agents, will be considered as thereby binding themselves to comply
with these rules, which will be shown by the master-attendant or by
the commander of the vessel to parties who engage a passage.
ROUTE VIÂ FRANCE, GERMANY OR ITALY.
An impression is abroad that parties leaving England for India may
travel through France, Germany or Italy, embarking for Alexandria
at either Marseilles, Trieste, or Naples, at as reasonable a cost,
and with as little trouble as if they had taken their passage in the
Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamers from Southampton.[9] That
such routes have their advantages, in the information and experience
which travelling on the continent imparts to the intelligent, no one
can deny; but that they are, in other respects, less troublesome or
more economical than the sea-trip cannot by experience be maintained.
In truth, no person can even compute with accuracy the actual expense
of a land-journey; for, though the charges for posting by diligence,
eil-wagon, vetturino, or rail, may be easily ascertained, it is
impossible to estimate probable hotel charges, the extortions of
_gendarmerie_, custom-house officers, passport employés, &c., or
to foretell what detentions may take place _en route_; detentions
which, if for only one hour beyond the time for the departure of the
steamer, involve a prolonged stay of another month. We, therefore, feel
justified in discarding all minute particulars respecting the routes
we have indicated, simply mentioning that parties who do not seek the
accommodation of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's boats until they
reach Malta or Alexandria, will have to pay (rateably) a higher sum
for their passage to Ceylon, Madras or Calcutta, than would be charged
them, were they to embark, in the first instance, at Southampton.
We may add, however, that should any parties, in the face of the
difficulties and objections, still prefer proceeding by the continental
route, they will do well to limit their luggage to the least possible
supply, and always refer, before deciding on the trip, to parties in
London, who can give them the latest and fullest information on the
subject.
[Footnote 9: There have been instances of passengers being detained at
Trieste, in consequence of there being only _three_ or _four_ wishing
to proceed;--the steamer did not start.]
THE HOMEWARD PASSAGE.
To the "homeward bound" who engages his passage in the Peninsular
Company's steamer right through to England, we may address the
following information:--
We will suppose him to be at Calcutta, or the provinces under the
Bengal Presidency. Having made up his mind to proceed to England,
and settled the period of his departure, he addresses _the Agent of
the Company in Calcutta_, requesting him to secure a passage in the
steamer appointed to proceed to Suez in the month he may have selected.
The advertisements published in the Calcutta papers will indicate
the arrangements made for the departure of the steamers, and the
plans which the Company's agents can supply will assist the intending
passenger to select a cabin. The prices of accommodation which we have
given in pounds sterling do not vary in India. The conversion of pounds
sterling into rupees at the current exchange of the day will at once
give the amount.
If the party be bent upon making a prolonged stay in Egypt, it will
only be necessary to engage a passage to Suez, taking a certificate
from the captain that the voyage _has_ been made in one of the
Peninsular and Oriental Company's vessels, in order to ensure a passage
from Alexandria to Southampton, at some future period, in one of the
vessels of the same establishment, by paying the amount (exclusive of
desert transit) that would have been exacted in Calcutta for the entire
passage. If, however, the traveller, after remaining in Egypt, purpose
visiting the Continent of Europe prior to his return to England, he
need not trouble himself about the certificate.
Having engaged his passage, the homeward-bound will next think of his
equipment for the trip. What we have said on this subject, in the
instructions to outward-bound passengers, will equally apply to him.
No cabin furniture whatever is required, nor will anything be needed
in addition to the ample wardrobe which a resident in India generally
possesses, beyond a couple of blouses, or light jean shooting-coats,
and a sola hat.
Should the traveller be resident at Madras, or under the Fort St.
George government, he should address his application to the Oriental
Company's agent at the Presidency, who will give him all necessary
information as to the time when the steamer may be expected at Madras.
He will be required to be perfectly ready to start, as the stay of the
vessel in the Madras roads seldom exceeds the few hours requisite in
coaling.
Officers on the Bombay establishment will, it is presumed, for the most
part, leave their own Presidency in the East-India Company's steamers,
the regulations regarding which will be found in a preceding page.
