had not been timed with reference to seasons or our comfort. I shall
not weary a reader with any attempt at description of the treeless
surroundings and barren lava crags that constitute the scenery; which,
moreover, many may have seen for themselves. What chiefly interested
me were the Jews and the camels. Like Gibraltar, and in less measure
Key West, Aden is a place where meet many and divers peoples from
Asia, from Africa, and from Europe. Furthermore, it has had a long and
checkered history; and this, at an important centre on a commercial
route, tends to the gathering of incongruous elements. English, Arabs,
Parsees from India, Somalese from Africa,--across the gulf,--sepoy
soldiers, and Jews, all were to be met; and in varieties of costume
for which we had not been prepared by our narrow experience of
Oriental dress in Johanna. The Jews most attracted my attention--an
attraction of repulsion to the type there exhibited, though I am
without anti-Semitic feeling. That Jesus Christ was a Jew covers His
race for me. These were reported to have enjoyed in earlier times a
period of much prosperity, which had been destroyed in one of the
dramatic political reverses frequent in Eastern annals. Since then
they had remained a degraded and abject class. Certainly, they were
externally a very peculiar and unprepossessing people. The physiognomy
commonly associated with the name Jew was very evident, though the
cast of feature had been brutalized by ages of oppression and
servility. A singular distinctive mark was the wearing on both sides
of the forehead long curls falling to the shoulders. Cringing and
subservient in manner, and as traders, there was yet apparent behind
the Uriah Heap exterior a fierce cruelty of expression which would
make a mob hideous, if once let loose. A mob, indeed, is ever
terrible; but these men reconstituted for me, with added vividness,
the scene and the cry of "Crucify Him!"
Although I was new to the East, camels in their uncouth form and
shambling gait had been made familiar by menageries; but in Aden I
first saw them in the circumstances which give the sense of
appropriateness necessary to the completeness of an impression, and,
indeed, to its enjoyment. Environment is assuredly more essential to
appreciation than is commonly recognized. Does beer taste as good in
America as in England? I think not, unless perhaps in Newport, Rhode
Island. Climatic, doubtless. I have been told by Englishmen that the
very best pineapples to be had are raised in England under glass. Very
good; but where is your tropical heat to supply the appreciative
palate? I remember, in a railway train in Guatemala, some women came
along with pineapples. I gave five cents, expecting one fruit; she,
unwilling to make change, forced upon me three. Small, yes; pygmies
doubtless to the hot-house aristocrats; but at a dinner-table with
artificial heat could one possibly want them as much, or enjoy them as
keenly, as under the burning southern sun, eaten like an apple, the
juice streaming to the ground? A camel sauntering down Broadway would
be odd only; a camel in an Eastern street has the additional setting
needed to fix him accurately in your gallery of mental pictures;
though, for the matter of that, I suppose a desert would be a still
more fitting surrounding. Aden has no natural water supply for daily
use; one of the sights are the great tanks for storing it, constructed
by some bygone dynasty. When we were there the place relied for
emergencies upon the more modern expedient of condensers, but for
ordinary consumption was mainly dependent upon that brought in skins
from the adjacent country on the backs of camels, which returned
charged with merchandise. I watched one of these ships of the desert
being laden for the homeward voyage. He was on his knees, placidly
chewing the cud of his last meal, but with a watchful eye behind him
upon his master's movements. Eternal vigilance the price of liberty,
or at least the safeguard against oppression, was clearly his
conviction; nor did he believe in that outworn proverb not to yell
before you are hurt. As each additional package, small or big, was
laid on the accumulating burden, he stretched out his long neck,
craned it round to the rear, opening his mouth as though to bite, to
which he seemed full fain, at the same time emitting a succession of
cries more wrathful even than dolorous, though this also they were.
But the wail of the sufferer went unheeded, and deservedly; for when
the load was complete to the last pound he rose, obedient to signal,
and stepped off quietly, evidently at ease. He had had his grumble,
and was satisfied.
