fish) of that dinner. If one
could only learn to squat like a Jap, one never would
again use a chair, or a sofa. The fact is, in many
things, " civilization," as it is called, is a humbug.
Squatting on a clean mat, if you have only been
brought up to do it, I am sure, from what I see. here,
is easier and preferable to sitting in a chair. The
muscles of the legs have only to be trained from
babyhood up, and a chair becomes as much of a nui
sance as now is to us this mat. See how nicely our
children squat, or young ladies, even, who will sew
or write in bed, or on the fioor, and by hours, too,
without a groan. Hence, I reason, some of our
civilization may be a humbug, if not much of it.
There, are a lot of tumble boys, funny fellows, vsdth
caps on their heads, stuck with red and black feathers,
looking like roosters' combs, who roll up, and roll
over, lOce balls of dirt, and then roll all together. . .
They want only " a cash," a tenth part of a cent, thus
to tumble, over and over. " All-Eight," in the Amer
ican-Japanese jugglers' corps, was thus trained in a
Japan street, and graduated in that school. There,
is a mother with a baby on her back, slung d la
American Indian papoose, and the poor baby is fast
asleep, with its head toppling all about. The mother,
perhaps, would not have much, if any, clothes on, if
it had not been necessary for her to throw over her
the sack for the baby to sleep or live in. There, is a

FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN JAPAN. 47
carpenter, pulling his foreplane toward him, not
pushing from him, beautifully clad — exquisitely, I
may add. No French modiste even could have
clothed him richer, with a livery on, that no French
high chamberlain could devise better ; but the poor
devil's only clothes, save a cotton scroll about his
loins, and his straw shoes, were his skin, tattooed
with all sorts of tortoises, storks, and other Jap di
vinities. It cost only three and a half dollars, that
livery, they tell me, and it is the pride and glory of a
true Jap to have it. Ton could not buy a hat in
New Tork for that, you know. But to earn the
three dollars and a half to get the livery, that's the
difficulty. That surplus is a year's saving ; and if it
were not so, aU Japanese of the working classes
would have on the livery. There, is a wrestler, a
big, burly fellow, the picked man of his clan, who
was big enough to pass for a European. Wrestling
here is of a quasi noble profession ... It entitles
a man to have two swords on, and to look down on
common fellows. An actor in Japan is nothing — no
body — ranking only with beggars, while the wrestler
is a grand cockalorum. An actor has no rank, no
honors, and everybody looks down upon his (with
us) great profession, and the only social, difference
between him and the beggar is, that he may rise —
the beggar never. The beggar, by the way, be
queaths the profession from sire to son. The boy
must follow the trade of the father. There is no
hope, no future for him. Not even the coolie, will

48 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
work in the same gang with him. Put a beggar to
, work in a coolie gang, and every coolie " strikes " at
once, refusing thus to associate with a beggar. When
the beggar sees you coming, he prostrates himself on
his knees, then falls upon the ground, and holds up
his hand only for " cash." He utters a most woebe
gone cry to touch your heart, and to win your sym
pathies. There, comes something with two swords
on, pony-mounted, and his Betto. The betto is a boy
who follows his lordship's pony, and the pony races,
and the betto races. Which will beat, ask you?
The pony never. The betto has on his tattoo livery-
straw shoes, it may be, — no shoes, perhaps. The
betto will keep up with that pony day after day,
thirty miles a day, and no pony can overdo that on
a journey. This betto takes care pf the pony, watches
over and feeds him, and helps to take care of his •
master, too. There, is hair-dressing going on — ^public
hair-dressing — on the front steps of the shop or
house — one man dressing another man's hair, and
doing up his cue. The women dress their hair in our
old mothers' fashion of gone-by times (none of your
long tails of false hair, said I, dangling behind, with
a skewer to hold it up on top of the head), beautiful,
glossy, black hair. " Thank the Lord," said I, to a
Tokohama American lady, " we have reached a
country at last, where the women wear only their own
hair." " Ton are much mistaken," said she, " all
that hair on top of Madame Jap's head is false hair."
Madame shaves off, or cuts off, the original crown, and

FIRST IMPEESSIONS IN JAPAN. 49
piles on the false hair. Once a week, only, is the
hair done up, skewered, and glued, Spanish (Cadiz)
style, thus defying the winds and the fogs for a whole
week, and kept in place, nights, while sleeping on
the mat-bed, with a wooden pillow under the nape
of the neck. Woman, thus, you see, is woman every
where. There is nothing true outside of their heads,
though all so true and sweet, inside. These black
teeth, too, of these Japanese Madames, are they not
terrible ? How can husbands ever kiss such black-
teethed wives ? When a woman is married here, she
blackens her teeth, while our wives and daughters,
when married, put on, not only a marriage ring, but
all the other rings they can get. Such is fashion.
But what more sense in the rings, and ear-rings and
bracelets, these emblems of vassalage — I dare not
write handcuffs — than in these black teeth ? Never
theless, the black teeth are beautiful black teeth,
molars, and eye-teeth of the first chop. They put on
some white preparation that turns them black, and
they renew the operation about every week. These
Jap women only miss, many of them, being very,
very pretty. When their copper color is whitened
up, they would pass for brunettes, even in America.
But — ^if they are married — ^these abominable black
teeth ! this boca negra ! Bat fashion is every thing.
The hoops of our ladies (although not of half the am
plitude they once were), their long queues, the sub
stitutes for what ought to be bonnets, their flowing
ringlets (whence come, or how once worn, quien

60 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
sale .^)— their corsets, their shoes, their heels, etc.,
astound the poor natives as much as these black teeth
astound us. The young Japs, however, see in the
mouths of their fair ones, the most tempting teeth —
and no mouths are prettier.
, But hold up. I am scribbling of fashion, and
running into the moralities thereon, and revelling in
my first day's frolic in Japland. My head is so run
ning over with novelties and curiosities that, unless
I retrace here, and write of the past, all that will be
forgotten in the exciting present and the teeming
future. Was it not wonderful, meeting in mid-ocean two
big steamers, at the exact place, and about the exact
time appointed ? Ton have, or ought to have had,
two letters from me, both written on, and mailed on,
the broad Pacific ! The Pacific Mail Steamship Co.
try so to arrange time and place that their steamers
meet twice on the sea, and exchange letters, and
news, and compliments. Pity there are not some
islands in the way, for coal, for provisions, etc., as
well as for letters, but there are not, and so we have
to make islands of the floating ships, and make ex
changes on board of them. No spectacle can be
more striking, more impressive of the power of man
over the elements, than these mid-ocean meetings.
The sea of heads, shaven Chinese heads, one thousand
two hundred of them in one steamer, filling the
whole fore-deck, I have already noticed. We find
out what passengers are going to America, and they

FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN JAPAN. 51
who are comiifg from. We bring them news from
America, and they, thus for the first time, on June
20th, brought us news from Paris to June 9th, by
telegraph from Paris to Shanghae, and thence by
steam. This exciting news, nine days later than we
had at San Francisco, was devoured with zeal. So
you see I have not quite realized one great aim of my
visit — that of a repose beyond all the reach of steam
or telegraph. Nor have I dwelt upon the beautiful and extraor
dinary scenery that first met our eyes when entering
the Bay of Tedo, the ever-green fields, the ever
green hills, with vegetation all alive from summit
to base, often terraced, and ever beautiful. This
Niphon (Japan) island is the Isle of Wight of this
land of the rising sun. Daimios, richer than English
nobles, with hundreds and hundreds, nay thousands,
of retainers, preside and rule over this wonderful
land. There are no people, only millions and millions
of human beings that we at home call people. No
Maine Tankee, on first entering into the Hub of the
Universe (Boston), ever stared more than I do
" pumped " more than I do, or is learning more than
I am. If you think these rapid, racing, fly-on, fly
away scribblings of mine worth print, print away. I
have not a moment for revision, nor book-making,
not even for corresponding. I am jotting down only
in my note-book, and sending it to you, hereafter to
read it myself.

LETTEE VIL
TEE CITY OF TEDO.
The Fkst Day in Tedo.— The Eide on tho " Tocaido."— Strange Sights there.— Tho
Pretty Tea Girls. — The Tiny Tea Cups. — ^Booms with Paper Partitions.- Tho
Beggars.- The Gm-rick-a Sha. — Eide in State along the "Tocaido." — Hogs in
Baskets. — ^No Tycoon, only a '• Mikado," — How we Stare and how they Stare at
us. — Great Fire in Tedo. Tedo, June 29, 18'71.
I NEVEE in my life worked so hard in one day,
saw half as much, or learned half as much. Well, in
this wilderness of men and things where shall I
begin, or rather where shall I end ? Don't talk to me
any more of Broadway and its people, of the Strand
in London, or the Boulevards of Paris ! There is
one long eternal street from Tokohama to Tedo,
twenty-four miles long ; not lit by gas, to be sure ;
not filled with palaces, certainly ; not a hundred
houses on it being two stories high, for fear earth
quakes will topple them over ; not paved with cobble
stones or wood, but admirably macadamized — the
Tocaido they call this long street, the Broadway of
Japan, but not broader than Pine street. New Tork ;
rattier the Appian Way of the Eomans, for it runs
the whole length of the island of Niphon, and is the
royal road for every Jap to go from, and over, in the
empire. The American Minister, Mr. De Long,

THE CITY OF YEDO. 53
honored my party by his presence, in his own car
riage, over this Tocaido. Guards of the empire, to
save us from saki (the whiskey of Japan), and the
two-sworded rascals that get drunk on that saki,
and whip off a head in a twinkle, escorted us on
horseback, with stick and lantern, and yelled " hi ! "
" hi I " " hi I " to every poor Jap that did not scat
ter as the American lightning was coming. I had
been reading and re-reading the two volumes of Sir
Eutherford Alcock, the first British minister here
(then with Townsend Harris, Esq., now of New
Tork), and Sir Eutherford had so filled my head with
bloody visions of Tedo, that I began to consider
myself lucky if I could only get to, and from Tedo,
and back, with my head under my arm. That " hi,"
"hi," "hi," and the consequent scattering — that
" hi," " hi," " hi," I say, from Taconin guardsmen
and screaming " betto " (the boy that ran on foot by
the carriage) has done the business for us, and my
head is in its usual place, and likely to be, for all I
can yet see in Tedo.
All Tedo seems to be moving down the Tocaido
to Tokohama, and hence the long populousness of
that Tocaido. Where gold glitters, there goes Jap,
and though gold does not exactly glitter in Toko
hama — only paper — paper itzibus (boos we shorten
the word into), paper oriental English bank notes, and
paper Japan rios (the dollar) — ^yet the paper is glit
tering enough to tempt the trading Jap down from
Tedo to the foreign capital of Tokohama. A swamp

54 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
there only ten or twelve years ago is now a city of over
seventy thousand people, and it is growing (in Japs)
so fast that even Jap houses, which don't cost much,
cannot be built up fast enough to hold Japs needing
them. We Americans, or Englishmen, rather, have
sacked Japan of its golden kobans (coin) and golden
itzibus, and we have compelled the Government to
substitute paper therefor. When Com. Perry first
landed here, in 1863, all was gold, gold, gold; now
all is paper, paper, paper, save a stray Mexican dol
lar, which has a running value of about eight cents
beyond the paper. Business stretches out from Tedo
to run where commerce is, and where teas, silks, and
bronzed copper, and lacquer ware go — and in twenty
years more a fourth of Tedo will be on the swamps
of Kanagawa and Tokohama.
What I saw on this Tocaido a good New Tork
fancy reporter could make a thousand columns of,
with pictures added on to make a thousand more ;
but a man does not see much when riding backward
in an American Minister's carriage, in the hi, hi, hi
style we were going, with guardsmen and betto. All
the way, more or less, are planted pleasant tea
houses  We " tea " here, when we must
stop by the wayside, and in such little bits of cups
that I could drink the content of twenty of them
and then want more. Pretty tea girls stand by the
entrance, and (their teeth not yet blackened) with
ways so pretty, and courtesies so fascinating that tea,
even without sugar or milk, becomes agreeable. Tea-

THE CITY OF YEDO. 55
houses are the grogshops of Japan. Our pretty
lacquered waiters, the tea girls, hand you little tiny
cups, with a mouthful in them, and you squat down
on the nice, clean mats, if squat you can (I have to
stretch out at length, and fill up half a tea room),
and you sip, and sip, and sip, this mouthful of hot
tea, as if the gods' nectar was going down your
throat in infinitesimal drops of microscopic invisibil
ity. Tea, hke sleep, is a great invention. There's
Bass' beer, all the way from London, stuck up in the
corner of the tea-house shop, for beer-drinking, trav
elling Englishmen ; but what's Bass' beer to tea, if
you only can get enough of it, this hot weather with
the thermometer over ninety ? A Japan tea-house
keeper picks out as pretty a place for the tea-house
as he or she (the keeper) can get. The keeper covets,
if possible, a view of, and the air of, the Bay of
Tedo, along which, most of the way here, runs the
Tocaido. The grand tea-house is cut up into numer
ous little rooms, with paper partitions between to
part them, running on slides, but aU removable at
will, to restore the whole to one grand room. Cakes,
sweetmeats, and candies are brought in with the tea,
all put on the clean-matted floor (there are no seats),
and we all squat or stretch out on that ^oor. It is
stifling hot in these tea-houses just now, and a stretch
out is a great relief to the traveler.
• There is a river (the Logo) half-way up to Tedo,
which we "pole" over on a flat-boat — ^horses on one
boat, and we and the carriage on another. Beggars

56 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
by the score beset us there. " Give us a Tempo "
(one cent only), all pray, in the politest tones ima^n-
able, with bows as graceful as if court-trained there
for. The lame, the halt, the blind, the idiotic, are
there, and not only they, but people well enough look
ing to work. Beggars in Tedo proper have not yet
met my eyes. The Government, I am told, particu
larly discourages begging there, and sends off the
beggars that can work to work in the mines. One
reason, probably, why the Government has put the
ban on the beggars, I have written of before, is, that
it wishes to discourage' and break up the trade ; but
how can it be broken up, if even the poverty-stricken
coolies, with no clothes on, will not work with the
beggars ? These beggars are the seventh class in
Japan, ranking with actors, as I have written you ;
but there is a class below even these, the eighths and
lowest (save one, the prostitutes), viz., the tanners,
shoemakers, leather workers, skinners, etc. The
Japs have no mutton (sheep die if they eat the grass
here), but little beef, and that, before Perry came,
not for food; and there is such a prejudice against
those whose trade is to take life, or who are con
nected therewith, that it thus breaks out even against
the shoemakers and leather workers. The pre
judice, however, is so unnatural and unreasonable,
that the tanners and their clan are petitioning hard
to be relieved from the ban, and the Government
will put them on an equality with other people ' as

THE CITY OF YEDO. 57
soon as the vox ^opuli, that is, Tom, Dick, and
Harry, will permit.
But, stop essaying. Get on to Tedo, the great
city of the now extinct Tycoon — the city said to
have two million human beings in it. On ! on !
But the Oin-rick-a Shas are in the way. What do
you suppose is a Gin-ricTc-a Sha ? Most people that
ride here, ride, first, on Japanese ponies — a vicious,
wicked little rascal (so say the Tankees here), that
bites, and kicks, and flares up ; next, they are carried
in norimons (quality riding this is) by two coolies, in
a sedan-covered chair; and next, in a cango, also
carried by two coolies, on a pole over the coolies'
shoulders — Satan's own invention for crooking up
and cramping your legs, and making you miserable
as you ride. Some Tedo genius lately, with no rev
erence for the customs of his -great ancestors, has in
vented a Girirrich-a Sha, which is a one-horse coolie
carriage, a covered cart on springs, that one coolie
can easily puU, and, therefore, infinitely better than
the norimon, or cango, that two coolies must work.
Thanks to that Tedo genius, you can go through the
streets of Tedo now without being hived up in a
norimon, or crooked and cramped in a cango. The
progress of the age has got up, and got ipto Tedo,
and I have hopes of a country that can invent a Gin-
rick-a Sha. During the past year, in Tedo alone,
they have made, numbered, and registered twenty-
five thousand of these Gin-rick-a Shas, and each one
pays an annual tax of three dollars.
4

58 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
On, on, on to Tedo ! Well, as fast as possible.
There's a team of coolies that block the way with a
stick of timber two feet wide, or more, and twenty or
thirty feet long, perhaps more. The coolies are
stuck, but we raised our " hi," " hi," " hi," and the
stick of timber cleared out for us. Coolies are both
bullocks and horses here, and cheaper, too, for they
only eat rice and fish, and not much of these, where
as horses and bullocks want ten times as much pro
vender. Now, there, just as I am going on, is a
drove of hogs in the way. A speculation in hogs is
going on, just now, among the Japs who have seen
China. The live hog market has been going up and
down, just like stocks in the Wall Street market,
and hogs here have their " bears " and " bulls,"
just as other stock, or stocks, have them. A sow
and a litter of pigs, a little while gone by, sold as
high as one thousand five hundred dollars, but now
the bears have their way, and they have ruined the
bulls in hogs. But they don't drive hogs here, on
the Tocaido, as we do in America. When hogs are
recalcitrant, as in America, they do not here tum
tail where head ought to be, and drive them back
ward, but in mercy for the dear hog, they tenderly
put him in a basket, and sling the basket on a pole
over two coolies' shoulders, and in this way Japs
drive hogs to the Tedo market, the hogs are cleared,
and I am in Tedo 1
And this is Tedo, and I am in Tedo ; but alas,
there is no Tycoon. The Tycoon has been tipped

THE CITY OF YEDO. 59
over, and tipped off his throne, since Commodore
Perry's awful interview with his understrappers, and
since Townsend Harris's great treaty. Kings, em
perors, czars, kaisers, shahs, and others of the various
big guns, are something ; but the groat Tycoon, and
the city of the great Tycoon, have been my embodi
ments of grandeur and glory ever since I heard of
Marco Polo, the first great Eastern traveller, and
read the wonderful narratives of the great Dutch
men, from Holland, who made their first lodgment
here, centuries ago. And there is no Tycoon now !
There, are only the tombs of the great Tycoons — ^the
Westminster Abbey of Japan — and that is all I can
see ! The Mikado has upset the Tycoon ! There
was a rebellion here, two or three years ago, and the
spiritual, heaven-bom, but hitherto powerless. Mika
do turned up king, or emperor, and the poor Ty
coon, and the old government of Tycoon, went under.
They chopped off many heads, hung many up to dry,
before all this happened ; but the now unwarlike Ty
coon, unlike his great ancestors, who robbed power
from the Mikado by the sword in years gone by,
gave up, disinclined longer to fight the gods' an
ointed, the spirit-born Mikado, and hence, while the
Mikado lives in Tedo, the Tycoon has gone*home to
his estate in the country, to raise rice, catch fish,
hunt falcons, or to enjoy other like rural and peace
ful sports in his own castle, on the estates born to
him. The Mikado is not visible to mortals, unless
they wear straps. The American Minister has

60 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
coaxed the Ministry up to letting him be seen by
soldiers and sailors in straps, and by officials in the
ambassadorial retinue ; but alas, I have no straps,
and these eyes of mine will never light upon the
divine Mikado. I shall never see him, unless both
he and I go to heaven together, and then he will be
so high on the upper seats that mortal-born can
never get near him. " In heaven there is one sun,
on earth there is one Mikado," is a Confucian saying,
in accordance with the idea of the country. But,
nevertheless, say the middies, who have seen him, he
is a big, fat boy, only wonderful for being a Mikado.
Tedo is, say, a fresh-born city in Montana or
Wyoming, on the Pacific Eailroad, say a city of
pine boards, bamboo, thatched huts, one story high,
seldom over that, though occasionally with two
stories on — the upper mounted sometimes by a lad
der, and sometimes by steps almost perpendicular,
kept so clean and well polished as to be almost as
slippery as ice. But don't misunderstand me. Tedo
is at least two thousand years old. The pine boards
are beautifully planed by some of the best carpenters
in the world. The bamboos are the slide doors with
paper windows, and the roofs are prettily thatched, if
not covered, as most of them are, with tiles. The
floors are all covered with beautiful mats. The walls
are often lined with artistic drawings, and paintings,
and sketches, that indicate a high degree of refine
ment, The windows are of paper ; the outer shutters
pnd doors of bamboo, They are lit at night by

THE CITY OF YEDO. 61
tapers of vegetable wax, with paper wicks, to flare
well when the wind blows. Hence the universal use
of lanterns to protect them from the winds. There
is no neatness in the world like that in these wooden
houses, not even among the Dutch in Amsterdam, or
Eotterdam, or Schiedam, or any other Dutch dam.
They shiver all over when foreigners' rough shoes
tramp on their nice, spotless mats. They never thus
tread on them, themselves, never ; they always take
off their shoes and leave them at the door, while we
ramble and scamper, to their terror, over mats they
sleep on — soft and nice beds they are, but plague
on the wooden pillow. We look,' peep, and spy into,
and feel of, every thing, and they laugh at our curios
ity ; while they look, peep, and spy into every thing
of ours, more especially into our ladies' habiliments.
Long ringlets astonish them more than their skew-
ered-up, sticky, waxed hair does us. They peep into
our carpet-bags, as we peep into their closets, and
they dance about, and jump, and wriggle before a
mirror they take out, as we do before their curiosities.
Hoop-petticoats astound them more than straw shoes
and naked ankles do us. Every fashion, you thus
see, that is not our fashion, is funny to us, and vice
versa. And, by the way, shoes are of many, mS,ny fash
ions here, as well as hats. The horse, the pony, the
working bullock are straw shod. The working man
and woman are straw shod. Nor are straw shoes so
very ridiculous as the word straw would seem to

62 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
import, A straw-bottomed shoe, fastened over the
big toe, with straw straps around the ankle, is not a
shoe to be laughed at in hot weather. I wish I could
wear a pair, in lieu of my leather boots, this hot day.
The straw shoes of the horses and bullocks seem
stronger — but they are cheap, cost only a cent,
everywhere to be had ; and when worn out can be
refurnished. They wear, however, a good while.
The swell Japs are imitating the foreigners, and put
ting iron shoes on their horses ; but the great body
of the people stick to the straw. There are other
men and women's shoes, some cost three cents, some
six ; the high officials wearing blue cloth or silk as a
cover to the foot, and the shoe of the country
underneath. There is a very nice shoe made all of
wood — ^two-story shoes, I may call them, , on two
props, which go clatter, clatter, clatter, but keep the
feet nice and clean. All shoes are put off as the
house is entered, and thus everywhere, are clean mats
and clean rooms.
They burnt down three hundred houses last night
(in honor of our arrival ? I don't write that) — only
three hundred ! But three hundred houses on fire is
not much of a fire for Tedo. The houses do not cost
much — only one hundred, two hundred, or three
hundred dollars (this is my guess, only) — and all the
fittings and furniture can be carried off, with screens,
and mats, and paper sliding partitions, and pots and
kettles, by two coolies, as the fire comes along. I
g'ln-riclcra sha^d by the ruins this morning, and while

THE CITY OF YEDO. 63
in one place the firemen (they have them here)
were sputtering water from a poor steam-engine
(they have them too, now, poor ones) in other places
the workmen were carrying off the ruins, preparatory
to the erection of new dwellings, which, I am told,
will all be up in a week. Houses that have to stand
earthquakes are quickly m,orticed, not nailed up.
Nothing is so fastened as not to stand an earthquake
shake without toppling down. When the steam-
engine and the fire are having a fight to see which
beats, it is not uncommon, I am told, to see some,
poor believer offering up bits of paper scrolls to the
god of fire, as a sacrifice to tempt the wicked demon
to stop his flame spoutings.

LETTEE Vin.
LIFE AND SiaSTS IN TEDO.
Sintoo and Buddhist Temples. — The Priests.— The Sacred Cream-Colored Horses. —
Theatres in the Temples.— The Opera in Tedo. — Funny Eide thereto in Gin-
rick-a Shas. Tedo, June 29, 1871.
Long ago, I started to tell you what my hard
day's work had been — the hardest of my lif& — ^but "I
ran' off the track. Now, once more, I will try to get
on. First, we went early to a Sintoo temple. They
have two religions only in Japan — none other al
lowed (not even ours, the Christian, except to us
outsiders) — the one, Sintoo, now the court (Mikado)
religion, up ; and the other, the Buddhist (the Ty
coon), down, way down, and only propped up by
Buddhist money at court. We first began " to do "
the temple of Asaxa, some five or six miles from om-
hotel. Shops, shops, innumerable shops were on our
way — shops for shoes, shops for clothes of all sorts,
shops for fish, shops for rice, shops for tea, shops for
silks and satins — nothing but five or six miles of
shops. Temples and churches look very much alike
the world over. Images, bells, lights, gold, glitter,
etc., just the same ; but the novelty here is a Pagoda,

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 65
a grand Pagoda. The earthquakes do not tumble it
over, only because it is built on some scientific
foundation, in some scientific architecture, so as to
be made earthquake-proof. The great novelties are
— if not Barnum's old museum, something like it —
a labyrinth called in our tongue a theatre, where you
can go round and round, on a small space, half the
day, and see life-size images of devils, saints, belles,
beauties, beaux, dragons, mermaids, etc., "cutting
up " in all sorts of ways. Bands of music play like
thunder ; and up hop, and down go, dragon and devil,
and you see hell and heaven — our names for unknown
Siutoo-Buddhist things. They expect only a tempo
(a cent, from a Jap to see these wonders and mon
strosities; they expect all they can get from the
white barbarians,) — and the other great novelty is a
pair of beautiful, sacred, cream-colored horses, ever
saddled, if not ever bridled, with spirits invisible on
their backs, that, every now and then, the priests
trot about town, to scare off evil spirits from citizens'
houses, and to purify and bless the air of Tedo.
When these horses are trotted out, guards are sent
ahead to announce their coming, and the Japanese
are expected to prostrate themselves on the earth
before them, so as not to see the gods on their backs.
I would have given at least two tempos, if not more,
to lay my hands upon the sacred beasts, but the
spirits on their backs, alas ! forbade any such heathen
desecration, Asaxa, outside the temple, that is, on
the temple grounds, is a sort of arcade or bazaar, in

66 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
which toys, candies, rice-cakes, and all sorts of arcade
things are sold. It is a place, too, where the people,
by the thousands, when at leisure, or on holidays, go,
if not to worship, to have fun, frolic, and a good time
generally. The tumble-over boys, with their real
rooster gamitm-e, would entertain us for any length
of time for a cent or two. The women Japs, by the
hundreds, with babies slung over their backs, whose
heads were roasting in the sun (fire-proof heads
babies must have here, mem. for my note-book),
flocked around us, and made the air so hot and
stifling that, precious as woman is, her room here
was better than her company. Some two-sworded
fellows looked cross and scowled, but, in the main,
the curious crowds were sociable, kind, very agree
able, though ever curious, especially to see what sort
of stuff our ladies were made of.
The next temple we visited — ^rather, only the ruins
of a temple — ^was Owina, When the Mikadoites
rebelled against the Tycoonites, two or three years
ago, this Owina temple, a stronghold of the Tycoon,
was taken by assault. The Tycoon had for years
kept there a Jap of the pure blood-royal, the sacred
azul running in his veins, with intent to play him
off against the real Mikado, if ever this real Mikado
should become saucy, and attempt to get the better
of the Tycoon. Owina was the home of this mock
Mikado; and when the Tycoon thus went down,
down went Owina in blood and in sorrow. Wc have
only ruins, ruins, therefore, to sec. Beaiitiful groves

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 67
yet exist, magnificent trees, tea-gardens for the enter
tainment of visitors, singing and dancing girls — ^but
no priest, no Buddhist, no Sintoo, no any thing but
ruins, for acres and acres. Here, on the overhanging
hills, was the only grand, that is, tip-top, re-view we
had of Tedo. For thousands of acres there is noth
ing in sight but the houses, the parks, the castles, the
streets, the river, the canals of Tedo. How big is
Tedo? That is the great question of the day. I
have tried hard to find out, officially and unofficially,
but — quien sabe ? Who knows ? The officials won't
tell, and they do know now, for the census has just
been taken. Some foreigners say two millions ; some
one million ; some only eight hundred thousand. If I
were to guess from the great city, under my (Owina)
eyes, I should say " the two millions ; " but when I
look at the vast parks of the Daimios (the nobles),
with their retainers in the eity, and the parks and
castle of the awful, almighty Mikado (all the area of
this city, including thirty-six square miles), I am
ready to come down to "the one milHon." This
difference of opinion arises from the floating character
of the population. There are eighteen great Daimios,
nine of whom once had to be in the capital, and they
brought with them from six thousand to ten thousand
retainers, each. There are three hundred 'and forty-
two lesser-light Daimios, and they all had their
retainers. Three hundred and forty-two thousand,
it has been estimated, followers are in the trains of
these, what the English call princes, dukes, earls.

68 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
lords, knights, etc. This ebbing and flowing of a
court city with imperial officials, priests, etc., make
men differ on the population of Tedo.
The circumference of this Tedo view or city is
estimated at twenty-flve mUes. The temples are
legion. The god of war, and innumerable other gods,
big and little, have their temples. Priests are as
thick as grasshoppers in Utah. The Siro (Djiro), or
the Imperial castle, covers nearly five miles within
this circumference. My profane eyes can only get
up high, and look down. High walls and many
canals shut out the profane crowd from the pretty
walks, bowers, flowers, dwarfed-trees and aquatic
birds, that sing for and regale the lofty Mikado.
Only ex-Secretary Seward, some middies, lieuten
ants, captains, admirals, ministers plenipotentiary,
and like officials, have ever been blinded by the
dazzling rays from the imperial person, or ever en
tered on the mats, or within the saloons of his
palace or castle. Our great Tycoon was slipped in
diplomatically, as a dazzling American beam from
the setting sun. No ladies' eyes — that is, barbar
ian ladies' eyes — were ever permitted to be eveu
downcast before his celestial splendor. The best I
can do, then, is to look about and look down here
from Owina,
The third temple " done " this day was Sheba (not
the Queen of), a great Buddhist (Tycoon) temple,
with a monstrous big bell, twelve feet high, and with
room for four or more persons inside — an oblong bell.

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 69
all of one diameter, the. clapper of which, outside, is
a great big wooden log, some fifteen feet long, which
rough machinery pounds the bell with. The priests
would not pound it for us, for love or money, in fear
of frightening the town. Bell-metal, by the way, is
much better and sweeter-toned here in Japan than in
the United States. Tell Meneely and all his beU-
men of that, and advise them to come here and learn
how to make church-bells (not the clappers). Sheba
looks so like a Catholic temple, a beautiful, costly
one, that I could easily fancy myself in Eome, or Mil
an, or Venice — not exactly in the Eoman St, Peter's,
whose architecture is so superb, or in the Duomo of
Milan, but in secondary cathedrals, with magnificent
altar-work. The temple of Sheba is in the shade, just
now, among the Sintoos, and at the Sintoo court, for
it is the burial-place of some of the Tycoons, costly
memorial monuments of whom fill an oblong, com
memorating their grandeur. Their Sheba is their
sanctuary, and hence, in all parts, rich and highly
ornate, while incense is kept burning — ^it may be for
the Tycoons. Beyond one of the temples, in a court,
is a large bronze monument, entered by two heavy
bronze gates, aU presented by the king or emperor of
Corea, hundreds of years ago, in honor of the sixth
Tycoon. »
Weary of temples and priests, monuments and the
dead, we now, this same day, looked up the living,
and visited the Foreign Office. The ladies with us
had intense curiosity to see the Foreign Office, and

70 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
the foreign ministers, etc. — for what is seen in the
street and at the tea-houses is not " style ; " and hence
their curiosity was great to see the stylish high
officers of state. It required some negotiations and
much diplomacy to have ladies admitted to a foreign
office and to a court; but the American Minister,
highly esteemed by the Japanese here, and beloved,
I may say, by all, was gratified in his request to have
the ladies accompany us. The fact is, ladies are not
much thought of in Japan, Woman is of no account,
except to be useful. If poor, she works the farm,
whirls the spinning-wheel, keeps the house, makes up
the clothes (when people wear any), keeps the tear
houses, etc. ; and if rich, she embroiders, paints, etc.,
as did the old Greek princesses, Penelope & Co. ; but
she is, nevertheless, of no accoimt. The greater the
wonder, therefore, that this low grade of creatures
could ever be got into court ! Only two foreign
ladies ever before had the honor. But ours were ad
mitted with us, drank tea and drank champagne, but
did not smoke I and what was worse, kept the min
isters from smoking, as they are too polite to smoke
when others do not smoke, especially foreign women,
whom, as they see us thinking much of, they think
they must think something of, too, more especially
when with foreigners. (Mem-. — All foreign min
isters should smoke ; alas, I don't.) The prime-min
ister, Swakara, received us in state and in style, and
five others, all in rich silk robes, and Ishibasha, a
very clever man, who speaks English well, was the

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 71
translator. What we all said — no matter. What we
did only can interest anybody ; but that would be
too long to tell." The reception-room was fitted up
in European style as to tables and chairs only, but
every thing else was Japanese — mats (European
carpets were laid over some of them, that our feet
should not soil the mats), screens, hanging pic
tures, representing Japanese scenes, officials of rank,
etc., and when once inside, and these screens were
removed, a view was opened to us of a beautiful
garden. The next visit we made this day (after a drive in
the park of the foreign ministers' quarter, a choice
spot allowed the English mission to erect a palace
upon, and to the gate " where the elephant could not
go through," the Japanese name of a gate, where an
elephant presented to the court once got squeezed) —
was to Hamagoten, a bewitching spot, both near and
on the sea, where the foreign Japanese ministers en
tertain the foreign ministers of Europe. Hamagoten
is the fishing country residence of the old Tycoon. It
looks out on the Bay of Tedo, takes in the cool sea
breezes, and yet has all the charms and witcheries of
country life — bowers, groves, tea-houses, flowers,
plants, great trees and little dwarfed trees, artificial
shrubbery that makes you laugh to look* at its fan
tasies, lakes, gold fishes, etc. The Japanese grandees
well know how to enjoy country life. They are lords
of creation here. Duke, lord, nor knight, nor banker,
in England, does not surpass, if equal, a right royal

72 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN..
Daimio in country sports and luxuries. But more,
by-and-by, of Hamagoten.
Would you not think the doings of this day in
Tedo were enougli for a traveller ? But we had the
night before us, and if all Tedo was not startled by
our doings, it was because all Tedo did not see us.
A young American from New Tork, now in Tedo
instructing Japanese in English and French, told us of
a tea-house where was, in some sort, the Tedo opera,
and where music was "done," and dancing was
done, and the ballet corps, if not numerous, was
striking and strange. Travellers must see all sights,
you know. It would not do to go to Tedo without
patronizing music and dancing, etc. We engaged
six gimrriok-a shas. What sort of a shM this gin is,
look back and see. Our party was six — six only,
except the coolies that pulled the gins — and our out
riders on horseback were six in number. The coolies
had mantles on when they started — ^that is all I need
say of them now, for the weather was hot ; and pull
ing a man or woman in a gin-rick-a sha is a perspir
ing action in hot weather. The coolies ran and
raced, and the horses' feet clattered over the streets
and stones of Tedo, and the swords of the guards
men (Takonins) rattled as the horses galloped to
keep up with the " gin " and the coolies. We made
a grand procession through many of the important
streets of Tedo. Each coolie carried a lantern, and
each horseman, too, though the moon was shining
bright. Such a procession seldom, if ever before,

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 73
waked up the Tedoites. Crowds collected to stare
at us. Jap yelp upon yelp here announced our com
ing. John Gilpin's ride could not have equalled
ours in the curiosity excited, though we fared far bet
ter than poor John.
The opera-house we visited, if I may dignify the
tea-house we halted at with that high-sounding name,
was not quite equal to the La Scala of Milan, or the
Academy of Music. No boxes, no pit, no stage, only
a mat floor, second story, in a low-roofed room. The
orchestra or music— what shall I say of it ? — was in
the shape of six or seven guitar-looking things, with
some strings on them, not pulled by the fingers, but
hit by a piece of board. The ballet corps did double
duty — acted, as well as chanted, pantomimed and
danced. A New Tork opera-house critic could turn
out, in the morning journal, a column of mysterious
criticism upon the music and ballet I heard and saw,
but I have no genius in that line, and so must stop.
All I can say is, I stretched out on the mat and went
to sleep, worn out with the day's doings — while
others chow-ohowed (ate) cakes and candies, sipped
saki (Japanese whiskey), tea, and Bass' English beer,
Happy was I to gin-rick-a sha it home, and sleep,
sleep, as man never before slept, until he takes the
sleep forever.
All now that can interest you of this hard day's
work is the opera bill — thus made out on Japanese
tea-paper, two feet long, which, being translated,
reads thus •

74 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
ToKEi, 5 month, 13 day (Jtme 29), 1871.
Six gia-riok-a shas (carriage
riding for six)  6 boos $1 50
Singing girls  1 rio and 3 boos 1 75
Dancing girls  3 rio and 1 boo 8 25
Beer  1 boo 25
Fisb (for coolies) and saki ... 2 rio and 1 boo 2 25
$9 00
AU the cost for six United States Yankees, six
Yakonias (guards), and six coolies, including the
horses aud carriage riding.
Something cheaper, you see, than the grand opera
of Paris, London, and New Tork, to say nothing of
the fish for the coolies and the Takonins !
If I can ever get time to go to a theatre, I will
send you a theatre bill of fare ; but Jap plays, like
Chinese plays, are eternal, often beginning in the
morning and running through a week or two.

LETTEE IX,
LIFE AND 8I0ETS IN TEDO.
Eyes only TTseful Here. — Tongue and Ears Useless. — Shopping in Tedo. — Hotels iu
Japan. — Grand Hotel in Tedo. — ^Break&st with the Ministry of Foreign Aifairs
at Hamagoten. — ^Dinner at a Beautiful Country-Seat. — Uiscnssions, Political and
Theological. — ^TVhy the Japanese don't like Christians. — The Schools of Japan. —
Beading, WritlDg, and Arithmetic almost Universal. Yedo, June 30, IS"?!.
What a miserable life it is to be in a country
where you can understand nothing through your
ears, except the yelKng and mewing of cats, the
barking of dogs, and the crying of babies, strapped on
their mothers' or little sisters' backs! Even dogs
bark, not in English, but in a Japanese way. The
baby-crying is the only real familiar sound to greet
my ears. The cocks have a new way of crowing,
and the hens of cackling. None of the birds sing as
our birds sing, if any of them sing at all, though they
make an infernal noise for birds. There are no
sheep to bleat and make you happy, and the cows,
if there are any, and the bulls, but very few, are so
well drilled they never low or roar. The temple
beUs, even, are not our bells. They do not speak
English, or French, or German, or any other Euro
pean language, but utter notes of their own. I

76 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
should, therefore, have the blues in such a deaf and
dumb land, if American and English friends had not
sprung up in all directions. The fish, all, are new
fish, as well as the birds ; the trees, most of them,
new trees ; the flowers all new, if we had not im
ported many of them into America. I cannot even
go a-shopping alone, where there is any thing won
derful to buy. I cannot tell what I want ; and
when I do, I cannot get at the price of it, especially
iu measures and weights, all new to us, and worse,
by far, than the kilometres and kilogrammes of our
French and Continental neighbors. If the rascals
that went to work at that Tower of Babel had had
any idea of what a confusion in the world they were
making, do you think they would have tried to build
it? Here I am in a Tedo Street, staring and stared
at, knowing nothing, and profiting nothing from
Greek, Latin, or some considerable smattering in sev
eral European tongues. I would (perhaps ?) give up all
my five or six years of Greek and Latin, if I could only
speak five or six words of Japanese, such as, " What's
the price of this or that ? " or, " Show me some silks,
or crapes, or satins, or fans, or lacquer, or copper en
graving." Here are thirty-five millions of living
Japanese, and I have spent years of my life studying
dead Latin, and deader Greek (I would do it over
again, though) ; and I can't read the names of the
streets, or the numbers of the street ! I do not know
even my letters ! I want to ask a million of questions,
such as " How do you weave or spin that ? " or " carvo

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 77
this ? " or, " Why do you stable your horses' heads
where we put the horses' tails ? " " Why do you mount
your beasts on the wrong side ? " " Why don't you use
wheelbarrows in lieu of bamboo baskets, when dig
ging canals in Tedo ? " " Why do you saw back
ward ? " " Why do you plane backward ? " But I
cannot talk ; I am deaf ; I am dumb ; I might as well
be a horse in Tedo, when alone, as a man in the
streets all alone !
Shopping is the chief business of foreigners in
Japan, and hence we all go a-shopping. There is a
Curio Street in both Tokohama and Japan — that is,
a street of curiosities. The lacquer ware is wonder
ful, both dear and cheap — dear, if very old and very
artistic, and cheap as dirt, if fresh and poorly
wrought on. The bronzes are astonishing. Where
did the Japanese pick up their wonderful art
in this-? Their work in silk and crape, too, is
wonderful, and very, very cheap for some things.
Mantillas — if one may so call them — obics, that is,
curiously-worked sashes to go round the waist, are
often in the very highest art. A silk man in Toko
hama is imitating European dressing-gowns, and he
will fit you out in crape work for about five dollars,
so that you would not be known from a peacock.
Eock crystal is curiously wrought, and veiy precious
to the Japanese. I have just been buying a suit of
armor, once belonging to some stately Daimio, which
cost him, four or flve hundred years ago, if the offi
cial certificates do not lie, some flve hundred dollars

78 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
— ^gold wrought, and embossed, and with terrible-look
ing gold dragons ; but the days of armor are over now,
and coats of mail being worth nothing to the owner
— what I gave for it — no matter ; but dog cheap, if
the certificates do not lie. Sixty or seventy tons of
Japanese curios went out on the last steamer for San
Francisco, and they will make, if I am not misin
formed, all the Tankee sight-seers there stare. I am
negotiating for temples and pagodas, but the state
" religion " is not down enough here yet to buy gods
and temples cheap. What a pity they are not as
cheap as armor ! Oh, if I could only talk, talk, talk,
how I would shop here in Tedo ! And what is the use
of the American great " gift of the gab " in such a
deaf and dumb place as this ?
I had got it into my head that there were no
hotels in Japan — ^nothing but tea-houses and mats
for foreigners to live in, or sleep on; but I am
mistaken. There is a European hotel here in Tedo
— an American hotel, I had better say — ^run now by
an American, as big as the old burnt-down Congress
Hall or United States, of Saratoga — ^nay, as big as
the Ocean House, at Newport, The Japanese built
it, under English inspiration, to meet the wants of
foreigners expected at Tedo, but they have never
come, and the hotel has never paid a cent in return
to the builders. Some five hundred people could be
crowded into it, but now it has not thirty guests, and
the most of them boarders in official position, or
teachers. There is a Tankee captain here, from New

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 79
Tork, who has been running steamships for some
time, between port and port in Japan, mainly for the
Japanese Government. We have no consul now at
Tedo, but a vice-consul acts by ambassadorial ap
pointment, and boards at the hotel, with the United
States flag up over him. The Minister resides in
Tokohama, and has not a place in Tedo to put his
head in, save this hotel. And there, is the " Grand
Hotel" in Tokohama, and the "International Ho
tel," and there are lots of other hotels for Tom, Dick,
and Harry. There wiU be rest for you, you see, fu
ture traveller to Japan, and very, very fair fare, if not
the best of fare, such as in America, Tou can have
chairs to sit on at table, and not be compelled to
squat on mats, and eat with chop-sticks on the floor.
Civilization has got here, and is teaching all sorts of
its novelties to the wonder-stricken Japs, who think we
are fools to fill up our rooms with tables, and sofas,
and chairs, and bedsteads. They hang out beautiful
screens, some of them high works of art, and when
you open your eyes in the morning, you see, not
graceless chairs and -crooked-legged tables, but works
of art all over and around you. Away with the
screens, and lo, presto ! every room in your house,
on the same fioor, is turned into one grand (^room, I
have thought this great Tedo hotel might be con
verted into a grand watering-place on the Bay of
Tedo — for it is all alone by itself, wall-surrounded,
set apart and consecrated to foreign residents only.
Bathing and boating are here .close at hand. Some

80 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
day hence, it may be, Americans will come over to
Tedo as to Long Branch, or Cape May ; for, with
the exception of the mosquitoes, that we shut off
with nets, and the fieas, which we can scare off with
fiea-powder, it is a paradise of a place. The climate in
summer is very like that of Cape May, or Old Point
Comfort. The Japs are so impressed by the gran
deur of this two-storied hotel, with a tower, that
shakes well when an earthquake comes along, or a
typhoon, that they pay twelve and a half cents of
our money to come in and look at it, and the keeper
lets out the privilege or monopoly at seventy dollars
per month.
I have had two distinguished invitations to go
out in Tedo, both from Japanese — one to breakfast,
the other to dine — and I accepted them with pleas
ure, without knowing, though somewhat fearing, the
strange things I might have to eat. (At the Chinese
meals, it is (not Japanese) where one may have rats,
cats, or dogs, and birds' nests, as well as fish and rice.)
The service, I am sorry to say, both at the breakfast
and dinner, was European. We all sat upright, all
ate with knives and forks, all drank European wines,
as weU as tea, with no saki ; all smoked, though
with pipes of very different organizations.
The breakfast was given to the American Minis
ter and myself by the Prime-Minister of the Board
of Foreign Affairs, and was in the beautiful garden
of Hamagoten, Invited at eleven a. m., we break
fasted till four p. M. I One poor, hard-working fellow.

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 81
the very clever interpreter, Ishibashi, did all the
talking for us (double-talked), and we gave him no
time for eating, only for talk, talk, talk. Five hours
of talk, only think of it, for an interpreter ! The
talk was about almost every thing on the earth, over
the earth, and under the earth, more particularly,
though, on affairs of government, and the science
of government, in which these Japanese gentleman
seem to be deeply interested. Their conversation
exhibited skill, learning, and ability, and showed
they had been well educated, not only in their own
books, but were pretty well acquainted with Ameri
can and European affairs. They puzzled much over
the fact that the American Minister and myself were
friends though far apart in politics. They fight and
kill in party polities, while we only vote. They
could not well understand why Nevada, his State,
should have as much influence in Congress (the Sen
ate) as m^vne. New Tork (nor can I), They could not
understand our tariffs, nor can I, Their history
they hold to be good for two thousand two hundred
years, and pretty accurate for two thousand five
hundred years. They have records they rely on so
far back. Their letters, they own, they get from
China, and the classics of Confucius and Mencius are
their classics. They think they are Mongolian, not
of Chinese origin, and probably they came down
from Corea. The costumes of these gentlemen were
robes of a peculiar silk, one of them white (flowered),
with Turkish trowsers and sandals. The chief had
6

82 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
on an extraordinary hat, the tissue of which I cannot
describe — a hat uplifted like a tower, and only to
cover the queue. This hat was put on in deference
to the guests, whereas we take off hats in deference ;
and when the hat wearied him from its weight he
begged permission to take it off, and we cheerfully
reheved him from the burden, of course. The ser
vants waited upon us in the most deferential silence.
Not a look or emotion ever escaped them. From
behind screens they peeped in to imagiae our wants,
and instantly heeded them. A small boy did the
table-bell business, and when any thing extra was
needed, the ioy-beU ran in, and on hands and knees
tumbled on the floor, to hear the whisper of the high
personage commanding him.
The dinner was given us with our ladies, though
ladies seem of no account in Japan, woman's rights
never having reached here; but om* Japanese host
had been in America, spoke English, and knew
American habits well. We went to the place of the
dinner — a magnificent country-seat, though- in the
city, by the water's edge — in a Japanese pleasure.
boat, sculled, not rowed, by Japs, and the seats were
pretty mats, and the sides of our cabins were paper
slides with pictures upon them. On, on, on, we were
" sculled," on the Bay of Tedo not far from its port,
and up a river, under many bridges and through
canals — ^how far I do not know, only regretting, so
much of novelty was to be seen hf the way, that the
distance was not longer. Junks, heavily laden with

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 83
the produce of the country, were passed ; fishermen's
nets were glided over ; manufactories were seen, etc.
Tedo seen by land I have tried to sketch, but this
was Tedo by water. Our Japanese entertainers were
very gallant to our. ladies. Two of them spoke
English, were well educated in New Brunswick,
N. J., and in New England. They showed us
all over the delightful pleasure-grounds. We sailed
on little artificial lakes in pleasure-boats. We saw
for the first time the tea-plant growing. We had
explained to us the wonderful process of grafting
and dwarfing trees by which gate-ways are made of
them, and how they are turned into junks, castles,
temples, beasts, lions, dragons — any thiug you want.
Some of them, years old, were scarcely a foot high,
and yet perfect as trees, otherwise, in all their trunks,
branches or limbs, and leaves. The flowers, too, are
thus dwarfed — many of them not an inch high, in
flower-pots, but perfect as flowers. I know nothing
of botany or horticulture, or I would expand on this
wonderful art. It fills me with amazement, for I do
not recollect of ever reading of the like before my
coming here. The summer-houses (tea-houses) were
numerous in this place. The walks were shady and
pretty. Little fountains gurgle out their tiny wa
ters. We Americans, that build up hundred-thou
sand dollar country seats, think we know something ;
but in this line we are behind the age. Such a
" seat " as I am dining in would cost, near New Tork,
half a million of dollars.

84 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
As we were dining — and we had European luxu
ries in European style — the Japanese women would
peep round the screens to peep at our ladies. Curi
osity is the same with the sex the world over. We
discussed many things ; theology not a little. The
Japs have an idea like ours of the creation of the
human race, but as I understood our table expounder
of Japanese theology, they believe woman (otu- Eve)
was made before our man (Adam). This exposition
delighted our ladies, and I send it especially to glad
den the hearts of Mrs, Stanton and others. It is hard
to put up, even at a Pagan's hospitable table, with
Pagan gods, and goddesses, and spirits, and to be
compelled to listen to the divinity of them (ugly-
looking blocks and images as they are), but it is
harder yet to hear our Old Testament and New
Testament all overthrown, and to be told Christ, like
Mahomet, Confucius and Mencius, or Brigham
Toung, was only a very clever man — as good and as
wise as Confucius, perhaps, but no wiser nor better.
I asked, "Why they fought Christianity so in
Japan?" "Because," they replied, "it interferes
with the Government." "Its ministers are often
impertinent." " They interfere with what they have
no concern." " The Eoman Catholics, you know,
once were allowed full swing here ; had missions and
followers everywhere; and they turned into politi
cians, such politicians that we had to clear out the
whole of them." Nevertheless, the medical mission
aries are well received in Japan. One of them. Dr.

LIFE AND SIGHTS IN YEDO. 85
Hepburne, is dearly beloved by them, and has made an
Anglo-Jap dictionary, the only one, and which all,
more or less, are studying.
I have had long talks, here and elsewhere, on the
schools of Japan — on reading and writing, arithmetic,
etc. The Japanese tell me not everybody reads and
writes, but almost everybody, more or less. Every
body keeps accounts, or seems to — not reckoning as
we do with Arabic figures, but on boxes with pegs
for our numbers. The dialects of the thirty-five
millions of people in Japan are numerous, and as
puzzling, even to the natives, as are the dialects of
Torkshire and Lancashire in England, or the Welsh
or the Celtic to the English. The Court has one
tongue, the coolies another, and the provinces all
have their dialects. "Education," however, as we
call it, is pretty well diffused in Japan — that is, read
ing, writing, and arithmetic, or the three " E's," as
some call it. But is reading, writing, and arith
metic " education ? " I do not think it is. Are
common schools that teach only the " E's " good for
much ? Certainly not in Japan, as I see things here
(if in America). The three " E's " are only tools to
work with, and if that is all a man knows, his tools
are more likely to be used by others against than for
him. Here all, more or less, are the creatures, in
struments, tools of the Princes, the Daimios, the
nobility, the two-sworded men, who ride rough-shod
over the many, and keep them poor while they hold
all the wealth. Some one and a half millions thus

86 A SEVEN MONTHS', RUN.
quarter upon the other thirty-three and a half mil
lions, though all, or nearly all, can read, write, and
cipher as well as we do in the United States.
Our dinner over, we glided back in our luxurious
gondola — shall I call it? — to the Hotel of Tedo.
Our party spent the evening on the cool waters of
the bay among the fishermen, listening to their
" yeow," " yeow," or singing, or chanting, or study
ing the stars to see if the same luminaries were over
our heads as over our dear, dear friends now under
our feet at home. It relieves one of one's homesick
ness to see the same bright lights over one's head
that one sees at home, and thus to feel in this deaf
and dumb life here, the world is the same for Jap,
and John, and Jerry, no matter where born.

LETTEE X.
TRAVELLER-' S LIFE IN TEE INTERIOR.
The Great God of Kamakura. — " Statue of Dai-booiz."— life in Japanese Tea-Houses.
— ^Bide in a Cango Bamboo Basket. — The Temples around Kamakura. — Beautiful
Scenery. — ^Fields cultivated liko Gardens. — ^The life and Bank of Japanese
Farmers. — ^Visit to the Cave of Inosima. — ^Fish Life and Fish Dinners. — The
"Mikado" and tho "Tocaido." — Pohteness and Amiability of the Japanese
Farmers. FujiSAWA, July 3, 1871.
Happy times we are having in a tea-house tavern
— hotel we should call it — ^but there are no beds to ,
sleep on, no tables to eat on, no chairs to sit on!
There is a jolly party of us, and we are doing our
own cooking, with maidens all around to stare at us,
the mother of them all to admire us, and a whole
village about to help us. We should not cook if we
could trust the maidens to cook the fish for us ; but
there is no foretelling what they might put into the
fish for sauce, and the copper sauce-pans they fry fish
in, and the matters they fry it with, are thought to
be rather suspicious. We brought our own bread
and butter — ^both are unknown in Japan as native-
used articles of food — and with this, and sardines,
and plenty of excellent fish and tea, we made a first-
rate dinner.

