 Chapter 8 Part 1 of The Sea, Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Parallel 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 Rita Butros. The Sea, Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Parallel and Heroism, Volume 1 By Frederick Wimper Chapter 8 Part 1 Round the World on a Man of War The India and China Stations The Red Sea separates Arabia from Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia. Its name is either derived from the Animalculae which sometimes cover parts of its surface or, more probably, from the red and purple coral which abound in its waters. The Hebrew name signifies the Weedy Sea because the corals have often plant-like forms. There are reefs of coral in the Red Sea which utterly prevent approach to certain parts of the coast. Many of the islands which border it are of volcanic origin. On the Zagar Islands there was an alarming eruption in 1846. England owns one of the most important of the islands, that of Perim, in the Straits of Babel Mandeb. It is a barren black rock but possesses a fine harbor and commands one entrance of the Red Sea. It was occupied by Great Britain in 1799, abandoned in 1801 and re-occupied on the 11th of February 1857. Its fortifications possess guns of sufficient caliber and power to command the Straits. The entire circuit of the Red Sea is walled by grand mountain ranges. One of its ports and harbors are most important places. There is Mocha, so dear to the coffee-drinker. Jidda, the port for the holy city of Mecca, whether innumerable pilgrims repair. Hodaida and Lokea. It was in Jidda that in 1858 the Muslim population rose against the Christians and killed 45, including the English and French consuls. On the African side, besides Suez, there are the ports of Koseir, Suakim and Masua. The Red Sea is deep for a partial inland sea. There is a recorded instance of soundings to 1,000 fathoms, considerably over a mile, and no bottom found. After leaving the Red Sea, where shall we proceed? We have the choice of the India, China or Australia stations. Actually, to do the voyage systematically, Bombay would be the next point. Bombay, in general terms, is three things. A city of three quarters of a million souls. A presidency of 12 million inhabitants. Or an island. The island of Mumbai, according to the natives. Or Boan Bahia, the Good Haven, if we take the Portuguese version. The city is built on the island, which is not less than eight miles long by three broad, but the presidency extends to the mainland. In 1509 the Portuguese visited it, and in 1530 it became theirs. In 1661 it was blindly ceded to our Charles II as simply a part of the dowry of his bride, the Infanta Catherine. Seven years after Charles the Dissolute had obtained what is now the most valuable colonial possession of Great Britain, he ceded it to the Honourable East India Company, though of course for a handsome consideration. Bombay has many advantages for this sailor. It is always accessible during the terrible southwest monsoons and possesses an anchoring ground of 50 miles sheltered by islands and a magnificent series of breakwaters, at the south end of which is a grand lighthouse. Its docks and dockyards cover 50 acres. Shipbuilding is carried on extensively, and there is an immense trade in cotton, coffee, opium, spices, gums, ivory, and shawls. Of its 700,000 inhabitants, 50,000 are Parsis, Persians, descendants of the original fire worshipers. A large proportion of them are merchants. It may not be generally known to our readers that the late Sir Jamsechi, Gigi Boy, who left wealth untold, although all his days he had been a humane and charitable man, and who established in Bombay alone two fine hospitals, was a Parsi. Calcutta in 1700 was but a collection of petty villages surrounding the factories or posts of the East India Company, and which were presented to that corporation by the Emperor of Delhi. They were fortified and received the name of Fort William in honour of the reigning king. It subsequently received the title of Calcutta, that being the name of one of the aforesaid villages. Seven years after that date, Calcutta was attacked suddenly by Surajah Nola, Nawab of Bengal. Abandoned by many who should have defended it, 146 English fell into the enemy's hands, who put them into that confined and loathsome cell of which we have all read, the black hole of Calcutta. Next morning, but 23 of the number were found alive. Lord Clive, eight months later, succeeded in recapturing Calcutta, and after the subsequently famous battle of Plessy, the possessions of the East India Company greatly extended. Today, Calcutta has a strand longer than that of London, and the batteries of Fort William, which, with their outworks, cover an area half a mile in diameter, and have cost two million pounds, form the strongest fortress in India. Across the continent by railway, and we land easily in Calcutta, it has, with its suburbs, a larger population than Bombay, but can never rival it as a port, because it is a hundred miles up the Hoogley River, and navigation is risky, although ships of two thousand tons can reach it. It derives its name from Caligata, the got, or landing place of the goddess Kali. Terrible cyclones have often devastated it. That, in 1867, destroyed 30,000 native houses, and a very large amount of human life. The sailor's route would, however, take him, if bound to China or Australia, round the island of Ceylon, in which there are two harbors, Point de Gal, used as a stopping place, a kind of junction for the great steamship lines, of which the splendid peninsular and oriental, the P&O Company, is the principal. Point de Gal is the most convenient point, but it does not possess a first-class harbour. At Trinco Mali, however, there is a magnificent harbour. Ceylon is one of the most interesting islands in the world. It is the serendip of the Arabian Nights, rich in glorious scenery, equable climate, tropical vegetation, unknown quantities of gems and pearls, and many minerals. The sapphire, ruby, topaz, garnet, and amethyst abound. A sapphire was found in 1853 worth 4,000 pounds. Its coffee plantations are a source of great wealth. Palms, flowering shrubs, tree ferns, rhododendrons, as big as timber trees, clothe the island in perennial verger. The elephant, wild boar, leopard, bear, buffalo, humped ox, deer, palm cat, and civet are common, but there are few dangerous or venomous animals. The Singhalese population, really Hindu colonists, are effeminate and cowardly. The Candians, Salonese Highlanders, who dwell in the mountains, are a more creditable race, sturdy and manly. Then there are the Malabars, early Portuguese and Dutch settlers, with a sprinkling of all nationalities. There too are the outcast Vedas, the real wild men of the woods. With them there is no god, no worship. The rock Vedas live in the jungle, follow the chase, sleep in caves or in the woods, eat lizards, and consider roast monkey a prime dish. The village Vedas are a shade more civilized. One reads constantly in the daily journals of the India, China, or Australian stations, and the reader may think that they are very intelligible titles. He may be surprised to learn that the East India Station not merely includes the ports of India and Ceylon, but the whole Indian Ocean, as far south as Madagascar, and the East Coast of Africa, including Zanzibar and Mozambique, where there are dockyards. The China station includes Japan, Borneo, Sumatra, the Philippine Islands, and the coast of Kamchatka and eastern Siberia to Bering Sea. The Australian station includes New Zealand and New Guinea. The leading stations in China are Hong Kong, Canton and Shanghai. Vessels bound to the port of Canton have to enter the delta of the Pearl River. The area of which is largely occupied with aisles and sandbanks. There are some thirty-fourths on the banks. When the ship has passed the mouth of this embouchure, which forms in general terms a kind of triangle, the sides of which are one hundred miles each in length, you can proceed either to the island of Hong Kong and English colony or to the old Portuguese settlement of Macau. The name Hong Kong is a corruption of Yang Kieng, which is by interpretation scented stream. Properly, the designation belongs to a small stream on the southern side of the island where ships boats have long been in the habit of obtaining fine, pure water. But now the name is given by foreigners to the whole island. The island is about nine miles in length and has a very rugged and barren surface consisting of rocky ranges of hills and mountains intersected by ravines through which streams of the purest water flow unceasingly. Victoria Hong Kong is the capital of the colony and the seat of government. It extends for more than three miles east and west, part of the central grounds being occupied by military barracks and hospitals, commissariat buildings, colonial churches, post office and harbour masters depot, all of which are overlooked by the government house itself high up on the hill. Close to the sea beach are the commercial houses, clubs, exchange and marketplaces. It was the shelter, security and