DARJEELING.
DARJEELING, INDIA,
Jan. 4, 1890.
At 4 P.M. yesterday we left Calcutta, passing through the city, which
was everywhere decorated for Prince Victor, who will be a king of
England, if he lives, and who was to arrive at the same hour we left. We
took possession of the car engaged for us, and I noticed that the next
one was engaged by two Indian princes, their names being on the car.
Presently they appeared, handsomely dressed in long colored robes and
turbans, and soon after there arrived two palanquins carried by coolies,
and completely shut up, containing their wives. They held up a carpet
screen to prevent outsiders from getting a look at the women, but I
caught sight of two figures, completely covered from head to foot with
white garments, getting out of the palanquin into the car. The
car-blinds were instantly drawn down. I was much interested, it being my
first look at Mohammedan women.
After a tolerable night's sleep in the car we crossed the Ganges on a
ferry-boat, and then took a narrow-gauge, two-feet-wide railroad, called
the Darjeeling and Himalaya, which is perhaps one of the greatest feats
of engineering skill in the world. It is run mainly on a cart-road
previously built, and cost only fifteen thousand dollars per mile, and
is fifty miles long.
We passed through a flat country for some miles, and then commenced to
go up, around, through, and over mountains with terrible-looking
precipices, now on one hand and now on the other. It has been a bright
and splendid day, one in a hundred they tell us. We were in an
observation car, and we consequently could see every thing to the best
advantage. Elephants were at work in the fields on the plains, and
immense tea plantations lined the hills and mountains.
At 4 P.M. we reached our destination, 7,400 feet high and looked upon
the mighty Himalayas, four ranges rising each one above the other, the
two highest covered with snow, and the one most remote appearing to be
fifty miles off, one of the peaks of which is the famous Mount Everest,
the highest mountain in the world. The atmosphere was exceptionally
clear, and the panorama spread before us was magnificent, and would
require the poetical pen of Bayard Taylor to do it any thing like
justice. We were soon in our rooms at an excellent hotel, which had been
engaged as usual. Mine had an open coal-fire and a man soon brought a
delicious cup of tea and some toast which were very welcome. I could
hear the jackals crying in the near woods. The country is thickly
populated and highly cultivated, the people bright and smart but clothed
in rags and looking very poor, beggars being everywhere. Darjeeling is
the sanitarium of Bengal. There are several hotels, and numerous fine
dwellings scattered along on the mountain sides, and far up there are
large barracks and hospitals for soldiers. We remained two days, and on
the morning of the second day Mr. Kolish, Mr. Jackson, and I became
ambitious to see Mount Everest from a nearer point of view and in all
its glory, so we were called at 5 A.M. On getting out I found my two
friends mounted, but the ugly beast waiting for me did not approve of
the excursion, and first tried to kick me, and then to bite, but I
finally mounted and succeeded in making him understand that he had
better mind me. Away we went, up the steep but excellent roads for an
eight-mile trip to the top of one of the mountains. My horse proved a
good roadster, sometimes trotting and then galloping, and in one and a
half hours we reached our destination, and looked upon a great range of
snow-covered mountains; Everest, the monarch of all, was among them, but
much to our disappointment, clouds settled about the tops of the range
and we did not see the greatest mountain in the world.
We stopped there an hour or so and took our fill of the grand sight, and
then rode down the mountain at the same fast pace we had come up, for
the train left at ten and we had none too much time. On our way down we
met a Chinese marriage procession. They were making an awful din with
tomtoms and drums, and a great show with banners and flags, which scared
my horse, but the good-natured Chinese stopped their noise and we
galloped on, reaching the hotel at nine, having enjoyed a fine morning
ride.