88 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
We are on our way to see a great god, if not the
^reat god, of Kamakura (once a great city, a capital,
but now all run down), and the great god is " Dai-
hootz," or " Great Buddha " — ^but we tarry in this tea
house over-night, I do not think much of sleeping
on mats all night. They are full of fleas, big ones,
and they bite, too. They are full of mosquitoes, but
we don't care for them, if our net bars are strong
enough to stand their twisting and wriggling to break
in, but they are not, " Buzz," " buzz," " whizz,"
"whizz." Tou know all about that, even in New
Tork city, and all over Jersey. Then we had Japan
guitar music nearly all night, from the damsels
below, which is no better than mosquito music, I
being judge. Then we had cat music. The cats
_of Japan seem to me to have extraordinary lung
strength, and when they utter their love notes, and
purr, and squall here, they make the welkin ring.
One of our man party jumped about all night, flea-
bitten ; the ladies averred they had not closed their
eyes, but who believed them ? As for myself, I am
flea-proof, mosquito-bomb-proof. I snored, they say
— the only sign I was not sleeping well, just as well
as usual. Tou would not understand Japan-travel
ling if I did not enter into all these minutim, and'
therefore you must excuse the personality.
We had a whole floor to ourselves, and otn that
floor perhaps a dozen rooms — all one, though, when
the paper screens were removed. Such tenements as
these, you see, are not very favorable for private life,

TRAVELLER'S LIFE IN THE INTERIOR. 89
or secrecy, or domesticity. One cannot whisper at
night without being heard all over the domicil. A
husband can not scold a wife, or, a wife " Caudle "
a husband, without everybody's hearing. Flirting is
impossible, and courting would be, if courting were
ever heard of in Japan. Wives are not won by
courting here, but put in the market by father and
mother to the best or most fitting bidder. They
know little or nothing of their future husbands till
their teeth are to be blackened and their eyebrows
shaved fcr matrimony. When we breakfasted, all
Fujisawa, having heard of the event, ran to our
doors, or gathered around us, to see us eat on our
improvised table, with Jap wooden sleeping-pillows
adopted for chairs; and ff one thing more than
another seemed to astound them, it must have been
the enormous quantity of tea we drank.
But to the great god, Dai-iootz, and his holy
temple ! We fitted out, to visit him, a retinue you
would have laughed your eyes out to see — six cangos
and eighteen coolies as our equipage ! The cango is
a sort of bamboo basket, and two coolies carry you
on a pole. Our coolies were in the livery of nature,
save their straw shoes, cotton cloth girdle, and hand
kerchiefs around their heads. We men are heavy-
fellows, some of us over two hundred pounds, a heavy
load for two cooKes to carry in a basket for miles, up
hill and down hill, over creeks," streams, and through
ocean surf and sands, and therefore we took a coolie
extra for every cango. Three or four bettos (boys

90 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
that run with the horses) were our outriders. The
hours I spent in that bamboo basket cango will ever
- be deeply dented on my memory. But Tankee
trained as I was, I was up to it, " Our heels ever
hjgher than our heads," is about the first posture we,
when boys, learn in New England, and heels higher
than heads in a basket is cango riding here. We lean
back on chairs at home, and put our heels on the
mantel-piece, and this is Japan cango riding. Japs
do it easily, for they are short fellows, and squat;
but for our long legs it is hard work, unless Jirought
up to it. In these cangos we made our pilgrimage to
Dai-iootz. We spied out " the great Buddha " at
last, prettily situated in a small gravelled court,
surrounded by a growth of bamboos, camelias, dios-
pyros, oaks, and conifers, and approached it up a
flight of steps and stone portal. The Buddhist-
priests were glad to see us. They were sure of extra
boos (twenty-five-cent paper pieces), and welcomed
us with smiles, tea, and a lithograph of their idol.
We went inside of him, after running all around him
on the outside. His inside is full of gUt Buddhist
saints, with croziers, glories around the head, etc, etc.
We threw tempos (cents) up into his head, to hear
them rattle. The priests Uked it, for we did not pick
them up, though they were frightened lest the heavy
copper tempos, falling back, might hit on their shaven
heads. We skirted on the outside again, the better
to comprehend this huge ma^s of bronze, fifty feet
high, and thirty feet wide at its base, which rests on

TRAVELLER'S LIFE IN THE INTERIOR. 91
a pile of masonry, six feet high. We ran again into
the inside to see how the bronze joints were put
together, and these joints were almost imperceptible.
We got up into the old fellow's arms. Six of us
sat on his thumbs ! We looked into his face, and
saw there " the mournful repose," the lips closed, the
eyes downcast, and the head slightly bent upon the
breast. Great is DaiA>ootz ! I don't think much of
him as a god; but as mighty work of bronze art, as
a Colossus, in that way I worship him, as I did the
Sphynx, near the Egyptian pyramids, and wish I
had a week to give him, instead of this passing hour.
At Fujisawa we left the great royal highway of
Japan, and went into the rural roads, where not
even a gi/ry^ick-a sha can go, only a pony, or a coolie-
carried cango, strapped on a pole. This is my first
entree into rural Japan life. Hitherto I have been
in the cities — ^now I am in the country, and my
admiration of Japan rises and rises, I thought once,
when on the Nile, that the Egyptians, who could
turn sands into gardens, were the great farmers of
the world ; but the Egyptians made no such farm
ing gardens as these. Proud as I am of the arts,
sciences, and marvellous doings of my own country,
I blush when I compare American farming- with this !
Here, are rice-fields artificially created, luxuriant in
beauty now, terraced from hill-side, up and down,
and watered by the hill streams, or not watered, as
husbandman wills. There, are barley-fields, and
bean-fields, and fields of all sorts of Japan agricul-

92 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
tural productions. Forests cap all the hill-tops. It
is said, the law or customs of Japan forbid a man to
cut, down a tree, unless forthwith he plants another.
Hence these beautiful tree-clad hills and hill-sides,
(Our tariff laws in America counsel an American
lumberman to cut down his trees by making dear all
lumber from Canada.) Two crops are raised in Japan
in one year, even on the rice-fields, where the first
crop is grain. The grain harvest is over in April or
May, The rains come on in June and July, and
now the new crops are up, and the whole country is
one beautiful landscape in green. It is ravishing in
beauty, and I am happy in looking at it, even with
my legs up on the roof of my cango. The turnip or
root crops vrill come by-and-by. December and
January are here only the real winter months, while
in June and July, after the barley harvest is over, it
is rain, rain, ever gentle rain.
One reason, perhaps, why Japan has superb farm
ing, is that the farmers here rank next to the no
bility, only Koongays of the royal blood, or Daimios
(princes, say), or Haitamotos (lords), above them.
All merchants, manufacturers, traders, artisans, car
penters, etc., give precedence in rank to these lords
of the soil. The farmers' houses I see about here are
like Swiss cottages, thatched, generally, with bamboo
fences around them, but with no fences on their
fields. The tools they have would not pass muster
in our land. Their hoe is more like our shovel than
a hoe, though hung as a hoe on a bamboo handle.

TEAVELLEE'S LIFE IN THE INTEEIOR. 93
Ploughs I have not seen, nor harrows. Man or
woman seems to be plough and harrow here. The
flail, the regular old American farmers' flail, is their
threshing machine. They pound off the husks of the
rice in a mortar, and man or woman stand on a level,
and pump up and down, the pounding pestle in the
mortar. But on, on, though I would like to scribble an
essay on farming, and expand upon the superb Jap
anese agriculture. Let me say, before I quit the
topic, however, that nothing is wasted in Japan. Not
a straw, even, is allowed to run idle. Compost of all
kinds is cherished as a gold mine. Our city sewers,
which draw off so much wealth, would break the
^heart of a Jap farmer, seeing so much gold run into
the sea. In pails and baskets, on men's shoulders, is
carried for miles the refuse of the great city, off to the
fields of the farmer. These pails, on coolies shoul
ders, do not always sweeten the air, but they make
bountiful the fields and the crops.
Our coolie-cangos now transport us from the green
fields to the ocean-side, and among the surf, rolling up
on the sandy beach. I am in Newport, or Long Branch,
or Cape May. The soothing sounds of the unceasing
billows that lave the feet and naked legs of our cool
ies, gladden us, while the spray, now and then, dash
es up a little into our bamboo baskets, sprinkling our
heads, perhaps, but never reaching as high as our
heels. We are going to Inosima, where is an island
cave. We are " dumped " from our cangos into a

94 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
tea-house, and while dinner is preparing we propose
to explore the cave. We go over a hill of temples,
or go around the hill by water. We enter the cave
two hundred feet or more — an earthquake-made cave,
doubtless, for this I infer from the way the rocks are
pitched together ; and near the end, unless we choose
to crawl and go further, is a Sintoo temple, with Siu-
too priests to watch over the holy shrines, near which
waters from above are trickling. We pay the priest,
of course, to help to keep up his paper candles and
wicks of oil. We look at the devil he has got chained
in there, and we drink from the holy spring, one
draught of which is to save us fi'om sickness, from
plague, or cholera, or typhoid. I took three draughts,
in order to be sure, for I need them all in the long
journey I am contemplating.
The tea-house dinner of Inosima was nothing re
markable. We borrowed some boards to make a
dinner-table of, and we squat again on seats, the Jap
anese use for sleeping-pillows. Fish, fish, fish, make
all the meals here — shell-fish, crab-fish, sun-fish,
devil-fish, the funniest sort of fish and crabs I ever
saw, the like of which we have nowhere in Amer
ica, But I did find an old acquaintance in a clam,
an eel, and in a mackerel, and in a clawy-looking
creature, sometliing like a lobster. The whole air
here is fishy. There is no sort of an ocean or river-
creature that the Japs do not eat, even sharks ; and
the uglier the creature is, the more appetizing. Fish
markets in Japan are curiosities, from the oddities.

TRAVELLER'S LIFE IN THE INTERIOR. 95
eccentricities, frights of things you see for sale there.
And most of the fish sold are not dead fish, but living,
jumping, wriggling fish, Tou buy an eel all squirm
ing. The fish-market men briag their fish to market
in water-tubs, and the fishermen keep a huge bamboo
water fish-tank on each side of the junks, into which
they throw the creatures that they haul up, or in. So
much is thought of the fish here, that, on a certain
festival day, every family that has had a boy born
(not a girl) during the year, hangs out a great
painted fish to boast of it. If I knew any thing of
ichthyology, I would be more particular in my de
scription of the fish ; but I am ignorant all along,
you see. I am not only deaf and dumb here, but
a " Know-nothing " in most of the ologies and ites a
traveller ought to know — ^from ichthyology to ento
mology, and on, and on.
The tea-house fish dinner over, we return to Fuji
sawa by another and shorter route. Our gallant
coolies clambered up the hill-sides, and brought down
the most beautiful Japanese lilies to decorate the
cangos of our ladies, so that they, in these, their
bamboo baskets, look like travelling flower-gardens.
The flora on these hill-sides were exquisitely beauti
ful. Thus adorned, we jogged on in our cangos ; and
as we reapproached Fujisawa, the coolies broke into
^ trot ; and didn't they toss us up and down on their
shoulders, as they thus hastened into the village, amid
the greetings of their friends and neighbors ?
I ought, I suppose, to dwell upon the ruins of

96 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
Kamakura, an old and once grand Tycoon city, and
now a desolation; but the living things are more
than I can write of, and silence must reign, there
fore, over the dead. All the valley was once full of
shrines and temples. In one of the old temples is a
celebrated stone, supposed to possess the property of
curing barrenness among women, and which, there
fore, the Japanese women frequent from all parts of
the country. Kamakura is the Babylon and Nineveh
of Japan. Every hill, every stream, every valley has
a story, but what care you for them ? (Mem., it is a
glorious place for a novel writer to make Japanese
romances of for the American or British market.)
The yet brilliant, the really living and beautiful
temple of Fujisawa we could not resist the temptation
to visit. The Mikado stops there when he travels.
We saw the room (of screens and mats) where the
Mrs. " Mikado " stopped one night, when journeying
here, and we tumbled down on the mats where she
slept, in order, if possible, to be inspired with some
of the reflected glory. The Buddhist priests here
changed their religion to Sintoo (just like the poli
ticians), as the great Buddha went down a little with
the Tycoon, but they now come up with the Mikado,
The polite priests gave us tea (we gave them itzibus).
They showed us a kitchen where two thousand of the
Mikado's followers were once entertained. By the
way, when this awful Majesty travels on the Tocaido
road, there is the greatest commotion. Every tea
house, dwelling-house, house or shop of any kind, is

TRAVELLER'S LIFE IN THE INTERIOR. 97
boarded up, so that no carnal eye shall look upon
and be blinded by the splendor of his dazzling glory.
Every human and beastly thing is put out of the
way. The Tocaido is devoted to him and his retinue
only, and that retinue are all the while squatting on
their haunches, or tumbling on their knees and faces,
as they come within the charming power of the con
secrated Majesty.
All this, of which I have been writing here, we
" did " in a day and a half only from Tokohama ;
but we worked hard, and, on the Tocaido, drove hard
our horses, returning not in very early evening to
Tokohama, All along the road the women, more or
less, the men a little, the children for the fun of it,
universally cried out, as our carriages were passing,
" Ohio ! " " Ohio ! " " Ohio ! "—that is, " good-morn
ing," or, " how do you do ? " or, " anaka 1 " " an-
aka!" meaning " Mr.," or "you;" and then, as we
left them, "Sia-na-ra, "sia-na-ra," "good-bye," in
the sweetest of tones. We had no police, no guards !
The people seemed so amiable that we could hardly
persuade ourselves that two British officers were
killed near that route, not long ago. We never felt
the least apprehension. The people seem too kind
ever to trouble any one, t

LETTEE XI,
RETURN TO TEDO.
In Tedo a Second Time. — Now under a British Escort. — ^The English Dragoonfl
and Japanese Takonins. — The British Student Interpreters. — Only a Hundred
Caucasians among a Milhon of Japs. — Paper Windows. — ^Uneasy Sleeping. —
Two-Sworded Loafers. — A Thousand British Troops in Tokohama. — Cheap
Shopping in Tedo.— Fashionable Biding. Yedo, July 10, 1871.
In Tedo again ! Could not help it ! Irresistibly
fascinated here by sights, shops, scenes, etc. ! Japan,
after all, is the country to stay in, as well as to travel
over ; and so I am once Tnore in the capital, as the
best place to see men and things, I came up this
time, not by the Tocaido road, but by the steamer,
under the British flag, which is doing the Japanese
coasting-trade, as we do it from Tokohama to Naga
saki, by the U, S. Pacific line of steamers, which
weekly run that way to Shanghai.
The British charge, Mr. Adams, acting as minister
in the absence of Sir Henry Parkes (who has just
gone home to England via San Francisco), and who,
during our civil war, was in Washington, attached
to the British legation, and hence knows every thing
about us, and kindly remembers almost everybody.

RETURN TO YEDO. 99
was polite enough to ask us to pass some time at the
British legation in Tedo. To show the style in which
Great Britain keeps up her establishments in the East,
let me add here, a British mounted guardsman await
ed us at the steamboat — a British mounted guard also
escorting Mr. Adams, next received us — and then we
left for the palace of the British legation, which was
a former Daimio's residence, with a large escort of
mounted Japanese Takonins, who made their swords
rattle furiously as we drove like Jehus three miles
through the narrow streets of Tedo. A horse-boy on
foot (the betto) cleared the streets for us, and Tedo
looked on, as it ever looks, with astonishment, at the
mounted stalwart English sworded men, with good
revolvers, and at the British official, thus escorted,
with his two Americans, in a carriage.
Life in Tedo, for Americans or Europeans, must
be hard. There are not a hundred of them, in all, in
this great city — and only two or three European, or
American women. The British government has at
tached to its embassy here flve or six young educated
Englishmen, who are studying Japanese with all their
might and main, and making good progress, too. The
advantage of this to the British government is immense
— ^for it enables the embassy to understand the people,
Mr. Satow, the interpreter, is a very clever English
man, a scholar, more or less, in many languages and
literature, and speaks Japanese with fluency and ease.
Hence he is the prop of the whole embassy, I have
learned more correctly from him of the interior ad-

100 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
ministration of the Japanese government and society,
than I have been able to learn elsewhere, I should
have written you, if I had written on the topic at all,
that the Japanese have no newspapers ; but I learn
from him now, that each department has its gazette
or bulletin, publishing edicts, regulations, and parts
of its correspondence with foreign ministers, who,
mercilessly, are vexing the Japanese government on
" claims " — ^for, there being no civU courts in Japan,
all American and British mercantile claims, or suits,
are foisted upon the Tedo government, through the
foreign embassies here, Mr. De Long, the American
Minister, has a dozen such cases on hand ; the British
embassy, of course, many more, as the British have
so much more commerce here than the Americans.
Sleeping in a city of a million of Japs, thousands
of them low fellows, entrusted with two swords, who
know how to use them, like lightning, too, and who
are so keen with them, that, only three years ago,
two crazy fellows attacked a whole British retinue,
cut at, or rather cut up, nine Englishmen and two
horses, before they were brought down — sleeping, I
say, with paper windows and doors only (on the
ground floor), that any body can open at night, is not
as safe as sleeping in the eighth or tenth story of a
New Tork hotel. But, nevertheless, we slept " like
perfect tops." What's the use of worrying when you
go abroad on the earth ? Better stay at home, if your
mind is not easy on such things, or if your appetites
care for what you eat or drink. These two-sworded

EETURN TO YEDO. 101
loafers, though, ought to be put down, and must be
put down. The government is all ready to put them
down, but is afraid so to do, for the sword is a badge
of honor here, a title of nobility — and a vagabond
clings to it more than to life. If he loses his sword,
or his sword is dishonored, or if, in an insult, his
sword does not do its duty, the poor devil hari-kari^s,
that is, rips up his belly. It is glory to die in Japan
thus self-ripped up ; but to be hanged, or strangled,
that is a disgrace everlasting, and entails a bad herit
age on the family — ^whereas to hari-kari wipes out
all spots of ignominy, and makes a martyr of a man.
The French minister has suggested to the govern
ment that, in order not to wound the honor of these
rascals, when the sword is taken from them, a decora
tion be given them, to show their hereditary claim to
honor, and the suggestion seems likely to be realized
in a year or two. If I ever come here again, I hope
to see no more of these two-sworded vagabonds. I
don't like the looks of their steel, especially when
saki (rice whiskey) is in the owner ofthe swords.
The British government has in Tokohama, just
now, nearly a thousand British soldiers, with a ship-
of-war or two, and the French government has a
large body of marines on shore — while other nations
have only their flag to protect them. True, the
British and French have no particular business in
arms here ; but, nevertheless, they are a sort of pro
tective police for Americans and Europeans. It
seems to me, here in Tedo, more than in Tokohama,

102 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
that some such protection from arms is necessary,
where so few Caucasians are mingled among so many
millions of Mongolians — more especially when so
many thousands of them carry swords. I had in
dulged in the apprehension, from reading Allcock on
Japan, that there was to be no safety in going any
where in Japan without a large armed escort ; but,
in and about Tokohama, one seems as safe as at home,
though at Tedo there is not that ease.
I spent half a day shopping here, and the crowds
all around stifled me for want of air. Tokohama has
the curiosities of Japan for sale, the costly things —
but Tedo only the little funny things of Japan, the
toys, the mock-dragons, the mermaids, etc. Tooth-
powder costs three cents a box — the very best. Pow
der for ladies, two or three cents a paper, Eouge,
freely used by ladies, for the lips, one cent a box.
Handkerchiefs about twelve cents. Decorated hair
pins, with tassels, two, three, and four cents. The
prices current of Tedo would amuse you. A gin-
rick-a sha ride costs twenty-five cents for two and a-
half or three miles. There are ten thousand of these
things in Tedo, costing from ten to fifteen dollars
each, and they have become all the fashion within a
year or two. Other parts of Japan are rapidly fol
lowing this good fashion of the capital. But these
cheap things do not indicate the extravagance of the
nobility or royalty of Japan. No people are more
extravagant, when they have the dollars to spend or
spare. The Japanese robes for the high-born cost as

RETURN TO YEDO. 103
much here as in Paris or New Tork. For the high
works of art very large sums are paid, and the decora
tions of their one-story palaces are without reference
to cost. But adieu to Tedo — and now a final adieu to this
curious city, I can not persuade myself it is a
healthy city, this time of the year ; and on that ac
count I shall be glad to be out of it. The air is stifling.
There have been no breezes since I came here. The
mosquitoes have the sharpest sort of nippers, and the
punka is used here, to keep cool during meals, and to
blow away these creatures.

LETTEE xn.
TEINGS IN JAPAN.
Women among the Japanese. — ^Their Position and Condition. — Promiscnons Bath
ing-houses. — ^The Theatre. — Ticketing Straw Shoes therein. — Jap Stomp
Orators. — ^Bamboo in Japan. — Japanese Art — Shopping in " Curio " Street —
Can spend any Amount of Money. — ^The Steel of Japan. — The Government of
Japan a Feudalily. — Eailroads, Telegraph, and Mint in Japan.
Yokohama, J-idy 12, 1871.
The status or position of women among the Jap
anese is more puzzling to a foreigner than any thing
else, and no one looker-on agrees as to what that posi
tion is. The Mikado can have but one wife, but is al
lowed, by law or custom, twelve concubines ; Daimios
and Hattamatos, eight ; men, with other titles, five ;
officers and the soldiersTtwo. But, say the laws or
dered by Jycyas, " The man is not upright who is
much given to women." It is an error, they tell me,
that the Japanese are indifferent to the respectability
of their wives, and that they often prefer taking one
from among the public courtesans. But there are
wonderful exhibitions of woman-life in Tedo and
Tokohama, such as I cannot describe — exhibitions
under the sanction of, and controlled by, the Govern
ment, and from which the Government derives a

THINGS IN JAPAN. 105
large revenue. The laws against dan(iing women,
etc, etc., says Jycyas, are not to be administered
severely, though " they are like caterpillars or locusts
in the country." " Out of regard for the nature of
mankind, their offences are to be lightly passed over."
Hence, this species of vice is made just as public as it
can be, outwardly, decency, however, ever hovering
over it. Women are sold in childhood, temporarily,
for a purpose, and many of them afterward marry
well without dishonor. But this is a topic upon
which I cannot enlarge.
The baths of the great cities are very peculiar
institutions. Men and women, if they do not exactly
bathe together, come so near it that the difference is
not worth talking about. Everybody bathes here,
and not to be clean is considered disreputable. The
cost of bathing is cheap in Tedo, about forty cents
every day for a month. If mere cleanliness is god
liness, there are not a more godly people on earth.
The baths are warm, ever open to the pubhc eye
from the street, with no disguises about them. They
are so common that they do not even provoke curi
osity. In Tedo there were many starers, staring at
me, when viewing the bathers, but not one staring
in. Nothing is thought of this peculiar mode of
bathing. Nothing mischievous seems to come of it.
We must not forget that what people are accustomed
to from their youth up, does not amaze and astonish
them as we strangers are thus astounded.
I went to the theatre the other night in Kan-
6

106 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
agawa — a big institution with no seats, but with rails
to lean on. We all squat. The natives leave their
penny and two-penny straw shoes at the door, near
the ticket-box, and take tickets for them, as we take
tickets for our hats or cloaks. It was a very funny
sight to see four or five hundred shoes ticketed with
wooden straps attached to them, the straps written
over in Japanese characters. No American can
stand a Japanese theatre over fifteen minutes. It is
not like the Chinese, all " bang," " bang," " bang,"
" bang," smash, crash, thrash, but it is, if possible,
stupider — to us, at least. I sallied out to hear a Jap
stump orator lecturing, as I suppose Plato and .Aris
totle did, in front of the theatre. He blew, fanned,
roared, and snorted, as do some of our stump orators,
I was told he was reciting Japanese story-history to
what seemed to be a very hungry crowd of admirers,
two or three thousand in number. Scandal whispers
that the Government employs these orators to uphold
the Mikado Government against the Tycoon discon
tents. Perhaps so; we do the same. The rain
began to pour down. It rains here in summer with
out the least trouble. We tried to hire a gin-rick-a
sha to haul us home, but coolies, naked as they are,
won't work in the rain (for fear of getting wet?), and
so we had to foot it home. When a coolie's paunch
is full of rice, there is nothing to stimulate him to
earn more, especially late at night, and when it rains.
Every country has something peculiar in it that
every inhabitant makes the most of Pino wood is

THINGS IN JAPAN. 107
an American institution, as the bamboo is a Japan
ese institution; and what would the Japanese do
without the bamboo? The handles of all agricul
tural instruments are made of it. The gutters of
houses are of bamboo. Paper is made of bamboo.
Split bamboo makes curtains for houses, and screens,
all beautiful, too, when colored or painted. There is
scarcely a human avocation that does not call into
requisition the bamboo. Paint on houses is unknown
here. The bamboo garnishes them up a little, but
there is no paint nor whitewash where I have been
travelling. Wood is left of the natural color, and
waxed often to give it polish and beauty.
What has really astounded me more, perhaps,
than any thing here, is art. The little hands and
arms of the Japanese seem to fit them for nice execu
tion ; but they would not make the pretty screens,
or pictures, or inlay copper, or lacquer as they do, if
taste did not accompany them. I have just seen a
big boy, only thirteen years old, who is painting for
foreigners Japanese costumes, and his execution is
wonderful. The paper-hangings of Japan are un
rivalled. I have seen nothing in the world, that I
remember, which equals the famous fan room of the
Hamagoten in Tedo. We, doubtless, got all our
ideas of beautifying paper from Japan. The bronze
work of this people is wonderful, as well as their
lacquer. They put years of work often into a Dai
mio's room. When we of English descent were
barbarians in art, these people were all they are now.

108 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
We see bells and bronzes and inlaid work hundreds
of years old. The iron and steel work of Japan, too,
is far in advance of many " civilized " nations. The
famous Damascus steel, the renowned Toledo blade,
does not surpass, if equal, the steel sword of the
Japanese officers. It may not bend as the Damascus
blade, but it has a strength and tenacity beyond it.
The old armor of the old Japanese knights is won
derful work for the age and time. Their work in
silk and satin is wonderful, and also in crape. These
people, farming people too, who use only the old
spinning-wheel and the reel of our grandmothers,
who have no Lyons or Aubusson looms, turn out real
works of art in embossed silks and satins, I tell the
administrators of Government here, if they will only
send out their artists to study and copy Lyons fash
ions, or to imbue themselves with European tastes,
their silks and satins and crapes will command the
markets of the world. What they most want to
please us now is the knowledge of our caprices and
fashions and tastes. From their long non-intercourse
with the world they have not advanced in all that,
and it is hard to persuade them to do aught save
what their great-great-grandfathers and mothers were
brought up to do. The (foreign) Curio Street of
Tokohama is a gallery of art. I could spend days
there, if I had time, to study them up. A people
who have their capacities can be taught to do any
thing, and the marvel is, when they learned it or
who taught them. Is not art inborn ?

THINGS IN JAPAN". 109
But shopping in Curio Street is an unutterable
bore. The price asked for any thing is no sign of
what you can get it for. Two or three shops only,
it is said, have fixed prices, and hence foreigners
largely patronize them. Elsewhere you sit and hag
gle and bid, and waste hours of precious time.
About one-half of what is asked may be set down as
the fair price ; but this being understood the Jap
shop-keeper triples often on that. Knowing nothing
of the real value of things or real cost, and but little
of their merit — as in lacquer ware — there can be the
greatest deception practised, and hence we hag
gle at random — are laughed at by the Japs, and
laugh at ourselves in concord with them. The cus
tom-houses in America will think we are all cheats
in our invoices, even when they are iona fide — all
Japanese work being comparatively cheap, from the
low price of labor. What is dear at home is very,
very cheap here. The profits in San Francisco and
New Tork, on Japanese curiosities, must be three
and four hundred per cent., and hence their infre
quent sale there.
The Government, or the form of Government
which this country has, it is almost impossible for a
foreigner to understand. The Mikado, or emperor,
is the head to whom all the real estate of the country
belongs, and from whom spring all landed titles, such
as they are. And then there are Koongays, with the
Mikado blood in their veins ; the Daimios, or Tedo
nobility ; the Hattamato, or the lower class of Dai-

110 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
mios. These people now make up the Government
of Japan, which is the old feudal system of Great
Britain and Europe eight hundred years ago. These
feudal lords were in frequent collision up to 1600,
since which time they have had tolerable peace, save
in the recent rebellion when the Mikado overthrew
the Tycoon, The Government was a dual Govern
ment up to the arrival of Commodore Perry, seven
teen years ago, when differences began to arise
between the Mikado and Tycoon respecting the ad
mission of foreigners.
The Mikado did not assent at first to the treaties
of Perry and Townsend Harris, and parties were
created by these differences of opinion, which led to
the overthrow of the Tycoon who made the treaties.
We have, therefore, now a Mikado Government,
risen into power on the overthrow of treaties, and
yet obliged by foreign arms to uphold and maintain
those treaties. These treaties expire the coming
year, and there will be much difficulty in renewing
them. The spectacle of a feudality of the middle
ages now, in 1871, is a novel and interesting exhibi
tion to the American eye. We are taken back, as it
were, into Europe eight hundred years ago, and see
the life our British ancestors led, with their serfs,
villains, and retainers. But I must not weary you
by writing a treatise on Government,
The Japanese are making great advancement in
certain kinds of our civilization. They have war
ships like ours, which it is doubtful if they know how

THINGS IN JAPAN. HI
to handle. They, have a mint organized like ours,
but their currency, like ours, is only paper money —
oblong pieces of pasteboard printed on, in Japanese,
They have a telegraph from Tokohama to Tedo,
which I have used two or three times and found as
reliable as any in the United States, English mes
sages are translated and transmitted in Japanese,
They are also constructing a railroad from Toko
hama to Tedo, some twenty-four miles, which the
English engineers are making a very, very costly
work — and this will cost so much that it will frighten
the Japanese from extending their lines over the
island as they were contemplating. Next year a
telegraph from Nagasaki and Tedo to Shanghai will
connect Japan and China, and enable even Ameri
cans, if they will pay for it heavily, to conimunicate
with Tedo, The telegraph, by the way, has been
extended over Eussia in Asia to the border custom
house of Eussia and China, some six or seven hun
dred miles only from Pekin, and in a year or two the
communication will be completed from Pekin, so
that St. Petersburg and Pekin can interchange ideas.
This will be a rival to the English lines on the Indian
seas.

LETTEE XIII,
ON TEE JAPAN SEAS.
Adieu to Tokohama. — The Foreigners and then? life there. — The An Sorts of Clothes
of the East. — The Japanese Passengers on board the Costa Eica. — A Japanese
Prince and his Betinue on board. — ^A Typhoon dodged. — Frightful Loss of life and
Property. — An Earthquake felt. — Curiosity satisfied. — Motley Cargo of the
Costa Bica. — Butcher's Meat called Fowl Japan Seas, Jxdy 13, )
On Board Steamer Costa Rica. (Under United States Flag.) )
Adieu to Tokohama, and all its agreeable Ameri
can population. We have been welcomed not only
as countrymen, but as friends, almost as relatives.
A New Torker cannot but be at home here ; for the
town abounds with New Torkers. I see the " Brook
lyn Hotel," the " New Tork Hotel," too, and I eat
meat from the " Fulton Market." The flag of the
United States on the Pacific mail steamers dots the
harbor. There are only about one thousand Caucasi
ans in Tokohama (exclusive of the military), with a
Mongolian population, including Kanagawans, of
some sixty or seventy thousand, and all the while
rapidly increasing. There are five or six little daily
journals in Tokohama, rich in advertisements, but
poor enough in news. One of these was sold the
other day, I see, for twenty thousand dollars. As to
news here, foreign news, there is not enough to keep

ON THE JAPAN SEAS. 113
a journalist alive. The wonder is that all do not die
of ennui. The writers, of course, know nothing of
Japanese, can therefore gather up no police reports,
have no thrilling intelligence — no court records,
nothing of etiquette in Tedo — notliing from the
Provincial Princes, All we have is the editorial
essay, and the everlasting, but all-important, prices
cm-rent of rice, silks, sheetings, shirtings, freights,
rates of exchange. But these are what men come to
Japan for (to get rich, and then go home), and hence
nothing is so important to them. The Caucasians
live beautifully here, many of them near their places
of business, right on the open Bay, and others, on the
bluffs above ; and five thousand dollars here in the
way of living goes farther than twenty thousand dol
lars in New Tork City, They shut up shop at four ;
drive or ride till seven, and at seven and a half sit
down to dinner, their evening amusement, after
wliich, and a long sitting at dinner, they go to bed.
Dinner is the great event of the day. Tiffin at one
o'clock, as they call " lunch," the intermediate event
— and therefore, the most is made of dinner. No
theatres, no opera for Europeans, no libraries, no
where to spend their evenings, they frantically dine,
and unhealthily sleep after such dinners, with Chi
nese almost always for their cooks. The Chinese
take to all trades, and Chinese make the best house-
servants here — the Japanese not well taking to that
sort of thing, save as nurses for children.
One of the curiosities of the East is the all sorts

114 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
of clothes everybody (of the male sex) wears. I am
not writing now of the nature-clad Japanese ; but
they often get cast-off European clothes, which, when
put on, amuse one to see. There's, a droll fellow,
with nothing on but old trowsers and straw shoes !
There, is another, with red European-made shoes, yel
low frock-coat, Calcutta hat (a hat branching all over
the head, forward and backward only though, and
stuffed so thick with light stuff, that no sun's rays
can pierce through it), spectacles on, too, and look
ing as wise as if some great philosopher. There, is
another yet, with a frock-coat only, no shirt, no
trowsers, no hat, no, nothing else ! When European
fashions are taken by the Japanese, they rush into
them, as do the Central American negroes, or the
North American Indians, But the hats of the Euro
peans in this country are of the oddest, di'ollest, most
variegated kind you can well imagine, I bring here
my American head cover, a poor concern, under a
Japanese sun, or in a Japanese rain, I cover it all
over with white linen, and a long veil down the neck,
to shed off the hot sun rays. Another sports a big Cal
cutta, English-invented hat, made in imitation of the
Turk's sash, wrapped round his head or cap (fez) on
a hot day, also to ward off the sun's rays. Another
yet, fresh come, to look jaunty, sports his American
straw hat. In short, we have all sorts of hats human
ingenuity has invented, and hence, we look like so
many birds of passage, if not of prey.
But, once more, adieu to Tokohama. I am on

ON THE JAPAN SEAS. 115
board the United States mail steamer Costa Eica,
running between Tokohama and Shanghai (China),
and touching at the Japanese ports of Hiogo and
Nagasaki, The ocean is as quiet as an inner lake.
This is the rainy season, and bless the rainy season,
for the clouds, ever overhanging, keep off the hot
rays of the sun. We Americans ought to be pro
foundly grateful to the Pacific Mail Steamship Com
pany, for this weekly line of steamers to Shanghai,
for it spreads the American name, and shows the
American flag far and wide in these seas. It alone
offsets, if not equals, British power and British fame
here. We have a Prince on board, a real live
Japanese Prince of countless generations, of the
purest blood, with ten of his two-sworded retainers
as body-guard — a Prince, too, of boundless green
acres — ^but our Tankee-born captain, insensible fel
low to blood, seems to think nothing of it. He car
ries Princes, he says, every trip, " Princes are noth
ing to him." Only a few years ago, these Princes
all went to the Tedo Capitol with thousands of
two-sworded retainers in their train, to whom every
body bowed prostrate in dust, as they passed by in
norimons (sedan chairs), while now, they go on a
Tankee steamer, under a Tankee flag, with Cape
Cod, or Taunton (Good Lord !) captains. We have
enough of these two-sworded fellows on board now
to take the steamer if they wished to, but, says the
captain, " What if they did ? what could they do
with the elephant if they had it ? " Sure, they are

116 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
well-behaved men. We have one hundred and fifty-
five passengers, all Japanese but some six or seven.
Some forty-five of them are cabin passengers, others
in the steerage, I have just been visiting them.
They sleep on mats, not in bunks, as the Chinese
passengers sleep, but on their very peculiar wooden
Japanese pillow — and with their women all stretched
out promiscuously beside them. They must be the
best behaved people in the world.
Magnificent green hiUs we are passing, clad with
verdure to the ocean edge. The everlasting clouds
and fogs of summer spread one universal green. I
must repeat, it is the prettiest land I ever was in.
England, in May, even, does not equal it. They
do not know how to farm and to terrace in England,
as do the Japs here. Many junks we are passing ;
more fishing-vessels. Their torches at night light up
the sea. Torches, they tell me, lure fish. I am
crediting about all they tell me, though, " they tell
me," like Dame Eumor, is at times an awful liar.
The light-houses, too, are on every prominent point
of the coast. Thanks to the Japanese, for thus light
ing up the shores. They light these houses well,
keep them well supplied with oil, and their lights are
as reliable as ours. Their innumerable junks profit
by them, as well as our steamers.
We have just dodged a typhoon ! The steamer
preceding us, on which we were to go, took it, and
weathered it at sea ; but here in Hiogo, where I am
writing now, the wreck and rack aro frightful. Six

ON THE JAPAN SEAS. 117
steamers high and dry, three of them in utter ruins,
are on the quay of Kobe. The ruins of junks line
the shores. The sea wall (cut stone) is knocked all
to pieces. A British bark, with almost all on board,
is turned upside down on the shore. Yerandas, bun
galows, godowns (warehouses), are knocked up, or
over. The lost of property has been very great, and
the loss of life deplorable. The Hiogo News, our
English newspaper, says :
" Between two hundred and fifty and three hundred houses
have heen destroyed along the shore, and six hundred junks
reported lost. On one junk two hundred lost."
And all along the shore for one hundred miles,
the rumor ofthe loss of Japanese property and life is
frightful. One harbor, near here, is all filled. Every
village between here and Osaca (a great city, fifteen
mUes off) is swept away. From one thousand to six
thousand lives have been lost ; but there are no
Japanese newspapers, nor news-gatherers. One can
only guess from what Dame Eumor reports. Thank
the Lord, we are all safe.
Every traveller, of course, wants to know What a
typhoon or cyclone is. My curiosity is amply satis
fied, now, though where I was, was only a gale. My
earthquake curiosity too is satisfied. I felt a little one
— ^was shaken up in a little one at Fujisawa about two
weeks gone by. There, in 1870, in May alone, were a
hundred and seventy shakes. I am content with the
little one I felt, only a little one, but it shook enough
for mo. This country is all volcanic. Its great moun-

118 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
tain, the adoration and admiration of Japan, Fusiya-
ma, is of volcanic birth. The soil is all volcanic. Hence
its wealth, I shall feel a little easier as to shakes when
I am on the other side of the Tellow Sea — for there
are several sputtery hills and sulphur fountains here
about. But there is no chance of dodging the chance
of being hit by typhoons for three thousand miles
yet. In the distance is the city of Osaca, where the
Japanese Government have just established a Mint.
Governor Ito, who was in Washington last winter,
examining the money -making machinery at the
Treasury, and afterward the Mint in Philadelphia,
is in charge of it, and has organized it on the systems
learned there. Governor Ito is well fitted for this
position, as he possesses a clear business head, united
with great financial ability.
The Costa Eica here (Hiogo) is loading for Shang
hai, with all sorts of the odds and ends of things.
We are taking baskets upon baskets of camphor on
board — good to keep off the moths. (I hope it wUl
keep off fleas.) The captain dare not stow it between
decks, for it would endanger the flavor of teas, here
after to come. We are taking in bales of isinglass ;
deers' horns in hundreds of bundles, sea-weed (our
common sea-weed) for the Chinese to eat ! (they love
it) and hiche de mer. There are a dozen steamboats
in port now, several of them for sale to the Japs, who
have been pretty well bitten by American and Brit
ish boats. Two of them have been once old gun
boats of ours. There are about tliree hundred for-

ON THE JAPAN SEAS. 119
eigners here. The town is pretty, or was before
the typhoon, that is, what is left of it is pretty, and
the green hills over it are pretty, too. It is quite a
place for a new cattle trade, that is opening. The
Japs, I have written you, abhor butchers — won't let
them enter the houses, and never eat cattle ! Beef
now is sold to them by these butchers under the
name of fowl. The Prince of Satzuma, who keeps up
an army of fifteen thousand men in European style,
gives his soldiers three rations a week on this
" fowl ; " and he introducing the meat fashion, the de
sire for eating it is becoming general. But we are
off, and adieu.

LETTEE XIV.
ON TEE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN.
The Beautiful Inland Sea of Japan. — ^Luxurious Travelling. — Prince Hizen. — ^Vampire
Cat. — Bay of Nagasaki. — ^The Oldest European Settlement. — The Boman Cath
olic Priests. — ^Pappenburg Island. — Thousands of Christians thrown from the
Precipice. — The Faith of Bomon Catholic Missionaries. — Street Scenes in
Nagasaki. — ^Needle Making. — Porcelain Painting. — Begging Buddhist Priest —
Street Actors. — Japanese Confectionery. — Japanese Woman's Toilet-Box. — Ee-
ceipt for Blacking tho Teeth. — Final Leave of Japan.
Nagasaki, July 17, 18V1.
This Japan, I re-declare, is the most beautiful
country in the world — and I have now seen a good
part of the world. I have come down through the
Inland Sea, by — what shall I say to give an Ameri
can an idea of it ? — through Lake Champlain, say,
through Lake George, the Thousand Islands of the
St. Lawrence, the Eocky Mountain ranges and the
Columbia Eiver in Oregon, Puget's Sound in Wash
ington Territory, etc., etc. There is nothing that
surpasses it, scarcely any thing that equals it, in our
country. The Scotchman here has his Loch Lomond,
or Loch Katrine ; the Swiss, his Genevan Lake ; the
Englishman, Westmoreland ; the Irishman, his Kil
larney. We have been sailing for twenty-four hours,
ten miles an hour, through a succession of changeable
scenery, an idea of which you can only have by

ON THE INLAND SEA OP JAPAN. 121
beai'ing in mind the home beautiful spots I have
named. The hills are covered to the very tops with
the liveliest green, or these hills are terraced gener
ally with garden spots, one overhanging the other.
Along many of the hiUs, and on the very summits,
are strings of lofty trees, so trained aS to make a
seeming continuous march of forest to forest over
every hUl-top.
There is no more luxurious travelling on earth
than this down the Inland Sea of Japan, True, a
hot sun is over our heads, often clouded, though, and
affording a canopy. We are on the upper deck, oh
the bow of the steamer, under ample awnings, in
bamboo chairs, made purposely to fit the human
(extended) form. The moving air fans us. Ice, all
the way from Boston, abounds for us. We can have
iced tea in abundance, or, if we will, mint-juleps,
even. The unknown Prince, whom I spoke of in a
former letter as a fellow-passenger, turns out to be
the Prince of Hizen, one of the eighteen chief
Daimios of Japan, on his way to his estates near
Nagasaki, where, as owner of coal mines, if judi
ciously managed, he is one of the richest princes in
the world. I showed him, in " Tales of Japan,"
published in English, a wood-cut of " the ^Yampire
Cat of Nabeshima," in which his family figured
many years ago. The story is of a Prince of Hizen
who had in his house a lady of rare beauty, whom a
large cat throttled, then taking her form, and making
the Prince believe she (the cat) was the real beauty.

122 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
The Prince kept on in love with the cat, but the cat
sucked all his life away. The beautiful woman was
at last found out to be a vampire cat, when a battle
ensued, and the cat, worsted in the fight, re-turned
cat, and escaping from the fighting room, was shot by
the Prince's retainers. The Prince laughed heartily
over the picture, and seemed to enjoy the fable.
The Bay of Nagasaki is, if possible, more beauti
ful than the scenery of the Inland Sea. The hUls
rise boldly from the water's edge, and land-lock the
harbor. Everything here is fresh and silent now, as
if there were not some seventy or eighty thousand
human beings on the hill-sides. The sun had just
gone, as we steamed inward, and people in these
lands retire early to their mats, and rise early to
greet the morning sun,
I sallied forth with that morning sun to see men
and things, as then, they are best to be seen. The
pomegranate and palm, the persimmon and bamboo,
are here. There is a strange commingling of the
temperate and torrid zones. Side by side, oaks
and trees, and feathery bamboos and palms, flourish
in equal beauty. The sober hues of the noi-th are
mingled with the more vivid verdure of the tropics.
The brown fish-hawk, swooping down from the hills
upon his finny prey, or poised in the air, makes the
hills echo with his wild cry.
Nagasaki is the oldest European settlement in
Japan, and yet there are said to be not over one
hundred and fifty Europeans there now, which means

ON THE INLAND SEA OP JAPAN. 123
Americans, too, for all here bear one name. The
Dutch were pent up here for two centuries in the
little Island of Decima, and allowed only once a year
to visit a neighboring hill, and then under a strong
guard. Xavier and his followers gained a footing
here in the sixteenth century, to propagate the Holy
Catholic faith. The galleons of Portugal and Spain,
centuries ago, were here. Princes went from here
to make their obeisance in Eome to the Pope, But
a cruel Tycoon, alarmed by the triumphs of the
Church over the people, fulminated an edict against
all foreigners, shut up the Dutch in Decima, and
then pitched thousands of Christians who would not
repent (backwards), from the rocky cliffs of Pappen
berg Island into the ocean below. Never since that
period, when the Eoman Catholics may have been
said to rule the millions of Japan — ruling them more,
perhaps, by their science, learning, and arts, than by
the force of the Bible — ^have any Christians been
permitted as missionaries to enter Japan, save in the
four open consular ports. The rulers of Japan, even
now, are energetically resisting all the representations
and claims of Catholic and Protestant foreign minis
ters for " toleration ; " and it is the very last thing,
in the new treaty to be made in 1872, that the
Japanese will yield. A French priest, passenger
with me, mourns plaintively over the blows his
church has received both in China and Japan, but is
sure, nevertheless, the day is soon coming when God
will open the highways and waters to the ministers

124 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
of the Propaganda fides in Eome, Nor is there any
reason, if the masses of the people were permitted to
be approached, why all should not become Christians
— for the mere outward differences between the
worship of the idol god, Buddha, and the Catholic
altars, seem slight, while the Buddhist heaven, as
defined in the classic books, is almost our God. This
very seeming similarity, though, makes the Buddhist
priests bitter in their opposition, and they have of
late had force enough with the Government to
abstract some thousands of Catholics (the cherished
relics of the old Catholic missionaries, that have in
secret handed down their faith) to places unknown,
but probably to the mines of Teso, there to work
out a wretched existence.
The streets of Nagasaki would afford to me end
less interest, if I only had time to explore them, for
every thing is done out of doors. There are the manu
facturers, by hand, of needles, and the needles are so
much better than om'S, that the Japanese won't buy
ours. There, too, are the workers on lacquer, paint
ing with it on porcelain vases — ^work exquisitely
done by men squatting on then- haunches and nearly
naked. There is a little wheel, spinning cotton, that
grandma is lazily turning — she, too, squatting, and
naked to her waist. Here is a splendid porcelain
warehouse, that my eyes water to* see, and that I
would buy the whole of, if I had money enough. For
one pair of vases, some eight feet high, six hundred
dollars is wanted. The bamboo cups, the egg-shell ¦

ON 'THE INLAND SEA OP JAPAN. 125
saucers, I would buy scores of them, if they would
bear packing in a trunk, and stand the rattle trunks
have here — on poles and bullocks' backs; for there
is only one road for wheels in Japan — the Tocaido —
the rest for cangos, norimons, ponies, and bullocks,
and coolies, with the poles, who bring on their backs,
loads fifty miles to market. There are plays going
on, even now, seven o'clock in the morning. The
actors daub their faces all over with white powder,
rouge their lips, tattoo their bodies with paint, and
then " go at it " before any crowd they can collect in
the streets. The streets are narrow, and so all walk
ers must go through the theatrical crowd. I fol
lowed a big bullock, heavily laden, and the crowd
marvelled not over him, but over me set up a jolly
howl — the bullock they knew ; the wandering Tankee
was unknown, and the jokes they cracked at my ex
pense seemed to be many. There, come three Buddhist
priests, collecting alms, rattling little bells on a pole,
praying for tempos or cash, and then handing out a
contribution-box. Everybody that had any thing
seemed to give a little, I followed their example.
Was this right, or wrong ? Am I a heathen, or not ?
But, on the sands of the Dead Sea (in Palestine), I
tumbled down, with my head toward Mecca, just as
the Bedouins did— having long ago learned, even on
the Adriatic, "when among the Eomans to do as
the Eomans do." There, is a confectionery shop.
The Japanese are as fond of candies as are our
people. They make just what you want, I asked

126 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
for a fish and got it — a respectable-sized fish — for
two or three cents, with sugar enough in it to make'
a man sick a week. A merchant, who seems to
be rich in the good things of the world, has just let
one of our ladies peep into his wife's inner bed-cham
ber, and here is the brief result of her explorations :
Little or no furniture ; no chairs ; no hedstead — nothing hut
mats to sleep on. A toilet-box was on the floor, near the waU —
about the only article of furniture in the room. In this box
there were five drawers, and two lacquer basins on. top. In the
top drawer of this box there was a metallic mirror, like our
hand-glasses. In the second drawer she kept her powder, paint,
wax, brush, tooth-powder and brush. Two little drawers
came next ; in one she had her false hair, and in the other
fancy pins, gilt paper, and other fixings for her hair. In the
lower drawer was her pillow, which is placed under the neck
when sleeping on the mats, so as to prevent the hair from being
rumpled. It is made of wood, and covered with paper on the
top. The powder looks like starch, and when they use it they
mix a little water with it, and rub it in like paste ; and they
have two brushes that they use to rub it off with. The paint
looks green, and turns red, when put on the lips and cheeks.
The following is her receipt for blacking the teeth :
Take three pints of water, and having warmed it, add half a
tea- cupful of wine (saki ?). Put into this mixture a quantity of
red-hot iron; allow it to stand five or six days, when there
will be a scum on the top of the mixture, which should then be
poured into a small tea-cup and placed near the fire. "When it
is warm, powdered gaU-nuta and iron filings should be added
to it, and the whole should be warmed again. The liquid is
then painted on the teeth by a soft feather brush, with more
powdered gall-nuts and iron, and after several applications, the
desired color will be obtaiued.
Whether the married women like thus to blaqk
their teeth or not, is disputed among foreign residents

ON THE INLAND SEA OP JAPAN. 127
here. The men compel them, however, to do it,
whether they like it or not, for it is the great sign by
which a man consecrates and shows off his female
chattel to the world. Whoever has blackened teeth
is not to be touched by other men, on pain of death.
The eyebrows of married women, I may as well add
here, are shaved, and their lips rouged! (Needs
there, then, this penalty of death?)
The Japanese women are not pretty ; but they
have charming natural manners; with beautifully
shaped arms, and tiny hands. The young women
are all as remarkable for their superb white teeth, as
the married ones are for their hideous black ones.
This custom originated some two or three hundred
years ago, and is supposed to show the wife's devo
tion to her husband. One of the Mikado's wives (so
goes the legend) was very lovely, and to show her
indifference to her personal appearance, and to prove
her love for her husband, blackened her beautiful
teeth and shaved off her eyebrows. This was con
sidered such a sacrifice, that all living wives (not
to be outdone by Mrs. Mikado) followed her exam
ple. The custom has become compulsory.
In now bidding a final adieu to Japan, I feel a
regret I never felt in leaving a foreign country before.
It is so beautiful ! "Hie people seem so amiable !
The happiness apparently so universal ! But I feel
that in my hasty skimming and sketching I know
nothing of it, and, doubtless, I have blundered often
in what I have so hastily pencilled, as you see by this

128 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
manuscript, on mulberry (Japan) paper. Forgive,
then, all blunders. A little is perhaps better than
nothing, even if error is in it at times. Lovers of
fruits and of vegetables will not find them in Japan,
The peach is not fit to eat. There is nothing, in the
fruit way, eatable but plums. The vegetation has
no taste. Sheep cannot live in Japan. The grass
kills them, after repeated experiments; and hence,
we have no mutton, save what is imported from
China. But the fish are excellent, and the beef
tender and good. One, therefore, will not starve
amid the beauties of Japan,

LETTEE XV.
ON, AND OVER TO CEINA.
On the Tellow Sea, bound to Shanghai. — The Great Tang-tze and its Tellow Water.
— Up the Whang-poo. — Beflections on entering the Great Gates of China. —
Thermometer in Shanghai. — Hot, Hotter, Hottest. — ^Air wanted, a Puff or a
Typhoon. — ^Things In and About Shanghai. — ^The Summer Costume. — Innumer
able Mounds or Graves in the Cotton-Fields. — American Flag in the Tang-tze. —
We are taking the Coasting Trade of China, etc. Shanghai, July, 1871.
Exir Japan ! Lo, presto, China ! Good-by, ye
polysyllabic Japanese, Kotsuki no Kami Kuranos-
ukie, Uzesugi, Kobayashi, Shimidgu Ikaku ; and wel
come, now. Ah Sin, A Pu, Sing Sing, Jung Ku, Ki
Sam — nay, all of the monosyllabic Chinese vocabu
lary ! I am on the Tellow Sea, or just south of the
Tellow Sea, oh my way to the islands ofthe Tang-tze,
thence to the Hwang p'u, or Whang-poo, on, to Shang
hai, the great Asiatic-European commercial city. The
water is now so yellow, that I should have no hesita
tion in calling it the Tellow Sea, if they dii^ not tell
me that all this " yellow " comes from the mud of the
great Tang-tze Eiver, which begins somewhere up in
the Thibet Mountains, and runs and crooks, three
thousand miles to the ocean, with all the dirt and
filth it can gather from innumerable cities, and all
7

130 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
the mud it can sweep out from thousands of valleys
and mountains. So many canals empty into this
great river, that it may be said to be the inlet and
outlet of the commerce of the three or four hundred
millions of Chinamen — for, which is it, three or four
hundred millions, the population here? — Nobody
knows — at least, no one can answer ! Three hundred
millions, however, are enough for a nation, are they
not ? And hence, the river that draws off the dirt of
these millions upon millions must be yellow enough
to yellow even a sea. The Tankee steamer's wheels
are splashing through these yellow-made waves, some
forty, some sixty miles off from the coast — ^for thus,
long before you get into China, you are upon its
watery soil. Shoals, shallows of mud, islands un
der water and over water, at times, are all about us.
Pilot boats, of course, are indispensable, and we
greet, with no little pleasure, miles and miles off,
a New-Tork-looking pilot-boat, with a John Bull
pilot on board, who relieves the anxious mind of
our Cape Cod Tankee captain, and conducts us tow
ard the port.
Upon entering this vast portal, of this, the great
est empire upon earth, where so much of human life
has been ebbing in and out, so many thousands of
years, that history is blinded, and cannot number the
many, one cannot help dreaming or thinking a little
out loud. Here, is a country older than Jerusalem,
older than Egypt, probably — a country which was
comparatively civilized centuries before, when we

ON, AND OVER TO CHINA. 131
Caucasians were barbarians — once going ahead for
centuries (nay, probably up to the time it touched
our European civilization), but now going astern — a
country that blessed us with the compass, the art of
printing, and blessed us (or cursed us) with gun
powder — the land of Confucius and Mencius, whose
heavenly teachings, though older than Christ's, seem,
most of them, to have been almost as much inspired ;
and I, a Tankee, from a new world and long un
known, under a Tankee flag, with Tankee paddle-
wheels, am coasting up into it, with the proud con
sciousness that this use of steam is my own country
man's discovery, with the telegraph, and hundreds of
other good things more, but now far, far beyond the
celestial Chinaman's dreams, nay, even despised by
him, as he despises " the foreign devil," that outside
barbarian, who is tormenting him with novelties.
This is the land of the mulberry and of the busy silk
worm, of silks, of satins, the luxurious prizes Eoman
matrons coveted, but yearned for often in vain, be
cause of their enormous cost, and of the leaf that ships
for three centuries now, have been risking every thing
to win — the tea-leaf, I mean — a beverage, though
coming from the Tang-tze, that every maid and
maiden, as well as man, feels now to be a -necessity
of life, whether he or she lives on the Don, or the
Volga, or the Thames, or the Liffey — ^by the Sacra
mento or the Passamaquoddy — in Oregon or in Nova
Scotia. A boy emperor, now only fifteen, reigns
over this vast empire, and these millions upon mill-

132 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
ions, in fear and trembling, all obey. Exit, this sort
of ejaculation. Enter, China.
Shanghai is from Nagasaki (Japan) four hundred
and fifty-nine miles, from Hiogo (or Kobe) three
hundred and eighty-six miles, from Tokohama three
hundred and forty- two miles ; fare, one hundred dol
lars, first-class, other classes any price; for these one
thousand one hundred and eighty-seven mUes, time,
including stoppages, one week. Shanghai is not on
the great river, but on the Whang-poo, only a tidal
river, some forty miles long, but on which great
ships do enter, not without some fear, though, of
being stuck in the mud. Indeed, the whole of this
country about here is mud-made — ^like the Mississip
pi, or the Nile Deltas — and islands are ever popping
up, and growing, where once great ships swam. The
land-greedy Chinese bank up, and rob Neptune when
ever they can, and the consequence is, that when a
hot, baking July sun shoots down its rays upon vast
areas of fresh mud, a malaria poisons the region all
round about — so that, as I enter here, already I
wish I was anywhere else ; but I only mean to run the
gauntlet, and be off in the first boat.
The thermometer is the biggest liar that ever
Uved. It is only ninety-five or ninety-eight degrees
here at night, and one hundred or one hundred and
three degrees by day, and yet it is hotter, intensely
hotter, than I have felt it in the Napa (California)
Valley, coming from the Geysers, in July, at one

ON, AND OVER TO CHINA. I33
hundred and eighteen degrees, or, on the sands of
Egypt. Thermometers, therefore, I have no hesita
tion in saying, lie, not exactly in words, or figures,
or letters, but in spirit, in substance, in caloric, at
least. I am suffocating here 1 I cannot get breath
enough ! What would I give for a puff, and how
much more for a typhoon, even if a destructive one ?
There is no air, night nor day, and, if possible, it is
hotter by night than by day. There is no sleep in
this oven-bed, and if there were, the mosquitoes
would eat you up, if you did not throw over you the
well-reticulated net. A mattress is unendurable ; a
mat has to be laid on that, or your perspiration would
stick you to the mattress. Never, never, Tankee
pilgrim, enter here in June, July, or August. They
say you can breathe, and live, and sleep, in all the
other months of the year ; but if you will be such a
fool as I am, and come, drink, and drink deep, not
exactly of the Pierian Spring — ^not water, for that is
poison here — ^but claret, hock, champagne, porter,
beer, and eat ice, and little else, except bread and
meat. Shanghai is nearly in the latitude of Northern
Florida ; but amid low lands as it is, on which are
boundless fields of cotton, near the mouth of the
great Tang-tze, doubtless, the climate is like that of
New Orleans, on the Mississippi, with the ther
mometer ranging higher. What I know for a cer
tainty is, you will never catch me here again in July,
if there be any way of getting around it, or over it,
or under it.