convenience offered by the harbour that induced our government to select it for a British settlement. It has one of the noblest roadsteads in the world. Before the session to England in 1841, the native population on the island did not exceed 2,000. Now there are 70 or 80,000. Macau is 40 miles to the westward of Hong Kong and an agreeable place as regards its scenery and surroundings, but deficient as regards its harbour accommodation. Dr. Milne, himself a missionary resident for 14 years in China, says, writing in 1859, to some of the present generation of English residents in China, there can be anything but associations of a comfortable kind connected with Macau, recollecting as they must the unfriendly policy which the Portuguese on the spot pursued some 16 or 17 years since and the bitterly hostile bearing which the Chinese of the settlement were encouraged to assume towards the red-haired English. Macau is a peninsula eight miles in circuit stretching out from a large island. The connecting piece of land is a narrow isthmus which in native topography is called the stalk of a water lily. In 1840, a low wall stretched across this isthmus, the foundation stones of which had been laid about 300 years ago with the acknowledged object of limiting the movements of foreigners. This was the notorious barrier which during the Chinese war of 1840 to 1941 was used to annoy the English. As large numbers of the peasantry had to pass the barrier gates with provisions for the mixed population at Macau, it was a frequent maneuver with the Chinese authorities to stop the market supplies by closing the gate and setting over it a guard of half-starved and ravenous soldiery. Leaving Macau for Canton, the ship passes the celebrated Bogue Fortes, threats her course through a network of islets and mudbanks and at last drops anchor 12 miles from the city off the island of Wampoa where the numerous and grotesque junks, egg boats, sandpans, etc. indicate a near approach to an important place. The name Canton is a European corruption of Kuang Tong, the broad east. Among the Chinese it is sometimes described poetically as the city of the genii, the city of grain, and the city of rams. The origin of these terms is thus shown in a native legend. After the foundation of the city, which dates back 2,000 years, five genii, clothed in garments of five different colors and riding on five rams of different colors, met on the site of Canton. Each of the rams bore in its mouth a stalk of grain having five ears and presented them to the tenants of the soil to whom they spake in these words May famine and death never visit you. Upon this the rams were immediately petrified into stone images. There is a temple of the five rams close to one of the gates of Canton. The river seen at Canton is most interesting. It is a floating town of huts built on rafts and on piles with boats of every conceivable size, shape, and use lashed together. It is, says Dr. Milne, an aquarium of human occupants. Canton has probably a population of over a million. The entire circuit of city and suburbs cannot be far from ten miles. Canton was bombarded in 1857 to 58 by an allied English and French force. Ten days were given to the stubborn Chinese minister. Yet, to exceed to the terms dictated by the allies and every means was taken to inform the native population of the real Cassus Belli and to advise them to remove from the scene of danger. Consul Parks and Captain Hall were engaged among other coal porters in the rather dangerous labor of distributing tracks and bills. In one of their rapid descents, Captain Hall caught a Mandarin in his chair, not far from the city gate, and pasted him up in it with bills, then starting off the bearers to carry this new advertising van into the city. The Chinese crowd always alive to a practical joke roared with laughter. When the truce expired, more than 400 guns and mortars opened fire upon the city, great pains being taken only to injure the city walls, official Chinese residences, and hill forts. Then a force of 3,000 men was landed and the city was between two fires. The hill forts were soon taken and an expedition planned and executed chiefly to capture the native officials of high rank. Mr. Consul Parks, with a party, burst into a Yaman, an official residence, and in a few seconds, Commissioner Ye was in the hands of the English. An ambitious aide-de-camp of Ye's staff protested strongly that the captive was the wrong man, loudly stammering out, Mi Ye, Mi Ye, but this attempted deceit was of no avail. The prize was safely bagged and shortly afterwards the terms of peace were arranged. The loss of life in the assault was not over 140 British and 30 French. Shanghai is a port which has grown up almost entirely since 1844, the date of its first occupation by foreigners for purposes of commerce. Then there were only 44 foreign merchant ships, 23 foreign residents and families, one consular flag, and two Protestant missionaries. Twelve years later there were, for six months' returns, 249 British ships, 57 American, 11 Hamburg, 11 Dutch, 9 Swedish, 7 Danish, 6 Spanish, and 7 Portuguese, besides those of other nationalities. The returns for the whole year embraced 434 ships of all countries, tea exports, 76,711,659 pounds, silk, 55,537 bales. Shanghai, the upper sea, has been written variously Can He, Chang He, Zhang He, Zong He, Shan He, Shang He, and so forth. Its proper pronunciation is as if the final syllable were high, not hay. Sailing towards the north of China says Milne, keeping perhaps 50 or 60 miles off the coast. As the ship enters the 30th parallel, a stranger is startled some fine morning by coming on what looks like a shoal, perhaps a sandbank, a reef, he knows not what. It is an expanse of colored water stretching out as far as the eye can reach, east, north and west, and entirely distinct from the deep blue sea which hitherto the vessel had been plowing. Of course he finds that it is the yellow sea, a sea so yellow, turbid and thick, certainly that you might think all the pea soup in creation and a great deal more had been emptied into one monster cistern. The name is therefore appropriate, as are the designations of several others. The yellow sea, the sea that's red, the white, the black, the one that's dead. Between the 30th degree of north latitude where the group of the Chuzhan Islands and the 37th degree, this sea of soup, this reservoir of tawny liquid, ranges fed by three great rivers. The Sintang, the Yangtze Khyang, and the Huanghou, the greatest of which is the second, and which contributes the larger part of the muddy solution held in its waters. 45 miles from the embouchure of the Yangtze Khyang, you reach the Wusang Anchorage, and a few miles further, the city of Shanghai, where the tributary you have been following divides into the Wusang and Wampoa branches, at the fork of which the land ceded to the British is situated. Here there is a splendid British consulate, churches, mansions, and foreign mercantile houses. The old city was built over three centuries ago, and is encircled as indeed are nearly all large Chinese cities and towns, by a wall 24 feet high and 15 broad. It is nearly four miles in circumference. Shanghai was at one time greatly exposed to the depredations of freebooters and pirates. And partly in consequence of this, the wall is plentifully provided with loopholes, arrow towers, and military observatories. The six great gates of the city of Shanghai have grand eloquent titles, a la chinoise. The north gate is the calm sea gate. The great east gate is that for paying obisience to the honorable ones. The little east one is the precious Skirtle gate. The great south is the gate for riding the dragon, while another is termed the pattern Phoenix. Its oldest name is Hu. In early days the following curious mode of catching fish was adopted. Rose of bamboo stakes joined by cords were driven into the mud of the stream, among which at ebb tide the fish became entangled and were easily caught. This mode of fishing was called Hu. And as at one time Shanghai was famous for its fishing stakes, it gained the name of the Hu city. The tides rise very rapidly in the river and sometimes give rise to alarming inundations. Lady Wortley's description of the waters of the Mississippi apply to the river water of Shanghai. It looks marvelously like an enormous running stream of apothecaries stuff, a very strong decoction of mahogany colored bark with a slight dash of port wine to deepen its Hu. It is a mulatto complexioned river, there is no doubt of that, and wears the deep tanned livery of the burnished sun. Within and without the walls the city is cut up by ditches and moats which some years ago, instead of being sources of benefit and health to the inhabitants as they were originally intended to be, were really open sewers breathing out effluvia and pestilence. In some respects however Shanghai is now better ordered as regards municipal arrangements. End of Chapter 8, Part 1. Chapter 8, Part 2 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 Rita Butros. The Sea, its stirring story of adventure, peril and heroism, Volume 1. By