Colombo, Capital of Ceylon.--Harbor Facilities.--The
Breakwater.--Exposed to Epidemics.--Experiences on
Landing.--Hump-Backed Cattle.--Grand Oriental
Hotel.--Singhalese Waiters.--Galle Face Hotel.--An Unusual
Scene.--Number of Inhabitants.--Black Town the Native
Quarters.--Domestic Scenes.--Monkeys.-Evil Odors.--Humble
Homes.--The Banana-Tree.--Native Temples and Priestly
Customs.--Vegetables and Fruits.--Woman's Instinct.--Street
Scenes in the Pettah.--Fish Market.
Point de Galle, situated seventy miles nearer to its southern
extremity, was the principal port of Ceylon from time immemorial,
until the English government turned the open roadstead of Colombo into
an excellent and safe artificial harbor, by erecting an extensive
breakwater. It is one of the most successful conceptions of the sort
ever consummated in the East, and was begun in 1875,--the Prince of
Wales laying the corner-stone,--and completed in 1884. This was an
improvement which had long been imperatively demanded, but which had
been deferred for years on account of the serious impediments which
presented themselves and the heavy expenditure which it involved.
Previous to the construction of the breakwater, at certain seasons of
the year it was nearly impossible to effect a landing at Colombo,
owing to the boisterousness of the sea on this part of the coast
during the prevalence of the southwest monsoons. The surf-beaten
shore of the Coromandel coast at the north is scarcely more exposed
than was the open roadstead of this port. In the shipment or discharge
of freight, it constantly ran the risk of being ruined by salt water,
the service being necessarily performed by means of scows or lighters.
The well-built breakwater has nearly remedied this trouble. It is
about a mile in length, constructed of solid blocks of concrete,
averaging twenty-five tons each, and rises upon a firm foundation to a
uniform height of fifteen feet above low-water mark. The outermost end
is capped by a lighthouse, and is curved inward almost at right angles
with the main line of the work, thus forming a shelter for the
anchorage of shipping. It is now proposed to place a similar structure
on the opposite or north side of the bay, leaving a suitable entrance
to the harbor. This would render the anchorage quite smooth in all
weather, and as safe for shipping as the Liverpool docks. When the
southwest monsoon is in full force, the water breaks over the present
line to a height of forty feet, falling in harmless spray on the inner
side. The thorough and substantial character of the construction may
be judged of by its actual cost, which was between three and four
million dollars. The entire work was performed by convict labor. The
area sheltered from the southwest monsoons is over five hundred acres,
half of which has depths varying from twenty-six to forty feet at low
tide. The breakwater forms an excellent promenade except in rough
weather, and is much improved for that purpose by the people who
reside in the neighborhood. Having good anchorage space, sufficient
depth of water, and a sheltered harbor, Colombo is now the regular
port of call for the great steamship lines sailing to and from China,
Japan, the Straits Settlements, Australia, and Calcutta, and is justly
entitled to the name of the commercial as well as the political
capital of Ceylon. In the long past, it has shared the former honor
with Point de Galle.
There is no tropical island, or indeed any part of the Orient, which
has a more prompt and frequent mail service than has Colombo, a highly
important consideration with people who, aside from business
connections, desire to keep in touch with the world and the times.
Like Malta, the island is so situated between the East and the West as
to be exposed to any epidemic which may prevail in either quarter, and
which is easily brought by vessels touching here for coal or freight.
The author heard nothing of quarantine provisions or regulations
enforced at Colombo, but there is doubtless some official supervision
of this character. All persons who have traveled extensively have
encountered more or less annoyance from quarantine regulations,
especially as enforced throughout the East, but all experience shows
their necessity.