An impression which accumulates upon the attentive traveller following
the main roads of maritime commerce is the continual outcropping of
the British soldier. It is not that there is so much of him, but that
he is so manywhere. In our single voyage, at places so apart as Cape
Town, Aden, Bombay, Singapore, Hong Kong. Although not on our route,
nevertheless linked to the four last named by the great ocean highway
between East and West, consecutive even in those distant days before
the Suez Canal, he was already in force in Gibraltar and Malta; since
which he is to be found in Cypress also and in Egypt. He is no chance
phenomenon, but an obvious effect of a noteworthy cause; an incident
of current history, the exponent, unconsciously to himself, of many
great events. In our country we have wisely learned to scrutinize with
distrust arguments for manifest destiny; but it is, nevertheless, well
to note and ponder a manifest present, which speaks to a manifest
past.
From Aden the _Iroquois_ ran along the southern coast of Arabia to
Muscat, within the entrance of the Persian Gulf. Here, after leaving
the open sea, we met a recurrence of the heat, and, in general
features, of the scenery we had left at Aden; the whole confirming the
association of the name Arabia with scorching and desert. The Cove of
Muscat, though a mere indentation of the shore-line, furnishes an
excellent harbor, being sheltered by a rocky island which constitutes
a natural breakwater. There is considerable trade, and the position is
naturally strong for defence, with encircling cliffs upon which forts
have been built; but from our experience, told below, it is probable
that their readiness did not correspond to their formidable aspect.
From the anchorage of the _Iroquois_ the town was hardly to be
descried, the gray color of the stone used in construction blending
with the background of the mountains, from which probably it had been
quarried; but nearer it is imposing in appearance, there being several
minarets, and some massive buildings, among which the ruins of a
Portuguese cathedral bear their mute testimony to a transitory era in
the long history of the East. During our stay there was some
disturbance in the place. Our information was that the reigning
sovereign had killed his father two years before; and that in
consequence, either through revenge or jealousy, his father's brother
kept him constantly stirred up by invasion, or threats of invasion,
from the inner country. Such an alarm postponed for the moment a
ceremonious visit which our captain was to pay, but it took place next
day. As it called for full uniform, I begged off. Those who went
returned with unfavorable reports, both of the town and of the
sultan.
A rather funny incident here attended our exchange of civilities. In
ports where there is cause to think that the expenditure of powder may
be inconvenient to your hosts, or that for any reason they may not
return a salute, it is customary first to inquire whether the usual
national honors "to the flag" will be acceptable and duly answered,
gun for gun. In Aden, being British, of course no questions were
asked; but in Muscat I presume they were, for failure to give full
measure creates a diplomatic incident and correspondence. At all
events, we saluted--twenty-one guns; to which the castle replied. When
the tale was but half complete there came from one of its cannon a
huge puff of smoke, but no accompanying report. "Shall I count that?"
shouted the quartermaster, whose special duty was to keep tally that
we got our full pound of flesh. A general laugh followed; the
impression had resembled that produced by an impassioned orator, the
waving of whose arms you see, without hearing the words which give
point to his gesticulations, and the quartermaster's query drove home
the absurdity. It was solemnly decided, however, that that should be
reckoned a gun. The intention was good, if result was imperfect. We
had been done out of our noise, but we had had our smoke; and, in
these days of smokeless powder, it is hopeful to record an instance of
noiseless.
In those few indolent days which we drowsed away in the heat of
Muscat, one thing I noticed was the vivid green of the water,
especially in patches near the shore, and in the crevices of the rocky
basin. I wonder did Moore have a hint of this, or draw upon his
imagination? Certainly it was there--a green more brilliant than any I
have ever seen elsewhere, and of different shade.
"No pearl ever lay under Oman's green water,
More pure in its shell than thy spirit in thee."
