 Chapter 9 Part 3 of the C. It's Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, and Heroism. Volume 1. The Sailor generally makes his first acquaintance with the island of Singapore by entering through new harbor, and the scenery is said to be almost unsurpassed by anything in the world. The steamer enters between the large island and a cluster of islands. Standing high out of the water with rocky banks, and covered to their summits by rich green jungle, with here and there a few forest trees towering above it high in the air. Under the vessels keel too, as she passes slowly over the shoulder patches of the entrance, may be seen beautiful beds of coral, which in their variegated colors and fantastic shapes, vie with the scenery above. The peninsular and oriental steamer's wharfs are situated at the head of a small bay, with the island of Pulobrani in front. They have a frontage of 1200 feet, and coal sheds built of brick and tile roofed. They often contain 20,000 tons of coal. Including some premises in Singapore itself, some 70,000 or 80,000 pounds have been expended on their station. A tolerable proof of the commercial importance of the place, two other companies have extensive wharfs also. The passengers land here and drive up to the city, a distance of some three miles. Those who remain on board, and Jack is likely to be of the number, for the first few days after arrival, find entertainment in the feats of swarms of small Malay boys who immediately surround the vessel in toy boats just big enough to float them, and induce the passengers to throw small coins into the water, for which they dive to the bottom and generally succeed in recovering. Almost all the ships visiting Singapore have their bottoms examined, and some have had as many as 20 or 30 sheets of copper put on by Malay divers. One man will put on as many as two sheets in an hour, going down a dozen or more times. There are now extensive docks at and around New Harbor. On rounding the eastern exit of New Harbor, the shipping and harbor of Singapore at once burst on the view, with the white walls of the houses and the dark verger of the shrubbery of the town nearly hidden by the network of spars and rigging that intervenes. The splendid boats of the French messageries and our own peninsular and oriental lines, the opium steamers of the great firm of Monsieur's Jardin of China and Monsieur's Camma of Bombay, and the beautifully modeled American or English clippers, which have taken the place of the box-shaped, heavy-rigged East India men of days of yore, with men of war of all nations help to make a noble sight. This is only part of the scene, for interspersed are huge Chinese junks of all sizes ranging up to 600 or 700 tons measurement. The sampans or two-ord Chinese boats used to convey passengers ashore are identical in shape, all have alike the square bow and the broad flat stern, and from the largest to the smallest, on what in a British vessel would be called her headboards, all have two eyes embossed and painted glaring out over the water. John Chinaman's explanation of this custom is that if no got eyes no can see. During the southwest monsoon they are in Singapore by scores, and of all colors, red, green, black and yellow, these are said to be the badge of the particular province to which they belong. Ornamental painting and carving is confined principally to the high stern, which generally bears some fantastic figuring, conspicuous in which can invariably be traced the outlines of a spread eagle, not unlike that on an American dollar. Did spread eagleism as well as population first reach America from China? It is difficult, says Mr Cameron, while looking at these junks to imagine how they can manage in a seaway, and yet at times they must encounter the heaviest weather along the Chinese coast in the northern latitudes. It is true that when they encounter a gale they generally run before it, but yet in a typhoon this would be of little avail to ease a ship. There is no doubt they must possess some good qualities, and probably speed, with a fair wind in a smooth sea is one of them. Not many years ago a boat builder in Singapore bought one of the common sampans used by the Cooley boatmen, which are exactly the same shape as the junks, and rigged her like an English cutter, giving her a false keel and shifting weatherboard, and strange to say, one with her every race that he tried. Passing the junks at night a strange spectacle may be observed. Amid the beating of gongs, jangling of bells, and discordant shouts, the nightly religious ceremonies of the sailors are performed. Lanterns are swinging, torches flaring, and gilt paper burning, while quantities of food are scattered in the sea as an offering of their worship. Many of those junks, could they but speak, might reveal a story, gentle reader. A tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul. The chief trade of not a few has been, and still is, the traffic of human freight, and it is unfortunately only too lucrative. Large numbers of junks leave China for the islands annually, packed with men, picked up, impressed, or lured on board, and kept there till the gambier and pepper planters purchased them, and hurried them off to the interior. It is not so much that they usually have to complain of cruelty, or even an unreasonably long term of servitude. Their real danger is in the overcrowding of the vessels that bring them. The men cost nothing except a meager allowance of rice, and the more the shipper can crowd into his vessel, the greater must be his profit. It would, said the writer just quoted, be a better speculation for the trader whose junk could only carry properly three hundred men to take on board six hundred men and lose two hundred and fifty on the way down, than it would be for him to start with his legitimate number and land them all safely, for in the first case he would bring three hundred and fifty men to market, and the other only three hundred. That this process of reasoning is actually put in practice by the Chinese, they were not long ago ample and very mournful evidence to prove. Two of these junks had arrived in the harbor of Singapore, and had remained unnoticed for about a week, during which the owners had bargained for the engagement of most of their cargo. At this time two dead bodies were found floating in the harbor. An inquest was held, and it was then transpired that one of these two junks on the way down from China had lost two hundred and fifty men out of six hundred, and the other two hundred out of four hundred. The Malay prahus are the craft of the inhabitants of the straits, and are something like the Chinese junks, though never so large as the largest of the latter, rarely exceeding fifty or sixty tons burden. They have one mast, a tripod made of three bamboos, two or three feet apart at the deck, and tapering up to a point at the top. Across two of the bamboos, smaller pieces of the same wood are lashed, making the mast thus act as a shroud or ladder also. They carry a large lug sail, of course grass cloth, having a yard both at top and bottom. The curious part of them is the top hamper about the stem. With the deck three feet out of the water forward, the top of the housing is fifteen or more feet high. They are steered with two rudders, one on either quarter. In addition to the ships and native craft are hundreds of small boats of all descriptions constantly moving about with fruits, provisions, birds, monkeys, shells, and corals for sale. The sailor has a splendid chance of securing, on merely nominal terms, the inevitable parrot, a funny little jocco or some lovely corals of all hues, green, purple, pink, mauve, blue, and in shape often resembling flowers and shrubbery. A whole boatload of the ladder may be obtained for a dollar and a half or a couple of dollars. Singapore has a frontage of three miles and has fine government buildings, courthouse, town hall, clubs, institutes, masonic lodge, theater, and the grandest English cathedral in Asia, that of St Andrews. In commercial square, the business center of Singapore, all nationalities seem to be represented. Here, too, are the Kling Gary drivers having active little ponies and neat conveyances. Jack ashore will be pestered with their applications. These clings, says Mr. Thompson, seldom, if ever, resort to blows, but their language leaves nothing for the most vindictive spirit to desire. Once, at one of the landing places, I observed a British tar come ashore for a holiday. He was forthwith beset by a group of Kling Gary drivers, and finding that the strongest of British words were as nothing when pitted against the Kling vocabulary, and that no half dozen of them would stand up like men against his huge iron fists, he seized the nearest man and hurled him into the sea. It was the most harmless way of disposing of his enemy, who swam to a boat, and it left Jack in undisturbed and immediate possession of the field. The naval officer will find excellent deer hunting and wild hog shooting to be had near the city, and tiger hunting at a distance. Tigers, indeed, were formerly terribly destructive of native life on the island. It was said that a man per diem was sacrificed. Now, cases are more rare. For good living, Singapore can hardly be beaten. Fruit, in particular, is abundant and cheap. Pineapples, coconuts, bananas of thirty varieties, mangoes, custard apples, and oranges, with many commoner fruits abound. Then there is the mangosteen, the delicious apple of the east, thought by many to surpass any fruit in the world. And the durian, a fruit as big as a boy's head, with seeds as big as walnuts, enclosed in a pulpy, fruity custard. The taste for this fruit is an acquired one, and is impossible to describe, while the smell is most disgusting. So great is the longing for it, when once the taste is acquired, that the highest prices are freely offered for it, particularly by some of the rich natives. A former king of Eva