Frederick Wimper. Chapter 8, Part 2. Round the world on a man of war, the India and China stations. The fruits of the earth are abundant at Shanghai and jack ashore may revel in delicious peaches, figs, persimmons, cherries, plums, oranges, citrons and pomegranates. While there is a plentiful supply of fish, flesh and fowl. Grains of all kinds, rice and cotton are cultivated extensively. The latter gives employment at the loom for thousands. On the other hand, there are drawbacks in the shape of clouds of mosquitoes, flying beetles, heavy rains, monsoons and earthquakes. The prognostics of the latter are a highly electric state of the atmosphere, long drought, excessive heat and what can only be described as a stagnation of all nature. Dr. Milne, reciting his experiences, says, At the critical moment of the commotion, the earth began to rock, the beams and walls cracked like the timbers of a ship under sail, and a nausea came over one. A sea sickness really horrible. At times, for a second or two, previous to the vibration, there was heard a subterranean growl, a noise as of the mighty rushing wind whirling about underground. The natives were terror struck, more especially if the quake happened at night, and there would burst a mass of confused sounds. Cue ming! Cue ming! Save your lives! Save your lives! Dogs added their yells to the medley amid the striking of gongs and tomtoms. Next day there would be exhaustless gossip concerning upheaval and sinking of land, flames issuing from the hillsides, and ashes cast about the country. The Chinese ideas on the subject are various. Some thought the earth had become too hot and that it had to relieve itself by a shake, or that it was changing its place for another part of the universe. Others said that the supreme one, to bring transgressors to their senses, thought to alarm them by equivering of the earth. The notion most common among the lower classes is that there are six huge sea monsters, great fish, which support the earth, and that if any one of these move, the earth must be agitated. Superstition is rife in ascribing these earth shakings chiefly to the remissness of the priesthood. In almost every temple there is a mauyu, an image of a scaly wooden fish suspended near the altar, and among the duties of the priests it is rigidly prescribed that they keep up an everlasting tapping on it. If they become lax in their duties, the fish wriggle and shake the earth to bring the drowsy priests to a sense of their duty. A singular meteorological phenomenon often occurs at Shanghai. A fall of dust, fine, light and impalpable, sometimes black, ordinarily yellow. The sun or moon will scarcely be visible through this sand shower. The deposit of this exquisite powder is sometimes to the extent of a quarter of an inch after a fall of a day or two. It will penetrate the closest Venetian blinds. It overspreads every article of furniture in the house, finds its way into the innermost chambers and recesses. In walking about, one's clothes are covered with dust. The face gets grimy, the mouth and throat parched, the teeth great, the eyes, ears and nostrils become itchy and irritable. The fall sometimes extends as far as Ning Po in the interior, also some 200 miles out at sea. Some think that it is blown all the way from the steppes of Mongolia after having been wafted by typhoons into the upper regions of the air. Others think that it comes across the seas from the Japanese volcanoes which are constantly subject to eruptions. The population of Shanghai rapidly increasing is probably about 400,000 to 450,000 souls. It swarms with professional beggars. Among the many creditable things cited by Milne regarding the Chinese is the number of native charitable institutions in Canton, Ning Po and Shanghai, including fountaling hospitals, the Shanghai, asylum for outcast children, retreats for poor and destitute widows, shelters for the maimed and blind, medical dispensaries, leper hospitals, vaccine establishments, almshouses, free burial societies and so forth. So much for the heartless Chinese. The sailor certainly has this compensation for his hard life that he sees the world and visits strange countries and peoples by the dozen. Privileges for which many a man tied at home by the inevitable force of circumstances would give up a great deal. What an oracle is he on his return amid his own family circle or friends. How the youngsters in particular hang on his every word, look up at his bronzed and honest face and wish that they could be sailors. Strange countries for to see. How many curiosities has he not to show? From the inevitable parrot, chattering in a foreign tongue or swearing roundly in English vernacular, to the little ugly idol brought from India, but possibly manufactured in Birmingham. If from China he will probably have brought home some curious caddy, fearfully and wonderfully inlaid with dragons and impossible landscapes, an ivory pagoda or perhaps one of those wonderfully carved balls with twenty or so more inside it, all separate and distinct, each succeeding one getting smaller and smaller. He may have with him a native oil painting, if a portrait stolid and hard, but if of a ship true to the last rope and exact in every particular. In San Francisco, where there are fourteen thousand or more Chinese, may be seen native paintings of vessels which could hardly be excelled by a European artist, and the cost of which for large sizes say three-and-a-half by two-and-a-half feet was only about fifteen dollars, three pounds. What with fans, handkerchiefs, Chinese ladies' shoes for feet about three inches in length, lanterns, chopsticks, pipes, rice paper drawings, books, neat and quaint little porcelain articles for presents at home. It will be odd if Jack, who has been mindful of the old folks at home and the young folks too, and the girl he left behind him, does not become a very popular man. And then his yarns of Chinese life, how on his first landing at a port the natives in proffering their services hastened to assure him in pigeon English. Pigeon is a native corruption of business, as a mixed jargon had and has to be used in trading with the lower classes, that me all same English man, me belly good man, or you want a washi, me washi you, which is simply an offer to do your laundry work, or you want a glub, grub, me sabby, no, one shop all same English belly good, or perhaps he has met a Chinaman accompanying a coffin home, and yet looking quite happy and jovial, not knowing that it is a common custom to present coffins to relatives during lifetime, he inquires, Who's dead, John? No man have die, replies the celestial. No man have die, me making my olo fatter kumsha, him likey too muchy. Count to my number one papa, suppose he die, can catchy. Which freely translated is, no one is dead, it is a present from me to my aged father, with which he will be much pleased. I esteem my father greatly, and it will be at his service when he dies. How one of the common names for a foreigner, especially an Englishman is, I say, which derived its use simply from the Chinese hearing our sailors and soldiers frequently ejaculate the words when conversing, as for example, I say, Bill, there's a queer looking pigtail. The Chinese took it for a generic name, and would use it among themselves in the most curious way, as for example, a red-coated I say sent me to buy a fowl, or did you see a tall I say here a while ago? The application is, however, not more curious than the title of John, bestowed on the Chinaman by most foreigners as a generic distinction. Less flattering epithets used to be freely bestowed on us, especially in the interior such as foreign devil, red-haired devil, etc. The phrase, hung Mao, red-haired, is applied to foreigners of all classes and arose when the Dutch first opened up trade with China. A Chinese work alluding to their arrival says, their raiment was red and their hair too. They had bluish eyes, deeply sunken in their head, and our people were quite frightened by their strange aspect. Jack will have to tell how many strange anomalies met his gaze. For example, in launching their junks and vessels, they are sent into the water sideways. The horseman mounts on the right side. The scholar reciting his lesson turns his back on his master. And if Jack, or at all events one of his superior officers goes to a party, he should not wear light pumps but as thick solid shoes as he can get. White lead is used for blacking. On visits of ceremony, you should keep your hat on, and when you advance to your host, you should close your fists and shake hands with yourself. Dinners commence with sweets and fruits and end with fish and soup. White is the funeral color. You may see adults gravely flying kites while the youngsters look on. Shuttle cocks are battle-doored by the heel. Books begin at the end, the paging is at the bottom, and in reading you proceed from right to left. The surname precedes the Christian name. The fond mother holds her babe to her nose to smell it, as she would a rose instead of kissing it. What yarns he will have to tell of pigtails? How the Chinese sailor lashes it round his