I cannot refrain from telling you about Sylvestre's funeral, which I
conducted myself in Singapore. We had thrown enough other dead into the
Sea of China, during the early days of the home voyage; and as the Malay
land was quite near, we decided to keep his remains a few hours longer;
to bury him fittingly.
It was very early in the morning, on account of the terrible sun. In the
boat that carried him ashore, his corpse was shrouded in the national
flag. The city was in sleep as we landed. A wagonette, sent by the
French Consul, was waiting on the quay; we laid Sylvestre upon it,
with a wooden cross made on board--the paint still wet upon it, for the
carpenter had to hurry over it, and the white letters of his name ran
into the black ground.
We crossed that Babel in the rising sun. And then it was such an emotion
to find the serene calm of an European place of worship in the midst
of the distasteful turmoil of the Chinese country. Under the high white
arch, where I stood alone with my sailors, the “_Dies Iroe_,” chanted
by a missionary priest, sounded like a soft magical incantation. Through
the open doors we could see sights that resembled enchanted gardens,
exquisite verdure and immense palm-trees, the wind shook the large
flowering shrubs and their perfumed crimson petals fell like rain,
almost to the church itself. Thence we marched to the ceremony, very far
off. Our little procession of sailors was very unpretentious, but the
coffin remained conspicuously wrapped in the flag of France. We had to
traverse the Chinese quarter, through seething crowds of yellow men;
and then the Malay and Indian suburbs, where all types of Asiatic faces
looked upon us with astonishment.
Then came the open country already heated; through shady groves where
exquisite butterflies, on velvety blue wings, flitted in masses. On
either side, waved tall luxuriant palms, and quantities of flowers in
splendid profusion. At last we came to the cemetery, with mandarins'
tombs and many-coloured inscriptions, adorned with paintings of
dragons and other monsters; amid astounding foliage and plants growing
everywhere. The spot where we laid him down to rest resembled a nook in
the gardens of Indra. Into the earth we drove the little wooden cross,
lettered:
SYLVESTRE MOAN, AGED 19.
And we left him, forced to go because of the hot rising sun; we turned
back once more to look at him under those marvellous trees and huge
nodding flowers.