spent enormous sums over it, and could hardly then satisfy his rapacious appetite. A succeeding monarch kept a special steamer at Rangoon, and when the supplies came into the city, it was loaded up and dispatched at once to the capital, five hundred miles up a river. The smell of the durian is so unpleasant that the fruit is never seen on the tables of the merchants or planters. It is eaten slyly in corners and out of doors. And Jack ashore will find many other novelties in eating. Roast monkey is obtainable, although not eaten as much as formerly by the Malays. In the streets of Singapore, a meal of three or four courses can be obtained for three half pence from traveling restaurateurs, always Chinaman, who carry their little charcoal stoves and soup pots with them. The authority principally quoted says that contrary to received opinion, they are very clean and particular in their culinary arrangements. One must not, however, too closely examine the nature of the vians. And now let us proceed to the Australian station, which includes New Guinea, Australia proper, and New Zealand. This is a most important colony of Great Britain, although by no means its most important possession. A country as English as England itself, tempered only by a slight colonial flavor. Here Jack will find himself at home, whether in the fine streets of Melbourne or the older and more pleasant city of Sydney with its beautiful surroundings. When the 17th century was in its early youth, that vast ocean which stretches from Asia to the Antarctic was scarcely known by navigators. The coasts of eastern Africa, of India, and the archipelago of islands to the eastward were partially explored. But while there was a very strong belief that a land existed in the southern hemisphere, it was an inspiration only based on probabilities. The pilots and map makers put down, as well as they were able, the discoveries already made. Must there not be some great island or continent to balance all that waste of water which they were forced to place on the southern hemisphere? Terra Australis, the southern land, was therefore in a sense discovered before its discovery, just as the late Sir Roderick Merchison predicted gold there before Hargraves found it. In the year 1606, Pedro Fernando de Kiros started from Peru on a voyage of discovery to the westward. He found some important islands to which he gave the name Australia del Espírito Santo and which are now believed to have been part of the new Hebrides group. The vessel of his second in command became separated in consequence of a storm and by this Luis Vastores in consequence reached New Guinea and Australia proper besides what is now known as Torres Straits which channel separates them. The same year a Dutch vessel coasted about the Gulf of Carpentaria and it is to the persistent efforts of the navigators of Holland that the Australian coast became well explored. From 1616 at intervals till 1644 they instigated many voyages, the leading ones of which were the two made by Tasman in the second of which he circumnavigated Australia. New Holland was the title long applied to the western part of Australia, sometimes indeed to the whole country. The voyages of the Dutch had not that glamour of romance which so often attaches to those of the Spanish and English. They did not meet natives laden with evidences of the natural wealth of their country and adorned by barbaric ornaments. On the contrary the coasts of Australia did not appear pre-possessing while the natives were wretched and squalid. Could they have known of its after destiny England might not hold it today. When Dapier sent out by William III more than 50 years afterwards rediscovered the west coast of Australia he had little to record more than the number of sharks on the coast. His astonishment at the kangaroos jumping about on shore and his disgust for the few natives he met whom he described as the most unpleasant looking and worst featured of any people he had ever encountered. Nearly 70 years elapsed before any other noteworthy discovery was made in regard to Australia. In Captain Cook's first voyage in 1768 he explored and partially surveyed the eastern part of its coast and discovered the inlet to which a considerable notoriety afterwards clung which he termed botany bay on account of the luxuriant vegetation of its shores. Rounding the western side he proceeded northwards to Torres Straits near which on a small island off the mainland he took possession of the whole country in the name of his sovereign George III. Christening it, New South Wales, it is still called possession island. Captain Cook gave so favorable an account of botany bay on his return that it was determined at once to form a colony in which convict labor should be systematically employed. Accordingly a fleet of 11 vessels under Captain Phillip left Portsmouth on the 13th of May 1787 and after a tedious voyage reached botany bay the following January. Captain Phillip found the bay was not a safe anchorage and in other respects was unsuitable. A few miles to the northward he discovered an inlet now named Port Jackson from the name of the seaman who discovered it and which had been overlooked by Cook. The fleet was immediately removed thither, the convicts landed and the British flag raised on the banks of Sydney Cove. Of the thousand individuals who formed this first nucleus of a grand colony, more than three fourths were convicted offenders. For some time they were partially dependent on England for supplies. It had been arranged that they should not at first be left without sufficient provisions. The first ship sent out after the colonists had been landed for this purpose was struck by an iceberg in the neighborhood of the Cape of Good Hope and might not have been saved at all but for the seamanship of the Galant Good Rio who afterwards lost his life at the Battle of Copenhagen. He managed to keep her afloat and she was at length towed into Table Bay and a portion of her stores saved. Meantime the colonists were living in the constant belief that they should one day perish of hunger. Governor Philip set a noble example by putting himself on the same rations as the meanest convict and when on state occasions he was obliged to invite the officers of the colony to dine with him at the government house he used to intimate to the guests that they must bring their bread along with them. At last in June 1790 some stores arrived and in the following year a second fleet of vessels came out from England one ship of the Royal Navy and ten transports. 1,763 convicts had left England on board the latter of whom nearly 200 died on the voyage and many more on arrival. The number of free settlers was then and long afterwards naturally very small. They did not like to be so intimately and inevitably associated with convicted criminals. In 1810 the total population of Australia was about 10,000. In 1836 it had risen to 77,000, two-fifths of whom were convicts in actual bondage. While of the remainder a large proportion had at one time been in the same condition. Governor King one of the earlier officials of the colony complained that he could not make farmers out of pickpockets and Governor McQuarrie later said that there were only two classes of individuals in New South Wales those who had been convicted and those who ought to have been. Under these discouraging circumstances coupled with all kinds of other difficulties the colony made slow headway. Droughts and inundations, famine or scarcity and hostility on the part of the natives helped seriously to retard its progress. About the period of Sir Thomas Brisbane's administration there was an influx of a better class of colonists owing to the inauguration of free immigration. In 1841 transportation to New South Wales ceased. Ten years later the discovery of gold by Mr. E. H. Hargraves on the 12th of February 1851 caused the first great rush to the colony which influx has since continued partly for better reasons than gold finding. The grand chances offered for stock raising, agricultural, horticultural and vinicultural pursuits. To the north and south of Sydney the coast is a nearly unbroken range of iron bound cliffs but as a vessel approaches the shore a narrow entrance between the two heads of Port Jackson as they are called discloses itself. It is nowhere greater than a mile in width and really does not appear so much on account of the height of the cliffs. On entering the harbour a fine sea lake appears in view usually blue and calm and in one of its charming inlets is situated the city of Sydney. There is not writes Professor Hughes a more thoroughly English town on the face of the globe not even in England itself than this southern emporium of the commerce of nations. Sydney is entirely wanting in the novel and exotic aspect which belongs to foreign capitals. The emigrant lands there and hears his own mother tongue spoken on every side. He looks around upon the busy life of its crowded streets and he gazes on scenes exactly similar to those daily observable in the highways of London, Liverpool, Birmingham or Manchester. Were it not says Colonel Mundy for an occasional orange tree in full bloom or fruit in the background of some of the older cottages or a flock of little green parrots whistling as they alight for a moment on a house top one might fancy himself in Brighton or Plymouth. Gay equipages crowd its streets which are lined with handsome shops. The city abounds in fine public buildings. In the outskirts of the city are flour mills of all kinds worked by horse, water, wind and steam. Great distilleries and breweries, soap and candle works, tanneries and woollen mills at the latter of which they turn out an excellent tweed cloth. Ship building is carried on extensively around Port Jackson. Although now overshadowed by the commercial superiority of Melbourne it has the pre-eminence as a port. In fact Melbourne is not a seaport at all as we shall see. Vessels of large