We landed in Colombo on the steps of a pagoda-like structure containing
the Custom House, and passing through found ourselves on a broad avenue
that led direct to the Grand Oriental Hotel, said by travelers to be the
finest south of the Mediterranean, and in their opinion I can certainly
concur, as we found it to be everything that could be desired so far as
our limited experience went. The rooms were large and carpetless, with
latticed windows and high ceilings and the immense dining-rooms opened
on broad stone porticos with massive columns and surrounding galleries,
on which were Turkish divans for the comfort of the guests. The
dark-skinned native servants, with their picturesque, flowing garments
and tortoise-shell combs, gave to the whole an oriental air that up to
that time we had read about but never seen. We were fanned by great
swinging punkas during the dinner hour, the meal being an excellent one,
after which we went out to see the town, the Indian shops under the
hotel coming in that night for the largest share of our attention. First,
because they were easy to reach, and, second, because of the really
handsome stock of articles of Indian manufacture that they contained.
Carvings in ebony and ivory, in the most beautiful designs, inlaid work
of all descriptions, shawls that a queen might envy, together with
embroidered articles of rare beauty, delicate tapestry and quaint and
curious figures of all kinds, were for sale there and at prices that
were not more than one-third or one-fourth what the same articles could
be purchased for at home, though the price that was at first asked for
them by these shopkeepers would be at least three or four times what
they expected to get.
The jinricksha, which answers the same purpose as the hansom cab in
Chicago or New York, and which is a much lighter and smaller vehicle,
being drawn by a Cingalese who trots along between the shafts as though
it were a pleasure instead of a business, is about the only sort of a
vehicle known to the natives of Colombo, and a ride in one of them is by
no means an unpleasant experience, as you are certain of one thing, and
that is that your horse will not shy with you and run away, no matter
what strange objects he may encounter. They are so gentle, too, that a
lady can drive them and will stand anywhere without hitching. These are
great advantages, and yet, after all, I think that I should prefer to
hold the ribbons over a good horse, and I am sure that Mrs. Anson is of
the same opinion. The jinriksha, with its human motor, must, it struck
me the first time that I saw them, be a decided obstacle to courtship,
for what young fellow would care to take his best girl out riding behind
a horse that could understand everything that was said and done, and
tell the groom all about it when he returned to the barn. I shouldn't
have liked to do so, when I was courting my wife, and I don't believe
that she would have cared to ride after that kind of a horse.
Visiting the American Consul that evening Mr. Spalding was informed that
on account of the steamship and railroad connections, and also because
of the unhealthy condition of Calcutta, it would be impossible for our
party to make a tour of India, and therefore that part of the trip was
given up, greatly to our regret, as we had looked forward to it with the
most pleasant anticipations. This disappointment was general among the
members of the party, but as it could not be helped we determined to
make the best of it.
Arrangements were made that evening, however, to hold the "Salier,"
which was to have left at daybreak the next morning, until five o'clock
in the afternoon, in order that we might play a game of base-ball before
our departure.
The sun was up but a trifle earlier that we were the next morning, as
we, wished to see all of Ceylon and the Cingalese that was possible in
the limited time at our disposal. The Hotel balconies in the early
morning were fairly given over to the crows, great big birds of a leaden
color that circle around you in the most impudent manner and are as hard
to get rid of as the beggars, which follow you about the streets in
swarms and annoy you with their cries of "bachsheesh, bachsheesh," until
you long even for the sight of a policeman to whom you might confide
your troubles. Colombo is not a prepossessing city to the eye of the
traveler, the buildings being of an ancient style of architecture and
built more for comfort than for show, but the market places and bazaars
are well worth a visit.
There is a beautiful beach drive that extends from the military barracks
along the shores of the ocean for miles, and this is the fashionable
drive of all Colombo, though it was all but deserted in the early
morning hours. The Buddhist temples, and there were several of them in
Colombo, we were obliged to inspect from the outside, no admittance to
European visitors being the rule, but the strange gods that peered down
at us from the walls gave us a very good idea of what might be found
inside and served, at least, to take the edge off of our curiosity.
An invitation having been tendered us that morning at the office of the
U. S. Consul to visit the corvette "Essex," Captain Jewell commanding,
then lying in the harbor, we repaired at one o'clock to the wharf, where
gigs, manned by the ship's crew, awaited us and we were soon on board,
where we were entertained by officers and crew in a handsome manner. The
rendering of "America" by Mrs. Leigh Lynch on the cornet brought out an
enthusiastic round of applause, while Clarence Duval captured the hearts
of the seamen by doing for them a plantation breakdown in his best
style. Captain Jewell kindly sent us aboard the "Salier" in the ship's
gigs, which waited for us until we had donned our uniforms, and then
took us to the shore.