cap at sea? How the crusty pedagogue, with no other rod of correction, will, on the spur of the moment, lash the refractory scholar with it? And how, for fun, a wag will tie two or three of his companion's tails together and start them off in different directions? But he will also know, from his own or others' experiences, that the foreigner must not attempt practical jokes upon John Chinaman's tail. Noli Métanger, says Dr. Milne, is the order of the tail as well as of the thistle. Now that most of the restrictions surrounding foreigners in Japan have been removed, and that enlightened people, the Englishmen of the Pacific, in enterprise and progress, have taken their proper place among the nations of the earth, visits to Japan are commonly made by even ordinary tourists making the circuit of the globe, and we shall have to touch there again in another voyage round the world shortly to follow. The English sailors of the Royal Navy often have an opportunity of visiting the charming islands which constitute Japan. Its English name is a corruption of Te Pankwo, Chinese for Kingdom of the Source of the Sun. Marco Polo was the first to bring to Europe intelligence of the bright isles whose Japanese name, Nippon or Nippon, means literally Sun Source. On the way to Yokohama, the great port of Japan, the Voyager will encounter the monsoons, the northeast version of which brings deliciously cool air from October to March, while the southwest monsoon brings hot and weary weather. On the way, Nagasaki, on the island of Kyusu, will almost certainly be visited, which has a harbor with a very narrow entrance, with hills running down to the water's edge, beautifully covered with luxuriant grass and low trees. The Japanese have planted batteries on either side, which would probably prevent any vessel short of a strong iron clad from getting in or out of the harbor. The city has a population at least of 150,000. There are a number of Chinese restricted to one quarter surrounded by a high wall in which is a heavy gate that is securely locked every night. Their dwellings are usually mean and filthy and compare very unfavorably with the neat, clean, matted dwellings of the Japanese. The latter despise the former. Indeed, you can scarcely insult a native more than to compare him with his brother of Nanking. The Japanese term them the Nanking Sands. The island of Nifon, on which Yokohama is situated, is about 170 miles long by 70 broad, while Yeso is somewhat longer and narrower. Japan really became known to Europe through Fernando Mendes Pinto, a Portuguese who was shipwrecked there in 1549. Seven years later, the famous Jesuit, Francis Xavier, introduced the Catholic faith, which for a long time made great progress. But a fatal mistake was made in 1580 when an embassy was sent to the pope with presence and vows of allegiance. The reigning tycoon had his eyes opened by this act and saw that to profess obedience to any spiritual lord was to weaken his own power immeasurably. The priests of the old religions, too, complained bitterly of the loss of their flocks and the tycoon determined to crush out the Christian faith. Thousands upon thousands of converts were put to death and the very last of them are said to have been hurled from the rock of Papenburg at Nagasaki into the sea. In 1600, William Adams, an English sailor on a Dutch ship, arrived in the harbor of Bungo and speedily became a favorite with the tycoon, who, through him, gave the English permission to establish a trading factory on the island of Fernando. This was later on abandoned, but the Dutch East India Company continued the trade on the same island under very severe restrictions. The firearms and powder on their ships were taken from them immediately on arrival and only returned when the ships were ready for sea again. Yokohama, the principal port, stands on a flat piece of ground at the wide end of a valley which runs narrowing up for several miles in the country. The site was reclaimed from a mere swamp by the energy of the government and there is now a fine sea wall facing the sea with two piers running out into it, on each of which there is a custom house. The average Japanese in the streets is clothed in a long, thin cotton robe open in front and gathered at the waist by a cloth girdle. This constitutes the whole of his dress save a scanty cloth tied tightly around the loins, cotton socks and wooden clogs. The elder women look hideous, but some of their ugliness is self-inflicted as it is the fashion when a woman becomes a wife to draw out the hair of her eyebrows and varnish her teeth black. Their teeth are white and they still have their eyebrows but are too much prone to the use of chalk and vermilion on their cheeks. Everyone is familiar with the Japanese stature under the general average, for there are now a large number of the natives resident in London. Jack will soon find out that the Japanese cuisine is most varied. Tea and sake or rice beer are the only liquors used, except of course by traveled Europeanized or Americanized Japanese. They sit on the floor squatting on their heels in a manner which tires Europeans very rapidly, although they look as comfortable as possible. The floor serves them for chair, table, bed and writing desk. At meals there is a small stand about 9 inches high by 7 inches square placed before each individual and on this is deposited a small bowl and a variety of little dishes. Chopsticks are used to convey the food to their mouth. Their most common dishes are fish boiled with onions and a kind of small bean dressed with oil. Fowls stewed and cooked in all ways, boiled rice, oil, mushrooms, carrots and various bulbous roots are greatly used in making up their dishes. In the way of a bed in summer they merely lie down on the mats and put a wooden pillow under their heads. But in winter indulge in warm quilts and have brass pans of charcoal at the feet. They are very cleanly, baths being used constantly and the public bathhouses being open to the street. Strangely enough however, although so particular in bodily cleanliness they never wash their clothes but wear them until they almost drop to pieces. A gentleman who arrived there in 1859 had to send his clothes to Shanghai to be washed. A journey of 1600 miles. Since the great influx of foreigners however plenty of niphons have turned laundry men. Their tea gardens like those of the Chinese are often large and extremely ornamental and at them one obtains a cup of genuine tea made before your eyes for one third of a half penny. The great attraction in a landscape point of view outside Yokohama is the grand Fusiyama mountain an extinct volcano the great object of reverence and pride in the Japanese heart and which in native drawings and carvings is incessantly represented. A giant 14,000 feet high it towers grandly to the clouds snow-capped and streaked. It is deemed a holy and worthy deed to climb to its summit and pray in the numerous temples that adorn its sides. Thousands of pilgrims visit it annually and now let us make a northward voyage. End of Chapter 8 Part 2 Chapter 9 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 Rita Butros The Sea its stirring story of adventure peril and heroism volume 1 by Frederick Wimper Chapter 9 Part 1 round the world on a man of war northward and southward the Australian station many English men of war have visited the interesting peninsula of Kamchatka all included in the China station how well the writer remembers the first time he visited Petropolovsky the port of Peter and Paul entering first one of the noblest bays in the whole world Glorious Avacha Bay and steaming a short distance the entrance to a capital harbor disclosed itself in half an hour the vessel inside a landlocked harbor with a sands spit protecting it from all fear of gales or sudden squalls behind was a highly colored little town red roofs, yellow walls and a church with burnished turrets the hills around were automatically frost colored but not all the ideas the expression will convey to an artist could conjure up the reality indian yellow merging through tints of gamboge yellow and brown ochre to somber brown matter lake, brown matter indian red to roman sepia grays, bright and dull greens indefinable and utterly indescribable formed a melange of color which defined description whether by brush or pen it was delightful but it was puzzling frost had completed at night that which autumn had done by day then behind rose the grand mountain of koreatsky one of a series of great volcanoes it seemed a few miles off it was although the wonderful clearness of the atmosphere belied the fact some 30 miles distant an impregnable fortress of rock streaked and capped with snow it defies time and man its smoke was constantly observed its pure snows only hid the boiling bubbling lava beneath with the exception of a few decent houses the residences of the civil governor captain of the port and other officials and a few foreign merchants the town makes no great show the poorer dwellings are very rough and indeed are almost exclusively log cabins a very picturesque and noticeable building is the old greek church