burdens can lie alongside the wharves of Sydney and Jack in the Royal Navy at least is more likely to stop there for a while than ever to see Melbourne. He will find it a cheap place in most respects for everywhere in New South Wales meat is excessively low priced. They used formally to throw it away after taking off the hides and boiling out the fat but are wiser now and send it in tins all over the world. Such fruits as the peach, nectarine, apricot, plum, fig, grape, cherry and orange are as plentiful as blackberries. The orangeries and orchards of New South Wales are among its sights and in the neighborhood of Sydney and round Port Jackson there are beautiful groves of orange trees which extend in some places down to the water's edge. Individual settlers have groves which yield as many as 30,000 dozen oranges per annum. One may there literally sit under his own vine and fig tree. If a peach stone is thrown down in almost any part of Australia where there is a little moisture a tree will spring up which in a few years will yield handsomely. A well-known botanist used formally to carry with him during extensive travels a small bag of peach stones to plant in suitable places and many a wandering settler has blessed him since. Pigs were formally often fed on peaches as was done in California a country much resembling southern Australia. It is only of late years they have been utilized in both places by drying or otherwise preserving. A basket load may be obtained in the Sydney markets during the season for a few pence. The summer heat of Sydney is about that of Naples while its winter corresponds with that of Sicily. But are there no drawbacks to all this happy state of things? Well yes, about the worst is a hot blast which sometimes blows from the interior known popularly in Sydney as a brick fielder or southerly buster. It is much like that already described and neither the most closely fastened doors nor windows will keep out the fearful dust storm. Its effects, says Professor Hughes, is particularly destructive of every sense of comfort. The dried and dust besprinkled skin acquiring for the time some resemblance to parchment and the hair feeling more like hay than any softer material. Should Jack or his superior officers land during the heat of autumn, he may have the opportunity of passing a novel Christmas very completely un-English. The gayest and brightest flowers will be in bloom and the mosquitoes out in full force. Sitting, says a writer, in a thorough draft, clad in a holland blouse, you may see men and boys dragging from the neighboring bush piles of green stuff oak branches in full leaf and acorn and a handsome shrub with a pink flower and pale green leaf, the Christmas of Australia, for the decoration of churches and dwellings and stopping every fifty yards to wipe their perspiring brows. Before leaving Sydney, the grand park called the Domain which stretches down to the blue water in the picturesque indentations around Port Jackson must be mentioned. It contains several hundred acres, tastefully laid out in drives and with public walks cut through the indigenous or planted trevories and amidst the richest woodland scenery or winding at the edge of the rocky bluffs or by the margin of the glittering waters. Adjoining this lovely spot is one of the finest botanic gardens in the world considered by all Sydney to be a veritable Eden. Port Phillip, like Port Jackson, is entered by a narrow passage and immediately inside is a magnificent basin thirty miles across in almost any direction. It is so securely sheltered that it affords an admirable anchorage for shipping. Otherwise Melbourne, now a grand city with a population of about three hundred thousand would have had little chance of attaining its great commercial superiority over any city of Australia. Melbourne is situated about eight miles up the Yara Yara flowing flowing river which flows into the head of Port Phillip. That poetically named but really lazy muddy stream is only navigable for vessels of very small draft. But Melbourne has a fine country to back it. Many of the old and rich mining districts were round Port Phillip or on and about streams flowing into it. Wheat, maize, potatoes, vegetables and fruits in general are greatly cultivated and the colony of Victoria is preeminent for sheep farming and cattle runs and the industries connected with wool, hides, tallow and of late meat which they bring forth. Melbourne itself lies rather low and its original site now entirely filled in was swampy. Hence came occasional epidemics, dysentery, influenza and so forth. End of Chapter 9 Part 3 Chapter 10 Part 1 of The Sea Its stirring story of adventure, peril and heroism Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Colin Samuels, Camden, Maine The Sea Its stirring story of adventure, peril and heroism Volume 1 by Frederick Wimper Chapter 10 Round the World on a Man of War Continued The Pacific Station A common course for a vessel crossing the Pacific would be from Australia or New Zealand to San Francisco, California. The male steamers follow this route, touching at the Fiji and Hawaiian groups of islands. And the sailor in the Royal Navy is as likely to find this route the orders of his commander as any other. If the writer, in describing the country he knows better than any other be found somewhat enthusiastic and gushing he will at least give reasons for his warmth. On this subject, above all others, he writes Con Amore He spent over twelve years on the Pacific coasts of America and out of that time about seven in the Golden State, California. It has been said, see Naples and die. The reader is recommended to see the glorious Bay of San Francisco before he makes up his mind that there is not else worthy of note because he has sailed on the blue waters of the most beautiful of the Mediterranean Bays. How well does the writer remember his first sight of the Golden Gate as the entrance to San Francisco Bay is poetically named? The good steamer on which he had spent some 75 days which had passed over nearly the entire Atlantic weathered the horn and then with the favoring trade winds had sailed and steamed up the Pacific with one grand sweep to California out of sight of land the whole time was sadly in want of coals when she arrived off that coast which a dense fog entirely hid from view. The engines were kept going slowly by means of any stray wood on board valuable spars were sacrificed and it was even proposed to strip the woodwork out of the steerage which contained about 200 men, women and children. Guns and rockets were fired first with no result and the prospect was not cheering but at last the welcome little pilot boat loomed through the fog and was soon alongside and a healthy jovial looking pilot came aboard. You can all have a good dinner tonight ashore said that excellent semen to the passengers and the sea shant rob you of it. The fog lifted as the vessel slowly steamed onwards on approaching the entrance to the bay on the right cliffs and rocks are seen with a splendid beach where carriages and buggies are constantly passing and repassing. On the top of a rocky bluff the seal rock or cliff house a popular hotel below it in the sea a couple or so of rocky islets covered with sea lions which are protected by a law of the state to the left outside some miles the fawn islands with a capital lighthouse perched on top of one of them entering the golden gate and looking to the right again the fort point barracks and the outskirts of the city to the left the many colored headlands and cliffs on whose summit the wild oats are pale and golden in the bright sunlight before one several islands Alcatraz bristling with guns and covered with fortifications goat island called because on it there are no goats beyond fifty miles of green water and a forest of shipping and a city the history of which has no parallel on earth hills behind with streets as steep as those of Malta highland with spires and towers and fine edifices innumerable and great wars and slips and docks in front of all with ships and steam ferry boats constantly arriving and departing and now the vessel anchors in the stream and if not caring to haggle over the half dollar a large sum in English years which the boatman demands from each passenger who wishes to go ashore the traveler finds himself in a strange land and amid a people of whom he will learn to form the very highest estimate that first dinner after the eternal coffee boiled tea tinned meats dried vegetables and salt horse of one ship in a neat restaurant where it seems everything on earth can be obtained will surprise most visitors and irreproachable potage broiled salmon the fish is a drug almost on the pacific coasts turtle steaks oyster plant artichokes and green corn a california quail on toast grand muscatel grapes green figs and a cooling slice of melon rope for cheese or a very good imitation of it black coffee and cigars native wine on the table california cognac on demand service excellent napkins hot plates flowers on the table price moderate for the luxuries obtained and no waiters fees the visitor will mentally forgive the boatman of the morning as he arrived in the promised land in the paradise of bon vivant it seems so in the evening he may take a stroll up montgomery street and a good seat at a credibly performed opera may be obtained nobody knows better than the sailor and the traveler the splendid luxury of such moments after a two or three months monotonous voyage and in good soothe he generally abandons himself to it he has earned it and who shall say him may the same evening may be he will go to a 300 room hotel they now have one of 750 rooms where for three dollars 12 shillings six he can sup sleep breakfast and dine sumptuously he will be answered 20 questions for nothing by a civil clerk in the office of the hotel read the papers for nothing in the reading room have a bath for nothing and find it is not the thing to give fees to