134 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
The foreign residents of Shanghai suffer not a lit
tle this season ofthe year ; but here, then, they must
stay, for now is the season of " tea," and " silk," the
great exported staples ofthe country. In winter they
can play, but never in the summer. They prepare
themselves for being roasted as well as possible — ^not
exactly in our Georgia, or the Japanese, natural qos-
tume, but as near to it, as civilization will permit.
They go without shirts, to begin with. A white flan
nel frock-coat, closely fitting the body, somewhat
fancifully made, with white linen trowsers, is the cos
tume. No dickey is sported over that coat. No dickey
could stand the drippings of perspiration here over
five minutes, if on. They live thus, and do business
with a punka, or wind-fiap, fiying over them, ever
kept going by a half-sleeping coolie (Chinaman). We
breakfast by punkas ; we dine by punkas. Heaven
giving us no breezes, men raise as many artificial
winds as possible. No one ventures out, if it can be
helped, till the sun is ^oing down, A great two-
story, long-tailed pith hat is then sported. They rid6
out toward sunset in " traps," low-hung carriages,
drawn by one pony, or, in a California-made can-iage,
with California horses, where that costly luxury can
be afforded ; or, they go in sedan chairs, or, are wheel
ed by a Chinaman, two at a time, on a wheelbarrow,
dog-cheap for such rides as that — the vilest invention,
by the way, for going, I have ever seen yet — worse,
if possible, than the Japanese cango.
The evening drive in Shanghai to the bubbling

ON, AND OVER TO, CHINA. 135
spring seems to be the great event of the day. Then,
the sweltering foreigners turn out into the country,
to breathe the air — (but is there ever any ?) — and in
their various vehicles they make long processions, for
the turn-outs are numerous here, and the foreign
population is well-to-do in the world, if not wealthy,
all. Woe ! woe ! however, to any poor wretch of a
Chinaman in the way of one of these traps, or vehicles
— for all drive with the fury of Jehus, among them,
and through the thickest of their narrow streets,
without any seeming regard to life or Hmb, The idea
is, or seems to be, that " Shanghai belongs to us, not
to you," and, " get out of the way, or we will ride,
rough-shod over you." Wonderful to say, however, but
few accidents occur, and when they do, the foreigners
pay for them in a way abundant enough to satisfy
the Chinese love of money.
On all these drives out of Shanghai, what most
arrests an American's attention, especially one just
now, with half a foot in the grave, from the diseases
of the climate, are the graves or mounds of the Chi
nese, which seem to dot, if not to half cover, the
great cotton-fields all about. These mounds or graves
have been going up — ^how many years shall I say ?
four thousand ? Quien sabe f — and in ms^ny places
they seem to cover the ground, essentially interfering
with and obstructing cultivation. The Chinese rev
erence, nay, worship their ancestors, and hence pre
serve these ancestral graves, mere mounds, with idol
atrous veneration. Cultivation would be desecration,

136 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
though they do use the grass grown over them to feed
their cattle. At first, the dead are left on the top of
the gi'ound in two-storied coffins, and then, in time,
over these coffins, the earth is piled. These mounds,
now innumerable, these coffins, thus uplifted, are not
exactly pleasant suggestions, under a July sun, and
they mar the pleasures of the drive, till the eye is ac
customed to them, as it can be to any thing. They
have become, too, great obstructions to the advance
ment and improvement of the country — ^for no rail
road can be run through, or, over them ; no telegraph,
with the evil spirit on its wires, near them ; nor com
mon road, without a world of expense and negotia
tion. The race-course here is full of grave mounds,
save on the track, and how the track was cleared of
these graves, I have not learned, doubtless, by the
omnipotence in China (as elsewhere) of the almighty
dollar. But, upon the whole, even in July, and to a half
dead man, as I have been ever since I breathed what
is miscalled " air" here, Shanghai is an achievement,
a wonderful place, considering how it has arisen from
the swamp in only four or five years. There are beau
tiful Italian villas all through it. There are churches
that would do honor to New Tork. There are clubs
with all the luxuries of the clubs of London or New
Tork, British and American mercantile houses,
mainly, with some German and French, have made
good streets, good roads, and made good municipal
governments — self-elected — all within five or six

ON, AND OVER TO CHINA. I37
years. Some three thousand foreigners live here, en
joying all the blessings of life, except water and air
— (don't laugh) — and make money, and grow rich,
and then go home, if they don't die here, to enjoy it.
They have daily and weekly newspapers — well-writ
ten ones, too — and doctors (of course), and lawyers,
and courts. Every foreign nation, you know, has
exclusive jurisdiction over its own subjects, and the
British have their especial judges, while our judges
are our consuls. Where commerce is by the millions,
as it is here, the law cases are often of the gravest
importance ; and I see by the journals, the lawyers
argue with as much force and ability as if in the
United States or in England. We Americans have
our gaol here ; the British and other nations have
theirs. The Chinese but look on — ^for Shanghai is
foreign-governed in every sense, except the sov-
reignty territorial. It is wonderful that such mixed
systems have worked so well ; that the police is so
effective, the pilots and harbor arrangements so good,
and that so many nations live together in such har
mony. An American place is Shanghai now — far more
than any other place in China ; and though the Brit
ish manufacturers have nearly driven us ^out of the
market, in cotton and woollen goods, and driven our
ships off the ocean, yet Americans " never say die,"
and work, and work well, despite the destructiveness
of our tariff law. The Pacific Mail Company (ours)
have nearly driven off, with their weekly lines to

138 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
Japan, English and French competition; and they
have done it by the superiority of their steamers, and
their superior management of them. They live, that
is all ; but they live in the hope of a better day, while
the flag that they float here makes every American
proud of his country. But a few years gone by,
Americans sent out here some of our river steamers,
to run from Shanghai to Hankow, six hundred miles
off, up the great Tang-tze — ^the Amazon, the Missis
sippi, of China, Boats from Mystic (Conn.), and from
other parts of New England and New TorF, were
sent here. But that day is over. We can build no
more ships in Mystic, or anywhere, under our laws ;
but the day for our flag to be emblazoned on the
Tang-tze is not yet over. We are bringing out the
workmen, and are going to build ships here. We
buy the timber in Oregon, or Washington Territory,
and put it together here. There are eighteen steamers
under our flag now on the Tang-tze, running six
hundred miles up and down, and coining money.
There are others running once or twice a week to
Tientsin (en route to Pekin), all under our flag, and
floating it before millions and millions of Chinamen's
eyes, who are thus taught to look upon " the flowery
flag," so they call it, as omnipresent, everywhere,
in the Tellow Sea and in the North of China. But
some of these ships are already British purchased
ships, with no right to our flag, save under consular
authority. They have never seen an American port,
and therefore, under our laws, can never enter there.

ON, AND OVER TO CHINA. I39
These American steamers, with their superior ac
commodations, have nearly monopolized the vast
commerce of the great Tang-tze. Forty thousand
j unkmen, wails an official Mandarin, have been thrown
out of employment in the coasting-trade alone ! Per
haps so ; but if so, they have increased the home
value of Chinese teas and silks more than the
worth of the useless labor of forty thousand junkmen.
For a while they had all the freights to themselves.
The British resisted at first, by sending their clippers
up the Tang-tze to Hankow ; but the navigation for
sailing ships is so difficult and dangerous, that the
insurance becomes more than the freight. Now they
are sending quick tea steamers.

LETTEE XVI.
TEE EEALTE OF CEINA.
Wiere^s Chefoo ? — A Watering-PIace in China. — Amusements There. — The Amer
ican and other Fleets. — The Noisy Balntations of the Fleets. — Church Service
on the Colorado. — TheCorean Expedition. — The Bace ofthe Bival American
Barges.— Bain here.— Breakikst by the Eussian Admiral.— The English CUni-
versal) Language. — ^Entertainments given us by the Eussians. — Affinity of
Eussians and^ Americans. — ^Admiral Bodgers's State Breakfiist. — ^Divine Service
on board tho Eussian Flag-Ship. — ^A Busy Week. — The Novel Assemblage at
Chefoo about to disperse. Cheefo, August 1, 1871.
Q. Wheee's Chefoo? A. Close by Corea, Q.
Where's Corea ? A. Look on the map and see. But
the whereabouts of Corea all of you ought by this
time to know — ^for our Admiral Jack Eodgers has
just been thundering and lightning there with his
little fleet, and is now back here, with lots of Corean
trophies, battle-flags, jingalls, spears, etc. Corea is just
across the Tellow Sea, about two hundred miles from
this promontory of Shantung, and you can go there
in a day. Chefoo is, in summer, to Shanghai and
Pekin, the Nevsrport, Long Branch, or Cape May of
China. The Shanghaites send up here their wives
and children, to live through the summer, and come
occasionally themselves, while the Pekin-European
residents come down here to escape, as they say, the
terrible heats of Pekin. It is five hundred and twelve

THE HEALTH OF CHINA. 141
miles fi-om Shanghai, about four hundred from Pekin,
in about the latitude, and with the air, of Old Point
Comfoi-t (Va.), mosquitoes included — and a few extra
fleas, and an occasional scorpion, added on ! Never
theless, Chefoo is the summer heaven of the Shanghai
Hades. I feel as if I were in Paradise. I am revel
ling just on the borders of the ocean surf, with nine
American and European war-ships in the port, with
their flags, all in the range and sight of our fair and
comfortable summer hotel. This fleet must have on
board, in all, some twenty-five hundred Americans,
French, Germans, and Eussians, and they make Che
foo, otherwise desolate — with not a road in it, or
around it, for vehicles, and no communication but by
sedan chairs — a very jolly place, at least for this
summer. We go everywhere we can, by water. The
coolies take us through the surf, in their chairs, to
the boats, or, we get on the back of some lusty sailor,
who takes pleasure in saving us from a ducking, as
we go to visit the ships. We have nearly recovered
our health, all of us — are ready for any thing — and
these combined fieets, whose officers are all on good
terms, the one with the other, are giving fun enough
to everybody. The place, just now, is a second ex-
Old Point Comfort, or, the regatta seasgn at New
port — ^with breakfast parties, dinner parties, water
parties, dances, serenades, etc. Three foreign min
isters of the great powers are here — the Eussian,
General Vlangali, the British, Mr. Wade, the Amer
ican, Mr. Low — with their attaches, retinues, etc.

142 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
Four bands of music are on board the ships — one, on
the Colorado (American), one, on the Almas (Eus
sian), one, on the Ocean (British), and one, on the .
Herther (German.) Here are materials enough for
society, you see, in this great naval rendezvous — a
place chosen for its health, and where ships congre
gate for the sake of their crews. There are two
hotels here, a mile apart, the one inaccessible to the
other, in consequence of creeks to be waded, save in
sedan chairs ; and in one or the other of these hotels,
every evening, before dinner, which is at eight o'clock,
p. M., one or the other of the' four bands plays. I
often ask myself, what do the Chinese say — ^patient,
hard-working fellows — ^what do they think of these
great, boisterous, ever ship thundering cannon saluta
tions, and over this invasion of their otherwise quiet
little Chefoo ? Every minister has to be saluted —
every admiral, every consul — and hence, from these
nine ships-of-war, gunpowder, by day, seems ever ex
ploding. The roar rattles in and around, and echoes
from the Chefoo hills ; and Confucius, born in this
province, whose grave is not far off, must feel his,
bones shake, if there be any of his bones left,
Sunday, — ^We went to church on board the Colora
do — the full Episcopal service, and nearly all the crew
attending. It seemed strange, but reverential, here,
in this far-off land, to be hearing that beautiful
service, between decks, in our own native tongue,
from our own chaplain. It transported us to our
distant Sabbath home, and we felt as if we were

THE HEALTH OF CHINA. 143
there, when, on the planks of one of our ships, the
chaplain prayed " for the President of the United
States and aU others in authority." The Colorado
officers recited to us their unprinted and as yet un
written adventures in Corea — as surveyors, as sailor-
soldiers — and they showed the numerous little tro
phies they had taken. All say, " never were bolder,
braver men than these Coreans," whose commanders'
orders, " death or victory," they executed to the letter,
by dying, save, when wounded, they could not con
tinue the fight to die. Not a word, as yet, have our
fieet heard from the Government in Washington, in
reply to letters or telegrams ; and now, they but await
the coming mail due here, to abandon the expedition,
and to start for Japan, to be in port as safe as pos
sible during the approaching typhoon season.
MoHDAT, — ^Eain, rain, nothing but rain ! A long,
dry season has been followed by a severe rain.
Houses stand drouths here pretty weU ; but this rain
is washing away our hotel. The builders here build
of mud, and lime, and straw— much mud and Httle
lime — and hence, when a fiood comes, such as we are
having now, the mud washes away, and down tumble
eeihngs, and walls, and plastering, and every thing
else. Certain it is, our hotel is being washed down,
and is running off into the Chefoo Bay ; and, if it
washes much more, we shall have to take to the Co
lorado, the Alaska, or the Benicia, the American
ships now in port, for refuge from the flood, Pekin,
I am told, whither I am now travelling, is pretty

144 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
well under mud, if not all under water — ^for the floods
above have been severe, while the Peiho Eiver (the
river near Pekin) is running over.
TuESDAT. — There was a great boat-race between
the barges of the Colorado and the Alaska — and never
did a regatta excite greater interest in New Tork, or
in Southampton (England), than did' this regatta.
Two admirals — one American (Eodgers), one Eus
sian (Federovski) — and two foreign ministers — Gen.
Vlangali (Eussian) and Mr, Low (American) — ^with
aids, captains, lieutenants, too numerous to mention,
were on hand. The crews of the three American
ships were in the highest state of excitement, running
to the rigging and manning the yards, as if so many
birds — all, more or less, having staked something on
the result, and all, therefore, winning or losing a
little of that something. The barge of the Alaska
won, and the Colorado, the flag-ship, was down
hearted, of course,
Thitesdat. — ^Breakfasted with Admiral Fede
rovski, on board his flag-ship, the Almas, in company
with the American and Eussian ambassadors, and
admirals, and captains of aU the war-ships in port —
making a large party of us. The breakfast was in
European style— French — prepared by a French
restaurant-keeper here, and sent on board. A fine
Eussian band played dm-ing the breakfast, which
lasted two hours or more. There were French, Ger
man, and Eussian officials at table, but all spoke
English — some well, all passably well. The English

THE HEALTH OF CHINA. I45
language, I see — and the more I see, the better I see
it — ^is becoming the universal language of the edu
cated world. Twenty or twenty-five years ago, or
less, only French would carry you through the world ;
but now it is impossible to go anywhere, from the
pyramids of Egypt to the mountains of Japan, that
English will not pretty well carry you along, Chi
nese house servants, more or less, speak English —
" pigeon English," as it is called — but, nevertheless,
comprehensible English ; and go where you will, in
whatever society, English seems now to be the
tongue. Such are the conquests of the almighty
dollar, with the diffusion of English colonization in
America, the Indies, Australia, and elsewhere. One
of the Eussians with us to-day, the secretary of the
Pekin Embassy, was educated in Oxford (England),
and speaks English better than the English them
selves — that is, without their hemming, and hawing,
and hesitating, and repeating, and re-repeating. The
Eussian ambassador and the Eussian admiral both
speak English ; and what was remarkable, in a group
afterward, when landed on shore, the German comr
mander leading off in German, the whole group of
Eussians followed him, as if German were their native
tongue, »
The Eussian admiral gave us, and the ladies with
us, a novel treat after the breakfast was over ; and
that was the Eussian (peasant) dance, executed vrith
admirableteffect by his sailors. One of the officers,
too, threw off his uniform, and put on a sailor's garb,

146 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
to enter into the dance, and in spirit, vivacity, and
energy contributed to our common enjoyment of the
strange spectacle of a Eussian peasant dance on a
Chinese sea. The band, too, played several Eussian
¦ airs, and one, a national one, with great interest to
us. The whole crew united with the band in singing
the national anthem. To the Eussian admiral, who
made every effort to please us, we were much indebt
ed ; and we left, after enjoying one of the pleasantest
days of life. The Eussians seem naturally to " take "
to us Americans, and we " take " to them.
Feiday, — ^Admiral Eodgers gave a " state " break
fast to the Eussian admiral, the French captain-in-
chief, the German captain-in-chief, the English cap
tain-in-chief — to the Eussian and American Ministers,
and to your humble servant. These officers, all ex
cept the Frenchman and German, seem to be on con
fidential terms with each other, even in matters of
their profession, and their conversation was prolonged
for hours in mutual instruction and profit.
Saturday. — Visited the Alaska, entertained by
Captain Blake, of New Tork, who distinguished him
self on James Eiver and in Texas, commanding the
Hatteras, during our civil war, and who was com
mander of the late Corean expedition. By the way,
I may say, this Corean expedition is given up, unless
our Government orders to the contrary, which is not
probable, before the intervention of Congress. The
ships will next week disperse — the Colorado to Toko
hama, the Alaska to Nagasaki, the Benicia up the

THE HEALTH OF CHINA. ' 147
Tang-tze to Hankow, after a visit to Shanghai, and
the Palos up the gulf here, to North China.
SuuDAY, lOJ A, M. — ^Eevisited, by invitation of
Admiral Federovski, the Almas, to attend divine
service. A Greek priest, a very handsome fellow, in
a black cassock, with a heavy-linked gold chain, up
holding a golden cross, officiated. The service was
in old Eussian (Sclave). I could not profit much by
it, in what was harder than " all Greek " to me ; but
in the extemporized chapel, fiag-created, with its
altars, images, candles, and incense, there was quite
enough solemnity to be well understood. Another
breakfast was given us here, after the service was
over, with another Eussian country dance.
Four and a-half p. m. — Visited, by invitation of
Captain Hewett, the British ship. Ocean, larger than
the Colorado, with two hundred more men on board
— one of the large-class ships — with a very pleasant
entertainment on board.
• ••«••
I have gone into this recitative, personal journal
ism, only to give you an idea of the way we kill time
in a Httle, dirty Chinese town, all mud and dirt, ex
cept on the sands where we are, and to show you rep
resentative squadron and diplomatic life in a sum
mer European-coast city of China, There will b&
an infinite deal of gossip in the Chinese and Japan
ese English and American press, as to what all this
assemblage means, of the American, British, Eussian,
French, and German squadrons, with their admirals

148 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
and three ministers plenipotentiary. But all means
only this — Health, in a not healthy country, in the
unhealthy season — and nothing else. " Corea" is
reported to be the great matter of consultation. I am
said to have brought out secret orders from the Unit
ed States Government. Corean junks have arrived
here, as spies on our squadron ; but there is nothing
going on, save what I have journalized above. The
British minister, in thj3 morning, returns to Pekin.
I go too — ^by water and by mud (this is yet the rainy
season), if none of us break down under the weather
in the interior. If nothing happens, you vrill hear
from me again in about a month, and I wiU tell you
something of the great capital of three hundred mil
lions of Chinamen, I am thinking, too, of Siberia,
and of going home via St. Petersburg ; but I fear, in
consequence of brigands lately reported on the route,
I shall have to give it up.

LETTEE XVII.
ON TEE PEIEO RIVER.
Tremendous Flood on the Biver of Peiho.— Whole Villages washed away.— Tho
People drowned out. — ^Widespread Desolation. — ^living on the Biver on a Tankee
Steamer. — The Grand Canal broken loose. — ^The Crooked Peiho Eiver. — The Way
we wound up the Biver. — The Tear-ago Massacre of Europeans and Cathohcs in
Tien-tsin. — The then Fright of all Missionaries. — Scare about going there. —
Guns and Gunboats Commercial and Christian Guarantees. — An Exploration of
the Old Under-water Tien-tsin, in a British Launch. — ^Innumerable Junks. — ^The
Buins of the Eoman Catholic Cathedral. — The Tombs of the slain Sisters. — ^Ter
rors predicted for Tourists to Pekin.— Nevertheless, On, On to Pekin.
Tien-tsin, August 10, ISTl.
Look on the map, and you will find where this
place ought to be, when not under water, as now —
on the Peiho Eiver, the gateway to Pekin from the
Gulf of Pe-chih-H, and where the British and French
took their great points of departure, when, some
years gone by, some thousands of them paid their
respects to the celestial Emperor, in his celestial
palace — respects not of the kouto style (nine- bond
ings and th*ee head-knockings), but respects with
heavy cannon, big shot and little shot, sword, bayo
net, and revolver. I am living on board a Tankee
steamer, Imilt in Glasgow (Capt. Hawes, all the way
from Searsport, Me.), under the " flowery " Tankee
flag, and all above me, and below me, and nearly all
around me, is desolation, desolation, desolation. The

150 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
windows of heaven have been wide open for two
weeks, pouring out nothing but water, water — and
some say frogs — and all upper North-China appears
to have broken loose, and to be flowing down here
in mud, straw, bamboo, millet, sorghum, and other
crops, etc. The Grand Canal has broken loose, and
is pouring in the Tellow Eiver, if not into the Tang-
tze. Houses, mud and straw built, are tumbling
down by the thousands. Whole villages are swept
away, and all the inhabitants drowned. The desola
tion of the typhoon I witnessed in Japan is but
a trifle in comparison with this universal misery.
Thousands will starve to death, the coming winter,
if not relieved by the Pekin government, and rebel-
Hon, as in such cases is usual, will probably follow.
But, I am not solemnly writing history, remem
ber, only pencilling, as you see — scribbHng; and,
remember, too, that you print only a rapid traveller's
journal. Come, go back, then, with me to Chefoo,
The seventh of August, about midnight, in a big
rain, we left the " Chefoo Family Hotel," in sedan
chairs, two cooHes only to each, to track three miles
along the seacoast, by the surf, now roUing, and over
the then mountain rivulets, to embark for Tien-tsin,
And such "a ride!" such "a ride!" The Lord
forgive me if I ever again take it at midnight, in a
rain storm. The steamers that run from Shanghai
to Tien-tsin (about eight hundred miles) always take
passengers on board the night before, as they leave
at daybreak in the morning, to see the islands, and

ON THE PEIHO EIVEE. 151
to dodge the shallows. We came up from Shanghai
to Chefoo in the rolling "Manchu," Capt. Steele,
from Townsend, Mass., a jolly, rolHcking, capital
fellow, with a fair Hbrary on board ; and we came
up from Chefoo to Tien-tsin in the not less rolling
" Shantung," with the Maine Capt. Hawes I have
before spoken of, one of the best sailors in the world,
and delighted to see one of his own State men
in this far-off land. The boats of this American
line are long, thin, shad-like screws, built to run over
the Tang-tze shallows and the Gulf of Pe-chih-li
flats and bars, and up the mud of the narrow Peiho
— charming boats, when the heavens smile, but only
rocking-chairs when a storm gets up, as it did for the
long, lean, but otherwise beautiful " Shantung." A
fog hid every thing from our eyes, ten feet off. We
anchored off the bar of the Taku forts. We shook,
we trembled, we tumbled, we pitched, we danced —
but the strong iron chains and the strong anchors
clasped fast hold of the jocund " Shantung." For
twenty-four hours, thus, in bHssful ignorance of our
exact whereabouts, we capered, we froHcked, we
starved — ^yet, in our starvation, fed the fishes of the
sea. Storms, however, never last always. The fog
cleared off, and we found ourselves in th^ company
of junk upon junk, waiting for the fog rising, to find
the mouth of the Peiho. Now, however, alas ! the
river was all mouth. The whole country was under
water. The lofty Taku fort embattlements, with
their ugly-looking Chinese cannon, were not yet

152 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
drowned out, and taking them for our landmarks,
we crooked and wound about, and steamed back
ward, up, and forward, down, on our way up to
Tien-tsin, sixty-four miles by water, and twenty-four
by land. But what navigation ! Our long, lean,
lank Shantung, as long as the river is wide, would
be swung by the current right across the river
banks, and then we would plough into the banks
with her nozzle, and root off perch after perch of the
celestial soil. Euins were all along the shore. Mis
erable inhabitants, abandoning aU, were getting into
junks with hogs, cocks, hens, and other household
gods, while over the tombs of their idolized ancestors
were pouring the wild, wild waters from the broken
banks of the Peiho and the Grand Canal. Through
twisting and turning, however, pulHng and hauling,
wading and poling, and by using steam and the
windlass, our persevering captain managed, in the
light of a long August day, to reach Tien-tsin, and
to find all the inhabitants, Europeans and Americans
as well as Chinese, waiHng, if not weeping, over their
common misfortunes, A Eussian fellow-passenger
with us, who had been to Hankow to buy teas for
Eussia, not only found his house washed dovm and
his furniture destroyed, but teas of his, in warehouse,
damaged to the amount of twenty thousand dollars,
or more. If I had put much faith in stories and warnings,
as I came along, since I left home, I never should
have put foot into Tien-tsin, Only a year ago in July

ON THE PEIHO EIVEE. I53
the whole European population in the Chinese city
was swept off by assassination and murder, Eoman
Catholic priests and nuns were slaughtered without
mercy, with the French Consul and others, including
two Eussians, All in the new city, the European
Tien-tsin, were spared. Mischief-making and re
vengeful Chinese leaders had put it into the heads of
the ignorant Tien-tsiners (four hundred thousand,
about, is the population of the city) that the Eoman
Catholics were kidnapping children in their orphan
asylums, to use their eyes, ears, and the more vital
or mysterious parts of the human body, as charms,
philters, potions, spells, to bewitch the Chinese
and their children. The zeal of these Catholics
to fill their schools with children, whom thus they
hoped to make instruments for propagating Christian
ity, and uprooting Paganism, lent credence to these
wicked tales, and the end was the terrible mob that
destroyed the beautiful Httle cathedral, the nunnery,
the hospitals — ^nay, that rooted up, and rooted out, the
whole French population in the old Tien-tsin. Others
were murdered, not Eoman Catholics ; a Protestant
church in the vicinity was destroyed, and all mission
aries, of all denominations, everywhere in North
China, were put into terrible fright. Chjmg How,
then chief mandarin of the city, caused to be paid
all thp^ French losses, and is now, in France, trying
to prbpitiate the French people, to save Tien-tsin,
hereafter, from bombardment, or the French bayonet.
But into Tien-tsin I came, nevertheless and not-

154 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
withstanding. "Where others go you can go," is
reason. K a traveller did not guide his steps by this
species of logic, rumor would scare him off, often,
from many an instructive route of travel. Guns,
guns, guns, however, are here now great guarantees.
Two French and one British gunboat are now here,
with American, German, aud other gunboats often
looking in. Fulminating powder, I am sorry to say,
seems indispensable to secure trade and commerce;
and Christianity, guns, and missionaries have to go
together in China. The steam launch of the great
British iron-clad, the Ocean, which cannot get within
fifteen miles of the mouth of the P^ho Eiver, has just
escorted up here, on his way back to Pekin, Mr.
Wade, the British Minister, and the captain of the
Ocean invited us to use his launch with him, to
explore the ruins of the water-covered Tien-tsin.
We steamed up the river, to the consternation of the
Chinese junks, where steam never went before, and
hundreds upon hundreds, if not thousands upon
thousands, came out from their junk holes, as bees
from hives, to see what this puffing, snorting, Httle
steam devil was doing. A tall Tartar fellow, some
great mandarin's great man, was lent us, to scream
the Chinese junks out of our way ; and as we spurted
and spouted, junks scattered, as fast as pole, or Hne,
or current could, scatter them. Such an ocean of
water-craft, such cities of masted craft afioat, such
acres upon acres of shipping, my eyes never beheld
before ! One traveller playfully reports, " I counted

ON THE PEIHO EIVEE. 155
a himdred millions of junks, and then stopped." I
did not count. There was too much to count, and
too much to see, to waste time to count. The launch
steamed up to where the Eoman Catholic Cathedral
was. Nothing but the walls are left now and the
cross, yet golden, on the tower's top. We dropped a
tear, of sympathy beside the graves of the good Sisters
of Charity, buried near by, and heard a Chinese-
born Catholic recite who was interred here, and who,
there. These poor Sisters were fiayed alive by the
infuriated mob ! One saved herself for a while in
Chinese dress, but her European shoes betrayed her,
and she was slain, too. The British officers with us
sympathized earnestly with the captain of the French
gunboat, who was also his guest. Strange it is, but
so it is, we Americans, Frenchmen, Englishmen,
Germans, here, in this heathen land, are all one.
We have no nationalities not forgotten the moment
we meet one of our own race, in these remote spots.
A pic-nic in the launch^a tiffin is the Eastern name
for a lunch — was given us near the ruins of the
cathedral, and when that was over, we explored, as
weU as we could in a steamer, the drowned-out
streets and tottering houses of this unhappy Tien-tsin!
"Heaven has inflicted this upon us," say*- some of
them, " because we killed the God of the Christians."
Of this country, under water now, of course I can
see nothing. " Go back," says everybody. " Don't
go up to Pekin." "Tou can't get there." "Tou
will be fifteen or twenty days in going." " The land

156 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
route is aU under water, all impassable," Never
were reports louder in traveUer's ear, or so discour
aging. Nobody could take us in at Tien-tsin. All
houses were drowned down, or uninhabitable from
rain, save that of the British Consul, whose house,
the largest by all odds in the place, was filled with
the Pekin British diplomats and retinue, just then.
The " Astor House," the famous hotel of the place,
established by some California Tankee by the name
of Smith, was washed out — billiard, bar-room, all,
" Come with us in the gunboat," said Frenchman
and Englishman, both. " A gunboat is no place for
a lady." " Go back with me to Chefoo," said the
captain of the Ocean, " The fact is," I answered, "I
have come over two thousand miles, from Tokohama,
in Japan, only to see Pekin ; and if I stay here, I
shall have to live in a Chinese sampan (a covered
house-boat, some twenty feet long), and as motion is
more satisfactory than station, to Pekin I wiU go."
" But the Eussian courier has just been robbed en
route from Pekin to our Minister, now at Chefoo,"
said a Eussian Secretary. "The flood is making
robbers of the hungry Chinese," it was added. Nev
ertheless, on, on to Pekin, was the impulse within
me, and to Pekin I will go, for I do not believe the
perUs held up before me.

LETTEE XVIII.
ON, TO PEKIN.
Arrival at Tung-Chow. — Lodged ia a Temple. — ^Ice in Abundance now. — On to
Pekin that Night. — The Gates of Pekin at Sunset. — The Infernal Eoad to the
Celestial City, in a Mule Cart. — Bump, Thump. — No Getting Out, no Living
In. — ^The Sights on the Tung-Chow and Pekin Eoad. — ^The Wheelbarrow
Gentry. — Caravans. — ^First Sight of the Bactrian Camel. — The Great Walls of
the City after Sunset. — What John Chinaman thinks of an American-dressed
Woman entering his Capital in an Open Sedan-chair. — Difference of Opinion
as to Pekin and New Tork Fashions. — Happy Welcome in the Eussian Lega
tion. — ^A Cossack Porter opens the Great Gates. Pekin, August 18, 1871.
Tung-Chow, one hundred and twenty miles from
Tien-tsin by water, not eighty by land, was reached
at noon. This is the port of Pekin, sixteen miles,
though, and very, very long miles, you will see, Eus
sian letters, written in Chinese to Eussian agents
here, secured us excellent lodgment in quite a grand
temple, where we expected to pass the night. The
-Buddhist priests were as civil as lambs, and gave us
sacred places to repose in, or to eat ice in, the great
est luxury we could have on a hot day. Ice, by the
way, here is " cheap as dirt." The Peiho and the
swamps around are all thick ice in winter, and there
is no luxury like it to an American. Besides, aU the
little animalculae in Chinese waters are thus frozen
up and frozen out in winter, and you can safely eat

158 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
ice, when you cannot drink the water. We tumbled
down our weary Hmbs, and rested close by the
Buddhist altars, with all sorts of images over us and
about us — dragons and other scary devils — but no
thing could scare us from sleep, rising, as we had, at
four in the morning, and roasting, as we had been,
in crowds of odoriferous Tung-Chow junks with
hundreds of the population looking on, marvelling
where such creatures as we are, came from. These
Chinese temples, by the way, are curious, but quite
comfortable structures to live in. The entrance is
not exhilarating — through the kitchen, and near by
all the washing utensils, through crowds eating,
drinking, and smoking ; but when in, there is mag
nificence in some temples, certainly in parts of this.
To Pekin, on to Pekin, however, was yet the
burning impulse within me, and I was bent, if pos
sible, in crossing the only sixteen miles, and on being
that night in Pekin, At three o'clock they told me,
" If you go, you can't get into the gates of Pekin to
night." " What, not get over sixteen miles," said I,
"from three o'clock to sunset?" "Tou will be
brought up aU standing," it was added, " at the
closed gates of Pekin, and be compeUed to sleep on
the road, in the dirt, and amid the vermin of the
gateway." " On to Pekin ! " said I ; " on, on to
Pekin ! " Three carts, the springless ones I have
spoken of, were hired for me and my traps, and a
young lady with me, Avas put in a sedan-chair, carried
by four coolies. The sedan-chair was loaned me in

ON, TO PEKIN. 159
Tien-tsin, and brought up on a sampanj and we
started for Pekin, the great celestial capital, the
earthly home of an emperor that Heaven has loaned
to govern and to bless the millions upon millions
of mortals in China.
Some two or three hmidred years gone by, some
emperor of China (plague on him !) took it into his
head to make a road of granite blocks, some five or
six feet long by two wide, upon a raised mound of
earth, over the sixteen miles of distance from the
port of Pekin to Pekin itself. It was the Appian
Way to the Chinese Eome. It was a New Tork
Boulevard — a Pennsylvania Avenue, as recently made
in Washington. But, alas for me, in mj mule cart,
with no springs, the granite-road has not been re
paired for two hundred years, or more, and " the Ap
pian Way " has dropped out, and dropped in, to such
an extent that only a mule could navigate a cart over
it, or through it. The Turks have nearly such a
road now, leading to Jerusalem, but no Turk was
ever fool enough, as are the Chinese, to put carts on
it! There was just such a road, some years ago,
between Acquia Creek and Fredericksburg, Va.,
but the Virginians were never blockheads enough to
pave it. I have ridden over corduroy roads in Maine,
in rough wooden spring wagons ; through black mud
prairies, in olden times, in Illinois ; over mountain
passes in Nevada ; but never, never, over such an in
famous, infernal hewn granite quarry as this, all
topsy-turvy. " £um^," thai, hit the shoulder, and

160. A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
made me shiver all over. " Thump^'' that, was only
the ribs. " Bump," " thump," " smash," " crash,"
that, hit me on the head, and made my eyes sparkle
like rockets ! Hat off, and then off guard, while fit
ting it on again, came another " thump," " bump."
Hands give out holding on, wrists ache. Whew ! there
goes my head again, up against the sides, " Let me
out," says I. Mule nor Chinaman xmderstands Eng
lish ! I was afraid to break my legs, if the cart did
not stop, when I was getting out. Thump, bump — in
short, it was sixteen long, endless mUes of " bump,"
" thump," " smash," " crash," such as the Spanish
Inquisition only inflicted upon heretics, save only the
breaking of their bones. I am only jelly, thank a
good Providence, Every bone is where it was. But
I would not take another such drive for one hundred
dollars per mile.
Emerging from Tung-Chow, where the Eussian
and Mongolian caravans start with teas for Eussia,
on the Siberian route, we first were " stuck " on the
Broadway of Tung-Chow — a way about ten feet
broad ! The wheelbarrow gentry — one man wheel
ing, on one wheel, two men holding on, steadying
the burden on either side, and one mule pulling
ahead — ^blocked up the great street of Tung-Chow,
Our drivers and the wheelbarrow men, laden with
goods for Pekin, bellowed and yelled, and thus
cleared the way, in part, after near an hour's delay
in reaching the outer gates of this walled city. The
sidewalks, a foot or two wide, were higli up, and we.

ON, TO PEKIN. 161
in the street, were low down, in mud and mire, often,
there wallowing like hogs. My cart was water-tight,
and no matter, therefore, for the splash. It was well
covered, mule and all, and no matter, therefore, for
the blazing hot sun. Donkeys brayed hard in our
ears, but no matter for that. The Bactrian camel,
with his sprawl feet, all the way from the Mongolian
deserts, obtruded his ugly neck into our presence, but
no matter for that. Every thing was strange, new,
and novel ; and if it had not been for the tears in my
eyes, started by the eternal banging of the springless
cart, the journey would have been delightful. We
crossed the great dragon bridge, where a French
general won his hard-pronounced title of duke of
something. The graves of " our ancestors " were in
numerable, and pretty well kept. Temples there
were, and not a few. Houses lined the road almost
the whole way, and cooHes, and mandarins, and serv
ants, and farmers so filled up the road, that it would
have been hopeless to try to count them.
At last, when the sun was set, and darkness cov
ered the face of the earth, we approached the great
walls of the great city of a milHon or two millions
of people — ^nobody knows, or seems to know here, for
the census has not been taken for over fifty years.
Our servant-pigeon-English interpreter had shot
ahead before dark, and on annoulicing, with gravity,
"great people were coming on, under a Eussian
escort, with Eussian protection, bound to the Eussian
Legation " — lo, presto ! the heavy gates were open.

162 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
and we were let in. All Chinamen, except ours,
were shut out ; and thus, for the first time in my life,
I found use in trousers, hat, coat, and shoes, over the
more natural habiliments of the wiser-clad Eastern
man — for the first sight of us proved to the gate
keeper we were a race of European men, and doubt
less, as he thought, Eussians, Once in the gates,
then scenes ensued. The four coolies who had
brought the young lady's sedan-chair, mile upon mile,
needed rest, and took it within the gates. 'When
they set down the chair, hundreds upon hundreds
gathered about it, as if to see a mermaid, with fiow-
ing ringlets, thus gliding through these gates. The
crowd became first stifling, then earnestly curious,
not only to see, but to feel of the novelty. They
were greedy to know what such a funny thing was
made of — ^whether of wax, or popHn, or muslin.
Lanterns went up in all directions ; the crowd in
creased, and grew more curiously noisy. I acted as
policeman, looked amiably terrible, with only an
umbrella for a baton ; but the umbrella was wand
enough to keep the peace. I did not much marvel
over the curious Chinamen. "What would New Tork
think, if a Chinese woman, with her little bits of
tiny bird-like feet, were dropped down on Broadway ?
And yet, our ringlets, our flowing frocks, our queer,
strange top-knots that the world caUs bonnets, the
broad, emblazoned, unveUedface, ai'emore astounding
to Chinese eyes than the little bird feet of the Chinese
women are to ours. American women have not

ON, TO PEKIN. 1(53
often enough entered the streets of Pekin to accustom
the strange spectacle to Chinese eyes. When the
sedan and its burthen re-started on, the great crowd
sent up one great jeer, and I did not much blame
them, though I was glad to be rid of them, and to
hide in the darkness, now increasing.
It was flve li, nearly two miles, from the gate we
entered to the Eussian Legation, where was to be my
hospitable home. The American Minister has gone
to Japan, and General VlangaH, the Eussian minis
ter, now absent in Chefoo, ordered his house to be our
home. Through these five li, in the now muddy
streets of Pekin, we were a long time wandering —
now, in the slough of despond, and now, on the dry
land. Theatres were on the street side. Story-tellers
filled the ways, with recitations to the crowds, holding
lanterns. Shops were briUiantly illuminated. Songs
from all sides seemed to be pouring out from the
houses of a happy population. At last, near ten p, m.,
we reached the Eussian Legation, in the Tartar part
of the city, all walled in ; and knocking at the gate
loudly, we startled up the Cossack porter, and soon
were welcomed by a hospitable meal, and, what was
more important to us then, hospitable beds.

LETTEE XIX.
TEE JOURNET TO PEKIN.
How he got to Pekin in a Springless Cart, over a Granite-Paved Imperial Eoad,
Thirteen Miles long when first made, and passable, now thirty, or more, from
the Holes in it, and the Crooks to dodge these Holes. — Bones all aching fi*oni
Pounding, but Bone-Pounding Good Medicine at Times.- The Fit-Out for the
Biver Peiho Journey in Sampans. — Hospitality of the Tien-tsiners, — ^Bad Water.
— ^Must Liquor or Tea, — ^Dead Chinamen by milhona, and Graves everywhero
bad for Wells.— Catalogue of a Peiho Boat Outfit- The Terrors of the Eoute all
exaggerated, — ^The High Water a Help, — Cut across Lots, — The SnppUes en
route. — Beggars, — A not Disagreeable Journey. — ^All Sleeping Unprotected, —
No Beal Perils. — CooUe Comforts. — Sights on the Eiver. — ^British Manuikctures,
— The Cock keeps Time for the CooUe in the Morning, — ^lafe in a Jook, — Toi
lettes there, — The Countless Babies here, Pekin, August 18, 1871.
EvEBT bone in me aches. I am black and blue,
nearly all over ! What importance, ask you, per
haps, is that to the pubHc ? Why, to keep the pub
lic at home, minding their own business, not making
fools of themselves, as I am, in being pounded and
pestled here, with muscles aching and brains half
beaten out ! " Fools go to Pekin, wise men stay at
home," is my conclusion to-day, after my adventures
of yesterday, over a Chinese granite-paved road, in a
springless cart, drawn by a mule, in a straight line,
two miles an hour — ^in the crooked line, three or four
miles (by these holes), but up and down, five or sis
miles per hour. Nevertheless, I feel all the better for
this pounding internally, though externally I groan
every step I take. It is good for the torpid liver this

THE JOURNEY TO PEKIN, 1(55
chmate creates. It stirs up the bile, is superb for di
gestion, and capital for the dyspepsia. The best
medicine we house, home, newspaper-scribbling men
can take at times, I am sure, is such a stirring up.
If the Shanghai doctor had given me a Chinese cart
to ride in, over a Chinese granite road, I should not
have half died over his boluses, nostrums, and liquid
concoctions, I feel to-day as if I could eat Pekin up
in a week, and aU this comes, I am sure, from the
pounding of my flesh and bones.
Well, come back with me to Tien-tsin. When
the good European people of this drowned-out city
heard me crying, " On to Pekin," despite the flood,
and when they saw the sampan boats, with the boat
men all engaged to go, their hospitality, in pity for'
our rashness, became unbounded. The captain of the
British gunboat Lieven loaned us beds and bedding,
and gave us a big cask of water, condensed and puri
fied by his steam-engine. And, by the way, this is
no country, this never can be a country for temperance
men, unless you are bom and brought up, from youth
and childhood, to drinking mud, or water without
mud, full of little live creatures, that dance about
so briskly in the well water that you cannot get rid
of them. All of us Maine-born men hei*b, captains
of steamboats, and all, abjure water and the Maine
law. We drink it boiled and fiavored with tea ; but
the pure article, as handed over to us by the Creator,
never enters our mouths. The fact is, China is so
dirty, so full of the essence of dead ancestors' bones.

166

A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN,

that even the wells are impure. Four hundred mUl
ions of Chinamen, dying generation after generation,
seem to poison and corrupt all the streams. Hence,
I was under great obHgations to the captain ofthe
Lieven for his big beaker of water. But what would
not I give now, even, for a cupful of pure mountain
iced water, like that, say, which runs gurgling
through Salt Lake City, or, that comes trickling
down from the snowy sides of the mountains of Ore
gon, A dollar a cupful would be cheap, very cheap
to me ; but, nevertheless, I drink, thankful, for the
manufactured water, in tea, in claret, in porter, beer,
Ehine wine, or any Hquor that can be got, bourbon
and brandy not excepted.
Should you like to see the outfit our new Tien
tsin friends provided for us, to ascend the Peiho, I
give it for the benefit of future traveUers here :

Crackers, tins  2
Sardines, boxes  3
Strawberries, can  1
French preserves, cans  2
Sugar, tin  1
Tea, tin  1
Cheese  1
Picldes, bottle  1
Vinegar, bottle  i
Eoast turkey, tin  1
Cold meat, dish  1
Soup, cans  6
Condensed milk, cans  2

Peaches, cans  3
Candles  6
Salt, pepper, mustard, can  1
Cakes, assorted.
Sponge cake.
Ice in abundance.
Ketchup.Matches. Corkscrews.
Teapots. Towels.
Napkins.
Eggs—

'with tumblers, cups, saucers, plates, saucepans, pitch
ers, soap, wash-basins, and other things too numerous
to mention, but all useful to new housekeepers, in a
sampan boat, going, one knew not, how or where.

THE JOURNEY TO PEKIN. Ig^
The " sack " was more abundant, if possible, than the
provender (particulars omitted), and if we run hun
gry, we could not well run dry, even if we were
twenty days, as some predicted, in poling or tracking
up this now turbulent Peiho. Other friends loaned
us mosquito nets and pillows, and thus provided us
to meet the outer enemy as well as to supply the
inner man. No traveller, even up the Nile, could
have been better supplied for a long journey.
And it has not been much of a journey after all —
only four and a half days up to Tung Chow, the head
of PeUio junk navigation, and a half day more over
land, rather over stones, to Pekin ! We paid our cool
ies extra to pole hard, track quick, or row with zeal ;
and the very high water, in lieu of being a disadvan
tage, turned out to be an advantage — for we cut
across lots, here, there, and everywhere, through
fields of sorghum, by acres of miUet, through sesa-
mum, and castor beans, and Indian corn, so that I do
not believe we sailed over a hundred miles, though
the distance by the banks of the river is reported one
hundred and twenty, from Tien-tsin to Tung Chow.
We reached half-way, Ho-si-Woo, in two days and a
half — the hardest half, though. Our Chinese servant
boy, who, with his "pidgen English," act^ as inter
preter, cooked for us, and bought what he could for
us from the bluffs of the unwashed-out part of the
country. We bought chickens, but we could not eat
them, they were so fishy. (They feed them on fish.)
We had made the nicest of omelets — not with butter.

168 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
or milk, but with, I fear, the oil of the castor bean,
or sesamum. " Like'e lice ? " our cook interpreter
boy often asked. I always said "yes;" but don't
marvel, for the Chinaman ever turns " E " into " L,"
and rice was aU he meant. " Bread " was " bled "
— and I liked " bled " too. Pidgen EngUsh, even, is
hard English to understand, till you have been long
used to it; but we are becoming accustomed now.
We paid only fifteen doUars for each sampan boat —
double, nearly, the usual price — ^forty-five doUars for
three boats, with four persons to work and to wait
in each, and this included every thing, except Httle
cumshaws (presents) in "cash," a cash being some
thing like a farthing in value. Wherever we stopped,
beggars innumerable turned up, or salesmen of eggs,
grapes, peaches, apples, plums, and other fruits. We
never stopped off towns or viUages at night ; but in
fields of millet, or sorghum, or sesamum we anchored
our boats, and slept as well — ^the hard beds excepted
— as if we had been in our own homes, life, how
ever, is all trust here. The boats were aU open to
let in the night breezes. The coolies slept and
snoozed right about us. There were no watchmen
to protect us, I never carry revolvers in traveUing,
for I think they are more likely, in the rough hand
ling they have on such voyages, to kill you, than to
aid you in kilHng anybody. All the weapon I had
was a dagger, a friend insisted upon my taking, for
some short, quick fight, if one should become neces
sary. The Chinese, however, seem to be, in the

THE JOURNEY TO PEKIN. 169
main, too honest to steal, when acting as servants
about you, and too peaceable to fight ; so that every
where I have felt myself as safe as if in New Tork,
even under lock and key there. We started at day
break, and rowed or tracked as long as we could see
— ^the poor coolies in water almost all day, but happy
at night, in their improvised suppers, when rolled up
in their padded comforters, to sleep ; and they prob
ably get not even two dollars from the owner of the
boat, who gave them this four and a half days of em
ploy. From fifteen cents to twenty cents per day is
coolie boatmen's pay on the Peiho, with the privi
lege of working eighteen hours in mud and water,
and finding one's self. This, however, pretty well
supplies his wants. Their clothing is cheap and
sparse — only cotton cloth — and their food is millet
and fish, when the latter can be got.
The boat sights we saw on the Peiho were many,
the land sights few, and they were nearly all in, or
under water. Many, many junks were floating down
the rapid current of the river ; some of them, stylish,
three stories high, with flags, and handsome exte
riors, but the great body of them, transports. The
foreigners' coasting trade ends at Tien-tsin, and the
native craft is exclusive from thence upwSkrd and in
ward, and all about. The transportation upward was
mainly British Manchester goods, with which many
a junk seemed to be laden. Once we had a lion's
share of this great trade, and the cotton goods of
Lowell, and Lawrence, and Lewiston, and Bidde-

lYO A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
ford were floating freely upon these waters, for Chi
nese consumption, in company with these British
drills, sheetings, and shirtings ; but now, my Tankee
manufacturing countrymen have so constructed their
tariff laws as to destroy aU this, and to give the whole
to John Bull and the Germans. Do not teU me of
cheaper labor in England ; for, if " that's what did
it," nobody could compete with the ten cents a day
Chinese manufacture of their own cotton. Steam
could be as cheap a workman with us as in England,
if our Tankee countrymen did not love high duties
on coal, and fish and potatoes (largely their food), and
on machinery and the raw material for machinery of
all kinds. But, whew ! I'm shooting off on a tariff
tangent !
Among the boat sights on a Chinese river is the
everlasting cock, who is ever kept there to do cock-
a-doodle-doo in the early morning, and thus to note
the time, and to wake up the crew. At the cock
crow all start from their lairs, and go to work. The
cocks are probably well-taught cocks — taught only to
crow when the day is breaking. With the cock are
hens, and with the hens, dogs, cats, etc., a whole
menagerie. Life on a junk is just Hke Hfe on land,
with the doors more open, though. We see the Chi
nese women making their toilettes, and the men
combing their ovm hair, and then binding on their
long boughten cues. The longer a cue is in Chi
na, the greater "the swell;" hence, false hair is
moro for sale to men than to women, " I can't em-

THE JOURNEY TO PEKIN. 171
ploy you with that cue," said a Eussian friend of
mine, the other day, to a Chinese boy, with a short
tail, " I have no money to buy more," said the boy.
" Take that, then, for a fit-out, and turn up grand."
The boy took the money, and turned up with a tail
that stretched to the ground. We see all these toil
ette operations going on — combing, washing, braid
ing ; and we hear i^-braiding, too — scolding, I
mean. Never were greater scolds than these Chi
nese boatmen seem to be. Their monosyUabic words
have a terrible ring, when they are mad — short,
sharp, cutting. There was a row on my boat. A big
feUow beat his brother, a lesser fellow. The little
feUow smothered his rage till we reached a bluff, and
then ran away ; but the father, in another boat near
by, ran after him, and though the father could never
have overtaken the little fellow, by running, yet such
is the force of parental authority here, over children,
that only his command from a long distance brought
back the runaway. The row that then ensued be
tween the brothers, the father all the while interfer
ing, became so boisterous that I thought it wise to
show my dagger to keep the peace. I did not un-
slieath it, only stamped and yelled, and that restored
order in the boat fleet. »
One of the first things impressing a traveUer in
China is the babies, the countless babies, Mal thus,
evidently, is not read here, or the new New England
native American non-propagation creed. " Multiply
and replenish the earth," in our Bible, is, in the Con-

172 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
fucian classics, in another paraphrase, " Beget chU
dren, to be sure of having your bones weU taken
care of." " The more sons you have, the better off
you are in heaven." Girl babies, however, alas for
the poor things, are deemed rather curses than bless
ings, more especially if you have too many of them
— such curses, that often the little lasses are tumbled
away to perish — ^boy babies, never. All the junks
we passed, or saw, were more or less fiUed with ba
bies — snaked babies, mixed up with the cocks, and
hens, and dogs, and kittens. Fathers were as often
fondling them as the mothers. This love of babies,
it is, that makes up the Chinese countless numbers,
ever populating the land, and forcing the poor often -
to starve, or to Hve on kitten cutlets and puppy
steaks. "What we saw people eating most of, on our
boat journey, were watermelons, pretty good ones ;
a species of cantelopes, that they nibble, as monkeys
would ; then peaches, that nobody else could eat,
they are so bad— with onions, onions, onions innu
merable. Indeed, the whole population hereabout
seems saturated with onions and opium.