After the comparatively sequestered series of St. Augustine's Bay, the
Comoros, Aden, and Muscat, our next port, Bombay, seemed like
returning to city hubbub and accustomed ways. True, Indian life was
strange to most of our officers, if not to all; but there was about
Bombay that which made you feel you had got back into the world,
albeit in many particulars as different from that you had hitherto
known as Rip Van Winkle found after his long slumber. Then, a decade
only after the great mutiny, travel to India for travel's sake was
much more rare than now. The railway system, that great promoter of
journeyings, was not complete. Two years later, when returning from
China, I found opportunity to go overland from Calcutta to Bombay; but
in the interior had to make a long stage by carriage between
Jubbulpore and Nagpore. Since that time many have visited and many
have written. I shall therefore spare myself and my possible readers
the poor portrayal of that which has been already and better
described. Johnson's advice to Boswell, "Tell what you have observed
yourself," I take to mean something different from those externals the
sight of which is common to all; unless, as in the Corsica of Boswell,
few go to see them. What you see is that which you personally have the
faculty of perceiving; depends upon you as much as upon the object
itself. It may not be worth reporting, but it is all you have. I do
not think I remember of Bombay anything thus peculiarly my own. I do
recall the big snakes we saw lying apparently asleep on the sea, fifty
or sixty miles from land. Perhaps readers who have not visited the
East may not know that such modified sea-serpents are to be seen
there, as is a smaller variety in the Strait of Malacca.
From Bombay we made a long leg to Singapore. We had sailed in early
February; it was now late September, and our captain, as I have said
before, began to feel anxious to reach the station. Owing to this
haste, we omitted Ceylon and Calcutta, which did not correspond to
the expectation or the wishes of the admiral; and we missed--as I
think--orders sent us to take in Siam before coming to Hong Kong. It
is very doubtful whether, had we received them, we should have seen
more of interest than awaited us shortly after our arrival in Japan.
At all events, as in duty bound, I shall imitate my captain, and skip
rapidly over this intervening period. There is in it nothing that
would justify my formed intention not to enlarge upon that which
others have seen and told.
We made the run to Singapore at the change of the monsoon, towards the
end of September; and at that time a quiet passage is likely, unless
you are so unlucky as to encounter one of the cyclones which
frequently attend the break-up of the season at this transition
period. There is a tendency nowadays to discredit the equinox as a
storm-breeder. As regards the particular day, doubtless recognition of
a general fact may have lapsed into superstition as to a date; but in
considering the phenomena of the monsoons, the great fixed currents of
air blowing alternately to or from the heated or cooled continent of
Asia, it seems only reasonable, when the two are striving for
predominance, to expect the uncertain and at times terrific weather
which as a matter of experience does occur about the period of the
autumnal equinox in the India and China seas. But after we had made
our southing from Bombay our course lay nearly due east, with a fresh,
fair, west wind, within five degrees of the equator, a zone wherein
cyclonic disturbance seldom intrudes. One of the complaints made by
residents against the climate of Singapore, so pleasant to a stranger,
is the wearisome monotony. Close to the equator, it has too much
sameness of characteristic; _toujours perdrix_. Winter doubtless adds
to our appreciation of summer. For all that, I personally am ready to
dispense with snow.
From Singapore, another commercial centre with variety of inhabitants,
we carried the same smooth water up to Manila, where we stopped a few
days for coal. This was the first of two visits paid while on the
station to this port, which not our wildest imagination expected ever
to see under our flag. Long as American eyes had been fixed upon Cuba,
in the old days of negro slavery, it had occurred to none, I fancy, to
connect possession of that island with these distant Spanish
dependencies. Here our quiet environment was lost. The northeast
monsoon had set in in full force when we started for Hong Kong, and
the run across was made under steam and fore-and-aft canvas, which we
were able to carry close on the wind; a wet passage, throwing a good
deal of water about, but with a brilliant sky and delightful
temperature. It would be hard to exaggerate the beauty of the weather
which this wind brings. In the northern American states we have
autumnal spells like it; but along the Chinese coast it continues in
uninterrupted succession of magnificent days, with hardly a break for
three or four months; an invigorating breeze always blowing, the
thermometer ranging between 50 deg. and 60 deg., a cloudless sky, the air
perfectly dry, so that furniture and wood fittings shrink, and crack
audibly. As rain does not fall during this favored season, the dust
becomes objectionable; but that drawback does not extend to shipboard.