the waiters it is a new revelation to many who have stopped before in dozens of first class english and continental houses scene says Mr. W. F. Ray as I saw it for the first time the appearance of san francisco is enchanting built on a hill slope up which many streets run to the top and illuminated as many of those streets were with innumerable gas lamps the effect was that of a huge dome ablaze with lamps arranged in lines and circles those who have stood in princes street at night and gazed upon the old town and castle of edinburgh conform a very correct notion of the fairy like spectacle expecting to find san francisco a city of wonders I was not disappointed when it seemed to my eyes a city of magic such a city as a Latin might have ordered the genie to create in order to astonish and dazzle the spectator I was warned by those whom personal experience of the city had taught to distinguish glitter from substance not to expect that the reality of the morrow would fulfill the promise of the evening some of the parts which now appeared the most fascinating were said to be the least attractive when viewed by day still the panorama was deprived of none of its glories by these whispers of well-meant warning the present writer has crossed the bay in the fairy and other boats a hundred times and on a fine night and they have about nine months of fine nights in california he never missed an opportunity of going forward toward the boughs of the land when it approached san francisco as mr. mcray the full orb stars twinkling overhead are almost rivaled by the myriads of gas lights illuminating the land less than 30 years ago this city of 300,000 souls was but a mission village and the few inhabitants of california were mostly demoralized mexicans lazy half-breeds and wretched indians who could almost live without work and as a rule did so wild cattle roamed at will and meat was to be had for the asking the only ships which arrived were like the pilgrim described by dana in two years before the mast bound to california for hides and tallow now the tonnage of the shipping of all nations which enters the port of san francisco is enormous the discovery made by marshall in 1847 first brought about the revolution such as the power of gold now california depends far more on her corn and wool and hides her wine her grapes oranges and other fruits and on innumerable industries reader you have eaten bread made from california wheat it fetches a high price in liverpool on account of its fine quality you may have been clothed in california wool and your boots made of her leather more than likely drunk california wine of which huge quantities are shipped to hamburg where they are watered and doctored for the rest of europe and exported under french and german names your head may have been shampooed with california borax and your watch chain was probably and some of your coin assuredly made from the gold of the golden state this is not a book on the land but two or three stories of californian life in the early days may however be forgiven the first is of a man who had just landed from a ship and who offered a somewhat seedy looking customer lounging on the wharf a dollar to carry his portmanteau he got the reply i'll give you an ounce of gold to see you carry it yourself the new arrival thought he had come to a splendid country and shouldered his burden like a man when the other a successful gold finder not merely gave him his ounce little less than four pounds sterling but treated him to a bottle of champagne which cost another ounce the writer can well believe the story for he paid two and a half dollars nearly half a guinea for an illustrated london news and two dollars for a copy of punch in the caribou mines in 1863 while a friend now retired on a competency in england started a little weekly newspaper the size with sheet of fool's cap selling it for one dollar four shillings too per copy he was fortunately not merely a competent writer but a practical printer he composed his articles on paper first and then in type worked the press delivered them to his subscribers collected advertisements and payments and no doubt would have made his own paper if rags had not been too costly a sailor purchased about the year 1849 in an auction room while out on a spree the lots of land on which the plaza one of the most important business squares of san francisco now stands he went off again and after several years cruising about the world returned to find himself a millionaire the city hall stands on that property is surrounded by offices shops and hotels and very prettily planted with shrubs grass plots and flowers there was a period when females were so scarce in california that the miners and farm hands I am and the farmers and proprietors to a large number of these were old sailors would travel any distance merely to see one at this present time any decent english housemaid receives twenty dollars four pounds per month and is found a superior servant a first-class cook or a competent housekeeper gets anything from thirty dollars upwards theaters at san francisco were once rude buildings of boards and canvas and the stalls were benches a story is told that at a performance at such a house quite a commotion was caused by the piercing squall of a healthy baby brought in by a mother who perhaps had not had any amusement for a year or two and most assuredly had no servant with whom to leave it at home which was heard above the music here you fiddlers roared out a stalwart man in a red shirt and gum boots just down from the mines stop that tune I haven't heard a baby cry for several years it does me good to hear it the one touch of nature made that rough audience and all rose to their feet cheering the baby and insisting that the orchestra must stop and stop it did until the child was quieted then a collection was made not of coppers and small silver but of ounces and dollars to present the child with something handsome as a souvenir of its success san francisco as the most important commercial emporium and port of the whole pacific has a particular interest to the man of the sea it has societies homes and baffles for his benefit he will find marine hospital at the merchants exchange he will find the latest shipping news and quotations while there are many public institutions that are open to him as to all others above all he will find one of the most conscientious and kind as well as influential of british councils here and how often the sailor abroad may need his interference only the sailor and the merchant knows who is also present in hbm consular service no matter his sect it is represented san francisco is full of churches and chapels if he needs instruction and literary entertainment he will get it at the splendid mercantile library or admirably conducted mechanics institute there is a capital art association with hundreds of members generous and semi-occasionally vicious the papers of san francisco will however compare favorably with those of any other american city short of new york and boston the sailor will find the city as advanced in all matters pertaining to modern civilization whether good or bad as any he has ever visited the naval officer will find admirable clubs the navy will most assuredly be put on the books of one or more of them for the period of his stay he will find too that san francisco hospitality is unbounded that balls and parties are nowhere better carried out and that the rising generation of california girls are extremely good looking and that the men are stalwart fine looking fellows very unlike the typical bony yankee who by the by is getting very the new england states if jack has been to china he will recognize the truth of the fact that parts of san francisco are chinese as hong kong itself there are joss houses with a big solid looking idol sitting in state the temple gay with tinsel in china metalwork and paint smelling faintly of incense and strongly of burnt paper there are chinese restaurants by the dozen from the high class dining rooms alkenies flowers small banners and inscriptions down to the itinerant restaurateur with his charcoal stove and soup pot then there are chinese theaters smelling strongly of opium and tobacco where the orchestra sits at the back of the stage which is curtainless and devoid of scenery the dresses of the performers are gorgeous in the extreme when any new arrangement of properties etc is required on the stage the dresses are made before your eyes as for example placing a table to represent a raised balcony or piling up some boxes to form a castle and so forth their dramas are often almost interminable for they take the reign of an emperor for example and play it through night after night from his birth to his death in details they are very literal and hold the mirror up to nature fully if the said emperor had special vices the music is to european ears frightful fearful and wonderful a mixture of discordant sounds resembling those of ungreased cartwheels and railway whistles mingled with the rolling of drums and striking of gongs some of the streets are lined with chinese shops ranging from those of the merchants in tea, silks, porcelain and lacquered wear a dignified and polite class of men who are often highly educated and speak english extremely well to those of the cigar makers, barbers, shoemakers and laundry men half the laundry work in san francisco is performed by john china men there is one chinese hotel or caravan asari which looks as though it might at a stretch accommodate 200 people in which 1200 men are packed the historian of the future will watch with interest advancing or receding waves of population as they move over the surface of the globe now surging in great waves of existless force now peacefully subsiding leaving hardly a trace behind the pacific mail steamship companies steamers have brought from china to san francisco as many as 1200 china men and very occasionally of course more than