LETTEE XX.
FROM PEKIN.
The Guide-Books of Pekin. — ^The "Ji-hia-kieu-wen-kau" and the "Chen-yuen-chl-
lio," — Three Cities within Pekin, the Manchu or Tartar, Chinese, and Imperial, —
Shopping in Pekin, — Great Fur Market. — ^Mongolia, Manchuria, Corea, and Sibe
ria Sables, Ermine, etc., etc, — ^Precious Stones, — Jade. — Greek Chapel on the
Grounds of the Eussian Legation. — ^Life among Chinese Eussians. — CathoUc
and Protestant Missionaries in Pekin. — ^Visit to the Eoman Catholic Cathedral, —
Prench Priests and Sisters of Charity. — School for Chinese Children. — ^Money
and the Missionaries. — Conflicts between them. — Foreign and Anti-Foreign
Party in China. — Chinese Efforts to create Prejudice against Christians.
Pekin, August 20, 18Y1.
When you first get into a new, great city, you
ask for maps aud a guide-book. Maps I have none,
save in a Hong-Kong guide-book, but works on Pe
kin are numerous. The " Ji-hia-kieu-wen-kau " is
before me — one hundred and sixty chapters only —
four chapters on the beauties of Pekin (I can't see
them yet ; — ^it seems to me an infernal hole — ^no side
walks, no gutters, the privies in the streets, in open
sinks, and the accumulated filth of centuries rising
up in terrific stenches ; through mud over boots two
and a half or three feet long) ; — ^twenty chapters on
the public buildings (I am going to hunt them up) ;
eleven, on the palace of the emperor (no outside bar
barian like me is ever permitted to enter that sam^etum
there) ; one chapter on a large monastery, containing

174r A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN,
one thousand one hundred Lama priests ; four chap
ters on the Imperial city ; twelve on the Tartar city.
The Confucian temple has two chapters. Then,
there are three more on the ten stone drums, three
thousand years old. As the " Ji-hia-kieu-wen-kau "
is all in Chinese; reading backward" and upside down,
I fear I shall not profit much by it in my ardent pur
suit for knowledge under difficulties in Pekin. " Chen-
yuen-chi-lio " is another guide-book here, only eight
volumes ! It tells, not me, but the Chinaman, who teUs
me, that "I can visit the principal objects of interest
in a month," but even then shaU obtain only very
imperfect ideas I I have only a week, two weeks at
the most, for staring, shopping, curio-hunting. What,
then, can I see in or about these twenty-five square
mUes, within the walls ?
My first outstart has been, under the auspices of
a clever young Englishman, who speaks Chinese suffi
ciently — a student interpreter of the British legation,
preparing himself for future Chinese consulships —
into the Chinese city. The legations are aU in the
Manchu or Tartar city. There are three cities with
in a city — the heart, the Palace, the Castle city, the
sanctum sanctorum of Chinese autocracy, where the
Emperor of Heaven and Earth sits and breathes,
nearly all alone by himself, save with his wives and
concubines — the Imperial city, this is called. Then
the Tartar city, where the Manchu or Tartar popu
lation reside. Then the Chinese city, the city of the
Tartar or Manchu-govcrned Chinese — for the Man-

FROM PEKIN.

175

chus or Tartars, only a few hundred years gone by,
you may remember, if anybody ever cares to know,
overflowetl the great wall, and then ran over all
China. We went a-shopping ! Where did a woman
ever go that she did not go a-shopping — that she did
not want something, and to buy something ? I found
that out, years and years ago, on the Upper Lakes,
even among the then Pottawotamies, and in Van
couver, and in Jerusalem, and in Gibraltar ; every
where, the women nvust go a-shopping, Pekin, I had
fancied, had not a temptation on earth for shopping ;
but what a blunder I made the moment I was intro
duced into the shops of the Chinese city. This is
one of the greatest fur markets in the world. Mon
golia, Manchuria, and Corea, as weU as Siberia, send
down here their sables, their ermines, their leopard
and tiger skins, the white fox, and gray fox, and all
other species of furs. The climate is flercely cold
here in winter, and, fuel being scarce and costly, the
mandarins and wealthy classes wrap themselves up
in sables and ermines, while the poorer classes put
on sheepskins. The market is tempting. Sables,
the best skins, can be had from five to seven Mexican
dollars each ; a mandarin's sable robe from two hun
dred to five hundred Mexican dollars, often, even less ;
ermine mantelets for about twenty-five and thirty
dollars, with leopards, tigers, and foxes in propor
tion. But "cheating" is a Chinese as well as Euro
pean art. The furriers aolor and dye their sables,
and who can teU ? Not I. Look out that you don't

176 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
buy cats in Hen of ermines, I hinted I might buy a
mandarin sable robe. And now, though the ther
mometer is about ninety, I have been enveloped, sur
rounded, tormented by furriers ever since, and buried
up in my rooms table high with aU sorts of furs from
the steppes of Siberia, the forests of Manchuria, and
Corea, and the deserts of MongoHa. Curios — ^that
is, Pekin curiosities — ^have been rushed in upon my
rooms, by Chinese, in platoons. " Precious stones,"
such as rubies, sapphires, amethysts, etc., were spread
before me in abundance. (Don't buy, you are sure
to be cheated.) Jade, however, seems to be the pre
cious stone of China, not much valued with us, un
less it be in little cups, but here costly, next to sap
phires. The fact is, China, or rather this, the court
city of China, is getting poor, and is seUing out its
old curios, its sables, etc, etc, I have half a mind
to turn merchant, and to rush home heavily laden
with furs for Gunther & Co., and precious stones for
Tiffany & Co., or BaU & Black. I have no doubt I
could pay expenses ten times over — ^but I am going,
just now, not home, but to the great waU; and I
have not yet given up Mongolia and the camel,
Siberia, the Baikal, and Ural Mountains, and the
route Europeward, overland, through Asia, Where
does not a man want go, when he begins to go?
What end of the passion for going, when one once
begins ? , , ,
It is the Sabbath, and, amid Eussian surround
ings, with a beautiful Greek chapel near my rooms.

FEOM PEKIN. 1Y7
I ought to worship in that Greek church, but the
priests have departed with the ambassador, and the
chapel is closed. Formerly, a Eussian Archiman
drite held possession of this now beautiful spot, who,
in addition to his duties of ecclesiastic, took care of
the political interests of Eussia ; but in 1859, when
the new treaties were made, an ambassador, not an
ecclesiastic, was appointed, with full powers. A
magnificent establishment was created for him, and
the priest departed to another part of the city,
French is our language of intercourse with the stu
dent interpreters, dragomans, and secretaries, left
here ; and, as the Chinese servants speak only Eus-~^
sian, not "pidgen English," even, we manage to
have from them, by pantomime, all we need — with a
few Chinese words, every day increasing, represent
ing the necessaries of life.
There is an EngUsh church, on the English lega
tion grounds, near by, where we were invited to go ;
and there are several Protestant missionaries in Pe
kin — ^but the Eoman CathoHcs had such large estab
lishments here, and their history for three centuries
in China had been so great and brilHant, that I re
solved to see them worship on the Sabbath day. The
distance was nearly three miles, and the service be
gan at eight a. m. ; and a fit-out to go anywhere in
roadless Pekin is so serious a matter — to rally the
coolies for the chairs, the ponies, etc. — that, no won
der, the service was nearly over when we got there.
The French priests, however, most graciously re-
9

178 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
ceived us, and welcomed with warm hearts European
faces from so distant a region as America, and the
Sisters of Charity came out in full numbers and
showed us all parts of their great establishment.
The Chinese children, some two hundred and fifty
in number, " all Christians now," were drawn up for
us to see. Their nice embroideries, as well as then-
spinning and weaving, were shown us. These good
Sisters seemed to be happy in their isolation and their
Christian mission — Chappy in the seed they were sow
ing, and the harvest they were reaping, and earnest
for the propagation of the faith throughout all China,
The priests wore their hair as the Chinese do, and,
but for their priestly robes, would be taken for
Chinese, The Sisters preserve their home Catholic
costumes. The cathedral itself is a wonderful build
ing for such a distance from civiUzation, The organ
in it cost some forty thousand doUars here. Many
Chinese worshippers were about, and the spacious
grounds seemed to be teeming with Chinese people,
some of whom were Sisters of Charity, too.
There is a great confiict now going on in this
country, not only between the Eoman Catholic mis
sionaries and the mandarins, but between money and
the missionaries, Protestant as well as CathoUc.
The almighty dollar feels itself damaged by the ever
lasting pressure which the missionaries are making
upon the Chinese government, and constantly dooms
them to some bad place. Commerce and religion do
travel together, but they are often very troublesome

FEOM PEKIN. 179
companions. The missionary, especially the Catho
Uc, asks for a status here, the exterritoriality, it may
be, of the Consulates, or a sort of imperium in im
perii, which the mandarins refuse to yield. The
mandarins declare, now, there is scarcely a Chinese
rascal that does not tum Christian in order to have
missionary protection for his rascality. The money-
men live in constant apprehension that these charges,
and counter charges, and prejudices wiU lead to an
other war, K^uasi foreign party, and a thoroughly
anti-foreign party, exist in China. All think for
eigners are over-exacting, overbearing, and insolent,
in which respect the Chinese are not far from right ;
but the peace party in China want no more war with
foreigners. The money-men are for bearing, and for
bearing, with Chinese restrictions upon intercourse,
and trade, and with Chinese prejudices, and igno
rance, as long as they can make money, while the
kingdom of' Christianity is not of this world, but is
aggressive, and full of fight with Buddhism, Lamaism,
Tauism, and all the religious isms here.
After the massacre of French missionaries at Tien
tsin, Europeans were naturally led to inquire what
has produced this feeling against Christianity ? And
this brought about the discovery of a book written
by a Chinaman in high authority, and circulated by
mandarins and others secretly.
Extract therefrom : "
" This reli^on (meaning Protestant and Catholic both) has
its headquarters in Italy, It has a succession of Kiugs of the

180 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
Church (popes), who assume, in behalf of Heaven, to communi
cate instruction. When a king of any of the Western nations
succeeds to the throne, he receives his authority to rule from
the pope. In all important matters the kings receive commands
from the pope."
Then follow accounts of the conduct of priests,
which are worse than any thing described by Maria
Monk, or ever imagined in the EngUsh language.
" In case of funerals (of Chinamen), this religion's teachers
eject all relatives and friends from the house, and the corpse is
put into the coffin with closed doors, both eyes are secretly
taken out, and the orifice sealed up with a plaster."
The reason for extracting the eyes is this :
"From one hundred pounds of Chinese lead can be ex
tracted eight pounds of silver, and the remaining ninety-two
pounds of lead can be sold at the original cost. But the only
way to obtaui this silver is by compounding the lead with the
eyes of Chinamen. The eyes of foreigners are of no use for this
purpose." The following is probably the reason why the
Chinamen beat their gongs so furiously in their fights
with the English and Americans :
" Foreigners have the art of cutting ont paper men and
horses, and, by burning charms and repeating incantations,
transforming them into real men and horses. These they use
to terrify their esaemies. They may, however, be dissolved by
beating a gong, or by spouting water over them  In
creating a man, to be the progenitor of the human race, God
ought to have created him completely virtuous and absolutely
perfect, and even then there would have been danger that he
would not be able to transmit his virtues to his descendants.
Why should He create such a proud and wicked man as Adam,
and allow him to bring suffering upon his descendants ia aU
generations?"

FEOM PEKIN. 181
These extracts give but the faintest idea of the
abuses and misrepresentations of Christianity. Fur
ther extracts would be so indecent, or infidelistic, as
not to bear publication. The object of the work was
avowed to be " the expulsion of the race human,"
that is, the European species from all parts of China,

LETTEE XXI.
FROM PEKIN.
Paradise in-doors, Tartarus out — ^PeHn Holes, Mod, Dust, Dirt.— No Noses in Pe
kin, — Sights and Smells. — ^Wealthy Chinese, — Snmptuaiy Laws in Cllina, — Se
dan-chairs, — ^Marriages and Funerals, — ^Women of no Account — Polygamy, —
Women's Fashions in Pekin, — ^Dr, Williams, the Secretary, Bibliophilist, and
Encyclopaedist. — The Chinese retrograding. — Contncionism losing its In
fluence. — Christianity. — itoman Catholics, when starting here, teaching the Ma
terial as well as the SpiiitnaL — Conflict of Christ and Confucius. — ^The Chinese
Classics. Pekin, August 23, 1871.
In the Eussian legation here, inside, there is
every luxury or comfort the heart could desire.
Some ten or twelve acres of inclosure, waUs, gardens,
fruits, fiowers, birds, books, horses in abundance to
ride on, chairs to ride in, etc. ; but outside, in the
streets and highways, what sloughs, pits, sinks, holes,
stinks, mud, dirt, dust ! To go out is Hke going out
of paradise into Tartarus. The pope, by-the-way,
nicknamed all these Easterners, when they first
visited Eome, as from Tartarus; hence, the word
Tartar, unknown here but in foreign mouths. Nev
ertheless, one must go out. There are no roads for
carriages; hence, no carriages of any kind, except
that villanous, springless, wooden-axled cart, mule-
hauled. The Mongolian pony, a furious, fiery beast,
that turns down his ears and turns up his heels, when

FEOM PEKIN. 183
you go to mount him, is your pleasant companion,
Tou must go vrith the pony through the streets of
Pekin, or not go at all, unless you " foot it," and
the distances in the hot sun now are too great for
that. When I came here, the other day, the city
was all mud, mud — mud, two feet deep, or more —
and hopeless sloughs in that mud, if you were not
taught the Pekin arts of mud navigation. Now there
are many dry places, for an August sun has been
pouring down some days, and the dust is from one to
six inches deep in some places, while in others the
mud is about as bad as ever, and the rivers of un-
draincd water render whole streets impossible to
cross. For example, I rode a mile to-day under the
great walls of the Imperial Palace on a raised mud
sidewalk, dusty now, and so narrow, a Chinaman
could hardly pass me on horseback, while six or
eight feet below was a mud river, a monstrous ditch
twenty feet wide, of mud and water, no mule or pony
cared to sound or to explore. This mingled dust and
mud is a strange sight in a city ; but in our own capi
tal of Washington, during the civil war, the streets
often were not unlike those of Pekin ; and even
now, where the street-builders are working, in the
upheaved Washington, or, on the New T^ork new
avenues, say, things are very Pekin-ese.
How human beings Uve by the hundred thousands
in such a city as this, is only to be accounted for by an
utter insensibility to sights and smells ; but they don't
see, and they don't smell. Eyes and noses in China

184 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
are, indeed, often as great curses as everywhere else,
big blessings, I should like to dispense with a nose
till I get back to America, or into Europe, if I could
then buy it back again ! No sewers, no closets, no
drains ! No way of letting out of a big city the filth
in it ! Streets uncleaned for two centuries, save by
the hogs and vultures ! The poor are unclad and un
washed, with skins the water seems never to have
penetrated, and eyes that are sore — ^but why pain you
to describe ? Imagine the worst of every thing, in
that way, and that worst is all here. Nevertheless,
people do live here, and some Hve magnificently.
There are some wealthy Chinese, There are many
wealthy mandarins. The interiors of some of their
hopeless-exterior-looking dwellings abound in a cer
tain species of luxuries, and in a very few comforts.
¦What Pekin is, therefore, one cannot see in the
streets ; and, as a foreigner can only vrith great diffi
culty get into a Chinese house, no stranger is likely
to see more than these streets. There are sumptuary-
laws in Pekin that forbid luxurious indulgence. No
mandarin ever can ride in a sedan-chair, no matter
how many buttons he has won — what their color is, or
what fans he carries, but by special permission of the
emperor. The sedan-chair is the emperor's preroga
tive. Foreigners attached to legations use it as rep
resentatives of home majesty, and the " insolence " is
tolerated from necessity ; but no Chinaman ventures
upon any thing beyond a cart, save on two great
days of life, or death — the first, a marriage proces-

FEOM PEKIN. 185
sion, and the second, a funeral. Luxuries are al
lowed then. The woman, then, the only day of her
Hfe, rides in a sort of sedan. Hence, now I under
stand the commotion made on the night of my enter
ing the city with an open sedan and a lady in it.
These sumptuary laws I speak of, pervade, I am told,
all Pekin life, and are here especially kept up to
keep the people as far as possible removed from the
luxuries of the emperor. They do not exist else-'
where in China, only in this court city, where the
emperor is. The mandarin has his especial sable
robe, or ermine adornments, in winter. As for the
women, they seem to be of no account here, save as
mothers of children. The Chinaman takes as many
wives as he can support — ^the emperor has them by
the hundred — ^but the first wife is the real wife, the
only mistress of the estabUshment, and the others are
only, her handmaids about the establishment, and
they all obey her. The Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
mode of Hfe is the life in China yet. They have not
advanced, in this respect, a step beyond the patri
archs. What a field this would be for Mrs. Cady
Stanton and the other bright, strong-minded ladies
who, in America, are reforming the world — ^for
woman is not of the least account herd*, save to be
pretty and well painted with white powder and ver
mUion, in hair long, skewered, and well glued, so that
a gale of wind cannot disturb it — the whole standing
upon two little props, looking like birds' claws done
up in sandals, and here called " feet." Alas, women's

186 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
fashions are equally foolish everywhere! I bet in
Japan, once, the woman's hair was her own, and was
beaten in the bet. I would not bet on any thing
about woman in China now, from her head to her
foot-claws — from her long nails to the color of her
face. Copper, I should have called her color ; but I
see so many powdered and vermUion faces, that I am
not certain, now, the woman race is not white, with
red cheeks, or cheeks a Httle reddened. Above the
brows is often painted red, with the eyelids, too.
The British and French legations have quarters
almost as luxurious as the Eussian — ^the British, more
ground. The Eussian ground was a concession in
olden times, the fee being in the Eussian government ;
the British hire a grand Chinese palace, with right of
lease-renewal, at about fifteen hundred doUars annual
rent ; the French say, the repairs they have made
and make upon their palace pay the rent. The
American legation is in the house and on the grounds
of Dr. Williams, the secretary of legation and inter
preter here, who bought and built aU for himself.
But for him, the American minister would have no
place fit for a dog to Hve in. The houses and
grounds are handsome now, and quite spacious.
This Dr. S. WeUs Williams, by-the-way, who came
in from his summer quarters, " the hiUs," some six
teen miles off, to see me, spent the day with me, and
is one of the most remarkable men I ever met with.
He is the American indispensability, and the Ameri
can institution in China. lie has lived here some

FEOM PEKIN. 187
thirty odd years, speaks Chinese fiuently, and proba
bly knows more of China than most of the Chinese.
He is a regular Bibliophilist, a Thesaurus, an Ency
clopaedia, and seems to know every thing. Just now
he is making a Chinese-EngUsh dictionary, on which
he has been at work some years, and which he hopes
to finish in a year. No topic turned up in our long
conversation, whether of theology, cosmography,
philology, or cosmogony, that he did not seem to
know all about, and without the least ostentation of
knowledge. And then he was as great on furs, sables,
and fur-bearing animals, and where they come from,
and on precious stones, as on the ologies. He went
with Commodore Perry, as translator, to open Japan,
and he speaks Japanese. What a pity such " books "
have to die, and one cannot always have such Hving
books with them, instead of being compeUed to turn
over leaves, and weary one's eyes with letters ! Dr.
Williams was a printer by trade, came to Macao from
TJtica, New Tork, as a printer, and for some years
pubHshed and edited the Chinese depository in Can
ton. Dr, Hepburne, of Tokohama, Japan, is another
like man — an American indispensability there — who
links and connects us with all we know of Japan,
He, too, is making a dictionary — a Japanese-EngUsh
dictionary. Of course, men thus long Hving with the
native races here, become sympathetic with them, ex
cuse them, palliate their blunders, errors, faults, even
their crimes. Dr, WiUiams relies upon the Bible,
and only upon the Bible, to reform China. The

188 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
race has made all the progress possible, he adds,
without Christianity, and is now retrograding be
cause some of the principles of the Bible, which Con
fucius preached as well as Christ, are fading away,
or being disobeyed. He thinks Christianity is mak
ing as rapid a progress here as could be expected,
when first brought into confiict with the Buddhism
and Confucianism of a thousand ages, and that it is
now laying the foundation, by-and-by rapidly to go
ahead. I do not see it, though he does. It seems to
me, and such is the opinion of most foreigners here,
outside of the missionary estabUshments, that if. the
missionaries would teach more science, the arts, etc.,
the quicker they would reach the Chinese soul, and
convert it to Christianity, The Bible, and only the
Bible, however, is what the missionary clings to,
though some of these missionaries are, in some re
spects, learned men. The Eoman Catholics, when
first here, started as teachers of things material as
well as spiritual, and they accommodated the spir
itual to the material. Matthew Eicci, an ItaUan
Jesuit, who came to China about the year 1600, put
off the priesthood garb, and put on that of the Con
fucian literati. He studied their sacred classic books,
and became master of Confucius and Mencius.
Schaal, a Geiman Jesuit, made himself an astrono
mer in Pekin. Verbiest, another German Jesuit,
made logarithms, and cast guns for the Chinese,
But, in time, the CathoHcs fought with the Chinese
worship of ancestors, the system of polygamy, etc.,

FEOM PEKIN. ^ 189
and then the conflict of Christ and Confucius be
came so sharp that both the Jesuits and Dominicans
were expelled, even after converting no small portion
of China to Christianity.
I have been reading, now, for some weeks, trans
lations of Confucius and Mencius, and of all other
translated classics I could get hold of — these classics,
with the commentaries upon them, are legion, filling
great libraries ; and I am in a great state of mental
confusion over them. Only such scholars as Dr.
WiUiams and the British minister, Mr. Wade, with
whom I have made many talks, seem to comprehend
the mysteries in them — ^but I am convinced they
would be very profitable studies to us Americans, so
far as they teach home-government, family-govern
ment, self-government, obedience to parents, sacrifice
of self to parents, etc. Morals are the foundation of
politics with the great Chinese philosopher. " How
can a mecm man serve his prince ? (asks Confucius).
When out of office, his sole object is to attain it, and
when he has attained it, his only anxiety is to keep it.
In his unprincipled dread of losing his place, he will '
readUy go all lengths," How much suggestion in
that for the American mind, just now ?
But how I am wandering, and scribbling, and
philosophizing, and on what dry topics ! Enough for
to-day.

LETTEE XXII,
TEE TEMPLES IN PEKIN.
The Temples in China. — Confucius and the Lama. — ^The Lessons of Confbciusr— His
Influence in the Government of the Chinese. — ^The Sages of China, — Tablets to
the Disciples of Confucius. — The Competitrre Students. — ^The Despotism and
Democracy of China. — The Diagrams. — The Tang and the Tin, — Intelligence of
the Chinese, — The Lama Buddhist Temple. — ^Mongolian Priests. — Contrast of
the Lama and Confucius Temples, — ^A Chinese Mandarin's House, — ^Tangwas
his Name. — Sensation in the Streets. — The Interior of the Mandarines House. —
The Wife and Handmaids. — Description of the Wife's Dress. — Befreslimenta. —
Walks on the Eoof of the House. Pekin, August 24, 1871.
To-DAT I have made two grand visits — one, to the
Hving temple of the great Confucius ; another, to the
grand temples of the Buddhist Lamas, who here rep
resent the Grand Lama of Thibet and the Lamas of
Mongolia, I approach the temple of Confacius as I
once approached Jer.usalem, or the Areopagus, or
the Pantheon, or Westminster Abbey, or the Sor-
bonne. It is the temple of knowledge in China, the
Hght, the only light, where no Bible is read, Con
fucius was born about 550 b. c, and from the day
of his death, seventy-three years after, his books have
ruled the kings, the mandarins, the people of China
— now about one-third of the human race, Chris
tianity and Confucianism are yet dividing the empire
of the world. Over two thousand years, Confucian
ism has kept together, under stable government, now
the oldest nation on earth, and one which has sur
vived all the empires and wrecks of the European

THE TEMPLES IN PEKIN. 191
world. Hence, one must go up to the temple of
Confucius, as one goes up to the Areopagus, if not
to^Mars Hill and Jerusalem, Confucius was wiser
and greater than Aristotle, or Plato, or Cicero, or
Seneca. His political and social lessons, and obedi
ence to them, have saved China from the wreck and
ruin of countless other nations in Asia, Europe, and
Africa. There is nothing very remarkable in this temple
of Confucius to look at. The association is the only
inspiration. The hall is lofty, the roof supported by
large teak pUlars from southwestern China. The
front is a broad and handsome marble terrace, with
balustrades, ascended on three sides by seventeen
steps. The inscription on the tablet, in Chinese and
Manchu, is :
" The Tablet of the Soul of the most Holt Ances-
TEAL Teaohee, Contucihs."
Tablets of other four distinguished sages— Men
cius, Tseng-tsi, Ten-hway and Tze-sze — are placed,
two on each side ; and six more, celebrated men of
the school, occupy a lower position on the side. On
the walls are handsome tablets in praise of Confucius.
Each new emperor presents one in token of venera
tion for the sage. Some of these are :
" Oe all Men boen, the Uneivalled."
" Equal wrrn Heaven and Eaeth."
"Example and Teachee of all Ages.'^

192 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
On each side of the court is a range of buildings
¦ where there are tablets to more than a hundred cele
brated scholars. On the east side are seventy-eight
virtuous men, and on the west fifty-four learned men.
Then, there are rows of tablets, or monuments, with
the names of the successful competitive scholars,
who, at the triennial examinations in PeMn, win
their honors on topics given to them, when shut up
for three days, with only pencil and ink for compan
ions, all books and all other companions excluded.
These tablets look as if they ran back for three or
four hundred years ; but the names of those over a
century old cannot be deciphered, as time has ob-
Hterated the engravings made of them in the marble.
What better shows the vanity of human pursuit, of
ambition, of the love of glory ? It reminded me of
the Consular tablets on the CapitoUne HiU of Eome
— ^but what vanity is it aU !
Nevertheless, these competitive examinations and
contests have the widest and greatest influence over
the Chinese Empire. They open the doors of pro
motion to the very poor as weU as to the rich, and
they make every humble person feel — " I can be a
mandarin ; " "I can have the government of a prov
ince ; " "I can see, kneel by, and advise the em
peror 1 " They convert the absolute, hereditary,
and otherwise uncontrollable, supposed-to-be heaven-
given despotism into an educated democracy. Learn
ing must govern — not blockheads and ignorance. A
man must know something, in order to rule.* The

THE TEMPLES IN PEKIN: 193
government, in short, is put into the hands of the
intelligent classes — such intelligence as it is! But
what an extraordinary species of intelUgence ! What
strange studies ! What curious themes ! In our
barbarous ages, our European metaphysical fathers
disputed long and loudly, " whether angels could see
in the dark," or, " whether you could pass from one
point of space to another without going through the
intermediate points ; " but here, the studies are of
the eight diagrams of Fo-hy, or of the Yamg and Yin,
the active and passive principle of the mundane egg,
etc., etc. The knowledge is great ; the scholarism is
wonderful — ^but, eui bono? It runs no railroads,
raises no telegraph poles, creates no great power,
military or naval, cleans no streets, makes no sewers,
diffuses no practical knowledge! Once more, the
whole system proves that reading and writing are
not knowledge, and books are not knowledge. Even
the unreading and unwriting may, by mere observa
tion and practice, know far more than those who
thus read or write.
But the competition, the study, the ambition, do
reflect a wonderful amount of intellect, and a certain
species of intelligence, among all the common people
of China. Almost all the people look,briglit, active,
and earnest. Their self-discipline is astonishing.
They work with patience and assiduity, and seem
ingly discharge all their duties with content. None
learn faster, if any so fast, by mere imitation. Their
capacity in that respect is amazing. Their existing

194 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
manufactories show what they could do, if they had
the machinery and the capital. As writers, our dip
lomats find their mandarins hard to cope vrith. As
servants, they are nnequaUed the world over. The
Chinese waiter is about the only one in the world
who can guess, by instinct, as it were, what you
want, so that, though you have not a word for inter
course, you can get along pretty well by the fingers
and eyes alone.
But, near as I am to the temple of Confucius,
where there is not a god, nor an idol, nor an altar, I
must not forget the large Lama Buddhist temple —
with its thirteen hundred or fifteen hundred Lama
Mongolian priests. Some three hundred of them
there receive instruction in metaphysics, or the doc
trine of " the empty nature " — that is, the non-ex
istence of matter, being, and things, such topics as
the crazy French revolutionists discussed, earnestly,
in the days of Yoltaire, Others study other things
— one hundred and fifty of them medicine — ^but Mon
gols, or Thibetans, unlike the Chinese, do not study
overmuch. The Mongolian Lama priests we saw, in
their yellow robes, as thick as bees in a hive, did not
seem bright enough to study any thing. Indeed,
they are not expected to do much, if any thing, but
to keep their temples in order, and this they do bad
ly. The idols are dirty ; the walls are ragged ; the
floors are dusty. The Chinese Government supports
all these priests, to keep the Mongolians, whose re
ligion th ey represent, in order. They buy theii* priests

THE TEMPLES IN PEKIN. I95
to keep quiet, and so keep their people quiet. I
should weary you by describing here all the halls,
altars, cypress trees, hundreds of years old, and a
seventy-five feet high wooden Buddha, with steps in
side of him. Understand, then, it was a " mighty
big " concern, take it altogether, greater in extent
than the Capitol in Washington (but only one story
or a story and a half high) ; bigger than the N ew
Tork Central Park fountains, bridges, and lake.
Beautiful carpets, made far away off in the interior,
somewhere, were on the fioor. There were pictures
aU the way from Thibet, with aU sorts of odd repre
sentations everywhere, wearying one's eyes to look
at them, and confusing the senses to comprehend.
The contrast of these neighboring temples — the
one to the yet Hving principles of Confucius, and the
other to the idol Buddha — was what most impressed
me. In the Confucian temple were active, Hvely,
hard-studying, ambitious Chinese ; in this Mongol
Lamasery of boyish priests, were half-dead men,
walking on legs, but without any inspiration in
them, living on bread, and fruits, and meats, as ani
mals live, but living only to consume the fruits of
the earth (nati consumere firuges).
But I am scribbHng with dulness on prielts and
scholars, Paulo majora canemus. Let us sing on
women, and houses, and homes, and visits, and style
andfashions. Through the negotiations of some ofthe
Chinese student interpreters in the British Legation,
we were introduced to-day, with two ladies, into the

196 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
very heart of a Chinese mandarin's house — ^Tang
was his name — and we saw there what men seldom
or never can see in Pekin. To give eclat to our out
fit, we started from the Eussian Legation with two
sedan-chairs, a lady in each, and sixteen coolies in
stylish livery to carry them, with three European
cavaliers, two of them speaking Chinese and Enghsh,
to escort them, and two outriders on horseback, in
grandee livery, to lead off and foUow after the escort.
Pekin, of course, opened its eyes, as such a cavalcade
went through its streets. Mule-men, market-men,
cart-men, shopkeeper-men, all stopped to comment
on the show. We were crowded through two city
gates, from the Tartar into the Chinese city, where
the dust was terrible, the pavement worse, and the
crowd, if possible, worse still. We entered a very
narrow and most unimposing street, that led to our
mandarin's rather palatial estabUshment. The man
darin, to be sure, was not a student mandarin, who
had studied his way up on " the essence " of things,
and won his buttons by his books — ^for he was a rich
banker, who had won his way up by dollars, or Chi
nese taels (sycee), and who bought his rank and title
therewith. The mandarin met us at the entrance,
escorted us through a narrow passage into a court
yard, where were dogs, and monkeys, and flowers in
pots. Passing over the court-yard, we met, in a re
ception room, the wife, with her handmaids. There
were Chinese chairs and tables in this room, and we
were invited to sit down. The wife and her hand-

THE TEMPLES IN PEKIN. I97
maids, of whom there were three or four, were elabo
rately painted, in powder and vermilion. The under
lip, about an inch wide in the middle, was painted a
bright crimson. The hair of the wife No. 1 was
drawn up in a peculiar knot, projecting behind
some six or eight inches, with gilt and jade hair
pins fastening a white lUy on the right side. Her
ear-rings were of jade, and pearl, and gold. Eings
of the same kind were on her fingers. The feet
did not seem to be over three inches long — so short,
that she could scarcely stand or step, and in the end
we found she could not go up-stairs. The under
dress was of blue satin, close to her lower limbs,
and elaborately embroidered. The upper dress
was a lighter blue silk blouse. On her arms were
heavy gold and precious stone bracelets. Wife
No, 2 was a Manchu woman, with a different head
dress, and an inferior style generally. Wife No, 1
did all the honors. The others stood, while she sat.
All were painted, even a daughter of fourteen or fif
teen years of age. We were ushered, then, into the
mandarin's study and bedroom, where tea was served
us. Many European scientific things were around.
The master of the house was fond of electricity, and
kept a battery to light his pipe. He was a photog
rapher, too, and took portraits of wife No. 1, in her
grandest state dress. This so attracted our curiosity
that we asked to see it, and out it came — costly,
magnificent, emblazoned with gold, of crimson satin,
elaborately embroidered, and with an over-mantle

198 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
more showy stUl. The head-dress was a sort of
crown, six or eight inches high, on a gold wire foun
dation, with turquoise, rubies, and the Hte orna
ments interwoven. Numerous pearl pendants hung
below the chin. The pearls were magnificent, and
cost — ^how much, who can teU ?
We were then escorted into another room, where
refreshments were given us, served in European
style, with Chinese cakes and liquors. The chUdren
were then exhibited to us — the chUdren of different
mothers, but they all seemed to live harmoniously
together. The No. 2 and No. 3 wives did not sit
down, as did wife No. 1, but seemed content and
happy to look on. There were a melodeon, and many
books. Other rooms were then shown us, and as we
became weary of them, we were taken into other
court-yards, grottoes, over little bridges, spanning
little lakes, with fiowers everywhere about us, and
grapevines, and amid little trees. Then, we were
taken on to the roof of the house, where were pretty
walks and promenades, with cool, refreshing breezes,
contrasting favorably with the heat of the rooms be
low. AU these places were within one waU, and
this wall overtopped every point of view from the
street and the neighborhood. I was- much gratified
with this inner view of a Chinese estabUshment, the
like of which is seldom or never given to man, when
alone, to look upon. Wealth thus exists, we see,
even amid the dirt and dust of the streets of Pekin,
and Fashion is as omnipotent and droU here as in
Paris or New Tork.

LETTEE XXIII.
TEE GOVERNMENT OF CEINA.
The Great Wall of China.— The Overland Eoute to St, Petersburg.— Turned back by a
Mohammedan J0meute. — ^Now too late or too early in the Season. — Can tele
graph from here to New Tork in twelve or sixteen Days. — The Government of
China. — Confacius a sort of Ben Franklin or Thomas Jeflferson,- No Hereditary
Aristocracy, — Public Sentiment governs here as in Great Britain and the
United States. — Baihoads and Telegraphs resisted by Superstitions, to be
overcome, — China making Great Preparations for War. — Casting Cannon, etc. —
China retrograding. — Corruption the Cause, — Mandarin Titles bought and
sold. — The Literati Mandarins now dishonest, — The Boy Emperor, fifteen
Tears of Age,— His Future not promising.- The Dowager hunting a Wife for
him.— The Pekm Gasette. Pekin, August 25, IS'Zl.
One of the dreams of my life has been to go to,
and to stand upon, the great wall of China. There
were certain seven wonders in the world to be seen
in the geographies of my boyhood, and the great wall
was one of them. I have " done " the Pyramids, the
Colossus of Ehodes, and the other wonders, I believe ;
but the great wall is yet to be " done " before I
am done travelling, or there would be no content.
Hence, I am preparing a start for the wall. What
grieves me most, though, is, that there, I shall be
compelled to retrace my steps, at least for a thou
sand miles, back to Shanghai, before I can again get
on a new track, I have long been resolving upon
the Eussian . overland route, homeward, through the
Desert of Gobi, on camels, to Kiakhta, the border

200 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
town of trade between the caravans of China and
Eussia — thence to Irkutsk, the Baikal, the Ural
Mountains, the Yolga, and on, home, via Novgorod,
Moscow, and St. Petersburg ; but there is fighting
going on somewhere, thereabout (in China), or a terri
ble fright, because of the Mohammedans and their
hordes inroading just now, so that I am partially
talked out of it, though more scared out of it by the
approaching cold weather. The distance across the
two continents, Asia and Europe, is some five thou
sand miles, or more — one thousand mUes of it nearly
in China, where every thing is in disorder ; bnt in
Eussia there is a strong government, with horse-posts
everywhere, so that I think I could manage to go in
safety, if once there. There is a railroad, too, one
thousand miles long, from St, Petersburg via Mos
cow, through Novgorod, on to Kasan, and probably
further now, as the Eussians are building a Pacific
railroad like ours, which wUl probably be driven
through Siberia and Manchuria in about ten years.
The work is not so difficult as ours. Already they
have a telegraph line across the continent, the whole
length. But, alas, I must give up the dream of going over
all this, and of thus going through the heart of Si
beria, and so, weU comprehending Eussia, It is both
too late and too early in the season to start on such a
journey. The cool winds already coming from the hills
overlooking Pekin, and the cooler winds soon to come
from the mountains of Mongolia, admonish me that

THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 201
if I were to start now, I should be fighting fioating
ice in Siberia on every river I should be crossing
there, not strong enough to hold horses, and yet ob
structive enough to forbid the passage of rivers in
boats, A month later the journey could be made on
soUd ice, and in good sleighing, the most of the way,
with the thermometer some thirty or forty degrees
below zero, to be sure ; but what is that to a man
"raised" on the Androscoggin, or Kennebec, in
Maine, or that fears the Shanghai thermometer at
ninety far more than forty degrees below zero in Si
beria ? The start for this Siberian journey should be
made from Pekin in May, I see — the summer route,
with clear rivers ; or in October — the winter route,
with frozen rivers to cross. It is hard, rough, long,
but nothing killing in it, on a fair start, under good
Eussian protection. Two or three Americans have
been over it — some Englishmen — and the Eussian
comiers from St, Petersburg to Pekin go every
month, or oftener, if necessary, St, Petersburg can
be reached from here in twelve or sixteen days, by
telegraph, from Kiakhta, the first Eussian town, I
could telegraph home, I think, from here in ten days
now, and from Shanghai directly.
Before I leave Pekin I mnst try to convey *to you
my impressions, or rather guesses, of what this Gov
ernment is ; for, after all, such travellers as I am, run
on haphazard — only guessing. No American out
of China, however, has had higher or better sources
of conversational information than I have had, and
10

202 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
am having. The British and French, as weU as the
Eussian legations, have been as kind as possible to
me with their attaches and interpreters. Our Ameri
can Dr, Williams, too, I think, is better informed
than any other man in China, though he looks at all
things with a Christian missionary eye, and through
Puritan spectacles, a little spotted with Chinese
pebbles. The Government, as I have hinted, seems
to be a democratic despotism, and hence, perhaps,
the secret of its old age and long preservation.
Confucius was a sort of Thomas Jefferson or Ben
Franklin. He laid down great practical democratic
principles, and they have ruled emperors and manda
rins hundreds and hundreds of years. Confucius
created a pubUc opinion and a system of precedents
that no despotism could ever safely ignore. Then,
the common people, through their instructed manda
rins, guide, and overawe, if they do not always sway,
the emperor. He is afraid of the people, and the
mandarins are afraid of the people, too. There is as
much a public opinion here to be respected, as in
Great Britain or the United States. No hereditary
aristocracy of any kind exists. No mandarin can
transfer even his buttons, to say nothing of his post,
to his children. When these mandarins are made gov
ernors of the provinces of China, their power is quite
absolute ; but the emperor is omnipotent, of com'se,
over them. The provinces are like our States, with
certain provincial rights that mandarins must respect
when sent there. Hence, the Government is nowhere

THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. 203
absolutely absolute — that is, with safety to itself.
Intelligent mandarins would like to build railroads
and telegraphs, it is thought, but they dare not, it is
believed, as yet. No mandarin feels potent enough
to advise the emperor to run a railroad over the
graves and through the graveyards of Chinese re
vered and worshipped ancestors. The trouble in
erecting telegraph poles is, that a superstitious China
man believes (and aU are more or less superstitious)
that these poles will interfere with the Fung-Shuey,
" wind and water," a species of geomancy, or a be
Uef in the good or ill luck attached to particular local
situations, that the poles may have struck. Geo
mancy is an occult science here, and professors study
it, and tell you the plan for a house, or a grave,
where the Fung-Shuey will bless it. To such an ex
tent is this superstition existing in Pekin, that when
the Catholics built their cathedral higher than the
imperial wall, the wall was raised higher than the
cathedral, to ward off the Catholic Fung-Shuey. To
ride over such superstitions, rough-shod, is what even
an intelligent mandarin does not Hke to do. Hence,
circumstances and events must control the erection
of telegraphs, so indispensable for the unity of a great
empire like this, and not force. An event has just
now occurred which will hasten the erection of tel
egraphs. The grand Pekin Council of Scholars
awarded two competitive prizes to two Cantonese
scholars, the highest honors of the empire. The
news was sent from Shanghai by sea telegraph to

204 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
Hong-Kong, and reached Canton, days before the
news could go overland. The Cantonese were as
tounded, and discredited the intelligence untU the
long-looked-for Pekin official Gazette came overland
and confirmed it. Then there was wonder and mar
vel over that intelligence, and all China, from north
to south, is asking " if it will do to give foreigners the
means of more rapid intercourse with the exterior of
our empire than we ourselves have." Interest, and
trade, and commerce, I think, wUl soon dispose of
that Fung-Shuey, and give China the telegraph.
" The graves of our ancestors," scattered over eveiy
little field in China, wiU be more difficult and dan
gerous to be dealt with than this Fung-Shuey y but
" the graves of our ancestors " wiU have to go at
last. All these opinions, nay, superstitions, in a
freeish sort of country like this, have, however, to
be respected, even by emperors and mandarins.
We have opened their great river, one ofthe greatest
rivers in the world ; and, by steam, we Americans do
nearly all the coasting trade there with Shanghai.
Mandarins now prefer our boats to their junks to
travel in, Europe and America have taught China
men how to cast cannon and to make rifles. Their
factories, under our auspices, are almost equal to
ours. Their rifle is as good as our Springfield rifle.
Their ships of war are now putting on formidable
fronts. If England again comes into confiict with
China, it wUl not be so easy a conquest as in her two
last Chinese wars.

THE GOVEENMENT OF CHINA 205
Why, then, you ask, perhaps, is such a people
retrograding ? — for here, in Pekin, amid the ruin of
roads, and bridges, and palaces, and the wreck of al
most every thing, this retrogradation is too visible.
China is not what it was three hundred years ago, with
as much civilization, perhaps, but far less material
progress. The answer to the question propounded
here is a most important one to us Americans — for
corruption is the sole cause of Chinese retrogradation,
and is, if not corrected, certain to lead to the down-
faU of the empire, and its subjugation to Europeans
ot Americans, I have pointed out, in another let
ter, how rich men buy mandarin honors. That does
not give a mere rich man office, but it does give him
rank, station, and social position, and the common
people are angry that even thus their scholar compet
itive system should be interfered with. As yet, it is
believed, though often suspected to the contrary, that
the examination of the scholars for the mandarin
places is honest ; and hence, corruption may not have
penetrated these schools. But now, even these scholar
mandarins have ceased to be honest. They go to
their provinces, and they " squeeze " the rich and
the poor, and extort all they dare. They buy silence
in the councils of Pekin with the money the^ extort
from the people, and thus corruption in the provinces
works corruption in the capital, till all, more or less,
have become corrupt, and there is no confidence or
honesty anywhere. Confucius terribly rebukes all
this in his legacies ; but Confucius is losing his hold

206 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
on the great mandarins of the empire. The empire, .
just now, is in the hands of a regency, with the em
press-dowager and Prince Kung at the head — ^with
a boy of only fifteen training to be emperor. Upon
that boy, whether he watches or not the corruption
of the empire — ^whether he puts it down, or permits
it to run — ^hangs not only the empire itself, but prob
ably his own destiny, as weU as his dynasty. The
boy is reported from the palace as not very promising
for the future. And how can a boy be trained for
empire in such an exclusion, seeing nobody but the
few, hearing only what they choose to tell him, and
with women -and eunuchs, in the main, surrounding
him ? The wild, fierce Manchu blood that conquered
the empire is running to water vrithin the walls of
the palace, and amid the luxuries of the palace ; and,
unless the boy turns out to be a wonder, the dynasty
will be tumbled over for a stronger one, as has hap
pened several times before in the history of China.
Great efforts are being made to find a wife No. 1
for the boy emperor — and he can have as many as he
pleases, after No. 1. The pretty girls, from hun
dreds and hundreds of miles, have been sent up to
the capital as patterns for an empress; but his
mother, the empress-dowager, has not yet found out
a wife for him. (She picked out one, who was taken
to the capital to be educated a year for an empress,
but during that year she died.) Boys and girls in
China have nothing to do with the selection of their
own wives. They seldom see, tho husband his wife.

THE GOVEENMENT OF CHINA, 207
or the wife her husband, till the day. of marriage.
The emperor, even, has got to take what they give
him ; but if No. 1 does not suit or satisfy, No. 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, and so on, can be handmaids. Some of the rich
est provinces have just been levied upon, however, to
furnish silks, satins, and embroideries for some grand
nuptial ceremony soon to take place in Pekin, The
richest silk province respectfully protests, I see by
the Pekin Gazette, against the silk levy made upon
that province. The mandarin writes the requisition
cannot be complied with, without trouble there ; and,
what is stranger, the Pekin official Gazette publishes
in full the respectful remonstrance. This Pekin Ga-
zette, by-the-way, is the only real Chinese newspaper
in the empire. It is pubHshed daily here, and the
manuscript is furnished twenty-four hours in advance
to the foreign ministers, if they desire it. It is an
official record only, with no dissertations in it, no
" editorials," only the decrees of the Government,
and the reports and petitions of mandarins from the
provinces. But what a, long, duU yarn! I am weary, and
off to the great wall in the morning.

LETTEE XXIY.
FROM TEE GREAT WALL OF CEINA.
On Top of the Great Wall of China,— Droves of Sheep, Hogs, Ponies, Donkeys, —
Mongolians and Manchus. — Speech-making on Top of the Great Wall — Speech
of J. B, to the Great Wall,— Tartars, a Species of Tankees, leaping over all
Walls.— Outfit for the Trip from Pekin to the Great Wal— Brick Tea — Sheep's-
tail Soup. — ^Eggs in Abundance, — ^Mule Litters. — Description ofthe Craft. — The
Muleteers. — ^Mingling Mire, Mud, and Dust. — Sounding for the Bottom of the
Bogs, — Dodging into Farms and Gardens, — ^Boads in China are Ditches. — ^The
Pass of Nan-Kow. — First Night's Experience in a Mongolian Inn. — A Brick
Oven to sleep on, — Journey to the Wall over a Bough and Terrible Boad. — A
Series of Walls.— A Lunch amid Buins of the WaU, — The Comfort of a Cup of
Cold Water, On Top of the Great Wall of Chika, )
August 27, 1871. )
Veni, vidi, vioi. 1 have clambered up on to the
tip-top of the Great Wall of China ! I have suffered
some, especiaUy in bones and the flesh — ^but what of
that, now I am here I Vidl. I have seen lots of
sheep, with thick, fat tails, that make (report says),
the best of soup (perhaps, I have eaten some of it —
happy ignorance — don't know), and have seen lots of
lean, lank, long-eared, black hogs, all the way from
Mongolia — intelligent black hogs, for they under
stand two languages (more than I do), the Mongo
lian and Chinese, and they obey their di'ivers, unlike
other hogs ; and I have also seen lots of Mongolians
— fellows witli fur caps on, this hot summer weather,
and sheep-skin coats, working their way, with their

FEOM TUE OEEAT WALL OF CHINA, 209
ponies, and the truck on them, to the great imperial
city. Well, I have got now on to the jumping-off
place, and intend to stop, and not jump off. The Mon
golian Buddhists teU my man, Cheng, " These foreign
devils can't go much further, just now, unless they
turn Mohammedans, for the Mohammedans are kill
ing all Buddhists" (out there in Tartary), As I am
neither for Buddha, nor for Mohammed (only a hard-
sheU Baptist), both sides might try to kill me unless
I enlisted under one banner or the other ; and hence
I return homeward-bound, now, and as fast as I can
go in the round-about European way, by the Indian
Sea, When, last November, ex-Secretary Seward and
his party, with Admiral Eodgers and his party, were
here, the ex-Secretary made a great speech to the
Admiral, which has been duly recorded in the Shang
hai (English) Gazette, if not in the Pekin (official
Chinese) Gazette. It must have been a funny speech,
funnigraphically reported, thus made up here to the
crows, and the sparrows, and the black hogs, and
donkeys, and mules, and some half-dozen Americans.
Nevertheless, standing upon this great precedent,
I propose to make a speech, not to Admiral Eodgers,
for he is now off in Japan, but to the Great Wall it
self. And here it is :
" Mb. Great "Wall of Onrcf a :
" I've come some fifteen thousand miles, from the Antip
odes, mainly to see you, but I don't think you are worth all
that trouble. You are a big thing, that is certain, a mighty
big thing ; but I could have bought a photograph of you for a

210 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
Mexican dollar, and it has cost me many, to get up here. I
won't come again, till, in the metempsychosis, I become
younger and greener. I don't know how old you are, and
can't find out — only that you are not half as old as Cheops'
Pyramids, in Egypt. You were only begun, it seems, b. o. 213,
and you were not done with till a. d. 1368, if then. You are
very long, to be sure— some say two thousand miles. Fifty
thousand workmen were at one time, so it is stated, at work,
only repairing and extending you. But what's all that to the
great Pacific Eailroad, Mr. Wall, as long as you are, and going
tJirough mountains, not up and over them, as you do ! Kever-
theless, I don't mean to say you are not a very respectable,
nay, a very wonderful Wall.
" But, Mr. Wall, you were built, you know, to keep ofi" the
Yankee Tartars from running over you into the flowery land
of China. Have you kept them oflf? No, never! The Mon
golian, Manchu and Siberian Tartars are very like all Tartars,
everywhere, from New England to Old England. Put a lot of
people down in a country only half made when the world was
made, such as Old England or New England is, where nothing
grows except with a great deal of trouble, and then very spar
ingly — where you need furs and fires to keep warm, and strong
meats and strong drinks to keep alive — and do you think such
an uneasy people there will not leap over walls, in order to
get down into the golden grain, the silver rice, the flowery
land of milk and honey ? The Tartar peeped over these moun
tains, and, tired of sheep's tails, and sheep-skins, and bear
meat, and tiger and leopard soup, and beef and butter, he de
termined to have something better; and hence he jumped, by
thousands and thousands, over your wall, just as we home
Yankees jumped over the AUeghanies, and the Potomac, and
the Eocky Mountains, into sunnier countries and better lands.
Man, by nature, is an indolent animal, and does not like to hoe
rocks, or fight Jack Frost, ten months in the year. He is not
content with crab-apples, but wants persimmons, grapes, figs,
oranges, bananas, and will have them. Man was born with
the devil in him, north, and the devil is only melted ont of him
under the hot suns of the south. Ucnco, Mr. Wall, the great
Khans of Tartary, from Genghis Kltan and EuUa Khan, on, and
down, nevei'mueh minded the great piles of granite and brick

FROM THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA, 211
you have put up here. They scaled the mountain tops, and
jumped over, or banged through the granite and brick in the
valleys. There is no stopping Yankees anywhere — ^Yankee
Tartars in America, or John Bull Tartars in England, when
you show them a better country to live in, than they were born
in. Thus, Genghis Khan (a. d. 1212), and Timour the Tartar
— ^Yankees, undoubtedly — starting up here, somewhere, among
these rocks and caverns, tired of black hogs, and sheep's tails,
and a nomad life, with no cabbages to eat, nor onions, deter
mined to overrun the world, and nearly did it. They ran over
the Eussias, ran down the Turks and Huns, and scared the
Germans half out of their wits, while they scrambled over all
China. The Chinese, however, did what most Southerners do
with Northerners — captivated (not captured) them, sweetened
them, took the barbaric out of them and put the gentle in ;
softened, humanized, civilized them, till the Tartars themselves
became Chinese. Walls, then, Mr, Wall, have not half the in
fluence over Yankees as a softer civilization. Granite and
bricks and the bow and arrow are nothing in comparison with
flowers, fruits, fields, figs, fans, etc., etc. The pretty fans of
China fanned the devil nearly all out of all the flery Tartars, and
they quitted their horses, and took to the hoe and the shovel.
If Mazeppa ever rode down this way, through the mountain
passes, he is digging now, not horse-vaulting, and singing Chi
nese ditties and chants, not yelling and bellowing after hordes,
and horses, and asses, and bullocks and calves. Mazeppa is no
longer a nomad, but a farmer, now, in China.
" Mr. Wall and Mr. Mountain Pass — ^if we had you now in
Yankee land, we should run a railroad right through you —
(make bridges of you, Mr. Wall) — and drive off these camels,
who are bringing on their backs coal from your miserably-
worked mines, Mr. Mountain ; and all these asses, donkeys,
mules, and horses, that, by the thousands, are now bringing
things, in panniers, from, and to MongoKa, and the region be
yond. What a shame to keep these thousands of men thus
employed, when one locomotive on an iron rail would do all
their work ? If you, Mr. Wall, had fought the present Manchu
Tartars now ruling China with a locomotive and one big gun on
it, you. Chinamen would not be obliged to be wearing pig-taUs,
and a shaven head, as you are — a fashion these Manchus im-

212 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
posed upon you when they broke through this wall. Trne,
you have imposed upon them all your other fashions, except
the little squeezed feet — (the Manchu women have ever refused
to have their feet thus squeezed up) — but these bare heads,
these pig-tails, the emblems of your subjection to the Northern
Yankees, are very, very bad.
" Now, Mr. WaU, you have an expression of my mind, I
shall take home a piece of " a brick " in memory of you — a
whole brick I would take, if my carpet-bag were big enough
for such big bricks as you are made of; and you must consider
this a particular compliment, for if I should take home a brick
of all the wonders I am seeing, I should have to take home a
caravan of camels, too, to carry the load. Good-by ! "
But how did you get from Pekin to the Great
Wall of China ? Listen, and I will tell you. Our
" fit-out " was cold mutton, and beef, and chicken,
and sugar, and tea, and liquors as needful ; beds,
sheets, blankets, mosquito nets, pillows, plates, cups,
saucers, with knives, forks, spoons, etc, etc, for
there is little to be had on the route that an Ameri
can would Hke to live on. Brick tea you can have
— the refuse tea-dust of China, baked into a brick —
sheep's tails and mutton grease, made, some say,
into candles, and then mixed in a soup of the tails,
with the tea ; but to such as are not thus brought
up, the fare might be hard. Eggs, there are plenty
of, en route, and hens and chickens ; and where they
are, even an American need not starve. Our car
riages were what in Turkey they call Taktaravans —
here, a mule litter, a large palanquin suspended on
the backs of two mules, lengthwise. Strong leather
bands connect the points of the shafts resting on the

FROM THE GEEAT WALL OF CHINA. 213
saddles of the mules. An iron pin, fixed in the top
of the saddle, passes through a hole in the leather,
and so keeps it in its place. The shafts are, of
course, long, to reach from one miUe to another, and
to leave the animals plenty of room to walk. The
motion is not at all disagreeable — nay, luxurious,
when compared with all the other means of locomo
tion I have seen in China, The saddle looks as if
it weighed a haU' cord of wood, and the litter a full
cord. It was so heavy that it took four men to lift
it. I stretched out and slept in it pretty well, when
out late at night ; and it was not difficult to read
novels in it, when there was nothing to see, or noth
ing else to do.
The muleteers, two men to each litter — one for the
front mule and one for the rear mule — started from
Pekin early in the morning, and, at the rate of two
mUes per hour, contrived to get out of the city waUs
in two hours. In turning a sharp street corner, one
Utter turned over — for the shafts are so long that
sharp corners cannot be turned with them ; but no
particular damage was done, even to the crockery
ware, and none to us, save the fright. We blocked
up a Pekin narrow street, and strung along a mile of
carts, front and rear, before we were extricated — ^with
an anxious crowd looking on and iftarvelling where
such strange " critters " were going in such vehicles.
The roads, just now, were in a mixed condition of
mud, mire, and dust. Heavy rains had saturated the
earth, and a hot August sun was drying them up.