We landed at Colombo on Christmas day, our baggage--after a mere
pretense of examination on the part of the custom-house
officers--being promptly put into a two-wheeled, canvas-covered
bullock cart, beside which we walked with open umbrella, for the
direct rays of the equatorial sun were almost unbearable even at this
season of the year. It was observed that the driver of the small,
dun-colored yoke of cattle attached to the cart used no whip, and he
was mentally commended for his humanity. This, however, was premature,
for it soon appeared that he had an ingenious and cruel device whereby
to urge his oxen forward. The fellow twisted their tails vigorously,
which must have been intensely painful to them, as they showed by
their actions. Not being able to speak Singhalese, the author promptly
applied the same treatment to the driver's ears, an argument which
required no interpreter, and which proved to be both convincing and
effectual. It was afterward discovered that the tails of many of the
oxen here were absolutely dislocated from this brutal process, used by
the drivers to urge them forward. Though a Singhalese's religion
forbids his taking the life of the meanest insect, it does not seem to
prevent his torturing these really handsome and useful animals. There
is one way in which these mild-eyed, hump-backed creatures
occasionally assert themselves which is somewhat original, and
commands our hearty approval. When they are overtasked and abused
beyond endurance, they are liable to lie down in the middle of the
roadway, and nothing will start them until they choose to get up and
proceed of their own will. So the overladen camel lies down upon the
desert sand, and will not rise until his burden is properly adjusted.
While wilting in the enervating atmosphere, as we pursued our way from
the shore, the thought naturally suggested itself that just then, on
the other side of the globe, our friends at home were probably sitting
before cheerful soft-coal fires and quietly enjoying the genial heat
and the enlivening blaze. It was also remembered that Colombo is
acknowledged to be the hottest city in the Queen of England's
dominions. The sun was far too bright and intense for unaccustomed
northern eyes, and it was a great relief to reach the shelter beneath
the broad piazza of the hotel, though it is but a short distance from
the landing. We were waited upon at the Grand Oriental with an
intelligent and discerning regard for a traveler's comfort, and
assigned to large, cleanly apartments. The rooms were divided from
each other only by partial partitions, which did not reach the
ceilings, the upper portion being left open for the purpose of
promoting ventilation. So intense is the heat in Colombo at times that
this is quite necessary, though such an arrangement does not permit of
the degree of privacy requisite for a sleeping apartment. The hottest
months at this point are February, March, and April, when all who can
do so escape to the hill district.
The Oriental is an excellent and spacious hotel, containing over one
hundred sleeping-rooms, with ample retiring apartments on the first
floor and a dining-room which will seat three hundred guests at a
time. A line of arcades is connected with the house, beneath the shade
of which one can go shopping at the little gem and curio stores. The
hotel is built about a large central court or area, which is well
filled with thrifty tropical vegetation. The whole is admirably
arranged, and is well kept after American and European ideas. While
the guests sit at meals in the large dining-hall, long lines of punkas
or fans, suspended over the tables, are operated by servants placed
outside of the room, thus rendering the atmosphere quite endurable,
notwithstanding the intense heat which generally prevails. The waiters
were found to be natives, but all spoke English, and were well trained
in the performance of their duties. Each one of them wore a white
turban, and a single white cotton garment cut like a gentleman's
dressing-gown, and confined at the waist by a crimson sash. The legs
and feet of these copper-colored servants were bare, after the
conventional style of such persons throughout this island, as well as
in India proper.
One other large house of public entertainment has a good reputation,
and is certainly most favorably situated. It is known as the Galle
Face Hotel, adjoining the popular esplanade of the same name. This
house is well patronized, especially by officers of the army and
navy. For a permanent residence it is perhaps preferable to the
Oriental, on account of its charming maritime outlook. There are
several other public houses, but of these two the author can speak
approvingly from personal experience.
An unusual scene, which transpired on the esplanade near the Galle
Face Hotel, occurs to us at this writing:--
One of the bullock gigs, so common in Colombo, stopped suddenly before
that hostelry. The driver, who had jumped to the ground, was examining
the animal with much surprise. In the mean time, the bullock was
staggering like a drunken man, reeling hither and thither while striving
to keep upon its feet, shaking its head strangely in a wild sort of way,
and trembling all over. The thermometer was somewhere between 95 deg.
and 100 deg. Fahr. A score of idle and curious natives thronged about
the spot, entirely shutting out the circulation of what little fresh air
there was stirring. At this moment a cavalryman from the barracks hard
by made his way into the crowd, and seizing the bullock's nose he bade
the driver hold him steadily by the horns. Taking a knife from his
pocket, the new-comer forced the animal's mouth open and adroitly made a
deep incision in one of the bars which form the roof, instantly causing
the blood to flow freely therefrom. After the lapse of a very few
minutes, the bullock recovered, standing once more quite firmly upon its
feet, as soon as the pressure upon its brain was relieved by the flow
of blood. The creature had experienced an attack of what in horses is
called blind-staggers, produced by a rush of blood to the brain,
undoubtedly occasioned in this instance by the great heat and by
over-exertion. The cavalryman's readiness with his knife produced just
the sort of relief which was required in such an exigency.