The man must be unreasonable who doubts life being worth living during
the northeast monsoon. Hong Kong is just within the tropics, and
experiences probably the coolest weather of any tropical port. Key
West, in the same latitude, is well enough in a Gulf of Mexico
norther; that is, if you too are well. The last time I ever saw
General Winfield Scott, once our national military hero, was there,
during a norther. I had called, and found him in misery; his gigantic
frame swathed in heavy clothing, his face pallid with cold. He
explained that he liked always to be in a gentle perspiration, and
had come to Key West in search of such conditions. These the place
usually affords, but the houses are not built to shut out the chill
Which accompanies a hard norther. The general was then eighty, and
died within the year.
X
CHINA AND JAPAN
1867-1869
The _Iroquois_ had been as nearly as possible nine months on her way
from New York to Hong Kong. A ship of the same class, the _Wachusett_,
which left the station as we reached it, had taken a year, following
much the same route. Her first lieutenant, who during the recent
Spanish War became familiarly known to the public as Jack Philip, told
me that she was within easy distance of Hong Kong the day before the
anniversary of leaving home. Her captain refused to get up steam; for,
he urged, it would be such an interesting coincidence to arrive on the
very date, month and day, that she sailed the year before. I fear that
man would have had no scruple about contriving an opportunity.
As the anchor dropped, several Chinese boats clustered alongside,
eager to obtain their share of the ship's custom. It is the habit in
ships of war to allow one or more boatmen of a port the privilege of
bringing off certain articles for private purchase; such as the
various specialties of the place, and food not embraced in the ship's
ration. From the number of consumers on board a vessel, even of
moderate size, this business is profitable to the small traders who
ply it, and who from time immemorial have been known as bumboatmen. A
good name for fair dealing, and for never smuggling intoxicants, is
invaluable to them; and when thus satisfactory they are passed on from
ship to ship, through long years, by letters of recommendation from
first lieutenants. Their dealings are chiefly with the crew, the
officers' messes being provided by their stewards, who market on
shore; but at times officers, too, will in this way buy something
momentarily desired. I remember an amusing experience of a messmate of
mine, who, being discontented with the regular breakfast set before
him, got some eggs from the bumboat. Already on a growl, he was
emphatic in directing that these should be cooked very soft, and great
was his wrath when they came back hard as stones. Upon investigation
it proved that they were already hard-boiled when bought. The cable
was not yet secured when these applicants crowded to the gangway,
brandishing their certificates, and seeking each to be first on deck.
The captain, who had not left the bridge, leaned over the rail,
watching the excited and shouting crowd scrambling one over another,
and clambering from boat to boat, which were bobbing and chafing up
and down, rubbing sides, and spattering the water that was squeezed
and squirted between them. The scene was familiar to him, for he was
an old China cruiser, only renewing his acquaintance. At length,
turning to me, he commented, "There you have the regular China smell;
you will find it wherever you go." And I did; but how describe it--and
why should I?
At this time the Japanese had conceded two more treaty ports, in the
Inland Sea--Osaka and Kobe; and as the formal opening was fixed for
the beginning of the new year--1868--most of the squadron had already
gone north. We therefore found in Hong Kong only a single vessel, the
_Monocacy_, an iron double-ender; a class which had its beginning in
the then recent War of Secession, and disappeared with it. Some six
weeks before she had passed through a furious typhoon, running into
the centre of it; or, more accurately, I fancy, having the centre pass
over her. Perhaps it may not be a matter of knowledge to all readers
that for these hurricanes, as for many other heavy gales, the term
cyclone is exact; that the wind does actually blow round a circle, but
one of so great circumference that at each several point it seems to
follow a straight line. Vessels on opposite sides of the circle thus
have the wind from opposite directions. In the centre there is usually
a calm space, of diameter proportioned to that of the general
disturbance. As the whole storm body has an onward movement, this
centre, calm or gusty as to wind, but confused and tumultuous as to
wave, progresses with it; and a vessel which is so unhappy as to be
overtaken finds herself, after a period of helpless tossing by
conflicting seas, again subjected to the full fury of the wind, but
from the quarter opposite to that which has already tried her.
Although at our arrival the _Monocacy_ had been fully repaired, and
was about to follow the other vessels, her officers naturally were
still full of an adventure so exceptional to personal experience. She
owed her safety mainly to the strength and rigidity of her iron hull.