that number on a single trip the lowest estimate of the number of chinese in california is 70 000 while they are spread all over the pacific states and territories and indeed in lesser numbers all over the american continent when finds them in new england factories new york laundries and southern plantations their reception in san francisco used to be with brick bats and other missiles and hooting and jeering on the part of the lower classes of the community this is not the place to enter into a discussion on the political side of the question suffice it to say that they were and still are a necessity in california where the expense of reaching the country has kept out white labor to an extent so considerable that it still rules higher than in almost any other part of the world the respectable middle classes would hardly afford servants at all if it were not for the chinese all the better classes support their claims to full legal and social governance the china men who come to san francisco are not coolies and a large number of them pay their own passages over when brought over by merchants or one of the six great chinese companies their passage money is advanced and they of course pay interest for the accommodation on arrival in california if they do not immediately go to work they proceed to the company house of their particular province where in a kind of caravan asri relations for sleeping and cooking are afforded hardly a better system of organization could be adopted than that of the companies who know exactly where each man and their debt is to be found if he is hundreds of miles from san francisco where it possible to adopt the same system in regard to emigrants from this country thousands would be glad to avail themselves of the opportunity of proceeding to the golden state one little anecdote and the chinese must be left to their fate it happened in 1869 two chinese merchants had been invited by one of the heads of a leading steamship company to visit the theater where they had taken a box the merchants men of high standing among their countrymen accepted their appearance in front of it was a signal for an outburst of ruffianism on the part of the gallery it was the gods versus the celestials and for a time the former had it all their own way in vain lorence barrett the actor came forward on the stage to try to appease them he is supposed to have said that any well-conducted person had a right to a seat in his house an excited gentleman in the dress circle reiterated the same ideas and was rewarded by a torrent of hisses and catter-walling the china men alarm that it might result in violence to them would have retired but a dozen gentlemen from the dress circle and orchestra seats requested them to stay promising them protection and the merchants remained they could see that all the better and more respectable part of the house wished them to remain after 20 or more minutes of interruption the gallery was nearly cleared by the police and the performance allowed to proceed and yet the very class who are so opposed to the caucasian complained that he does not spend his money in the country where he makes it but hoards it up for china the story explains the actual position of china men in america today the upper and middle classes i the honest mechanics who require their assistance support their claims the lowest scum of the population persecute injure and not unfrequently murder them many a poor john china men has as they say in america been found missing sailor shore in san francisco may likely enough have an opportunity of feeling the tremor of an earthquake as a rule they have been exceedingly slight but that of the 21st of october 1868 was a serious affair towers and steeples swayed to and fro tall houses trembled badly built wooden houses became disjointed walls fell many buildings for some time afterwards showed the effects in cracked walls and plastering dislocated doors and window frames later in the overland monthly soon after the event put the matter forcibly when recording the great earthquake of lisbon he said over the parts of the city where ships anchored 20 years ago they may anchor again for the worst effects were confined to the made ground that is land reclaimed from the bay dwellings on the rocky hills were scarcely injured at all reminding us of the relative fates of the man who built his house upon a rock and placed it on the sand four persons only were killed on that occasion all of them from the fall of badly constructed walls loose parapets etc. the alarm in the city was great excited people rushing wildly through the streets and frightened horses running through the crowds california possesses other ports of importance but as regards english naval interest in the pacific esquimalt vancouver island beach which has a fine landlocked harbor dock and naval hospital deserves the notice of the reader it is often the rendezvous for seven or eight of h.m.'s vessels from the admiral's flagship to the tiniest steen gunboat victoria the capital is three miles off and has a pretty little harbor itself not however adapted for large vessels formerly the colonies of vancouver island in british columbia the mainland were separate and distinct colonies they are now identified under the latter name their value never warranted the full paraphernalia of a double colonial government two governors colonial secretaries treasurers attorney generals etc for these countries charming and interesting to the tourist and artist will only attract population slowly the resources of british columbia and gold timber coal fisheries etc are considerable but the long winters on the mainland and the small quantity of open land are great drawbacks approaching vancouver island from the sea the inside channel is entered through the grand opening to the straits of fuka which cook mist and vancouver discovered to the eastward are the rocks and light of cape flattery while the rather low termination of vancouver island thick with timber is seen to the westward the scene in the straits is often lively with steamers and shipping great men of war sometimes a foreign nationalities coast packet boats proceeding not merely to vancouver island but to the ports of washington territory on the american side timber called lumber always on that side of the world vessels colliers proceeding to nanimo or bellingham bay to the coal mines coasting and trading schooners and indian canoes some of them big enough to accommodate 60 or more persons and carrying a good amount of sale the straits have many beauties and as approaching the entrance of esquimalt harbor the olympian range of mountains snow covered and rugged loom in the distance the scene is grandly beautiful while in the channel rocky islets and islands covered with pine and arbutus bound outside the straits two lighthouses are placed to warn the unwary voyager by night often those lighthouses may be noted apparently upside down mirage is common enough in the straits of fuka victoria in 1862 had at least 12,000 or 15,000 people mostly drawn thither by the fame of the caribou mines on the mainland of british columbia not 20% ever reached those mines when ships arrived in the autumn it was utterly useless to attempt the long journey of about 600 miles partly by steamer but two-thirds of which must be accomplished on foot or horseback were often muleback over rugged mountain paths through swamps and forests consequently a large number had to spend the winter in idleness and in the spring in many cases their resources were exhausted many became tired of the colony roughing it was not always the pleasant kind of thing they'd imagined and so they went down to california or left for home others were stuck fast in the colony and many suffered severe privations although so long as they could manage to live on salmon alone they could obtain plenty from the indians who hawked it about the streets for a shilling or two shillings apiece the latter for a very large fish the son of a baronet at one time might be seen breaking stones for a living in victoria and unless men had a very distinct calling professional trade they had to live by their means or have a very rough time of it these remarks are not made to deter adventurous spirits from going abroad but we would advise them to look well before they leap but how utterly unfitted for mining work were the larger part of the young men who had traveled so far only to be disappointed there was no doubt of the gold being there two hundred ounces of the precious metal may have been washed out in an eight hour shift a shift is the same as a watch on board ship and this was kept up for many days in succession the miners working day and night but that mine had been three years in process of development and only one of the original proprietors was among the lucky number of shareholders a day or so before the first gold had been found struck is the technical description his credit was exhausted and he had begged vainly for flour etc to enable him to live and work the ordinary price of a very ordinary meal was two dollars and it will be seen that unless employed or simply traveling for pleasure it was a ruinous place to stop in fancy then the condition of perhaps as many as four thousand unemployed men out of a total of seven thousand men on the various creeks a good half of whom were of middle and upper classes at home but for one happy fact that beef which as the miners said packed itself into the mines in other words the cattle were driven in from a distance of hundreds of miles was reasonably cheap hundreds of them may have starved everything from flour tea sugar bacon and beans to metal implements and machinery had to be packed there on the backs of mules and cost from fifty cents and upward per pound for the mere cost of transportation tea was ten shillings a pound flower and sugar a dollar a pound and so on those who fancy the mining and especially deep gravel mining as in caribou his