The accommodation of the government boats terminating at Suez, the
Bombay officer will be thrown upon his own resources for the remainder
of his trip. He will accordingly do wisely, if he wish to get rapidly
to England, to address himself a month before-hand to the agent of the
Peninsular and Oriental Company in Egypt, to book him a passage thence
to Southampton, and to arrange for his transit across the desert.[10]
[Footnote 10: See Appendix A.]
Officers on sick-leave or furlough very frequently arrive without
certain necessary documents, and are consequently subject to great
inconvenience and expense. They should be provided with--
Certificate of length of service.
" of being allowed a furlough.
" of date to which pay has been issued.
If from Bengal, a certificate from the pilot in duplicate of the
date of the ships leaving the Sandheads; and, if it be intended to
claim income-allowance from the military fund, a certificate from the
secretary to the fund of being entitled to such an allowance.
[Illustration: MUSSOOLAH BOAT.]
The voyage from India to Suez, as far as the attractions of the
intermediate ports are concerned, presents very few charms for the
traveller; and, even if they were numerous, the stay at each place is
so brief, that there is scarcely any opportunity of enjoying them; but
every change is acceptable to the landsman confined for several days
on shipboard, more particularly if the scenes he beholds have a dash
of novelty in them. Arrived at Madras, therefore (we speak now to the
Bengal officer), he will pull ashore in one of the Mussoolah boats,
whose peculiar construction and safe navigation through the surf that
perpetually rolls upon the shore at that port has always been a subject
of surprise to the novice. If he have a friend at the Presidency, he
will probably get the use of a carriage for the day, if not, he will be
able to hire a "shigram" (palanquin carriage), or a "a bandy" (gig),
and drive to all the most striking parts in the town. The Mount-road,
with its numerous European shops, and monument to Sir Thomas Munro, the
fort and the arsenal, the college, the public stables, the government
house, the Athenæum library, the Black town, &c., will furnish subjects
of inspection enough to occupy a few hours very pleasantly.
* * * * *
CEYLON.--The next point on the route has its attractions for
the Madras, as well as the Bengal, officer. An idea of these may be
gathered from the following lively and intelligent description of a
visit to Point de Galle, the coaling port, derived from "_The Monthly
Times_," and written by a gentleman who had touched there in the
"_Hindostan_," on his way to England:--
"On the seventh day, including our twenty-four hours' detention at
Madras, after leaving the Sandheads, we found ourselves, in the
morning, approaching the beautiful Island of Ceylon, and anchored about
noon in Point de Galle harbour. The entrance to the harbour was pretty
enough--low rocks, over which the waves were beating and bounding,
extended to the left, and a point of land seemed to jut out prominently
to them, on which is built the Dutch fort of olden days, and which
still retains its characteristic look of Dutch solidity and unavailing
massiveness. There is no appearance of town from the ship; and very
few habitations visible, or indications of much cultivation. The old
Dutch church forms the principal object in the fort. You know I had
letters from a family long resident at Galle. I proposed to see them
on the following morning, but they would not hear of my remaining on
board; so I landed in the afternoon, and soon found all was kindness
and hospitality on the part of my new Cingalese acquaintances. The
residence was formerly the old Government House, in the days of the
Dutch. It was a large, roomy, substantial building; the doors were
lofty, and the walls panelled in stucco, and painted with white and
ochre; the fittings-up and furniture were plain, but substantially
made, of carved ebony and satin-wood.
"On the following day, after a most gloriously comfortable night's
rest in a very clean bed and cool, capacious room, we started, after
breakfast, in a small palkee-garree and pony, always easily obtainable
on hire, to visit a country-house on a hill about three miles from the
fort. The drive was through a beautiful and open, well-shaded road,
with frequent interspersings of small cleared patches of rice and
other cultivation. The road itself was narrow, with ditches on either
side, but well metalled with broken granite. The comfortable houses
of the burghers rose occasionally by the road side, on little shady
eminences, here and there, and seemed neat and peculiarly _cozy_.