The procession out to the Colombo Cricket Grounds, where the game was
played, was indeed a novelty, and the crowds of Cingalese that
surrounded us as we left the hotel and looked on in open-eyed wonder
were by no means the least impressive part of the circus. There were no
drags and carriages on this occasion and no gaily-caparisoned horses
with nodding plumes, but in their places were heavy-wheeled carts drawn
by humpbacked little bullocks and jinrickshas drawn by bare-legged
Cingalese. About these swarmed the natives in their rainbow attire, the
whole scene being one of the kaleidoscope kind.
At the grounds 4,500 people had assembled, the officers and crew of the
"Essex" being on hand as well as a crowd of English residents and native
Cingalese. We played but five innings, the result being a tie, three
runs for each team, a good game under the best of circumstances, and one
that apparently pleased everybody, the natives going wild over the
batting and making desperate efforts to get out of the way whenever a
ball happened to do in their direction. The journey back to the hotel
was another circus parade, and one that Barnum, with all his efforts,
never was able to equal. From the hotel we went directly to the wharf,
where the steam-launch was in waiting, and with a cheer from the crew of
the "Essex" in our ears we started for the steamer. As the "Salier"
started again on her voyage we climbed into the rigging and lined up
along the rail, cheering the crew of the "Essex" until the white forms
of the men that lined her rigging were lost to sight.
The voyage from Ceylon to Egypt over the Arabian sea and the Gulf of
Aden was a most enjoyable one, both sea and sky being deeply, darkly and
beautifully blue, with not so much as a cloud or a ripple to mar the
beauty of either, and so beautiful were the nights that it was a rare
thing for any member of the party to retire until long after the ship's
bells had proclaimed the hour of midnight.
The second morning after we had left the Island of Ceylon behind us we
were all made the victims of a cruel practical joke, of which Lynch and
Fogarty were the authors, and for which lynching would hardly have been
a sufficient punishment. It was in the early hours of the morning and
while we were still "dreaming the happy hours away," that the loud
report of a cannon shook the steamer from stem to stern, this being
followed by cries of:
"Pirates, pirates; my God, boys, the Chinese pirates are upon us!"
The report of another gun followed, and then a scene of confusion such
as had never before been witnessed outside of a lunatic asylum. Tener,
who was the treasurer of the party, grabbed his money-bags and locked
himself in his stateroom. Ed Hanlon rushed into the cabin with his
trousers in one hand and his valise in the other, and they say that I
filled my mouth with Mrs. Anson's diamonds, grabbed a base-ball bat and
stood guard at the doorway, ordering my wife to crawl under the bunk,
but that statement is a libel and one that I have been waiting for years
to deny. I only got up to see what a Chinese pirate looked like, that's
all. It was a scared lot of ball players that assembled in the cabin
that morning, however, and the cloud of smoke that came rolling down the
stairway only tended to make matters worse. Finally we caught sight of
Fogarty galloping around the saloon tables and yelling like a Comanche
Indian. We began then to suspect that he was at the bottom of the
trouble, and when he burst into roars of laughter we were certain of it.
It afterwards developed that the "Salier's" guns had been simply firing
a salute in honor of the birthday of the German Emperor, and that
Fogarty and Lynch had taken advantage of the opportunity to raise the
cry of pirates and scare as many of us nearly to death as possible. I
would have been willing, myself, that morning to have been one of a
party to help hang Fogarty at the yardarm, and some of the victims were
so mad that they were not seen to smile for a week.
It was during this voyage, too, that Mark Baldwin, the big pitcher of
the Chicagos, had an adventure with a big Indian monkey that the
engineer of the steamer had purchased in Ceylon that might have proved
serious. This monkey was a big, powerful brute, and as ugly-looking a
specimen of his family as I ever set my eyes on. He was generally
fastened by means of a strap around his waist and a rope some five or
six feet long, in the engine-room, but one morning Mark, without the
engineer's knowledge, unfastened him and took him on deck. The sight of
the ocean and his strange surroundings frightened him badly, and after
Mark pulled him about the deck a while he took him down stairs and
treated him to beer and pretzels, then brought him back to the deck and
gave him some more exercise. Becoming tired of the sport at last Mark
took him back to the engine-room. The iron grating around the first
cylinder enabled the monkey to get his head on a level with Mark's as he
descended the stair and Mr. Monk flew at his throat with a shriek of
rage. Mark luckily had his eye on the brute and protected his throat,
but fell backwards with the animal on top of him, receiving a painful
bite on the leg. The monkey then bounded over to his corner, where he
glared at Mark, his grey whiskers standing out stiff with rage. After
satisfying himself as to the extent of his injuries, the big pitcher
again went for the monk, but the latter jumped from the grating to the
piston-rod of the engine, and at every revolution of the screw he would
go down into the hold and then come up again, shaking his fist at Mark
at every ascent, and chattering like a magpie. This sight was so comical
that the big pitcher roared with laughter, and though he laid for a
chance to get even with Mr. Monk the rest the voyage the latter was
never to be caught napping, and kept himself out of danger.
