INCIDENTS OF A SEA-VOYAGE.--SINGAPORE.
The voyage from Bangkok to Singapore was without any features of special
interest. The Gulf of Siam presented its accustomed calmness, and at
times the air was so still that there was not wind enough for proper
ventilation of the ship. Our friends slept on deck, as the cabin was
altogether too hot for comfort; they only went below to dress and take
their meals and baths, and to escape from the showers that were of daily
occurrence. In the daytime, when the heavy sprinklings came on, the boys
indulged in baths of the kind they enjoyed on the _Danube_, and they
were generally pleased at the announcement of an approaching shower. But
at night, when they were comfortably sleeping, they did not relish a
rude awakening, accompanied with the suggestion that they had better go
below till the rain was over. The change from the cool deck to the
stifling cabin was the reverse of enjoyable; Fred remarked that the only
good thing about it was that it made them appreciate the deck all the
more when the rain was over, and they could come again to the open air.
About thirty miles from Singapore they saw an overturned boat, and as
they neared it two natives were perceived clinging to the wreck. A boat
was lowered and sent to rescue them, and in a short time the poor
fellows were safe on the steamer's deck. They said their craft was upset
by a squall on the previous evening, and for twenty hours they had been
holding on, with nothing to eat or drink, under the broiling heat of a
tropical sun. They were nearly exhausted with hunger and thirst, and
would have fallen off and died in a few hours if they had not been
rescued. Frank was the first to discover the overturned boat, and was
naturally proud of having been in some way the means of saving these
unhappy Malays from death. He wanted to talk with the men, and hear
their story; but as their knowledge of English was no better than his of
Malay, he was compelled to abandon the idea.
The occurrence called to the Doctor's recollection an incident of his
first experience of the sea, when he was spending the summer at a small
seaport town. He was fond of fishing, and hardly a day passed that he
did not go out on the Atlantic in pursuit of his favorite sport.
"One afternoon," said he, "there were a dozen or more boats outside,
when a sudden squall came up that caused us to seek the harbor as fast
as possible. Every one steered for home, and most of us reached the
entrance of the port before the fury of the squall broke upon us. The
rain was so thick that we could not see a quarter of a mile off; we
could not tell whether any of the boats were capsized or not; and if it
had not been that a great rock just by the entrance loomed up, and made
a fine landmark, we could not have found our way inside. One after
another the boats came in, with the exception of one that had ventured
farther than the rest, and was a good distance off the coast when the
squall came up.
"It was no use going to look for her that afternoon, as the squall
continued till after dark, and raised quite a sea outside. There were
only two persons on board the boat; they were a gentleman and his wife,
who had come from the city to spend the summer, and had hired the boat
for their own use and pleasure. The gentleman understood the management
of his craft in fine weather, but nobody could say if he knew how to
control it in a squall. So we passed the night very anxiously, and, as
soon as the morning light permitted, several of us went out to search
for the missing ones.
"Nothing could be seen. We sailed up and down along the coast, and out
on the water for several miles, but all to no purpose. With heavy hearts
we returned to port, and concluded that it was idle to hope that the
missing persons whom we sought would ever be heard of again.
"In the afternoon I went with a young boatman in a skiff to try for fish
a little way outside the rock that formed the headland I mentioned.
While I was fishing, the boatman was looking around, and suddenly
discovered a mass of something on the beach.
"'Perhaps it may be the wreck of the missing boat,' I remarked. 'Let us
go and see.'
[Illustration: THE RESCUE.]
"We started on the instant. As we approached the beach I could see
something like a human form, and told the man to pull with all his
might. He did so; and the instant the boat grounded on the sand, he
sprung ashore and drew a flask from his pocket. In half a minute he was
supporting the lifeless form of a woman, and holding the flask to her
lips.
"We could hardly tell at first whether she was alive or not. In a
little while the draught from the flask revived her, but it was some
time before she was able to speak. We wrapped her in our spare clothing,
and carried her to the boat; and then we rowed home as fast as we could,
so as to call in the aid of the doctor.
[Illustration: ON A FRAIL RAFT.]
"Nothing could be seen to show what had become of the man. When the lady
recovered, she told us that when the squall struck the boat it was
instantly capsized; they managed to make a sort of raft out of the sail
and mast, but it was only sufficient to support her alone. Her husband
remained in the water, clinging to the raft and swimming, while she was
in a half-fainting condition all through the night. She remembered how
the waves rolled around them, how the moon rose up out of the waters,
and how the birds flew near them, as if wondering what they were. Then
she thought she could see the great rock at the entrance of the harbor,
and then--she remembered nothing more till we rescued her on the beach
where the waves had washed her.