They were chiefly oblong, tiled buildings, with a verandah to the
front. These burghers are descendants either from the former Dutch or
Portuguese possessors of this coast; and many that I saw were not a
little darkened in their descent. On reaching the hill, which we had to
walk up, I found the sun sadly oppressive; but we were amply repaid for
the ascent, for the view from it was superb. The sea was visible, and
almost everywhere open to us along the horizon, through the different
hills; and every here and there, in our vicinity and below us, were
beautiful valleys and richly cleared spots, with well-defined roads
running through them, and occasionally cottages and huts dotted in
every direction; the grand distant mountains forming afar a tall and
varied background.
"I returned to the ship, after dinner, in the evening, much gratified
with my visit. The mode of living at Ceylon is more English, in all
respects, than at Calcutta; the table more simple--the servants
fewer--and the whole character of domestic economy less Oriental than
we are accustomed to on the Indian Continent; but the scenery of the
island itself is far from partaking of this un-Oriental appearance; it
realises, in everything, all we fancy and read of in descriptions of
tropical islands. The closeness and abundance of the vegetation, the
variety of Eastern jungle trees, the palm-like characteristic towering
of the cocoa and beetle-nut tree, everywhere prominent in the luxuriant
woods around you, all tend to give to Ceylon a picturesque and Eastern
style of beauty, very different from the low plains and unvaried
flatness of the country in Bengal.
"The dresses of the natives are different from Bengal; men wear combs
like the women of other countries, and have a loose cloth round their
legs, vastly resembling a petticoat. Their language is the Cingalese;
an open and gentle sort of well-vowelled dialect, which sounds prettily
and euphoniously enough, like the Malayan language.
"Trade altogether is not very extensive in Ceylon. At Galle there are
but three or four merchants, forming the entire mercantile community
of the place. At Columbo there are, perhaps, twenty merchants and
agents, and there is a Ceylon bank. The local trade is confined to
three articles, viz., coffee, cocoa-nut oil, and cinnamon, though a
few folks are beginning to turn their attention to sugar. Coffee is
reared in plantations on the higher lands, and in chosen spots in
the interior. Some of the plantations have done well, and, after the
third year, are described as having paid more with the one season's
produce than all the preceding and preliminary outlay and price of
block put together. Several concerns, however, are losing, the soil
being unsuitable; the present low prices for Ceylon coffee, in England,
must utterly ruin them. It has been proved, that the only chance of
success is with clearances on the forest and large tree lands: the
plant thrives in these, though it takes three years to bear, and
attains maturity only after the fifth year; it is expected to last ten
years. Like all other concerns, those under proprietors themselves fare
the best, and are easily distinguishable from those superintended by
agents; but all managers live very uncomfortably. The superintendents
get about 150 rupees per month, which is little enough, for supplies
of the commonest necessity reach only from Kandy, or from a distance,
and they are frequently without supplies at all, subsisting then on
rice and the poorest produce of the villages around them. The Ceylon
coffee itself ranks next to Mocha in the English markets; but recent
prices must be insufficient to meet the charges of production. It is
planted much in the same manner as with tea in Assam. After clearance,
they set the plants at certain distances, when they grow to about the
same height as the tea-tree. After blossoming and ripening, and before
falling, the fruit is gathered; when there is a simple process, by some
wheels and cheap machinery, to clear the berry from the pulp and skin.
"There are cinnamon gardens, near Galle, but they are not pleasing to
look at, and assuredly there is no spicy and aromatic odour on the
breeze, as the poets would fain establish in reference to this island,
the famed Taprobane of old! When you bruise a twig or shoot of the
cinnamon-tree and break off a small bit of the bark, the scent of the
cinnamon is powerful and pleasant. The cocoa-nut oil is expressed much
in the same manner as in Bengal, but it surprised me that, for domestic
use at Galle, it was so expensive; they asked sixpence for two quart
bottles of it, or, at this rate, about five rupees and more per maund.
I should have expected it to be cheaper in Ceylon.
"The Rifle corps seemed to be a fine, well-disciplined body of men,
chiefly Malays or their descendants. The regiment is officered like the
line, and the dress, appointments, setting up and look of the soldiers
were excellent.