which has painted red and green roofs and a belfry full of bells large and small detached from the building and only a foot or two raised above the ground it is to be noted that the town as it existed in captain clerk's time was built on the sands spit it was once a military post but the Cossack soldiers have been removed to the Amur there are two monuments of interest in Petropolovsky one in honor of bearing the second to the memory of La Peruse the former is a plain cast iron column railed in while the latter is a most nondescript construction of sheet iron and is of octagonal form neither of these navigators is buried in the town poor bearings remains lie on the island where he miserably perished and which now bears his name while of the fate of La Peruse and his unfortunate companions little is known in 1855 Petropolovsky was visited by the allied fleets during the period of our war with Russia they found an empty town for the Russian government had given up all idea of defending it the combined fleet captured one miserable whaler raised the batteries and destroyed some of the government buildings there were good and sufficient reasons why they should have done nothing the poor little town of sands peter and paul was beneath notice as victory there could never be glorious but a stronger reason existed in the fact recorded in a dozen voyages that from the days of cook and clerk to our own it had always been famous for the unlimited hospitality and assistance shown to explorers and voyagers without regard to nationality all is not fair in war possibly however reason might be found for the havoc done in the events of the previous year in August 1854 the inhabitants of Petropolovsky had covered themselves with glory much to their own surprise on the 28th of the month six English and French vessels the president, Virago, Peake, Laforte Laredici and Loblegado entered Avacha Bay Admiral Price reconnoitered the harbor and town and placed the Virago in position at 2,000 yards the Russians had two vessels the Aurora and Duna to defend the harbor and a strong chain was placed across its narrow entrance the town was defended by seven batteries and earthworks mounting fifty guns it was not difficult to silence the batteries and they were accordingly silenced the townspeople with their limited knowledge of the English those English they had always so hospitably received and who were now doing their best to kill them thought their hour was come and that if not immediately executed they would have to languish exiles in a foreign land far from their beautiful Kamchatka the town was and is defended almost as much by nature as by art high hills shut it in so completely and the harbor entrance can be so easily defended that there was really only one vulnerable point in its rear where a small valley opens out into a plot of land bordering the bay here it was thought desirable to land a body of men accordingly seven hundred marines and sailors were put ashore the men looked forward to an easy victory and hurriedly in detached and straggling style pressed forward to secure it alas they had reckoned without their host they were rushing heedlessly into the jaws of death a number of bushes and small trees existed and still exist on the hillsides surrounding this spot and behind them were posted Kossak sharpshooters who fired into our men and either from skill or accident picked off nearly every officer the men not seeing their enemy and having lost their leaders became panic struck and fell back in disorder a retreat was sounded but the men struggling in the bushes and underbrush and in truth most of them being sailors were out of their element on land they became much scattered and it was generally believed that many were killed by the random shots of their companions a number fled up a hill at the rear of the town their foes pursued and pressed upon them and many were killed by falling over the steep cliff in which the hill terminates the inhabitants astonished at their own prowess and knowing that they could not hold the town against a more vigorous attack were preparing to vacate it when the fleet weighed anchor and set sail and no more was seen of them that year the sudden death of our admiral is always attributed to the events of that attack as he was known not to have been killed by a ball from the enemy the rider has walked over the main battlefield and saw cannonballs unearthed when some men were digging gravel which had laid there since the events of 1854 the last time he passed over it in 1866 was when proceeding with some Russian and American friends to what might be termed an international picnic for there were present European and Asiatic Russians full and half breed natives, Americans including genuine Yankee New Englanders New Yorkers, Southerners and Californians Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans and one Italian chatting in a babble of tongues the party climbed a path on the hillside leading to a beautiful grassy opening overlooking the glorious bay below which extended in all directions a dozen or fifteen miles and on one side farther than the eye could reach several grand snow-covered volcanoes towered above thirty to fifty miles off one of most beautiful outline that of Villa Chinsky was on the opposite shore of Avacha Bay the sky was bright and blue and the water without a ripple wild flowers were abundant the air was fragrant with them and but for the mosquitoes which are not confined to hot countries but flourish in the short summer of semi-arctic climes it might have been considered an earthly addition of paradise but even these pests could not worry the company much for not merely were nearly all the men's smokers but most of the ladies also here the writer may remark parenthetically that many of the Russian ladies smoke cigarettes and none object to gentlemen smoking at table or elsewhere at the many dinners and suppers offered by the hospitable residents it was customary to draw a few whiffs between the courses and when the cloth was removed the ladies instead of retiring to another room sat in company with the gentlemen the larger proportion joining in the social weed after the enjoyment of a liberal alfresco dinner songs were in order and it would be easier to say what was not sung to give the list of those in all languages which were then after the songs came some games one of them a Russian version of hunt the slipper and another very like kiss in the ring the writer particularly remembers the latter for he had on that occasion the honor of kissing the pope's wife this needs explanation although the pope was his friend in the Greek church the priest is allowed to marry and his title in the Russian language is pope and the recollection of that particular pope recalls a well remembered ceremony that of a double wedding in the old church during the ceremony it is customary to crown the bride and bridegroom in this case two considerate male friends held the crowns for three quarters of an hour over the bride's heads so as not to spoil the artistic arrangement of their hair and head gear it seems also to be the custom when as in the present case the couples were in the humbler walks of life to ask some wealthy individual to act as master of the ceremonies who if he accepts has to stand all the expenses in this case Monsieur Philippeus a merchant who has many times crossed the frozen steps of Siberia in search of valuable furs was the victim and he accepted the responsibility of entertaining all Petropolovsky the officers of the splendid Russian Corvette the Varyag and those of the telegraph expedition with cheerfulness and alacrity the coastline of Kamchatka is extremely grand and far behind it are magnificent volcanic peaks the promontory which terminates in the two capes Kamchatka and Stolbovoi has the appearance of two islands detached from the mainland the intervening country being low this a circumstance to be constantly observed on all coasts was perhaps specially noticeable on this the island of St. Lawrence in Bering Sea was a very prominent example it is undeniable that the apparent gradual rise of a coast seen from the sea as you approach it affords a far better proof of the rotundity of the earth than the illustrations usually employed that of a ship which you are supposed to see by installments from the main royal sail if not from the skyscraper or moon raker to the hull the fact is that the royal and top galant sales of a vessel on the utmost verge of the horizon may be in certain lights barely distinguishable while the dark outline of an irregular and rock bound coast can be seen by anyone first maybe appears a mountain peak towering in solitary grandeur above the coastline and often far behind it then the highlands and hills then the cliffs and lowlands and lastly the flats and beaches it was from the Kamchatka river which enters Bering Sea near the Cape of the same name that Vitus Bering sailed on his first voyage that navigator was a persevering and plucky dain who had been drawn into the service of Russia through the fame of Peter the Great and his first expedition was directly planned by that