playwork may be told that it is perhaps the hardest as it is certainly the most risky and uncertain work in the world and that it requires machinery expensive tools etc which in places like caribou cost enormous sums to supply if labor was to be employed good practical miners carpenters etc much of the machinery was of wood received at that period ten to sixteen dollars per day this digression may be pardoned as the sea is so intimately bound up with questions of immigration apart from this from personal observation the writer knows that quite a proportion of miners have been sailors and in many cases deserted their ships in the early days of Australia California and British Columbia this was eminently the case a large proportion of the sailors in the Royal Navy have or will at some period pass time on the Pacific station in which case they will inevitably go to Vancouver Island where there is much to interest them they will find Victoria very pretty little town with government house cathedral churches and chapels a mechanics institute a theater good hotels and restaurants the latter generally in French hands he will find a curious mixture of English and American manners and customs and a very curious mixture of coinage shillings being the same as quarter dollars while crowns are only the value of dollars five shillings against four shillings to some years ago the island system was different from that of the mainland on ladder Florence were equal to half dollars which they are nearly while on the island they were thirty seven and a half cents only seven and a half the Hudson's Bay Company which has trading posts throughout British Columbia took advantage of the fact to give change for American money on their steamers in English Florence obtaining them on the island they thus made nearly twenty five percent in their transaction besides getting paid the passengers fare yet the traveler strange to say did not lose by this from landing at New Westminster he found that what was rated at a little over 18 pence on Vancouver Island had suddenly after traveling only miles or so increased in value to upward of two shillings outside Victoria there are many pleasant drives and walks to the arm where amid a charming landscape interspersed with pines and natural fur woods wildflowers and mossy rocks there is a pretty little rapid or fall to Sonic where the settlers homesteads have a semi civilized appearance half of the houses being of squared logs but comfortable with all inside and where a rude plenty of rains or to beacon hill where there is an excellent race course and drive which commands fine views up and down the straits in sight is San Juan Island over which England and America once squabbled while the two garrisons which occupied it fraternize cordially and out by each other in hospitality the island rocky and covered with forest and underbrush with a farm or two made by clearing away big trees with not a little difficulty and burning and partially uprooting the stumps does not look a worthy subject for international differences but the fact is that it commands the straits to some extent however all that is over now and it is England's property by diplomatic arrangement there are other islands nearly as large in the archipelago which stretches northward up the gulf of Georgia which have not a single human inhabitant and have never been visited except by some stray Indians minors or traitors who have gone ashore to cook a meal or camp for the night End of Chapter 10 Part No. 1 Recording by Colin Samuels, Camden, Maine Chapter 10 Part 2 Anyone who has traveled by small canoes on the sea must remember those happy camping times when often wet and always hungry and tired the little party cautiously selected some sheltered nook or especially good beach and then paddled with a will ashore no lack of driftwood or small trees on that coast and no lord of the manner to interfere with one taking it a glorious fire is soon raised and the cooking preparations commenced sometimes it is only the stereotype tea frying pan bread something like Australian damper only baked before the fire or slapjacks i.e. flour and water pancakes fried bacon and boiled chili beans but off times it can be varied by excellent fish game bear meat venison or moose meat purchased from some passing Indians or killed by themselves it is absurd to suppose that roughing it need mean hardship and semi starvation all the time not a bit of it on the northern coast now being described they often live magnificently and most travelers learn instinctively to cook and make the most of things nothing is finer in camp than a roast fish say salmon split and gutted and stuck on a stick before the fire not over it a few dozen turns and you have a dish worthy of a prince or a composition stew say of deer and bear meat and beaver's tail well seasoned vegetables as you may obtain there potatoes from some seaside farm and there are such on that coast where the settlers as brown as his Indian wife or compressed vegetables often taken on exploring expeditions or again venison dipped in a thick batter and thrown into a pan of boiling hot fat making a kind of meat fritter with not a drop of its juices wasted some of these explorers and minors are veritable shifts they can make a good light bread in the woods from plain flour water and salt and ask no oven but a frying pan they will make beans of a kind only given to horses at home into a delicious dish by boiling them soft a long job generally done at the night camp and then frying them with breadcrumbs and pieces of bacon in the morning till they are brown and crisp one of these camps on an island in the Gulf of Georgia that a campfire spread to some grass and underbrush mounted with lightning rapidity a steep slope and in a few minutes the forest at the top was ablaze the whole island was soon in flames for hours afterwards the flames and smoke could be seen no harm was done for it is extremely unlikely that the island will be inhabited for the next five hundred years but forest fires in partially inhabited districts are more serious or when near trails or roads in the long summer of Vancouver Island where rain as in California is almost unknown these fires once started may burn for weeks by months the indians of this part of the coast of dozens of petty tribes all speaking different languages or at all events very different types are not usually prepossessing in appearance but the male half-breeds are often fine-looking fellows and the girls pretty the sailor will be interested in their cedar canoes which on Vancouver Island are beautifully modeled a first class clipper has not more graceful lines they are always cut from one log and are finally and smoothly finished being usually painted black outside and finished with red ornamental work within they are very light and buoyant and will carry great weights but one must be careful to avoid rocks on the coast or snags in the rivers for any sudden concussion will split them all to pieces when on the Vancouver Island exploring expedition a party of men found themselves suddenly deposited in a swift running stream from the canoe having almost parted in half after touching the sunken rock or log all got to shore safely and it took about a half a day of patching and caulking to make her sufficiently river-worthy why not say river-worthy as well as sea-worthy to enable them to reach camp the writer in 1864 came down from the extreme end of Butte Inlet an arm of the sea on the mainland of British Columbia across the Gulf of Georgia twenty miles off the open sea coasting southwards to Victoria Vancouver Island the total voyage being one hundred and eighty miles in an open-seater canoe only large enough for four or five people the trip occupied five days but while there is some risk in such an undertaking there is little in a voyage in the great height of canoes of Queen Charlotte's Island north of Vancouver Island these canoes are ten eighty feet long but are still always made from a single log the splendid pines of that coast affording ample opportunity they have mass and carry as much sail as a schooner while they can be propelled by say forty or fifty paddles half on either side wielded by as many pairs of brawny arms the savage Hidas are a powerful race of whom not much is known they however often come to Victoria or the American ports on Puget Sound for purposes of trading how it might be asked does the trade communicate with so many varieties of natives all speaking different tongues the answer is that there is a jargon a kind of pigeon English which is acquired more or less by almost all residents on the coast for purposes of intercourse with their Indian servants or others this is the Chinook jargon a mixture of Indian English and French the latter coming from the French Canadian voyageurs often to be found in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company as they were formerly in the defunct northwest company some of the words used have curious origins thus an Englishman is a King George man because of the first explorers Cook Vancouver and others arrived here before the Georgian era an American is a Boston man because the first ships from the United States which visited that coast hailed from Boston this lingo has no grammar and a very few hundred words satisfies all its requirements young ladies daughters of Hudson's Bay companies employees in Victoria rattle it off as though it were their mother tongue it to make a Tiki it's probably the first query to an Indian who arrives and has something to sell I want some tobacco and biscuit good will you give me a salmon and for a small piece of black cake tobacco and two or three biscuits sailors hard bread or hard he will exchange a thirty pound or so salmon the Chinook jargon in skillful hands is susceptible of much but it is not adapted for sentiment or poetry although a naval officer one stationed on the Pacific side did evolve in a fusion which the sailors