"The salaries and receipts of the public functionaries and others in
Ceylon are not quite so good as under the Company, but the habits of
living, as I have before remarked, are more economical, and, I dare
say, there is more money comparatively saved in Ceylon, than in the
Company's wider and more imperial territories."
The new arrival at Ceylon is sorely beset by pedlars, who tempt him
to invest a small portion of his capital in ivory snuff-boxes and
knife-handles, tortoise-shell combs, card-racks, &c. A very few of
these articles, purchased at a third of the price asked for them, may
prove acceptable to friends in England, but we would recommend the
Ceylon visitor to abstain from too large an indulgence in his generous
inclinations, for ivory pays a heavy duty in England, and, after all,
the articles brought home may be procured in England at as cheap a rate.
After leaving Ceylon and passing through the Maldive islands, which,
though very low and level, are green and picturesque, no object of
interest presents itself until the port of Aden is reached.
Quitting Aden, the shores of the Red Sea are frequently seen, but
rarely approached during the upward voyage. In six days Suez is
reached, and, as soon as boats can come off to the steamer, the
passengers are landed and almost immediately conveyed by van (see
previous details on this head) across the desert.
The town of Suez offers no kind of inducement to prolong one's stay.
Small, dirty and destitute of any architectural beauties or antique
remains, it exhibits the worst specimen of a Mahomedan city in the
whole Ottoman empire.
Arrived at Suez, it will be for the passenger who has not contracted
for the entire trip home, to select his own method of getting to
Cairo. The vans of the Transit Company offer unquestionably the most
convenient and expeditious mode of carrying the traveller across the
desert; but there are not wanting persons who prefer the romance and
independence of a tedious trip on the back of a horse, donkey or camel.
If there were any objects of interest worthy of an occasional halt in
the desert, the inconvenience of this slow progress would have its
counterpoise; but when we assure the traveller that there is not one
single fragment of antique remains, one solitary picturesque spot, nay,
_nothing_, beyond _one_ tree, seven station-houses, and a multitude of
rat-holes and camel-skeletons, to diversify the broad, glaring, sandy
waste, he will not hesitate about the prudence of paying his £12--the
whole cost of transit to Alexandria--or £9 to Cairo only, and joining
the bulk of his fellow-travellers in the omnibuses.
From Cairo a freer choice is left to the traveller. If he prefer
lingering in Egypt, he will find in a visit to the cataracts, the
temples of Luxor, Carnac, &c., enough to engage his attention for an
indefinite number of weeks. On these points, however, we have supplied
information among the "Miscellaneous" matter at the close of this
volume.
The route from Cairo to Alexandria, merely reversing the order of the
trip, is described in a foregoing part of this volume. Arrived at
Alexandria--provided the passenger has not booked himself in India
for the entire transit to Southampton--it often becomes a question
which route shall be taken to accomplish the remainder of the journey.
The taste, inclinations or curiosity of some will lead them to
Constantinople, to Syria, the Holy Land, the Grecian Archipelago;
others may feel disposed to embark for Trieste, in order to visit
Venice, northern Italy and Germany. Many chalk out for themselves a
trip to Naples, Rome, Florence, Switzerland, &c., previously purifying
themselves of the bugbear plague at Malta; and some few embark in
the French steamer and make their way to Marseilles, there to serve
quarantine, preparatory to a tour through France.
If it were as much our province to advise as it is our purpose to
inform, we would suggest, as the result of the information imparted to
us by many travellers, that it is, on many accounts, most desirable
that persons from India should come straight to England, _in the first
instance_, thence betaking themselves to the continent of Europe, if
so inclined. The chief reasons for this proceeding are--the entire
avoidance of the quarantines, which are often irksome and always
expensive; the gratification of the natural affections by the earliest
possible meeting with relatives and friends; the facility of obtaining
information respecting the most attractive routes, and introductions
to families on the Continent; the opportunity of selecting a companion
from old fellow-soldiers, fellow-officials or Indian friends similarly
bent upon a pleasurable excursion.