sagacious monarch although he did not live to carry it out Muller, the historian of Bering's career says the Empress Catherine as she endeavored in all points to execute most precisely the plans of her deceased husband in a manner began her reign with an order for the expedition to Kamchatka Bering had associated with him two active subordinates Spanburg and Tysherikov they left St. Petersburg on February 5th, 1725 proceeding to the Ochotsk Sea via Siberia it is a tolerable proof of the difficulties of travel in those days that it took them two years to transport their outfit thither they crossed to Kamchatka where on the 4th of April 1728 Muller tells us a boat was put upon the stocks like the packet boats used in the Baltic and on the 10th of July was launched and named the boat Gabriel a few days later and she was creeping along the coast of Kamchatka and eastern Siberia Bering on this first voyage discovered St. Lawrence Island and reached as far north as 67 degrees 18 minutes where finding the land trend to the westward he came to the conclusion that he had reached the eastern extremity of Asia and that Asia and America were distinct continents on the first point he was not, as a matter of detail, quite correct but the second, the important object of his mission settled forever the vexed question a second voyage was rather unsuccessful his third expedition left Petropolovsky on the 4th of July 1741 his little fleet became dispersed in a storm and Bering pursued his discoveries alone these were not unimportant for he reached the grand chain of the rock-girt Aleutian Islands and others near the mainland of America at length the scurvy broke out in virulent form among his crew and he attempted to return to Kamchatka the sickness increased so much that the two sailors who used to be at the rudder were obliged to be led in by two others who could barely walk and when one could sit and steer no longer one in little better condition supplied his place many sails they durst not hoist because there was nobody to lower them in case of need at length land appeared and they cast anchor a storm arose and the ship was driven on the rocks they cast their second anchor and the cable snapped before it took ground a great sea pitched the vessel bodily over the rocks behind which they happily found quieter water the island was barren, devoid of trees and with little driftwood they had to roof over gulches or ravines to form places of refuge on the 8th of November a beginning was made to land the sick but some died as soon as they were brought from between decks in the open air others during the time they were on the deck some in the boat and many more as soon as they were brought on shore on the following day the commander bearing himself prostrated with disease was brought ashore and moved about on a handbarrow he died a month after in one of the little ravines or ditches had been covered with a roof and when he expired was almost covered with the sand which fell from its sides and which he desired his men not to remove as it gave him some little warmth before his remains could be finally interred they had literally to be disinterred the vessel unguarded was utterly wrecked and their provisions lost they subsisted mainly that fearful winter on the carcasses of dead whales which were driven ashore in the spring the pitiful remnant of a once hardy crew managed to construct a small vessel from the wreck of their old ship and at length succeeded in reaching Kamchatka they then learned that Chakirokov bearings associate had preceded them but with the loss of 31 of his crew the same fell disease which had so reduced their numbers bearing's name has ever since been attached to the island where he died there is no doubt that Kamchatka would repay a detailed exploration which it has never yet received it is a partially settled country the Kamchatdales are a good humored, harmless and semi-civilized race Russian officials and settlers at the few little towns would gladly welcome the traveler the dogs used for sledging in winter are noble animals infinitely stronger than those of Alaska or even Greenland the attractions for the alpine climber cannot be overstated the peninsula contains a chain of volcanic peaks attaining it is stated a height of 16,000 feet in the country immediately behind Petropolovsky are the three peaks Koreatsky, Avacha and Koselsky the first is about 12,000 feet in height and is a conspicuous landmark for the port a comparatively level country covered with rank grass and underbrush and intersected by streams stretches very nearly to their base End of Chapter 9, Part 1 Chapter 9, Part 2 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 Rita Butros The Sea its stirring story of adventure, peril and heroism Volume 1 by Frederick Wimper Chapter 9, Part 2 round the world on a manna war northward and southward the Australian station and now before leaving the Asiatic coast let us as many English naval vessels have done pay a flying visit to a still more northern harbor that of Plover Bay which forms the very apex of the China station sailing or steaming through Bering Sea it is satisfactory to know that so shallow is it that a vessel can anchor in almost any part of it though hundreds of miles from land Plover Bay does not derive its name from the whaling which is often pursued in its waters although an ingenious Dutchman of the service in which the writer was engaged at the periods of his visits persists in calling it Blubber Bay its name is due to the visit of HMS Plover in 1848-1849 when engaged in the search for Sir John Franklin the bay is a most secure haven sheltered at the ocean end by a long spit and walled in on three sides by rugged mountains and bare cliffs the former composed of an infinite number of fragments of rock split up by the action of frost besides many colored lichens and mosses there was hardly a sign of vegetation except at one patch of country near a small inner harbor where domesticated reindeer graze on the spit before mentioned is a village of Chukchi natives their tents are composed of hide, walrus, seal or reindeer with here and there a piece of old sailcloth obtained from the whalers the whole patchwork covering a framework formed of the large bones of whales and walrus the remains of underground houses are seen but the people who use them have passed away the present race makes no use of such houses their canoes are of skin covering sometimes a wooden and sometimes a bone frame on either side of one of these craft which is identical with the Greenland Umiak or women's boat it is usual to have a seal skin blown out tight and the ends fastened to the gun whale these serve as floats to steady the canoe they often carry sail and proceed safely far out to sea even crossing bearing straits to the American side the natives are a hardy race the rider has seen one of them carry the awkward burden of a carpenter's chest weighing 200 pounds without apparent exertion one of their principal men was of considerable service to the expedition and to a party of telegraph constructors who were left there in a wooden house made in San Francisco and erected in a few days in this barren spot this native by name Nockham was taken down into the engine room of the telegraph steamer G.S. Wright he looked round carefully and thoughtfully and then shaking his head said solemnly too muchy wheel makey man too muchy think his curiosity on board was unappeasable what's that fellow was his query with regard to anything from the donkey engine to the hencoops Colonel Bulkley gave him a suit of mock uniform gorgeous with buttons one of the men remarked to him why Nockham you'll be a king soon but this magnificent prospect did not seem judging from the way he received it to be much to his taste this man had been sometimes entrusted with as much as five barrels of villainous whiskey for trading purposes and he had always accounted satisfactorily to the trader for its use the whiskey sold to the natives is of the most horrible kind scarcely superior to coal, oil or paraffin they appear to understand the telegraph scheme in a general way one explaining it said suppose Lope Fixie well one mellican man, Plower Bay make talky all same San Francisco mellican perhaps quite as lucid an explanation as you could get from an agricultural laborer or a street Arab at home Colonel Bulkley at his second visit to Plower Bay caused a small house of planks to be constructed for Nockham and made him many presents a drowsman attached to the party made a sketch a dream of the future which was a lively representation of the future prospects of Nockham and his family the room was picturesque with paddles, skins, brand new Henry rifles preserved meat tins, etc and civilization was triumphant although Plower Bay is almost in sight of the Arctic Ocean very little snow remained on the barren country rounded except on the distant mountains or in deep ravines where it has lain for ages that there snow said one of the sailors pointing to such a spot is 300 years old if it's a day why don't you see the wrinkles all over the face of it wrinkles and ridges are common enough