I
Leaving "God's Country"--Hong Kong--Crossing to Luzon--Manila
Bay--First View of the City--Earthquake Precautions--Balconies and
Window-Gratings--The River Pasig--Promenade of the Malecon--The
Old City--The Puente de España--Population--A Philippine Bed--The
English Club--The Luneta--A Christmas Dinner at the Club.
"I wouldn't give much for your chances of coming back unboxed," said
the Captain to me, as the China steamed out from the Golden Gate on
the twenty-five day voyage to Hong Kong via Honolulu and Yokohama.
"That's God's country we're leaving behind, sure enough," said he,
"and you'll find it out after a week or two in the Philippines. There's
Howe came back with us last trip from there; almost shuffled off on
the way. Spent half a year in Manila with small-pox, fever, snakes,
typhoons, and earthquakes, and had to be carried aboard ship at Hong
Kong and off at 'Frisco. Guess he's about done for all right."
And as Howe happened to be the unfortunate whose place in Manila I
was going to take, you know, I heeded the skipper's advice and looked
with more fervor on God's country than I had for some days. For it
was a dusty trip across country from Boston on the Pacific express;
and because babies are my pet aversion every mother's son of them
aboard the train was quartered in my car--three families moving West
to grow up with the country, and all of them occupying the three
sections nearest mine. I got so weary of the five cooing, coughing,
crying "clouds-of-glory-trailers," that it seemed a relief at San
Francisco to wash off the dust of the Middle West and get aboard the
P. M. S. Company's steamer China bound for the far East.
But the Captain, like the whistle, was somewhat of a blower, and liked
to make me and the missionaries aboard feel we were leaving behind all
that was desirable. And how he bothered the twoscore or more of them
bound for the up-river ports of Middle China! When, after leaving the
Sandwich Islands, the voyage had proceeded far enough for everybody on
the passenger-list to get fairly well acquainted with his neighbors,
these spreaders of the gospel followed the custom established by their
predecessors and made plans for a Sunday missionary service. Without so
much as asking leave of the skipper, they posted in the companion-way
the following notice:
Service in the Saloon,
Sunday, 10 A.M.
Rev. X. Y. Z. Smith, of Wang-kiang,
China, will speak on mission
work on the Upper Yangtse.
All are invited.
But they counted without their host. The Captain had never schooled
himself to look on missionaries with favor, and he accordingly made
arrangements to cross the meridian where the circle of time changes and
a day is dropped early on Sunday morning. He calculated to a nicety,
and as the passengers came down to Sabbath breakfast they saw posted
below the other notice, in big letters, the significant words:
Sunday, Nov. 29th.