"The bullock could not have been driven very fast," said an English
lady, who had regarded the scene intently from the piazza of the
hotel, "because it does not perspire at all; see, its hide is
perfectly dry."
"That sort of hanimal doesn't sweat only on the nose," said the
cavalryman, as he coolly wiped his knife and returned it to his
pocket, adding, "'Orses does, but hoxen doesn't."
It is a noticeable fact that European horses cannot endure the climate
of Ceylon; some which are imported from Australia manage to give
satisfaction for a limited period. The breeding of these animals is
not a success in the island, and the natives do not use them at all.
Colombo has a hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants, and is divided
into what is known as The Fort and Black Town, the former being the
portion devoted to the official quarters and the residences of the
English, the latter mostly to the very humble homes of the natives.
Black Town is quite oriental and very dirty, dispensing a most
unmistakable odor like a faint tincture of musk. It stretches along
the harbor front for more than a mile, until it ends at the Kalani
River, and contains a most heterogeneous mingling of races, each
individual decked in some distinctive garb of his original
nationality, the majority, however, exhibiting only the bronzed skin
covering to their bones which nature provides. Even these nude figures
form an anomalous sight, often having their heads covered with
monstrous, elaborate white turbans, and only a thin piece of cotton
about their loins. The houses, or cabins as they would more properly
be called, are of one story, dingy and poor, generally constructed of
mud upon bamboo frames, with a thatched roof of dried palm leaves so
braided together as to make a stout and secure protection from the
rain. The fronts of these simple houses are quite open, revealing all
sorts of domestic habits incident to native life, and very often
outraging one's sense of propriety. Men or women care nothing for
publicity, and do not hesitate in the conduct of affairs which are
strictly of a personal nature.
If one desires a remedy for over-fastidiousness, let him stroll for a
while about this native portion of Colombo. He will open his eyes in
surprise now and then, but it is astonishing how soon one becomes
indifferent to the most peculiar local customs, whether in Samoa,
Japan, or among the Alaska Indians. The lazy Singhalese or Tamil men
lying half asleep upon the ground, the women, semi-nude, cooking fish
over a brazier in the open air, and a group of naked children playing
in the roadway, form a common tableau in this quarter of the town.
Every necessity seems to be provided for by the salubrity of the
climate and the spontaneity of the soil. Enterprise, emulation,
ambition, are to these people unknown incentives to action. The height
of their desire is plenty of sleep and plenty to eat.
The scene is occasionally varied by a group of men sitting upon their
heels and absorbed in gambling for small sums of money. It should be
stated here that the natives, Singhalese, Tamils, Moormen, or of
whatever tribe, are all inveterate gamblers; only the Chinese can
equal them in this propensity to risk all they possess upon the cast
of the dice, or in betting upon some other trivial game. We were told
of instances where the gambler, having lost everything else, staked
the possession of his wife against his opponent's money, and, losing,
the woman quietly acquiesced in consummating the arrangement. Women of
the humbler castes are looked upon more as slaves than as filling any
other relation to those whom they call their husbands. As a rule, they
would not think of asserting any will of their own. As their husbands
are abject slaves to the idea of caste, so they are slaves to their
husbands, and however roughly they are treated by them, they take it
quite as a matter of course. In the southern part of the island
especially, each village has its cock-pit and its gambling-den; while
hard by is the drinking-cabin, where for a few pennies a native can
get very drunk on arrack.
At some of the low-thatched cabins in the Pettah, or Black Town, we
see a tame parrot or a pet monkey confined within certain bounds by a
small chain. If the former, he is likely to be imitating the
boisterous exclamations of the children; if the latter, finding no
mischief possible, he sits chin in hand, with a ludicrously grave
expression on his too human features. The ever-present crows take good
care to keep out of the monkey's reach, but perch familiarly and
fearlessly anywhere else about the cabins. There are several varieties
of monkeys in the island. The black wanderoo of Ceylon with white
whiskers comes nearest in its resemblance to the human face. He stands
three feet high, and weighs between seventy and eighty pounds, being
remarkable for muscular strength. The lower and the upper jaw are in a
direct line with the forehead, while most of the race have projecting
jaws.