214: A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN,
and turning them into dust. Whenever our mulet
eers saw a bog of mire ahead, in fear and trembling
they sounded for bottom with the handles of their
whijis — (for, four hundred pounds on a mule's back,
eight hundred pounds on two mules' backs, are likely
to sink them, if once they get into a Serbonian bog).
If the passage was found safe, through we fioundered ;
if not, we ascended the banks, and made long cir
cuits through farms, and gardens, and crops. Occa
sionally we were lost in the tall miUet, or Indian
corn, or sorghum, and the dogs barked at us, and the
children rushed out to see what had come. Occa
sionally, too, a farmer would turn out, and " swear "
we should not tread down his crops with mules, and
threaten a fight ; but when our man-of-aU-work,
Cheng, pointed to our European faces, and the liv
eried cooUe who accompanied us, and who gave his
rank and dignity by his livery, we were permitted to
trample down millet, or beans, or peas, or corn, or
any thing. Nevertheless, we had a hard time in
these by-ways. The impassable bogs were numer
ous, and we threaded passages where mule litters
never went before. The roads in China, I may as
well tell you here, have become excavations, tunnel?,
ditches from long, long use, and the practice of gath
ering up the loose dirt in them to manure the fields ;
and into these ditches, whenever there is rain, the
water pours and gathers, and soon makes stagnant
pools and bogs. These bogs in the road were our
terror, and hence these long farm detours.

FROM THE GEEAT WALL OF CHINA, £15
Our " breakfast " was taken at four p. m., at Sha-
ho, a village sixty li, or twenty miles, from Pekin — a
distance, with the detours, we had been since seven
A, M. travelling over. Nankow, the mouth of the
mountain pass, some fifteen miles more distant, was
to be our sleeping place, and we made for it, after
breakfast, with all possible mule speed, then two or
two and a half miles per hour, A blessed moon
lighted up our stony, rough way, or we never should
have got there that night. After passing by and
around, I can scarcely say over, two splendid stone
bridges, now pretty well in ruins, I did not see much
after leaving Sha-ho. In spite of the horrible road,
and the perils of mule litter travelling at night, I
was rocked to sleep, and I slept soundly till we
reached Nankow, eleven o'clock at night. There,
there was a terrible row. The whole caravansera,
pretty well filled with travellers, donkies, asses, was
dead in sleep, and it was only after a loud, long
knocking that we could wake up the master of the
domicile, and make him understand we wanted wa
ter, hot and cold, and a place to lay our heads in,
and to feed the mules in, that night.
Let me now introduce you to a Nankow hostelry,
the kind existing all the way now into Eussia, and
far away, i/n there, certainly through. Siberia. The
donkeys and asses have troughs to eat in, under
about as good a cover as you have, and close by your
sleeping chamber ; and you have an oven to sleep
on, and over the oven, a mat, to keep the bricks from

216 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
burning your skin, if the oven by chance gets too
hot. Thank the good month of August, there needed
no fires in our oven, and we were not roasted, nor
baked, as travellers sometimes are in December or
January. Tou, if you are old enough, remember the
old Eussian (brick) oven stoves in New England, be
fore the days of iron. These brick stoves, especiaUy
in the New-England school-houses, were lit up, say at
four A, M., for the school, beginning at nine a. m., by
which time the school-house had become so hot, from
the quantity of wood consumed within the stove, that
only salamanders could healthily live in the school-
house building. The Tankees got that stove idea
from these Mongols and Tartars up here. The dif
ference is, that the MongoHans turn them to double
use, for beds, and blankets, or comforters, whUe we
only use them to warm rooms. On top of the mat,
which was on top of the dirty bricks, that had not
had a sweeping since they were laid, and fuU of all
sorts of harmless creatures, that only nipped a little,
but did not bite, we laid our beds. I never slept
better. The donkeys brayed; the mules uttered their
most plaintive lays for more fodder ; the muleteers,
roused up at midnight, and wondering what new
fellows had come, sputtered monosyllabic yells that
would have scared a traveller out of his wits if he
had not been hearing Hke yeUing from his own mu
leteers all day long. Nevertheless, after drinking
my tea, after eating my omelette (I never ask now
how omelettes are made, without butter or mi^k, and

FEOM THE GEEAT WALL OF CHINA. 217
there are none here), and nibbling my bread, I never
slept better. The New-Tork Fifth Avenue has bet
ter, that is, softer beds, to be sure, and a better table ;
but our railroad cars and steamboats do not prepare
a traveUer to enjoy them, as the litter did me, in this
Tourt, with the horses, the mules, the donkeys, the
MongoHan and Chinese muleteers. In a cold night,
I can well fancy, there may be a comfort on the hot
bricks of the oven you are sleeping over; but my
" windows " were open, and the pure air of heaven
was coming in from the mountains, and not even a
blanket was necessary. We all waked at 5 a, m., men
and donkeys, and we all breakfasted, I may say, to
gether. Early hours, the Chinese keep. They are no
laggards in the morning. Even the emperor gives
audience to his mandarins at 5 A, m., who get their
tea before they start for the palace, and have their
breakfast on their return at 8 a. m. Our breakfast
over, finished before 6 a. m., we started off, through
the mountain-passes, for the wall, fifteen miles off —
the ladies in sedan-chairs, with four coolies to each
chair, and I, on the back of an interesting mule, that
would do what he pleased, and, I soon found, knew
so much more than I did, about mountain travelling,
that I suffered the better informed boast to do as he
pleased. What I saw — what cuffs, kicks, shakes, thumps,
over, amid, and on, the loose rocks, and huge bowl
ders, and mountain -torrents of this terrible road — no
matter ! Bells were tinkling on all our mules, and

218 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
on all the leading animals we met, the one to warn
the other, so as not to be caught in an impassable
pass. The muleteers kept up a wild chatter with
their beasts, and the beasts seemed to understand
them well. We met great fiocks of black-headed
sheep, with heavy, short, fat tails, and otherwise
very white fleeces. We met hogs by the thousands.
Droves of horses and donkeys, too, were en route for
the Pekin market. Thousands and tens of thousands
of people are daily passing over this great highway
from China to Mongolia and Eussia, and over such a
road, not as good as that old horse-path uj) and down
the White (New Hampshire) Mountains, on either
side. Not five miles out of Nankow I began to see
one of the series of walls that have been erected in
this great pathway to keep off Tartar invasions.
The terror inspired by the outer tribes of the North
has been such that the Chinese have fortified almost
the whole gap in the mountains. A handful of men,
with modern artillery, with European handling, could
now keep off Genghis Elian or Tamerlane ; but not
with only spears, and bows, and arrows, once the
weapons of war, as here, even now, to a great extent.
There are four or five series of walls, running up
even to the tops of the hUls, before one comes to the
Great Wall. All over the hills, by the valleys, are
the ruins of old forts in the direction of the road.
Bloody battles have been fought here — many of
them — but the story of them is lost to us, for there is
no historian before Agamemnon. When, in olden

FEOM THE GEEAT WALL OF CHINA. 219
times, the Mongols were coming, the intelligence was
transmitted into China by beacon-fires, lighted on the
towers, and the signal flashed through the Chinese
dominions, and the mandarins assembled their hosts
from the south to repel the invader.
At last, as I have already written, we were up an
ascent of rocks, over which the Great Wall towers,
some thirty or thirty -five feet high, with a granite
foundation and a brick creneUated topping thereon.
We let loose our mules here, freed, pro tem., our
chair-men, and then, spreading our blankets on the
grass created by the vegetation grown around the
ruins, reclined to eat and to drink — a lunch, or tiffin,
as it is called in the East. The cup of cool moun
tain water that for weeks and weeks I have been
longing for — water freed from impurities, and fresh
as the torrent just springing from its native wells —
was here. No one knows how good water tastes un
less one has been living, as I have been, for weeks, on
claret, beer, porter, and tea, feeling it not safe to
drink the water of the country below ; and hence, I
now drank mountain water by " the wholesale," and
became as good a temperance man as Neal Dow in
Maine.

LETTEE XXV,
RETURN TO PEKIN.
Tho Ming Tombs.— The Grand Approach to them, — AH going to ruin, — ^The Bnmmcr
Palace of the Emperors. — "• Yueng-Ming-Tuen-Ching," the man-of-all-woife, —
Letters of Credit no Service in Pekin, — No Coin or Currency in China, — Sycee, —
The North of China. — The Emperor gives Audience at 5 a, m, — ^The Marble Bridge
and the Lotus.— The Temple of Heaven,— The Temple of Earth,— The Sacrifices
in these Temples by the Emperor. BeplemhefX, 1871.
Fkom the Great WaU of China I went to the Ming
Tombs (the Chinese imperial burying-place, what the
Pyramids were to the Egyptians), The Ming dynasty
was a pure Chinese dynasty— no Tartar blood in it —
and one of the Mings created, in a beautiful vaUey
here, just under the mountain road about, a series of
burial-places, now one ofthe wonders of China, though
half in ruins, as every thing is here. The approach
from Pekin (thirty miles distant) into the valley is, or
rather was, once, magnificent. There are six great
stages, or notable places, in the valley, to the tomb of
Tung-lo — a marble gateway, constructed of fine white
marble, ninety feet long, fifty feet high, carved with
squares of fiowers ; then, a stone bridge ; then, the
Dragon and Pliamix gate, and seven marble bridges
with elegant balustrades ; then, the avenue of ani
mals, cut in bluish marble in colossal size — two paira

EETUEN ^Jp PEKIN. 231
of lions, two of unicorns, two of camels, two of ele
phants, and two of horses. The elephants are thirteen
feet high and seven wide. Beyond the animals come
the military and civil mandarins, six on each side.
These are all in grand costumes. Our mules found
these lion and elephant figures so life-like that they
shied at them, trembled all over, and refused to pass
by. We had to blind their eyes, and then make
them foUow a donkey who did not appreciate sculp
ture as well as the mules. Gradually, then, over a
paved road, we came through persimmon, or wild
mulberry orchards, to the great resting-place and
tomb of Tung-lo. I could fill a page with an inter
esting topographical description of the vast hall, two
hundred and ten feet wide, and thirty feet deep — of
its piUars of teak wood, twelve feet round and thirty-
two feet high to the ceiling — ^but who, in America
cares for the Mings, or the dead Mr, Tung-lo, whose
remains repose in the august mausoleum in the rear
of that hall? I only hint of what I saw, in order to
impress you with the idea that the Chinese were as
proud of mausoleums as the Egyptians were, or, as
New-Torkers are of Greenwood Cemetery. But Mr.
Tung-lo's and all the other Ming tombs are rapidly
going to grass. Another (Manchu) dynasty is on the
throne. Grass is growing aU over the roofs, and
wild weeds are in all the courts, and often in the halls.
By-and-by, it will be as hard to find where Mr. Tung-
lo was buried as where Augustus, or Julius Csesar, or
Titius Livy, or Demosthenes, or Thucydides rested.

222 A SEVEN l^ONTHS' EUN.
Dollars are wasted on great mausoleums. A thou
sand years after a man is dead, who cares for his
dust and ashes, if any of them are left ? I ate eggs
and cold mutton, and drank Bass's London beer, on
the fioors of the Mings, within the sacred enclosure,
and paid the keeper a few cash (cents) for the privi
lege. A dozen Chinese muleteers would look on to
see how a Tankee ate eggs and mutton with a knife
and fork, all hankering after the to be empty bottle,
invaluable to them as a bottle ; and such is life, and
such is death, among the Ming Tombs !
If one will go to see where Chinese emperors are
buried, one ought to go, next, to see where Chinese
emperors lived. Hence, we went over a few mUes,
some twenty, perhaps, or more, to Tueng-Ming-
Tuen, the once wonderful summer palace that the
British and French burnt down, or blew up with
powder in 1860. Tou wiU remember that in 1859
the Chinese declined to execute the treaties which
let foreign ministers into Pekin, and that Sir Frede
rick Bruce (who died in Boston, after being the Brit
ish Minister in Washington), and our Mr. Ward,
were not permitted to reside there. The British and
French concluded to fight their way into the capital,
and were successful in the fight. The Chinese vio
lated a truce, and murdered some EngHshmen and
French, whereupon, in revenge, the summer palace
of the emperor was sacked and destroyed in part. It
is said ten million dollars' worth of valuables were
found in it by the soldiers, who were permitted to

EETUEN TO PEKIN. 223
sack it, which many of these soldiers, little under
standing values, sold for trifies. Gardens, palaces,
temples, and pagodas on artificial hills, were all
sacked. Judging by what is now left in ruins, it
seems to me that the famous gardens and parks of
Versailles, and Wilhelmshohe, in Hesse Cassel, are
not more beautiful than this summer palace, Tueng-
Ming-Tuen, was. Here the emperor resided five or
six ^months in the year, with his wives, and his eu
nuchs, and servants — Pekin, some eight miles off in
sight — and every thing about him that could give a
human being luxury, ease, effeminacy. There was
a lake for gondolas to glide in. There was an arti
ficial island, vsdth summer-house on it, and a bridge,
magnificently arched, leading by a circuit to it.
There are groves and tangled thickets, left purposely
wild to contrast with the artificial structures all
about. Statues of many kinds, in marble and bronze,
are numerous, some mutilated, but enough left to
show the once great grandeur of the twelve square
miles within the inclosure of the palace. We lunched
within, near dragons in marble, on a terrace, under
cedars and pines ; and here, in the life palace of the
Emperors, we had our little feast, as the day before
in the Ming Tombs, Travellers must eat and drink,
no matter in what high places their meal-times pick
them up.
Weary and worn, after four days of hard excur
sions, we returned to the great city, and the mud we
had found in it two weeks ago was now dust and

224 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
flying dirt, and fiying dirt and dust, I am beginning
to think my first entree into Pekin in the mud has
made me do injustice to its streets. One does not
need seven-leagued boots now to get over its ditches
and pools. The springless carts are endurable where
there are no pavements, and it is the fashionable
vehicle I see now, with curtains, aud covers, and
paint, and vermUion ; and therefore not so very bad
to look at. But custom fits the eye for almost any
thing. Pekin looks vastly better to me than it did
at first, I think I could exist here, if there was no
other place to Hve in. The air is exhilarating, and
the cUmate has been beautiful since I came here. So
much in apology for first impressions in Pekin.
I have written of " Cheng," my dragoman, inter
preter, cook, valet, waiter, man-of-aU-work, and a
genius besides, who only asks ten doUars (Mexican)
per month, and pickings. The ten Mexicans turn
out to be the very smallest part of the pay — for I
am wholly in his power. I cannot enter a temple
without him, or get out of one, or do without him
at any time, anywhere, Cheng's genius is best
displayed hereabout on currency, and I can rec
ommend him to the President for his Secretary of
the Treasury, as long as the paper-money system
exists in America, Cheng will turn a Mexican dol
lar into nothing, by the exchanges, through the
bankers, a little quicker than it can be done in Wall
Street, New Tork, or, in Montgomery Street, San
Francisco, I give him Mexicans, and he exchanges

EETUEN TO PEKIN. 225
them for sycee, silver (chopped-up silver, generally),
and he exchanges that into the paper money of Pekin,
which is not cun-ent ten miles out of the city. They
have paper money here in Pekin only, just as we
have " stamps " in the United States — the lowest
value, ten of our cents ; but underneath and beyond
this is " cash," in strings of copper, one thousand
to twelve hundred of which make a dollar, and on a
journey, you have to take, or ought to take, strings
of cash weighing enough to load a mule. With a
respectably big good biU of credit from New Tork or
London, I cannot get a cent from it here, in Pekin ,
(there are no bills of exchange drawn here on any
where), and were it not for the kindness and trust of
the Comprador (financial officer) of the Eussian Lega
tion, I could not have gone to " the waU," or get out of
Pekin. I brought up from Tien-tsin, here, as many
Mexican dollars as I dared to carry, bnt they were
soon exhausted in the temptation of the shops of Pe
kin. The currency of China is in a most abominable
state. The Government money is trusted in nothing
but in its copper coinage. Even Mexican dollars
will not pass among the country people. Silver only
is used, and that, everywhere goes by weight. There
are no Chinese coins ; there is no min^. The Gov
ernment would not be trusted to have on.e, so corrupt
is it believed to be, or has been, in times gone by, in
. the coinage of money, or in the issuance of paper,
which, in large quantities, it once put forth, as de
scribed in the travels of the Venetian Marco Polo.
11

22G A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
Before I leave these regions of North China,
from whence there is no emigration, save into Mon
golia and Manchuria — none, certainly, to America —
I must pay a passing tribute to the general appar
ent kindness of the people, and the safety for the
European traveller. No one has designed or inti
mated harm to us, either in the lone viUages or on
the Eiver Peiho, when exposed aU night on the sam
pan boats, or en route from Tung Chow and Pekin to
the Great Wall — far, far into China's interior. We
have scarcely ever felt the least sense of insecurity.
Our lives for days and days have been at the mercy
of Chinamen, and no one has harmed us, on the con
trary, all, though curious to see, have been hospitable
to us. Ever since the wars between Great Britain and
France, a foreigner seems to bear with him a charmed
power for protection. Though provoked, as the Chi
nese must have been, by the burning of the Emperor's
summer palace, even amid its ruins, the people, all
about were civil — so civil, that when requested to
let us eat in peace, without the curious crowds usu
ally gathering around, they all cheerfuUy departed,
and peeped from corners only, at a distance, fancying
they were out of our sight. I have no gun with me,
no revolver, and I deem the carrying of them more
unsafe to my own surroundings than any protection
they would give from any imaginary perils from the
population about me,
I have good opportunities now to see farm life,
garden life, rural life, in general. The agriculture,

EETUEN TO PEKIN. 227
especially the terrace agriculture, is not what I ex
pected to see. Farming is not carried to such per
fection as in Japan. Mountain land is not rescued
from its barrenness where it might be ; but every spot
of good land is put under cultivation for millet, or
sorghum, or corn, or peas, or beans, etc. The sor
ghum runs up to twelve or fifteen feet high, and its
stalks and roots are used for fuel in winter. There
is no grass land in this part of China, and hence
few or no cattle are raised here. There are no green
fields, therefore, though often green hills, and these
are, now, as green as in Switzerland ; and very Swiss-
Hke among the mountains, with the Swiss disease of
the goitre among the women there. And on these
hiUs there are sometimes cattle and goats, A coun
try thus all ploughed, and hoed, and cultivated, its
plains, now full of crops and teeming with agricul
tural wealth, is a novelty to an American eye, I
could see nothing but crops, for miles and miles, as I
wandered through the fields, and the field paths,
called ' roads. There are some few fruits here — the
apple, now ripening, not bad — the peach, not good
nor bad, and the grape, excellent as a garden
grape. Figs and pomegranates are growing in the
gardens of the Legation about me, but they are
housed in winter. The winter here, indeed, must be
terrible, judging from the good, thick ice I see on
the table, and from the abundance of furs and skins
of aill sorts in the markets, offered for sale as cloth
ing. The sun in summer is too fiery hot, and in

228 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
midday, the safest way is to keep out of its rays. But
the climate of Pekin I have found agreeable and
healthy, and in the mountains not far off, the air is as
pure as in Switzerland, or in Oregon, or in New
Hampshire. Every one below in the unhealthy
regions told me, " it was as much as a man's Hfe was
worth " to come to Pekin as a tourist in August ;
butj I have found myself improved in health and
vigor. April, May, September and October, however,
are the safest months to be here. Pekin is cut off
from the rest of the world in winter, for ice blocks up
every stream, everywhere, about here, and only long
and tedious overland travel then is practicable.
Pekin, at seven o'clock in the morning, is the busi
est hour of the day. Later in the day, when the sun
is hot, no one ventures out unless compeUed so to do.
After some difficulty, a horse was procured that would
allow a lady to mount him (the horses here are so
unaccustomed to women that they are frightened by
them — their dresses, etc.). I started, with one of the
gentlemen attached to the English Legation, for the
celebrated marble bridge, about three'miles from the
Eussian Legation. We met, just at the outside of the
gate, a long train of camels ; some heavily laden with
bags of merchandise, others kneeUng, waiting pa
tiently for their load — all awkward, ugly things, and
at this season of the year, they are looking their
ugliest, as they are shedding their coats. The streets
are filled with them, and in close proximity to them

EETUEN TO PEKIN 229
are the tiny donkeys, looking even smaller from con
trast. There are no carriages. As we wound our
way slowly in and out of this motley crowd, and
through the dirt of Pekin, we attracted quite as much
curiosity as the novel sights excited in me. In many
places the women were chatting to each other on
their door-steps. As we approached, some would
rush in (or rather hobble, owing to their cramped, de
formed feet) and shut the doors, but peep through
the cracks until the foreign devils had passed. They
were all, notwithstanding the early hour, painted
with red and white ; their hair arranged and glued
with a vegetable wax, and elaborately decorated with
artificial flowers. They make these flowers very
prettily, and sell them very cheap. The old gray-
haired grandmothers wiU have a bunch of these bright
flowers on their heads. Carts were passing us, with
outriders. These carts were painted red, the wheels
placed farther back than the common carts, the at
tendants dressed with the official cap, surmounted by
a long, red tassel. I found these were the mandarins
— ^high officials — going to an audience at the palace.
The emperor receives his ministers at five o'clock
every morning, and has an audience until 10 or 11
A. M. We now reached the Eoman Catholic Cathe
dral, But as we had visited the Cathedral and Con
vent a few days before, and the Sisters had shown us
their schools and Chinese children, their embroidery,
etc., we did not stop, but rode on to the bridge. We
almost had to ride over the beggars that thronged

230 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
around us — so dirty, so covered with sores, that it
made one sick to look at them. Like all of that class,
they make the most of their disgusting-looking aU-
ments. The marble bridge itself is beautiful, built ever
so many years ago — ^I am afraid to say how many ;
and, wonderful for China, it is in fair repair. But
the most beautiful thing, to my eyes, was the lake
around this bridge, the whole surface of which was
covered with the lotus fiower in fuU bloom — of a beau
tiful pink shade, with large leaves, some lying fiat on
the surface, others coiled up, as we had seen them
represented in so many of the temples, both in Japan
and China. The lotus is a sacred flower. Near the
wall of the palace was an odd-looking temple, very
dilapidated and neglected. This proved to be a Mo
hammedan mosque, buUt by one of the Emperors for
a favorite wife, who, after living here a few years, be
came so homesick that he built this Moorish temple,
for her to look upon a home-scene ; but even then she
was only permitted to look from a tower built inside
of the palace walls. Poor Chinese Empress. What
a sad lot to be selected to wear the ermine in China !
We then rode past and around the temple that the
Emperor uses to pray for rain. As this temple is con
stantly used it is kept in good repair, and briUiantly
decorated with many colors. Again we met many
carts, horses, donkeys, and a crowd standing and
waiting. This is the great palace. While I stood gaz
ing — for we foreigners are not permitted on those holv

EETUEN TO PEKIN. 231
grounds — a grand high mandarin drove up, alighted
from his cart, and entered the sacred precincts. He
was in his best robes, of dark-blue satin, embroidered
with many colors ; his cap surmounted with a long
tassel and blue button. We next made our way
through the market. The attendants of these grand
mandarins were busy getting their breakfasts — men,
horses, dogs, donkeys, pigs, and some few women, in
a heterogeneous mass — and not one single foreigner
had we met in all this long ride.

Friday, August 26,
This morning, in our early ride, we decided to
turn our horses' heads toward the Temple of Heaven,
and determined to enter, if possible, by strategy or
bribery. The Chinese strongly object to foreigners
(especially foreign women) entering such holy
grounds. They are reserved for the Emperor and
high officers. The Emperor comes here to offer sac
rifices and pray for his ancestors once, at least, every
year. On one or two other great occasions during
the year, he may come here to offer prayers. During
the rest of the time this great park of many acres,
full of beautiful trees, walks, lakes, ancJ fiowers, is
shut up, and left to the care of a few Chinese, who
neglect it, and allow weeds to overgrow all of the
paths, so that the undergrowth spoils the beautiful
avenues of trees. On our way to this Temple of
Heaven we rode through the Pekin fish, vegetable.

232 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
and fruit markets. The trades-people are totally re
gardless of the comforts of either pedestrians or
equestrians, as they erect their temporary tents in
tho middle of the streets ; and in our winding way
wo were often compelled to bend our heads to our
horses' necks, to pass under these tents; but they
were all good-natured, and I felt amply repaid by the
many new sights it gave me of Chinese life. The
fruit market was particularly attractive, and the fruit
was aiTanged with quite an idea for effect as to
color and variety. As we passed on to the south of
the city, we met a funeral procession, the mourners
(the men of the family) dressed in long, white robes ;
then a crowd of hired servants surrounded the cart
holding the coffin ; and the musicians follow. This
was only the funeral of a very ordinary individual.
The higher the man's position, the greater the funeral
procession. On our right, we now see the Temple
of Earth (or Agriculture), where the Emperor goes
every spring to plough ; on the left, the Temple of
Heaven. We rode rapidly across the open field, hop
ing to conceal our advance to the temple gate by the
walls, and so to approach near enough to the gates to
ride in before they could be closed upon us. But the
"Heathen Chinee" were too quick for us, and tri
umphantly slammed the gates together, one minute
and a half too soon for us. We talked, bribed, threat
ened ; they held out to make us bribe more, and at
last slowly swung back the heavy gate. Wc found
this first wall enclosed many acres ; the trees, evi-

EETUEN TO PEKIN. 233
dently, many hundred years old, and a beautiful ave
nue, formed of large .trees meeting overhead, extended
from this first gate to the second, a distance of a quar
ter of a mile. Here, again, we were refused admit
tance, until further bribery was resorted to. Even then
they insisted upon our dismounting, as the grounds
were too sacred for horses. The distance from the sec
ond to the third gate was twice as great as the first
one ; and then, mounting some dozen steps, we were on
a raised terrace, running from the north to the south
of the temple grounds. At the south was a large cir
cular marble altar, built in three terraces, each terrace
raised nine feet, and on the top, it is thirty or forty
feet in diameter. Partially surrounding this altar,
on the southeast, are the urns for burning the sacri
fices, and offerings of silk, etc. The animals for
sacrifice must be ^elected with great care. They are
bullocks, two years old, without blemish — the best
of their kind. They are fed in the park which sur
rounds the altar. The Emperor, every December 21,
proceeds to the Temple of Heaven in an elephant
carriage. Since the death of the last Emperor all
the elephants have died; and as the boy Emperor
will be inaugurated next year, the King of Siam, it
is said, is to send him two white elephaits to draw
his carriage when he goes to offer his prayers and
sacrifices in the Temple of Heaven. On entering
these sacred grounds, the Emperor first goes to the
Tablet Chapel, on the north side of the grounds.
Here he offers incense to Shang-ti, and to his ances-

234 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
tors, with three kneelings and nine prostrations.
This chapel is one of the best preserved I have seen
in Pekin. The roof is richly ornamented with carv
ing and brilliant coloring ; the coltimns (that support
the roof, which is made pagoda-like, three stories
high) are more than two feet in diameter, made of
wood, plastered with crimson, and painted aU over
with gold beasts, birds, and fishes, as well as I could
decipher. The marble terraces and steps, both at the
north and south altars, are handsomely carved ; but
weeds are growing up, mouldering, and covering even
these beautiful things. Next year, I suppose, all
wUl be made as bright and beautiful as thousands of
workmen can make them. The sacrifice at the north
altar takes place at the beginning of spring. The
Emperor goes from his home in the city to the altar,
to meet there the new-come spring, and offer prayer
to Shang-ti for a blessing on the labors of the hus
bandman. Here, also, as at the south altar, are seen
the green furnace for the buUock sacrifice, and the
eight open-work iron urns in which the offerings of
silk are burnt. An urn is added when an Emperor
dies. A plain, uncolored, and coarsely-woven silk
cloth is preferred for these offerings. Prayer for rain
is offered at the south altar in the summer. On oc
casions of drought the Emperor sometimes goes on
foot to the " Hall of Penitent Fasting." This is to
indicate that his anxiety of mind forbids him to
seek bodily ease while his subjects are suffering.
The anger of Heaven is a sign that there is a fault

RETURN TO PEKIN, 235
in the prince. He, therefore, lays aside his state for
the time.
The distance to be walked is three English miles,
and it may be at a time of year when the heat is
great (and it is certain to be, when the dust is many
inches deep). He may, however, return on horse
back. This is a special ceremony. There is also a
regular prayer and sacrifice for rain offered about
the time of the summer solstice. At this time the
Emperor kneels on the top step or platform of the
altar, and his officers arrange themselves on the
twenty-nine steps and terraces behind him. The
prayer is then presented and read. It is then placed
before Shang-ti on the offering of silk. The prayer,
which is written on silk, is then taken to the iron
urns, and there burnt. The temples and grounds are
full of interest, StiU, you are neVer impressed with a
belief in the reUgion of China. The mould, dust, and
decay cover and penetrate every thing.

LETTEE XXVL
RETURNING SOUTEWARD.
A. Traveller retracing his Steps.- Tung Chow, on the Peiho Eiver.— The Wheel
barrow Trafl&c. — Death to the Coolies.— Processions en route. — Of Funerals
and Weddings. — A Good Story told of Gov. Seward. — Mistaking a Funeral Pro
cession for an Ovation to Himself. — ^Expense of Travelling as a Grandee. — ^A Tem
ple for a Hotel. — ^Running the Gauntlet of tlie Junks to Tien-tsin. — ^The Noisy
Monosyllables ofthe Chinese. — Huge Pyramids of Salt — ^Home, Sweet Home; —
The Szechuen. — ^Under a Yankee Captain from Maine. — The Grapes of the
Peiho, — The Boiling Screw Steamers of the Tellow Sea — ^Rivalry of British and
American Steamers, — Chinese Customs collected by Foreigners, — The American
Flag driven off. — ^Manul^tures driven oflF. Shanghai, September 10, 1871,
Eeteacing one's steps is not a traveUer's pleasure.
En avaM is the watchword in going, as weU as in
fighting. But in China an American sees so much
of the new, that reseeing opens to him novelty after
novelty. We left Pekin at noon, a hot sun on our
backs, good for the rheumatism, which at this season
of the year, up there, hits one, when sitting out and
enjoying the night breezes. I was on horseback —
no more springless carts for me, though MongoHan
horses are rather tricky; and Ave had a handsome
escort of young Englishmen, attached to the Eng
lish Legation, as student interpreters, some of whom
Avent sixteen miles, all the way to Tung Chow, where
we take boats to go down the Peiho Eiver, We
tea-ed on the road. Inns, here, ever sell tea — none.

EETUENING SOUTHWAED, 237
whiskey, rum, or brandy — and tea, I am finding more
and more, is a great refresher to the traveller, with
out cream or sugar, even. What most rearrested my
attention now, was the immense number of wheel
barrows, wheeling merchandise from the Peiho Eiver
to Pekin, These wheelbarrows, with one wheel only
in the centre, are so overladen that it would seem im
possible for men to manage them, if you did not see
them doing it. Tons seemed to be on them ; and how
the man in the middle, with a strap over his shoulders,
over the wheelbarrow, handles or manages to live
under the burden is astonishing. Forty years of age
is said to be the oldest of this class of coolies. This
middle man, though, often has a mule pulling ahead of
him, and on the sides ofthe wheelbarrow, are two men
if not more, to steady. Over the paved road, full of all
sorts of deep holes, worn by years and years of wheel
ing, go these wheelbarrows, with their loads, for all the
interior of this northern part of China, and for Mon
golia and Manchuria. A steel rail, or iron, might be
laid at Httle expense over this level-paved road, but
it is not permitted. A locomotive rail would do the
transportation for one-twentieth of the present cost.
" But," say the authorities, " this would throw thou
sands of the coolies out of employ ! " 'She reply to
this has been, " So do junks ; so does the Grand
Canal." " Why not destroy junks and canals, and
let cooHes and wheelbarrows do all the work every
where? Why endure horses, and camels, and
mules ? "

238 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
We met several processions en route, some funeral,
some wedding. These are very imposing, both of
them, very showy and very flashy. They teU a good
story in Pekin of Gov. Seward, when here — doubt
less a He, but too good a story to be lost for that.
The expectations of the ex- Governor were said to be
great, when he entered the great capital of this great
empire, with which he had made a great treaty;
and he therefore indulged in great expectations of a
great welcome. As he entered the gates of Pekin, a
great funeral procession was coming out with music,
catafalque, etc, etc., all as imposing as a grand pro
cession of some great dead man could weU be made.
The Governor was entering with the marine band of
the Colorado, mounted on donkeys, as this grand pro
cession was going out. The great living and the
great dead thus met. The Governor, naturaUy
enough, concluded this was in honor of his grand
entree, and he rose, and rose, in his open sedan-chair,
and bowed, and bowed, and then ordered a halt, and
got out, and bowed, and bowed again, to the cata
falque of the dead. The Chinese think aU foreigners
are rather mad, and hence did not marvel over it as
much as they might ; but when Gov. Seward found
out what he had done, the story is, he was more mad
than pleased.
My exit and my entrance were not thus grand ; in,
on a cart, and out, on a horse — but so much the better,
for, to be a grandee, or to travel as a grandee, is a
grand expense. The kindly Eussian protection under

RETURNING SOUTHWAED. 239
which I had fallen, relieved me from the many an
noyances of travel, all the way from Tien-tsin up
to Tung Chow, and on to Pekin ; but when the
Eussians delivered me up, on the return, at Tung
Chow, to the tender mercies of the Chinese, the trou
bles began. Everybody wanted something — what ?
and wha,i, for ? — who can tell, that speaks no Chinese,
or understands it less when spoken ? One stately
fellow, however, in a semi-official hat, extorted a few
dollars by an appeal to our " grandeur." " Every
thing has been paid," said I. " True," the transla
tion was to me ; " but great people always pay more
than little people ! " Who could help paying after
that? The extra Mexicans were forked over, and
without grumbling. (Mem. — If one would travel
economicaUy, never travel as " great people.")
At Tung Chow — a big, walled city, by the way —
we were, by grace and favor, re-tumbled into the
Temple of Fang-Wang-Meaow, The priests were as
good (to us) as if they had been Christian priests, and
we, first-class Buddhists, Wearied and worn, they
made every thing as comfortable as possible for us,
bargained for us, and provided us with sampans
(house boats), to take us down river ; and at midnight
bade us good-by, as we embarked in them to return
to Tien-tsin, We here regathered our " traps " — ^beds,
bedding, blankets, dishes, and other household re
sources — and as the moon was rising, and we were bid
ding good-by in the distance to the Pagoda of Tung
Chow, we went to sleep. What good philosophy this

240 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
is, thought I, when going to sleep — in an open boat,
amid countless Chinese boats on the river, full of all
sorts of people ! But what is the use of worrying ?
Between springless carts, mule-Utters, and a hot horse
back ride, on a hard-going horse, with every bone and
muscle aching, I could have slept, I am sure, even in
the City Hall park (New Tork), with a blanket about
me ; but I doubt if my pockets would have been as
safe, or boots returned, if left outside the raiUng.
We were only thirty-six hours returning to Tien
tsin (one hundred and twenty miles), the current
carrying us — (fare for three house boats, seven dol
lars each, twenty-one dollars in all). Nothing re
markable turned up until we began to run the junk
gauntlet near Tien-tsin, and the junks now are not
so crowded together, and crowding, as earUer in the
year. But, me being judge, it is as much as a man's
life is worth to run this junk gauntlet in this narrow
river, at this season of the year ; and yet this judg
ment of mine is not worth much, for very few acci
dents, I am told, occur. We went on — our crew
shouting, screaming, squealing, and squeezing, a thou
sand other crews, with Hke shouts and screams, that
shake tender nerves, but seldom scare. A Chinaman
will make more noise for nothing than any other
class of men on earth ; and their monosyllables, on the
key, alto and altissimo, here become terrific. I had
so many new things to see.going up, that I did not well
see the huge pyramids of salt, piled up on the river
for miles. Salt is a government monopoly here, as in

EETURNING SOUTHWARD, 241
more civilized nations — as in ours, too, with this dif
ference, the monopoly, home, being tariffed, while the
Pekin government here has all the profits. This salt
is sent aU over the empire, up through the Grand
Canal ; and hence, these huge pyramids of salt on
the shores ofthe Peiho, ready to be transported, every
where, on the internal waters — as far as Canton, if
necessary. Here, then, perhaps better than else
where in China, in these innumerable junks, One can
see the vast coasting, and internal traffic of the Chi
nese, in comparison with which their foreign com
merce is but a drop in the bucket.
"Home! Sweet Home!" Tien-tsin was that
home td us for a day, on this, our return from the
great interior. The American flag was floating here,
on a coast steamer built on the Clyde — the " Sze
chuen " — ^with a Captain (Patterson) all the way from
the State of Maine ; and, on this Szechuen we forth
with made our lodgment (the only " hotel " left by
the rains), and from there we distributed the beds, the
pillows, the mosquito nets, the books, etc., that the
good people of Tien-tsin had loaned us for our river
voyage. The American Consul here is a very intelli
gent Scotchman, with a Chinese wife and Chinese
chUdren, and speaks Chinese as well as'he speaks
English ; and the American flag was pleasantly fioat
ing over his house, Mr. Moore, too, the agent for
the American boats here, was kind to us, and his
hospitaUty was welcomed in his own house, where a
freshly-come American wife from Pennsylvania added

242 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
graces to that home. The missionaries caUed upon
us, and several EngHshmen, and the officers of the
British gunboats in port here — so that, on the decks
and in the cabins of the Szechuen, we had every
reason to feel " at home," By the way, these lit
tle British gunboats seem everywhere on the coast.
They are so small that they creep into very small
ports, and up very crooked and shaUow rivers, as is
this Peiho, while our bigger craft, more stately, it is
true, are but ornaments for Cheefoo, Tokohama, Nag
asaki, or Hong Kong,
But Tien-tsin was to be only a temporary " home,"
for the day after our arrival we were off at the earli
est dawn, rethreading the mazes of the crookedest
river I ever saw, not even excepting the Earitan
(N, J.), We had laid in a great store of grapes — ^for
this is the grape season, and Tien-tsin suppHes Shang
hai, Amoy, Hong Kong, and all the coast, vdth grapes
— while we had plenty of ice ; — and who cannot Hve
on ice and grapes in a hot land, Avith a little good
bread thrown in ? But there is no stinting on board
of these foreign ships on the China coast. .All live like
princes on the very fat of the land. The " fare " is
enormous in price, but enormous in the supply of eat
ables therefor. As to the steamers, though, I cannot
say much for them — ^for, how they do screw, and roll,
and pitch, and twist, and turn over, and turn under,
almost ! I have stood the Atlantic and the Pacific
without much fuss ; but these shallow waters cf the
Gulf of Pechili, and of the Tellow Sea, how they do

EETUENING SOUTHWARD. 243
swell and tumble under you — for, if there is a typhoon,
or a storm, hundreds of miles off, these sympathetic
shallows twist and twirl under it, as does a fish when
there is not water enough to cover him. The " roll
ing'''' Manchu (Captain Steele) has had famous poetry
made upon the capacity of the ship to roll, and there
by has an envious preeminence in that bad way ; but
the Manchu roUs no more than the Shantung or the
Szechuen. They aU roU, and roll, when there is a
breath or a zephyr to roll them, and will forever roll.
We had a sort of a race from Tien-tsin to Chefoo,
and from Chefoo to Shanghai, some eight hundred
miles, or more, in all. The British fiag is in opposi
tion to the American fiag on this coast, and the oppo
sition steamers start together, on the same day and
the same hour, with the understanding, however, that
they are not to consume too much coal, drive too
hard, or lower freights or fares. The British steamer
" Appin " (screw), however, could not screw as fast
as the American, naturally, which left her ever be-
hin<i ; and hence, in order to avoid this disgrace, the
British owners ordered more coal, more fire, the more
to hurry up on _the course. The American steamer
could not permit the honors of the past to be with
drawn, and so we piled on more coal, and ^had more
fire, for at least three hundred of tho latter part of
the eight hundred miles, and beat, of course, in the
arrival at Shanghai, only a half hour, not an hour at
the most. The race then became very exciting, for,
except at night, we were always in sight.

244 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN,
We stopped at Chefoo only two or three hours on
our return, long enough, though, to see the American
Consul, Mr. Wilson, and to have long talks with
other Americans, among them a very inteUigent
young man (Mr. Holwell), who is employed in the
Chinese custom-house, which, by the way, is run
altogether by foreigners — an Englishman (Mr, Hart),
in Pekin, at the head, and EngHshmen and Ameri
cans, and Frenchmen, and Germans are scattered
everywhere through the treaty ports, to collect Chi
nese customs. The Chinese, I infer, have reached
tho conclusion that they themselves were not sharp
enough to match smuggUng Tankees and John Bulls ;
and hence they employ foreigners to collect their
duties on imports and exports, who, save in, and
about Hong Kong, have now stopped aU smuggling,
except in opium, the duty on which is so high as to
be irresistibly tempting. Mr, Holwell is one of the
employes at Chefoo.
This place, Chefoo, in the proAdnce of Shantang,
where Confucius came from, is one of the rich prov
inces of China. Its exports for foreign use are mainly
Pongee sUks, which cost here, from three doUars and
fifty cents to six dollars for nineteen yards — silks, by
the way, admirable for our Southern and Western
climes, and for umbrellas and sun-shades, and for
travelling di'esses in the North ; — and straw braid, of
which our straw hats and straw bonnets are made in
Connecticut and other parts of New England. It is
cheap enough here, but with the thirty per cent, duty

EETURNING SOUTHWARD. 245
on it in America, and with freight and other charges, '
it becomes dear there, and thus doubles or triples the
prices of our hats and bonnets.
I am grieved to say that I have not seen, since I
left Shanghai, the American fiag on but one vessel,
save those on the American line of steamers, no more
of which can now be built in America — all, alas,
hereafter to be built on the Clyde, or elsewhere in
Europe ! Our sailing vessels have been recently driven
off the Chinese seas, which, originally, under Boston
and Salem enterprise, were once almost our seas.
But few or none of our drills now clothe the millions
of the Chinese Empire. Our cotton manufactures of
all kinds are being superseded by England and Ger
many, True, man is a Httle cheaper in Europe than
in the Northern and Western parts of America (not
South) — ^but machines, not men make drills, and
sheetings, and shirtings ; and they make them so cheap
that even the Chinese and Japanese, where man is
not worth half as much as horse, or mule, or donkey,
cannot compete with machine. What make our drills
dearer are taxes on coal, iron, steel, wood, food (fish
and potatoes, the great food of the Eastern manufac
turers), for machine work is so much cheaper every
where than onan, that man nowhere can come into
competition with machine. We make the machine
dearer and dearer, and hence we are driven off the
seas, and, alas, off the land, too ! But for the Ameri
can lines of steamers here, now run, under American
captains, by Chinese and Malays, mainly, the flowery

246 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
flag (the name the Chinese give our stars and stripes)
would hardly be seen on the Chinese and Japanese
seas. These Hve independent of home, free from the
tax oppressions of home, and spread far and wide the
American name and fame, despite the ingratitude of
that home. Their ship stores cost not half ours cost at
home. Their copper, and rigging, and machinery, not
half of ours. The Germans, I may as weU add here,
are engrossing, in their sailing vessels, much of the
coasting (treaty port) trade of China. Their mer
chants live less expensively. Their vessels are sailed
cheaper, and they have smaller craft for navigation
in the smaller ports of China.
But, this is out of place. I am a traveUer, not a
political economist, now — a sketcher, scribbler, only,
if you please, not an essay writer.

LETTEE XXVII.
TEINGS IN SEANGEAI.
Shanghai.— Its Enterprises and Surroundings.— The Hot Sun of Shanghai — ^Turning
White Men Tellow, — The City Government of Shanghai.— Eastern Hours for
Breakfast and Dinner, — The Great Commerce of Shanghai. — ^Much of it passing
into Chinese Hands. — Tea Trade. — Tea-Tasters. — Telegraphs to, and from Shang
hai. — ^Tea Steamers up the Tang-tze. — ^Foreign Schemes to dodge the Fung
Shuey, — Hostihty to Electricity, — The Telegraphs from Shanghai tyia Nagasaki
and Vladivastock, in Bussia. Shanghai, September 12, 1811.
Shanghai I gave a bad name to — sick, as I was,
under the red-hot flaming suns of July. Fresh from
the North now, full of the breezes of Mongolia, with
-some oxygen in my veins, not all hydrogen, as in
July, I begin to think the place habitable, not infer
nal (from its sun) ; and the thickly-scattered dead Chi
nese, in coffins, above ground, all about the drives
of Shanghai, do not look so like having me soon
among them as they did six weeks ago. Nobody
that I knew in July is dead since I went North ; and
hence, I reason, death is not the inevitable fate of
all who enter Shanghai in July, Upon the whole,
the place is a model place, save and except that sun
— that red-hot, fiery, furious sun — that only a two-
story pith hat, a double umbrella, and goggles, enable
you to live under, with white shoes on, in white linen

248 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
only, and no shirt, nearly as Japanese and as Chinese
as possible, free from that European discipHne, which
has established the unnatural law that clothes in hot
climates are indispensable. By the way, what is the
matter with these Eastern suns ? There is not a hot
place in the United States, from New Orleans to
the Geysers in California — though the thermometer
makes nothing of running up to 118 — where a straw
hat, under that sun, is not endurable ; while here, you
would soon rim mad, in a straw hat, under the same
sun. The sun is the Caucasian's mortal enemy here,
while the Mongolian (has he a thicker pate ?) needs
no hat, seldom has a hat ; nay, on the contrary, Avith
shaven head, accepts harmlessly the full blaze of the
noon-day sun. The atmosphere here must make
these Eastern suns so much hotter than our Western
suns, under the same indications of the thermome
ter. The very refiection of them, sometimes, gives
the Caucasian the heat-apoplexy, and almost instant
death. I was constantly threatened with it in July,
though never venturing out of doors tiU the sun was
setting, or, before it was much risen in the morning.
This very refiection of the sun, however, which I
have seldom faced, has almost made a yellow man
of me, and I expect, hereafter, to stand high with
my colored brethren.
But to redeem Shanghai from my July injustice,
I must say, it is a charming little PedUngton, Every
body knows everybody, and everybody talks about
everybody. The people are all " tip-top," and all ai'e

THINGS IN SHANGHAI, 249
aristocracy, and there is no commonalty. It is a
community of clever merchants, with the prettiest
wives they can tempt out fi-om America, and Eng
land, and Germany, all struggUng to get rich, and
all fighting for Sycee and Mexican dollars, and all
happy in the surety, they will be rich some day — then
go home, and be buried under ground, not as here,
on the surface, in a two-storied coffin, with a cord of
wood or more in it. Shanghai, I think, is the best
governed little city I ever saw. The whole Cauca
sian race, with an exceptional French " flare-up " now
and then, live in perfect concord, and govern the city
family, not as poUticians, or statesmen, but as Abra
ham, Isaac, and Jacob governed their fiocks of sheep,
and of men and women. The streets are as nice
and neat as a parlor. The police drive away, or ward
off nearly all crime. The charitable institutions are
many. The EngUsh Episcopal Church here is a sort
of cathedral, in a large, open ground, which must
have cost thousands and thousands of Mexicans to
build. There are few handsomer churches" in New
Tork than this Episcopal church here. The mer
chants, though thinking only, and struggling only, for
Sycee and the Mexican, nevertheless live like princes.
But what abominable hours they keep — bre3,kfast, or
tea, or coffee, and toast and eggs, at nine a. m. ; break
fast again at twelve, or one, on every thing, with wines
from everywhere, and dinner at 8 p. m. Then all go
to bed after that, with overflowing stomachs, well pre
pared for nightmare that night, and dyspepsia or
12

250 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
fever next day. They have no evenings. There is
no social visiting at night. Their exercise and air
are taken as the sun is setting, and after that they
eat, and eat, and drink, and drink — and why don't
they die ? But, the fact is, this hot cHmate is an ex
ception to ours. The more you eat here, the better
you seem to be off. As hog and hominy are indisr
pensable for our Southern negro, even in July, so
beef and mutton, if not pork, seem indispensable
here. The drinking that would kUl us Americans is
here done with apparent impunit3^ The water itself
not being fit to drink, everybody drinks soda water,
or Bass's beer, or London porter, or claret, or sherry,
or port, or brandy, and none seem to. kiU. London
porter, half death in our bilious climate, in July, is
here, in July, the staff of life. I think I owe to a
bottle of it per day (which I could not drink at
. home) the capacity to exist here, in July,
The commerce of Shanghai reminds one of New
Tork in its better (shipping) days. The river is full
of ships from all parts of the world but ours. Now
and then, there is the American fiag, or an Ameri
can sailor (A. A. Low & Co. keep the flag alive), but
few and far between are our ships. England is here
in all her ocean glory, Shanghai is to this land,
with its great river (the Tang-tze), what our New
Orleans was to the Mississippi, in its palmier days,
and before its trade was diverted by railroad. The
commerce of the world rushes here to gather the teas
and silks of China, and the exports and imports are

THINGS IN SHANGHAL 251
enormous in value, more especially to and from Eng
land, Hence, the operations of exchange in banks
are very large, and the mere commissions upon trans
actions make the fortunes of many. Trade, however,
here, as everywhere in China, is rushing from the
foreigners more and more into the hands of the Chi
nese. They buy all the tea from the farmer ; they
pick it, and sort it, and sift it, prepare it for, and
bring it to, market ; and some of them now are think
ing of establishing their own agencies in London,
Liverpool, and New Tork. They sell now to for
eigners by " musters " — that is, by sample — and
every tea mercantile establishment here has its tea-
taster who tries the tea, and buys it from these " mus
ters." No merchants are keener, or sharper, not
even the Tankees, than these Chinese merchants.
The " tea-tasters " here are great institutions. They
arrange twenty or thirty tea-cups in roAvs, with cov
ers over them ; then pour on water of a given heat ;
then take a minute-glass, and, measuring the time,
keep it just so long under cover, when they taste
and smell, and then make record of the quality and
value of the tea. And now, don't let every old lady
in America turn up her nose at tea, when I tell her
that, in the packing of the teas in the tea*chests, the
naked-footed coolie (Chinese workie) jumps on the tea,
and tramples it into the chest with his feet and toes,
just as sugar is trampled in elsewhere, or as bread
is made, in hot weather, in a baker-shop, in Chicago,
or New Tork, or Boston. Tea and sugar are good.