"What became of her husband we never ascertained; but undoubtedly he
was weak from exhaustion, and was unable to cling to the raft till it
reached the shore. He probably loosened his hold, and sunk in the sea
about the time his wife thought she discovered the rock.
"The lady remained in the village till she was able to return to her
friends in the city. She never came back to that place; and the accident
cast a gloom over the visitors, from which they did not recover for the
rest of the season."
[Illustration: GULF-WEED.]
As they neared the Straits of Malacca, the steamer passed great masses
of a yellowish plant floating on the water. It bore an abundance of
berries of the same general color as the plant, and they glistened
brightly in sunshine as they lay close to the surface. The Doctor told
the boys that this plant was identical with one that grows in the
Caribbean Sea, and is borne northward in great quantities by the current
of the Gulf Stream. On the Atlantic it is known as "gulf-weed;" it grows
only in tropical regions, and the berries upon the plant are hollow,
and serve as so many air-bladders to keep the plant afloat.
[Illustration: HAUNTS OF THE SEA-BIRDS.]
As they neared Singapore, they came in sight of some rocky islands,
round which the sea-birds were flying in dense masses. Then other and
larger islands, covered with verdure, rose above the horizon to the
southward; and, finally, the coast of Malacca and the shores of the
Island of Singapore filled the background of the picture before them.
Palm-trees waved in the breeze, and, if there had been nothing else to
indicate it, these trees alone would have told the travellers they were
well down in the tropics.
The activity of commerce through the Straits of Malacca, and thence
onwards to the Farther East, was indicated as our friends approached
Singapore. Within a few miles of that port, they met a steamer bound for
China; while ahead of them was the smoke of another that had just come
from that distant land. As they entered the harbor they met a steamer
heading southward for Java; and as they dropped anchor they saw another
coming in just behind them. It was the French Mail Packet from Europe,
which would halt a day at Singapore, and then continue her voyage to
Hong-kong and Shanghai.
The Doctor had made a close calculation concerning their movements, as
the French steamer that arrived almost simultaneously with them was the
bearer of a dozen letters for the wandering trio. So regular is the
mail-service to the Far East, that a traveller who takes the trouble to
study the time-tables and arrange his route beforehand, can have his
letters reach him at any designated point.
[Illustration: IN THE HARBOR.]
The harbor presented a picture of animation as they came to anchor.
Ships and boats were sailing in and out; steam-tugs were puffing
noisily around; and, as they swung to their moorings, the official boat
of the quarantine-officer passed them on its way to the French packet.
Very soon the steamer was surrounded by a group of native boats, and a
lively bargaining began for the transportation of the party to the
shore. In the Far East the steamers have no concern with the passenger
beyond carrying him from port to port; he must land and embark at his
own expense, and very often the boatmen have things pretty much in their
own way. In Japan and China they are regulated and restrained by law;
but in Singapore and some other Eastern ports they do pretty much as
they please.
[Illustration: BOATMEN AT SINGAPORE.]
Frank said that the rapacity of the boatmen of Singapore reminded him of
the hackmen of New York; and he began to feel that he was not so far
from home after all. It required half an hour of negotiation to make an
arrangement that was at all reasonable, as the boatmen had evidently
formed an association for mutual advantage; and all efforts that the
Doctor made to rouse them to competition were of no use. It was finally
settled that for a dollar each our friends were to be carried to the
shore, and their baggage taken to the hotel, which was not more than a
hundred yards from the landing-place.
The hotel was a large structure of one story in height, with broad
verandas, where one could sit and enjoy the breeze that generally blows
in the afternoon. Singapore is only one degree and twenty minutes north
of the equator--eighty miles--and consequently any one who goes there
must expect to find a climate of a most tropical character.
Longitudinally it is almost exactly on the opposite side of the earth
from New York; and this fact gave rise to some interesting comments by
Fred and Frank.
"It is sunset now," said Frank, as they went on shore, "and it is
sunrise in New York."
"Yes," answered Fred; "and about the time we are going to bed our
friends will be finishing breakfast."
"While we are taking our noonday rest to-morrow they will be sleeping
soundly, as it will be midnight with them."
"One question occurs to me," said Frank; "it is sunset in Singapore, and
it is morning with our friends at home. Now I want to know if it is this
morning, or to-morrow morning with them?"
