4th.--Half-an-hour's drive across the town brought us to the harbour,
and then we had a hot walk to the end of the wharf. Such a struggle
there was at the slip down to the small boats; four or five boats were
trying to land natives, and at the same time as many were trying to take
passengers and natives off. It would have been impossible for a single
lady. The native police in neighbourhood were of no use. I'd have
thought British port authorities would have done something better. We
rowed out to the steamer in the middle of harbour, our four rowers
bucking in for a place, and scrambled on to the ship's gangway, without
any attention from anyone on board. Other boats with native passengers
trying to scramble over us required a shove and a heave or two on my
part to keep them off. I'd made a great effort to secure berths clearly
and distinctly at the British India S. S. Agency, made various
expeditions to the agents to see that all was right, but when we got to
our cabin some young men were also allotted berths in it. They were most
polite, but all the same it was uncomfortable for them and for us to
have all their belongings moved.
... Four was the hour to sail. Now it is six and no sign of up anchor.
But why hurry? There is life enough to study for weeks, the main deck a
solid mass of natives, all sitting close as penguins or guillemots, each
family party on a tiny portion of deck, with their mats and tins and
brass pots beside them, and what a babble! and pungent smell of South
Indian humanity.
The sun goes down and Madras resolves itself into a low coast line,
purple against streaks of orange and vermilion: some palms and a few
chimney stalks break the level of houses and lower trees. The _Renown_
lies near us waiting to go for the Prince to convoy him to Rangoon; its
white hull looks green against the orange sunset.
[Illustration]
There was nothing but necessity made the old settlers drop anchor here;
a bend of the Silvery Cooum[18] gave them slight protection inland, but
there was nothing in the way of roads or shelter. The sandy coast is
dead straight. They did not know the qualities of the surf at first. Two
experienced men were sent ashore from the "Globe" in 1611, and were
promptly swamped and one nearly drowned; that was further up this
Coromandel coast, when the Company was only beginning to try to find
footing here. It was not till 1639 that they bought the land where
Madras stands to-day, for the Company. These old fellows coming back
to-day from the sea would not see any great change in the appearance of
the land; the trail of smoke going levelly south-west from a tall smoke
stalk would be the most conspicuous change.
[18] The Cooum is silvery to look at, but it is by its smell that people
remember it.
Two steamers lie near us, just heaving perceptibly, as if breathing
before taking the high road. Outside it blows a very little, a warm,
damp wind; there will be a roll in the Bay of Bengal and we will head
into it, and the natives' jollity will change to moans. I should think
the ship's boats in emergency could hold a sixth of them. I hear there
are some 2500, the three decks are choked with them fore and aft. Our
tiny saloon and cabins are right astern and to port and starboard, and
forward of it, are these natives; we are only separated from them by a
board or two with a port-holes in it, and, the difference of fare! We
pay ninety rupees each to Rangoon and they pay one each; if we open our
port we might as well be all together, except that they get the first of
the air. Unless we keep the blind pulled, night and day, we are
subjected to "their incorrigible stare," which the Portuguese pioneers
found so remarkable; their odour and noise is intolerable. For my _Boy_
I've paid twelve rupees, and he has the same deck space as the other
natives, that is, barely sufficient room to lie down in. The only deck
space we first class passengers have, is above the saloon, where the
second class deck is, on the P. & O., a nice enough place if it wasn't
overlooked by the natives amidship, and over-smelt by the whole 2500
coolies. Fortunately to-day, the 6th, there's a lovely north-east breeze
which takes away some of the monkey-house smell and noise. We count that
there are forty natives in each of the two alleyways on either side of
our cabins, so eighty rupees (a rupee is 1s. 4d.), less profit to the
Company, and we could all have been decently comfortable. But even
without moving them, one A.B. told off to keep them quiet would have
allowed us to sleep at night.
Sunday morning.--All night, all day, whiffs of pure north-east air, and
solid native; alternating, and all the time rising and falling,
shouting, singing, arguing, quarrelling.
Heaven be thanked we have a pleasant enough company among ourselves, and
the natives don't intrude more than parts of their bodies into the
saloon doors and ports when the squeeze at the outside gets very strong,
but they gaze stolidly on us at meals through the ports and doors!
It is pleasant enough on deck this Sunday afternoon under the awning. We
have a piano in the middle of the deck, and a Captain in the East Yorks
is playing--he was one of the men who so politely, in fact anxiously,
vacated the cabin he found occupied by a married couple; four men play
bridge near us, and as we are not a large company we have all got to
know each other--the common infliction of the native crowd makes a bond
of sympathy.
A young Englishman beside me is overhauling Madras B. A. Exam, papers,
and works hard, so that he may have a clear holiday in Burmah. He hands
me some of the papers to read, essays on Edwin Harrison's "Life of
Ruskin." They are both funny and pathetic; we laughed at the absurd
jumble of ideas in some, and felt sorry that natives should have to
study the thoughts and sayings of a man, who, after all, did not himself
understand the very simple beauties of a Whistler. Then I dropped on an
essay, eight pages foolscap, in scholarly handwriting, with perfect
grasp of subject, and concentrated, pithy expression. I could with
difficulty accept the assurance that it was written by a Madrassee and
not by some famous essayist! So, perhaps, if one Eastern can grasp
Ruskin's best thoughts it may be worth the effort of trying to teach
thousands who can't? Is it not folly, this anglicising of the Indians,
Irish, and Scots by the English schoolmaster, who knows as little of
Sanscrit as of Erse Scottis or gaelic; calls England an island! and
wishes to teach everyone "The ode to a Skylark," "Silas Marner,"[19] and
"Tom Browne's Schooldays." (My own dear countrymen you will not be taken
in by this chaff for ever, will you?) Why not study Campbells tales in
gaelic, or Sir David Lindsay, or the Psalms by Waddell or Barbeurs
Bruce.
[19] Prescribed by Indian university curriculum.
Just to make the groups on deck complete we ought to have children
playing, but there are none with us, their route lies always westwards;
they would be a pretty foil to the serious restfulness of the deck
scene. Now a lady sings "Douglas tender and true," and sings it so well,
we could weep were we not so near port; a group in the stern beside the
wheel watches a glorious sunset, which fills the space we sit in under
the awning with a dull red and across the light a missionary paces,
aloof and alone; a melancholy stooping silhouette against the glorious
afterglow--to and fro--to and fro--a lanky, long-haired youth, his hands
behind his back, looking into his particular future, a life devoted to
convert the gracious, charitable followers of Gautauma Buddha to--his
reading of Christ's simple teaching.