in snow but the idea of associating age with them was original the whalers are often very successful in and outside Plower Bay in securing their prey each boat is known by its own private mark across red stripes or what not on its sail so that at a distance they can be distinguished from their respective vessels when the whale is harpooned often a long and dangerous job and is floating dead in the water a small flag is planted in it after the monster is towed alongside the vessel it is cut up into large rectangular chunks and it is a curious and not altogether pleasant sight to witness the deck of a whaling ship covered with blubber this can be either a barreled or the oil tried out on the spot if the latter the blubber is cut into mincemeat and chopping knives and even mincing machines are employed the oil is boiled out on board and the vessel when seen at a distance looks as if on fire on these occasions the sailors have a feast of donuts which are cooked in boiling whale oil fritters of whale brain and other dishes the rider has tasted whale in various shapes but although it is eatable it is by no means luxurious food it was in these waters of Bering Sea and the Arctic that the Shenandoah played such havoc during the American war in 1865 she burned 30 American whalers taking off the officers and crews and sending them down to San Francisco the captain of an English whaler the Robert Tauns of Sydney had warned and saved some American vessels and was in consequence threatened by the pirate captain the rider was an eyewitness of the results of this wanton destruction of private property the coasts were strewed with the remains of the burned vessels while the natives had boats, spars, etc. in numbers but Plover Bay has an interest attaching to it of far more importance than anything to be said about whaling or arctic expeditions it is more than probable that from or near that bay the wandering Tungus or Chukchi crossed Bering Straits and peopled America the latter in canoes holding 15 or 20 persons do it now why not in the long ago the rider has in common with many who have visited Alaska formerly Russian America before the country was purchased by the United States remarked the almost Chinese or Japanese cast of features possessed by the coast natives of that country their asiatic origin could not be doubted and on the other hand alludes natives of the Aleutian Islands which stretch out in a grand chain from Alaska who had shipped as sailors on the Russo-American telegraph expedition and a Chukchi boy brought down to be educated were constantly taken for Japanese or Chinaman in San Francisco where there are 40,000 of the former people junks have on two occasions been driven across the Pacific Ocean and have landed their cruise these facts occurred in 1832 to 1833 the first on the coast near Cape Flattery North West America and the second in the harbor of Oahu sandwich Hawaiian islands in the former case all the crew but two men and a boy were killed by the natives in the latter case however the sandwich islanders treated the nine Japanese forming the crew of the junk with kindness and when they saw the strangers so much resembling them in many respects said it is plain now we come from Asia how easily then could we account for the peopling of any island or coast in the Pacific whether therefore stress of weather obliged some unfortunate Chinaman or Japanese to people America or whether they or at all events some northern asiatics took the short sea route via Bering Straits there is a very strong probability in favor of the new world having been peopled from not merely the old world but the oldest world Asia the Pacific Ocean generally bears itself in a manner which justifies its title the long sweeps of its waves are far more pleasant to the sailor than the choppy waves of the Atlantic but the Pacific is by no means always so as the writer very well knows he will not soon forget November 1865 nor will those of his companions who still survive leaving Petropolovsky on November 1st a fortnight of what sailor's term dirty weather culminated in a gale from the southeast it was no capful of wind but a veritable tempest which broke over the devoted ship at its outset the wind was so powerful it blew the main boom from the ropes which held it and it swung round with great violence against the smokestack funnel of the steamer knocking it overboard the guys or chains by which it had been held upright were snapped and it went to the bottom here was a dilemma the engines were rendered nearly useless and a few hours later were made absolutely powerless for the rudder became disabled and the steering wheel was utterly unavailable during this period a very curious circumstance happened the sea driving faster than the vessel itself a log lying in the trough of the waves which rose in mountains on all sides acted on the screw in such a manner that in its turn it worked the engines at a greater rate than they had ever attained by steam after much trouble the couplings were disconnected but for several hours the jarring of the machinery revolved at lightning speed threatened to make a breach in the stern no one on board will soon forget the night of that great gale the vessel scarcely larger than a penny steamer and having guards or bulwarks little higher than the rail of those boats engulfed in the tempestuous waters it seemed literally to be driving under the water waves broke over it every few minutes a rope had to be stretched along the deck for the sailors to hold on by while the brave commander captain Marston was literally tied to the aft bulwark where half frozen and half drowned he remained at his post during an entire night the steamer had the house on deck so common in American vessels it was divided into state rooms very comfortably fitted but had doors and windows of the lightest character at the commencement of the gale these were literally battered to pieces by the waves dashing over the vessel it was a matter of doubt whether the whole house might not be carried off bodily the officers of the expedition took refuge in the small cabin aft which had been previously the general wardrobe of the vessel where the meals were served a great sea broke over its skylight smashing the glass to atoms putting out the lamps and stove and filling momentarily the cabin with about three feet of water a landsman would have thought his last hour had come but the hull of the vessel was sound the pumps were in good order and worked steadily by a donkey engine in the engine room and the water soon disappeared the men coiled themselves up that night amid a pile of ropes and sails boxes and miscellaneous matters lying on the counter of the vessel i.e. that part of the stern lying immediately over the rudder the next morning in place of the capital breakfast all had been enjoying fish and game from Kamchatka tinned fruits and meats from California hot rolls and cakes the steward and cook could only with great difficulty provide some rather shaky coffee and the regular hard bread biscuit of the ship the storm increased in violence it was unsafe to venture on deck the writer's roommate, Monsieur Labourne a genial and cultivated man of the world who spoke seven languages fluently sat down and wrote a last letter to his mother enclosing it afterwards in a bottle it will never reach her, said poor Labourne with tears dimming his eyes but it is all I can do each tried to comfort the other and prepare for the worst if we are to die, let us die like men said adjudent right come down in the engine room, another said and if we've got to die, let's die decently the chief engineer lighted a fire on the iron floor below the boilers and it was the only part of the vessel which was at all comfortable noble-hearted Colonel Bulkley spent his time in cheering the men and reminding them that the sea has been proved infinitely safer place than the land no single one on board really expected to survive meantime, the gale was expending its rage by tearing every sail to ribbons rags and streamers fluttered from the yards there was not a single piece of canvas intact the cabins held a wreck of trunks, furniture and crockery in one of the cabins the boxes of soap in bars had been stored when the gale commenced to abate someone ventured into the house on deck when it was discovered that it was full of soapsuds which swashed backwards and forwards through the series of rooms the water had washed and re-washed the bars of soap till they were not thicker than sticks of sealing wax at last after a week of this horrible weather morning broke with a sight of the sun and moderate wind there were spare sails on board and the rudder could be repaired but what could be done about the funnel the engineer's ingenuity came out conspicuously he had one of the usual water tanks brought on deck and the two ends knocked out then setting it up over the boiler he with pieces of sheet iron raised this square erection till it was about 9 feet high and it gave a sufficient draft to the furnaces Covert's patent smoke stack created a sensation on the safe arrival of the vessel in San Francisco and was inspected