The streets and environs of Constantinople are rendered hardly more
disagreeable by the presence of mongrel curs than is Black Town,
Colombo. Dogs abound, thoroughly useless creatures, which should have
been born jackals, and which are perhaps partly breeds from that
source. They are melancholy, half-starved, wretched, and mangy
creatures, sleeping all day, and prowling about at night in search of
some stray bit of carrion which has escaped the vigilance of the
crows. Why they are tolerated no one can say, neither does any one
acknowledge their ownership. Occasionally one runs mad, causing by his
bite a half-dozen natives to do likewise, when death is certain.
Hydrophobia is never cured, not even by the devil-dancers of Ceylon.
The normal appearance of these dogs is that of abject fear, as they
move about with heads drooping and their tails pressed close between
their hind legs. A harsh word sends them off at top speed, while a
kind one brings out their instinctive fondness for the human race.
Still, they are nuisances in Ceylon, and of no earthly good to any
mortal.
Evil odors are inseparable from the native quarters. That goes without
saying, and it is surprising that pestilence does not run riot here.
Dirt and contagious diseases certainly thrive in the same atmosphere,
and yet one often sees sanitary laws, as we construe them,
deliberately outraged without any such results as our best reason
would lead us to expect. The author was in Rio Janeiro not long since,
at a time when the yellow fever was proving fatal to fifty or sixty
persons daily. In the Plaza Don Pedro Second, numbers of idle, lazy
fellows lay half drunk, or wholly so, sleeping on the benches under a
vertical sun. Some were quite unconscious, even lying upon the damp
ground. Apropos of our remark that these people were inviting the
fever, an intelligent resident, who was our companion, calmly
answered: "Yellow Jack does not choose that class for its victims.
They seem to enjoy complete immunity from the pestilence." Seeing was
believing, but it was also confounding to one's sense of the eternal
fitness of things.
Generally, the scenes and experiences are not quite pleasant as
presented to the stranger who visits Black Town, Colombo, for the
first time. As he becomes more familiar with the surroundings,
however, a picturesque aspect, a depth of rich brown shadows and bits
of vivid color, unite to form a pleasing and attractive whole.
Adjoining each of these humble homes which line the thoroughfares, or
perhaps just in the rear of them, one is sure to find clusters of
bread-fruit, banana, and mango trees, often dominated by a tall,
gracefully bending cocoanut palm of columnar proportions. The product
of these several fruit-bearers goes far towards feeding the inmates of
the cabin, about which they also cast delightful and much-needed
shade. Nothing is more ornamental under such circumstances than the
large, drooping, pale green leaves of the generously yielding banana,
contrasting with the golden yellow bunches of the ripe fruit. The
nutritious properties of the banana are far in excess of any other
known vegetable food. African explorers have told the author that in
an emergency, when threatened with famine, they have sustained life
and strength for themselves and their followers upon two bananas a
day for six consecutive days, all the time engaged in the hardest sort
of foot-travel through the pathless forest. The banana-tree renews
itself annually, growing to a height of ten or twelve feet, and
bearing heavy clusters of from sixty to a hundred individual fruits,
green at first, but golden in hue when ripe. After bearing its fruit,
the tree wilts and decays like a cornstalk, but in due time again
springs up from the roots to bear another annual luxuriant crop. One
clever writer tells us that the banana is "the devil's agent," because
the abundant food supply which it affords, demanding so little of man
in return, is a promoter of idleness. It is asserted that one acre of
these trees will yield as much nutritious matter as sixty acres of
wheat, which seems almost incredible. In many countries this fruit is
the staff of life, flourishing as far as thirty-five degrees south and
thirty-eight north of the equator.
There may be poverty here,--it is to be found nearly everywhere if
sought for,--but there is no abject want visible, for these Singhalese
homes are all surrounded by plenty. The mere physical support of life
seems abundantly provided for, however the moral conditions may strike
the careful observer.
Is it not a singular provision of nature that where vegetation is most
thrifty, where fruits and flowers grow in wildest exuberance, elevated
humanity thrives the least?
A very humble class of Moormen, Malays, Singhalese, and Tamils,
together with Syrian Jews and the like, a mixed and motley population,
constitute the larger portion of the community in the Pettah, but
there are some buildings, shops, bazaars, and residences of a better
class than those we have described. Such are mostly occupied by
Parsees and Moormen, so that Black Town is not quite so "black" as
might seem to the casual reader. The Moormen wear an impossible sort
of hat, tall and brimless; others have sensible, broad-brimmed
panamas, and some don the picturesque fez so universal in the East.