Into the waters of the Arabian Sea, blue as indigo, we steamed on the
morning of February 1st, and soon after daybreak the next morning the
volcanic group of islands off the African coast were in plain sight from
the steamer's deck. Two hours later we passed the great headland of
Guardafui, on the northeast corner of Africa, a sentinel of rock that
guards the coast and that rises from the waves that are lashed to foam
about its base in solitary grandeur. The following afternoon we came in
sight of the Arabian coast, some forty miles distant, and later the
great rocky bluffs that protect Aden from the gulf winds were plainly
discernible. It was nearly supper time when we landed and we had but
barely time for a glance through the shops and bazaars, when we were
again compelled to board the steamer, which left at nine o'clock for
Suez.
The next morning the sound of a gong beaten on the steamer's deck
aroused us from our slumbers, and inquiring the wherefore we were
informed that we were approaching the straits of Bal-el-Mandeb, the
entrance to the Red Sea. This brought all of our party on deck to greet
the sunrise, and as we passed between the rockbound coast of Arabia on
the right and the Island of Perin on the left we could hear the roar of
the breakers and discern the yellow and faint light of the beacons that
were still burning on the shore. That morning at 10 o'clock we steamed
by the white walls and gleaming towers of the City of Mocha, that lay
far away on the Arabian coast, looking like some fairy city in the dim
distance. The weather as we steamed along over the surface of the Red
Sea was not as hot as we had expected to find it, and yet it was plenty
warm enough for comfort, and it was with mingled feelings of sorrow and
joy that we entered the harbor of Suez on the morning of February 7th
and drew slowly toward the little city of the same name that lay at the
end of the great canal, the building of which has tended to change the
business of the continents. The huge bluffs of the Egyptian coast stood
out in bold relief in the clear air of the morning, while from the
shores opposite the sands of the great desert stretched away as far as
the eye could reach. Among the larger vessels that lay in the harbor
were an English troop-ship and an Italian man-of-war, and as we dropped
anchor we were at once surrounded by a fleet of smaller craft. After
bidding good-by to Captain Talenhorst and his officers, and seeing that
our baggage was loaded on the lighters we were transferred to the decks
of a little steamer that was to take us to the docks of Suez, some two
miles distant. Hardly had we set our feet on the shores of Egypt before
we were besieged by swarms of Arabian and Egyptian donkey-boys in
loose-fitting robes, black, white and blue, driving before them troops of
long-eared donkeys, with gaily-caparisoned and queer-looking saddles and
bridles, and mounting to our seats as quickly as possible be trotted off
to the railroad station, some four or five miles distant, and took our
places in the train that was to bear us to Cairo. Suez, the little that
we saw of it, impressed us as being about the dirtiest place on God's
green footstool, and the few Europeans that are obliged to live there
have my profound sympathy, and deserve it.
Through the village, with its dirty streets lined by huts of mud and
past little villages of the same squalid character, the train sped. Then
across the arid desert region that extends northward from Suez to
Ismalia, running parallel with the canal for a distance of thirty-five
miles, and leaving the desert we entered the rich valley of the Nile,
where the vegetation was most luxuriant. Groves of palm and acacias
dotted the fields and flocks of sheep and goats were to be seen along
the roadways of the irrigating canals that appeared to overspread the
valley like a net. Camels plodding along beneath their heavy burden and
water buffalos standing knee-deep in the clover were not uncommon sights
at every station, while the train was surrounded by motley crowds of
Bedouins, Arabs and Egyptians, the women being veiled to the eyes, a
fact for which we probably had reason to be devoutly grateful, if we but
knew it, as there was nothing in their shapeless figures to indicate any
hidden beauty.
Just as dusk we pulled into a little station some twenty miles from
Cairo, and here Ryan started a panic among the natives by dressing
Clarence Duval up in his drum-major suit of scarlet and gold lace, with
a catcher's mask, over his face and a rope fastened around his waist,
and turning him loose among the crowd that surrounded the carriages. To
the minds of the unsophisticated natives the mascot appeared some
gigantic ape that his keeper could with difficulty control, and both men
and women fell over each other in their hurry to get out of his way. It
was after dark when we arrived at Cairo where, as we alighted from the
train, we were beset by an army of Egyptians, and we were obliged to
literally fight our way to the carriages that were in waiting and that
were to take us to the Hotel d'Orient, where rooms had already been
secured for us, and where an excellent dinner was awaiting our arrival.