by hundreds of visitors the little steamer had plowed through 10,000 miles of water that season she was immediately taken to one of the wharfs and entirely remodeled the sides were slightly raised and a wardroom and aft cabin handsomely fitted in yacht fashion took the place of the house on deck it was roofed or decked at top in such a manner that the heaviest seas could wash over the vessel without doing the slightest injury and she afterwards made two voyages going over a distance of 20,000 miles poor old Wright she went to the bottom at last with all her crew and passengers some years later off Cape Flattery at the entrance of the Straits of Fuca and scarcely a vestige of her was ever found and now retracing our steps en route for the Australian station let us call at one of the most important of England's settlements when termed the liver pool of the east Singapore consists of an island 25 miles long and 15 or so broad lying off the south extremity of Malacca and having a city of the same name on its southern side the surface is very level the highest elevation being only 520 feet in 1818 Stamford Raffles founded an island covered with virgin forests and dense jungles with a miserable population on its creeks and rivers of fishermen and pirates it has now a population of about 100,000 of which Chinese number more than half in 1819 the British flag was hoisted over the new settlement but it took 5 years on the part of Mr Crawford the diplomatic representative of Great Britain to negotiate terms with its then owner the Sultan of Johor whereby for a heavy yearly payment it was with all the islands within 10 miles of the coast given up with absolute possession to the Honourable East India Company since that period its history has been one of unexampled prosperity it is a free port the revenue being raised entirely from imports on opium and spirits its prosperity as a commercial port is due to the fact that it is an entrepôt for the whole trade of the Malayan Archipelago the Eastern Archipelago Cochin, China Siam and Java 12 years ago it exported over 66 million rupees worth of gambier tin pepper nutmegs coffee tortoise shell rare woods sego tapioca camphor garaparcha and ratans it is vastly greater now exclusive of innumerable native craft 1697 square rigged vessels entered the port in 1864 to 1865 it has two splendid harbours one a sheltered roadstead near the town with safe anchorage the other a land locked harbour three miles from the town capable of admitting vessels of the largest draft splendid wharfs have been erected by the many steamship companies and merchants and there are fortifications which command the harbour and roads a great deal has been written about the natural beauties of Ceylon and Java says Mr. Cameron and some theologians determined to give the first scene in the mosaic narrative a local habitation have fixed the paradise of unfallen man on one or other of those noble islands nor has their enthusiasm carried them to any ridiculous extreme where the beauty of some parts of Java and Ceylon might well accord with the description given us or rather which we are accustomed to infer of that land from which man was driven on his first great sin I have seen both Ceylon and Java and admired in no grudging measure their many charms but for calm placid loveliness I should place Singapore high above them both it is a loveliness too that at once strikes the eye from whatever point we view the island which combines all the advantages of an always beautiful and often imposing coastline with an endless succession of hill and dale stretching inland the entire circumference of the island is one panorama where the magnificent tropical forest with its undergrowth of jungle runs down at one place at the very water's edge dipping its large leaves in the glassy sea and at another is abruptly broken by a brown rocky cliff or a late landslip over which the jungle has not yet had time to extend itself here and there too are scattered little green islands set like gems on the bosom of the hushed waters between which the excursionist where the pirate is want to steer his course eternal summer guilds these shores no sooner has the blossom of one tree passed away than that of another takes its place and sheds perfume all around as for the foliage that never seems to die perfumed aisles are in many people's minds merely fabled dreams but they are easy of realization here this scarcely a part of the island except those few places where the original forest and jungle have been cleared away from which at night time on the first breathings of the land winds may not be felt those lovely forest perfumes even at the distance of more than a mile from shore these land winds or more properly land airs for they can scarcely be said to blow but only to breathe usually commence at ten o'clock at night and continue within an hour or two of sunrise they are welcomed by all by the sailor because they speed him on either course and by the wearied resident because of their delicious coolness another rider speaks with the same enthusiasm of the well-kept country roads and approaches to the houses of residents where one may travel for miles through unbroken avenues of fruit trees or beneath an overarching canopy of evergreen palms the long and well-kept approaches to the European dwellings never fail to win the praise of strangers in them may be discovered the same lavish profusion of overhanging foliage which we see around us on every side besides that there are often hedges of wild heliotrope cropped as square as if built up of stone and forming compact barriers of green leaves which yet blossom with gold and purple flowers behind these broad bananas nod their bending leaves while a choice flower garden, a close-shaven lawn and a croquet ground are not uncommonly the surroundings of the residents if it is early morning there is an unspeakable charm about the spot the air is cool even bracing the rich blossom of orchids are seen depending from the boughs while songless birds twitter among the foliage or beneath shrubs which the convulvulus has decked with a hundred variegated flowers here and there the slender stem of the aloe rising from an armory of spiked leaves lifts its cone of white bells on high or the deep orange pineapple peeps out from a green belt of fleshy foliage and breathes its bright fragrance around the house will invariably have a spacious veranda underneath which flowers in china vases and easy chairs of all kinds are placed if perfect peace can steal through the senses into the soul if it can be distilled like some subtle ether from all that is beautiful in nature surely in such an island as this we shall find that supreme happiness which we all know to be unattainable elsewhere alas even in this bright spot unalloyed bliss cannot be expected the temperature is very high showing an average in the shade all the year round of between 85 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit prickly heat and many other disorders are caused by it on the European constitution the old straight of singha pura that lies between the island of Singapore and the mainland of Johor is a narrow tortuous passage for many centuries the only thoroughfare for ships passing to the eastward of Malacca not many years ago where charming bungalows the residences of the merchants are built among the ever-verden foliage it was but the home of hordes of piratical marauders who carried on their depredations with a high hand sometimes adventuring on distant voyages in fleets of 40 or 50 prahus indeed it is stated in the old Malay annals that for nearly 200 years the entire population of Singapore and the surrounding islands and coasts of Johor subsisted on fishing and pirating the former only being resorted to when the prevailing monsoon was too strong to admit of the successful prosecution of the latter single cases of piracy sometimes occur now but it has been nearly stopped of the numberless vessels and boats which give life to the waters of the old strait nearly all have honest work to do fishing, timber carrying or otherwise trading a very extraordinary flotilla says Mr Cameron of a rather nondescript character may be often seen in this part of the strait at certain seasons of the year these are huge rafts of unsawn newly cut timber they are generally 500 to 600 feet long and 60 or 70 broad the logs being skillfully laid together and carefully bound by strong rattan rope each raft often containing 2,000 logs they have always one or two at up houses built upon them and carry crews of 20 or 25 men the married men taking their wives and children with them the timber composing them is generally cut many miles away in some creek or river on the mainland they sometimes have sails they will irresistibly remind the traveller of those picturesque rafts on the Rhine on which there are cabins with the smoke curling from their stove pipes and women children and dogs the men with long sweeps keeping the valuable floating freight in the current many a German now in England or America made his first trip through the fatherland to its coast on a Rhine raft End of Chapter 9 Part 2