The sienna-colored Singhalese proper are descended from the early
conquerors of the island, the dark-brown Tamils from later invaders
who came from southern India, and the copper-colored Moormen from the
Arab merchants who came hither to trade for spices many centuries ago.
The Singhalese have long, straight, black and silky hair, and are
nearly always bareheaded. The Tamils as invariably wear turbans.
According to the rules of caste, the Singhalese, being superior, has a
right to go bareheaded, a privilege which is not allowed to the
Tamils. This absurdity is on a par with the average rules relating to
caste as enforced in India and Ceylon. Of the rights recognized under
the system, none is more jealously guarded than that of carrying an
umbrella to shield the bearer from the fiery heat of the sun, or the
pitiless downpour of equatorial rains. In the olden times, in Kandy,
only royalty and the priesthood were allowed the privilege. To the
average foreigner in continental India and Ceylon, the arbitrary rule
of caste seems to be the merest nonsense possible to conceive of, but
to the natives it is a matter of most serious consideration, and is
rigidly adhered to in all their daily relations with each other.
Here and there one comes upon a Buddhist or Hindu temple, and now we
pause before a Mohammedan mosque. Each sect is eminently devout after
its own fashion, and all are at liberty to follow the dictates of
their own consciences. Two of our party having thoughtlessly entered
one of the Hindu sanctuaries without removing their shoes, great
indignation was expressed by some natives near at hand, and for a few
moments it really appeared as though a downright fight would ensue.
However, peace was restored at last by complying with the custom of
the place, and promenading daintily through the temple in our
stockings. Additional backsheesh was also awarded to the custodian of
the shrine to pacify his wounded sensibilities. Before we left the
spot, everybody was quite serene. To the author, the most curious part
of this experience was that our little party wore their hats through
it all, no objection being made. European etiquette demands of one to
uncover the head as a mark of respect on special occasions, but the
barbaric, or rather the oriental fashion, is to uncover the feet.
There are many curious points of difference in symbols of respect. The
Tamil covers his head with an ample turban out of deference to those
of a higher caste, while the Singhalese proper would not think it
respectful to wear anything upon his head in the presence of a
superior. A Chinaman lets down his braided pigtail as a mark of
respect to those above him in rank, or as a token of reverence in the
temple, while a Singhalese twists his braid into a snood at the back
of his head, and secures it by a shell comb, for the same purpose.
The display of vegetables and fruit offered for sale on improvised
benches or tables outside of the cabins, forming groups vivid in color
and novel in shape, is interesting to a stranger. The collection
includes pumpkins, sweet potatoes, oranges, pineapples, mangoes,
guavas, and bananas, together with zapotas, rose-apples, limes, yams,
and many other varieties. They are often arranged upon broad leaves,
fresh and green, which impart to them a refreshing air of coolness.
Some large, handsome bunches of grapes were observed, for which a high
price was asked (thirty cents per pound). These came from the northern
part of the island, on the peninsula of Jaffna, where they are raised
in small quantities. Ripe oranges in Ceylon have a queer habit of
reaching that palatable condition while quite green externally. They
are very sweet, having a thin skin and plenty of juice, together with
a flavor equal to those of the Indian River district in Florida, and
superior to those of California. Prices are very moderate; a large
ripe pineapple costs twopence, and half a dozen oranges are sold for
the same sum. Statistics show that between nine and ten thousand acres
are devoted to the raising of pineapples in Ceylon, where they ripen
to great perfection. The little open-air shops are called "caddies,"
and are always presided over by native women, who, under an air of
oriental indifference as to whether you purchase their wares or not,
are yet exercised by suppressed eagerness to have you do so. A few of
these simple caddies were observed to be prettily decorated with
wreaths of myrtle, yellow flowers, and wisps of sweet lemon grass,
hung on either side of the fruit, dispensing an exquisite fragrance
which dominated all the offensive odors of the locality. This
arrangement betrayed a woman's hand, prompted by a certain delicacy of
fancy and an eye for natural beauty. There always exists this
half-effaced charm within the bosom of the humblest of the sex,
whether in Crim Tartary, the Sandwich Islands, or the Parisian
boulevards. The surroundings are kaleidoscopic in effect, composed of
contrasting races, bronzed men in white turbans, native women very
nearly nude, queer physiognomies, busy itinerant salesmen, boisterous
children covered only by their copper-colored skins, mingling with
native domestic servants in fancy dresses of red and yellow, and
bejeweled nurses, sent by their European mistresses to purchase some
favorite fruit. The scene is constantly shifting, and the combinations
rapidly changing. Every fresh visit to this portion of Colombo reveals
some new phases of oriental life, which are often recalled to the
mind's eye when one is far away and compassed by very different
surroundings.