A wooden vessel of like construction would probably have gone to
pieces; for the wooden double-enders had been run up in a hurry for a
war emergency, and were often weak. As the capable commander of one of
them said to me, they were "stuck together with spit." Battened down
close, with the seas coming in deluges over both bows and both
quarters at the same time, the _Monocacy_ went through it like a
tight-corked bottle, and came out, not all right, to be sure, but very
much alive; so much so, indeed, that she was carried on the Navy
Register for thirty years more. She never returned home, however, but
remained on the China station, for which she was best suited by her
particular qualities.
By the time the _Iroquois_, in turn, was ready to leave Hong
Kong--November 26th--the northeast monsoon had made in full force,
and dolorous were the prognostications to us by those who had had
experience of butting against it in a northward passage. It is less
severe than the "brave" west winds of our own North Atlantic; but to a
small vessel like the _Iroquois_, with the machinery of the day, the
monsoon, blowing at times a three-quarters gale, was not an adversary
to be disregarded, for all the sunshiny, bluff heartiness with which
it buffeted you, as a big boy at school breezily thrashes a smaller
for his own good. To-day we have to stop and think, to realize the
immense progress in size and power of steam-vessels since 1867. We
forget facts, and judge doings of the past by standards of the
present; an historical injustice in other realms than that of morals.
In our passage north, however, we escaped the predicted disagreeables
by keeping close to the coast; for currents, whether of atmosphere or
of water, for some reason slacken in force as they sweep along the
land. I do not know why, unless it be the result of friction retarding
their flow; the fact, however, remains. So, dodging the full brunt of
the wind, we sneaked along inshore, having rarely more than a
single-reef topsail breeze, and with little jar save the steady thud
of the machinery. A constant view of the land was another advantage
due to this mode of progression, and it was the more complete because
we commonly anchored at night. Thus, as we slowly dragged north, a
continuous panorama was unrolled before our eyes.
Another very entertaining feature was the flight of fishing-boats,
which at each daybreak put out to sea, literally in flocks; so
numerous were they. As I was every morning on deck at that hour,
attending the weighing of the anchor, the sight became fixed upon my
memory. The wind being on their beam, and so fresh, they came lurching
along in merry mood, leaping livelily from wave to wave, dashing the
water to either hand. Besides the poetry of motion, their peculiar
shape, their hulls with the natural color of the wood,--because oiled,
not painted,--their bamboo mat sails, which set so much flatter than
our own canvas, were all picturesque, as well as striking by novelty.
Most characteristic, and strangely diversified in effect, as they
bowled saucily by, were the successive impressions produced by the
custom of painting an eye on each side of the bow. An alleged proverb
is in pigeon English: "No have eye, how can see? no can see, how can
sail?" When heading towards you, they really convey to an imagination
of ordinary quickness the semblance of some unknown sea monster, full
of life and purpose. Now you see a fellow charging along, having the
vicious look of a horse with his ears back. Anon comes another, the
quiet gaze of which suggests some meditative fish, lazily gliding,
enjoying a siesta, with his belly full of good dinner. Yet a third has
a hungry air, as though his meal was yet to seek, and in passing turns
on you a voracious side glance, measuring your availability as a
morsel, should nothing better offer. The boat life of China, indeed,
is a study by itself. In very many cases in the ports and rivers, the
family is born, bred, fed, and lives in the boat. In moving her, the
man and his wife and two of the elder children will handle the oars;
while a little one, sometimes hardly more than an infant, will take
the helm, to which his tiny strength and cunning skill are sufficient.
Going off late one night from Hong Kong to the ship, and having to
lean over in the stern to get hold of the tiller-lines, I came near
putting my whole weight on the baby, lying unperceived in the bottom.
Those sedate Chinese children, with their tiny pigtails and their old
faces, but who at times assert their common humanity by a wholesome
cry; how funny two of them looked, lying in the street fighting, fury
in each face, teeth set and showing, nostrils distended with rage, and
a hand of each gripping fast the other's pigtail, which he seemed to
be trying to drag out by the roots; at the moment not "Celestials,"
unless after the pattern of Virgil's Juno.