252 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
nevertheless, despite the dirty cooUe in China, and
the dirtier African in Cuba — are they not? Teas,
too, I have forgotten to state, are heated, toasted,
and baked in firing-pans, the better to stand the
long voyages ; and hence, the tea we drink at home
is not the uncured, the undoctored tea the Chinese
drink here. The green teas are especially doctored, as
well as the scented teas ; but, as I never drink them,
I won't hurt the feelings of those who do.
Shanghai is now, by telegraph, within the reach
of " all creation ; " and hence, this telegraph is mak
ing some mischief in the tea-trade, as it does, on the
start, with all the trades elsewhere. The costly tele
graph dispatches must fiy often here, to and from
London and New Tork, Eeuter tells us the great
news items, by telegraph, in joint-stock telegrams;
but the prices of teas and silks in the great markets
of the world are secrets to the trade, which each house
itself pays for. The British, this year, have run
through here some five or six steamers, from Hankow,
the headquarters of the tea trade on the Eiver Tang-
tze, to Liverpool and London, and they have made
the voyage in fifty or sixty days, through the Suez
canal. These movements threaten a revolution in
the movement of teas. Tou have doubtless noticed
how the Pacific Mail steamers to San Francisco have
been crowded with teas this summer, whUe extra
ships have been put on, and they have not been able
to carry half away in the season when wanted.
Tho telegraph has recently been branching ofi"

THINGS IN SHANGHAI. 253
here in all directions, save that of China, where over
land electricity is at a discount, in consequence, as I
have shoAvn you before, of its hostility to the '• Fung
Shuey," the wind and water superstition of " the hea
then Chinee." There is a scheme on hand among
some of the pro-Chinamen, which I think will, sooner
or later, dispose of this superstition ; and that is, to
employ Chinese leading men on the routes to build
the telegraphs, and then to keep them, in order, pay
ing them, for the guarantee and protection, more
than it is worth. " The devil " (Fung Shuey), it is
thus thought, will be " whipped around the stump."
The god of sUver (there are no gold gods here — we
never see gold as money) will thus get around the
god of wind and water. Shanghai, New Tork, San
Francisco, Oregon, and Vancouver's Island are now
telegraphically linked, under the Pacific and Atlantic
Oceans. The Danish Company (it may be Eussian,
under cover), that stretched the wires by sea from
Hong Kong to Shanghai, has now not only con
nected Nagasaki (Japan), but run a line from Naga
saki, by sea, up north to Vladivastock, a seaport on
the Pacific (Eussian) coast, whence already, six thou
sands miles nearly, is a wire to St. Petersburg, and
thence all over Europe. Thus, Shanghai, Hong
Kong, and Nagasaki have now two ways of reaching
Europe — one by the Indian and Eed Seas, the other
overland through Eussia — two strings to the bow.
The indispensable link now is, though yet wanting,
the link from San Francisco, by sea, over to Asia,

254 A SEVEN MONTHS' RUN.
then through Eussia, so that in case of European
wars there Avill be two strings to the American bow.
Eussia and the United States together must make
that link ; for no private company, for years, would
it pay, in consequence of the sparseness of popula
tion. Two great friendly people like the Americans
and Eussians, with their two great institutions (the
two D.'s), cannot afford thus to live apart, or to think
and to breathe only through Europe,

LETTEE XXVIII.
FROM TEE ENGLISE COLONT OF EONG KONG.
How Screw-Steamers roll, — Cabins, Hot, Hotter, Hottest. — Chow Chow excellent.—
Sleep in a Stew Prison.— The Great English (P. & O.) and French Lines of Steam
ers in the East. — Hong Kong. — Typhoons here. — The City the Eefuge of the
Eefuse Chinese. — Cxirious Intermixture of Population. — The Coohe Emigration
here.— The Dialects of China.— Pidgen Enghsh.— Chinese Kitchens and Cooks. '
etc., etc. Hong Kong, September 20, 1871,
This place is some fifteen thousand miles, or more,
from New Tork — the way I am going home, via Eu
rope ; but, nevertheless, it is very European. I was
"steamed" into the city at night-fall, just as the
innumerable gas-jets were illuminating the houses on
the side-hiU streets, and the effect was very beautiful.
The eyes long used, or only used, to oil or tallow-dips
become electrified by gas-jets ; and hence Hong
Kong, as I entered into it by gas-light, seemed like
fairy-land. The French steamer Phase, of the quon
dam Messagerie TmpeHaZe, now only "maritime" (a
name that is likely to stand, as it may be beth Caesar
ian and Eepublican), was the, steamer in which (some
eight hundred and seventy miles) I came down
south, to this, the latitude of Havana — (fare, $60) —
in which the chow chow (that is the only word Euro
peans use here for feeding) was excellent, the sea-

256 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
manship good enough, but the sleeping, in the hot,
sub-aqueous cabin, almost infernal. The steamer —
long, lean, lank — ^was lawless when the wind blew,
and rolled so that the port-holes of our stewing pris
ons were always shut, unless one wanted to be in
a~ salt-water bath all the night. Think, in the lati
tude of Florida and Havana, of being thus shut up,
and in a boat whose iron sides had been so heated by
the Shanghai suns, that only an arctic winter can weU
cool them off! The fact is, whUe England and France
may be, nay, doubtless are, great on " the hulls " of
steamers, they know nothing, this way, at least, of
interior accommodation. The " Phase " was superb
above water to live in ; but uninhabitable doAvn un
der water, in the sleeping cages in which we were
cribbed. The success of our American steamers on
the Tang-tze, on the Peiho Eiver, the Tellow Sea,
and the Canton Eiver, has arisen mainly from the
fact that our carpenters know how to build cabins —
a lesson yet to be learned in England and France, so
it seems to me. There are two powerful lines of
steamers running from China and Japan, through
the Eed Sea, to Europe — the English line knoAvn as
the P. & O. (the Peninsular and Oriental), and the
French line, the Messagerie. Thev run once a fort-
night each, and so give the whole East a weekly mail
between them both. Both are largely paid by their
respective Governments — the French, however, pay
the most, who, though they have the best steamers
here, because the newest and latest styles, have the

FEOM THE ENGLISH COLONY OF HONG KONG. 257
least commerce. Nevertheless, in sUks they are well
freighted, for their silks go up the Adriatic into Ger
many, as weU as to France and Italy. The French
gave us French chow chow, with light wines and beer ;
and John BuU, roast-beef, beef-steak, plum-pudding,
etc., etc., but no wine nor beer. The P. & O. line is
subsidized by the English Government, $2,500,000
per annum.
As for this British Colony of Hong Kong, all
under the British Government — with Sepoys and
Sikhs here for soldiers as well as Britons — ^it is diffi
cult, in a small space, to sketch for you a comprehen
sible idea. It is a little island, built on the side of a
great hiU, which runs up to a peak, and at the bot
tom of that big hill, and on the sides and fissures of it,
are some of the prettiest architectural displays you
see anywhere, except in the palatial streets of Italy.
fou look out of one window, and you look on the
harbor and the sea ; and hence, at times, when the
wind is from that way, you feel the fresh breezes of the
sea, Tou look out of another window, and you look
up the sides of the mountain, with houses overtop
ping yours, the peak overtopping all. The streets are
as good as money can make them. Sewers are in all
quarters, and water flows down in pipes from the hill
sides, into your closets and bath-rooms; and that
great scarcity of the East, and therefore that greatest
of blessings, runs into your rooms abundantly, fresh,
pure, healthy — so that, if you have been famishing
for water as I have been, now over two months in

258 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
China, you drink and you drink here, and you bathe
and you bathe, for the mere fun of it. Hong Kong,
you thus see, is a beautiful little place, with some -
five thousand Europeans in it, including the garrison,
with twenty Chinamen, or more, to one European.
The Government buildings here are handsome, and
the public grounds are handsomer. But my descrip
tion may be rosy — for I have been so long wandering
in nasty Chinese places, that this place not only
seems to be a home, but a sort of heaven. The hot
season is nearly over. The monsoon is changing, and
brings down an occasional cool breeze from the north.
The society is attractive and hospitable ; but, perhaps,
what is worth more than all to make a man's-eyes see
every thing in rose-color, is — ^I am weU. Some of
the dwellings of merchants here are truly palatial.
I am a guest in a house originally buUt by Dent &
Co., which cost here over a quarter million of doUars,
where labor is so cheap — ^now, however, cut up, after
the failure of that great house, into three establish
ments ; but those left are aU palatial. When money
was made here, without rivalries — without Chinese
or other serious competition — men could afford to
build such palaces to live in ; but that day is over
now, never to return again.
Fortimately for me as a voyager, thus far I have
dodged typhoons, as well as escaped earthquakes in
Japan ; but I see here now, as I saw in Hiogo, Japan,
the terrible power and devastation of these typhoons,
of which all in the East, but more especially the na-

FEOM THE ENGLISH COLONT OF HONG KONG. 259
tives, live in affright, if not horror. About two
weeks gone by, a typhoon knocked up here, the Pra-
ya, or Bund, or Quay, as we would call it, and spread
devastation and death far and wide in the harbor.
The crippled ships now in, and others coming in,
show the typhoon's power at sea, while many have
gone doAvn — junks certainly — never to be heard of
again. Steamers, however, escape them better than
any other craft. The barometer forewarns the navi
gator, hours ahead, of their approach, and while a
ship can only go as the caprice of the wind directs,
the steamer chooses her own place to dodge the ty
phoon at sea, or the harbor to anchor in. Huge
granite stones, well laid on the Praya or Quay here,
were torn up from their places. Ships at anchor
were drifted about as if playthings. The loss of life
was small among the Europeans and Americans, but
great among the Chinese, who have no newspapers
to record in detail their calamities ; hence, we never
know any thing of the extent of their sufferings un
der these typhoons, oy under the floods.
There is a great outcry here, just now, against
crime and criminals, and the Chinese, and the police.
All the rogues and rascals of China that can elope
from home run here to hide, or for protection
against their oavu mandarins. Hence this city is
full of Chinese burglars, and thieves, and murderers,
even. I see to-day two or three hundred of these
criminals chained together to wheelbarrows, at work,
wheeling dirt to fill up the excavations created on

260 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
the Quay by the typhoon. They were all under the
command of negroes, mainly from Jamaica, who, with
whip and musket in hand, keep order, and make the
criminals work. The fact is. Hong Kong is a great
" sore " in the Chinese system. European law does
not fit Asiatic courts ; the trial by jury is an unnatu
ral graft here, and imprisonment for crime is often
a blessing to a half-starved Chinaman rather than a
curse. These burglars, some of them, are so expert
that they grease themselves aU over, in oil, and then
enter naked the warehouses, so that, if caught, they
can slide away — there being nothing to hold on to
except the pig-tail, which is carefully rolled up. In
walking the streets here, one sees the motleyest of all
populations. There, is the American, the Englishman,
the Scotchman, the Irishman, the Frenchman, the
German ; and there, are Ah Sin, Hang Wang, Hi
Gang, Pe Tow, Tai Ling, Sing Shun, — ^with Parsees,
Sikhs, and Sepoys from India, negroes from the West
Indies, Malays, Manillamen, bastard Portuguese and
Spanish, etc. There, is the Chinaman, with his pig
tail and his fan, and the Parsee, with his long, black
paper hat, or the Sikh, with his turban, or the Sepoy,
in his cap ; and there, comes the American, or Eng
lish stove-pipe hat — a curiosity here, attracting at
tention, where all wear pith, or straw, or felt. The
" stove-pipe " now looks as ugly, to my eye, as the
" rough-and-ready " in America, or any other like ug-
\y contrivance for the head. There is no universal law
here — no fashion for hats, it seems. Every one wears

FEOM THE ENGLISH COLONT OF HONG KONG. 261
what that one fancies. Linen is the great article of
men's dress in these latitudes, and most of them ap
pear aU the time in white. The apparel is not costly
here — pantaloons, $2 and $2 50 ; coats, $3 ; vests,
$1 50, etc. But Hong Kong, you will remember, is
a free port— no tariffs, no customs, nor custom-house
officers — and it is the great smuggling entrepot, too,
for the whole of this part of the East, more especially
in opium, on which, out of Hong Kong, there is a
very high duty, but not often paid by the Chinese
about here.
This city, Avith Macao, some thirty miles off, is the
headquarters of the coolie emigration to America.
The Northern and Central Chinese do not emigrate
by sea ; but the Southern Chinamen long ago began
to go off to Singapore, Cochin China, or elsewhere
in the West ; and hence emigration for him to
America was not so serious a matter. From Shang
hai and the Northern Tang-tze Eiver, there is no
emigration. No Chinaman there can be induced to
emigrate to the United States, No Pekinese evisr
tum up in the United States, save those that once
came over with Mr, Burlingame. The fact is, the
dialects of the Chinese Empire are so conflicting, that
one province can scarcely understand another ; and
hence there is little or no social communication be
tween the North and the South, or the East and the
West. The Cantonese cannot understand a word, or
scarcely a word, of Pekinese, and vice versa. There
is a mandarin language, which all officials under-

262 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
stand, aud, more or less, all the intelligent men of
China ; but, nevertheless, China is thus more cut up
than Great Britain was thirty years ago, with its
Welsh, its Gaelic, its Celtic, its Torkshire and Lan
cashire dialects, which, though spoken then in the
heart of the island of Great Britain, outsiders could
scarcely understand. The common mode of commu
nication here between the foreigner and the China
man is, in " Pidgen " (not Pigeon) English — the word
" Pidgen " being the Chinese comprehension of the
English word " Business," This Pidgen English is
now the universal dialect between foreigners and the
Chinese. All get along with it very well, though it
is nearly as incomprehensible to my unaccustomed
ear as the Chinese itself. The " Compradore," that
is, the Chinese head business man of all foreign
houses, who stands between the foreign merchant
and the Chinese merchant in all matters of trade,
always speaks Pidgen English. These Compradores,
by the way, are great characters in China, and make
much money outside of their regular business, and not
exactly in its line. One of them, whom I saw in Shang
hai, was a mandarin, and on extraordinary occasions
he would turn up in his robes. The Chinese (Can
tonese) servants, aU over China, make the best ser
vants in the world. They do the work of women as
well as of men. They are most excellent cooks — the
best of waiters — but it requires several of them to do
what one American or English servant does in a
house. Coolie (drudge man about house) will not

FEOM THE ENGLISH COLONY OF HONG KONG. 263
wait. " It is not his ' pidgen.' " Waiter will not
do coolie work, none of it, not in the least. Cook
only cooks, but cooks as weU as a Frenchman, and
that is saying much in his favor. The butler, or
head " boy " of a house, who is the universal genius
ofthe house, and who has the capacity to do almost
any thing, if he will — who acts as translator and
supervisor of all the establishment, and whose " pid
gen " it is to see and to keep every thing in order, is
paid only from $7 to $12 per month, providing his
own chow chow (food), and in all other respects tak
ing care of himself. These servants often have lit
tle " larn pidgens " under them — ^that is, boys learn
ing to speak " pidgen English," and to do what we
call " chores." A Chinese kitchen, from which such
good things are turned out for the table, is a wonder
in its way. There is nothing in it but a cooking-
stove or two, not longer than our American water-
pail, Avith a few stew-pans, and many chop-sticks,
from which few things come the many courses for the
table, aU well-cooked and garnished — nay, even the
best of beefsteaks, so difficult to have cooked well at
home. The more I go over the world the more I am
couAdnced that Americans and Englishmen are far be
hind the rest of creation in preparing their ^od to be
eaten. Our " civilization " in this is over a hundred
years behind the age ; and in this respect the Chi
nese are far our superiors. That devil's invention of
ours, the kitchen range, ought to be kicked down
where it came from, the lower regions — an invention

264 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
which, in summer, roasts us out of our_ houses, and
in winter consumes as much coal in a day as a Chi
naman would need in a month, or a Frenchman in a
week. Some rich man in America, some coming
Peter Cooper, in lieu of teaching us how to draw,
would do better to found a coUege to teach us how
to boil potatoes, cook beafsteaks, roast mutton, and
bake bread, for such a Peter Cooper would be the
very greatest of American human benefactors. In
lieu of giving $100,000 to Tale, or Harvard, or
Princeton, to found a professorship of mineralogy, or
geology, or other ologies, how much wiser would it
be to give the $100,000 to establish a professorship
for beafsteaks, or corn bread, roast beef, hog and
hominy, etc. But — 1 am thinking of " home " — ^not
in Hong Kong, now, I see. I am off to Canton.

LETTEE XXIX.
TEINGS IN CANTON.
AThat Canton is,- Its People, Streets, Sewers, etc., etc.— Tho Temples of Canton.—
Sacred Hogs, Confucius and the Stalls. — Cagmg Students ambitious to be Man
darins, — ^Bo Chinamen eat Cats, Dogs, and Eats ? — Tho Manufactories of Can
ton, — ^The Silk Glauzes, — ^An Improvised Breakfast on a Pagoda. — ^No Beasts of
Burthen ia the City.— AU Coolie Work,— A Sabbath in Canton,— Boat Life
there,— Ducks and their Owners. — Gates and Police.— No Gomg Out Nights.—
No Courting, — ^No Clubs. Canton, Septemher 24, ISYl,
Well, I have never, never before seen exactly
such a funny place as this is. If I had dropped into
China this way first, I should have pronounced Can-^
ton to be a nasty, dirty hole, with streets so narrow
that one could not move or breathe in them ; but
now, in contrast, I pronounce it to be New Tork
(Fifth Avenue) and the surroundings, Boston, Phila-
pelphia, Baltimore, Edinburgh — any thing, or any
where, but Washington, which, if I am kiUed for it,
I must say, in spring, and winter, and summer, looks
very Hke Pekin, in its dirt, and dust, and n^ud. Can
ton is the Paris, as weU as the Paradise of China.
The streets are all paved (think of that for China !), in
stead of being fuU of mud holes, that you have to sound
with a pole to see if it is safe to try to go over them.
There are sewers under a good part of the great city ;

,266 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
and hence the smells are not frightful here as else
where. True, the streets are so narrow that no car
riage can enter them, and two sedan chairs pass each
other with difficulty, and the houses often overtop
each other, across the streets, in order to keep out the
sun ; but this makes cooler streets in hot chmates,
though with less air. I often think, however. China
men have not our breathing apparatus, and do not
need our air. Their lungs Hve on less ; and where
we should die, in the close streets of Canton, they
seem to flourish, Hke the fungi, in the shade. There
are eight hundred thousand people Hving in these
streets, or in the boats on the river; and hence you
can imagine the crowds that often mnst be in these
narrow places. Whole strings of people, en queue,
often form in the streets, to wait their chance to get
along — the coolie with his two water tanks on a pole ;
the marketman Avith his greens and his onions ; the
merchant with his silks and satins, etc., etc. AU classes
wait with commendable patience, en queue, some
times five hundred feet long, for the crowds to go by ;
and there is no pushing, no shoving, though an
amount of bellowing that re-echoes from the hills
about Canton as if a storm was roaring below.
Our party, in five sedan chairs, fifteen coolies to
carry them, and the guide in advance, began the ex
ploration of Canton, Didn't we make a "muss " in
the streets ! Didn't our train block up the narrow
ways, stop trade and commerce, bother the market-
men, and the merchantmen, and all sorts of men !

THINGS m CANTON. 267
And yet the Cantonese were patient to be kept ten
or fifteen minutes, till our train could get by them.
We filled up the Canton streets as a soldiers' procession
or a funeral procession fills up Broadway ; but there
was no poUce to keep order, and we passed on only
by the courtesy of the people.
We first " did " the temples ; but I am weary to
death of " doing " temples, and you would be wearier
if I " re-did " them upon paper. Three, however,
are worth a brief notice — Honam, No. 1 — and that,
only because there is an artificial fish-pond on the
grounds, and an eternal clatter of Buddhist priests
praying all the time, and knocking their heads and
noses on the floor, with an occasional priest burned
up now and then, when dead, and a holy hog kept
sacred to die of fat ; the Temple of 500 Gods, No. 2,
worth seeing only for the great number of gilt gods,
and the odd-looking faces they have ; and the Temple
OF Confucius, or Hall of Confucius, No. 3, well worth
seeing, because every thing created and inspired by,
or for, Confucius is all there is left of soul in China
now. The Examination Hall — ^that is, the stalls and
halls fitted up for the examination of the thousands
of young men studying Confucius and Mencius, and
the other sages of China, and thus aspiring to lie man
darins — is also well worth a study. There are here
about nine thousand stalls, in immense corridors —
stalls about as big as horse mangers — where students
are put, with only a pen, a paint brush rather, and pa
per, to write out themes given them, and kept there

268 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
a day or two, with little or nothing to eat. Their
essays, written on certain themes, are examined and
commented upon by high mandarins, and the best
scholars pass as fit for the Imperial offices, Avith tempt
ing fields of promotion before them, if they win the
prizes by well-Avritten essays on the themes thus given.
These nine thousand staUs are often aU filled by the
aspirants, who, when there thus shut up, go hard at
work, without the least means of being aided by books
or persons, and do the best they can. These examina
tions have been the life of the empire for hundreds and
hundreds of years, and if corruption or favoritism do
not control them, they may save China from foreign
domination some years longer.
But more interesting, if not important, to me,
was the great question, " Do Chinamen really eat rats,
cats, and dogs f " Our guide took us to the markets
to see. Sure enough, among beef and mutton, were
dogs slung up by the hind legs on pegs ; and cats,
and rats, too ! " Dogs," says the guide, in " pidgen
Enghsh " " are very good ! " The rich eat dogs as well
as the poor. Dog meat thus is No. 1 — first chop —
while cat meat is No. 2, and rats, only for the poor.
Mixed up with rice, and eaten with chop-sticks, the
mess is said to be very good. I did not taste, nor try
it^ — though, who knows, when we were eating some
of the nice, rich soup served us, that a rat may not
have flavored it a little ? Thiis the fact was estab
lished in my mind that Chinamen do eat dogs, cats,
and rats. We kneAV they ate almost every thing else.

THINGS IN CANTON. 269
Ducks' legs were for sale in the market — not ducks
as a whole, but the legs, apart. Immense quantities
of meat are sold, to fiavor the rice dish ; and the
chop-sticks go from the rice to the grease, and from
the grease to the rice, with a rapidity that astounds
us, who try to make rice stick on these chop-sticks.
From temples to rats — what varied themes a trav
eUer has to scribble of ! From rats to workshops,
now we went. The beautiful Canton gauzes we see,
so aerial in a hot clime — the silks, the crapes, the
shawls, the fringes — all are woven by the poorest
people, in the dirtiest holes, and by the ugliest looms,
Tt was almost impossible to wriggle in, among these
looms, so as to understand well their work ; but the
principle of these looms is very like that in the looms
of our New England great-grandmothers. The shut
tle is the same, and the wool and the warp are the
same in principle — ^the power appUed a little differ
ently. There, for almost nothing, work and toil
these weavers, weaving their lives out to give the
world luxuries they never themselves enjoy. The
lacquer shops, where the pretty Canton tables and
screens are made, were also visited— the carpenter
.shops, the china shops, etc, etc And Canton is a
large manufacturing city, living on manufactured
work, more especially, though, on its chinaware and
silks. There are great shops here, with rich mer
chants over them, who do a big business with the
whole world. The Sevres ware, the ware of Dresden
and of Bohemia, and much of the ware of England,

270 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
are now far superior to'Chinese work ; but aU was
learned from the Chinese, and the world even yet
comes here to buy the original things. Here is the
land of the fire-crackers, and here one eternal " 4th
of July" is kept up, in one everlasting "snap,"
" snap." I should never weary of shopping in Can
ton — (Paris in its palmy days was not fuUer of pretty
shops) — if I only had Sycee enough to buy a little
of every thing. One could exhaust a Httle fortune
in fans and ivory work. The jewelry, some of it, es
peciaUy the fretted work, is not to be laughed at.
One's eyes, especially if the eyes be woman eyes,
water over the pretty bracelet and ear-ring work,
carved from crane's beaks, and set weU in fretted
gold. But Europe has caught up with China, and
Geneva now does this work better, and Vienna too,
where fans are painted to be prettier than in China.
The Chinese manufacturer stands still where he
was hundreds of years gone by, while the European
and American go ahead and ahead, and never stop
" progressing." But one must eat, alas, as well as see; and to
show you how things are done in Canton, let me add
here, we " breakfasted "-^that is, had " tiffin," second
breakfast — three or four miles from " home," on the
heights of a five-storied pagoda, where the city was
at our feet, and the coimtry, if graveyards can be a
country, behind us, Kwan-Tin-Shan is the Chinese
name of our breakfast pagoda. What I caU atten
tion to, is the skill with which Chinamen will im-

THINGS IN CANTON. 271
provise you a meal anywhere. In the baskets of
cooUes, strung on poles over their backs, and through
the narrowest streets, were conveyed to the tip-top
story of this pagoda, the finest of crockery, the choic
est of meats and Avines — nothing broken, and all
served up with skill and care. Thus you breakfast
or dine almost anywhere, for your meals wiU follow
you. Tou can sup on the river, and Hve luxuriantly
in the house-boat, or breakfast, as we did, overlook
ing Canton, and enjoy the breezes of the country,
unobstructed by houses or buUdings.
Nothing more impresses a man in all China than
the power of men to do business without beasts of
burthen or vehicles of any kind, A coolie does not
cost half so much to keep as a horse, or an ass, and
wiU live and thrive on what a horse would not touch.
There is not a cart in all this great city ! There is
not a road or a street for horses ! Every thing goes
on men's shoulders, or backs, or heads. The huge
block of granite is taken up, and taken off, by six,
or eight, or ten, or more, coolies, with poles. The
hogshead from abroad goes on the shoulders of four
coolies — that is, upon their bamboo poles. All the
loading and unloading of junks is done by cooHes
with their poles. All the commerce and all the trade
of these tens of thousands of people are done on
poles, on men's backs. Hence, these coolies become
wonderfully muscular. Their shoulders must be as
tough as cast-iron, and the muscles of their legs as
firm as a boxer's arms. There are no springless

272 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
carts down here, as in Pekin — ^no wheelbarrows, as in
Shanghai — only the sedan, for the transportation of
passengers, and a most luxurious vehicle it is to be
carried about in.
It is the Sabbath, and I go to hear Archdeacon
Grey preach and pray for the royal family of England,
in the very pretty Httle Episcopal Church, bmlt in the
foreign settlement of Shamien. As all foreigners
here shut up shop on Sunday, the Chinaman, espe
cially the servant, begins to comprehend our one
Sunday, in lieu of the three hundred and sixty-five
the Chinese have, or have not, every day in the year.
Archdeacon Grey preached only to some forty of us
(there are now not over one hundred foreigners in all
Canton, so much has Hong Kong killed off the for
eign trade of the city), but Archdeacon Grey has
been in China now some twenty-five years, and has
caught up, or been infected by, the rhetoric of China.
I could not understand half what he said— nothing,
when he was eloquent, and " eloquence," you know,
is often the death of all sense. The Shamien settle
ment of Canton is the beautiful spot of the city.
The houses are almost all palaces, the walks and gar
dens as useful and as pretty as taste and climate can
make them, Shamien was built up by the English
and French Governments from a mud-fiat island, and
the fiUing of it up cost some $325,000. AU the
merchants left in Canton are now there, except the
two American houses of Smith, Archer & Co. and of
Eussell & Co., who have built upon the old original

THINGS IN CANTON. 273
Factory site, associated now with so much of Chinese
Canton history.
The boat-Ufe of Canton is " very peculiar." Thou
sands and thousands Hve on the river. What they
do for a living I could not well find out, for there is
not enough boating or ferrying " to pay," nor enough
fish in the water to feed them. True, the ground-
rent and the house-hire are nothing — and the wharf-
rats, and cats, and dogs may supply the meat — but
who AviU supply the rice ? Nevertheless, these thou
sands live, and seem to thrive, and certainly look
happy. Canton, however, is the happiest-looking
city I have seen in China, and everywhere, the peo
ple seem ready for fun. Children are born in the
boats, and live aU their lives in the boats — and the
mother of them often rows, or sculls, with a child
strapped on her back. Upon some of these children
are tied bamboo floats, so that, if the darling tumbles
overboard, it is easily fished up and in. On these
boats, too, they raise ducks and chickens ; the ducks
are sent out in the morning to feed in the marshes
round Canton, and, just before sunset, the man who
has charge of them blows a shrill whistle, and the
ducks come hurrying from all directions by the hun
dreds. It is wonderful to see them separate, each
duck going for its own boat, and the owner counts
them as they enter (calls the roll); the last one is
always taken up and beaten for being the last, and
the next night they tell me, that that last duck is
invariably the first. Then there are grand boat
13

274 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
restaurants, where parties go, as to Delmonico's, to
feast free from the dead air of the narrow streets, and
enjoying the free air of the river. These restaurant
boats are gorgeously fitted up with lanterns and Avith
gilded adornments of many kinds, and they give the
visitor the best the market affords, /not excepting
even the dogs, I think if I had to Hve in Can
ton, I should prefer the free air of the river to the
close air of the streets. At night the river is gayer
than the city, for the gates of the city — agates by
the score within the great waU-gates of the city —
obstruct all night locomotion, while the river is open
and free, I loved to revel in a house-boat at night,
breathe the free air, hear the squeaking guitar of the
Chinaman, see his fire-crackers, peep into his restau
rants, hear his babies squall, and the mothers and
fathers snore. If you do not admire my taste for
music, reader, you will enjoy the variety I had, wUl
you not ? In the streets of Canton you Avill see,
every afternoon just before sunset, groups of China
men, seated on the highest points they can find, in
order to catch the evening breeze, aU of them with
twigs in their hands, and pet birds perched thereon.
Tou wonder why the birds do not fiy away, but, on ex
amining, you find they have a piece of cord tied round
the leg and then fastened to the tAvig, allowing
the birds to fly only three or four feet. Canton city
is divided, by its streets, into hundreds of compart
ments at night, and in, or over each compai-tment is a
gate, closed at night. For order and peace every
little community within these gates is responsible to

THINGS IN CANTON. 275
the authorities, for there is no local police. The sys
tem is somewhat Hke the old En'glish system of the
ChUtern Hundreds, and which it was proposed to
introduce into the Ku-Klux Bill for the benefit of
the South, It works in Canton well, or ill (?) — shuts
up the shops at dark, sends people to bed early, pre
paring them thus to rise early in the morning, stops
all night gadding, all theatre going, all soirees and
evening parties, all coxtrting and billing and cooing,
brings home husband early at night, and keeps him
from then straying off. There is a river police, which
cruises about the river at night, and bangs into you,
if you do not sail straight.
I might scribble pages and pages upon these droll,
these extraordinary Cantonese ; but I must stop to tell
you how I got up here, and how go I back — in Ameri
can river-steamers, with American captains — ^boats re
minding one of the North Eiver navigation — ^fare $5
for ninety miles — but fifty cents for a lower deck
Chinaman, and one hundred cents for an upper
decker. The Bocca Tigris — ^that is, the mouth of
the river, where the Chinese once had forts whicli
they thought would bite like the mouth of a tiger-—
has not a soldier there now, and the British, French,
and -Americans, in years gone by, knocked the forti
fications all to pieces. Whampoa, its pagodas, the
shipping there (not much now) the cane-fields, the
lychee-nut tree, the orange groves, the very many
other (to me) unknoAvn strange fruits, would be themes
to fill letters, if I were writing a book^ — but I am on
the wing now, and so must say " adieu " for the nonce.

LETTEE XXX.
TEOUGETS ON TEE CEINA SEAS.
The Imitative Powers of the Chinese. — Their Love of Money. — Population of China
over-estimated. — Pisciculture in Canton. — Chinese Dialects, — ^War Talk. —Super
stitions of the Ignorant. — Singapore. — ^The Malay Divers, — ^Foreign Conunerce,
— The Census, — The Jungle, — ^Agriculture, etc,, etc.
Oft Cochin China and Siam, and on the )
China Sea, October 4, 1871. )
Afloat as I now am, I have leisure to recall some
of my Chinese and Japanese reflections, and I am
avaiUng myself of it, in the British steamer Orissa,
one of the P, & O.'s, as they call the Hne of the
Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company, which
has now some sixty steamers afioat here, and on the
Mediterranean — (fare, by the way, from Hong Kong
to Brindisi, in Italy, the mail line, now about $450),
The Chinese impress the traveller deeply by their
great imitative powers, powers of endurance, and
wonderful industry. No people work harder, not
even the universal Tankee nation. Their love of
money is beyond what any other people seem to have,
and they are Avilling to work for it. Very few nations
could stand up in competition with them, if they had
an American education and American training. As
mechanics they are capable of any thing. Then, they

THOUGHTS ON THE CHINA SEAS. 277
can live on Httle or nothing — on vegetables almost
altogether ; — and their clothes cost Httle or nothing.
Nevertheless, England, Germany, and America large
ly find them in these clothes — ^for, as I have written
before, the spinning-jenny does not eat at aU, or need
clothes, and the Chinaman must have something of
both. Luxury seems to be forbidden in China, Even
the rich do not indulge in it, and it is hard to tell, by
any outward sign, the rich, from the poor man, either
in his exterior or in his dweUing,
But the Japanese are by far the most interesting
people. They have not the soUdity or stability of the
Chinese, but they are a far more interesting people,
and learn faster and more cheerfully than the Chi
nese, of all that is new, and of all that progress, the
great outside world is making. Both their agricul
ture and manufactures seem to me quite superior to
the Chinese. China is not near as weU cultivated as
I expected to see it, while in Japan, in most parts,
agriculture is carried to a very high degree of perfec
tion. There must be more people to the square mile
in Japan than in China, and the farms must supply
more food for the population. The population of
China must be over-estimated by 100,000,000, There
cannot be 400,000,000 of people there ; and I doubt
if there are 300,000,000. Pekin has no two millions
of people in it, as some say — nay, not one million —
while Canton must be much the most populous place.
But, in many parts of China, the struggle for Hfe, or
to live, seems greater than in Japan, I omitted to

278 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
state to you from Canton, as a specimen pf life or
livitig, how fresh fish were artificially raised in the
artificial ponds, in, and about Canton, and how the
surplus are sent to Hong Kong, by steamer, in huge
fish-tubs, filled vrith fish and fresh water, and aerated
by coolies as the steamer goes ; and how, when these
fish reach Hong Kong, they are " dumped out " into
fresh-water boats, waiting for them, and thus kept for
market — mainly for the Chinese, though, for Euro
peans do not relish them.
The Chinese labor under immense difficulties in
their progress and civilization, from their language
alone, to say nothing of their pride, vanity, and self-
confidence, which teach them, yet, that no other
people know half as much as they do. Their dia
lects prevent any real unity of the great empire, for
the Northern people cannot understand the Southern
people, and vice versa. What a Pekinese says is unin
telligible to the Cantonese ; and one province near by
often, only with great difficulty, can understand the
people of another. Where such diversities of tongues
exist, it is the mandarin of the province that gov
erns, rather than Pekin, the head of the empire ; and
these diversities are not likely to be done away for
years and years, save through the agencies of rail
roads and the telegraph, which the mandarins are
now disinclined to have.
All over China, among the Europeans and Amer
icans, " war," imminent war, with China seems to
be pending, judging only by what I hear them say.

THOUGHTS ON THE CHINA SEAS. 279
I could UQt see any real causes, however, for this ap
prehension, and the diplomats in Pekin do not believe
in it ; but war may come, and come very unexpect
edly, perhaps, if the superstitions of the Chinese are
played upon by the more intelligent Chinamen —
the third- and fourth-rate mandarins — as they have
been played upon this summer in many parts of
China. Thousands of the ignorant Chinese have
been taught to believe that foreigners carry " pills "
about them to poison the wells, and that the mis
sionaries, especially the Eoman Catholic missionaries,
are engaged in kidnapping Chinese children. The
Pekin government knows better than all this, and
discourages all such talk ; but the lower mandarins
of the provinces often keep up these fancies and
falsehoods, in order the better to have control of the
ignorant people. Nevertheless, in China there is al
most universal reading and writing, and that degree
of inteUigence which comes from these two " E's,"
and which, I think I have written you before, I do
not deem to be education.
But I am now steaming far away from China and
Japan, and going among another people — ^to India,
to see the original IndiaSis, and how their British
masters govern them. Here afioat, then, I will but
sketch of what I am now passing and *seeing. To
my right is Cochin China and Siam, the land of ele
phants, and tigers, and leopards, etc. ; and on my left,
are the PhUippine Islands of Spain, and Borneo, Brit
ish and Dutch, native, in part, and the rich Dutch

280 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
island of Java — a gold mine to the King of the
Netherlands, as Cuba was to Spain before the rebel
lion. The poor Portuguese who, after the Arabs, first
discovered the East, seem now to have Httle or noth
ing left here, except Macao and Goa, while John
Bull has gobbled up all, except Java and Sumatra
(Dutch), and the Philippine Islands (Spanish).
SiNGAPOEE, October 7.
We are just entering the British city of Singa
pore, 1,437 miles from Hong Kong, having made the
voyage from a Friday to a Saturday the week after.
As we enter, our first novelty is the Malay divers,
who, in little boats, are swarming about our steamer,
and diving after every sixpence or penny we throw
overboard — sure to get them, too, before they reach
bottom. They are the most wonderful swimmers
and divers I ever saw, and one cannot help emptying
one's pockets to see them dive after the coin. These
swarms of swimmers seem to fill the water aU around
us, and their cries and clamors and intent earnest
ness in watching the passengers as they throw over
their coins, can hardly be described, so furious and
wild are they in their screams and cries.
Singapore is only a degree and a half from the
equator, and hence we have here all the tropical
productions — with frints whose very names are un
known to us in America, The vegetation is all new
to me, for I have never before been so near the equa
tor; and hence I feel all the enthusiasm, and am

THOUGHTS ON THE CHINA SEAS. 281
inspired with all that wonder new-comers in the
tropics feel. The place itself is beautiful ; and the
hotel where I am now, "the Europe," immense in its
extension (but only two stories high), with all " the
entertainments " a traveUer could desire. Singapore
is the seat of government for "the Straits Settle
ment," which includes Singapore, Penang, and Ma
lacca, with its Governor and Chief-Justice, a British
garrison, and aU the other appurtenances of a British
colony. There is here a beautiful Episcopal church,
a Catholic church also, and the Presbyterians have a
place of worship near by. As a free port, it is the
entrepdt of merchandise from all quarters hereabout
— of spices, of pepper, of nutmegs, of sago, of rattan,
tapioca, etc, etc. There are two American agents
here, who do an immense business for the United
States, almost as much as all the English merchants
do, taken altogether. Nearly all our rattans come
from Singapore.
The " Straits Settlement " is a British colony here,
of which Singapore is the capital. The census re
ports 306,776 inhabitants, but from all parts of Eu
rope only 1,592, about one in 200 of the whole.
These are :
Malays  14:T,684
Chinese  1* 114,130
Klings  20,125
All otlier Easterners  23,245
305,184
The three settlements are Singapore, Penang, and
Malacca, The country all about is jungle — ^wilder-

282 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
ness — full of tigers, and leopards, and other wild
beasts ; and we were told we should see them from
the shores, swimming to our ship, but none have
been so bold. This jungle is cleared by the Chinese,
only by the Chinese — ^the Malays and KUngs refus
ing to be much else than boatmen, fishermen, sailors,
huntsmen, etc The Chinese are, in the main, the
only farmers ; and the emigration here from China,
encouraged by the British Government, is very
great. Anon they " will make the wilderness blos
som like the rose," while the Malays would never
clear the land.
The cultivation in, and around Singapore is beau
tiful. All the equatorial productions abound in one
eternal summer, with ever-constant rains. The sea
breezes, however, temper aU here, and make it a very
habitable place, I visited the rich gardens of a
Chinaman — ^Whampoa's, I think — ^in which, even
more than in. China, with greater opportunities in
these tropical latitudes, were the peculiar tastes ofthe
Chinese gardeners displayed ; but their gardens, of
which this is one of the best, if not the very best,
are not to be compared with the landscape gardening
of England and of the United States. Here we saw
the pineapple, the cocoanut, bread-fruit, the orange,
mango, jackfruit, mangosteen, custard-apple, coffee,
chocolate, nutmeg, clove, cassia, etc One boast of
Whampoa, in his garden, is his hogs in their sties ;
and I must admit, none bigger or better are ever
raised in any part of the United States,

LETTEE XXXL
FROM CETLON AND TEE BAT OF BENGAL.
England, Continuous England,— The Steamer Congregation in Ceylon.— A Grand Ori
ental Hotel, — Buddhism bom here. — Sapphires, Eubies, and Pearls. — The Cinga
lese great Cheats. — ^A Monkey Story. — Curious Boats and Boatmen in Galle. —
Men here mistaken for Women, and iJ^Cfi fie/rsa. — Madras, and Things there. —
The Latin Paces here crowded off by the Anglo-Saxon. — ^EngHshmen here patron
ize the Shastra and the Veda, as well as the Bible. — ^Their Eace kept distinct. — ^A.
Handful of Englishmen governing a World. — Juggling in Madras, — Golconda and
Juggernaut, — Cydones and the Church at Sea, — ^Hymns, etc.
Isle ob' Ceylon, Point de Galle )
(The Cock's Spuk), Octoher 15, 1871, )
MoEE British dominion ! The everlasting Eng
Ush flag ! From Hong Kong to this Ceylon is three
thousand and thirty-one miles, and yet, almost aU
the way, it is " England," " England," " England ! "
The Dutch were cleared out of Malacca, and of this
rich island of Ceylon, and here we are, now, in an
extended England ! Far beyond us here, and yet en
route to England, are Australia and New Zealand —
Melbourne four thousand six hundred and seventy
miles off, and Tasmania and New Zealand further
still ! Here, once a month, five great British mail
steamers meet — one from China, another from Aus
tralia, another yet from Suez and England, another
from Bombay, and one more from Calcutta. The
Point de GaUe, every two weeks, is a busy place,

284 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
when four steamers meet ; but once a month, when
Australia and New Zealand come in, it becomes a
veritable watering-place, where crowds meet from all
parts of the earth.
I am at the Oriental Hotel, landed this morning,
and just fresh from the English church, where, in
cluding the British military, were some five hundred
people, or more — the men all, or almost all, in linen,
and the ladies in the showiest robes of summer.
There is a CathoUc church here, a Presbyterian also ;
but the island is the great foimt of Buddhism, from
whence it was mainly propagated into Japan and Chi
na, The Oriental Hotel now — which would do
credit to NoAvport or Long Branch — ^is, on its porti
cos, a grand bazaar, Sunday though it is. Eubies,
and sapphires, and pearls, gUtter before our eyes, and
chains and bracelets of tortoise work, too — with
Ceylon laces of the Maltese style, quite tempting to
ladies' eyes. The island of Ceylon is the headquar
ters of the pearl fishery, and rubies and sapphires
abound in its mountains. When we remember, now,
what the. poets say of its spices (the odor of which
they would cheat us into the beUef we could snuff
a hundred miles off), and of its oranges, and cin
namons, and lemons, and cocoas, and palms, and
coffee, we see what a rich island it is — ^what a jewel
in the croAvn of England ! But these rubies, these
sapphires, these pearls, it is almost impossible to buy
here — for the Ceylon shopmen and hawkei-s are such
abominable liars and cheats, that it is next to the im-

FEOM CETLON AND THE EAT OF BENGAL. 285
possible to trade with them. They start with demand
ing twenty pounds sterling for a ruby or pearl ring,
and they may not refuse a rupee for it (fifty cents), if
you venture to offer it to them. Euby rings of glass
and brass are made in Birmingham to sell here ; and
they are so mixed up with the real sapphires and rubies,
that only a jeweller by trade can tell one from the
other. And how these hawkers and shopmen on the
porticos of the great hotel persecute you ! No matter
Avith whom you are talking, or what you are doing,
they thrust their shell-work, and rubies, and sapphires,
and laces, into your very eyes, and pertinaciously in
sist upon your making some bid to buy. One fellow
so tormented me with a monkey, for which he want
ed " only ten rupees," that, to get rid of him, and to
keep his monkey out of my eyes, I offered him a sin
gle rupee, whereupon he jumped at the offer, and I
had a monkey on my hands, ten thousand miles from
home ! The steamers do not take monkeys, even as
Malay steerage passengers, and so I had to give him
away, doubtless to be sold again. Birds of the love
liest hues and the sweetest plumage were for sale,
also ; and leopard skins, and tiger skins, and almost
every other tropical thing, on the grand bazaar. We
had some young Siamese passengers, on^ their way
from Siam to be educated in England, with more
money than brains, who bought a little of most every
thing, until their hands became as thickly covered
with rings as if the rings were a shield.
Every new country we go to seems to have its pe-

286 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
culiarities in boats, and carriages, or other modes of
conveyances. Galle is an open port, but feebly pro
tected from the winds, and upon its rocky sides the
surf furiously beats. The boatmen have here, ar
ranged for this sea and this surf, long canoes, like our
log dugouts, which they steady in the seas with a
heavy outrigger, hanging over and into the water,
beyond the reach of their oars. If the gale is heavy
in fuU sail, they put out a man or two to sit on the
outrigger, and as the breeze demands one man, or
two, they caU it a one^mcm, or a two-mam, breeze.
These canoes ride over and through the surf Avith
very little difficulty.
Another peculiarity of this island is, that the
men wear sheU-combs in their hair, and the women
do not, while the dress of both is so much alike, that,
in consequence of the combs, the traveUer is ever
mistaking the man for the woman, and the woman
for the man. But the race, be it man or woman,
seems bright. Their climate needs but little food,
save what grows on the cocoa, the bread, or the or
ange tree, little or no clothes ; and the consequence
is, that the main work done is to be done by cooHes
from India, or Chinamen from China, The British
Government here have regiments of native Ceylon
" rifles," who, with a few European troops, keep all
in order. The climate seems healthy on the sea-
coast and hills ; and, judging by a drive into the
country, with a view from a hill, the scenery must
all be beautiful.

FEOM CETLON AND THE BAT OF BENGAL. 287
Madras, October 21, 1811.
In the British P. & O. steamer, the Golconda,
from Suez and Aden, via GaUe, Ave embarked on the
19th for Calcutta, via Madras, where we tarry some
hours, only to let out British goods in bales. Ma
dras is the seat of government of the Madras (British)
Presidency, over which Lord Napier, some fifteen or
twenty years ago the British Minister in Washing
ton, now reigns. His lordship is reported to be as
great a beau here as he was in Washington, when a
younger man — a great favorite with the ladies, and,
of course, not so great a favorite with the men. The
Government House, or Palace, here, and the public
gardens around, are sumptuously kept up ; but there
is nothing in the place to see, except the European
residences on the coast. There are a quarter of a
milUon of people in the city, and it is as hot just now
as hot can be, and the fashionable people have not
yet come doAvn from " the hills," to their houses on
the coast. This coast, by the way, is bad, very bad,
and, in this cyclonic season, perilous. The roadstead
-is all open to the sea, and the winds pour in a surge
and surf that only native boats, manned by some
twenty or twenty-five native men, can manage to
ride over — and this, too, in boats not nailed, but
sewed together, so that their seams accommodate their
motions to the surf !
This part of India — the Bay of Bengal side, and
the other, the Arabian, or Indian sea side — is the
first part the Europeans got hold of, after the jirabs

288 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
led the way from the Eed Sea. First, came the Por
tuguese, Avith their settlements ; then, the Spanish ;
then, the Dutch, French, and English — all now lost to
the Continental nations, except PondicheiTy (French),
on this side, and Goa (Portuguese), on the other. One
asks, and keeps asking. Why have the great Portu
guese and the yet greater Spanish, been almost extin
guished in the East, while the British flag rules and
reigns, here, there, and everywhere? Many say,
" because of the Eoman Catholic reUgion ! " Non
sense. The Dutch have not been Eoman CathoHcs,
and they have nothing left but Java and Sumatra.
The EiigUsh here are, in religion, Eoman CathoHcs,
Hindoos, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Parsees, any
thing and every thing, to keep power. They patronize,
uphold, and vindicate gods of aU sorts, from Vishnu
to Buddha, for the sake of mammon. The Veda and
Shastras are as good as the Bible to them, if as well
bound in gold. In my judgment, the true secret of
British power here is the Anglo-Saxon inveterate, in
curable, indomitable conviction that the white man
is the intellectual superior of the red man, or black
man, and was created by God to be his superior.
This is not Exeter-Hall preaching, I know, which
has been transferred to the conventicles of the Unit
ed States, but it is the conviction of the Englishman
here, and the conviction and action on which he
governs with a rod of fron, though a very maUeable
and tender rod, his 200,000,000 of Eastern subjects.
The Portuguese, and the Spanish, and the French,

FEOM CETLON AND THE BAT OF BENGAL. 289
and the Dutch, to some, though a lesser extent, at
tempted government in India upon the different
principle of equality and fraternity, and consequent
amalgamation, while the Englishman has preserved
his caste and his race. Just what is the story in
Mexico and other Spanish American states, is the
story here — ^half breeds, quarter breeds, all sorts of
breeds of Portuguese, Spanish, and French, and
hence, consequent degradation of the race, and loss
of empire — ^while the Briton inflexibly maintains the
superiority and mastery of his race, and hence has
extended his empire, almost in the lifetime of many,
from Madras and the Malabar coast, far, far beyond
the Ganges and the Indus, — ^to the Himalaya Moun
tains on one side, and to the Persian Empire on the
other — ^from Australia and New Zealand — from the
equator, south, to thirty-five or forty degrees north.
The merest handful of EngHshmen here are governing
a world, far, far beyond the Avildest dreams of Alex
ander the Great, or of Julius, or Augustus Caesar.
But, how one wanders off! I forget I am on
board ship, buying new Indian native puzzles for a
few cents, to take home to puzzle Americans, or look
ing at native jugglers, who bring snakes (the poison
ous cob]:a) on board ship, to hug and to kiss, and
to tease to make them swell up and look terrible !
I forget I am seeing sticks and swords thrust down
men's throats, and mango-trees made to grow — lo
presto ! — on board ship, as a little water is sprinkled
upon the dry sand in a basket, where we see the seed

290 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
put in. What a world of brains must have been
wasted upon these magpie jugglers, to enable them
to cheat us so ! And then they are nearly naked.
An am,na (three cents) abundantly pays them for swal
lowing a sword, or spouting out fire and smoke from
their nostrils. And such is the greed to earn the
omnas, or to make the sales of puzzles, and baskets,
and embroideries, and tiger sUppers for men, that
the quartermaster of the steamer has to stand with a
huge lash, laying it on the backs of these magpies and
monkeys, to thump them off the chains and rigging of
the ship, that, otherwise, they would cover like ffies.
The " Golconda " is soon to go by the poetic
mines of Golconda (all over now), and by the land of
the car of the Juggernaut — the car yet going, but no
more fools going under its crushing wheels, there to be
ground into glory. English government has got rid of
some crimes in India — such as the victimization of this
Juggernaut car, such as the suttee, the self-burning of
the widows to follow their fresh dead husbands to the
hereafter, — the aAvful Thugs, and the filling of the
Ganges with corpses. We have a pleasant set of pas
sengers on board this Golconda, the most of whom,
now, are Calcuttians, merchants and officials, some
with their families who have been down to Galle to
breathe the sea air, or to the Neilgerry hUls, in Ma
dras, We read all the histories and novels we can get
— the latter, especiaUy — and they dance (the Virginia
reel, even, here), and they have concerts, and sing John
Brown, away off here — (with a gusto, too, and as if

FEOM CETLON AND THE BAT OP BENGAL. 291
in compliment to me) — whose (Brown's) poor, dead
" soul," if it was " to march on " in British India as it
" marched on," for five or six years, in America, would
not leave a Briton alive to sing or to dance at all.
And we have service on the Sabbath, from a clergy
man on his way, with his new wife, to be settled
somewhere, he knows not where, in India, Thus, on
a threatening sea, as we are now, and on a coast, this
month very perilous from the cyclone, a hymn like
this, sung by many voices, touched all our hearts :
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave.
Who bidst the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep,
O hear ns, when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.
O Christ, whose voice the waters heard,
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walkest on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage did sleep,
O hear us, when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.
Most Holy Spirit, who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bidst the angry tumult cease.
And give, for wUd confusion, peace,
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in perU on the sea.
O Trinity of love and power,
Our brethren shield ia danger's hour
From rock and tempest, fire and foe.
Protect them wheresoe'er they go.
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.Amen.

LETTEE XXXII,
BRITISE INDIA.
England Forever and Ever— 200,000,000 British Subjects— Standmg Army of 820,000
Soldiers. — ^Vast Imports and Exports, — ^East Indians, — ^Monkeys or Men, — Trade
and Commerce of India. — ^The Holy Ganges.— English Water- Works on it-
Calcutta no longer the " Black Hole " — ^Hot, not Unhealthy, — ^The Punkah Fan
the G-reat Institution of India. — The Punkah Everywhere. — Tudor and His Ice
the Great Tilings of the East. — The Hancocks, the Websters, Kothing.— The
Tudor Every Tiling. — Wenham Something.— Boston Nothing, — The Hoogley
Eiver and the Cyclones. — ^Enchanting Approach to Calcutta.— The Ejng of
Oude, — A Seventeen Bays' Hindoo HoUday in Calcutta. — Polygamy and Poly
andry. — Hindooism, Buddhism, Brahminism and Mohammedanism. — ^The 320,-
000 Standmg Army Government of India not a Bad One,
Calotttta, Octoher 21, 1811
England, once more, one everlasting England !
That little sea-girt island has not only girdled the
great isles of the world, and put its stamp upon them,
but, here am I, in the portals of a British East India
Empire, the very magnitude of which is astounding.
Think of it, over 200,000,000 of people, native and
British in this Indian Government proper, under the
British fiag ! Satiated with the very vastness of do
minion here, the British Crown declines more land,
and farther or fresher conquests ! It has got all the
land, and aU the population it wants — nay, more, too,
and refuses, actuaUy, to be bothered with yet more !
Think of the revenues and expenditures of this Brit
ish Indian Empire, $260,000,000 of om* money, incom
ing and outgoing, each. Think of its immense army.

BEITISH INDIA. 293
320,000 soldiers in aU, of whom 70,000 are European,
the others, Indians, under British officers, all ! Think
of a Christian government over 110,000,000 of Hin
doos, 25,000,000 of Mussulmans, 12,000,000 of Aborig
inal Nothingarians, 3,000,000 of Buddhists, etc., etc.
What a medley of humanity to rule ! What a mix
ture of laws, as weU as of creeds, and of tongues, and
languages ! (There are sixteen, or more, languages
here, that a British ruler ought to learn.) What a
vast trade, some $250,000,000 of imports, and over
$500,000,000 of exports ! The Uttle England at home,
which governs all this vast territory, and these mil
lions of people, dAvindles, herself, into insignificance,
when contrasted Avith this, her mighty Empire of the
East. But what a population ! When I first began to
hear and see the Indians of the East, in Singapore, or
in Ceylon, as well as here, rushing about like madmen,
in boats, around our ship, I could not but cry out,
" How like monkeys ! What monkeys ! Have they
immortal souls ? " " Yes," said a good EngUsh lady
by me, " aU of them, souls to be saved, or lost, as well
as yours ! " Doubtless, it is so ; but, nevertheless, as
first seen on the shore, " What monkeys ! " " What
wUd monkeys ! " How different from the sober, se
date, grand, dignified Chinese, and how like monkeys !
Eapid conclusions are, however, always perilous ; and
no nation should be judged by its boatmen or water-
craft men ; and, therefore, already I begin to see
I^dia is not a nation of monkeys, but of men, real

294: A SEVEN MONTHS' ET7N.
live men, and men with souls, too, if they do believe
in any thing and every thing, in religion, that we
laugh at, only, or pity.
The British Indian Government is in Presidencies,
with a governor in each, and a governor-general and
council over aU. This governor-general has a salary
of over $100,000 per annum, and lives and moves in
royal style, to astonish and astound the Indians, if not
the Britons. Calcutta is the seat of government in
coolish weather, from November to March, and Simla,
on the Himalaya range of mountains, the headquarters
of the government, during the rest of the year.
Some of the sources of revenue to support this govern
ment are from—
Opium  140,000,000
Salt (a monopoly)  30,000,000
Land  108,000,000
Customs  12,000,000
KXPENDITUItES.
Interest on Debt  $14,000,000
Army  64,000,000
Public Works (1870)  33,000,000
The government has over 6,000 mUes of railroads
in operation, on which it guarantees five per cent.
interest to the corporators ; and the huge army of
320,000 is supported by only sixty-four mUUons, be
cause the native soldiers receive only $3 50 or $4 00
per -mon^, feeding themsel/oes and their families oxit
of that miserable pay, and almost altogether on
rice. Well, I am on the waters ol the Ganges, the holy

BEITISH INDIA. 295
Ganges (the Jordan of the Hindoos), to be buried in
which is a sure passport to glory ! If glory is yellow
Uke gold, the Ganges, then, is glorious — ^that is, yel
low, muddy, dirty. The heathen English here (think
of it) pump this holy water into reservoirs (some miles
above this city), and draw it off in pipes, and filter,
and drink it, and use it for all sorts of unholy, as well
as holy purposes. They have issued terrible paper
edicts against throwing Hindoo dead or dying bodies
into it, on their way to glory ; but, nevertheless, the
dying as well as the dead Hindoo is yet dumped into
it, and a police corps has to be kept, especiaUy, to
sink the dead Hindoo, when his corpse pops up above
the water. There was a terrible commotion, at first, ,
among the Hindoos, when the English first began these
water-works, and not a Hindoo then would touch,
taste, or handle the desecrated waters ; but some high
and lofty priest was tempted to say, the Hindoo god
would overlook the desecration, and now the Hindoos
use it just like other people. Of course, the city is
made far healthier by this use of good water, and the
sewers carry off the impurities that once fostered and
created the terrible cholera, and yet alarming diarrhoea.
Calcutta is no longer the " black hole." Caucasians
live in it, the whole year round, jolly and,hearty ;
and, though their livers do suffer occasionally, they
say, nevertheless, they live, eat, and drink here as else
where — ^though, in the drinking of claret, soda-water.
Bass's beer, etc., the population, in proportion, con
sume more, probably, than any other people.