Native women pass and repass, bearing upon their heads broad, shallow
baskets full of ripe fruit or vegetables, on their way to the English
portion of the town, while other itinerants offer dark brown edible
cakes made from mysterious sources. The great weight which a
Singhalese or Tamil woman can carry on her head is something
marvelous, far exceeding that of an Irish laborer's hod of bricks or
mortar borne upon the shoulder. The humbler class of Eastern women all
practice this mode of transporting merchandise from the period of
their early childhood, hence their steady upright pose when walking,
whether bearing any burden or not. An Egyptian, Indian, or Singhalese
woman who had a quart pitcher of liquid to convey any distance would
not carry it in her hands, but would place it on the top of her head
for safety and convenience. As a rule, the men do not carry burdens
upon their heads, but when transporting merchandise, they wear upon
their necks and shoulders a sort of yoke with protruding arms, upon
which a couple of stout baskets hang, balancing each other, and
containing the goods. One Tamil woman was noticed with a bevy of
paroquets for sale, so tame that they crept about her head, arms, and
shoulders, being occasionally treated to some favorite tidbit from her
lips. She formed a pretty picture with her mottled green pets, an
evidence also of what kindness and gentleness will accomplish.
The admirable display of fresh fish in the market is of great variety
in shape and color, testifying to an abundant food supply afforded by
the neighboring waters. Six hundred kinds of fish have been catalogued
by scientists as being found on this coast. The river fish are of poor
quality.
Doubtless the reader has heard of the "climbing perch," a tropical
fish which is partially amphibious, and which abounds in Ceylon. It
can make its way over the land for considerable distances in search of
the nearest watercourse, when its native pond becomes dry. There is
also another eccentric piscatory creature here known as the "burying
fish," which, when the water subsides, makes its way down into the
muddy bottom of the lake or pond, where it hibernates until the rain
again furnishes it with its natural element,--a veritable "fish
story," but we were assured of its truth. At Batticaloa, the capital
of the eastern province, there is a lake in which "singing fish" are
found. Over these aquatic curiosities scientists have held many
interesting sessions. What with burying fish, climbing perch, and
singing fish, Ceylon would seem to have rather more than her just
share of piscatory curiosities.
When the dry season sets in and the watercourses cease to flow, the
Ceylon elephant deliberately digs himself a well in the sandy bed of
the rivers, using for the purpose both his ivory grubbers and the
horny toes of his forefeet. Digging a few feet downwards generally
brings water for the quenching of the huge animal's thirst. Unerring
instinct (superior to human reason) guides him in selecting the proper
spot in which to dig his well, to which he returns daily, and when the
season of drought is prolonged, he sometimes deepens it. When the
severity of a Norwegian winter exhausts all other sources of food
supply for the herds, the deer dig with their forefeet deep through
the snow to reach the reindeer moss upon which to browse. They make no
mistake in selecting the right spot, but always find the moss where
they dig. The most experienced owners of the herds would be puzzled to
indicate the proper places to seek the moss beneath the deep snow.
In contradistinction to all oriental ideas and the eternal fitness of
things, while we watch the passing show of native life, our ears are
saluted by the discordant notes of a bass drum, a bugle, and a fife.
Presently there comes into view a score or less of Europeans of both
sexes, the men wearing a sort of uniform cloth cap, and the half-dozen
women, poke bonnets. Of course they represent the Salvation Army. How
sadly out of place they seem to be here! These "missionaries," as they
call themselves, have never been known to make a proselyte from this
brown-skinned people, so far as we could learn, while they are
generally regarded by the Europeans as a class who have taken up with
this craze as a last resort after having exhausted all other means in
their endeavors to obtain a living without working for it. Still it
must be admitted that there never was a fad or folly, however absurd,
without some honest disciples,--weak, but conscientious advocates.