Fred could not tell, and so the matter was referred to the Doctor as
soon as he was at leisure.
"The scientific explanation of the subject," said Doctor Bronson as he
dropped into a chair, "is too long for us to take up in detail. The
earth moves on its axis, so that the sun rises, or appears to rise, in
the east, and to set in the west. An easterly place gets the sun
earlier than a westerly one, and consequently its day begins earlier.
For instance, the sun rises in New York an hour and five minutes earlier
than it rises in St. Louis; and, therefore, when it is noon in New York,
it is only five minutes of eleven in the forenoon at St. Louis by New
York time. For nautical purposes most nations take the time of
Greenwich, near London, as the basis of calculation; and consequently
the time of any given place is said to be earlier or later than that of
Greenwich, according as the place is east or west of that city. The hour
of Singapore is seven hours earlier than that of Greenwich, as it gets
the sun in the east seven hours before Greenwich; New York gets it five
hours later than Greenwich--four hours and fifty-six minutes is the
exact difference; and when it is noon in New York, it is five o'clock in
the afternoon at Greenwich.
"We had sunrise in Singapore twelve hours before our friends had it at
home; so that, when our day is ending, theirs is just beginning. I will
show you, in a practical way, the difference in time between New York
and Singapore. I am about to send a cablegram announcing our arrival,
and it may possibly get to New York ahead of the time of its departure
from here."
The Doctor and the boys went to the telegraph-office, and sent a
despatch to let their friends know of their safe arrival from Siam. As
the tolls were at the rate of two dollars and forty cents a word, they
confined the message to a single word in addition to the address.
Previous to leaving home the Doctor had arranged a code or cipher, by
which one word could convey a great deal of information. Persons who
have occasion to use the Atlantic or other telegraph cables to any
extent make use of private codes, and thereby save a great deal of
expense. They subsequently learned that their message went from
Singapore to New York in nine hours, and therefore reached its
destination three hours before they sent it.
The wind, which had been blowing hard during the afternoon, fell off
soon after sunset, and the boys found that the nights of Singapore were
as warm as those of Bangkok. The arrangement of the rooms indicated that
Singapore was anything but a cool place; but, on the whole, it was not
disagreeable, as the cool breeze in the afternoon was quite refreshing,
and made the atmosphere clear and pure.
Our friends slept well on their first night in Singapore, and were up in
good season in the morning to begin their round of sight-seeing. The
Doctor had some business to transact at a banking-house in the city, and
so it was arranged that they would devote the time between breakfast
and business hours in a stroll along the esplanade and through the
native part of the place.
[Illustration: A CHINESE CONTRACTOR.]
The boys were somewhat surprised at the many races and tribes of men
they encountered in their morning walk. They met scores on scores of
Chinese; and they were not ten yards from the door of the hotel before
they were accosted by a Chinese contractor, who was ready to undertake
to show them the place, furnish them with a carriage, buy or sell
whatever they wanted, from a needle up to a steamship, or provide them
with servants, tailors, or any other kind of assistance they might need
during their stay. He was lightly clad, in consequence of the heat of
Singapore, and he carried a fan which he kept in constant motion while
proposing his services. Singapore is said to contain from eighty to one
hundred thousand Chinese, and they are found in all classes of business.
There are Chinese tailors and shoemakers, Chinese peddlers and
merchants, Chinese book-keepers and managers for the large
establishments where trade is conducted by wholesale, Chinese servants
of both sexes and all ages, and Chinese of all kinds in addition to the
foregoing. The industry of the race is as marked at Singapore as in
Canton or San Francisco; and though always desirous of large profits, if
they can be obtained, they will put up with very small compensation when
a large one is not to be had.
[Illustration: CHINESE TAILORS AT SINGAPORE.]
The door of a tailor's shop stood open, and our friends gave a glance at
its interior. The arrangements were very simple. There was a long table
covered with a straw mat, on which the material was placed to be cut,
and behind this table several men were at work. Frank made a note of the
fact that a Chinese tailor makes his stitches by pushing the needle from
instead of towards him, and that in Singapore, at least, they do not
cover their own bodies to any extent while making clothing for other
people. The heads of these tailoring establishments are very industrious
in looking for customers, and there was hardly an hour in the day that
our friends were not accosted with proposals to make clothing for them
at astonishingly low rates. Singapore is a free port, and the great
competition in trade has brought the prices down to the lowest figure.