29G A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
Every country or state has its " institutions." We
have ours in the United States— peculiar mstitntions ;
but the institution here is the punkah. What is the
punkah? you ask, perhaps. Well, it is the great
blower of India — ^the institution of the blow-out. We
fan in America, They fan in Japan and China;
but here, the punkah, the everlasting punkah, the
spread-out, oblong, parallelogram fan, moved by coolie
power only, fans you, night and day. Ton wake up
under the fan ; you rise under the fan ; you break
fast and dine under the fan, and you go to sleep under
the fan. There is an everlasting breeze kept up over
you by some invisible cooUe, hid away, in some hole,
somewhere. The cooHe puUs the fan for two or three
dollars per month, and finds himself, and clothes him
self — that is, in a clout, which costs him about twenty-
five cents the year. I thought, here, of suggesting
to some acute Tankee the invention of some pendu
lum, or self-moving artificial power, to puU the pun
kah, that would do away with the cooUe, and send
him to the country to raise indigo, or linseed, or jute ;
but the coolie here is cheaper than wood, and no pen
dulum clock invention, even from Connecticut, could
compete with this cheap coolie power. Nevertheless,
the punkah here is an indispensable institution. I
am writing now under a glorious breeze — ^the artificial
• zephyr of the punkah, but for whicli I should be on
the sofa, puffing, panting, and struggling for breath.
There is another " institution " here — a great
American institution — that is, ice. It is not so cheap

BEITISH INDIA, 297
as the punkah, for it comes all the way from Boston ;
but, to a Caucasian, here, it is about as indispensable.
The Tudor Ice Company supplies nearly the whole
East Avith ice " from Wenham Lake," here, they say ;
and Wenham Lake, therefore, is better known in
India than Lake Michigan or Lake Ontario. While
Winnipiseogee is unknown, Wenham, dear Wen
ham, is cherished, and blessed, and embraced, and
kissed with a fervor, here, no woman's lips ever felt,
frigid as is ice. Nearly all that is known in many
parts of the East, is Wenham, dear Wenham. The
Quincys, the Otises, the Websters, the Everetts of
Massachusetts, are all unknown ; but Wenham is
Ulustrious — such is fanle ! Tudor, too, towers on tur
rets far loftier than Bunker Hill ; and where Warren
never was dreamed of, Tudor stands out as the bright
Northern Star ! Great is Tudor in the East.
We Americans meet with some rough miseoncep-
tions of us now and then, among ignorant Europeans
— not many, however, for our flag, in days gone by
(not now), spread our name and fame far and wide in
the East. Once American ships " did " one-half or
three-fourths of the freighting of the commerce of
Calcutta ; but, alas ! not now, did I see an American
flag on the Hoogley. Once we carried cotton, and
rice, and indigo to England, At one time, this East
ern coasting trade was largely in our hands. Alas,
not now ! The misconceptions I allude to come of
our " ice," and because we hail from a once copper-
colored Indian country, supposed to be like this.
14

298 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
Some few, very few, yet think we are red, like these
East Indians. More are sure, we are come from a
Greenland, or a Norway, or Spitzbergen, because of
our ice. Ice could now be had as cheap from the
Himalaya ranges, by rail, as from Boston, or, from
Hakodadi, in Japan, or, from the Peiho Eiver, China
— save the return freights to America, which here are
profitable. Our only exports for India now are ice
and petroleum, while once the fabrics of our looms
came into competition Avith those of England.
But, before I run on much further, I ought to in
troduce you to Calcutta, the metropolis of the 200,-
000,000 British-governed people, I have written of.
We did not enter the portals of Calcutta with first
impressions very captivating. A cyclone, or some
thing like it, kept us in the lower waters of the
Hoogley Eiver, a branch of the Ganges, and nearly
one hundred miles from Calcutta, from a Monday till
a Friday, The pilot did not dare take our steamer
up the Hoogley — ugly, we then pronounced the
stream. The rain poured down as if all the heavens
were let loose, and the winds blew, as if they really
would crack their cheeks. This is customary weather,
this time of year, when the Southern monsoon has a
fight with the Northern monsoon for the mastery of
the winds, in which, of course, just now, the South
erner was whipped. But, thanks to our good fortune,
we had no cyclone. I have dodged both typhoons and
cyclones thus far, in the East, and feel now quite se
cure of not being tossed up in the air, or swashed

BEITISH INDIA, 299
over in a mountain wave, by either of them. The
season for such freaks, out here, is now Shout over.
An interesting island, called Saugor, with only a light
house on it, and that stockaded to keep out the tigers,
was all, for four days, that we had to look at ! It is
an island of jungle, so inhospitable, and so full of
wild beasts, that not even an Indian will live on it.
Several British vessels, and some craft from the Mal
dive Islands, were anchored near us, and steam-tugs
from Calcutta were inviting them, in the calmer
hours, to be towed up, Saugor, however, and the
tigers of Saugor, and the rain and gale ended at last,
and the sun broke forth, if in all its splendor, in all its
fury, too. Thick sea clothes were laid aside, and felt
hats, and out came the pith-head umbrella coverings,
caUed hats, and linen and grass cloth. As the
steamer ascended the river, fishermen's villages and
scattered huts began to appear, embosomed in stately
purlieus, amid trees of shapes unknown before, fields
of sugar-cane, wide levels of paddy ground, with a
verdure universal, and as bewitching as in spring
time. As we neared Calcutta, on a bend of the river
caUed Garden Eeach, the coup d^cdl was enchanting.
Palatial-like houses studded the banks of the river.
There, is the palace of the King of Oude,. who has
only four Avives, but as many concubines as Solomon,
whom the British government support here (after
stripping him of his kingdom of Oude), at the expense
of a quarter of a million a year. There, is the Bishop's
college, where Episcopalians, native as well as EurO'

300 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN,
peans, are trained up to preach Episcopalianism to
Hindoo, and Mohammedan, and Buddhist, and Parsee,
with but a very poor success, I am sorry to say. And
then, there are the mansions of the rich merchants,
the British nabobs, who have hoarded gold, and de
stroyed their livers, but who, while Hving, live here
luxuriously. Beyond here is the river, covered with
boats of every conceivable form, and multitudes of
vessels and steam-engines, while palanquins, buggies,
phaetons, -ghares, hackeries, and other odd modes of
conveyance, line the shore, and tempt you to land, to
be carried off into the city. Calcutta has no walls.
Tou enter it without portcullis, or any other thi'eat-
ening fortification. Fort WiUiam, nearly in the
heart of the city, is strong, well filled with soldiers,
and, in the event of an Indian insurrection, the whole
European population could be huddled into its cir-
cumvallation. I have got here, I see now, just in the wrong
time ; and I cannot get any money to get out tiU the
right time comes. This is the Doorga Poohjah holi
day week — seventeen days, the Hindoos make of it —
and no bank or banker opens, and the custom-house
is shut, till the Doorga Poohjah holidays are over !
This is consoling, in a city you get into to get out of
as soon as you can raise the Avind, and from which,
almost everybody, you would like to see, is gone
to pass the holidays. If it were not for some ten
or twelve Christian churches here, of almost all the
great denominations, I should call this altogether, not

BRITISH INDIA. 301
almost altogether, a Hindoo country. Every thing
is closed up. There is nothing to get at or into, only
the exterior to see. But, on Monday next, Chris
tianity revives, and the banks and the custom-house
open. Pondering upon this topic, I tumble upon another,
and that is, what an odd, extraordinarily odd. Chris
tian country John Bull has made of this vast India !
Polygamy, here, is just as prevalent as with Brigham
Toung, in Utah; but here, not as in Utah, it is
yielded to, and sanctioned by law ! A Frenchman
living here, the other day, did not love his own
French Avife enough, not to want another. To win
that other, a French captivating milliner, he shufiled
off his Christianity, and put on Mohammedanism.
The to-be Avife and the double husband both became
Mohammedans, Then, under this British govern
ment, it became lawful for him to have two, nay, four
wives, while, as a Christian, it would have been polyg
amy to have more than one. The British press laughs
at us, because of Indiana divorces ; but all a Christian
Briton has to do, to be rid of one wife,, and to have
another, is to come to India, turn Mohammedan, and
then, if he pleases, he can marry four. In the Madras
presidency, where Lord Napier reigns, there is a sect
called Nayers, who observe the Maruma'k-Kaytam
doctrine, where polyandry is no offence. A woman
may have as many husbands as she likes. I only
suggest this to John Bull, when his press is rather
hard upon our dark spot, Utah, or, the divorce courts

302 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
of Indiana, The fact is, the British government, in
order to keep quiet possession in India, not only keep
up an army of 820,000 men, but keep up, too, Hin
dooism, Buddhism, Brahminism, Mohammedanism,
and all the other isms. The British government
rules over such a variety of races, languages, manners,
laws, and religions, that, in order to live in peace, it
caters to all. — Curious government, is it not ? The
Governor-General, or Yiceroy, from England — and a
council, here, created by him — the two legislating for
all, without any elections, or the bother of them, en
force all edicts by an army of 320,000 men. Never
theless, the British government has been, in the main,
a good government for India, for it snatched her from
the perdition of civil commotions, and secured lor
the governed, equity and justice, though the land
robberies perpetrated in so doing have been prodig
ious. There are native as well as English-born magis
trates in the lower magistracies. There are native
policemen, and native juries, in some cases; but the
jury system does not work well, magistrates tell me,
among the natives here. There are some few natives
in the high council of state. But in almost all cases
the officers, civil as well as miUtary, come from Eng
land. I do not suppose there are 200,000,000 of
Indians anywhere so well governed ; and yet, were
it not for the 320,000 soldiers, ever in arms, the Brit-.
ish flag would not wave a year in India, It hangs
over a volcano, ever ready for an eruption. But
good-by for to-day.

LEtTEE XXXIIl.
TEINGS AND TEOUGETS IN CALCUTTA
The Impudent Crows of Calcutta, — ^How they chatter, — A Drove of Elephants em
barking for War. — ^The " Central Park " and " Hyde Park " of Calcutta. — Funny
liveries, — The Trade of the Metropohs of India, — ^Exports, Cutch, Coir, Jute,
Indigo, and so on. — The Cocoa-nut Tree. — ^American Ti-ade. — Assam Tea. — The
Opium Trade, a Government Monopoly. — The Flocks of Servants in Calcutta.^^
Ho Women Servants. — ^All Men. — Men as Washerwomen. — ^The Woman invisi
ble. — English Women gotog to India.— The Chit and tho Coolie.— The Ladies'
Chit. — Cliarming Social Life in Calcutta. Calohtta, October 29, 1871.'
The morning music of Calcutta is not very be
witching. After the loud morning gun from the
fort, about 5 a. m., which startles, now, before day
light, all from their slumbers, comes the "caw,"
" caw," " caw," of great droves of crows, which fill,
and at times almost darken, the sky. They not only
keep up a frightful clatter, but they pop into your
windows, and if you are not wa;tchful while break
fasting on the veranda, they will steal your bread
and toast from the table. Crows are respected in Cal
cutta as scavengers, as are dogs in Constantinople.
Crows and vultures pick up the offal in all directions,
and do much toward maintaining good air and good
smells in Calcutta, Hence, the noise and thieving
of the rascals are borne with, and they are not shot,
as they ought to be.

304: A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
I have been to see a drove of elephants hoisted on
board of a steamer, to be taken somewhere into Bur
mah. Some Indian tribe there has been raiding upon
British territory, and a little army of natives, and a
lesser force of Europeans, are to be sent out to teach
them better manners. The elephants belong to the
commissariat, and are to carry the provisions and the
burdens — each elephant being able to walk off with
at least eight hundred pounds on his back, besides
his driver. There were some forty to be hoisted upon
this steamer, and, naturally enough, the novelty of
the derrick that Hfted them from their feet high into
the air, was not very agreeable ; but these war ele
phants are under good discipline, and do what is bid
den. They were fed on sugar-cane, to make them
sweeter tempered, perhaps, and bathed in the river,
and washed by their masters, to cool off their temper,
it may be.
And I have been to the evening drive — the Cen
tral Park and Hyde Park evening show of Calcutta
— where turn out the fashion, the glow, and the gUt
ter, and the horses, and the equipages, of this metro
politan India. A band of music regales the visitors
in a garden near by ; and this night, the full moon,
mingled with the showy gas-Ught, and the good
music of a great band, with the novelty of Indian
carriages in livery, and Indian nui"ses with European
children, the scene was not only novel but charming.
The Indian liveries of " the SAvells " of the city are
quite startling. There are two men behind the coach,

THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA. 305
with the driver before — all in a groundwork of white,
generally vdth flaming turbans and sashes on, but
with bare legs and naked feet. There are Indian
native " sweUs," with their liveries, as well as Euro
pean and Parsee " sweUs." I have not seen, how
ever, the full glow and gUtter of this evening drive.
This is not the fashionable season. " The Court "
— that is, the Yiceroy — is hundreds of miles off,
among the Himalayas, hunting tigers and leopards
and other wild beasts; and all that is left here is
what could not run away.
Calcutta is a city of great business, as well as the
metropolis of India. The Ganges and its tributaries
roll doAvn their wealth here, as well as their waters.
But the Ganges is not navigable the whole year
roimd, like the Mississippi or Missouri (the lower
parts). Sands and silt fill up its currents, and in the
dry season, forbid steamboat navigation. There go
from here rice, cotton. Unseed, and almost all sorts
of seeds, cutch, coir, indigo, dyeing materials of most
kinds, and many materials for manufactures, among
which jute has become a great article of export,
mainly to Dundee, in Scotland, and largely to Amer
ica. Of jute, now — and an article of commerce
scarcely knoAvn ten years ago — even excellent colored
shirts are made, as well as paper. What was worth
nothing in India but yesterday, is now of great val
ue ! The Dundee jute manufactures abound in Amer
ica. Jute, like coir, is a vegetable good for rope ; and
Hke the cocoa-nut tree, from the fibre of which coir

306 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
rope is made, jute is good for every thing. There are
only five or six American houses in Calcutta now,
and the Greek merchants are crowding them out
with their immense ready capital, while we, here as
everywhere else in the East, do business "on tick,"
via London, or through the Oriental Bank and its
branches in every Eastern city of any size. Oar
freighting ships have been crowded off; our exports
of Lowell and Lawrence goods have been killed ; and
hence, we must " tick," " tick," " tick," via London,
as we have not the wherewith here to pay. Tea, As
sam tea, especiaUy, is becoming here a large article
of export to England. It is stronger than the Chi
nese teas, and is mixed with them in Liverpool and
London. There are thirty-one tea companies in Cal
cutta, and the Assam, the oldest, diddes over fifteen
per cent. Poor China will be in a bad way with
British India, if Assam teas ever crowd off Chinese
teas in the marts of the world — ^for, now, India sends
thirty or forty miUions of dollars' worth of opium to
China every year, deriving a revenue therefrom of
from thirty to forty millions of dollars a year. But
India is not to have, in this respect, all her own way.
The Chinese now are increasing their growth of
opium, and preparing to supply themselves. But
what a melancholy trade all this is ! What death to
the Chinese, thus to support the nabob governments
of India ! There is no topic on which Britons more
dispute, here in the East, than on this opium trade.
Many merchants will have nothing to do with it ; but

THDfGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA. 307
there are enough left who will. Many denounce their
OAvn Government for the Chinese opium war ; others
pronounce the trade immoral and wicked ; but, never
theless, rich argosies of opium are ever going from
Calcutta and Bombay to China,
Opium in India is a Government monopoly. No
body can raise, buy, or sell opium but under Govern
ment sanction or authority. The Government fixes
the price it will pay the planter — a pretty liberal
price, too — ^buys all he has to sell, and then sells all
that to the highest bidder at public auction, when
the merchant becomes possessed of it, and when he
sends it in opium ships to the markets of the world.
To regulate prices, the Government names the num
ber of opium bales it will sell every year, and thus
guarantees the merchant from any supply beyond his
calculations. From thirty to forty millions of dollars
per annum are raised by the Government in this
way; and, "how can we do without this revenue?"
they ask, " What can we substitute for it ? " " We
have stamp-taxes, income-taxes, and a salt monopoly,
now," " What can we pile on, if we take opium
off?" And thus poor China pays the piper, who
plays " God save the Queen," in India, from Burmah
and Ceylon on to the Indus and the Himalayas, Thus,
in strong money-Hnks the British now have the whole
Eastern world, Japan alone excepted, and that with
a perhaps. What, among other things, excites the astonish
ment of visitors here, are the flocks of servants, yes

308 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
flocks — swarms, too, I might add — ^in every house.
The castes are so strong, and such is the religious
determination of one caste not to be degraded by an
other — so many are the superstitions touching food,
and even clothes, that a separate servant must be had
to do almost every class of labor that is servile. A
bachelor acquaintance of mine, whose income as a
civil officer of the Government cannot be great, not
such as the income of a merchant, numbers twenty-
two in his little bachelor estabUshment ! Every horse
has to have a man for that particular horse — certainly
one, and two, probably — one, to cut the grass for the
horse to eat, and another to take care of the beast ;
then the driver or coachman, and then the Hvery-
men, two, if not three, in cheap, barefooted Hveries,
to be sure, and not costly, though very shoAvy in
colors at times ; then, men to pull the punkah night
and day ; then, his personal man, to stand by him at
all times. These servants, to be sure, have only six
or nine cents wages per day, flnding themselves, and
they sleep, by choice, on the verandas, in the open
air, with no cost, therefore, for room or beds ; but,
nevertheless, there are so many of them, for almost
every thing, that they must be costly as well as
troublesome. Some head butler, however, better
paid than his subordinates, saves his master from all
trouble and care ; and when once a household is well
trained, all move like clock-work, though the ma
chinery of the Avork, it must be confessed, is far
more imperfect than among the superior, and far

THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA, 309
more inteUigent Chinese. Trust these servants, mas
ters say here, and then they may be safely trusted in
their respective vocations ; but doubt them, and lock
up from them, so as to enable them to shuffle off re
sponsibility from the one to the other, then, they be
come thieves of a hard kind. They have Httle or no
character at bottom, we are told — ^no fond — and the
machinery must ever be well handled, and well oiled,
to work well in an estabUshment,
There are no women chambermaids, or other
female servants, anywhere in the East, except a very
few nurses (Ayahs) for children. Men are very often
chUdren's nurses, in one sense — of course, not in all.
Men surround American or European ladies, and do
all their servile work, from that of chambermaid to
washerwoman. They wash and they iron to perfec
tion, even ladies' most compUcated ruffles and plaits
(three cents each is the average price for every thing) ;
but as they thrash the soiled clothes on the rocks, to
thrash out the dirt, clothes, under such hard treat
ment, of course, vdll not last long. The wash-board,
the destructive rubbing machine of our country, is
unknoAvn here, and the turn-crank washing-machine,
even if steam-driven, could never compete with the
paws and claws of " the heathen Chinee," c^: these
more heathen Indians, Women, therefore, are scarce
luxuries to be seen in these Eastern countries, except
the very common class, for a true Mussulman would
almost as lief die as have Christian or Hindoo eyes
light upon his first, or, forty-first, wife. I have just

310 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
seen one muffled-up " better half" (or better one-forti
eth, perhaps), on a chair, covered all over with " copper
plate," " dumped into " the ladies' department of the
ladies' railroad car, invisible to mortal eyes, even to
mine, with a double pair of glasses on. These dear
Eastern creatures never see daylight when men are
about, and the Hindoo women of high caste are as
scarce as these Moslem women. What a country, then,
for men to live in, vdth no women to see ! More
especially for European men, whose eyes, long lost to
the blessing, brighten and glisten, therefore, whenever
that dazzling article of creation comes along. They
do say — it must be scandal, though — that English
Avomen come out here to India, for this very reason,
to tempt forlorn, deserted bachelors into being hus
bands ; and it is hard, very hard, for the forlorn bache
lor, not to take, for better or for worse, even the spin
ster who has run out her career in London or Brigh
ton, and who opens, or hopes to open, a new career,
if not in Calcutta, in some hUl station among men,
where there is not even one woman, except the in-
dsible Moslem, or Hindoo. Five or six very pretty
and unmarried ladies came up Adth us in the Galle
steamer, direct from England, with fresh English-look
ing cheeks, and bouncing ringlets. One of them Avas
going out " engaged," and to be married the day or
two after she landed in Burmah. But how her red
cheeks will soon " wash out," paUid and pale, in this
hot climate, and her ringlets bother her, as the per
spiration trickles down them ! The fact is, thougli,

THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA, 311
EngHshmen, unless they are rich merchants, cannot
afford to marry here, heavenly as the luxury of a
good wife must be in this hapless land. Their
salaries, though big in our estimation, are not big
enough to support a wife in India; and children,
when born, cannot Hve here, after four or five years
of age, being certain to die, or to dwindle down into
cream-cheese, idiotic sort of anatomies, with little
life, and less inteUigence, in them. All, therefore,
must be sent home to England in their childhood.
Calcutta (or rather, Bengal and Burmah) is the
mother of many other institutions than " the pun
kah," to fan and blow, for — despite what Cowper
wrote —
"I would not have a slave to fan me while I sleep," etc.,
every EngUshman in India turns the Indian into a
sort of slave — ^not chattel slave, not marketable, but
none the less, the slave, who not only fans him while
he sleeps, but does all other sorts of like kind
things for him to keep him aUve and cool. Among
these other institutions is "the Chit," which has
been freely adopted from India into both Japan and
China. In a country where it is so hot that you can=
not run out to talk, or trade, or send a messenger to
talk for you, because none of them well enougn un
derstand the EngUsh language, writing is always
resorted to — that is, " Chits "¦ — and the Indian takes
" the Chit " from white man to white man, awaiting
the formal acceptance in a book he carries with him.

312 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
or the reply, in another " Chit." Every thing, thus,
is done in writing. Messages are often recorded in a
common book, which everybody sees, as that book
passes fr6m one to another. This is well enough,
ordinarily, and in business life, but when ladies enter
upon the Chit business, they often make " a muss "
of it, especially if the " Chits " be of affection or
love, or, between man and woman, "Tours, lov
ingly," does not read well in public record, even, if
ever so innocently, between lady and lady's man.
Nor do rouge, or powder, or cologne, or false hair, if
thus sent for, read as weU as if not read at aU. " I
am dying to see you," writes one, and another reader
wonders if the death has taken place, or if the visit
was made to save the Hfe, Chits in ladies' hands, it
is easy to come to the conclusion, are a perilous In
dian institution, however necessary among men, A
telegram here is caUed "a telechit," A wearied
Chit writer says, "I have been chitting aU day,"
Chits pour in upon you at all times, before break
fast, in bed, in the bath, at " tiffin," at dinner, in the
theatre, at the baUroom, There is no end of Chits.
Elsewhere in the world you may escape a bore, bnt
in India there is no escaping a Chit, Nevertheless,
the institution is indispensable in a climate Hke this,
where, for some hours in the day, it is as much as a
man's life is worth to face the sun, unless he has a
two-storied pith hat or helmet on his head, aud col
ored goggles to save his eyes.
But, hot as it is, I am sorry to leave Calcutta —

THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN CALCUTTA. 313
for, socially, it seems to me a charming place, I
came vdthout a single letter of introduction ; but,
through passengers on board the steamer, many doors
have been open to me, and I have been as hospitably
welcomed as if I were an Englishman in high posi
tion, and all the more welcome for being an Amer
ican.

LETTEE XXXIY.
TEE BUN ACBOSS INDIA.
Things in India.— Eail from Calcutta to Bombay, — The Eaging Sun of India. — The
Parsees of Bombay. — Fire Worsliippers.— Sunday Evening's Work in Cal
cutta. — ^India Eaihoad Cars. — How they are cooled, and how they are convert
ing the Pagans. — The Telegraphs of India. — Journalism in India, — Coal in
India. — The Way Coolies work. — Indian Muslins and Cashmere Shawls, — The
Plains of the Ganges. — The Pagan Temples of India. — ^Hindoos more inteDigent
than Mohammedans. — ^Allahabad, — Jubbalpore, — The Passage of the G-hauts. —
Entrance into Bombay. Bombay, October 31, 1871,
India " done " up ! One week in it ! — from Cal
cutta to Bombay, 1,420 miles, in sixty4wo hours !
Who can beat that ? And I have seen so much, and
slept through so much, that quite a book might be
filled thereon. The fact is, I am in a hm-ry to get
home, have seen enough, and don't want to see any
more.- My eyes are weary, and all my senses sur
feited with the glories of Buddhism, Hindooism,
Mohammedanism, Parseeism, and the dominion of
England over them all. No man ought ever to travel
for instruction, or pleasure, over thi-ee months at one
time, for, after that, all the senses become intoxicated,
as it were, and then so blunted that the eyes decUne to
see, or the ears to hear. Eest, long interludes of rest,
become as indispensable to the traveller — rest, for all
his senses — as day and night ; and hence, six continu-

THE EUN ACROSS INDIA. 315
OUS months of sight-seeing have blunted curiosity, and
all the faculties connected therewith. But, 1,420 miles
" done" in India, in sixty-two hours, from the Bay
of Bengal and the Ganges, to the Sea of Arabia —
think of that ! And we slept by the way a good deal.
We wasted much time at many, many stations ;
but our speed, while going, was thirty miles, and
sometimes forty miles the hour, over first-class rail
roads, better built than any we have in America, cost
ing three doUars per mile to our one ; over frightfully
flooding rivers ; through terrible mountain passes —
but then again on long level plains, as smooth as our
prairies, and with cultivation more beautiful, if possi
ble, than many parts on the Connecticut Eiver.
And it is so hot here yet, when the raging sun
roasts and burns us ; but, happily, cool and consoling,
when that flery monster goes down at night ! The
sun, here, though creating and vivifying all the ele
ments of Hfe, is Caucasian man's mortal enemy. The
very look at it, in the daytime, runs a poor fellow
half wild with fever. An ice-house is paradise, and
ice is manna, or whatever you like best, be it roast
beef and plum-pudding (the English manna), or mint
julep, or sherry cobbler. Heaven bless Tudor again,
the immortal Tudor, who is here, as well as every
where else, in the East. I hear from New Tork, Sep
tember 22, that a Bombay Parsee (a Mr. Wadiah) was
suffering from the climate, and compelled to wear three
overcoats to keep him warm there ! I could lend him,
to-day, my skin, the epidermis and cuticle, at least, if

316 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
he were here, to keep him warm ; for, just now, there is
no need of clothes, nay, no need of a skin, as even
bones might melt in the noonday sun. The great
Creator- has made these Indians, as weU as the Chi
nese, our superiors in one thing, at least, and that is,
in standing bareheaded, if necessary, the full blaze
of the sun's noonday rays. Nevertheless, many
Englishmen do Hve and thrive here, in good health,
and with sound Hvers ; but they eat little, and drink
less. Great feeders and drinkers here die early, or go
home without a Hver,
The first thing that arrests an American traveUer's
attention here, is the hard Parsee names — (Parsees
do a large portion of the business of Bombay) — such
as Badabhoy Durshaw Gandy, or, Cursetjee Nesser-
wanjee Cama, or, Hajee Zanel Abardin Sheerazee.
One great man of Bombay was Sir Jamsetjee Jehee-
bhoy, and another, Cowasjee Jehanghir, who both did
much for charity, and thus left names to future fame.
The Parsees are said to be fire worshippers, but this
is doubtful, in the sense outgiven — for who could
worship fire or sun, here, or any idol but ice ? They
are European in look, build, and style, but tawny.
They have all the skiU and quickness in business that
Europeans have, and the same faculty for making
money. The Mohammedans, they say, drove them
out of Persia some centuries gone by, and they came
here, as the Puritans did to Plymouth, for religious
peace ; but they agreed to do what the Puritans would
never do, live quietly and like other people; and

THE EUN ACEOSS INDIA, 317
hence, they (the Parsees) eat no pork, and speak the
native language of the country. Hence, they have
had for centuries safety and peace, and are now most
loyal subjects of Queen Yictoria, During our civil
war, on the rise of cotton, they made immense
fortunes, and roUed in wealth ; but, when our war
went down, their cotton went down, and many of
them with it. I have been introduced to some of
these Parsees — but think of remembering their names,
or of even saying, " How do you do, Mr. Dhungee-
bhoy Framgee Bhandarkar," or, any thing like it —
more especially now, fresh', as I am, from the monosyl
labic names, the Changs, Engs, and Wangs of China.
But, come now, go back with me to Calcutta. I
" lunched out " a Sunday, there, and drove out on the
fashionable drive, which begins Sunday, at 5 p, m,,
and ends at church,. at 6 or 6-|- p. m., — in the English
church in Fort WilHam, the fashionable Sunday even
ing church, where sixteen Hindoos pull the punkah
for a thousand Christians, or more, during divine ser-
AQce, and thus play hide-and-go-seek with the clergy
man's eyes and gestures, or, fast-and-loose with the
notes of the organists and boy chanters — then, went
home to the hotel, the service being over — packed up
— out to dine at 8 J p. m., and off in the cars for Cal
cutta, over the Hoogley, at 12 (midnight). I enter
into all this -minutioB to show you how hard it was
"to do Calcutta," in the brief space of time given me
there. I have lost Delhi, and Agra, and Cawnpore,
and Lucknow — and Agra is a real loss, because ofthe

318 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
wonderful tomb, an Indian prince erected there in
memory of his wife. And I have lost Mohammedan
mosques and Hindoo temples innumerable ; but this
world is big, even when you go round it by steam,
and life is not long enough to see every thing. That
unfortunate threat of the cyclone, delaying the steam
er nearly four days in the mouth of the Hoogley, lost
me India, in detail, after all the sacrifice of time, and
the risk of health run to see the detaU, and compelled
me to rush on to Bombay for the weekly steamer to
Egypt, as if I had been shot off on a cannon-ball.
The Calcutta-Bombay first-class through sleeping-
car is a luxury — (fare, about $70, with baggage) —
but not quite equal to our " silver palaces," though
with some few advantages over them. The air is
cooled a little, when the cars are in motion, by air
forced through water from the bottom of the car.
There is a punkah, which the motion of the car moves
a little to fan you — a very uncertain sort of fanning,
though. The windows of the car do not slide up and
down, as ours do, but swing on hinges, every alternate
window, from the right to the left, and vice versa,
and you arrange them, on their hinges, to the reverse
motion of the car, so as to keep out the dust, and
then enjoy the air. The windows are of colored glass,
to shut out the terrible glare of the sun. The water
to wash with is forced up from below by a force pump,
as you need it. Over the windows, one and all, is a
wooden projecting shade to keep off the sun, and to
forbid the windoAvs from opening too fai-. These are

vTHE EUN ACEOSS INDIA. 319
advantages over our cars; but there are no sheets
provided for beds, no piUow-cases or pillows, no
towels, no soap, no ice, no attendance inside. Out
side, at stopping places, are coolies by the score, and
poUcemen ; and the coolies, from skins slung over
their backs, filled with water, supply it to you, for
drink or washing, if you need it, or, pull the punkah
fan to cool you, if you desire it. There is a great
retinue about every station — a retinue in uniform —
and the stations are often very costly, as at Jubbal
pore and Allahabad.
The raUroads of India are doing more, it seems to
me, for the conversion of Hindoos, if not Moham
medans, than all the missionaries; and if the Eng
lish government here would give a little bit of prefer
ence to the Holy Bible over the Shastras, and Yedas,
and the Korans (only a Httle bit), I should have some
hope that the railroads would do what the mission
aries have, for now two centuries, not done — that is,
turn the people from the error of their ways. The
railroad is breaking down slowly the Hindoo castes.
The proud, and lofty, and blue-blooded Brahmin must
now go into the same car with the poor, despised
Pariah, or not go at all. The hard-hearted English
conductor pushes in, or tumbles in. Pariah on top of
Brahmin, and Mohammedans among them too. Each
Avraps up his garments around him, and preserves
himself, as much as possible, from the horrible con
tamination ; but, when once holy Brahmin is in the
ear with polluted Pariah, go he must, or jump out

320 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
and die. The railroad, now, has become here tho
great vein of Hfe, the heart, as it were, of the geo
graphical anatomy of the country ; and hence, this
mixed circulation of all these various religious sects
and bloods in it, is amalgamating, slowly, despite
religion, caste, and creed. -And this is happening in
a land, too, where, it' even the shadow of a Christian,
or a Mohammedan, or Pariah, should pass over the
food of a Brahmin, he would not eat it, or over his
body, he would feel himself polluted. Eailroads are
great leveUers everywhere ; but railroads in India
are levelUng heathenism, and may, by-and-by, bring
it up to Christianity, What conquers caste here,
equalizes. What equalizes heathenism here, strips it
of its pride, selfishness, exclusiveness, etc., and thus
prepares it for something better than itself By the
way, we live well and fare well on the rails of India,
The conductor asks us miles ahead, " if we breakfast,
or dine," here or there, and the telegraph is used to
have the meal aU ready for us, the prices being about
the same as in the United States. There are miles
and mUes of telegraph, now, all over India, from the
seas to the mountains, on to every inland military
station, and the rates are very cheap, I can thus reach
New Tork, from Delhi or the Punjaub, in less than a
day; and from Bombay there are thi-ee distinct lines
to Europe. I read scraps of New Tork and U. S. news
every day, in the Bombay jomnals, whicli are about
as good as ours in New Tork. Indeed, there are
British journals, and journals in the native tongue.

THE EUN ACEOSS INDIA, 321
all over India, The press is as free, as keen, as sharp,
as critical here, over public men, and on public meas
ures, as in London or New Tork, The only real re
straint here, on the absolute government, is this free
press — save and except those deep-rooted and wide
spread free foundations of English law, viz., the
Habeas Corpus and Magna Charta.
What I saw at night, in my flight across the In-
dias, is a " bull " you will not expect me to make, but
I have no doubt that, as I slept, I slept by many holy,
as well as, business places — some British and Dutch
battlefields, and many of the historical sacred spots
of Warren Hastings and Lord Clive ; but, as I have
written before, one can't see every thing, and one
must sleep — what a pity ! — ^to live. The Portuguese
CathoUc priests were all about this country as long
ago as A, D, 1540, When, in 1632, the great Mogul
came to Hugly — a place I passed in the night — there
were 2,000 souls crowded for safety on board one
Portuguese ship, the captain of which blew it up,
with all on board, rather than fall into the hands of '
the Mohammedans, We passed Burdwan, too, the
rajah of which pays two mUlions of dollars rental,
for his estates, to the British government. We waked
up at daybreak, off the flat-land, and amid hUls, if
not mountains, in the coal regions — for the supplies
of coal are as abundant here as in Pennsylvania
(U. S.), and so cheap, that in Calcutta it is sold for
about five dollars a ton. Two annas per day (six
cents) is the price of labor in the coal mines, and on
15

322 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
the railroads, in this part of India — ^the coolie find
ing himself, in clothes (little or none), and in food,
rice and vegetables. But there is little or no work
in him, unless driven. Every thing is carried in
baskets — on the head — coal, dirt, etc. The wheel
barrow was tried in railroad building, and the
scoop ; but the native did not take to these novelties,
and would try to carry the wheelbarrow on his head,
and no artificial scoop or dredging power was so
cheap as the power of perpendicular bone and muscle.
Man was cheaper than steam, or cheaper than ma
chine. There is no patent right so cheap in India as
the God-made machine, caUed man. Nevertheless,
there is no slavery here. It is a free country. Every
man owns his own bones and brains. But, in con
tradiction to aU this, some of you AdU remember —
nay, not longer than 1830 — when even muslins for
our shirts came from India, while now, the far cost
lier labor, but powerful loom machinery of England,
has nearly destroyed the manufacture here, and sub
stituted in its stead immense importations of all sorts
of drygoods therefor. The cashmere and India
shawls, and some few objects of art manufactured
now, alone snrdve the competition of dearer labor
and cheaper machinery in England and America.
Eeconcile this logic, so contradictory, I can't stop
to do it now.
Then, we came doAvn from the hills into the level,
beautiful, alluvial, broad-spread plains of the Ganges,
where for miles and miles there is little to see but

THE EUN ACEOSS INDIA, 323
highly-cultivated patches of the rich soil, and myriads
of bullocks, and tropical vegetation of all kinds fas
cinating to the eye. The land seems full of people,
and capable of supporting any number of them. But
the eye soon Avearies with vegetable wealth and flow
ers everlasting. One covets a mountain, or a water
fall, and soon feels, in this hot climate, that a poor
life on the hills is better than a rich life on the ever
lasting plains. The people on these plains have no
need of clothes, no real need of work, for it is ever
hot enough to run naked, and the plantain and other
tropical food would feed them, even if the country
were a jungle. Nevertheless, the cultivation of the
country shows great industry. The farmers, just
now, are putting in some new crop, and the plough —
the earth-scraper, I had better caU it— with the bul
locks pulling it, covers, more or less, all parts of the
now living country. The Ganges, which but the
other day covered every thing with its waters, has
now gone to rest, and left behind its fat treasures of
deposits to enrich the land. . . ,
But up, and on, or I shall never get to Bombay 1
What a pity I could not stop at that holy Hindoo
city of Benares, with her one thousand temples
" wholly given to idolatry." A half a mjllion of gods
are said to be worshipped here ! Thousands of mon
keys there are, in, and about one temple — fine, fat,
well-bred monkeys, from the venerable patriarch to
the babe in its mother's arms — all holy, holy, holy,
and not to be desecrated by unholy Christian hands !

324 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
The Hindoo venerates the ape, because of some ser
vices, somewhere, some smart monkey did the Hin
doos in their wars with the Mohammedans, before
their surrender to the Great Mogul. In the shades
of the second evening we passed Mirzapoor, where,
once was the great temple of the Thugs of India, at
which they worshipped, before they went to waylay,
rob, and murder the traveller. The Thugs are ex
tirpated, now, everywhere, and traveUing is safer in
India than in any other Eastern country. It was
midnight when we reached Allahabad (the city of
Allah, it means), where join the Jumna and the Gan
ges, and another great river, the Hindoos say, that
flows direct from heaven, which, however, is aUowed
to be invisible to mortal eye. Certain, there is no
railroad bridge over it. When a Hindoo pilgrim ar
rives at Allahabad, he sits down at the bank of the
river, and has his head and body shaved, so that each
hair may fall into the water, the sacred Avriters prom
ising him one miUion of years' residence in heaven
for every hair thus deposited ! I did not drop a hair,
but thought of it, in the moonlight, though many a
Christian does, as he passes, so I am told, in order to
be on the sure side.
These Hindoos, nevertheless, are not such fools as
these superstitions would seem to indicate them to be.
The English, here, pronounce them to be far the su
periors of the Mohammedans, who do believe in God,
though in Mohammed as his prophet. They have more
intelligence than the Mohammedans ; often educate

THE EUN ACEOSS INDIA. 325
themselves to a high standard of learning ; often hold
offices under the British, and oftener, are employed as
bright men in practical business life. It is noted in
history that when the Mohammedans, the better sol
diers in their day, conquered the Hindoos, the Mo
hammedan chiefs had ever to employ the Hindoos,
in large numbers, successfully to govern the country.
The Mohammedans were only soldiers, while the
Hindoos were the better civilians. They growl and
grumble, now, under British rule, as the British
prefer the Hindoos in official employ ; and, just at
this moment, a fanatical sect among them, theWaha-
bees, are suspected of having employed the fanatic
who recently assassinated the Chief Justice at Cal
cutta. From Allahabad to Jubbalpore is the line of rail
— 228 miles — recently opened, connecting Calcutta
and Bombay, without the intervention of bullock
carts, or any other Hke unearthly conveyance. Dark
ness came over us on the Ganges plains ; but day-
Hght opens on us in a rude, rough country, among
hiUs and mountains, vdth a sharp, biting air, where
two overcoats were not uncomfortable to sleep under.
We have been going through, we are told, a land of
tigers, leopards, bears, sambuk, spotted deer, ante
lopes, etc., etc. None of them jumped into the cars,
or disturbed our slumbers. Hills are on each side of
us, and now, we are winding at their base, and then,
through many a sharp curve and steep incline, we
cUmb and wind our way through scenery nearly

326 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
as picturesque as seen on the Pacific road in Utah.
Bold headlands often strut out like mighty bastions,
the red strata laid bare at the top, and looking liiie a
bluff point crowned by a fortress.
Jubbalpore, the end of the Great East India EaU-
way, and the beginning of the Great Peninsular and
Oriental rail, we reached in season for quite a sumptu
ous breakfast, A thousand feet up in the air, it is not
hot at early morning. It is a pretty-looking place, full
of English, vdth an English church. We enter here
the valley of the Nerbudda, wUd, woody, and un
cultivated. Then we go on, miles andmUes, crossing
three rivers on costly bridges, before we are done
with the tributaries of the Nerbudda. We pass Bur-
hampur, where they manufacture muslins, fiowered
silks, and brocades. Then, on, and on, through parts
of Scindia — not far from spacious Buddhist cavern
temples, hewn in the soUd rock of amygdaloid, and
thus indestructible by Mohammedan iconoclasts.
The great Aurungzebe figured here, and about here.
Then we come to the Western Ghauts — not our
Spanish- American canons, but passes, over hills, or
mountains. Shady forests, rippling streams, lofty
hills, and smiling dells, all make the country pretty.
The passage of the Ghauts is one of the magnificent
works of modem engineering. The rail line passes
through 13 tunnels, over 6 viaducts, one, 250 yards
long and 288 feet high, solid work of rock and iron.
There are 15 bridges and 62 culverts in three Ghaut
passes here. The road winds and curves around

THE EUN ACEOSS INDIA. 327
precipices like the worm of a screw. We were an
hour going 10 miles ; but, when we began to descend
doAvn the sea face toward the Indian Ocean, we flew
at the rate of 40 or 50 miles the hour, through wooded
gorges, by streams, cascades, forests of palms, tall
teak trees, groves, and fiowers, tUl we reached the
swamp level of the sea, on which we go into Bombay,
and again snuff the salt ocean air,
:< Enter BycuUa, the chief station, near most of the
hotels — ^but I go farther on, into the heart of the city,
where, on the old Fort ground, is the Esplanade
Hotel — a hotel built on purpose for a hotel, not
sprung from patched-up houses, as are most hotels
— a hotel of iron sent out from England, five or six
of the loftiest stories high, over every room in which
runs a current of air, with this disadvantage, that
what you say or do in one room, is certain to be
known in its neighbor room. The depot scenes of
travellers' exit are nearly alike the whole world over
(New Tork city excepted). There, surround you,
cry for you, under discipline, though, the drivers of
bullock carts (two bullocks drawing at times rather
a pretty vehicle on springs), shigrams (a sort of rock-
away, closely shutting up, to keep off the sun), and
buggies ; and there are palanquins (a sort of shut-up
bed to stretch out on), with four hamals, .or six (cool
ies), to carry you on their shoulders, if you wish.
Never was a hotel, with baths, etc., more welcome,
AU the waters ofthe Indian Ocean can scarcely wash
one off after such a fiight, as mine, overland ; but, I

328 ^ SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
am up, " redeemed, regenerated, disenthralled," from
dirt, high up in the air, in a balconied room, over
looking the city, its suburbs and its seas, and never
in better health, though in India, and hot as it is
in India.

LETTEE XXXY,
SIGETS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAT.
Bombay, — ^AVhatitisas a City. — Calcutta the Court; Bombay the Mart. — ^New In
fluences ofthe Suez Canal. — ^The Treasures of India here. — Cashmere Sliawls, —
The Bombay Fashionables on a Drive. — The Parsees. — The way they don't bury
their Dead. — India Gods. — ^AVhere manufactured. — The Temples of India. — ^The
Wonderful "Elephanta." — Dining Out in the East. — The Eoute to Persia and
Aden. — The Census and Exports of Bombay. — ^Extent of Eailroads in India. —
Sound Banks and a good Currency, Bombay, November 4, 1811.
Bombay is a 'very respectable city, with over
800,000 inhabitants. Where they are put,' though,
I cannot see ; but it is a stretched-out city, with long
arms, and very long legs, and " considerable of a
body." It is as flat as a prairie, excepting Malabar
HiU, or a promontory where the Quality live and
drive, and two other little places of no great note,
unless the Government House makes the Parell Hill a
notabUity, and, of course, out here it does. A Gov
ernor in the East is, everywhere, the great " swell."
Isn't he the representative of the Queen's majesty ?
Of course he is ; and hence, Sir Edward Fitzgerald,
the Governor of the great Bombay Presidency,
makes Parell Hill a great notability — fpr he is the
light set on that hill. Bombay has a fresh, lively,
clean look, that reminds one of some of our rich
mushroom Western cities. The merchant princes do

330 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
not generally do business under thefr household es
tablishments, as, often, elsewhere in the East, but live
out in villas, amid the cooling breezes of Malabar.
Calcutta is courtly; Bombay is mercantile. There
is great rivalry between the two cities. One is the
Court, the tan, as well as the toAvn, while the other
is gathering up, and taking away, the trade and com
merce of Calcutta, because here is the nearest outlet,
by the rail, of India to England, and for aU the ships
on the seas. The French canal through the Isthmus
of Suez, too, that the British merchants so long bit
terly opposed, in the fear that the French would thus
monopoHze the commerce of India, is becoming the
greatest boon to Bombay; for here now, without
bulk breaking, or saiUng around the Cape, come
steamers from all parts of England, and from Trieste
and ^Brindisi, and from Genoa, Naples, MarseUles,
and the whole Mediterranean. Bombay is thus
brought into close contiguity Adth aU Europe, while
Calcutta is all the way around the Island of Ceylon,
and up the Bay of Bengal. Bombay says, too, she
is " healthier than Calcutta." Calcuttians deny that.
" Our pure rivers, now, from the rectified Ganges,
and our sewers," they say, " make Calcutta one of
the healthiest cities in the world." (The world, how
ever, will not believe that for many years to come ;
for the most that is known of Calcutta in the world
is, "the Black Hole" of history, there.) Bombay
says, " Look at our magnificent hai'bor, where whole
naAdes can ride in safety ; the entrance to, and the

SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAT. 33I
exit from, which is easy, while the Hoogley Eiver,
the entrance to Calcutta, is dangerous and costly in
pilotage, and ever giving trouble to all the ships that
go in there." Calcutta is silent on that theme. The
Suez Canal nadgation is concentrating here, directly,
the steamships of Austria — ^Eussia (from Odessa), and
Italy, as well as France — nay, perhaps more and
more, the direct trade from London and Liverpool
(and scattering it all over Europe) ; but, nevertheless,
all are to be to the profit of Bombay.
Bombay is the mart of India manufactures, from
the far up-country of the Indus down to Madras ; and
hence, one has to shop here, of course — ^but shopping
is easier in India than in New Tork, for the things
come to you, not you to the shops. On the front of
our hotel veranda, were spread out the treasures of
India — boxes of sandal-wood, ivory, shell, teak,
carved and lacquered — work in wool, in muslin, in
silver and gold, embroideries, etc. ; but the Indian is
no match, now, as a manufacturer, with the Chinese
or Japanese, while the European has stolen almost
all his arts from him — all, perhaps, except the Cash
mere and Indian shawls. The Indian embroiders
yet cheaply, on European fabrics, more cheaply than
the European can, and, hence, commands a market
for some of his fabrics. The wealth of shawls here,
however, rather startles the European or American,
even one accustomed to the high prices of New Tork
or Paris, There was one pair of shawls noted, for
which the Indian dealer wanted 6,000 rupees, each

332 -A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
— that is, $2,500, They were very long, very, very
fine, but would not quite go through a finger-ring, as,
some say, some ofthe very finest will. Prices ofthe
good cashmere vary from $150 to $500 and $1,000 ;
but few, or none, of the latter are sold, except to
royalty. Months and months of labor are spent upon
some of these cashmeres, more than upon the laces
of Belgium ; and the work upon them is immense.
The " wool " of which they are made is the under
wool, or hair, of the goat, as of the under hair of the
seal, and of the very finest quality, Moore, the poet,
has given the world his fancy views of the vale of
Cashmere ; but his fancy is very near the fact in his
poetic description of that beautiful region, which is
not yet British, though under the infiuence and sway-
of Britons, There are many things to see in Bombay, but aU
cannot now be seen, Hvely as I have been, I went
to the evening drive on Malabar HiU, but, in dash
and crash here, there is no comparison vdth the Cal
cutta fashionable drive. The red and yeUow of the
turbans, and of the liveries, arrest one's attention.
Sometimes it would seem as if all the scarlet in the
country was afloat in Bombay. There are feUows,
with golden turbans, swelling out a foot, almost, on
either side the head — ^but bare-legged, and bare
footed, with all that. Bare legs is a part of the fash
ionable livery of India. We see on this drive rich
Parsees, out with their equipages; and some rich
Hindoos, too. There is a Parsee theatre here, in

SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAY. 333
Bombay, but it is too hot to shut one's-self up in hot
walls, these hot nights. The Hindoos have not yet
reached theatrical refinements; but their festivals,
and show festivals, too, are innumerable. There is a
dreadful sight, at times, here in Bombay, even to an
old traveUer like myself, who has reached the nil
ad/mirari of Horace almost to perfection — and that
is, a Parsee funeral — a Parsee — interment ? No ! — a
burial ? No ! — a Hindoo incremation, burning up
of the body? No! But — I do not know what to
caU it, and hence, must describe it, Parsees die, of
course, and are never buried, like Christians, or Mo
hammedans, or burnt like the Hindoos, but taken to a
high tower, on Malabar Hill, soon after death, and
there, naked, on an open grate, left to be eaten up
by the vultures ; and their bones, when the flesh is
gone, drop through the grate into a vault below!
The vnltures have learned to snuff a Parsee funeral
in the distance, and hover over it, and croak about
it ; and no sooner is the corpse left on the grating,
than they enter upon the scramble for the flesh that
is on it! They tell me — I don't vouch for this,
though — ^that at times, in the fashionable quarters
of Malabar Hill, on a veranda, is dropped a stray
finger, or toe, that the vulture has found rather in
digestible. The Bombayans don't seem to think
much of all this. It strikes me as the strangest,
most startling of things I have yet to record in
all my ramblings.
Long ago have I given up seeing heathen temples.

334 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
One wearies, after a while, in Europe, even, of cathe
drals, to say nothing of churches ; but in the East I
have seen here so many gods (they make them, by
the way, in Manchester, now, for export to India),
that I had resolved never again to enter Buddhist or
Hindoo temple. But, on an island about six miles
from Bombay, is one which has so great a name —
that is, is so famous — ^that I went Adth a pleasant
party in a sail-boat, to have a luncheon in it, and a
good time generally. The temple is caUed the Cave
Temple of Elephanta. .The Hindoos picked out a
romantic island for their great temple, and in a soUd
rock, under two hiUs, cut out a temple — Adth what
instruments, who knows? — and how long ago, who
can tell ? The work is a wonder, almost as much of a
wonder as the Pyramids, and more than the Sphynx.
We go up to it from the water about half a mile on
stone steps, a stone-ascending pavement, the avenue
walled with stone on both sides. Two ponderous
pUlars and two pilasters, forming three openings
under a steep rock, overhung by brushwood, first
meet one's eyes. The great temple is one hundred
and thirty-three feet broad, one hundred and thirty
and a half feet long, and twenty feet high, the roof
being supported by ranges of massive piUars, with
ornamental capitals of varied designs, all hewn out
of the solid rock. Opposite the entrance is a gigan
tic bust with three heads, supposed to represent the
Hindoo Trinity. There are two smaller temples, one
on each side of the principal one. There are now no

SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAT. 335
priests in this temple, no worship. It is given up
to Bombay pic-nic parties, and visitors eat, drink,
and make merry in it. We planted our table in the
opening, Adth a lake-Uke view of the water before us,
that reminded me of West Point ; and the feast the
coolies brought doAvn to us from the city, we enjoyed
with a zest, in the cool air of the temple cave, with an
appetite inspired by the little boat voyage. If any
reader of mine should ever go there, let him remem
ber he must mount on coolies' backs, to be carried to
and from his boat, so ¦shallow are the waters on the
shore, I would like to teU you of the purposes of
two of the altars in this temple, but I can only teU
verbally, never on paper.
Were you ever invited out to dinner, accepting
the invitation, and not knovdng where to go, and not
knoAdng enough of Hindostanee to ask anybody?
Well, that was my condition the day of the pic-nic
— dinner, 8^- p. m., place three miles off — and how
was I to get there ? Pantomime did the job. Fin
gers are about as good to talk with as tongues, if you
have only one word to work on, and that, I had — ex
cellent Hindostanee. The Tower of Babel — ^plague
on it — ^has been the cause of more trouble than any
thing in this world, except Mother Eve's defalcation,
I pomtommbed into my dinner party at 9 p, m. — a
hungry, half-angry, but very poUte company await
ing, Europeans live here, as in China and Japan,
Uke princes. If they don't soon check their extrava
gance, the cheaper-living Germans, and the cheaper-

336 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
yet Parsees and Chinese, will root them out of the
trade of the country. To go to a dinner-party, in
woollens — in a fashionable bob-tailed woollen coat,
Adth a well-lined vest and pantaloons, made for the
winter in New Tork, the thermometer there often in
the neighborhood of zero — is not exactly comfortable
in Bombay, where the thermometer wanders in the
nineties ; but such is the dictum of Fashion in Cal
cutta and Bombay; — and in wooUen, and white
choker, you have to stand it, if you AdU dine out
with other people. They do say, but I did not see
it, that in pity the master of the feast sometimes
offers you a linen jacket in exchange for your woollen
coat, which said jacket, by previous arrangement,
you bring from home with you ; but this was not our
case, as we ate, drank, and made meny only in the
woollens — calmed, however, if not cooled, by the
blessed punkah.
But I am off this evening to Aden, Suez, .Alexan
dria, Brindisi — ^twenty-one days, though, yet from
London, in one continuous, everlasting steamer mo
tion. I donH want to go home, and I do want to go
home ; and in this verbal, there is no mental, contradic
tion. The more a traveller goes, the more he pants to
go. My mouth is watering for a nice Httle run on the
Persian Gulf, in a steamer, from Bombay to Bussora,
and thence, by steamer, on to Bagdad, in Persia,
where close by, I could see what is left of Babylon
and Nineveh, and go then up the Euphrates, to Alep
po and Alexandretta, on the Mediterranean, where

SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAT. . 337

the French steamers touch. If I were a free man, I
would go home that way.
DISTANCES. MILES.
Bombay to Bussora (by steam)  1,915
Bussora to Bagdad (by steam)  BOO
Bagdad to Alexandretta  900
— on which latter route there is steam on the Eu
phrates to Mescany, which is fifteen hours' ride from
Aleppo, and Aleppo is eighty-four miles from Alex
andretta. Before I leave Bombay, however, let me add on
more statistics.
The census of Bombay, in 1864, showed the fol
lowing population :
Hindoos  585,968
Mohammedans  146,800
Parsees  49,201
Europeans  8,415
Jews  2,872
AIL otter races  24,226
Exports tbe last year from Bombay  $126,454,000
Imports  81,729,000
These exports are increasing, in consequence of
Bombay's being made the railroad, as well as steam
boat centre. Cotton is the chief article, and our
prices current of that article in America are daily
telegraphed here. There are thirteen Hnes of steam
ers connected with this port — four from Europe, the
great P. & O, (English), once a week ; the Austrian
Lloyds, from Trieste ; the Italian, from Venice ; and
the Messagerie, from Marseilles — the three last run-

338 • ¦*¦ SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
ning through the Suez Canal, where the P, & O.
(English) will soon have to go, or else lose most of the
freight and passenger trade.
There have been four hundred miUion dollars ex
pended upon the India railroads, now over five thou
sand miles in extent, and increasing. They reach
the Indus now, and are soon going up to Cashmere
and Caubul,
The currency of India is excellent. The banks
are now in high credit, and their notes circulate all
over the land at par, being receivable for Govern
ment dues. The rupee (fifty cents) is the sUver coin.
There is a gold coin, but it is hoarded as soon as
issued. Doubtless, you will smUe when you read these
letters from India, naturally enough wondering how,
in a single week in India, I could pick up so much
material, all the while being, as I have been, on the
wing. When a traveller reads every thing he can lay
his hands on in a country, and is surrounded by in
telligent men who can answer aU his questions, he
learns a great deal in a very little while. I have
been thinking, since I came here, that one might stay
at home, and thus travel, with photographic views
only of the countries he would visit ; but the difii-
culty there is the geography. One can get the geog
raphy of a country in his head only by running into
it, or over it. This I have done in India ; and hence,
have gathered up so much in so Httle time. The
world is too big, and life is too short, to go and stay

SIGHTS IN AND ABOUT BOMBAT. 339
everywhere. Skim, fiy, read, study, hear, question,
keep eyes and ears aUwide open, and, with the geog
raphy of a country well in your head, you can un
derstand its commerce, and trade, and Hfe, pretty
weU afterward.