almost sure to hear there it needed however a fair amount of English to make it read pleasantly old residents and visitors recognize some of its stanzas oh be not quass of Nitka for thou must highest come tux that highest Tiki thee Nika potlash Hiyu Iktas Nika Makuk Soppelel a pair faiz a la biscuit I will give thee all thy fill means that loving her so much all that he had was hers much greater absurdities have been put in plain English a bishop of British Columbia was however hardly so successful not being himself a student of Chinook the entire vocabulary of which would have taken him rather less time to learn than the barest elements of Latin he engaged in interpreter through whom to address the Indians the interpreter was perfectly competent to say all that can be said in Chinook but was rather nonplussed when his lordship commenced his address by children of the forest he scratched his head and looked at the bishop who however was determined and commenced once more children of the forest the interpreter knew that it must make nonsense but he was cornered and had to do it and this is what he said Chinook literally little men among the stumps or trunks of trees the writer will not comment upon the subject here more than to say that Chinook is not adapted for the translation of Milton or Shakespeare while the simplest story or parable of the scriptures must be unintelligible or worse when tempted in that jargon the only other settlement on Vancouver Island which has any direct interest to the Royal Navy is Naniamo the coal mines of which yield a large amount of fuel used by the steamships when in that neighborhood and about all that is used on the island a quantity is also shipped to San Francisco the mines are worked by English companies and are so near the coast that by means of a few tramways and locomotives the coal is conveyed to the wharves where it can be at once put on board it is a pleasant little place and many an English miner would be glad to be as well off as the men settled there who earn more money than at home own their cottages and plots of land obtain almost all of their supplies cheaper than in England and have a beautiful golf before them in summer at least as calm as a lake on which boating and canoeing is all the rage in the evenings or on holidays the Pacific Station is an extensive one for it commences at the most northern most parts of Bering Sea and extends below Cape Horn it embraces the Alaskan coast many English men of war have visited these latitudes principally however in the cause of science and discovery in the old days when the colony of Russian America was little better than our many parts of Siberia convicted settlements the few officials and officers of the Russian fur company were it may well be believed only too ready to welcome any change in the monotony of their existence and a new arrival in the shape of a ship from some foreign port was a day to be remembered and of which to make much the true Russians are naturally hospitably and sociably inclined and such times were the occasion for balls dinners and parties to any extent the writer well remembers his first visit to Sitka which although the capital of Alaska is situated on an island off the mainland on approaching the small and partially landlocked harbor a mountain of no inconsiderable height wooded to the top appeared in view and below it a little town of highly colored roofs in the middle of which rolls a picturesque rock surmounted by a semi fortified castle which in the distance at least look most imposing near this but separated by a stockade was the village of the Kalash Indians a powerful tribe who had at times as the members of the expedition learned given a considerable amount of trouble to the Russians in 1804 they murdered nearly the whole of the Russian garrison while beyond on every side were rocky shores and wooded heights an old hulk or two laying on the beach below the old castle is self principally build of wood the residents of the governor of Russian America then Prince Maxitov which had been roofed in and were used for magazines of stores and some other Rither shaky pile wharfs made up the town soon was experienced the warmth of a Russian welcome and for a week afterwards a succession of gayities followed which were so very gay that they would have killed most men unless they had been fortified with the long sea trip just before every Russian seemed to wish the party to consider all that he had at their service the Samovar boiled up everywhere as they approached the little lunch table of anchovies and pickles rye bread butter cheese and so forth with the everlasting vodka was everywhere ready and except duty called no one was obliged to go off at night to the three vessels comprising the expedition to which the writer was attached for the best bed in the house was always at his service there was only one bar room in the whole town and there only a kind of vlogger beer and vodka were to be obtained when the country was for a consideration of seven million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars transferred to the United States there was a rush from Victoria and San Francisco King Hebrew traders knowing that furs up country bore a merely nominal price and that Sitka was the great entropole for their collection a million dollars worth being frequently gathered there at a time thought they would be able to buy them for next to nothing still parcels of land in the town which had not at the yet most a greater value than a few hundred dollars now ran up to fabulous prices ten thousand dollars was asked for a log house hotels saloons i.e. bar rooms alemanicain German logger beer sellers and barbershops sprang up like mushrooms a newspaper office was opened and everything reminded one of the sudden growth of 17 towns in the early days of California alas everything else went up in proportion accepting salmon which must be a drug on that coast for many centuries to come provisions greatly rose in price and the competition for furs was so great that they became nearly as dear as in San Francisco the consequence may be imagined there was an exodus and the following January the whole city could have bought for a song the Russian officials of course left it shortly after the transfer and most of the others as speedily as they could the capital has never recovered from the shock for although organized fur companies are scattered over the country in one instance the United States government leasing the sole right that of fursailing on the Aleutian Islands to affirm that has a Russian Prince as a citizen Sitka is not the anthropo it was everything in furs is brought to San Francisco before being consigned to all quarters of the globe the value of Alaska to the United States is a present very small but so little is known about it that one can hardly form an estimate concerning its future it possesses minerals but these will always be worked with difficulty on account of the climate its grand salmon fisheries are however a tangible property the cod in Bering Sea is as plentiful as it ever was on the Newfoundland banks and there are innumerable forests of trees easily accessible reaching down to the coast of pines furs and cedars of size sufficient for the tallest masts and largest spars so that Alaska has a direct interest for the shipbuilder by its acquisition the United States not merely extended its seaboard for say one thousand five hundred miles north but it obtained Mount St. Elias by far the largest peak of the North American continent and one of the loftiest mountains of the globe upon Mont Blanc says an American writer pile the loftiest summit in the British islands and they would not reach the altitude of St. Elias if a man could reach a summit he would be two miles near the stars than any other American could be east of the Mississippi as a single peak at ranks among the half dozen loftiest on the globe some of the Himalaya summits reach indeed a couple miles near Orion and the Pleiades but they rise from an elevated plateau sloping gradually upwards for hundreds of miles as an isolated peak St. Elias may look down upon Mont Blanc and Tenerife and claim brotherhood with Chimperaso and Kotopaxi it acquired also one of the four great rivers of the globe of which the writer had the pleasure of being one of the earliest explorers the Yukon which renders the waters of Bering Sea fresh or semi-fresh for a dozen miles beyond its many mouths is a river to the Amazon, Mississippi and perhaps the Plata it has a fluence to which the Rhine or Roan or but Brooks the Kalosh Indians of Sitka live in semi-civilized wooden barns or houses with invariably a round hole for a door through which one creeps they are particularly ingenious in carving and Jack has many an opportunity of obtaining grotesque figures cut from wood or slate stone for a cast-off garment or half a dollar one broad home represents the Russian soldier of the period prior to the American annexation and is scarcely a burlesque of his solid face gigantic moustache close fitting coat with very tight sleeves and loose baggy trousers masks may be seen cut from some white stone which would not be too dishonor to a European sculptor but now leaving Sitka let's make a rapid trip to the extreme northern end of the Pacific station men of war proceeding north of Sitka which except for purposes of science or war is not likely to be the case although the Pacific station extends to the northern most parts of Alaska would voyage into Bering Sea through Onimac Pass the best passages between the rocky and rugged Aleutian islands in the past the scenery is superb grand volcanic peaks rising in all directions while there many years ago the writer well remembers going on deck one morning when mists and low clouds hung over the then placid waters and seen what appeared to be a magnificent mountain peak snowy and scarped right overhead the vessel having a wreath of white clouds surrounding it