But these arguments may weigh as a feather against the determination to
visit the interesting portions of Europe and Asia we have indicated,
preparatory to placing foot in England. It is difficult to eradicate
from any Anglo-Indians the notion that it is better to arrive cleansed
of Indian rust and polished by a tour through civilised lands, or
more prudent "to see the world" while you are in it, than to trust to
the chance of quitting England when you have just tasted its infinite
pleasures.
For the consideration of such reasoners, therefore, we submit some
information respecting quarantines, the rules of which, however, are
very changeable.
A passage to Malta from Alexandria may be procured in the "Peninsular
and Oriental Company's" boats for £12 10s. The French steamers charge
£10, but this does not include the table, wines, &c., which are paid
for separately to the _restaurateur_ on board. The trip in the English
steamer occupies _four_ days. The French vessel goes first to Syra, to
meet the Constantinople boat, and this occupies _seven_ days. Arrived
at Malta, intimation is given by the captain of the number of persons
who meditate remaining there, and accommodation is accordingly provided
for them in the lazaretto. Their stay will depend upon the nature of
the bill of health carried by the vessel; it is not, however, at any
time, less than twelve days, and may extend to twenty.
The regulations to be observed in the lazaretto are given on the
following page.
GENERAL REGULATIONS.
_To be observed by all Persons performing Quarantine in the Lazaretto
of Malta._
I.
All passengers, on landing, are to give their names to the captain of
the lazaretto, which are to be entered in the registry of the office.
II.
The captain of the lazaretto will assign apartments for passengers,
and each passenger will be provided with two chairs, a table, and a
wooden bedstead, for which no charges are made; but any damage done by
the passengers to the apartments or furniture is to be made good by
them before _pratique_.
III.
Passengers are not to be permitted to enter other apartments; nor can
they be allowed to receive visitors, except at the _parlatorio_ of the
lazaretto, and that only during office-hours; nor are they to trespass
the limits assigned to them by the captain of the lazaretto.
IV.
Passengers must pay a strict attention to all the instructions they
may receive from the captain of the lazaretto and from the health
guardians, and particularly in every point that regards their baggage,
clothes, &c., being properly aired and handled during the period of
their quarantine; and their quarantine will only commence to reckon
from the day on which all their baggage, clothes, &c., have been duly
opened and handled.
V.
All letters and parcels, or other effects brought by passengers,
must be given up, in order that they may be fumigated or depurated
separately from them, as the occasion may require.
VI.
All cases of sickness must be reported immediately to the captain of
the lazaretto, and all persons sick are to be visited immediately by
the physician to the lazaretto, after which official visit, passengers
are at liberty to avail themselves of any medical attendance they
think proper.
VII.
Passengers are to pay the Government fee for the guardians employed
to attend them, for the number of days of their quarantine, at the
following rates, viz.:--at 1s. 3d. per day for the guardian who
attends one passenger, and at 2s. 6d. per day for each guardian
who attends more than one passenger. They are to victual the guardian
or guardians during their quarantine, or to pay to each guardian
an allowance of 7d. per day in lieu thereof. It is to be clearly
understood that the guardians are employed solely for quarantine
purposes, and they are strictly prohibited to interfere in any other
service whilst they attend passengers.
VIII.
The office hours at the lazaretto are from 8 A.M. to 12,
and from 2 P.M. to 5 daily; and all letters sent to the
fumigating-room before 9 A.M. daily, will be delivered in
Valetta at 10, and those sent before 3 will be delivered in Valetta at
4 P.M. by the letter messenger, who is entitled to receive
from the passengers a penny for each note, parcel, or letter, as a
remuneration for his trouble and boat-hire.
IX.
A daily report of all circumstances is to be made by the captain of
the lazaretto to the superintendent of quarantine and marine police.
N.B. A _trattoria_ has been established at the lazaretto for the
convenience of passengers who wish to avail themselves of it, from
whence they can be supplied with dinners, wines, &c., &c., in their
own apartments.
Beds complete and other articles of furniture, if required, can also
be hired from a person appointed to provide them.