LETTEE XXXYI.
ON TEE ARABIAN AND RED SEAS.
Lascars, Africans, Chinese, Portuguese, and Englishmen, managing a Steamer. —
The Infernal Sun of India, — ^The Eeservoir of Surplus Bngiishmen. — How India
ejdiausts European life. — ^The British Soldier^s Luxurious Life in Peace. — The
Native Troops of India. — The Grip of England upon India, — ^Effect of Christian
ity upon Hindoos and Mohammedans, — The Hindoo Pantheon and 333,000,000
Gods. — The Brahmin Castes. — Bankers below Barbers, — ^Arabs and their Ocean
Craft,-;-Eailroad from London to Bombay,— Time, Five Days, — ^England encore,
toujours, forever and ever. — ^The Ked-Hot Eed Sea. — ^This Unfimshed Part of -
the Earth, — ^Aden the Fag End of Creation, — The Divers of Aden. — StringB
of Camels Led by their Noses. — The Proper Time to Travel in the East — ^Fares
and Distances. On the Aeabian Sea, November 1, 1811.
I AM on board the steamer Sumatra, bound to
Aden (1,664 miles from Bombay), and to Suez (1,308
from Aden, distance in all, 2,972 miles). I have two
weeks (the time of the voyage) to read, Avrite, and
think in. The steamer is one of the first-class of the
P. & O. line, and nearly all the passengers we have,
about thirty, are used-up Englishmen, on their way
home to recruit, or, EngUsh women, faded in India,
and white and pale, and going home to get red and
rosy again, with some dozen childi'en, the palest,
sickliest, puniest little dpU babies, that Indian nurses,
men nurses as well as women nurses, ever had to care
for. There are about one hundred and thfrty in all
of the crew ; Lascars for sailors (it takes three of
them, at least, to do one Englishman's Avork), negroes,

ON THE ARABIAN AND RED SEAS. 34I
from the coast of Africa as firemen, red-hot black
feUows, who, born under Africa's fiery sun, now
stand England's red-hot coal, even down in the third
story of a ship, where no air ever gets, except through
the windsail ; Portuguese (mixed breeds) for servants
in the cabin ; Chinamen for carpenters and other
like smart work ; and a few Europeans, for brains,
as captain, quartermaster, engineers, clerks, doctor,
etc., etc. Take us all in all, we are a very motley
set ; and considering that the most of us have been
fried out during the summer, in India, or Ceylon, or
China, the wonder is, that there is stamina enough in
any of us to eat and to drink ; but there is, for all,
save the pale, washed-out ladies, do duty regularly
at table three times per day, if not four, or more.
The sea is as smooth as a lake — this is not the raging
monsoon season — and we make our 230, 240, 250, or
260 miles per day, without trouble, but able to do
more, if consistent with the time regulations of the
company, that has so to manage as to bring in a
China steamer at the same time with a Bombay, and
AustraUan steamer, too,, and to meet those coming
from Southampton (Eng.), and Brindisi (Italy), to
Alexandria. But, though we eat and drink freely,
there is scarcely life enough left in the passengers to
talk. All are as solemn as owls. The starch is out
of most of us. There is no singing, dancing, and
making merry, as among the Galle-Calcutta passen
gers, fresh from England — ^while now, the chatter is
of the infernal sun of India, the fevers, the jungles.

342 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
the bungalows (houses), only kept cool by the pun
kahs, and with grass doors, ever kept wet by a con
stant throw of water on them from the cooHes, What
a Hfe Englishmen thus lead in India, for gold, or
glory, or what is more likely, from inability to live
at home, and, therefore, under the necessity of earn
ing a livelihood abroad !
India now, I see, is what our great West is — the
reservoir of the surplus life of the old country. What
England would do, but for this reservoir, into which
to empty its gentry, I cannot weU see. Perhaps
EngUshmen revolutionize, as the French do, for the
want of some such reservoir to empty their surplus
life into, India is England's great office placer,
where, mine the educated youth of England, who can
find nothing to do at home (save work, and that is
not fashionable there) ; or, where are banished officers
of the army (legion in number), in command of the
native troops of India. India rescues England from
the proud and educated, the idle, but not hard-work
ing. Englishmen. Much of the best blood of Eng
land is in India, no more idle, though, than it is at
home ; for, when it finds no vent in wars, it hunts
tigers, or leopards, or panthers, or deer, or any thing,
even elephants, that the jungles hide. It is no sine
cure, certainly, to command in a country where you
have to use punkahs and grass-covered doors, ever wet
with water, to be able to live at all. Nevertheless,
life is so judiciously economized in India by the
government, that the European lives, and recovers.

ON THE AEABIAN AND EED SEAS. 343
often, even from a lost liver. When sickness, or
threatened sickness, assails him, he is sent home.
Even when well, he is aUowed to go to England every
five or six years, and to stay a j'ear to recruit in.
The laws of health have been so well studied, that
when illness threatens in the plains, the highlands are
resorted to, and every thing that can be done in dress,
barracks, and provisions, for the British soldier, to
save his life, is here done. In person, all he has to
do is to drUl in early morning, or at sunset in the
evening. Coolies wait upon him. All his cooking
is done by others, and baths are provided for him.
The sanitary regulations are now the best human'in-
genuity can devise to save life, and they are generally
successful. All British officers acknowledge that England has
a very frail hold on India, and that it could not hold
it a day without an army over 200,000 strong. Never
theless, its grip is greater and closer now than ever
before. To say nothing of the reaction in favor of
British power since it quelled the terrible mutiny, its
railroad and telegraph systems are worth to it 100,-
000 soldiers, or more. There is no confidence be
tween EngHshmen, and Hindoos, and Mohammedans.
There is no bond of unity in any way, except that of
force. The races are in all respects repugnant, the
one to the other. To increase its security, the Gov
ernment makes up the native regiments about one-
half from Hindoos, and the other Mohammedans ;
and it relies more upon the Sikh soldier for protection

344 A SEVEN JIONTHS' EUN.
than upon any other — the Sikh from the up-country,
who has great contempt for the men of the plains —
the Sikh, who, in the last mutiny, stood faithful, when
every thing else was dropping away. Education is
doing something to soften the mistrust of race ; but
Christian missions, as yet, seem to be doing little or
nothing. Education, however, at first, only makes
Deists of Hindoos and Mohammedans, It takes away
from them all respect for their owa customs, whUe it
cannot sever them from the associations of their
brethren and kindred. They lose their respect for
the Koran and the Vedas, and yet they have no more
respect for the Bible, But, doubtless, this is a process
through which the heathen mind has to go, before it
can comprehend the sublime truths of Christianity,
According to the best authorities, the Hindoo Pan
theon is peopled by precisely 333,000,000 gods — and
such a lot of divinities, of course, are not. to be got rid
of in a hurry ! Then, the castes are not to be broken
down without tremendous social struggles. The
Brahmins, even, count 2,000 separate, distioct families
of their order alone ! Then, the abominable castes
in some parts of India — ^that is, the outcasts — out
number these Brahmins in the proportion of three to
one, exclusive of the other impure and very low
tribes ! Bankers in Bengal rank below barbers !
But I shaU not write a book on castes. Nor shaU I
dwell more upon the Indian, as contrasted with the
European — for what can I know in my fiight over,
and through the land ? All I can give is impressions ;

ON THE ARABIAN AND EED SEAS. 345
and one of the most vivid of my impressions is, that
the Indian is far inferior to the Chinese or the Japan
ese, in almost every quality that goes to make up the
man. This Arabian Sea I am coasting along has all
sorts of a history, from the days when Alexander's
fleet was off the Persian Gulf, to the victorious eras
of the Arabs, who led the way to the coast of Malabar.
But the Arab fleets do not amount to much now.
They do bring doAvn coffee from Mocha, and little
things from Muscat; but their ocean craft cannot
have improved much for a thousand years. Despite
the EngUsh gunboats, they keep up the slave trade
from Zanguebar, and run the gauntlet to Turkish
ports, here and there, in order to find a market for
the chattel. It is not creditable to the spirit and spunk
of the African — is it ? — ^that even the Indian and the
Arab can kidnap and sell him ? But let us not under
value this Arab, as once, if not now, he was a mighty
man, not only of the East, but of parts of the West ;
for he gave us our algebra, our numerals, and other
arts and sciences too numerous to number here.
Just now, the Turk has got him under foot ; but he
is fighting in Arabia this very day, as I go by, to re
cover his lost prestige, and Turkish fleets and Turkish
armies float all about here, in order to keep the Arab
down, - ShaU we always have to go to Aden, and roast in
the Eed Sea, in order to get to, or from Europe %
No ! A raUroad, to run from London to Bombay in
16

346 -^ SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
five days, is earnestly talked of even now, to do away
with the twenty-one days by sea; and some such
rail, within twenty years, will be laid, the way the
world hurries on. That road will run through Con
stantinople to Bombay — in the VaUey of the Tigris,
by the ruins of Nineveh, and where once were Seleu-
cia, Ctesiphon, Ophir, etc. All sorts of plans, how
ever, are now laid out to connect India by raU with
Europe. The Eussians have their plan, as well as
the English ; but the English, since the opening of
the Suez Canal to commerce, ought, as a measure of
power, if not of speed, to be pretty well content Adth
the waters that, in a month or less, AviU float a Brit
ish steamer from Southampton to Bombay.

Aden, Nomemher 12.
Encore, Anglais ! Toujours, Anglais ! England
forever, and ever, and ever ! There, is the British
fiag once more on top of these volcanic crags of
Aden ! There, is a British (white) regiment, and
there, is another, coffee-colored, regiment ; and there,
is a battalion of British artillery, a fort, etc., etc. Is
there no end of England ? There, is a British steam
engine, condensing ocean salt water for these poor,
exiled soldiers to drink, and there, is a British steam-
machine, making ice to cool off the Avretches, whom
the volcanic sun is roasting, A few hours' steam be
yond this is the little (British) Island of Perim, in
the mouth of the Straits of Babelmandel, seized by

ON THE AEABIAN AND EED SEAS. 347
the English, and covered with British guns, to com
mand the entrance to, and exit from the Eed Sea.
Aden, and this whole country round about here, cer
tainly, as we read in Bible history, were among the
fii'st places the Lord made on earth — if not Aden, the
Eed Sea, and Mount Sinai — and all bear marks, in
the dry rocks, on which the rain seldom or never
pours, and on the sandy deserts, of the very earliest
of the arts of world-making. Certain, it has never
been finished, never covered with grass, never adorned
with trees, but left, as laid out, for the sun to roast
and bake, with all who would venture to dwell there
on. Nevertheless, the British have made Aden
habitable. They have laid out excellent roads.
They have remade the ancient tanks, where once wa
ter was, but not a drop now. They have tempted
over the Somauli — ^bright sort of darkies, without
woolly heads — ^from the African coast, to work for
them, and they have tempted the Arabs from the in
terior to come in on their camels, and sell them no
tions of many kinds. One can now live in Aden.
One need not necessarily die during the year ; but
the officer of a life insurance company who should
issue a poUcy longer than that on a dweller in Aden,
ought to be dismissed for incompetency of judgment,
to say nothing more.
But Aden is the fag-end of creation — the jump
ing-off place of Ishmael, nevertheless. The popula
tion Hve (no Europeans among them, except the offi
cials), I should say, from my first introduction, by div-

348 -A- SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
ing — that is, by jumping into the water, and diving
down deep for the sixpences and the coppers travel
lers throw there to tempt them. Swarms of youngsters
hovered around our steamer, swam aU day, and
twenty, thirty, or forty would dive for a copper, if
you threw it into the water, some one always getting
it, or under the steamer, for a sixpence, coming out
safe and sound, under twenty feet of water. But all,
of course, do not Uve by diving. There are hosts of
coalers for the steamers passing by. There are four
steamers in the harbor to-day, all coaling. Then,
there are strings and strings of camels, with the nose
of one tied to the tail of another, stretching into
town and stretching out. The curiosity trade of this
place for strangers is ostrich feathers ; but this being
the Jews' Sabbath, who have the monopoly of the
business, few or none were offering, and the trade was
hard to drive — (cost, 150 to 200 cents, or less, for
first-rates, price demanded, $5 to §10), I rode out
three or four miles to the cantonments of the soldiers,
and to see the tanks, which ought to hold the water
that won't now run down from the mountains into
them. The tanks are a grand work ; and the can
tonments do credit to the care the British' take of
their soldiers.

The Eed Sea, November 16.
I am passing by where Mount Sinai, if not Mount
Horeb, ought to be seen among the high-towering

ON THE AEABIAN AND EED SEAS. 349
mounts upon my right. I have taken out Genesis,
and Exodus, and Leviticus, to read the whole story
of Pharaoh and his host, and of Moses, and the stiff-
necked Israelites, the forty years' wandering in the
not very big wilderness, and the promised land. The
Bedouin Arabs now have possession of all this land,
and it is unsafe to go upon it — so unsafe, that the
Egyptians and the British have built their light
houses for the Eed Sea on the opposite (African)
coast, not daring to trust the keepers to the tender
mercies of these Arabs, whose hands are yet against
every man. We have just passed Abyssinia, where,
a few years ago, a great British host, both from Eng
land and from India, were mustered to punish the king
for some disrespect to the British authorities ; and we
have passed Nubia, and Yeddah, where the Moham
medans land, by the thousands, from all parts of the
East, to make their pilgrimage to Mecca ; and we are
now off Egypt, in a cooler air, fuller of oxygen, Adth
some vitaUty in it, so that we can breathe with a will
once more.
All sorts of tales are told ofthe Eed Sea navigation,
some of which are true, among them, one — that at
times it is so hot here, passengers on board the ships
drop doAvn dead from heat, apoplexy, or |xhaustion.
Now and then it is so hot, that steamers running
doAvn the sea with the wind are obliged to change
their course, and go backward, to catch ^ome puffs
of air, both to preserve the lives of their firemen and
passengers. The hot air of the deserts — the simoon,

350 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
it may be — actuaUy melts people, when shut up in
this Eed Sea furnace. But, just now, as we are enter
ing the Gulf of Suez, the air from the north is ex
hilarating and charming. For the first time since I
have been in the East, save the few weeks I was in
or near Pekin and the Great Wall, I begin to breathe
an air such as I have been accustomed to in Europe
and at home. The sun, in this dry atmosphere, is no
longer man's terrible enemy. It is a dreadful thing
to feel, as one does all the whUe in India and China,
that the sun, which gives life and verdure to the
earth, is European man's greatest enemy — as fatal to
him, without pith-protecting hat, or thick umbrella,
as bullet or cannon-ball.
But I have taken the wrong season to travel in
the East. What an American ought to do, is to leave
San Francisco in August, see Japan a month or less,
and then, dodging Shanghai, make his way, in Sep
tember or October, to Pekin ; then, returning by the
way of Shanghai, see that place; then, coast off
China ; then, to Hong Kong and Canton ; thence saU
for Singapore and Calcutta, to reach there in Decem
ber, tarrying not over two months, and being sure that
he is out of India in February. The voyage, then, to
Egypt and the Holy Land will be pleasant in March,
and one has all Europe before him for the summer,
I nearly reversed this order of the months, because it
is only in the summer, just now, that I can travel, I
would not advise any other traveller to follow my
months and my coui-se here, in the East — for the sun

ON THE AEABIAN AND EED SEAS. 361
may send him to his long home, before he would
wish to go there.

Suez, November 18,
Before I part with the Eed Sea, as a guide to fu
ture travellers, I vdU add, the cost of fares from South
ampton (Eng.) to Shanghai (China), which has been
much reduced of late, in consequence of competition
with the French Messagerie line, the American (San
Francisco) line, and the Holt's line, which runs from
Liverpool through the Suez Canal without change of
steamer. These rates do not include wines, or the
£3 railroad fare over the Egyptian road, from Suez to
Alexandria (224 miles' run, at night, in 10 hours).
Bates of Pasaagfi from Brindisi (Italy) to Southampton (Eng.)
to—

Aden  £40
Bombay  60
Oeylon  60
Calcutta  65
Singapore  75

Batavia  £85
Hong Kong  85
Shanghai  95
Yokohama  95
Melbourne & Sidney  80

The fare from Brindisi to London, by rail, is
about 306 francs.
The distances are, from Brindisi to— Miles.
Alexandria  825
Suez  224
Aden  1,308
Bombay . ;  1,664
4,021

352

A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.

Miles.
From Bombay to Galle (Oeylon)  911
" " Penang  2,124
'' " Singapore  2,505
" " Hong Kong  3,943
" " Shanghai  4,812
" " Yokohama  6,432
Passengers on the P. & O. Hne can stop as they
please, or go, via Madras, Calcutta, and overland by
rail, to Bombay, paying their own rail and hotel ex
penses.

LETTEE XXXVII.
SUDDEN FLIGET FEOM ASIA AND AFRICA INTO
EUROPE.
Among the Alps.— The Isthmus of Suez.— Suez Canal.— Will it pay f— Egypt and
Alexandria. — Confederate Officers in the Pasha'S' Army. — Horrid (Enghsh) Eail
road Cars. — Boreas and the Egyptian Sands.— Across the Mediterranean to
Brindisi. — Things in Brindisi and Turin, — How cold it is,— Mt. Cenis and the
Great Tunnel. — Glorious Scenery. Turin (Italy), November 23, 18Y1.
Anothee Hegira, Mohammed, the inventor of
Hegiras, didn't fly so fast as I have been flying some
time back, I was roasting in Suez, on the Eed Sea,
on the 18th, at night, and now I am freezing here, in
the Alps, among snow and snow-storms. I have been
hot SO long, roasted so often, in China, Ceylon, and
India, and the tropics, that I had forgotten there
was need of thick clothing ; and here I am stopping
to buy wool and woollens, and furs, and comforters,
to keep even tolerably warm. The hiUs are all white
with snow. Muffs, boas, etc., protect the women
from the blasts, and the men, wrapped *up in furs,
chatter their teeth, and shiver and shake. What a
sudden change from the gauzes and linens of India,
and the Arabian and Eed Seas !
Well — ^but hew did you get here so quick ? What

354 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN,
did you see ? I shot through Egypt in a night (my
excuse is, that I had seen the Pyramids and the Nile
before). A whole day was given us at Suez, to see
tlie Suez Canal, and to see, if we could see, where
Moses led the Israelites over that Eed Sea, and where
Pharaoh and his chariots and his hosts went under.
Now that I have seen the borders of the desert,
where for forty years the IsraeUtes wandered, I mar
vel no more, as I once did, that they looked upon the
rocks of Jerusalem and its surroundings as the
promised land — for rocks and crags, even, are pref
erable to interminable sands. No wonder the Israel
ites were happy when they got into grass and vege
tables, and had something better to eat than sands
and manna. What, however, more interests the
Present than even the Biblical history, is the better
turn, the moderns have made of the Eed Sea waters
in the great Suez Canal, There were five steamers
coming through the day we were there. The canal
is a perfect success for the commerce of Europe and
Asia, and the world owes a great debt to M, Lesseps
for forcing it through, despite all English ministerial
opposition. It hardly pays, however, and probably
never will pay, until it passes into EngUsh hands,
which, sooner or later, wiU have a majority of the
stock, and then, at low prices, make that stock prof
itable, Alexandria is a great city for commerce now, but
the canal is already making a hole in its trade, and
will soon make a greater hole. Yessels of all nations,

SUDDEN FLIGHT INTO EUEOPE, 355
but ours, are now in its port. We are minus almost
everywhere, I am sorry to say. Our American Con
federate officers are numerous, I am told, in the
Pasha's army, and are making good artillerists and
soldiers of the Egyptians ; but American vessels on
the Mediterranean, this part of it, at least, are scarce,
very scarce. We got out of the railroad cars early
in the morning, miserable and worn. The English
compartment car is here, and a miserable thing it is,
in a night- ride, for India-worn travellers. Such a
sorry, forlorn set of us, as turned up in the ferry-boat
in the morning, from all parts of Asia and AustraUa
(two steamers, pretty full, had disembarked their
passengers at Suez, and met here) — ^the lame, the
halt, the blind, some on litters, others in arms — the
travelling world seldom sees. There are no sleeping-
cars. We had to sit bolt upright, aU night, and
study Egyptian astrology, as we peeped through the
windows, or lamp-ology, if we looked at the lamp
streaming in our eyes. One set of the miserables
departed forthwith for Southampton, direct ; another
set, I among them, for the old Eoman port of Brun
dusium, once the great exit of the Caesars, for Greece
and the East. A sand wind blew from the coast, and
littered every thing on deck with atoms of sand. I
was glad to be out of Alexandria that day, therefore,
as fast as steam could carry us.
Our steamer was the Candia, a Avretched concern,
ever so old, and half a century behind the age ; but
it was commanded by a handsome fellow, a little

356 -A- SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
over sixty, whom the English call " Gentleman
George." I thought he was the Lord High Admiral
of all the East, the first squint I had of him. The
P. & O. line of steamers have, almost everywhere,
superb officers, first-rate sailors, as well as weU-bred
men ; but such " a swell " as Gentleman George of
the Candia, I never met before. It is a mistake,
though, to waste so much talent upon the sea. He
ought to be the Lord High Chamberlain at St. James's
or Windsor Castle, We should have been in Brin
disi in about seventy hours from Alexandria, but we
brought it, in seventy-five hours — ^for, though Boreas
blew dead against us, om* Gentleman George counter
acted him by blowing on board. We lost om* way at
night, and, in the morning, got in only by tracking
the colored water on the coast ; but I never felt any
alarm, nay, should not have felt any, if Yulcan had
given out in steam, or Boreas in wind — ^for there were
enough of both in Gentleman George to drive any
ship ahead.
Brindisi, that Horace and many other classics
wrote of, more or less, died when Eome died, but is
reviving fast, now, as the shortest raUroad terminus
to Egypt and the East. We stopped there two or
three hours, full long enough to see aU now worth
seeing in Brindisi, unless one is an antiquarian, or
archseologist, or a student of classical lore. The tel
egraph runs from here aU over the world ; and the
railroads all over the European part of it. The port
is re-made, aud a very good port it is, now, Adth

SUDDEN FLIGHT INTO EUEOPE. 357
water enough for any ship that comes along. We
left at noon on the 22d, and were in Turin at 10
A. M., on the 23d — distance, about 575 miles, but that
is the time. Bologna and several other famous places
Avere passed in the night ; but nothing tempts me to
stop now. My head is full of sights, and all I crave
is to see no more — which only proves what I have
written before, that three months' continuous travel
and sight-seeing is about as much as the human mind
can stand, on one stretch, after which all is labor,
labor. In Turin there is a good deal to see, if one is not
travel-blinded, as I am now. Its shops are pretty.
There are many beautiful buildings. Its streets are
aU in fine order. The hotels are many, and all seem
excellent. The King of Italy no longer lives here,
and the Court is gone ; but Turin is worth a tourist's
day, and the bazaars are very tempting. All I want,
or crave, however, is to be warm, warm. I begin to.
vdsh I was back in Bombay or Calcutta. The snow,
that at first looked so bcAdtching on the Appenines
and the Adriatic Sea, as we fiew along the railroad
track, amid miles and miles of olive plantations, is
no more bewitching now. An icicle, which four
or five days ago I would have given at least a rupee
to look at, is a hateful sight to-day.
Don't talk to me of Italy, any part of it, as a re
treat to spend the winter in, I have tried aU parts
of it, in winter — ^half-frozen in all. I am pencilling
now with an overcoat on, and a woollen glove on the

358 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
unwriting hand, to keep it warm, while a costly
wood-fire, bought by the pound, is blazing before me
— all the heat going up chimney, though. Don't
talk to me of Pisa, where once doctors sent consump
tive victims, to be sure to die ; or, of Florence, or
Eome, or Naples, The sun is hot enough, when, at
noonday, you are in it ; but indoors, on marble or
wooden floors, or even on carpeted floors, you shake
and shiver, and your teeth chatter, and you long for
the coal fires of home. The only place in Europe to
spend a winter in is St. Petersburg, or, possibly,
England, where the fires are good, and the comforts
are great ; or, to use a solecism, in Cairo, in Africa,
There is not a winter's comfort for an American,
or an Englishman, in winter, south of the British
Channel,

Mt, Cenis, ok the Great Alpine 1
Tunnel, November 24, J
But, there is something new to see, travel-blinded
as I am, and that is this tunnel, and the approach to
it on the Italian side. Wonderful work ! I crossed,
and re-crossed, Mt. Cenis and other Alps, years ago,
on foot, with a pack on my back; but then there was
no pleasure like this, now, amid snow, and ice, and
glaciers, little, if not big. Two or thi-ee locomotives
are taking us up the ascent, and we seem to be trans
ferred from the plains of Italy to Alpine cottages, aa
if on wings. The sun is illuminating every moun-

SUDDEN FLIGHT INTO EUEOPE, 359
tain crag, and the ice is reflecting, and respreading,
his rays. We are all in a high state of«excitement as
we enter the tunnel, which is eight miles long, and
which we are to be twenty-five minutes in passing.
The cars are lit by gas, and well heated with long
hot-water metal foot-warmers. The thermometer
must be in the neighborhood of zero. In France.
Wonderful work, indeed! We are now on the
French side, and the sun is hid, and there is but little
to see, save mist and snow. The gas-light of our
car-compartment was jostled out by some jerking
motion of the car, and we were left in total darkness
in the heart of the Mount. Then it was that a
Frenchman's economy and love of smoking turned
to use for us all. Out of his carpet-bag came the
reUcs of his candle, that he had paid a franc for, the
night before, in his Italian hotel (the Frenchmen
always carry their candle bits away; we, less pru
dent, leave them behind) — and out of his cigar
match-box came his match, and with the two we
soon replaced the lost gas-light, and re-lit the gas.
The Indies and the East are made a day nearer
by the opening of this Mt. Cenis tunnel, and Italy
and France are brought close together. The British
India mail is now going this way, instead of going
through Germany.
The soft, soothing tongue of Italy is heard no
more, and we are hearing the short, sharp, curt sylla-

360 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
bles of the French. The nuisance of passports be
gins here — here, in this now EepubUcan France —
while Italy, a monarchy, is freed from them, I have
passed through all Asia, and a part of Africa, and
never heard of a passport ; but here the French of
ficials huddle us up in a coop and demand one; I
happened to have one, describing me years and years
ago, which is no more a description of me now, than
Senex would be of Juventus ; but what matters ? It
is in EngHsh, and the French officials cannot read a
line of it. There were venerable French visas enough
on it to suit either the Eepublic or the Empire — for
I was in France when there was a commotion once
before. There were some Australians vdth us, on
their way to England, who, like us, had not stopped
long enough any where, since they left Melbourne, to
have a passport made out; but we coaxed them
through, and the French officials were yielding, and
very polite — as grave as owls, however, in warning
them never thus to venture through France agkin
without the inevitable passport. My American
vouching for them, I think, had more infiuence Adth
the officials than the half-dozen Englishmen who
were helping them along; for the French officials
must have felt sure an American was not conspiring
for the re-instalment of the empire, whatever mo
narchical Englishman might be thinking of doing.
You wUl hear from me next in Paris, where I am
bound for a rest, and a refit, and for repairs in gen
eral, after this long and hasty fiight.

LETTEE XXXYIII.
TEINGS IN PARIS AND LONDON.
Things in Paris and in London, — Shopping in both Cities. — Paris sad just now, —
An American almost Home in England, — Liverpool, — Eough Eocking on the
Atlantic, — ^Put into Ne-wfoundland for Coal. — St, John's. — Fishermen there, —
Home again. Sweet Home, etc. Paris, December 10, 1811.
Feom the great capitals of Yedo, Pekin, and the
great cities of Canton, Calcutta, and Bombay, com
ing as rapidly as I have, it seems like a dream to be
here, in what deems itself the very focus of civiliza
tion, and in what is (or has been), in many respects,
the most attractive city of the world. But, of Paris
I can scribble nothing new, unless I tell you, I am
here repairing, refitting, just as you repair and refit a
hulk that has been knocking around the world, and
has lost much of its rigging. One's wardrobe melts
away in the heats of the tropics, and I am scraping
up the relics of my India-rubber overcoat and ga-
loches, that have melted under the heats of Singapore
and Penang. I find my woollens well spotted and
inclined to be rotten. More experienced travellers
take this voyage of mine in tin trunks, whereas I
have used only my American coverings. Gloves look

362 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
like leopard skins, Eazors are so rusty that they re
mind one of shaving in the Barber of SevUle. My
companion in travel has but little left, save shreds ;
and hence, before we can reappear in civiUzation, we
must refit for it.
Paris is the greatest place for shopping on earth.
If any member of Congress had half the eloquence
of a Parisian shopwoman, his fame would be made
as the greatest orator of the age. I have read Iso-
crates, studied Quintilian in days gone by, read
and re-read Cicero de Oratore / but I never have so
realized Demosthenes's idea of eloquence — action,
ACTION, as in the action of these Parisian shopwomen.
The dear creatures — if they only wore trousers, and
would come over to the United States — ^not a man
could stand up against them in stump-speaking.
But, oh, how they wiU fib ! What marveUous tales
they will tell ! and how they will swear to them —
and you could not help believing them all, if you
had not been standing such batteries of eloquent ac
tion, a long lifetime. The East India shopkeepers are
eloquent, and the Chinese have but little regard for
truth; but the French shopwoman will fib with
such grace and gentleness, that she insinuates herself
into your pocket, despite your head, while aU is done
with such dignified suavity, that you could not con
tradict, if you would. If you order a garment to be
made, you have not the least certainty that it will be
done within a week after the day promised. You
make all your arrangements to depart on a certain

THINGS IN PAEIS AND LONDON. 363
day, bid adieu to your banker, and settle up accounts
with him, but the promised articles do not begin to
appear. In rage you rush to the shop to scold. . . .
"Madam, yon solemnly promised me to have it ready on
Saturday." " O'est vrai, monsieur, and it shall be ready on Saturday."
"And why is it not ready ? "
"Ah, monsieur, you did not say this Saturday; if you had,
it should have been all ready. But you said ' Saturday week.' "
The dodge was irresistible. I gave up in despair,
happy to have a fresh promise that it would be done
the Wednesday before " the Saturday week."
I lectured another breaker of promises. There
was no dodging the point I made with her ; and I
ended with saying :
" I am vrUling to stay in Paris all winter, madame, waiting
for your things, if you Adll only pay my hotel bills."
Madame (in reply) — " I should be too happy to do that, and
thus have the pleasure of seeing you every day."
What could be done with such French politeness
as that ? I gave up, and pay my own hotel bills, of
course. ANOTHEE SOBNE.
Monsieur (speaking) — " And they are not ready? " (with a
sigh, and the most plaintive look of appeal).
Madame — "IvTo, monsieur. Such a taille; such a figure
(throwing up both hands in most eloquent enthusiasm). We
are creating the most ravishing robe that ever went from our
fingers, and we have put our best artists upon it — and do give
us time. Yon would not hurry up a Baphael, or a Guido,
would you? And we shall do something worthy of them ! "
The humbug was irresistible. The only way to
be sure of any thing in Paris, in a given time, is to

364 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
get part of it, and then threaten to go off Adth that
part unpaid for, and a promise to pay for the rest
when it is all sent, with express expenses paid, in ad
dition. This generally produces a result.
ANOTHBE BOBITE.
A plump and jovial Amerioan at the door — " Is the jacket
of my wife ready ? "
Madame (in reply) — " Ah, mon Dieu, monsieur, I cannot say.
I will inquire. It is a most beautiful jacket."
Passing by me in the room, into another room,
sotto voce, she says :
"I know it is not (with an indescribable shrug), but what fib
shall I tell him now, le malheureux/ "
The plump American, of course, did not get his
wife's jacket.
The fact is, a week or two is not wasted in Paris,
to hear the eloquence of French shopwomen. It is
more touching than that in the Assembly, now, at
Yersailles. And the art with which a French woman makes
you buy what you don't want, and pay her OAvn price
for it, is wonderful.
" It is ravishing," she exclaims. " It exactly fits yonr figure
and complexion." " It is the last great cJief d''<Buvre of — some
body." " I have sold just such a one to M.  , your country
man, whose taste, you know, is perfect," etc, etc.
But Paris is sad, sad enough, just now. There
are few or no strangers here. The shops have but
few, very few, customers. Paper money has made
the expenses of living almost as great as in the Unit-

THINGS IN PAEIS AND LONDON. 365
ed States ; and paper money is increasing in quantity,
and prices are rising. There is snow on the streets,
and the cabs with difficulty work their way through.
The Httle wood fii-es in the hotels but make one
shiver, and force upon one the contrasts of the red-
hot anthracite at home, (Mem. — Never spend a
winter in Paris, unless you can have a coal fire.)
There seems to be a new revolution impending, and
the feeling of it in the air affrights strangers off.
The hotels, therefore, are as empty as the shops, and
the Parisians all look blue.

London, December 20.
It is refreshing, after a voyage around the world,
to be again in an EngUsh-speaking country, and to
be able to comprehend all you see and hear. An
American exile from his own land for months, feels,
when here, with aU these English surroundings, as if
he were home again. And what a wonderful city
this is — ^these miUions in it — on so little an island as
Great Britain is ! No part of our Western country,
not even Chicago before its extinction by fire, has
grown faster than this London has, within the twenty-
five years past. The fields I saw here but a few
years ago are now streets, built with palatial houses.
No wonder, after all, as I see now, in coming around
the world, that London is the heart of the millions of
India, as well as the focus of Chinese commerce and
trade. This London stretches its arms now all over

366 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
the earth, and its ships and its capital are in every
port where a keel can float.
Think of a man's being thankful that he has not
seen the sun here for ten days, save through clouds
of coal-smoke and fog, that makes the sun, when
shining even, seem as if seen through a smoked glass.
I am thus thankful, now. The burning, blazing sun
of the East, that I have just escaped from, makes me
feel as if I never wished to see the full-orbed sun
again ; and hence, England in December is not to me
the miserable climate it would be to most Americans
just now.
The shops of London are the representative shops
of the whole earth, in which they differ from Paris,
or any other great capitals. The Japanese, the Chi
nese, the Indians, the Ceylonese, the Bomeans, the
Moors, the Arabs, the Africans, all have represen^-
tive shops in London, and there is no place now on
earth Hke London for shopping and shops. The
French modistes eclipse the EngHsh in the arts of
creating a beautiful woman, despite nature, too ; but
the English tailors now are among the first in the
world, unless there be exceptions in some of the New
York shops. The free trade of England has made
every thing here about as cheap as at the place of
production, save the necessary expenses of transpor
tation ; and hence, the wares of the whole earth can
be had almost as cheap as in the places of their crea
tion. Americans can learn a great many things in Lon-

THINGS IN PAEIS AND LONDON. 367
don ; but Englishmen, it seems to me just now, can
learn more in the United States. The English car-
travelling is yet almost barbaric ; but what is unfor
tunate, the EngHsh have modeUed the car-travelling
of the greater part of Europe. This is not felt so
much on the little isle, where distances are short, as
on the Continent, where distances are long, and where
our sleeping-cars would be real blessings to the trav
eller. The imprisonment of an English car is a
species of incarceration, that fevers and enrages an
American ; and no soft cushions or luxuries seem to
atone for it. The underground car-travelling in Lon
don, and the cab locomotion there, are far superior
to any thing we have in the United States. There
are no hotels in London to be compared with ours in
New York and elsewhere in the States ; and prices
are practically higher, with fewer luxuries, though the
expenses of hotel keeping in London must be far less
than in New York,

LiTEEPOOL, December 23.
Last evening, as I came doAvn from London, ex
hausted by the kind hospitalities of numerous friends
there, I dropped to sleep, and waking up, wondered
whether I was in, or had passed, Liverpool, or was
shot on to Manchester. There was no way of find
ing out whether I had overslept or not. The con
ductor could not be approached. There was no
neighbor in my compartment to inquire of. There

368 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN
was no one accessible to answer any question respect
ing any place, or any thing. The isolation, or incar
ceration, rather, was Hke solitary confinement — at
least for that part of one's life. When the locomotive
halted to coal or water, I popped my head out of the
car, screamed, to a neighbor in the car in the rear,
and learnt that Liverpool had not been reached, and
that the rail I was on, could not take me to Manches
ter, Think of what profitable travelling that must
be for a stranger in such soUtary confinement as this !
But we did go fast ! — ^full forty miles an hour, and
with ease and safety, too,
Christmas and New Yeae's on the rough winter
North Atlantic, with furious gales of wind ! Never
go westward in winter, if you can help it, for the
furies of Greenland will be poured out upon you.
We have had eleven days of continuous gales, gain
ing, one day, only forty miles upon the storm !

St. John's (Neweocndland), January 1, 1872.
The Algeria (our steamer), a sturdy, but not
rapid, Cunarder, has put in here for coal, Boreas
and Vulcan have had a terrible tuzzle for two weeks,
or more, on board the steamer, and Vulcan, exhaust
ed, knocks under, and makes for Newfoundland, to
recruit in fuel and steam.
One does not feel exactly comfortable in approach
ing a rock -bound coast, in the thickest sort of a fog,

THINGS IN PAEIS AND LONDON, 369
where the entrance to the harbor, as that of St.
John's, is hardly wider than the length of the steam
er. No lighthouse or beacon could be seen — noth
ing, indeed, save fog, fog, fog ; but by the help of
our guns, responded to by guns at the mouth of the
harbor, we felt our way safely in — anAfelt much bet
ter when we found coal enough for us in store from
the Nova Scotia mines.
The Saint, John, has his name affixed to many
places over the world, but to none other, I believe,
in so cold and inhospitable a climate as this. It is a
very religious place, too, judging by the throngs go
ing to church, and returning therefrom, in the furi
ous snow-storm to-day. The Catholic Church here,
as I judge by the numbers attending, is, numerically,
the most powerful. Immense crowds, morning, noon,
and afternoon, thronged into the capacious cathedral,
aU responding with feeling and fervor to the services
of the priest of that church. The most of the great
crowd — nearly all, well dressed — must have been
fishermen, as were the Apostles of old, for the odor
of fish rose above the odor of incense. The seal-oil
trade is great here, and much of it once went to the
United States, where it is now excluded by a high
tariff. The seals are now hunted by steamers, several
of which are now in the harbor, to start as the
spring opens, in order to chase down the seals on the
floating cakes of ice. Agriculture amounts to but
Httle, very Httle, in Newfoundland. The ocean is the
great placer to be Avorked for wealth. A wild story is
17

370 A SEVEN MONTHS' EUN.
now travelling here of a Labradorian mail-carrier,
who started from St, John's this winter, in his snow-
shoes, and whom the wolves devoured, on his way to
the interior, leaving nothing of him and his charge .
but his gun and a portion of the uneaten mail, while
several slain wolves were about, shot by the mail-car-
' rier before he was devoured.

New Yoek, January 12, 1872.
Once more at home! "Sweet home!" I feel
like re-singing the song of Catullus, when apostro
phizing his Peninsular home of Sirmio,
[Erom Catullus, Car. 28,]
O quid solutis est beatiua curis ?
Cum mens onus reponit ac peregrino
Lahore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum
Desideratoque acqniescimus lecto.
My own, my chosen home, oh, what more blest
Than that sweet pause of troubles when the mind
Flings off its burden, and when, long oppressed
By cares abroad and foreign toil, we find
Our native home again, and rest our head
Once more upon our long lost, long wished-for bed.

HOME FROM A FOREIGN SHORE.
arrival of HON, JAMES BKOOKS IN THE ALGERIA— A LONG VOYAOE, AND A
HEARTY WELCOME HOME,
[From t7ie New Tork World, Jarmary 13, 1872.]
A numerous party ofthe private and professional
friends of the Hon. James Brooks yesterday pro
ceeded down the bay to accord a welcome to that
gentleman on his arrival home after a long and peril
ous journey. It having been ascertained that Mr.
Brooks would arrive by the Cunard steamer Algeria,
the Henry Smith, Captain Baulsier, with the band
from Governor's Island on board, had on the previ
ous day gone in search of this long over-due vessel, but,
as she failed to put in an appearance before sun-down,
it had been arranged that the trip shoidd be repeated
early on the morrow. Accordingly, Colonel Ingalls
having again placed the Henry Smith at the disposal
of the reception committee, the welcoming party left
WhitehaU yesterday morning, at the rather unreason
able hour of 7 o'clock. The steamer was gaily deco
rated with flags, and on the pilot-house was displayed
a white banner, bearing the words : " The friends of
the Hon. James Brooks. Welcome ! " The military
band was again in attendance, and discoursed pleasant
music on the trip down. Arriving at the quarantine
pier at about 9 o'clock, it was found that a telegram

372 HOME FROM A FOEEIGN SHOEE.
had just been received from Sandy Hook, stating that
the Algeria had that moment crossed the bar. The
reception party, therefore, quickly pinned on their
badges of white silk, each of which bore the word
" welcome," and proceeded slowly doAvn the bay. On
reaching Fort Tompkins the long-expected steamer
was discovered in the distance, with her fore and
main top-mast housed. Steam was therefore shut off,
and the Henry Smith lay to, only waiting to run
alongside the Algeria directly that vessel would be
abreast the fort. Meanwhile, the final preparations
for the reception were completed, it being arranged
that ex-Mayor Gunther should make a short welcom
ing address, to which Mr. Brooks would necessarUy
reply. At about 10 o'clock, therefore, the Heniy
Smith, with band playing "Home, Sweet Home,"
gave three tremendous shrieks with her whistle, dip
ping, at the same time, the flag at her bow out of re
spect to the EngHsh steamer. This was followed by
a hawser being cast from the Algeria when the small
er steamer drew alongside. Then came the congratu
lations of Mr, Brooks's friends, who were, however,
unable to grasp him by the hand, but contented them
selves with handkerchief-waving, cheering, and enter
tainments of a similar character. This welcome met
Avith a hearty response from both the cabin and steer
age passengers on the Algeria, the latter, who seemed
to be pretty well worn out with theii" long voyage,
being particularly demonstrative in their joy. Then,
as the two steamers proceeded alongside each other,
all manner of inquiries were exchanged between the
Avelcomers and the welcomed.
When off quarantine, the anchor was dropped, and
Drs. Carnochan and Mosher immediately appeared

HOME FEOM A FOEEIGN SHOEE. 373
in the Fletcher and commenced to pass the passengers.
On a second hawser being thrown to the Henry Smith,
the two vessels were drawn near each other, when
Mr. Gavit sprang off the paddle-box where he had
been standing, cleared the bulwarks of the Algeria
with a bound, and in less than a second had throAvn
his arms around Mr. Brooks's neck and was hugging
and kissing him. So suddenly had the attack been
made that the recipient of this outburst of affection
had had no time to place himself in an attitude of de
fence, but was compeUed to receive and bear all with
a smiUng countenance. As soon as he could conveni
ently do so, Mr. Brooks quickly and in a dignified
manner unlocked himself from Mr. Gavit's passionate
embrace, and forthwith saluted his son, who had fol
lowed closely on the heels of the demonstrative com
mitteeman. Then the other members of the commit
tee poured over the side of the vessel, and one general
round of embracing and saluting went on for some
minutes. Miss Brooks, who had accompanied her
father on his grand tour, was also the recipient of
many welcomes. Both the voyagers appeared in ex
cellent health, and seemed to have benefited by their
protracted journey, Mr. Brooks having changed his
seal-skin traveUing cap for a more official-looking silk
hat, was fully prepared for the inevitable address,
which was forthwith spoken by Mr. Gunther on the
deck of the Algeria, After extending a hearty wel
come to Mr, Brooks the ex-Mayor proceeHed to state
that he hailed him as a representative man, and as
such was always proud to welcome him. Many days
had occurred since Mr, Brooks's departure for the Old
World, and they were therefore doubly pleased to
have Mr, Brooks again in their midst. In behalf of

374 HOME FEOM A FOEEIGN SHORE.
the city, his constitutents, and the country generally,
he gave him a hearty welcome, Mr. Brooks repUed
that he felt extremely proud for the reception which
they had accorded him ; in fact, it had been quite an
ovation, and totally unexpected by him. He was
proud to be a representative man, and would speedily
set about using his utmost endeavors to set right any
principles that might have suffered by his absence.
As his career had been in the past, so it would be in
the future. Since May last, when he left this coun
try, he had travelled more than thirty thousand mUes,
and felt very glad to be again in the midst of his
friends, and he could assure them that to him there
was no place Hke home,
A great waving of handkerchiefs and much cheer
ing followed at the conclusion of these remarks, and
the band appropriately began to play "Home Again."
Mr. Brooks was then taken on board the Henry
Smith, his daughter accompanying him, and immedi
ately conducted to the saloon, where a repast had
been prepared. Miss Brooks, being the only lady on
board, retired to the after-cabin, where she passed the
time in her brother's company. At the lunch the
customary toasts were given and responded to, the
only noticeable feature in the proceedings being a
tendency among the guests to pledge Mr, Brooks's
health in champagne about every thirty seconds.
Having landed the young lady at the Battery, the
Henry Smith proceeded to the Cunard Dock in Jer
sey C'lty, where Mr, Brooks obtained his luggage.
Four carriages were in waiting, and into them the
private friends of Mr. Brooks entered, the whole
party proceeding tc liis residence in Fifth Avenue —
not before, however, the old editor had paid a visit to

HOME FEOM A FOEEIGN SHOEE. 375
the office of his journal on Park Eow. At the private
residence the guests were received by Mr. and Mrs.
Brooks, who, after exhibiting the various trophies
that the traveUers had brought and sent from abroad,
conducted them to the dining-room, where an elegant
luncheon was provided. After partaking of refresh
ment it suddenly appeared to the guests that the host
and hostess had been sufficiently worried for one day,
so, beating a hasty retreat, the whole party left and
came down tOAvn.

THE END.

THE DESCENT OF MAN,
AND
SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX.
BT
CHAS, DABASriN, M. A., F. E. S.
Two Vols., 12mo.
¦V^ITKC ILIJ"CJSTE.A.TIOI^TS.
Pkioe,  $4,00

In these volumes Mr, Darwin has brought forward all the facts and
arguments whioh science has to offer in favor of the doctrine that man
has arisen by gradual development from the lowest point of animal life.
He had originally intended this work as a posthumous publication, but
the extensive acceptance of the views unfolded in his book on the " Origin
of Species " induced him to believe that the public were ripe for the most
advanced deductions from his theory of "Natural Selection." Aside from
the logical purpose which Mr. Darwin had in view, his work is an original
and fascinating contribution to the most interesting portion of natural
history. 
From the London Spectator.
" For onr part, we flnd Dr, Darwin's vindication of the origin of man a far more
wor.derful vindication of Theiam than Paley's '¦ Natural Theology,' though we do
not know, bo reticent is his style, whether or not he conceives it himselC"
From the Citizen and Bound Table.
" Even the charge of atheism, whicli was so violently urged against Mr. Dar
win, is now rarely heard, and theologians, whpse orthodoxy is nuquestioned, have
ventured to admit that it is possible to believe both in Christianity and the I)ar-
winian theory at the game time," From the Charleston Courier.
"No one can rise from an ordinarily attentive consideration of Mr, Darwin's
treatise, without being impressed, not only with the extent and flepth of the
knowledge which he has attained upon the subject nnfler treatment, and his long,
unwearied labor In collecting facts, but also with his possession of qualities
equally rare— tbe true scientific temper, the transparent candor, and the truth-
seeking sobemesB, with which be expresses to you bis conclusions, and the pro
cesses oy which he reaches them,
"Whether you like bis discourse or not— though you may refuse to acgniesce
in his conclnsiona — still yon are compelled to bear your witness, that this man
%as net been laboring to find facts to support a preconceived theory, but that tJie
'Jieortj is the irrepressible outgrowth qf his aceumnlated facts.".
From the Evening Bulletin.
*' This theory ia now indorsed by many eminent Bcientiets, who at first com
bated it, including Sir Charles Lyell, probably the most learned of living geolo
gists, and even by a class of Christian divinea like Dr, McCosh, who think that
certain theories of cosmogony, like the nebular hypothesis and tte law of evolu
tion, may be accepted without doing violence to laith."
Sentfree, by mail, to any address In the U. S,, on receipt of the price,
D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers.

COOFEU-'S
LEATHER-STOCKING NOVELS.

" The enduring monuments of Fekimore Cooker are his works. While
THE love of country CONTINUES TO PREVAIL, HIS MEMORY WILL EXIST IN THE
HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE, So TRULY PATRIOTIC AND AMERICAN THROUGHOUT, THEY
SHOULD FIND A PLACE IN EVERY AMERICAN'S LIBRARY,"— ZJawzW Webster.

A. NIGW .AJSTD
SPLENDIDLY-ILLUSTRATED POPULAR EDITION
OF
FENIMORE COOPER'S
WOELD-FAMOUS
LEATHEE-STOCKING ROMANCES.

D. Appleton & Co. announce that they have commenced the pubUca
tion of J. Fenimore Cooper's Novels, in a form designed for general
popular circulation. The series begins with the famous " Leather-Stock
ing Tales," five in number, and will be published in the foUowing order,
at intervals of about a mouth :
I. The Last of the DIoMcans.
II. The Deerslayer. IV, The Pioneers.
III. The Pathfinder. V. The Prairie.
This edition ofthe " Leather-Stocking Tales" wiU be printed in hand
some octavo volumes, from new stereotype plates, each volume superbly
and fully iUustrated with entirely new designs by the distinguished artist,
r, 0. C. Darley, and bound in an attractive paper cover. Price, Ih cenis
per volume.
Heretofore there has been no edition of the acknowledged head of
American romancists suitable for general popular circulation, and hence
the new issue of these famous novels wiU be welcomed by the generation
of readers that have sprung up since Cooper departed from us. As time
progresses, the character, genius, and value of the Cooper Romances be
come more widely recognized ; he is now accepted as the great classic of
our American Uterature, and his books as the prose epics of our early
history. D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, New York.

"GOOD-BYE, SWEETHEART!'

D. APPLETON & CO.
Have recently published,
GOOD-BYE, SWEETHEART!
By K^OS>A BKOUGUXOH,
AUTHOB OP- " KED AS A EOSE IS SHE," " COMETH UP AS A PLOWBB," ETC.
One Vol., Svo, Faper covers  Frice, $0.75.
" 13mo. Cloth  " l.SO.

" Good-bye, Sweetheart ! " is certainly one of the briglitest and most
entertaining novels that has appeared for many years. The heroine of the
story, Leuore, is reaUy an original character, drawn only as a woman
could draw her, who had looked deeply into the mysterious recesses of
the feminine heart. She ia a creation totaUy beyond the scope of a man's
pen, unless it were the pen of Shakespeare. Her beauty, her wilfulness,
her caprice, her love, and her sorrow, are depicted with marveUous skill,
and invested with an interest of which the reader never becomes weary.
Miss Bronghton, in this work, has made an immense advance on her other
stories, clever as those are. Her sketches of scenery and of interiors,
though brief, are eminently graphic, and the dialogue is always sparkling
and witty. The incidents, though sometimes startling and unexpected,'
are very natural, and the characters and story, from the beginning to the
end, strongly enchain the attention of the reader. The work has been
warmly commended by the press during its pubUcation, as a serial, in
AppLETONs' Journal, and, in its book-form, bids fair to be decidedly tbe
novel of the season, *

D. A. & Co. have now ready. New Editions of
COMETH TIP AS A FIOWEE  Price, 60 cents,
NOT WISELY, BUT TOO WELL  Price, CO cent!.,
BED AS A KOSE IS SHE  Price, CO cents.
BY THE BAIIE ACTnOIt.

Sir HENRY HOLLAND'S BECOLLECTION3.
RECOLLECTIONS OF PAST LIFE.
By Sir MJENUT jaOI,ZANI>, Sart,,
1 vol., 18mo, Cloth. 350 pp. Price, $2.
From tlie London Lancet.
"The 'Life of Sir Ilcnry Holland' is one to be recollected, and he has not erred
in giving an outline of it to the pubEc, In the very nature ot things it is such a
life as cannot often he repeated. Even it there were many men in the profession
capable of living to the age of elghty-fonr, and then writing their life with fair
hope of farther travels, it is not reasonable to expect that there conld ever bo
more than o very few lives so fuU of incidents worthy of being recorded anto-
graphically as the marvellous life which wc are fresh from pemsing. The com-
Dination of personal qualities and favorable opportunities in Sir Henry Holland's
case ia as rare as it is happy, Bnt tliat is one reason for recording the liistory of
it. Sir Henry's life cannot be very closely imitated, bnt it may be closely stndied.
We have found the study of it, as recorded in the book jnst published, one of the
most delightful j)ieces of recreation which we have enjoyed for many days, , .
Among Ills ^tients were pachas, princes, and premiers. Prince Albert, Ka-
poleon UL, Talleyrand, Pozzo di Borgo, Guizot, Palmella, Bnlow, and Drouyn
de Lhuys, Jefferson Davis, Lord Sidmouth, Lord Stowell,-Lord Melbourne, Lord
Palmerston, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Lansdowne, Lord Lyndhurst, to Bay notliing
of men of other note, were among his patients,"
From the London Bpeetaier.
" We constantly flnd ourselves recalling tbe Poet Laureate's modernized
Ulysses, the great wanderer, insatiate of new experiences, as we read the story
of the octogenarian traveUer and Ms many friends in many lands :
' I am become a name ;
For always roaming with a hungry heart,
Much have I seen and Imown, Cities of men
And manners, climates, conncils, governments.
Myself not least and honored of them aU.'
Ton see iu this hook all this and more than this— knowledge of the world, and
insatiable thirst for more knowledge of it, great clearness of aim and exact ap
preciation of the mind's own wants, precise knowledge of the self-sacriflces need
ed to gratify those wants and a readiness for those sacrifices, a distinct adoption
of an economy of life, and steady adherence to it fh)m beginning to end— all of
them characteristics which are bnt rare in this somewhat confused and hand-to-
mouth world, and which certainly when combined make a nniqne study ef char
acter, however indirectly it m^ be presented to us and however little attention
may be drawn to the interior of^the picture,"
From the New York Times. '
*' His memoxy was — is, we may say, for he is still alive and in possession of
all his faculties — stored with recollections of the most eminent men and women
of this century. HehasknowntheintimateiYiendsofBr. Johnson, Hetravelled
in Albania when Ali Pacha ruled, and has since then explored almost every part
of the world except the far East. He has made eight visits to this country, and
at the age of eighty-two (in 1809) he was here again— the guest of Mr, Evarts, and,
while in this cuy, of Mr, Thurlow Weed, Since then he has made a voyage to
Jamaica and the West India Islands, and a socond visit to Iceland, He was a
friend of Sir Walter Scott, Lockhart, Dngald Stewart, Mme. de StaSl, Byron,
Moore Campbell, Eogers, Crabbe, Wordsworth, ColendgCi Talleyrand, Sydney
Smith Macaulay, HaUam, Mackintosh, Malthus, Erskine, Humboldt, Schlegel,
Canova Sir Humphry Davy, Joanna Baillie, Lord and Lady Holland, aud many
other distinguished persons whose names would occupy a column, Iii this coun
try he has known, amongother celebrated men, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster,
Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, Seward, etc. He was bom the same yearin which
the Ilnited States Constitution was ratified, A life extending over such a period,
and passed in the most active manner, in the midst of the best society which the
world has to oft'or, must necessarUy be full of singular interest ; and Sir Henry
HoUand has fortunately not waited imtil his memory lost its freshnesB before
tecalling some of the incidents in it,"

^