while a lower and grayer bank of mist hit its base it seemed baseless and as though rising from nothing while the bright sunlight above all and which did not reach the vessel lit up the eternal snows in brilliant contrasts of light and shadow this was the grand peak of Shishaldinsky which rises nearly 9000 feet above the sea level the Aleutian islands are thinly inhabited and the Aleuts a harmless strong half Eskimos kind of people often leave them they make very good sailors the few Russian settlements among the principle of which was Kodiak were simply trading pulse and first ceiling establishments since the purpose of Alaska the United States government has leased them to a large mercantile firm which makes profits from the ceiling north of the islands after steaming over a considerable waste of waters the only settlements on the coast of the whole country are Mikhailovsky and Una Lachlit both trading posts while south of the former are many mouths of one of the grandest rivers in the world the Yukon almost a rival to the Amazon and Mississippi that section of the country lying round the great river is terribly rich in fur-bearing animals including sable mink black and silver gray fox beaver and bear the moose and deer abound while fish more especially salmon is very abundant salmon 30 or more pounds in weight caught in the Yukon has often been purchased for half an ounce of tobacco or four or five common sewing needles the coasts of northern Alaska are rugged and uninviting and not remarkable for the grand scenery common in the southern division leaving the north and passing the leading station already described on Vancouver Island the sailor has the whole Pacific coast of both Americas clear to Cape Horn before him as part of the Pacific station there is Mexico with its port of Alcapulco new Granada with the important seaport town of Panama coyote Peru and Valpariso in Chile at any of which her Britannic Majesty vessels are commonly to be found Panama is indeed a very important central point as officers of the Royal Navy ordered to join vessels elsewhere usually leave their own at Panama cross the isthmus and take steamer to England via St. Thomas's or by way of New York fence crossing to Liverpool the railroad which during its construction is said to have cost the life of a Chinaman for every sleeper laid down so fatal was the fever of the isthmus has the dearest fares of any in the world the distance from Panama across to Aspenwall Cologne is about 40 miles and the fare is five pounds an immense amount of travel crosses the isthmus and it is only a matter of time for a canal to be cut through some portion of it or the isthmus of Darian adjoining steamers of the largest kind are arriving daily at Panama from San Francisco Mexico and all parts of South America while on the Atlantic side they come from South Hampton Liverpool New York and other American ports southward with favoring breezes and usually calm seas one soon arrives at Kayo a place which may yet become a great city but which like everything else in Peru has been retarded by interminable in regard to government and politics and by the ignorance and bigotry of the masses Peru had an advantage over Chile in wealth and importance at one time but while the latter country is today one of the most satisfactory and stable politics in the world one never knows what is going to happen next in Peru hence distressed in commerce and hence the sailor will not find a tithe of the shipping in Kayo rose that he will at the wharfs of Valparizio Lima the capital is situated behind Kayo at a distance of about six miles when seen from the deck of a vessel in the roadstead the city has a most imposing appearance with its innumerable domes and spires rising from so elevated a situation and wearing a strange and rather moorish air on nearing the city everything speaks eloquently of past splendor and present wretchedness public walks and eloquent ornamental stone seats choked with rank weeds and all in ruins you enter Lima through a triumphal arch and you find that the churches which look so imposing in the distance are principally stucco and tinsel Lima has a novelty in one of its theaters it is built in a long oval the stage occupying nearly the whole of one long side all the boxes being thus comparatively near it the pit audience is men and the galleries women and all help to fill the house between the acts tobacco smoke from their cigarettes the sailor who has been much among Spanish people or those of Spanish origin will find the Chileans the finest race in South America Valparizio harbor is always full of shipping it's worse piled with goods while the railroad and old road to the capital Santiago bears evidence of the material prosperity of the country the country roads are crowded with envoys of pack mules while the ships are loading up with wheat wines and minerals the produce of the country traveling is free everywhere libraries schools literary scientific and artistic societies abound the best newspapers published in South America are issued there Santiago the city of marble palaces where even horses are kept in marble stalls is one of the most delightful places in the world the lofty Andes tower to the skies in the distance forming a grand background and a fruitful cultivated and peaceful country surrounds it Valparizio the veil of paradise was probably named by the early Spanish adventures in this glowing style because any coast whatever is delightful to the mariner who has been long at sea otherwise the title would seem to be of an exaggerated nature the bay is of a semi circular form surrounded by steep hills rising to the height of near 2000 feet sparingly covered with stunted shrubs and thinly strewed grass the town is built along a narrow strip of land between the cliffs and the sea and as this space is limited in extent the buildings have struggled up the mountains and bottoms of the numerous ravines which intersect the hills a suburb the almond roll or almond grove much larger than the town proper spreads over a low sandy plain about half a mile broad bordering the bay in the summer months i.e. November to March the anchorage is safe and pleasant but in the wintery months notably June and July are prevalent from the north in which direction it is open to the sea captain basal hall royal navy gave some interesting accounts of life in Chile in his published journal and they are substantially true at the present day he reached Valparizio at Christmas which corresponds in climate to our mid-summer crowds throng the streets to enjoy the cool air in the moonlight groups of merry dancers were seen at every turn singers were bawling out old Spanish romances to the tinkle of the guitar while looking horsemen pranced about in all directions stopping to talk with their friends but never dismounting and harmless bullfights in which the bulls were only teased not killed served to make the people laugh the whole town was in carnival in the course of the first evening of these festivities says captain hall while I was rambling about the streets with one of the officers of the ship our attention was attracted by the sound of music to a crowded puparia or drinking house we accordingly entered and the people immediately made way and gave us seats at the upper end of the apartment we had not sat long before we were startled by the loud clatter of horses feet and in the next instant a mounted peasant dashed into the company followed by another horseman who as soon as he reached the center of the room a droidly wheeled his horse round and the two strangers remained side by side with their horses heads in opposite directions neither the people of the house nor the guests nor the musicians appeared in the least surprised by this visit the lady who was playing the harp merely stopped for a moment to remove the end of the instrument a few inches farther from the horses feet and the music and conversation went on as before the visitors called for a glass of spirits and having chatted with their friends around them for two minutes stooped their heads to avoid the cross piece of the doorway and putting spurs to their horses sides shot into the streets as rapidly as they had entered the whole being done without discomposing the company in the smallest degree the same writer speaks of the common people as generally very temperate while their frankness and hospitality charmed him brick makers day laborers and washer women invited him and friends into their homes and their first anxiety was that the sailors might feel themselves in their own house then some offering of milk bread or spirits however Richard the cottage or poor the fair that efficiency was never made more apparent by apologies with untaught politeness the best they had was placed before them graced with a hearty welcome their houses are of adobe i.e. sun-dried bricks thatched with broad palm leaves the ends of which by overhanging the walls afford shade from the scorching sun and shelter from the rain their mud floors have a portion rate seven or eight inches above the level of the rest and covered with matting which forms the couch for the invariable siesta in the cottages hall saw young women grinding baked corn in almost scriptural mills of two stones each from the course flower obtained the poor people make a drink called Ulpa in the better class of houses he was offered Paraguay tea or Mati an infusion of a South American herb the natives drink it almost boiling hot it is drawn up into the mouth through a silver pipe however numerous the company all use the same tube and to decline on this account is thought the height of rudeness the people of Chile generally are polite to a degree and jack ashore will have no cause to complain provided he is as polished as are they he generally contrives however to make himself popular while his little escapades of wildness are looked upon in the light of long pent-up nature bursting forth end of chapter 10 part 2