For eight dollars each they were accommodated with entire suits of blue
serge of good quality; and when the Doctor expressed some hesitation at
giving the order, through fear that the cutting and fit might be at
fault, the tailor promptly said, "No fitee, no payee." The measures were
taken, and on the following morning the clothes were delivered, and
found entirely satisfactory.
The Chinese are more numerous at Singapore than any other race. Next to
them come the Malays, of whom there are several varieties: they are as
devoid of clothing as the Chinese workmen, the entire garments of many
of them consisting of a cloth around the loins. Some of them wear
turbans, and occasionally the turban seems larger than the man, as it
consists of several yards of muslin wound loosely around the head, till
it forms a great ball. The body of the wearer will be small, and without
an ounce of extra flesh; and Fred remarked that it seemed as though the
turban would tip the man over, and compel him to walk on his head.
In their walk the boys saw a group of wild-looking men with woolly hair,
and with skins as dark as those of the African negroes, but without the
thick lips which are supposed to indicate the negro race. The Doctor was
unable to tell the name of this people, and the question was referred to
an Englishman whom they happened to meet.
"You mean those people over there?" said the Englishman, as he pointed
with his finger to the group our friends had been observing.
The Doctor assented.
"Oh! they are Jacoons," was the reply. "They come from the province of
Johore."
[Illustration: A GROUP OF JACOONS.]
Further questioning elicited the information that the Jacoons were a
primitive race of men who lived in the forests of Johore, and are
popularly supposed to dwell in trees, and to subsist on fruits and nuts.
Johore is a province on the main-land of the Malay peninsula, and
separated from the island of Singapore by a narrow strait of water. The
chief of this province is a man of superior intelligence, and lives on
friendly terms with his English neighbors. Since the English settled at
Singapore, he has established saw-mills, and made a handsome revenue
from the sale of lumber; and he has opened up his territory to
settlement by Chinese and other agriculturists. The Jacoons are supposed
to be the original inhabitants; they have as little as possible to do
with the Malays, and are quite distinct from them in language and
features. They are a peaceful people with few wants, and, as the country
produces abundantly, they have little occasion to wear themselves out
with hard work.
Walking about the streets, or sitting in the shade of the numerous
trees, were a few Parsees with their rimless hats, and wearing garments
that were more than half European in pattern. They are called sometimes
the Jews of the East, from their remarkable shrewdness in business, and
their steady progress in the direction of wealth; they are said to be
able to accumulate money under very discouraging circumstances, and it
has been remarked that a Parsee will grow rich where any other man in
the world would starve. Some branches of trade in the East are almost
monopolized by the Parsees. A single Parsee house has more than half of
the Chinese opium trade in its hands, and has grown enormously rich,
while its competitors have lost money. Like the Jews, to whom they are
sometimes compared, the Parsees have no country they can call their own.
They came originally from Persia, and settled in the North of India,
where the most of them are to be found to-day.
[Illustration: GARRI WITH A LOAD OF SAILORS.]
There were Klings, or men from the South of India, waiting for work on
the corners, or offering their _garris_, or carriages, for the use of
our friends. Most of the carriages for hire in Singapore are driven by
these Klings, who are a lithe race, with great powers of endurance, and
equally great powers of rascality. A garri is a four-wheeled vehicle
drawn by a single horse: some of the garris have seats for the driver,
while others have no place for him, but leave him to walk or run by the
side of his beast. The horse is as small in proportion as the man, and
the boys were greatly amused to see one of these vehicles with a party
of sailors who had just come on shore from an English ship. Three of
them were inside, while one was stretched along the roof of the garri,
which he more than covered. They were evidently enjoying themselves, and
the driver had his nose in the air, and was doubtless counting up the
profits of his day's work, and feeling happy over the result.
The boys were surprised to learn that, while there was a population of
more than a hundred thousand Chinese, Malays, Klings, and other
Orientals at Singapore, there were not more than a thousand Europeans
living there, exclusive of the English garrison. Of these Europeans the
English were the most numerous; the rest were Germans, French,
Portuguese, Dutch, and Italians, in the order named, and it was said
that the Germans were increasing more rapidly than the English, and
threatened to have all the business of the place in their hands in
course of time.
While our friends were discussing the peculiarities of the population of
Singapore, their walk brought them to "The Square," as the commercial
centre is called; and, as the hours of business had arrived, the Doctor
proceeded to attend to his financial affairs, and learn, in a practical
way, the mysteries of banking at the capital city of the Straits of
Malacca.
[Illustration: FULL DRESS AT THE STRAITS.]